PUNISHMMENT OF ALLAH ON PAKISTAN

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate".

By the sun and its rays, (1)

An oath, by the sun and its extending brightness across the horizon.

By the moon when it follows it,

The oath is by the moon, when it follows the sun. For it takes the sun's brightness and travels on
its heel.

By the day when it unveils it, (3)

The oath is by the day, which makes the sun clear. Here is graceful eloquence, for the attribution
of the unveiling of the sun to the day is an instance of literary inversion (qalb); as if the sun owes
its appearance to the clarity of the day. Arabic literature contains many instances of this.

By the night when it conceals it, (4)

The oath is by the night, that is termed as covering the sun and concealing it from sight and
hiding it.

By the sky and what built it, (5)

That is, by He who built the sky, meaning Allah, the Most High. Or perhaps what is meant by
‘what’ is the precision and exactitude with which it is constructed.

By the earth and what spread it, (6)

An oath by the earth and He who spread it, and He is Allah. Or perhaps what is meant is its
spreading, similar to the previous verse.

By a soul and what fashioned it, (7)

The oath is by the soul, every soul, which is presented with the indefinite form for the sake of
variety and eloquence. ‘What’ in the verse means ‘who’, that is, and (by) Allah who fashioned it.
This interpretation is more in fitting with the portents that follow it.

Then inspired it its brazenness and its
guardfulness; (8 )

‘Inspired’ is given for alhama, meaning to teach by means of delivering knowledge to the heart.
‘Its brazenness’ (fuju>r): its disobedience. Its guardfulness’ (taqwa>): its obedience. For every
human being discriminates between goodness and evil, between obedience and disobedience.
These oaths in this surah and elsewhere direct attention to these signs and teachings, besides
their being oaths.

Thrived indeed has he who purifies it, (9)

This is the consequent or the point of the oaths. It is what is sworn to by them. The meaning is
that whoever purifies his soul and cleanses it of sins and disbelief has achieved success.

And failed indeed has he who corrupts it. (10)

He who corrupts it, leaving it dirty and concealed by a gloom, through disbelief and
disobedience, has failed, has accrued a loss upon himself. To ‘corrupt’ is used for dassa>, the
opposite of zakka>, for which ‘purify’ is used.
The thread of the message then turns to warn those who corrupt their souls that their fate is the
fate of the previous nations who belied:

Thamud belied through their inordinacy, (11)

Thamu>d were the tribe of the Prophet S{a>lih}. Inordinacy brings about disbelief and belying the
truth, as Allah has said: ‘Then evil was the end of those who did evil, for they belied the signs of
Allah.' [30: 10]. ‘Inordinacy’ is put for t}aghwa>, meaning exceeding the limit in sin.

When its foulest was sent, (12)

The foul and evil leaders of Thamu>d sent the worst of them to perform the evil deed. His name
was Qida>r, and it was he who hamstrung the camel.

So the Messenger of Allah said to them, ‘The
camel of Allah, and its watering!' (13)

‘So Allah’s Messenger said to them’ follows from ‘belied ...', not from ‘they sent ...'. ‘Them’
means the tribe of the Thamu>d. The Messenger of Allah was S{a>lih}. He told them to respect the
camel and not do it any harm, and to respect its water, that is, its drinking from the water, and to
not prevent it from drinking it. There was a stream and S{a>lih} determined that the camel should
drink from it on alternate days, so as to give in return milk sufficient for the tribe's needs, while
on the other days it was for the people to drink from it. And he told them that if they did any
harm to the camel they would be taken by a chastisement.

But they belied him and slaughtered it, so their
Lord destroyed them for their sin, and so evened
it. (14)

Thamu>d belied S{a>lih}, and killed the camel by striking its four legs with a sword. He who did this
was one man, but the action is attributed to them all on account of their participating in the
decision and being content with it. So Allah the Most High ‘enveloped them under chastisement’
i.e. destroyed them entirely for their sin of killing the camel. ‘and so evened it’ is given for “fasawwa>
ha>", and it may be taken as referring to the totality of their destruction; in that the
crushing and destruction was applied evenly to all of them such that none escaped it. “fasawwa>
ha>" may also be taken in reference to their land or city, in that the Almighty levelled the
ground such that there remained no trace of them.

And He fears not its consequence. (15)

Allah has no fear of any sequel to the destruction. For He is the absolute authority, who is not
subject to any consequence for His acts. He is not like human beings who, however powerful and
however great their authority, fear the consequences of their acts.