In the name of God, the Lord of Grace, the Ever Merciful
When Our revelations are recited to them in all their clarity, they say: “This is but a man who wants to turn you away from what your forefathers worshipped.” They also say: “This is nothing but an invented falsehood.” Furthermore, when the truth comes to them, the unbelievers will say: “This is just plain sorcery.” (43)
Yet never have We given them any books to study, nor have We sent them any warner before you. (44)
Those who have gone before them likewise denied the truth. These people have not attained even one tenth of what We gave their predecessors, yet when they denied My messengers, how terrible was My condemnation. (45)
(Sheba; Saba’: 34: 43-45)
These verses begin the last passage in the surah, which speaks about the idolaters and what they said against the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Qur’an that was revealed to him. It reminds them of what happened to others like them who denied God’s revelations and how His punishment overwhelmed them even though they were stronger, wealthier and more knowledgeable than the Arab unbelievers.
This is followed by several hard notes, each resounding like a hammer. The first one calls on them to stand before God after shedding all influences that prevent them from objectively assessing the call that is addressed to them. The second note invites them to reflect on the real motives of God’s Messenger when he repeatedly calls on them to accept God’s message and believe in Him, when he has nothing to gain from this. Since he does not ask them for any wages in return, why should they doubt his sincerity and turn away? Further notes follow, each violently shaking people’s hearts.
The surah concludes with a scene from the Day of Judgment that is full of violent movement and which fits perfectly with the preceding strong tones.
“When Our revelations are recited to them in all their clarity, they say: This is but a man who wants to turn you away from what your forefathers worshipped. They also say: This is nothing but an invented falsehood. Furthermore, when the truth comes to them, the unbelievers will say: This is just plain sorcery.” They met the clear truth the Prophet recited to them with a confused legacy of past traditions that had neither a clear basis nor solid foundation. They realized that the simple, clear and consistent truth that was the Qur’an represented a serious threat to their confused medley of inherited beliefs and traditions. Hence they claimed: “This is but a man who wants to turn you away from what your forefathers worshipped.” They realized, however, that this was not enough. That it contradicted their forefathers’ beliefs was not enough to convince everyone. Hence, they also questioned the honesty of the Messenger who delivered God’s message: “They also say: This is nothing but an invented falsehood.” Needless to say, what is ‘false’ must be fabricated, but they wanted to give it stronger emphasis by saying “This is nothing but an invented falsehood.” In other words, they sought to undermine it, raising doubts about its divine source.
Then they moved on to describe the Qur’an itself: “When the truth comes to them, the unbelievers will say: ‘This is just plain sorcery.” They realized that the Qur’an is powerful and shakes people’s hearts. Hence, it was not enough to say that it was fabricated. They had to explain its power and so alleged that it was “plain sorcery.”
With such allegations, one following the other, they sought to divert people’s attention from the clear and powerful verses of the Qur’an. They knew they could not back their claims up, and indeed many of those who made such allegations, i.e. tribal chiefs and those who were influential in society, were certain that the Qur’an was God’s revelation as no human being could have produced anything like it. References have been made earlier in this book to what some of the elders of the Quraysh said in private conversations about Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Qur’an, and what they schemed in order to turn people away from listening the Qur’an which captivates people’s hearts.
The Qur’an exposes them as it states that they were not given books in the past so as to evaluate new ones and judge revelations. How can they, then, say that what they now received was neither revelation nor a divine book? How can they say that it was not from God, when they did not have any messengers in the past? Their claims are devoid of substance: “Yet never have We given them any books to study, nor have We sent them any warner before you.”
The surah then touches their hearts by reminding them of the destruction of earlier communities. Those Arabs had not been given one tenth of what those earlier people had of knowledge, wealth and power. When they denied God’s messengers, punishment overwhelmed them: “Those who have gone before them likewise denied the truth.
These people have not attained even one tenth of what We gave their predecessors, yet when they denied My messengers, how terrible was My condemnation.” This condemnation destroyed them all. The Quraysh knew of some of these old communities who suffered God’s punishment. Therefore, this brief reminder is sufficient. It comes in the form of a sarcastic question: ‘how terrible was My condemnation.’ It is a question put to those who knew the extent of that condemnation.
