Tafsir of Surah As-Sajdah - Verse 3

Which was revealed in Al-Madinah

The Virtues of Surah Alif Lam Mim As-Sajdah

In the Book of the Friday prayer, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Hurayrah said, "The Prophet used to recite in Fajr on Fridays:

الم تَنزِيلَ

(Alif Lam Mim. The revelation of...), As-Sajdah, and

هَلْ أَتَى عَلَى الإِنسَـنِ

(Has there not been over man...)Al-Insan (76)." This was also recorded by Muslim. Imam Ahmad recorded that Jabir said, "The Prophet would never sleep until he recited:

الم تَنزِيلَ

(Alif Lam Mim. The revelation of...), As-Sajdah, and

تَبَارَكَ الَّذِى بِيَدِهِ الْمُلْكُ

(Blessed be He in Whose Hand is the dominion) Al-Mulk (67)."

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

The Qur'an is the Book of Allah in which there is no Doubt

We discussed the individual letters at the beginning of Surat Al-Baqarah, and there is no need to repeat it here.

تَنزِيلُ الْكِتَـبِ لاَ رَيْبَ فِيهِ

(The revelation of the Book in which there is no doubt,) means, there is no doubt whatsoever that it has been revealed

مِّن رَّبِّ الْعَـلَمِينَ

(from the Lord of all that exists.) Then Allah tells us about the idolators:

أَمْ يَقُولُونَ افْتَرَاهُ

(Or say they: "He has fabricated it"): they say, he has fabricated it, i.e., he has made it up by himself.

بَلْ هُوَ الْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّكَ لِتُنذِرَ قَوْماً مَّآ أَتَـهُم مِّن نَّذِيرٍ مِّن قَبْلِكَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَهْتَدُونَ

(Nay, it is the truth from your Lord, so that you may warn a people to whom no warner has come before you, in order that they may be guided.) means, in order that they may follow the truth.

Commentary

At this place, the word: نَّذِيرٍ (nadhir: warner) in: مَّا أَتَاهُم مِّن نَّذِيرٍ (to whom no warner has come.. -3)means a rasul or messenger.The sense is that no messenger had appeared amidst the Quraish of Makkah before the Holy Prophet t. This does not mean that the call of the messengers had just not reached them until that time, because it was clearly said in another verse of the Qur'an: وَإِن مِّنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلَّا خَلَا فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ (And there was no community without a warner having passed among them - 35:24). In this verse, (i.e. the verse 35:24) the word: نَّذِيرٍ (warner) appears in its general lexical sense, that is, one who calls people towards Allah, whether a messenger or prophet or one of their deputies, khali'fah or the ` alim of din. So, from this verse, it seems that the call of pure monotheism (tauhid) had reached all communities and groups. That is correct in its place and certainly the dictate of universal Divine mercy. Commentator Abu Hayyan says that the call to tauhid and 'iman has never ceased in any time or place or people. And wherever a long time passed after the appearance of a prophet, it resulted in the dearth of those having the knowledge of the legacy of prophethood. Thereupon, some new prophet or messenger was sent. This requires that the call to tauhid should have reached the Arab peoples definitely, and much earlier. But, for this it is not necessary that the call should have been brought in by some prophet or messenger in person. It is possible that it may have reached through the learned serving as deputies to the prophetic mission. Therefore, the verses of this Surah, Surah Ya Sin and others which prove that no nadhir (warner) had appeared amidst the Quraish of Arabia before the Holy Prophet ﷺ must be approached with the necessary consideration that the word: نَّذِيرٍ (nadhir) used there should mean a prophet and messenger in the technical sense denoting that no prophet and messenger had come amidst those people before the Holy Prophet ﷺ - even though, the call to tauhid and 'iman may have reached there too through other means.

Before the period of فَترَۃ fatrah, that is, before the appearance of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، it stands proved about some blessed souls who firmly adhered to the faith of Sayyidna Ibrahim and Ismail (علیہما السلام) . They believed in the Oneness of Allah and were averse to the worship of and sacrifices for idols.

Ruh-ul-Ma’ ani reports from the Maghazi of Musa Ibn 'Uqbah about one such person whose name was Zayd Ibn ` Amr Ibn Nufayl. He had also met the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، before he was ordained as a prophet. But, it was still before his prophethood that he died in the year the Quraish had built the edifice of the Baytullah - and this happened five years prior to his prophethood. About him, Musa Ibn 'Uqbah says, ` He used to stop the Quraish from indulging in the worship of idols. He opposed the offering of sacrifices in the name of idols as an evil practice and would not eat the meat from animals slaughtered by the Mushriks.'

Abu Dawud Tayalisi has reported from Sayyidna Said Ibn Zayd Ibn Amr ؓ ، the son of Zayd Ibn ` Amr Ibn Nufayl, one of the celebrated ten (عَشرۃ مُبَشّرّۃ) among the noble Sahabah, that he had submitted before the Holy Prophet ﷺ saying: "You already know about my father that he adhered to pure monotheism and rejected idolatry. Can I, then, pray for his forgiveness?" The Holy Prophet ﷺ said, "Yes, for him the prayer of forgiveness is permissible. He will, on the day of Qiyamah, rise as a community of his own." (Ruh-ul-Ma’ ani)

Similarly, Warqah Ibn Nawfal ؓ who was present during the initial period of the prophethood and the revelation of the Qur'an was an adherent of pure monotheism (tauhid). He had expressed his resolve to help the Holy Prophet ﷺ but he died soon after. These examples prove that the people of Arabia were though not totally deprived of the Divine call to faith and monotheism, but that no prophet had appeared amidst them as such. Allah knows best.

All three verses cited above carry an affirmation of the veracity of the Qur'an and the Prophet of Islam.

On the face of it, this is an ordinary statement consisting of just a few words. But this is a very serious and portentous claim, which in the entire history of religion, nobody has had the courage to profess, except those chosen few to whom the Book of God was in actuality revealed. Other than the appointed person, anyone who mustered the audacity to utter these words, was either a trifler or a madman. The Quran is a proof in itself. Its miraculous style, its claims that have not been proved wrong even after centuries have elapsed,—all these and similar considerations prove that it is a book sent by God. And since it is a book of God, it is absolutely necessary that everybody should pay heed to its warnings and gives serious thought to them.