14:46 Ibrahim (Abraham)

{ وَقَدْ مَكَرُوا } أي: المكذبون للرسل { مَكْرَهُمْ } الذي وصلت إرادتهم وقدر لهم عليه، { وَعِنْدَ اللَّهِ مَكْرُهُمْ } أي: هو محيط به علما وقدرة فإنه عاد مكرهم عليهم { ولا يحيق المكر السيئ إلا بأهله } { وَإِنْ كَانَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ } أي: ولقد كان مكر الكفار المكذبين للرسل بالحق وبمن جاء به -من عظمه- لتزول الجبال الراسيات بسببه عن أماكنها، أي: { مكروا مكرا كبارا } لا يقادر قدره ولكن الله رد كيدهم في نحورهم. ويدخل في هذا كل من مكر من المخالفين للرسل لينصر باطلا، أو يبطل حقا، والقصد أن مكرهم لم يغن عنهم شيئا، ولم يضروا الله شيئا وإنما ضروا أنفسهم.

وقد روى شعبة عن أبي إسحاق عن عبد الرحمن بن رباب أن عليا رضي الله عنه قال فى هذه الآية " وإن كان مكرهم لتزول منه الجبال " قال أخذ ذاك الذي حاج إبراهيم في ربه نسرين صغيرين فرباهما حتى استغلظا واستفحلا وشبا قال فأوثق رِجل كل واحد منهما بوتِد إلى تابوت وجوعهما وقعد هو ورجل آخر فى التابوت قال ورفع في التابوت عصا على رأسه اللحم فطارا وجعل يقول لصاحبه انظر ما ترى قال أرى كذا وكذا حتى قال أرى الدنيا كلها كأنها ذباب.قال فصوِّب العصا فصوبها فهبطا جميعا قال فهو قوله عز وجل " وإن كاد مكرهم لتزول منه الجبال " قال أبو إسحاق وكذلك هي في قراءة عبد الله " وإن كاد مكرهم " قلت وكذا روي عن أبي بن كعب وعمر بن الخطاب رضي الله عنهما أنهما قرآ " وإن كاد " كما قرأ علي وكذا رواه سفيان الثوري لإسرائيل عن أبي إسحاق عن عبد الرحمن بن رباب عن علي فذكر نحوه وكذا روي عن عكرمة أن سياق هذه القصة لنمروذ ملك كنعان أنه رام أسباب السماء بهذه الحيلة والمكر كما رام ذلك بعده فرعون ملك القبط فى بناء الصرح فعجزا وضعفا وهما أقل وأحقر وأصغر وأدحر ; وذكر مجاهد هذه القصة عن بختنصر وأنه لما انقطع بصره عن الأرض وأهلها نودي أيها الطاغية أين تريد ؟ ففرق ثم سمع الصوت فوقه فصوب الرماح فصوبت النسور ففزعت الجبال من هدتها وكادت الجبال أن تزول من حس ذلك فذلك قوله " وإن كان مكرهم لتزول منه الجبال " ونقل ابن جريج عن مجاهد أنه قرأها " لتزول منه الجبال " بفتح اللام الأولى وضم الثانية وروى العوفي عن ابن عباس في قوله " وإن كان مكرهم لتزول منه الجبال " يقول ما كان مكرهم لتزول منه الجبال وكذا قال الحسن البصري ووجهه ابن جرير بأن هذا الذي فعلوه بأنفسهم من شركهم بالله وكفرهم به ما ضر ذلك شيئا من الجبال ولا غيرها وإنما عاد وبال ذلك عليهم قلت ويشبه هذا قول الله تعالى " ولا تمش في الأرض مرحا إنك لن تخرق الأرض ولن تبلغ الجبال طولا " والقول الثاني في تفسيرها ما رواه علي بن أبي طلحة عن ابن عباس " وإن كان مكرهم لتزول منه الجبال " يقول شركهم كقوله " تكاد السموات يتقطرن منه " الآية.وهكذا قال الضحاك وقتادة.

There will be no Respite after the Coming of the Torment

Allah mentions what those who committed injustice against themselves will say when they witness the torment,

رَبَّنَآ أَخِّرْنَآ إِلَى أَجَلٍ قَرِيبٍ نُّجِبْ دَعْوَتَكَ وَنَتَّبِعِ الرُّسُلَ

(Our Lord! Respite us for a little while, we will answer Your call and follow the Messengers!) Allah said in other Ayat,

حَتَّى إِذَا جَآءَ أَحَدَهُمُ الْمَوْتُ قَالَ رَبِّ ارْجِعُونِ

(Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: "My Lord! Send me back.")23:99 and,

يأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لاَ تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوَلُكُمْ

(O you who believe! Let not your properties divert you.) 63:9-10 Allah described the condition of the wrongdoers on the Day of Gathering, when He said,

وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذِ الْمُجْرِمُونَ نَاكِسُواْ رُءُوسِهِمْ

(And if you only could see when the criminals shall hang their heads.) 32:12,

وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذْ وُقِفُواْ عَلَى النَّارِ فَقَالُواْ يلَيْتَنَا نُرَدُّ وَلاَ نُكَذِّبَ بِـَايَـتِ رَبِّنَا

(If you could but see when they will be held over the Fire! They will say: "Would that we were but sent back (to the world)! Then we would not deny the Ayat of Our Lord. .."!) 6:27 and,

وَهُمْ يَصْطَرِخُونَ فِيهَا

(Therein they will cry.) 35:27 Allah refuted their statement here,

أَوَلَمْ تَكُونُواْ أَقْسَمْتُمْ مِّن قَبْلُ مَا لَكُمْ مِّن زَوَالٍ

(Had you not sworn aforetime that you would not leave.) Allah says, `Had you not vowed before, that your previous state will not change, that there will be no Resurrection or Reckoning Therefore, taste this torment because of what you vowed before.' Mujahid commented that,

مَا لَكُمْ مِّن زَوَالٍ

(that you would not leave.) refers to leaving this worldly life to the Hereafter. Allah also said,

وَأَقْسَمُواْ بِاللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَيْمَـنِهِمْ لاَ يَبْعَثُ اللَّهُ مَن يَمُوتُ

(And they swear by Allah with their strongest oaths, that Allah will not raise up him who dies.) 16:38 Allah said next,

وَسَكَنتُمْ فِى مَسَـكِنِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمْ كَيْفَ فَعَلْنَا بِهِمْ وَضَرَبْنَا لَكُمُ الأَمْثَالَ

(And you dwelt in the dwellings of men who wronged themselves, and it was clear to you how We had dealt with them. And We put forth (many) parables for you.) Allah says, `you have witnessed or heard of the news of what happened to the earlier disbelieving nations, but you did not draw a lesson from their end, nor did what We punished them with provide an example for you,'

حِكْمَةٌ بَـلِغَةٌ فَمَا تُغْنِـى النُّذُرُ

(Perfect wisdom but the warners benefit then not.)54:5 Shu`bah narrated that Abu Ishaq said that `Abdur-Rahman bin Dabil said that `Ali bin Abi Talib commented on Allah's statement,

وَإِن كَانَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ

(though their plot was not such as to remove the mountains from their places.) "He who disputed with Ibrahim about his Lord, took two eaglets and raised them until they became adult eagels. Then he tied each eagel's leg to a wooden box with ropes and left them go hungry. He and another man sat inside the wooden box and raised a staff with a piece of meat on its tip. So, the two eagles started flying. The king asked his companion to tell him what he was seeing, and he described the scenes to him, until he said that he saw the earth as a fly. So, the king brought the staff closer to the eagels and they started landing slowly. This is why Allah said, (وَإِنْ كَادَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ) `though their plot was hardly one to remove the mountains from their places."' Mujahid also mentioned that this story was about Nebuchadnezzar, and that when the king's sight was far away from earth and its people, he was called, `O tyrant one! Where are you headed to' He became afraid and brought the staff closer to the eagels, which flew faster with such haste that the mountains almost shook from the noise they made. The mountains were almost moved from their places, so Allah said,

وَإِن كَانَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ

(though their plot was not such as to remove the mountains from their places.)" Ibn Jurayj narrated that Mujahid recited this Ayah in a way that means, "though their plot was such as to remove the mountains from their places." However, Al-`Awfi reported that Ibn `Abbas said that,

وَإِن كَانَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ

(though their plot was not such as to remove the mountains from their places.) indicates that their plot was not such as to remove the mountains from their places. Similar was said by Al-Hasan Al-Basri. Ibn Jarir reasoned that, "Associating others with Allah and disbelieving in Him, which they brought upon themselves, did not bother the mountains nor other creatures. Rather, the harm of their actions came to haunt them." I (Ibn Kathir) said, this meaning is similar to Allah's statement,

وَلاَ تَمْشِ فِى الاٌّرْضِ مَرَحًا إِنَّكَ لَن تَخْرِقَ الاٌّرْضَ وَلَن تَبْلُغَ الْجِبَالَ طُولاً

(And walk not on the earth with conceit and arrogance. Verily, you can neither rend nor penetrate the earth, nor can you attain a stature like the mountains in height.)17:37 There is another way of explaining this Ayah; `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported that Ibn `Abbas said that,

وَإِن كَانَ مَكْرُهُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ

(though their plot was not such as to remove the mountains from their places.) refers to their Shirk, for Allah said in another Ayah,

تَكَادُ السَّمَـوَتُ يَتَفَطَّرْنَ مِنْهُ

(Whereby the heavens are almost torn.) 19:90 Ad-Dahhak and Qatadah said similarly.

And verily they plotted against the Prophet s their plot — when they desired to kill him or detain him in his house or banish him — but their plotting is with God that is to say knowledge or the requital thereof is with God and their plotting even though it be great was not such whereby mountains should be moved meaning that it is not of any importance but that they are only harming themselves thereby. It is said that the use of ‘mountains’ here is meant to be literal; alternatively it is also said to be a reference to the laws of Islam which are likened to these mountains in the way that they are established and fixed a variant reading has la-tazūlu instead of li-tazūla with in softened from inna ‘verily’ in which case the intended meaning is that the extent of their plotting is great. It is said that ‘plotting’ here is actually a reference to their unbelief. This second reading is consonant with God’s saying Whereby the heavens are almost torn and the earth split asunder and the mountains fall crashing Q. 1990; according to the former reading however one should read it as if it were wa-mā kāna and their plotting was not such ….

Said in verse 46 was:

وَقَدْ مَكَرُ‌وا مَكْرَ‌هُمْ وَعِندَ اللَّـهِ مَكْرُ‌هُمْ وَإِن كَانَ مَكْرُ‌هُمْ لِتَزُولَ مِنْهُ الْجِبَالُ

And they worked out their plot and whatever they plot is be-fore Allah, even though their plot is such as would move the mountains.

Which can be explained further by saying that those people tried to demolish the true faith and put in action their deadliest plans to bring harm to Muslims who had embraced the call of truth. But, all plans made by them, open or concealed, lie exposed before Allah Ta’ ala who is fully aware of them, and comprehensively capable of foiling them - even though, their plots were so precise and lethal that they would have made mountains back out from their place, but finally, nothing worked before the perfect power of Allah Ta’ ala.

The hostile plots and plans mentioned here may possibly mean the plots and plans made by people destroyed in the past, for example, Nimrud, Pharaoh, the people of ` Ad and Thamud and others. And it is also possible that the text is referring to the Mushriks of Arabia who hatched many deep-seated and far-reaching conspiracies against the Holy ﷺ ، but they were all foiled by Allah Ta` ala.

There are a good many commentators who have taken the word: (in) appearing in وَإِن كَانَ مَكْرُ‌هُمْ (even though their plot) as a particle of negation and explain the verse to mean that 'though they made many plots but it was not possible for their plots to make mountains move away from their place - and the mountain here means the high determination of the Holy Prophet ﷺ which remained totally unaffected by any of the moves made by the disbelievers.