Tafsir Sura Al-Fajr - Verse 11-20

 

الَّذِينَ طَغَوْا فِي الْبِلَادِ
(89:11) who transgressed in the countries of the world

فَأَكْثَرُوا فِيهَا الْفَسَادَ
(89:12) spreading in them much corruption?

فَصَبَّ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّكَ سَوْطَ عَذَابٍ
(89:13) Then their Lord unloosed upon them the lash of chastisement.

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَبِالْمِرْصَادِ
(89:14) Truly your Lord is ever watchful. *7

*7) The words "ever lying in ambush" have been used metaphorically for keeping watch on the movements and activities of the wicked and mischievous people. An ambush is a place where a person lies hiding in wait to attack somebody by surprise. The victim, thoughtless of his fate, comes and falls a prey. The same is the case against AIlah of those wicked people who spread mischief in the world and have no sense and tear that there is God above them, Who is watching alI their misdeeds. Therefore, they go on committing everyday more and more evils fearlessly until they reach the limit which Allah dces not permit them to transgress. At that very moment His scourge descends upon them suddenly.

فَأَمَّا الْإِنسَانُ إِذَا مَا ابْتَلَاهُ رَبُّهُ فَأَكْرَمَهُ وَنَعَّمَهُ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَكْرَمَنِ
(89:15) As for man, *8 when his Lord tests him by exalting him and bestowing His bounties upon him, he says: 'My Lord has exalted me.'

*8) Now, criticizing the general moral state of the people, it is being said: "After all, why shouldn't the men who have adopted such an attitude in the life of the world, be ever called to account, and how can it be regarded as a demand of reason and justice that when man has left the world, after doing alI he could, he should never receive any reward or suffer any punishment for his deeds?"

وَأَمَّا إِذَا مَا ابْتَلَاهُ فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَهَانَنِ
(89:16) But when He tests him by straitening his sustenance, he says: 'My Lord has humiliated me.' *9

*9) This then is man's materialistic view of life. He regards the wealth and position and power of this world alone as everything. When he has it, he is filled with pride and says God has honoured me; and when he fails to obtain it, he says: God has humiliated me. Thus, the criterion of honour and humiliation in his sight is the possession of wealth and position and power, or the absence of it, whereas the actual truth which he does not understand is that whatever Allah has given anybody in the world has been given for the sake of a trial. If he has given him wealth and power, it has been given for a trial to see whether he becomes grateful for it, or commits ingratitude. If he has made him poor, in this too there is a trial for him to see whether he remains content and patient in the will of God and faces his hardships bravely within permissible bounds, or becomes ready to transgress every limit of morality and honesty and starts cursing his God.

كَلَّا ۖ بَل لَّا تُكْرِمُونَ الْيَتِيمَ
(89:17) But no; *10 you do not treat the orphan honourably, *11

*10) That is, this is not all the criterion of honour and disgrace, for the real criterion is the moral good and evil. 

*11) That is, "As long as his father is alive, your treatment of him is attentive and when his rather dies, even the paternal and maternal uncles and the elder brothers, to say nothing of the neighbours and distant relatives, neglect him."

وَلَا تَحَاضُّونَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ الْمِسْكِينِ
(89:18) and do not urge one another to feed the poor, *12

*12) That is, "Nobody in your society feels any urge to feed the poor. Neither a tnan himself feels inclined to feed a hungry person, nor is there among the people any urge to do something to satisfy the hunger of the hungry, nor do they exhort one another to do so" .

وَتَأْكُلُونَ التُّرَاثَ أَكْلًا لَّمًّا
(89:19) and greedily devour the entire inheritance, *13

*13) In Arabia, the women and children were as a rule deprived of inheritance and the people's idea in this regard was that the right to inheritance belonged only to those male members who were fit to fight and safeguard the family. Besides, the one who was more powerful and influential among the heirs of the deceased, would annex the whole inheritance without qualms, and usurp the shares of all those who did not have the power to secure their shares. They did not give any importance to the right and duty so that they should honestly render the right to whom it was due as a duty whether he had the power to secure it or not.

وَتُحِبُّونَ الْمَالَ حُبًّا جَمًّا
(89:20) and love the riches, loving them ardently. *14

*14) That is, "You have no regard for the permissible or the forbidden, the lawful or the unlawful. You feel no qualms about acquiring wealth in any way or by any means, fair or foul, and your greed is never satisfied however much you may have acquired and amassed. "