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80.
" and they said : ` the fire shall not touch us but for a few days '.
say:
` have you taken such a promise from allah,
for
he never fails in his promise ?
or
do you speak against allah what you do not know ? ' "
81.
" yea! whoever earns evil and is encompassed by his sins, these are the
inhabitants
of the fire, therein shall they abide forever."
82.
" and those who have faith and do deeds of righteousness they are
the
inhabitants of paradise, therein shall they abide forever."
commentary :
the qur'an, here, points to one
of the false statements of the
jews of which they were proud
and that very pride was the origin of
part of their deviation. thus
the qur'an responds to it :
" and they said: ` the fire
shall not touch us but for a few days.'..."
"... say: ` have you taken such
a promise from allah, for he never
fails in his promise? or do
you speak against allah what you do not
know?'"
one of the most obvious reasons
for the stubbornness and egoism
of this group is their belief
in the ` preference of the jewish race over
all other races, and that they
are different from other nations, and that
their sinners will have to tolerate
the fire only for a few days as their
punishment and, therefore, paradise
will be theirs exclusively forever. '
this claim of privileges is
not logical in any aspect, because,
before allah, there is no difference
between the members of the
human race from the point of
rewards or punishments for their deeds.
can they support the expectation
to their claim of being
exceptional among nations and
therefore receiving special treatment
regarding the general law of
penalties by describing something they
have done to deserve it ?
however, the above verse with
a logical statement, refuses their
vain imaginations and denotes
that their claims depict one of these two
conditions : they should either
have taken a particular promise from
allah on the matter that they
have not or, they tell lies and
calumniate against him.
* * * *
the next verse expresses a common
and universal law which
is logical from any point of
view. it says:
" yea! whoever earns evil and
is encompassed by his sins, these are the
inhabitants of the fire, therein
shall they abide forever."
this is a general rule for the
sinners belonging to any sect, nation,
in any locality, and at any
time.
* * * *
there is also a universal, general
law for the pious believers,
which the next verse announces
:
" and those who have faith and
do deeds of righteousness they are
the inhabitants of paradise,
therein shall they abide forever."
* * * *
explanation :
earning sin
the arabic term /kasb/ and /'iktisab/
both mean: ` to earn or gain
something willingly and consciously
'.
earnings are received in return
for something done to profit
one's self. this is quite different
from merely falling into evil. it is to
selfishly seek one's own gain
that is evil. one sin leads to another sin
and thus the conscience of the
individual gradually becomes deadened
until sinning becomes natural
and normal for that person and he is
totally abandoned to evil and
attempts to justify his actions and to deny
that he deserves eternal punishment.
the law of cause and effect
works in its natural order in
the case of evil as in the case of virtue.
those who devote themselves
wholly to evil, must naturally find
themselves beset on every side
by the consequent evil effects of the
causative evil factors wrought
by the individual. but those who struggle
against evil, however long it
may take for them to overcome it, the
inclination towards the evil,
cannot be considered equivalent to those
who are out to earn evil. those
who struggle to overcome evil hate and
detest it and the individual's
earnest and sincere effort to overcome
evil, naturally ends in the
triumph of good in the human nature. with this endeavour
of good against evil, the natural
consequence of the struggle
strengthens the nobility in
the individual's personality. but,
purposefully yeilding to evil
with a selfish motive for any selfish gains,
gradually erects a fortress
of evil for the individual so that the access of
good becomes more and more difficult
and ultimately renders the
individual's approach to any
goodness as impossible. as the individual
is totally lost, for all times,
to evil, he convicts himself to the perpetual
consequences of the evil all
around him for ever.
these kind of people are those
who are referred to, later, in
sura 2: 86 which says :
" those are they who have bought
the life of this world at the price of
the hereafter, for them the
punishment shall not be lightened, nor
shall they be helped."
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