Saba (Sheba)

5. “And those who strive hard in invalidating Our signs, challenging (us), for such will be a chastisement of a painful wrath.”

Man’s inordinacy is so much so that he wishes to nullify the Divine verses and to hinder their effects and practical consequence. So in this verse it implies that those who tried to frustrate and deny Allah’s revelations, and imagined that they could escape from the realm of Allah’s Power, there will be a chastisement for them which is out of the worst and the most painful punishments.

It says:

“And those who strive hard in invalidating Our signs, challenging (us), for such will be a chastisement of a painful wrath.”

The words in previous verse were about ‘a bountiful provision’ while this verse speaks about ‘a chastisement of a painful wrath’.

The Arabic word /rijz/ originally means: anxiety and the lack of power for the protection of equilibrium. So when a camel is sick and is unable to walk quickly, at the time of walking, it has to take its steps shortly in order to partly keep equilibrium. This state in Arabic is called /rijz/. Then it has been used for any kind of sin and impurity.

The epics, poems peculiar to wars, are called /rajaz/ for the sake that they have some pauses which are short and close to each other.

However, the purpose of the Qur’anic word /rijz/ here is the worst kind of punishment which has also been intensified with the term of /’alim/ (painful), and it refers to the kinds of spiritual and bodily painful chastisements.

Some commentators have paid attention to this point that here at the time of stating the bounties of the people of Heaven, the Qur’an has not applied the Arabic word /min/ (of) to be evidence that those bounties are vast, while this word has been applied for the chastisement in order to be a sign of a relative limitation and the statement of His Mercy.

The Arabic term /sa‘aw/ is derived from the word /sa‘y/ in the sense of any effort and endeavour. Here it means to strive for rejecting and denial of the Divine revelations and hindering people from embracing the religion of Allah.

The Arabic term /mu‘ajizin/ is derived from /‘ajaza/ in the sense of ‘to make impotent’, and in these instances it is used for those who run away from someone in a way that he cannot have dominance over them.

It is evident that this quality mentioned for the guilty is for the imagination they used to practically show. Their action was similar to the act of the persons who thought they could commit whatever crime they desired to do and they would escape from the realm of the Power of Allah.