36:21 Yaseen (Yaseen)

ثم ذكر تأييدا لما شهد به ودعا إليه، فقال: { اتَّبِعُوا مَنْ لَا يَسْأَلُكُمْ أَجْرًا } أي: اتبعوا من نصحكم نصحا يعود إليكم بالخير، وليس [يريد منكم أموالكم ولا أجرا على نصحه لكم وإرشاده إياكم، فهذا موجب لاتباع من هذا وصفه. بقي] أن يقال: فلعله يدعو ولا يأخذ أجرة، ولكنه ليس على الحق، فدفع هذا الاحتراز بقوله: { وَهُمْ مُهْتَدُونَ } لأنهم لا يدعون إلا لما يشهد العقل الصحيح بحسنه، ولا ينهون إلا بما يشهد العقل الصحيح بقبحه.

"اتبعوا من لا يسألكم أجرا" أي على إبلاغ الرسالة "وهم مهتدون" فيما يدعونكم إليه من عبادة الله وحده لا شريك له.

قَالَ يقَوْمِ اتَّبِعُواْ الْمُرْسَلِينَ

(He said: "O my people! Obey the Messengers.") -- he urged his people to follow the Messengers who had come to them.

اتَّبِعُواْ مَن لاَّ يَسْـَلُكُمْ أَجْراً

(Obey those who ask no wages of you,) means, `for the Message which they convey to you, and they are rightly-guided in what they are calling you to, the worship of Allah Alone with no partner or associate.'

وَمَا لِىَ لاَ أَعْبُدُ الَّذِى فَطَرَنِى

(And why should I not worship Him Who has created me) means, `and what is there to stop me from sincerely worshipping the One Who has created me, and worshipping Him Alone, with no partner or associate'

وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

(and to Whom you shall be returned.) means, `on the Day of Resurrection, when He will requite you for your deeds: if they are good then you will be rewarded and if they are evil then you will be punished.'

أَءَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِهِ ءَالِهَةً

(Shall I take besides Him gods) This is a rhetorical question intended to rebuke and chastise.

إِن يُرِدْنِ الرَّحْمَـنُ بِضُرٍّ لاَّ تُغْنِ عَنِّى شَفَـعَتُهُمْ شَيْئاً وَلاَ يُنقِذُونَ

(If the Most Gracious intends me any harm, their intercession will be of no use for me whatsoever, nor can they save me.) means, `these gods whom you worship instead of Him possess no power whatsoever, if Allah wills me some harm,'

فَلاَ كَـشِفَ لَهُ إِلاَّ هُوَ

(none can remove it but He) (6:17). `These idols can neither cause any harm nor bring any benefit, and they cannot save me from the predicament I am in.'

إِنِّى إِذاً لَّفِى ضَلَـلٍ مُّبِينٍ

(Then verily, I should be in plain error.) means, `if I were to take them as gods instead of Allah.'

إِنِّى ءَامَنتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ فَاسْمَعُونِ

(Verily, I have believed in your Lord, so listen to me!) Ibn Ishaq said, quoting from what had reached him from Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, Ka`b and Wahb, "He said to his people:

إِنِّى ءَامَنتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ

(`Verily, I have believed in your Lord) in Whom you have disbelieved,

فَاسْمَعُونِ

(so listen to me!)' means, listen to what I say." Or it may be that he was addressing the Messengers when he said:

إِنِّى ءَامَنتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ

(Verily, I have believed in your Lord,) meaning, `Who has sent you,'

فَاسْمَعُونِ

(so listen to me!) meaning, `bear witness to that before Him.' This was narrated by Ibn Jarir, who said, "And others said that this was addressed to the Messengers, and he said to them: `Listen to what I say and bear witness to what I say before my Lord, that I have believed in your Lord and have followed you.' This interpretation is more apparent, and Allah knows best. Ibn Ishaq said, quoting from what had reached him from Ibn `Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, Ka`b and Wahb, `When he said that, they turned on him as one, and killed him at once, and he had no one to protect him from that."' Qatadah said, "They started to stone him while he was saying, `O Allah, guide my people for they do not know, and they kept stoning him until he died a violent death, and he was still praying for them.' May Allah have mercy on him."

Follow ittabi‘ū this reiterates the preceding ittabi‘ū them who do not ask you for any reward in return for delivering to you the message and who are rightly guided. And so he was asked ‘Do you follow their religion?’ So he replied

In verse 20, it was said: وَجَاءَ مِنْ أَقْصَى الْمَدِينَةِ رَ‌جُلٌ يَسْعَىٰ (And there came a man rushing from the farthest part of the city.) In the first verse (13), the place where this incident transpired was expressed as: اَلقَریَۃ (al-qaryah: town) which, according to the Arabic lexical usage, does not signify a small village, instead, it means a habitation in the absolute sense. It may be a small habitation or a big city. Now, in this verse, this place has been identified as: اَمَدِینۃ (al-madinah), a name used only for a big city. From here, we learn that the habitation where this event took place was some big city. Hence, this too supports the saying where it has been identified as Antakiyah. The expression: أَقْصَى الْمَدِينَةِ (aqsal-madinah: farthest part of the city) means outskirts of the city. The word: يَسْعَىٰ as a rushing) in the phrase: رَ‌جُلٌ يَسْعَىٰ has been derived from: سَعٰی يَسْعَىٰ (run) which means to walk in a running gait. Therefore, the expression would mean that a man came running from the farthest part of the city. Then, there are occasions when this word is also used in the sense of walking with concern, poise and sense of purpose to be accomplished - which may not include running- as in Surah Al-Jumu` ah: فَاسْعَوْا إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ‌ اللَّـهِ (fas` aw ila dhikril-lah: hasten for the remembrance of Allah (Khutbah and Salah of Jumu'ah) - 62:9). Here, this very sense is intended.

The event relating to the person coming from the farthest part of the city

The noble Qur'an has left this too as ambiguous. It does not mention his name, nor does it say who he was. As part of historical narrations, Ibn Ishaq has reported from Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas, Ka` b al-Ahbar And Wahb Ibn Munabbih that the name of this person was Habib. There are different sayings about his profession. The most famous is the one that says that he was a carpenter. (Ibn Kathir).

Other historical narrations reported by commentators at this stage tell us that this person too was initially an idolater. He happened to meet the two messengers who came to this town the first time. It was either as a result of their teachings or, as it appears in some narrations, by seeing extraordinary working of wonders at their hands, his heart was lit with faith. He repented from past idolatry, embraced Islam and retired to a cave devoting to worship. When he got the news that the people of the city have rejected the teachings of these messengers, have become hostile to them and were threatening to kill them, he came to his people prompted by the mixed objectives of his concern for their good as well as the safety of the messengers. He advised them to follow these messengers and declared that he himself had become a believer: (I have believed in your Lord; so listen to me.- 25)