Tafsir of Surah An-Nahl - Verse 105

الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَـتِ اللَّهِ

(Verily, those who do not believe in Allah's Ayat,) Allah will not guide them, and theirs will be a painful punishment, meaning, the disbelievers and heretics who are known to the people as liars. The Messenger Muhammad ﷺ, on the other hand, was the most honest and righteous of people, the most perfect in knowledge, deeds, faith and conviction. He was known among his people for his truthfulness and no one among them had any doubts about that - to such an extent that they always addressed him as Al-Amin (the Trustworthy) Muhammad. Thus when Heraclius, the king of the Romans, asked Abu Sufyan about the attributes of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, one of the things he said to him was, "Did you ever accuse him of lying before he made his claim" Abu Sufyan said, "No". Heraclius said, "He would refrain from lying about people and then go and fabricate lies about Allah"

Sequence of Verses

In the previous verse (98), there was an instruction to say اَعُوذ بِاللہ 'a udhu bil-lah' (I seek protection with Allah) while reciting the Qur’ an which indicates that the Shaitan puts scruples in the heart when one recites the Qur'an. In the verses cited above, there is a refutation of such Satanic instigations.

In Makkah there were some non-Arab slaves. In various books of tafsir (commentary) their names have been given as Jabr, Yasar, ‘A’ish, Ya‘ish, etc. (there is some mention also of Salman al-Farsi who later became a Muslim). These slaves being either Jews or Christians were very knowledgeable about the ancient holy religions of Judaism and Christianity. From time to time they chanced to meet the Prophet Muhammad. On the basis of such meetings, the Chiefs of the Quraysh started saying, ‘The non-Arabs tell Muhammad something and he presents it to the people, declaring it to be “divine discourse.’” Why was this ridiculous statement made by them? It was due to the same common wrong approach which is found in every period all over the world; i.e. the refusal to recognize the value of one who is one’s own contemporary. The Prophet Muhammad was a contemporary personality for the Quraysh, and therefore, they failed to appreciate him. This verse shows that those who feel nothing but contempt for their contemporaries can never be truly inspired to accept the Truth. Instead of accepting the Truth, they fabricate false allegations against the messengers of the Truth; ignoring the greater facts, they seize upon irrelevant things amounting to hair-splitting in order to defame the preacher. They spend their entire lives in this way until the day of their death when they will be punished by God.