Commentary on the Koran: Surah 77 (No. Q077)

Pickthall Translation; Bible Quotes are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Introduction

God sends forth His messengers Al-Mursalat as emissaries with specific purpose for the guidance of mankind. He uses both natural and spiritual means. This is a reference to the book of Hebrews (F058) and the purpose of the Angelic Host as ministering spirits to mankind.

It is an Early Beccan Surah to begin the explanation of the Ministry to the Arabs.

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77.1. By the emissary winds, (sent) one after another

77.2. By the raging hurricanes,

77.3. By those which cause earth's vegetation to revive;

77.4. By those who winnow with a winnowing,

77.5. By those who bring down the Reminder,

77.6. To excuse or to warn,

77.7. Surely that which ye are promised will befall.

Prophets were sent by the Almighty God one after another to convey glad tidings to believers and to warn the wicked to turn from their evil ways to the correct worship of the One True God or face the consequences of their evil deeds. The coming of the prophets, Messiah and his apostles with the Holy Spirit or Ahmad gave new encouragement for the believers to spread the good news far and wide. This resulted in a distinction being made between those who practiced good deeds and those who devised corruption and falsehood. The promised resurrection will surely come. One group would attain eternal life in the First Resurrection, the other would be consigned to the Second Resurrection to face correction and re-education.

Refer to 2Chronicles 36:15-16 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 21 (No. Q021) at ayat 15.

2Kings 17:13 Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

Jeremiah 44:4-5 Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ ⁵But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.

Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Mark 16:15-16 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Psalm 1:3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

Zechariah 4:6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.

Luke 3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Matthew 25:31-34, 41 ³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. ³²Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. ³⁴Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Refer to John 5:28-29 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 21 (No. Q021) at ayat 47.

77.8. So when the stars are put out,

77.9. And when the sky is riven asunder,

77.10. And when the mountains are blown away,

Joel 3:15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Revelation 6:14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Revelation 16:19-20 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. ²⁰And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.

77.11. And when the messengers are brought unto their time appointed -

77.12. For what day is the time appointed?

77.13. For the Day of Decision.

77.14. And what will convey unto thee what the Day of Decision is! –

Refer to:

Revelation 20:11-12 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15; Habakkuk 2:3 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 18 (No. Q018) at ayat 82 and 2Peter 3:9 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 19 (No. Q019) at ayat 80.

2Peter 3:4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Mark 13:32 But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

77.15. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

These include all of the children of Adam except the elect saints who attain the First Resurrection. These rebels will get their due on judgement day.

Matthew 11:21 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Matthew 12:41-42 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴²The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

1Corinthians 15:12-13 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

Luke 10:16 "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

1John 2:22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

2John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Refer to:

Revelation 21:8 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 23 (No. Q023) at ayat 98 and Job 34:14-15 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 35 (No. Q035) at ayat 4.

77.16. Destroyed We not the former folk,

77.17. Then caused the latter folk to follow after?

77.18. Thus deal We ever with the guilty.

Refer to:

Genesis 7:23 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 29 (No.Q029) at ayat 15 and Genesis 19:24; 2Peter 2:6 and Jude 1:7 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 29 (No.Q029) at ayat 35.

Exodus 15:4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

Judges 8:28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

The communities that refused to repent and return to the worship of the One True God were destroyed and others took their place. The Israelites replaced those in the land of Canaan and likewise succeeding generations replaced the earlier generations that were destroyed in the Arab peninsula. This was the basis of the later Surahs dealing with this subject.

77.19. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.20. Did We not create you from a base fluid

77.21. Which We laid up in a safe abode

77.22. For a known term?

77.23. Thus We arranged. How excellent is Our arranging!

The base fluid - the semen is stored in a safe place in the body of the husband until the time it unites with the ovum from the mother in the womb.

77.24. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.25. Have We not made the earth a receptacle

77.26. Both for the living and the dead,

77.27. And placed therein high mountains and given you to drink sweet water therein?

Refer to Acts 17:26 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 3.

Ecclesiastes 3:20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.

Isaiah 41:18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

Psalm 104:10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills;

77.28. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.29. (It will be said unto them:) Depart unto that (doom) which ye used to deny;

77.30. Depart unto the shadow falling threefold,

77.31. (Which yet is) no relief nor shelter from the flame.

77.32. Lo! it throweth up sparks like the castles,

77.33. (Or) as it might be camels of bright yellow hue.

Ayats 29 to 33 refer to the lake of fire in Revelation 20 verses 10 and 14 to 15.

77.34. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.35. This is a day wherein they speak not,

77.36. Nor are they suffered to put forth excuses.

Refer to Revelation 20:11-12 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15.

77.37. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.38. This is the Day of Decision, We have brought you and the men of old together.

77.39. If now ye have any wit, outwit Me.

Refer to:

Revelation 20:11-12 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15 and Proverbs 21:30 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 30 (No. Q030) at ayat 27.

77.40. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.41. Lo! those who kept their duty are amid shade and fountains,

77.42. And fruits such as they desire.

77.43. (Unto them it is said:) Eat, drink and welcome, O ye blessed, in return for what ye did.

77.44. Thus do We reward the good.

The first garden of paradise (the First Resurrection) in Revelation 20:6 is the reward of the righteous. They will rule with Christ for a thousand years and to them and the subsequent elect will be committed the judgment.

77.45. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.46. Eat and take your ease (on earth) a little. Lo! ye are guilty.

The evildoers are told to enjoy their life of ease. Soon their term will come to an end and they will be dealt with.

Ecclesiastes 2:3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

Refer to Ecclesiastes 11:9 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 46 (No. Q046) at ayat 20.

77.47. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.48. When it is said unto them: Bow down, they bow not down!

This is a reference to the fallen Angelic Host that refused to lead and guide mankind. They will all be killed after having been reduced to physical beings after the final rebellion towards the end of the Millennium of the reign of Christ. They will then be raised at the Second Resurrection to face re-education and corrective judgement.

77.49. Woe unto the repudiators on that day!

See ayat 77.15 above.

77.50. In what statement, after this, will they believe?

They will not believe in anything else but what seems right in their own eyes. It will remain that way until the veil over their minds and hearts is removed during the Second Resurrection, and we will do that with the Holy Spirit under orders from God.

Refer to:

2Corinthians 3:14 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 72; John 12:40 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 46 and 2Corinthians 4:4 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 43 (No. Q043) at ayat 39.

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