MUSLIM VILLA - QURAN ONLY

Category 5 => Commentary / Tafsir of specific Quranic Verses or Quran topics with detailed discussions => Topic started by: Ruhi_Rose on December 18, 2016, 01:00:34 pm



Title: Who were those 3 unnamed messengers in Surah Ya Sin, Verses 13-32 ?
Post by: Ruhi_Rose on December 18, 2016, 01:00:34 pm
 BismEm

Salams everyone. 


Would any of you have an opinion on which community might be referred in Verses 13 to 32 of Surah Al-Yasin?  The following is the translation of those Verses by Abdel Haleem.

13.  Give them the example of the people to whose town messengers came.
14.  We sent two messengers but they rejected both. Then We reinforced them with a third.
15.  They said, ‘Truly, we are messengers to you,’
16.  but they answered, ‘You are only men like ourselves. The Lord of Mercy has sent nothing; you are just lying.’ They said, ‘Our Lord knows that we have been sent to you.
17.  Our duty is only to deliver the message to you,’
18.  but they answered, ‘We think you are an evil omen. If you do not stop, we shall stone you, and inflict a painful torment on you.’
19.  The messengers said, ‘The evil omen is within yourselves. Why do you take it as an evil omen when you are
reminded of the Truth? You are going too far!’
20.  Then, from the furthest part of the city, a man came running. He said, ‘My people, follow the messengers.
21.  Follow them: they are not asking you to reward them and they are rightly guided.
22.  Why should I not worship the One who created me? It is to Him that you will be returned.
23.  How could I take besides Him any other gods, whose intercession will not help me and who would not be able to save me if the Lord of Mercy wished to harm me?
24.  Then I would clearly be in the wrong.
25.  I believe in your Lord, so listen to me.’
26.  He was told, ‘Enter the Garden,’a so he said, ‘If only my people knew
27.  how my Lord has forgiven me and set me among the highly honoured.’
28.  After him We did not send any army from heaven against his people, nor were We about to:
29.  there was just one blast, and they fell down lifeless.
30.  Alas for human beings! Whenever a messenger comes to them they ridicule him.
31.  Do they not see how many generations We have destroyed before them, none of whom will ever come back to them?
32.  [Yet] all of them will be brought before Us.


Haleem has written only the following as explanation which doesn't say much.

"The implication may be that he was martyred, as his people die after him.  Another interpretation of this phrase is ‘none of them can trace [their genealogies] back to them’, i.e. God wiped out the entire line."

This tafsir of course hardly answers any questions.  Pickthall hasn't mentioned anything.

Whatever feedback possible would be helpful.   Thanks in advance :)


Title: Re: Who were those 3 unnamed messengers in Surah Ya Sin, Verses 13-32 ?
Post by: N. Truth Seeker on December 18, 2016, 01:08:48 pm


No sister, we cannot say which community this might have been.  Only Allah would know and none else.  I think if you read Haleem's summary of Surah Ya-Sin in his introduction, that's as far as one can go to explain it.  I quote that summary Haleem has written "A Meccan sura that emphasizes the divine source of the Qur an and defends it from the charge of being poetry made by man (verses 5–6, 69–70). It warns of the fate of men who are stubborn and always mock God’s revelations. They are reminded of the punishment that befell earlier generations, and of God’s power as shown in His Creation. The end of the sura gives strong arguments for the reality of the Resurrection."  The general information and lesson conveyed in Haleem's introductory commentary seems within the context of the message conveyed by Verses 13 to 32 of Surah Ya Sin.

Abu Alaa Maududi has also not been able to give an idea who these people were.  He has mentioned a Hadith opinion which claims that this place was  the ancient Syrian city of Antioch and these men were sent there by Prophet Jesus (son of Virgin Mary) to preach.  This view comes from the notorious Hadith narrators that include Ibn 'Abbas, Qatadah, 'Ikrimah, Ka'b Ahbar and Wahb bin Munabbih, all of them infamous for the construction of loads of hoax mostly from legendary tales written by orthodox Christians.  According to Maududi himself, this view is totally unauthentic.  The Romans took over the Syrian city of Antioch in 65 B.C.  By the time Prophet Jesus (son of Virgin Mary) came, all of Syria and Palestine were rigidly under Roman rule that staunchly opposed the preaching of Prophet Jesus.  It is next to impossible that he (Prophet Jesus) would send any of his disciples to Syria at such period.  Also, one of the many altered versions of the Bibles named Act of the Apostles has claimed that the first time Christian preachers reached the city of Antioch in Syria was some years after the departure of Prophet Jesus (son of Virgin Mary).  This information may also not be authentic as Christians may well have reached Antioch even later, considering Biblical narrations are filled with contradictions and inaccuracies just as much as Hadith, if not more.

Thus, there's absolutely no evidence to confirm or even opine who these people were except that they were pious men who believed in Monotheism (Tawheed) and pleaded with their community not to reject the Message of Allah.  But the community was largely disobedient and thus faced the wrath of Allah.  This is the crux of the lesson that Allah has decided to convey.  We don't need to know anything else.

You will find several similar narrations in the Quran where some person or persons are referred without identifying them nor disclosing their location, but only mentioning their actions or deeds so readers can draw their lessons.


Title: Re: Who were those 3 unnamed messengers in Surah Ya Sin, Verses 13-32 ?
Post by: Ruhi_Rose on December 19, 2016, 12:38:28 pm
Many thanks brother NTS.  Totally sensible and I get it completely. 


Title: Re: Who were those 3 unnamed messengers in Surah Ya Sin, Verses 13-32 ?
Post by: Zainab_M on February 13, 2019, 06:25:55 am


Many thanks from me too brother TS.  I was reading Surah Ya Sin this evening and came across Verse 36:13 and I thought I must check at MV if we've taken it up to explain.