Commentary on the Koran: Surah 80 (No. Q080)

Pickthall Translation; Bible Quotes are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Introduction

‘Abasa is a rebuke of the Prophet for respect of persons when he turned from a blind man who asked him a question when he was speaking to one of the leaders of his tribe, the Qureysh, when he was seeking to explain the faith to the leader. He turned from the obviously interested blind man and frowned. In this Surah he was rebuked for respect of persons and was told that a man’s importance was not to be judged by his appearance or worldly station. God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).

Again an early Beccan surah concerned with the calling of God’s elect in the faith.

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80.1. He frowned and turned away

80.2. Because the blind man came unto him.

80.3. What could inform thee but that he might grow (in grace)

80.4. Or take heed and so the reminder might avail him?

80.5. As for him who thinketh himself independent,

80.6. Unto him thou payest regard.

80.7. Yet it is not thy concern if he grow not (in grace).

80.8. But as for him who cometh unto thee with earnest purpose

80.9. And hath fear,

80.10. From him thou art distracted.

1Corinthians 1:28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

Job 34:19 who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands?

James 2:1-9 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. ²For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, ³and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” ⁴have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? ⁷Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? ⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Luke 10:16 "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."

Mark 16:15-16 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Romans 8:28-30 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Refer to John 6:44 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 40 (No. Q040) at ayat 13.

80.11. Nay, but verily it is an Admonishment,

80.12. So let whosoever will pay heed to it,

80.13. On honoured leaves

80.14. Exalted, purified,

80.15. (Set down) by scribes

80.16. Noble and righteous.

This is the work of the Scriptures.

Refer to Deuteronomy 29:29 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 20 (No. Q020) at ayat 6; Isaiah 42:21 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 27 (No. Q027) at ayat 2 and 2Timothy 3:16-17 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 30 (No. Q030) at ayat 30.

Romans 7:12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

Psalm 19:7-9 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; ⁸the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; ⁹the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

80.17. Man is (self-)destroyed: how ungrateful!

Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Romans 1:21, 28 ²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

Malachi 1:6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

Isaiah 1:2-3 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. ³The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

2Timothy 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

80.18. From what thing doth He create him?

80.19. From a drop of seed. He createth him and proportioneth him,

80.20. Then maketh the way easy for him,

80.21. Then causeth him to die, and burieth him;

80.22. Then, when He will, He bringeth him again to life.

80.23. Nay, but (man) hath not done what He commanded him.

Job 10:8-12 Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether. ⁹Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? ¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? ¹¹You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. ¹²You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

1Samuel 2:6 The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

Psalm 14:3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Romans 3:10-12 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

See Psalm 104:13-15 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 78 (No. Q078) at ayat 16 and refer also to Revelation 20:11-15 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15; Hebrews 9:27 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 18; Ecclesiastes 12:7 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 19 (No. Q019) at ayat 40; Daniel 12:2 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 24 (No. Q024) at ayat 42; Deuteronomy 32:39 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 30 (No. Q030) at ayat 40 and Psalm 139:13-16 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 41 (No. Q041) at ayat 54.

80.24. Let man consider his food:

80.25. How We pour water in showers

80.26. Then split the earth in clefts

80.27. And cause the grain to grow therein

80.28. And grapes and green fodder

80.29. And olive-trees and palm-trees

80.30. And garden-closes of thick foliage

80.31. And fruits and grasses:

80.32. Provision for you and your cattle.

Psalm 104:23 Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening

Psalm 128:2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Genesis 1:12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Isaiah 30:23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures,

Refer to Isaiah 55:10 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 30 (No. Q030) at ayat 19 and Psalm 104:13-15 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 78 (No. Q078) at ayat 16.

80.33. But when the Shout cometh

80.34. On the day when a man fleeth from his brother

80.35. And his mother and his father

80.36. And his wife and his children,

80.37. Every man that day will have concern enough to make him heedless (of others).

Luke 21:25-27 And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Matthew 24:29-30 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Mark 13:24-26 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, ²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

Isaiah 2:19 And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

Isaiah 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the LORD of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.

Revelation 6:15-16 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,

In that day they will fear for their own lives and will have no concern about all the others around them. For all who paid no attention to the warning messages being preached to the world will have no idea on what would be unfolding before their eyes.

80.38. On that day faces will be bright as dawn,

80.39. Laughing, rejoicing at good news;

Refer to Revelation 20:6 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 18 (No. Q018) at ayat 31 and 1Thessalonians 4:16-17 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 27 (No. Q027) at ayat 87.

1Corinthians 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

1Corinthians 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

80.40. And other faces, on that day, with dust upon them,

80.41. Veiled in darkness,

80.42. Those are the disbelievers, the wicked.

See Luke 10:16 at ayat 80.10 above and 1Corinthians 4:5 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 78 (No. Q078) at ayat 30.

Also Revelation 20:11-15 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 15 and 2Corinthians 5:10 in Commentary on the Koran: Surah 17 (No. Q017) at ayat 36.

Then read Matthew 25:31-46 for the parable of the sheep and the goats.

Proverbs 1:27 when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

Proverbs 10:24 What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

2John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.

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