The Light of the Holy Qur'an Interpretation of (sura An-nur)

Commentary : Verse 24

  1. يَوْمَ تَشْهَدُ عَلَيْهِمْ أَلْسِنَتُهُمْ وَأَيْدِيهِمْ وَأَرْجُلُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ

  2. "On the day when their tongues and their hands and their feet testify against them as to what they used to do."

Commentary:

The issue of testimony of body's limbs is many times brought up in the Qur'an. Therefore in this verse it specifies how this group of calumniators will appear in Allah's great court. It denotes that they will have an awful chastisement in Hereafter, when it says:

"On the day when their tongues and their hands and their feet testify against them as to what they used to do."

Their tongues will move, in spite of their reluctance, and they express the truth. These wrongdoers will confess their sin in spite of their willing when they see all Divine unquestionable evidences and reasons. In spite of their inner willing, they will explicitly reveal everything, because they will see they can no longer disclaim.

Their own hands and feet will also speak. According to the verses of the holy Qur'an, even their body's skin will start talking. It seems that they have been voice recorders that have recorded man's voices, and signs of sins are stored on them during lifetime. Yes, on the Day of manifestation, all of these things will appear.

If we see that some of the verses of the holy Qur'an refer to the Day of Judgment and say,"This day We seal up mouths, and hands speak out and feet bear witness as to what they used to earn"[^1], there will be no inconsistency with the concerned verse, because it is possible of first that tongues get disabled

[^1] Sura ya-San, No. 36, verse 65

and other limbs testify and when testimony of hand and foot discovers truths and they say what they must say, then tongue moves and confesses the sins.

Imam Baqir (a.s.) said: "This testimony of the limbs is not against the believers, but it is against someone whose punishment is inevitable."[^1]

[^1] Nur-uth-Thaqalyn, 'Usul-i-Kafi, Vol.2 p. 32

Commentary : Verse 25

  1. يَوْمَئِذٍ يُوَفّـِيهِمُ اللَّهُ دِينَهُمُ الْحَقَّ وَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ الْحَقُّ الْمُبِينُ

  2. "On that day Allah will pay them their just due, and they will know that Allah, He is the (very) Manifest Truth."

Commentary: It is only in the Hereafter that retributions will be given in full.

The Arabic word /dan/, mentioned in this holy verse means either retribution or religion. Therefore, the holy verse either implies that Allah fully pays people's retribution in hereafter, or that the real and true divine religion will be represented to people and all fantastic religion-founders will realize that Allah is the real deity Who is true, right, and obvious. (Al-mazan, the Commentary)

Since full retribution cannot be materialized in this world for its limitations, for example, how we can in this world punish a pilot who has bombarded a city and has killed thousands of people. But there is no limitation in the Hereafter and a criminal can be burnt many times in the Hell and each time he will be alive again. The verse says:

"On that day Allah will pay them their just due, and they will know that Allah, He is the (very) Manifest Truth."

If today, in this world, they doubt in the rightfulness of Allah, or they lead people astray, in the resurrection day the signs of Allah's magnificence, power, and rightfulness are so obvious that will make the most stubborn people confess.

Commentary : Verse 26

  1. الْخَبِيثَاتُ لِلْخَبِيثِينَ وَالْخَبِيثُونَ لِلْخَبِيثَاتِ وَالطَّيّـِبَاتُ لِلطَّيّـِبِينَ وَالطَّيّـِبُونَ لِلطَّيّـِبَاتِ اُوْلَئِكَ مُبَرَّءُونَ مِمَّا يَقُولُونَ لَهُم مَغْفِرَةٌ وَرِزْقٌ كَرِيمٌ

  2. "Impure women are for impure men, and impure men for impure women. Good women are for good men, and good men are for good women; such are innocent of that which they say: For them is forgiveness and a bountiful provision."

Commentary:

This verse propounds a general principle and it does not imply that if a man or a woman is good, his or her spouse necessarily is also good, forgiven and is one of the people of the Heaven. For the Holy Qur'an counts faith, piety, and good deed as the criterion, therefore, in spite of the fact that Noah and Lut (a.s.) were pure and faithful, their spouses were evil and Helish.

The Arabic word /tayyib/ means pleasant and nice. In the Qur'an this word has been used in description of property, offspring, discourse, city, spouse, food and sustenance, home, angle, tree, and greeting. Its contrary word is the Qur'anic term /xAbio/ with the sense of: malicious and evil. It has also been used in description of property, man, spouse, speech, deed, and tree.

This verse can be interpreted in different ways:

  1. With regard to the previous verses that were about chaste women and the affair of 'Ifk and with regard to the sentence: "... such are innocent of that which they say...", the verse means that the evil words such as calumny and slander are appropriate for malicious people, and pure and nice words are suitable for pure persons.

  2. It is possible that the purpose of the verse is intellectual, doctrinal, ethical conformity, so as to say that man and wife must be matching and soft-hued with each other. It means that every person naturally seeks an individual of the same wavelength. In other words, vile persons are after evil ones and on the contrary good persons are after good ones. The verse says:

"Impure women are for impure men, and impure men for impure women. Good women are for good men, and good men are for good women;..."

  1. It is possible that the purpose of the verse is stating a religious ordinance, meaning that marriage of good persons with malicious ones is unlawful. It is like the third verse of this Sura, which says: "The fornicator shall not marry save a fornicatress or an idolatress ...". Imam Baqir (a.s.) in a tradition confirms this meaning, too.[^1]

Therefore, the words 'KhAbithat' and 'KhAbithan' refer to women and men who are unchaste and, on the contrary, the words 'Tayyibat' and 'Tayyiban' refer to chaste women and men, and the purpose of the verse is apparently this.[^2]

In the end, the verse refers to the recent group that is pure men and women. It is said:

"... such are innocent of that which they say ..."

Therefore Divine pardon and forgiveness as well as valuable sustenance awaits them. The verse concludes:

"... For them is forgiveness and a bountiful provision."

[^1] Majma' ul-Bayan, and Wasa'il-ush-Shi'ah, Vol. 14, p. 337

[^2] We read in the narrations concerning Nikah (marriage) that some of the companions of Imams sometimes asked about 'KhabIthah' and they were answered negatively. This itself shows that the word 'khAbithah' refers to unchaste women, not evil 'words' or evil 'deeds'.