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Section 3

Abraham and Lot

Abraham persecuted and committed to be burnt – But Allah saved him – Lot exhorts his people to give up the sinful ways but they rejected his admonitions and challenged him to bring down chastisement from Allah – Abraham blessed with Isaac and Jacob – Apostleship and the Book vested in Abraham.

﴿23﴾ وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِاَيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَلِقَآئِهِ اُوْلَئِكَ يَئِسُواْ مِن رَّحْمَتِي وَاُوْلَئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

23. “ And those who disbelieved in the signs of Allah and His meeting, these are despaired of My mercy, and these it is that shall have a painful chastisement.”

Commentary:

The only people who are disappointed and deprived from the mercy of Allah are pagans.

So, in this verse the Qur’ān decisively says:

Then, in order to emphasize, it adds and implies that this punishment is a requisite of being disappointed from the mercy of Allah.

The objective of the Qur’ānic phrase /’āyātillah/ (the signs of Allah) is either ‘the signs of nature’; that is, the signs of the greatness of Allah in the system of creation, which refers to the subject of Monotheism; and the Arabic term /liqā’ihī/ (His meeting) refers to the subject of Resurrection. That is, they deny both the Origin and Resurrection.

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Or it refers to ‘the signs of religion; that is, the verses that Allah has sent down to His prophets, which talk about both Origin, and prophethood, and Resurrection, and in this case, the application of /liqā’/ is of the kind of mentioning ‘general’ after ‘specific’.

This probability also exists that the purpose is the entire signs of Allah in the world of creation and religion.

It is also necessary to mention this point that the Qur’ānic term /ya’isū/ (they despaired of) is a past form verb, though its main aim is future. The reason is that it is customary in Arabic literature that when the occurrence of future events is completely certain, they are sometimes said in the form of past tense of the verb.

Then, the verse continues saying:

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