Salaam and welcome to your favourite weekly programme "Path towards Enlightenment" in which we present you a fluent interpretation of God’s Revealed Word, the holy Qur’an. We start from where we left you last Friday and here are ayahs 18 and 19 of Surah Saba:

“We had placed between them and the towns which We had blessed hamlets prominent [from the main route], and We had ordained the course through them: Travel through them ‘in safety, night and day.”

“But they said, ‘Our Lord! Make the stages between our journeys far apart,’ and they wronged themselves. So We turned them into folktales and caused them to disintegrate totally. There are indeed signs in that for every patient and grateful [servant].”

Last Friday we talked about the people of Saba or Sheba in Yemen, who were given ample bounties by God the All-Merciful; but when instead of thanking the Almighty for His blessings they became thankless, turned away from monotheism, and indulged in vices, divine wrath inflicted them.

The ayahs that we recited to you mean to say: God had provided abundant blessings to them with security and safety throughout the routes that connected the flourishing towns and villages, around which at short intervals was lush green vegetation with various types of plants to provide shade to the travelers as well as fruits to eat. In general, the land was prosperous and its inhabitants living in peace.

But, instead of being grateful to God’s blessings, the prosperity and security made most of the people negligent of their duties towards the Almighty Creator. The rich became disdainful of the poor, and wished that Allah would set a distance between their cultivated towns. In other words, instead of lush green vegetation there should appear some dry deserts between the towns, because the rich were not willing that the poor people could travel like them and travel wherever they wished without any provision and any mount. As if travelling was among their boasts and it was the sign of power and wealth and they desired that this privilege and superiority should be registered for them for ever

According to exegetes of the holy Qur’an, these ayahs pertain to the dam of Ma’rib, which was the source of the blessings of the people of the land. Because of ingratitude and indulgence in sins, God decreed that the foundations of the dam become loose and give way to a massive flood that destroyed the civilization of Saba. A lush and green region became an area full of mud and destroyed and deserted houses.

Thus the ruined places became signs for the coming generations.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. Ingratitude towards blessings leads to loss and deprivation.
2.  We should always be thankful for God’s blessings.
3. The holy Quran urges us to travel around to see the fate of the past civilizations, whose ruins lie everywhere, so that we take heed and desist from disobedience of God.  

Now we listen to ayahs 20 and 21 of Surah Saba:

“Certainly Iblis had his conjecture come true about them. So they followed him —all except a part of the faithful.”

“He had no authority over them, but that We may ascertain those who believe in the Hereafter from those who are in doubt about it, and your Lord is watchful over all things.”

Satan cannot force people to do anything, and their following of Iblis is based upon their own decision and weakness against temptations. Belief in the existence of Hereafter is like a barrier against Satan. These ayahs are, in fact, a kind of general conclusion from the story of ‘the people of Sheba’ which was stated in the previous ayahs, and we realized that how they involved in all those misfortunes and deprivations as the result of submitting to low desires and temptations of Satan.

There is no doubt that God is aware of the actions of His servants, but He does not punish or reward unless the deed has been done, and here also He is All-Merciful and provides ample time and opportunities to the sinners to repent and return to the Divine Path.

God is well aware of all our actions, including the thoughts that fly across our minds, and He has indeed decreed trial and tribulation in order to determine the degrees of faith, and how the strong-willed resist the temptations of the devil.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. God has on the one hand given authority to mankind and on the other hand He has shown to him the right and wrong way with reason and revelation.
2. Prophets, Imams and Saints invite people to goodness, while the Satan and people with satanic nature tempt and mislead people.
3. It is only through resistance and firm faith we can overcome the temptations of the Satan by patient and thankful to God.

AS/MG