Am yaqooloona iftarahu bal huwa alhaqqu min rabbika litunthira qawman ma atahum (surah Sajdah: 3)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(32:3) Or do *2 they say: 'He has fabricated it?' *3 Nay, it is the Truth from your Lord so that you may warn a people to whom no warner came before you; *4 perhaps they will be guided to the Right Way. *5

Am yaqooloonaf taraahu bal huwal haqqu mir rabbika litunzira qawma maaa ataahum min nazeerim min qablika la`allahum yahtadoon

*4) Just as in the first verse it was considered sufficient to say, 'It is without any doubt the Book of God," and no further argument was needed to be advanced to prove the Qur'an to be Divine Word, so in this verse also the only thing being said to refine the disbelievers' charge that the Qur'an was being forged is: "It is the Truth from your Lord." The reason for it is the same as we have given in E.N. 1 above. The listeners wcrc well aware of the person who was presenting the Qur'an, of the environment in which he was presenting it and the confidence and grace with which he was presenting it; they also knew the Book, its diction and literary excellence and its themes; they were also feeling the influence and impact it was having on contemporary society of Makkah. Under those conditions the Book's being the Truth sent down by the Lord of the Worlds, was such an evident factual reality that the mere mention of it in clear and definite terms was enough to refute the accusation of the disbelievers. Any attempt to strengthen this assertion by resort to reasoning would have caused it to be weakened instead. The case would be like this. Supposing it's day and the sun is shining bright, and a stubborn person calls it a dark night. To refute him it would be enough to say: "Do you call it a night when the bright day is clearly visible aIIaround`.'" If after this, one tried to bring logical arguments to prove the day to be day. it would not in any way strengthen the reply but would rather weaken it instead.
*5) That is; "Just, as its being the Truth and a Revelation from Allah is absolutely certain, so is its being based on wisdom and Allah's mercy for you also evident. You yourselves know that for the past many centuries no Prophet has been raised among you, and you also know that your entire nation has been involved in ignorance and moral degeneration and sheer backwardness. In a state like this if a Prophet has been raised among you to awaken you and show you the right way, you should not be surprised. This was a great need which Allah has fulfilled for the sake of your own welfare and well-being. One should note that in Arabia the light of the true Faith was first of aII spread by the Prophets Hud and- Salih, who lived in the pre-historic age. They were followed by the Prophets Abraham and Ishmael, who lived 2,500 years before the Holy Prophet. After them the last Prophet to be raised in Arabia before the Holy Prophet was the Prophet Shu'aib, who had passed about 2,000 years earlier. This is a very long period. That is why it has been said, and rightly so, that no warner had come to those people. This did not mean that no warner had ever come to them, but it meant that the people had long stood in need of a warner. Here, another question may arise in the minds, which should be answered straightaway. One may ask: When no Prophet had come to the Arabs for hundreds of years before the Holy Prophet, what would be the basis of accountability of the people who had lived in that age of ignorance? They could not tell guidance from deviation and error. Then, if they had gone astray, how could they be held responsible for their deviation? The answer is this: The detailed knowledge of the true Faith might have been lost to those people, but even in that age of ignorance the people were not unaware that the true Faith was based on TauhId, and the Prophets had never taught idol-worship to their followers. This truth was also contained in those traditions which the Arabs had received from the Prophets born in their own land, and they were also aware of this through the teachings of the Prophets Moses, David, Solomon and Jesus (peace be upon alI of them) who had been born in the land adjoining their own. In the traditions of Arabia also it was well known that in the earliest times the Arabs' real religion was the Religion of Abraham and that idol-worship had been .introduced among them by a person named `Amr bin Luhayy. In spite of the prevalence of shirk and idol-worship, there were living in different parts of Arabia many such people, who rejected shirk, professed Tauhid and openly condemned offering of sacrifices at the shrines of idols. In the age close to the Holy Prophet's own, there had passed people like Quss bin Sa`idat-il-Iyadi, Umayyah bin Abi as-Salt, Suwaid bin `Amr alMustaliqi, Waki' bin Salamah bin Zuhair al-Iyadi', `Amr bin Jundub al-Juhani, Abu Qais Sarmah bin Abi Anas, Zaid bin `Amr bin Nufail, Waraqah bin Naufal, 'Uthman bin al-Huwairith, `Ubaidah bin Jahsh, `Amir bin az-Zarb al-'Advani ' Allaf bin Shahab at-Tamimi; , Al-Mutalammis bin Umayyah al-Kinani; , Zuhair bin Abi Salma, Khalid bin Sinan bin Ghais al-'Absi, `Abdullah al-Quda`i and many others, who were known as Hunafa'. These people publicly professed Tauhid as the basis of the Faith and declared their dissociation from the religion of the mushriks. Obviously they had got this concept from whatever had remained behind from the influence of the teaching of the Prophets. Moreover, the inscriptions belonging to the 4th and 5th centuries A. D. , which have been discovered in Yaman as a result of modern archaeological research and investigation, reveal that a monotheistic religion existed there in that age, whose followers acknowledged ar-Rahman (the All-Merciful) and Rabb-us-sama' wa!-ard ( Lord of the heavens and earth) alone as the One and only Deity. An inscription. dated 378 A.D. has been found from the ruins of a house of worship, which says that this house of worship has been built for the worship of "God of heavens" or "Lord of heavens". In an inscription of 465 A.D. there are words which clearly point to the doctrine of Tauhid. Similarly, an inscription of 512 A.D. has been discovered at Zabad, a place between the river Euphrates and Qinnasrin, in northern Arabia, bearing the words: Bism-ilahu, la 'izza illa lahu, /a shukra, ills lahv. All this shows that before the advent of the Holy Prophet, the teachings of the former Prophets had not altogether been forgotten, and there still existed many means which at least reminded man of the truth: "Your God is only One God. " (For further explanation, see E.N. 84 of Surah AI-Furqan).