Warn your nearest kindred, and spread the wing of your tenderness over all of the believers who follow you. But if they disobey you, say: “I am not accountable for what you do.”
Place your trust in the Almighty, the Compassionate who sees you when you stand, and (sees) your movement among those who prostrate themselves (before Him). It is He alone who hears all and knows all.
Shall I tell you upon whom it is that the satans descend? They descend upon every lying sinner. They eagerly listen, but most of them are liars.
As for the poets, only those who are lost in error follow them. (The Poets: Al-Shu’ara: 26: 214-224)
The first few verses in this passage tell the Prophet (peace be upon him) how to treat the believers who respond to God’s message as a result of his efforts: “Warn your nearest kindred, and spread the wing of your tenderness over all of the believers who follow you.” Thus the Prophet is instructed to treat the believers gently, and to show his humility and kindness. This instruction is given in a physical, tangible image like a bird lowering its wings when in flight and wants to descend. The Prophet adopted this attitude with believers throughout his life. Indeed, his manners were a practical translation of the Qur’an.
The surah also tells him how he should treat those who are disobedient, dissociating himself completely from them: “But if they disobey you, say: I am not accountable for what you do.” This order was given in Makkah, before the Prophet was given permission to fight unbelievers.
The surah then tells the Prophet to turn to his Lord with whom he has a permanent relationship of care: “Place your trust in the Almighty, the Compassionate who sees you when you stand, and (sees) your movement among those who prostrate themselves (before Him). It is He alone who hears all and knows all.” Leave them alone to their disobedience of God’s orders, dissociating yourself from their actions and turn to your Lord with full trust, seeking His help in all your affairs. The surah mentions the two divine attributes frequently mentioned earlier: Might and compassion. The Prophet is made to feel his closeness to God as his Lord sees him when he stands up for prayer on his own, and sees him also when he is praying with a congregation as they prostrate themselves to God. He sees him in his solitude and when he is attending to the congregation, organizing them and leading them in prayer. He sees all his movements and is fully aware of his thoughts, listening to his supplication: “It is He alone who hears all and knows all.”
This sort of address was very comforting to the Prophet as he felt that God was watching over him and looking after him.
Once more in this final passage of the surah, the Qur’an is brought in focus. The first comment emphasized that it was revelation from the Lord of all the worlds, brought to Muhammad through the trusted Spirit, Gabriel. Secondly, it made clear that no evil spirit could deliver it. Now the surah asserts that such evil ones do not come to a person like Muhammad, who is honest, truthful and advocates a sound system. They go only to a liar, wicked fortune-teller. Such people receive whatever evil spirits give them and circulate them widely after they have exaggerated them: “Shall I tell you upon whom it is that the satans descend? They descend upon every lying sinner. They eagerly listen, but most of them are liars.”
There were among the Arabs some fortune-tellers who claimed that the jinn brought them news and information. People used to go to these fortune-tellers seeking advice, and trusting their prophecies, but most of them were liars. To believe them is to pursue myth and wishful thinking. No such fortune-teller advocated any proper code of living, or urged people to fear God, or counseled them to believe. When the Prophet called on people to accept his message, he actually advocated a complete code of virtuous living.
At times, the Arab unbelievers described the Qur’an as poetry, claiming that the Prophet was a poet. This was due to their utter helplessness as to how they should face up to the Qur’an, with its powerful discourse which they realized was incomparable to anything they knew. They realized that it touches people’s hearts, strongly affecting their feelings, overcoming their resistance, while they cannot stop it in any way.
In this surah the Qur’an itself explains to them that the way of life Muhammad advocated and the Qur’an outlined was totally and fundamentally different from that of poets and poetry. This Qur’an sets a clear method and aims toward a definite objective. The Prophet does not say something today that he will be contradicting tomorrow. Nor does he pursue fleeting desires and momentary feelings. He pursues the establishment of his faith, following a straight system that admits no crookedness. Poets are totally unlike that. They are often hostage to their reactions and momentary feelings, which press for expression as they occur. They describe something as black today, white tomorrow. When they are happy, they say one thing, which they contradict when they are angry. Their moods are never consistent. Besides, they create their own imaginary world. They conjure up actions and results, and then imagine these to be hard facts that influence their behavior. Hence, their concern for realities is diminished because they create a different world in which they live, imagining it to be the reality.