Note 1
The above construction, pointing to man's acceptance or denial of the truth of God's creative activity, is in accord with Tabari's interpretation of this passage, as well as with that of Az-Zajjaj (quoted by Razi). According to Zamakhshari , those who deny this truth are mentioned first because they are more numerous and possess greater influence than those who consciously believe in God. A further implication appears to be this: Since all human beings are endowed with the instinctive ability to perceive the existence of the Creator (cf. 7:172 and the corresponding note 139), one man's denial of this truth and another's belief in it is, in the last resort, an outcome of free choice.

Note 2
See surah 10, note 11.

Note 3
I.e., in accordance with the exigencies of human life. See also note 9 on 7:11.

Note 4
This is an allusion to the disasters and the suffering which, as history shows, inevitably befall a community or nation bent on rejecting the basic ethical truths and, thus, all standards of morality.

Note 5
I.e., apostles from their own midst, entrusted with divine messages specifically meant for them. The expression "time and again" is conditioned by the phrase kanat ta'atihim which implies repetition and duration.

Note 6
Lit., "guide us". This negative response is characteristic of people who, in result of their own estrangement from all moral standards, are instinctively, and deeply, distrustful of all things human and cannot, therefore, accept the idea that a divine message could manifest itself through mere human beings that have nothing "supernatural" about them.

Note 7
Their refusal to believe in resurrection and a life to come implies a conviction that no one will be called upon, after death, to answer for what he did in life.

Note 8
This or a similar interpolation is necessary in view of the mansub form of the subsequent noun, yawma (lit., "day"), which I am rendering in this context as "the time".

Note 9
I.e., in the words of Razi, "towards self-surrender to God's will. . , [and so] towards gratitude in times of ease, and patience in times of misfortune". It is also possible - as some of the commentators do - to understand the phrase in another sense, namely, "if anyone believes in God, He [i.e., God] guides his heart". However, the rendering adopted by me seems to be preferable inasmuch as it stresses the idea that conscious belief in God impels a man's reason to control and direct his emotions and inclinations in accordance with all that this belief implies.

Note 10
The above construction of this passage makes it clear, firstly, that a realization of God's existence, oneness and almightiness is the innermost purport - and, thus, the beginning and the end - of God's message to man; and, secondly, that His prophets can do no more than deliver and expound this message, leaving it to man's reason and free choice to accept or reject it.

Note 11
I.e., "sometimes, your spouses.. .", etc. Since, in the teachings of the Qur'an, all moral duties are binding on women as well as on men, it is obvious that the term azwajikum must not be rendered as "your wives", but is to be understood - according to classical Arabic usage - as applying equally to both the male and the female partners in a marriage.

Note 12
Love of his or her family may sometimes tempt a believer to act contrary to the demands of conscience and faith; and, occasionally, one or another of the loved ones - whether wife or husband or child - may consciously try to induce the person concerned to abandon some of his or her moral commitments in order to satisfy some real or imaginary "family interest", and thus becomes the other's spiritual "enemy". It is to this latter eventuality that the next sentence alludes.

Note 13
For an explanation, see note 28 on 8:28, which is almost identical with the present passage.

Note 14
Cf. last sentence of 59:9 and the corresponding note 14.

Note 15
See surah 6, note 65.