The Majestic Quran

72 The word malakut refers to God’s control, authority and power over the operation of the universe. 73 Z ulm is generally wrongdoing, because of the context, it refers to idolatry, as explained in Chapter Luqman 31: 13. 74 The Biblical names of the prophets mentioned in verses 83–86 are, in order: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Zachariah, John, Jesus, Elias, Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah and Lot. 75 In other words, Muslims who will believe them. 76 The “Mother of Cities” is Makkah. 77 The pronoun ‘it’ in the Arabic refers to the glorious Quran. 78 The word mustaqarr means a fixed term ( Chapter Al-Baqarah 2: 36). Al-Qurtubi translates it as “depositing” in the grave, where one awaits the Day of Judgement. 79 The Jinn are an invisible species created from fire. Like humans, they possess intellect and are accountable for their actions, and among them are both believers and disbelievers. 80 From the People of The Book, it’s not from God. 81 The classical commentaries talk specifically of idols, which were relevant to the context of Makkah, but the Quran is general, so it also includes non-religious belief systems: atheism and secularism. 82 Kalima, literally “word”, here refers to God’s promise of judgement in the Hereafter. It could also refer to the Quran. 83 The verses 118–121 contain a challenge for our times, with so many halal certifiers competing against each other for business. Al-Qurtubi says God revealed them in relation to Muslims who only ate what they slaughtered themselves, refusing any other meat. 84 S adr means the “chest”; it can be a metaphor for the intellect and emotions, but can also be quite literal when followed by a simile: ‘the narrowing of the chest’. 85 These pagan Arab superstitions were to justify infanticide, especially of females, by claiming that it was forbidden to feed this baby girl from the milk of this ewe, for example, but her twin brother can be fed from it. A few verses later, the comparison is made between what the Arabs before Islam used to forbid with what was forbidden for the Jews. In Mark 7: 11, Jesus the Messiah criticised the Jews for refusing to help their parents, claiming that his time was qurban : in other words, dedicated to God as a kind of sacrifice. 86 A trellis is a wooden or metal lattice used to support fruit trees or vines. 87 This clarifies the belief about predestination; the relationship between God’s knowledge of the future and human free-will. Seemingly, the two are contradictory. That’s not so, We believe God’s knowledge is infinite and humans have been given a responsibility; the moral choice to be either good or bad. If God wanted He could have made us all righteous, without a free-will. The the Day of Judgement would be meaningless and worldly life no longer a test. From here to the end of the chapter is clarification of this moral choice. 88 Here the story switches from addressing just Adam and Eve to the plural form, meaning that He is now referring to Satan on the one side, and the two humans on the other, being enemies of each other. 89 Reesh refers to a bird’s plumage, the beautifully coloured and patterned feathers. 90 This verse condemns the unlawful sexual acts and also the idolaters’ practice of performing the Hajj in the nude. 91 The Arabic word masjid literally means place of prostration, and an “act of worship”. 92 It is perfectly acceptable to associate knowledge, for example, or speech with God, since authority for calling these divine attributes exists in the Quran and Sunnah.