23:117 Al-Muminoon (The Believers)

أي: ومن دعا مع الله آلهة غيره، بلا بينة من أمره ولا برهان يدل على ما ذهب إليه، وهذا قيد ملازم، فكل من دعا غير الله، فليس له برهان على ذلك، بل دلت البراهين على بطلان ما ذهب إليه، فأعرض عنها ظلما وعنادا، فهذا سيقدم على ربه، فيجازيه بأعماله، ولا ينيله من الفلاح شيئا، لأنه كافر، { إِنَّهُ لَا يُفْلِحُ الْكَافِرُونَ } فكفرهم منعهم من الفلاح.

يقول تعالى متوعدا من أشرك به غيره وعبد معه سواء ومخبرا أن من أشرك بالله لا برهان له أي لا دليل له على قوله فقال تعالى " ومن يدع مع الله إلها آخر لا برهان له به " وهذه جملة معترضة وجواب الشرط في قوله " فإنما حسابه عند ربه " أي الله يحاسبه على ذلك ثم أخبر " إنه لا يفلح الكافرون " أي لديه يوم القيامة لا فلاح لهم ولا نجاة. قال قتادة ذكر لنا أن نبي الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال لرجل " ما تعبد؟ "قال أعبد الله وكذا وكذا حتى عد أصناما فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم " فأيهم إذا أصابك ضر فدعوته كشفه عنك؟ "قال: الله عز وجل. قال " فأيهم إذا كانت لك حاجة فدعوته أعطاكها؟ "قال: الله عز وجل. قال " فما يحملك على أن تعبد هؤلاء معه أم حسبت أن تغلب عليه "قال: أردت شكره بعبادة هؤلاء معه. فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم " تعلمون ولا يعلمون "فقال الرجل بعد ما أسلم لقيت رجلا خصمني.هذا مرسل من هذا الوجه وقد روى أبو عيسى الترمذي في جامعه مسندا عن عمران بن الحصين عن أبيه عن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم نحو ذلك.

Shirk is the Worst form of Wrong, its Practitioner shall never succeed. Allah threatens those who associate anything else withHim and worship anything with Him. He informs that those whoassociate others with Allah:

لاَ بُرْهَانَ لَهُ

(of whom he has no proof), meaning no evidence for what he says. Then Allah says:

وَمَن يَدْعُ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَـهَا ءَاخَرَ لاَ بُرْهَانَ لَهُ بِهِ

(And whoever invokes, besides Allah, any other god, of whom he has no proof;) this is a conditional sentence, whose fulfilling clause is:

فَإِنَّمَا حِسَابُهُ عِندَ رَبِّهِ

(then his reckoning is only with his Lord.) meaning, Allah will call him to account for that. Then Allah tells us:

إِنَّهُ لاَ يُفْلِحُ الْكَـفِرُونَ

(Surely, disbelievers will not be successful.) meaning, they will not be successful with Him on the Day of Resurrection; they will not prosper or be saved.

وَقُل رَّبِّ اغْفِرْ وَارْحَمْ وَأنتَ خَيْرُ الرَحِمِينَ

(And say: "My Lord! Forgive and have mercy, for You are the best of those who show mercy!") Here Allah is teaching us to recite this supplication, for forgiveness, in a general sense, means wiping away sins and concealing them from people, and mercy means guiding a person and helping him to say and do good things.

And he who calls on another god along with God has no proof thereof lā burhāna lahu bihi an extra explicative adjectival qualification that has no other syntactical signification his reckoning his requital will indeed be with his Lord. Truly the disbelievers will not be successful they will not be felicitous.

Commentary

The last few verses of this Surah Al-Mu'minun from verse 115 to verse 118 have special merit. Baghawi and Thalabi have related from Sayyidna Ibn Masud ؓ that he came across a person who was very ill. He recited the above verses into the sick man's ears and he was cured immediately. The Holy Prophet ﷺ asked him what he had whispered in the sick man's ears to which Sayyidna 'Abdullah Ibn Masud ؓ replied that he had recited these verses (115 to 118) in his ears. Thereupon the Holy Prophet ﷺ said, "I swear by Him Who has power over my life that if a person with genuine faith were to recite these verses on a mountain, the mountain itself may move from its place". (Qurtubi and Mazhari)