21:34 Al-Anbiyaa (The Prophets)

لما كان أعداء الرسول يقولون تربصوا به ريب المنون. قال الله تعالى: هذا طريق مسلوك، ومعبد منهوك، فلم نجعل لبشر { مِنْ قَبْلِكَ ْ} يا محمد { الْخُلْدِ ْ} في الدنيا، فإذا مت، فسبيل أمثالك، من الرسل والأنبياء، والأولياء، وغيرهم.{ أَفَإِنْ مِتَّ فَهُمُ الْخَالِدُونَ ْ} أي: فهل إذا مت خلدوا بعدك، فليهنهم الخلود إذًا إن كان

يقول تعالى " وما جعلنا لبشر من قبلك " أي يا محمد " الخلد " أي في الدنيا بل " كل من عليها فان ويبقى وجه ربك ذو الجلال والإكرام " وقد استدل بهذه الآية الكريمة من ذهب من العلماء إلى أن الخضر عليه السلام مات وليس بحي إلى الآن لأنه بشر سواء كان وليا أو نبيا أو رسولا وقد قال تعالى " وما جعلنا لبشر من قبلك الخلد " وقوله " أفإن مت " أي يا محمد " فهم الخالدون " أي يؤملون أن يعيشوا بعدك لا يكون هذا بل كل إلى الفناء.

No One has been granted Immortality in this World

وَمَا جَعَلْنَا لِبَشَرٍ مِّن قَبْلِكَ

(And We granted not to any human being immortality before you;) means, O Muhammad.

الْخُلْدَ

(immortality) means, in this world. On the contrary,

كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍ - وَيَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلْـلِ وَالإِكْرَامِ

(Whatsoever is on it (the earth) will perish. And the Face of your Lord full of majesty and honor will remain forever.) 55:26-27.

أَفَإِيْن مِّتَّ

(then if you die) means, O Muhammad,

فَهُمُ الْخَـلِدُونَ

(would they live forever) means, they hope that they will live forever after you, but that will not happen; everything will pass away. So Allah says:

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَآئِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ

(Everyone is going to taste death,)

وَنَبْلُوكُم بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً

(and We shall test you with evil and with good by way of trial. ) Meaning, "We shall test you, sometimes with difficulties and sometimes with ease, to see who will give thanks and who will be ungrateful, who will have patience and who will despair." `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported from Ibn `Abbas:

وَنَبْلُوكُم

(and We shall test you) means, We will test you,

بِالشَّرِّ وَالْخَيْرِ فِتْنَةً

(with evil and with good by way of trial.) means, with difficulties and with times of prosperity, with health and sickness, with richness and poverty, with lawful and unlawful, obedience and sin, with guidance and misguidance.

وَإِلَيْنَا تُرْجَعُونَ

(And to Us you will be returned.) means, and We will requite you according to your deeds.

When the disbelievers said that Muhammad (s) would die the following was revealed And We did not assign to any human being before you immortality permanence of life in this world. What if you are fated to die will they be immortal? in it? No! The last sentence constitutes the syntactical locus of the interrogative of denial.

Commentary

وَمَا جَعَلْنَا لِبَشَرٍ‌ مِّن قَبْلِكَ الْخُلْدَ (And We did not assign immortality to any human (even) before you. - 21:34) The preceding verses give a strong and logical rebuttal of the unfounded and exaggerated beliefs of the infidels and polytheists to the effect that Sayyidna Masih and Sayyidna ` Uzair (علیہما السلام) are the associates of God or that Masih and the Angels are God's children. Unable to come up with a satisfactory answer to the rational and logical arguments given by the Qur'an, the infidels of Makkah were in despair and wished for the death of the Holy Prophet ﷺٍ. This has been mentioned in some other verses also, like e.g. نَّتَرَ‌بَّصُ بِهِ رَ‌يْبَ الْمَنُونِ (52:30). In this verse (34) Allah Ta` ala has given two answers to their pitiable wish. One, that even if the Holy Prophet ﷺ died early how would it help them? If they thought that they could use the death of the Holy Prophet ﷺ as an argument against his prophethood, they were very much mistaken, because all the other Prophets (علیہم السلام) whose prophethood they themselves had accepted, also died when their time came. Thus, if the death of their own prophets did not alter their position as prophets, how could the death of the Holy Prophet ﷺ change his position? Secondly, if their purpose in wishing for his early death was only to appease their frustration, then they should have known that death is universal, and everybody has to die sooner or later.

اگر بمرد عدو جأٰے شادمانی نیست کہ زندگانیء مانیز جاودانی نیست

If an enemy dies, it is not to be rejoiced, because our own life is not eternal.

We have not assigned everlastingness to any mortal before thee. If thou diest, will they be everlasting? Every soul shall taste death. When a speck of truthfulness appears in someone's heart, the reality of passion for death will show its head from his spirit, for the promise of encounter is there. What sort of spirit would forget the promise of encounter? What sort of heart would seek from someplace else the repose that comes only from contemplating the Real? “The person of faith has no ease without encoun- tering his Lord.” O dervish, no good fortune is more precious than death. Those who have the religion place the crown of magnificence and generosity on their heads at the gate of death. Those who reap the fruit of the Shariah will find the sigil of good fortune at the door of death. Death is the sanctuary of “There is no god but God.” Death is the doorstep of the kingdom of the resurrection and the passageway to the visitors of the Real. Death is the center of the exaltation of the recognizers, the place anticipated by the spirits of the proximate. Death is the vanguard of solicitude and the prelude to endless kind favor. In the two worlds no one has the ease that the tawḤīd-voicer has in the grave with the One. He took along with him into the dust the banner of the submission and the kettledrum of faith in the resurrection. At the resurrection he will come out of the dust with the banner of the submission and the kettledrum of faith, just as kings enter into their own city. Dāwūd ṬāÌī was one of the great jurists in outward knowledge. His truthfulness was such that on the night he left this world a call came from the middle of heaven: “O folk of the earth! Surely Dāwūd ṬāÌī has stepped forth to his Lord, and He approves of him.” One of his disciples said that he saw Dāwūd in the throes of death in a ruined house, intense heat, fallen flat on the earth with his head on a piece of brick, reciting the Qur'an. He said to him, “O Dāwūd, what if you were to go out into the open air?” What would happen if you were kind to yourself for an hour and go out into the open air, so this heat would have less effect on you? Dāwūd said, “My friend, I want to do that, but I am ashamed before my Lord-that I should move my feet in that in which my soul is at ease.