'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'

Tafsir of Surah An-Naml

His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿Ta-Sin. These are the verses of the Qur'an and a clear Book﴾ ﴿A guidance and glad tidings for the believers﴾ ﴿Those who establish prayer and give zakah, and of the Hereafter they are certain﴾ ﴿Indeed, those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have made their deeds appear good to them, so they wander blindly﴾ ﴿It is they who will have the worst of punishment, and they, in the Hereafter, are the greatest losers﴾.

The discussion on the disjointed letters has preceded in every surah, and all that has been said is applicable here. According to the saying that they are letters from the names of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, the names here are: Al-Latif and Al-Sami. The fact that it refers to the type of disjointed letters is the clearest of sayings. The conjunction of "a Book" with "the Qur'an" indicates that they refer to one named entity, as they are two descriptions of two meanings. The Qur'an is because it has been gathered, and the Book is because it has been written. Ibn Abi Abla read: "and a clear Book" in the nominative case. His saying: ﴿A guidance and glad tidings﴾ may be in the accusative case as a verbal noun, or it may be in the nominative case as a subject of an implied beginning, the estimation of which is: that is a guidance and glad tidings.

Then, He described, exalted is He, the believers with the characteristics befitting them. Establishing prayer means maintaining it properly. And "zakah" here may refer to non-obligatory charity since the surah is early Meccan, or it may refer to the obligatory one without further explanation. It has also been said that "zakah" here means purity from deficiencies and adherence to moral excellence. The repetition of the pronoun in His saying: ﴿and of the Hereafter they are certain﴾ is for emphasis.

Then, He mentioned the disbelievers who do not believe in resurrection, referring to Quraysh. His saying, exalted is He: ﴿We have made their deeds appear good to them﴾ may mean that He has decreed disbelief for them, and made polytheism beloved to them, and adorned it by creating and inventing it in their souls. Despite this, their earning and their eagerness for their disbelief continues. This is on the condition that the adorned deeds are their disbelief and tyranny. It may also be that the adorned deeds are the Shariah that their actions should have been based upon. Allah, blessed and exalted is He, informed in the context of mention that by His grace and mercy He adorned the religion and clarified it, and prescribed the actions and monotheism. However, these people "wander blindly," meaning they turn away, and "blindness" refers to confusion and hesitation in prayer. Then, He threatened them with the worst of punishment. Whoever receives something of it in this world will have the punishment of the Hereafter remaining upon him, and whoever does not receive punishment in this world will have the worst of his punishment in his death and thereafter. "The greatest losers" is the plural of "greatest loss"; for "the greatest" is an adjective that is not pluralized unless it is appended, so it may strengthen its rank in the names. There is a consideration in this.