Saba (Sheba)

31. “And those who disbelieve say: ‘Never will we believe in this Qur’an, nor in that which is before it, and could you see when the unjust shall be made to stand before their Lord, bandying words one with another! Those who were despised as weak will say unto those who had prided: ‘Had it not been for you, we would certainly have been believers’.”

Pagans, in fact, believe in none of the heavenly Books, and because of their obstinacy, they are not ready to accept faith and believe.

In this holy verse, the Qur’an says:

“And those who disbelieve say: ‘Never will we believe in this Qur’an, nor in that which is before it…”

The Arabic word /lan/ is used for an everlasting negation. Thus, they intend to say that if you preach for ever they will not believe, and this is evidence upon their obstinacy.

They had made their decision not to believe until future eternity, while if a truth-seeking person, for any reason, is not convinced can not deny the future probable reasons without hearing them and say that he absolutely refuses other reasons, too.

In relation to the objective meaning of the Qur’an sentence: /’allaŏina kafaru/ (those who disbelieve), some of the Islamic commentators have rendered it into pagans, some into the Jews and ‘the People of Book’, but the context of the later verses, which speaks about paganism, is an evidence that the purpose of it is ‘pagans’.

The purpose of the Qur’anic phrase: /’allaŏi bayna yadayh/ (that which is before it) is the heavenly Books which had been sent down before Qur’an.

This meaning has been applied in many verses of the Qur’an with the same sense specially after mentioning the word Qur’an; and that some commentators have said that its purpose is probably ‘Resurrection’, or is ‘the content of the Qur’an’ does not seem so probable.

However, the denial of faith in the Books of the former prophets perhaps has been for the purpose that the Qur’an prophesies of this matter that the symptoms of the Messenger of Islam and the Qur’an have clearly been mentioned in the Torah and the Bible, so in ordered to negate the prophecy of the Prophet of Islam (S), they negate other heavenly Books, too, and say that they neither believe in this heavenly Book, the Qur’an, nor in the Books before it.

Then the Qur’an refers to their situation in the Hereafter and, addressing the Prophet (S), it says:

“…and could you see when the unjust shall be made to stand before their Lord, bandying words one with another!…”

Again, it is understood from the above holy verse that one of the most important extensions of ‘injustice’ is that very ‘polytheism’ and ‘disbelief’.

The application of the Qur’anic phrase /‘inda rabbihim/ (before their Lord) refers to this matter that they will attend before the One Who has been their owner and their Lord; and what a shame is higher than this that a person is summoned to the One that he has never believed in Him and in Whose commandments, while his whole self has been built and covered with His bounties.

At this time, the ‘oppressed’, the same unaware persons who blindly followed some others, will say to the ‘oppressors’, viz., the same ones who used to pave the way of pride and domination over others, and giving them the line of satanic thought, as such: if you had not been, and if your satanic beguiling temptations had not existed, we would have been in the row of the believers.

The verse says:

“…Those who were despised as weak will say unto those who had prided: ‘Had it not been for you, we would certainly have been believers’.”

By this manner, they want to put all their sins on the shoulder of these cruel ‘oppressors’, though they were not ready to have such a decisive treatment with them in the world, because in that life weakness and vileness had dominated them and they had lost their own freedom and frankness.

But now that those false concepts, which separated the oppressors from them, have gone and the fruit of the deeds of everyone is made manifest, they stand in front of them and speak frankly, disputing with them.