SURAH AL-A RAAF (AYA 61 to 70)

قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ لَيْسَ بِي ضَلَالَةٌ وَلَٰكِنِّي رَسُولٌ مِنْ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ {7:61}

[Q7:61] Qaala yaa qawmi laisa bee dalaalatunw wa laakinnee Rasoolum mir Rabbil 'aalameen.

[Q7:61] He said: O my people! There is no error in me, but I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds.
[Q7:61] Nabi Nuh menjawab: Wahai KaumKu! Tidak ada padaku sebarang kesesatan, tetapi aku adalah seorang Rasul dari Tuhan sekalian alam.  

(see commentary for verse 59)

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7:61) He said: '0 my people! There is no error in me, but I am a Messenger from the Lord of the universe.

أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَالَاتِ رَبِّي وَأَنْصَحُ لَكُمْ وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ {7:62}

[Q7:62] Uballighukum Risaalaati Rabbee wa ansahu lakum wa a'lamu minal laahi maa laa ta'lamoon. 

[Q7:62] I deliver to you the messages of my Lord, and I offer you good advice and I know from ALLAH (SWT) what you do not know.
[Q7:62] (Tugasku) menyampaikan kepada kamu perintah-perintah yang (diutuskan oleh) Tuhanku, serta aku memberi nasihat kepada kamu, sedang aku mengetahui (melalui wahyu) dari ALLAH (SwT) akan apa yang kamu tidak mengetahuinya. 

(see commentary for verse 59)

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(7:62) I convey to you the messages of my Lord, give you sincere advice, and I know from Allah that which you do not know.

أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ أَنْ جَاءَكُمْ ذِكْرٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ مِنْكُمْ لِيُنْذِرَكُمْ وَلِتَتَّقُوا وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ {63}

[Q7:63] awa'ajibtum an jaaa'akum zikrum mir Rabbikum 'alaa rajulim minkum liyunzirakum wa litattaqoo wa la'allakum turhamoon. 

[Q7:63] What! Do you wonder that a reminder has come to you from your Lord through a man from among you, that he might warn you and that you might guard (against evil) and so that mercy may be shown to you?
[Q7:63] Adakah kamu merasa ragu-ragu dan hairan tentang datangnya kepada kamu nasihat pengajaran dari Tuhan kamu melalui seorang lelaki dari golongan kamu, untuk memberi peringatan kepada kamu dan supaya kamu bertakwa dan juga supaya kamu beroleh rahmat? 

(see commentary for verse 59)

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(7:63) Do you wonder that admonition should come to you from your Lord through a man from amongst yourselves that he may warn you, that you may avoid evil and that mercy may be shown to you?' *49

*49. There were striking similarities between Muhammad and Noah (peace be on them). The Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) received the same treatment from his people as did Noah from his. The message that each of them sought to preach was also the same. Likewise, the doubts and objections raised by the people of Muhammad (peace be on him) with regard to his prophethood were the same as those raised by Noah's people several thousand years ago. Again, what Muhammad (peace be on him) said in response to the doubts and objections raised against him were exactly the same as what Noah had said.
The Qur'anic narration of the stories of the Prophets makes it amply clear that the attitude of the nations to whom the Prophets were sent had always been the same as that of the Makkans towards the Message of Muhammad (peace be on him). Apart from this, the accounts of the various Prophets and their people, display the same striking resemblances. Likewise, the Prophet Muhammad's (peace be on him) vindication of his teaching in response to the Makkans is identical with similar attempts by other Prophets to vindicate their teachings. So doing, the Qur'an seeks to emphasize that in the same way as the error and misguidance of which men become victims have remained essentially the same throughout the ages, the Message of God's Messengers has also been the same in all places and at all times. Again, there is a striking resemblance in the ultimate fate of all those peoples who reject the message of the Prophets and who persist in their erroneous and evil ways. This too has also been the same, namely utter destruction. 

فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَأَنْجَيْنَاهُ وَالَّذِينَ مَعَهُ فِي الْفُلْكِ وَأَغْرَقْنَا الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمًا عَمِينَ {7:64}

[Q7:64] Fakazzaboohu fa anjai naahu wallazeena ma'ahoo fil fulki wa aghraqnal lazeena kazzaboo bi Aayaatinaa; innahum kaanoo qawman 'ameen. 

[Q7:64] But they called him a liar, so We delivered him and those with him in the ark, and We drowned those who rejected Our communications; surely they were a blind people.
[Q7:64] Mereka terus mendustakannya, lalu Kami selamatkan dia dan orang-orang yang bersamanya di dalam bahtera dan Kami karamkan orang-orang yang mendustakan ayat-ayat kami. Sesungguhnya mereka adalah kaum yang buta (mata hatinya daripada melihat kebenaran)  

(see commentary for verse 59)

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(7:64) But they charged him with falsehood. Thereupon We delivered Noah and those who were with him in the Ark, and caused those who rejected Our signs as false to be drowned.  *50 Surely they were a blind folk.

*50. An uninitiated reader of the Qur'an may, mistakenly conceive that the mission of each Prophet - to call his people to God - would have finished after the few attempts they made in that connection. Some people might even entertain a rather simplistic image of their mission. It might be thought that a Prophet would have suddenly risen and proclaimed to his people that he had been designated by God as a Prophet. This would have been followed by the raising of objections to that claim. Subsequently, the Prophet concerned would have explained the matter and might have removed their misgivings. The people would have stuck to their position, would have rejected the Prophet's claim and called him a liar. whereupon God must have visited that people with punishment.
The fact of the matter, however, is that the Qur'an has narrated in just a few lines a story that was worked out over a long period of time. The brevity of the Qur'anic description owes itself to the fact that the Qur'an is not interested per se in story-telling; that its narration and purpose are didactic. Hence, while recounting a historical event, the Qur'an mentions only those fragments of the event which are relevant, ignoring those details which are irrelevant to Qur'anic purposes. Again, at different places in the Qur'an the same event is mentioned for a variety of reasons. On every occasion only those fragments of the story which are relevant to a specific purpose are mentioned and the rest are left out. An instance in point is the above narrative about Noah. In narrating Noah's story the Qur'an aims to point out the consequences attendant upon the rejection of the Prophet's Message. Since the total period spent on conveying the Message does not have any direct relationship with that purpose, the Qur'an altogether ignores it here. However, in passages where the Prophet and the Companions have been asked to remain patient, the long duration of the Prophet Noah's missionary, effort has been mentioned. This has been done precisely, with a view to raising the morale of the believers and to prevent them from feeling low because they did not see any, good results coming out of that struggle. By mentioning how Noah strove patiently for such a long period of time and in the face of discouraging circumstances is quite relevant in this context as it helps to teach the lesson which is intended. That lesson is to persist in serving the cause of the truth and to refuse to be daunted by the adversity of the circumstances. See al-'Ankabut 29: 14.
It would be appropriate to remove, at this stage, a doubt which might agitate the minds of some people. For one frequently reads in the Qur'an accounts of nations which rejected their Prophets and charged them with lying. One also reads about the Prophets warning them of God's punishment, and then about its sudden advent, scourging the nation and totally destroying it. This gives rise to the question: Why do such catastrophic incidents not take place in our own time? Nations still rise and fall, but the phenomenon of their rise and fall is of a different nature. We do not see it happen that a nation is served with a warning, and is then totally destroyed by a calamity such as an earthquake. a flood, a storm, or a thunderbolt.
In order to understand this it should be remembered that a nation which has directly received God's Message from a Prophet is treated by God in a different manner from nations which have not witnessed a Prophet. For if a nation directly witnesses a Prophet - an embodiment of righteousness - and receives God's Message from his tongue, it has no valid excuse left for rejecting that Message. And if it still rejects the Message, it indeed deserves to be summarily punished. Other nations are to be placed in a different category since they received God's Message indirectly. Hence, if the nations of the present time are not visited by; the devastating punishments which struck the nations of the Prophets in the past, one need not wonder since prophethood came to an end with the advent of Muhammad (peace be on him). One should indeed have cause to wonder if one saw the opposite happen - that is, if the nations of the present were visited by punishments from God which had afflicted those nations that rejected their Prophets face to face.
This does not mean, however, that God has ceased to inflict sevire punishments on nations which turn away from God and are sunk in ideological and moral error. The fact is that God's punishments still afflict different nations of the world. These punishments are both minor and major. Minor punishments are aimed at warning those nations, and the major ones are of a much more serious character and cause considerable damage. However, in the absence of the Prophets who are wont to draw attention to moral degeneration as the basic cause of these calamities, the historians and thinkers of our time only scratch the surface and explain these in terms of physical laws or historical causes. These sophisticated explanations are of little help. On the contrary, nations so afflicted with heedlessness and moral stupor are thereby further prevented from appreciating that God has always warned evil-doing nations against following their evil ways, and that when they wilfully disregard these warnings and adamantly stick to their erroneous ways. He ultimately inflicts disastrous punishments upon them. 

SECTION 9

The Ministry of Apostle Hud

Apostles Hud exhorting his people to serve only ALLAH and none else---The people challenging Hud against the threats of the wrath of ALLAH---The punishment they suffered.

وَإِلَىٰ عَادٍ أَخَاهُمْ هُودًا ۗ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُ ۚ أَفَلَا تَتَّقُونَ {7:65}

[Q7:65] Wa ilaa 'aadin akhaahum Hoodaa; qaala yaa qawmi' budul laaha maa lakum min ilaahin ghairuh; afalaa tattaqoon. 

[Q7:65] And to Ad (We sent) their brother Hud. He said: O my people! Serve ALLAH (SWT), you have no god other than Him; will you not then guard (against evil)?
[Q7:65] Dan kepada kaum Aad, (Kami utuskan) saudara mereka: Nabi Hud. Dia berkata: Wahai kaumku! Sembahlah kamu akan ALLAH (SwT), (sebenarnya) tidak ada Tuhan bagi kamu selain daripadaNya. Oleh itu, tidakkah kamu mahu bertakwa kepadaNya? 

PROPHET HUD, IN THE PROGENY OF NUH THROUGH SAM, WAS SENT TO PREACH THE MESSAGE OF ALLAH (SWT) TO THE PEOPLE OF AD, WHO WERE PHYSICALLY VERY STRONG AND LIVED IN ARABIAN PENINSULA. They were zealous idolaters. In vain Hud tried to bring them to true faith.

On account of their ever increasing corruption a three (3) years' famine visited them, BUT they took no warning and challenged Hud to bring on them what he threatened them with.

     At last dark clouds appeared on the sky. Thinking that it was going to rain they all assembled under the clouds. A terrible blast of wind destroyed them and their land. It continued for eight days.

     Under the command of ALLAH (SWT) Hud along with his virtuous companions had left the scene of calamity before it fell on the people of Ad.

The people mentioned here are known as the tribe of first Ad.

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(7:65) And to 'Ad *51 We sent forth their brother Hud. He said: '0 my people! Serve Allah; you have no other god than Him. Will you, then, not avoid evil?'

*51. 'Ad, an ancient Arab people, were well-known throughout Arabia. They were known for their proverbial glory and grandeur. And when they were destroyed, their extinction also became proverbial. So much so that ttre word 'Ad has come to be used for things ancient and the word 'adiyat for archaeological remains. The land whose owner is unknown and which is lying fallow, from neglect is called 'adi al-ard.
The ancient Arabic poetry is replete with references to this people. Arab genealogists consider the 'Ad as the foremost among the extinct tribes of Arabia. Once a person of the Banel Dhuhl b. Shayban tribe, who was a resident of the 'Ad territory, called on the Prophet (peace be on him). He related stories to the Prophet about the people of 'Ad, stories handed down to the people of that region from generation to generation. (See Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 3, p. 482 - Ed.)
According to the Qur'an the people of 'Ad lived mainly in the Ahqaf region which is situated to the south-west of the Empty Quarter (al-Rub' al-Khali) and which lies between Hijaz, Yemen and Yamamah. It was from there that the people of 'Ad spread to the western coast of Yemen and established their hegemony in Oman, Hadramawt and Iraq. There is very little archaeological evidence about the 'Ad. Only a few ruins in South Arabia are ascribed to them. At a place in Hadramawt there is a grave which is considered to be that of the Prophet Hud. James R. Wellested, a British naval officer, discovered an ancient inscription in 1837 in a place called Hisn al-Ghurab which contains a reference to the Prophet Hud. The contents unmistakably bear out that it had been written by those who followed the Shari'ah of Hud. (For details see Tafhim al-Qur'an, al-Al. Ahqaf 46, n. 25.) 

قَالَ الْمَلَأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ قَوْمِهِ إِنَّا لَنَرَاكَ فِي سَفَاهَةٍ وَإِنَّا لَنَظُنُّكَ مِنَ الْكَاذِبِينَ {7:66}

[Q7:66] Qaalal mala ul lazeena kafaroo min qawmiheee innaa lanaraaka fee safaahatinw wa innaa lannazunnuka minal kaazibeen
[Q7:66] The chiefs of those who disbelieved from among his people said: Most surely we see you in folly, and most surely we think you to be of the liars.

[Q7:66] Ketua-ketua yang kafir dari kaumnya berkata: Sesungguhnya kami (wahai Hud) nampakmu berada dalam kebodohan dan sesungguhnya kami fikir engkau adalah dari orang-orang yang berdusta. 

(see commentary for verse 65)

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(7:66) The unbelievers among the leading men of his people said: 'Indeed we see you in folly, and consider you to be liars.'

قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ لَيْسَ بِي سَفَاهَةٌ وَلَٰكِنِّي رَسُولٌ مِنْ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ {7:67}

[Q7:67] Qaala yaa qawmi laisa bee safaahatunw wa laakinnee Rasoolum mir Rabbil 'aalameen. 
[Q7:67] He said: O my people! There is no folly in me, but I am a Messenger of the Lord of the worlds. 

[Q7:67] Nabi Hud menjawab: Wahai kaumku! Tidak ada padaku sebarang kebodohan, tetapi aku adalah seorang Rasul dari Tuhan sekalian alam. 

(see commentary for verse 65)

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(7:67) He said: '0 my people! There is no folly in me; rather I am a Messenger from the Lord of the universe.

أُبَلِّغُكُمْ رِسَالَاتِ رَبِّي وَأَنَا لَكُمْ نَاصِحٌ أَمِينٌ {7:68}

[Q7:68] Uballighukum Risaalaati Rabbee wa ana lakum naasihun ameen. 
[Q7:68] I deliver to you the messages of my Lord and I am a faithful adviser to you:

[Q7:68] (Tugasku) menyampaikan kepada kamu akan perintah-perintah (yang diutuskan oleh) Tuhanku dan aku adalah pemberi nasihat yang amanah, bagi kamu. 

(see commentary for verse 65)

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(7:68) I convey to you the messages of my Lord, and I give you sincere advice.

أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ أَنْ جَاءَكُمْ ذِكْرٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ مِنْكُمْ لِيُنْذِرَكُمْ ۚ وَاذْكُرُوا إِذْ جَعَلَكُمْ خُلَفَاءَ مِنْ بَعْدِ قَوْمِ نُوحٍ وَزَادَكُمْ فِي الْخَلْقِ بَسْطَةً ۖ فَاذْكُرُوا آلَاءَ اللَّهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ {7:69}

[Q7:69] awa 'ajibtum an jaaa'akum zikrum mir Rabbikum 'alaa rajulim minkum liyunzirakum; wazkurooo iz ja'alakum khulafaaa'a mim ba'di qawmi noohinw wa zaadakum filkhalqi bastatan fazkurooo aalaaa'al laahi la'allakum tuflihoo. 
[Q7:69] What! Do you wonder that a reminder has come to you from your Lord through a man from among you that he might warn you? And remember when He made you successors after Nuh's people and increased you in excellence in respect of make; therefore remember the benefits of ALLAH (SWT), that you may be successful.

[Q7:69] Adakah kamu merasa ragu-ragu dan hairan tentang datangnya kepada kamu nasihat pengajaran dari Tuhan kamu, melalui seorang lelaki dari golongan kamu, untuk memberi peringatan kepada kamu? Dan kenanglah ketika ALLAH (SwT) menjadikan kamu khalifah-khalifah sesudah kaum Nabi Nuh dan ALLAH (SwT) telah menambahkan kamu kelebihan (dan kekuatan) pada bentuk kejadian tubuh kamu. Maka kenanglah akan nikmat-nikmat ALLAH (SwT) supaya kamu berjaya.  

(see commentary for verse 65)

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(7:69) Do you wonder that an exhortation should come to you from your Lord through a man from amongst yourselves that he may warn you? And do call to mind when He made you successors after the people of Noah and amply increased you in stature. Remember then the wondrous bounties *52 of Allah, that you may prosper.'

*52. The word ala' used in the above verse stands for bounties, wondrous works of nature, and praiseworthy qualities. The purpose of the verse is to impress upon man to gratefully, recognize the favours God has lavished upon him, bearing in mind that God also has the Power to take them away. 

قَالُوا أَجِئْتَنَا لِنَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ وَحْدَهُ وَنَذَرَ مَا كَانَ يَعْبُدُ آبَاؤُنَا ۖ فَأْتِنَا بِمَا تَعِدُنَا إِنْ كُنْتَ مِنَ الصَّادِقِينَ {7:70}

[Q7:70] Qaalooo aji'tanaa lina'budal laaha wahdahoo wa nazara maa kaana ya'budu aabaaa'u naa faatinaa bimaa ta'idunaaa in kunta minas saadiqeen. 
[Q7:70] They said: Have you come to us that we may serve ALLAH (SWT) alone and give up what our fathers used to serve? Then bring to us what you threaten us with, if you are of the truthful ones.

[Q7:70] Mereka berkata: Adakah engkau datang kepada kami supaya kami hanya menyembah ALLAH (SwT) semata-mata dan meninggalkan apa yang pernah disembah oleh datuk nenek kami? (Kami tidak akan menurut) maka datangkanlah azab yang engkau janjikan kepada kami, jika betul engkau dari orang-orang yang benar.  

(see commentary for verse 65)

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(7:70) They said: 'Have you come to us that we should worship none other than Allah and forsake all whom our forefathers were wont to worship? *53 Then bring upon us the scourge with which you have threatened us if you are truthful?'

*53. It is worth noting that the people of 'Ad neither disbelieved in God nor refused to worship Him. They did not, however, follow, the teachings of Hud who proclaimed God alone should he worshipped, and that none other may be associated in servitude to Him.