Saba (Sheba)

47. “Say: ‘Whatever reward I have asked of you, it is for yourselves; my reward is only with Allah; and He is witness over all things’.”

48. “Say: ‘My Lord hurls the truth (on hearts), the great Knower of the Unseen’.”

The Divine emissaries ought to announce for people that they expect nothing from them; because if a spiritual leader expect some material thing from people, the society may not bear him.

In this holy verse and the following verses Allah orders His Messenger for five times that he should speak with those faithless aberrant people in different ways and shut the door of excuse to them.

In the previous verse, the words were about invitation to contemplation and about the negation of any lack of spiritual equilibrium in the Prophet (S).

In the first verse under discussion the words are about the lack of asking any reward from people for the Messengership.

He commands:

“Say: ‘Whatever reward I have asked of you, it is for yourselves…” “…my reward is only with Allah…”

This matter points to this fact that whatever a wise person does must naturally have a motive. When my perfect intellect is proved to you and you see that I have no material motive, you should know that the Divine and spiritual motive has made me do it.

In other words, I invited you to ponder. Now you do think and ask your own conscience what has caused me to warn you against the intense punishment of Allah? What benefit do I get from this, and what kind of material profit does it have for me?

In addition, if your pretext for this turning away from the truth is this that you must pay a dear price for it, principally, I have asked no compensate and reward from you.

This very meaning is clearly mentioned in Surah Al-Qalam, No. 68, verse 46 which says:

“Or do you ask from them a reward, so that they are burdened with debt?”

Upon the meaning of the Qur’anic phrase /fa huwa lakum/ (it is for yourselves) there are two commentaries: the first is that it may be an implicit declaration of the lack of asking for any kind of reward absolutely; like that we say:

“Whatever I have wanted from you can be yours.”

Indicating that, I have wanted nothing from you. The witness to this statement is the sentence next to it which says:

“…my reward is only with Allah…”

The second is that: if you see that in some of my words that I have brought from my Lord I have told you:

“…‘No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin.’…”14

The profit of this also returns to you, because the concept of the sentence: ‘The love of those near of kin’ returns to ‘deposit and Wilayah’ which is the continuation of the subject of messengership, that which is also necessary for the continuation of your guidance.

The evidence upon this recent statement is the occasion of revelation narrated here by some commentators.

They have said when the verse saying:

“…say: ‘No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin…”

was revealed, the Prophet (S) told the pagans of Mecca:

“Do not annoy my relatives”

and they accepted this suggestion, too. But when the Prophet (S) said something bad against their idols, they said that Muhammad did not treat us justly.

From one side he wanted us we would not annoy his relatives, but on the other side, by saying something bad against our gods, he annoys us. It was here that the recently mentioned verse was revealed and told them that whatever the Prophet (S) wanted from them in this regard was for their own benefit, now the pagans may hurt them or not.15

And, at the end of the verse, it says:

“…and He is witness over all things’.”

If I ask my reward from him it is for the sake that He is aware of all my deeds and intentions.

Moreover, He is a witness to my legitimacy, because it is He Who has given me these clear signs and miracles.

And verily He is the best witness, because the one who knows the facts better than all, and can deliver it better than anyone, and there comes out of him nothing but the truth, he is the best witness, and He is Allah.

Regarding to what was said about the legitimacy of the invitation of the Prophet (S), the next verse implicitly says that Qur’an is a reality which is undeniable and it has been cast on the heart of the Prophet (S) from the side of Allah, and it announces:

“Say: ‘My Lord hurls the truth (on hearts), the great Knower of the Unseen’.”

Regarding to the fact that the Arabic word /yaqŏifu/ is derived from /qaŏf/ in the sense of ‘to throw from a far point’ or ‘to throw from a far distance’, there have been delivered different commentaries upon this verse which are consistent with each other.

The first is that: the purpose of ‘hurls the truth’ is casting the content of the heavenly Books and Divine revelation upon the hearts of the Divine prophets and the messengers of Allah, because as the result of being ‘Knower of the Unseen’ He knows the receptive hearts and chooses them and casts the revelation upon them so that it penetrates deeply into them.

Thus, this statement is not unlike to the tradition which says:

“The knowledge is a light that Allah casts it into the heat of the one He pleases.”

The application of ‘Knower of the Unseen’ verifies this.

Some others have said that its purpose is: ‘casting the Truth on the falsehood and knocking down the wrong by the ‘Truth. That is, the Truth has such a power that it removes all the barriers out of its way and none is able to stand against it. So, it is a threat against the opponents that they might not rise against the Qur’an, and know that the legitimacy of the Qur’an will defeat them.

In this case, it is similar to the matter which is mentioned in Surah Al-’Anbiya’, No. 21, verse 18 which says:

“Nay! But We hurl the truth against falsehood so that it breaks out its brain, and behold, falsehood vanishes away…”

This probability has also been suggested that the purpose of the application of /qaŏf/ here is the penetration of the legitimacy of the Qur’an in both near and far points of the world and pointing to this fact that finally this heavenly revelation will be worldly and its light will light everywhere.