Transliteration:( Saabiqooo ilaa maghfiratim mir Rabbikum wa jannatin 'arduhaa ka-'ardis samaaa'i wal ardi u'iddat lillazeena aamanoo billaahi wa Rusulih; zaalika fadlul laahi yu'teehi many yashaaa'; wal laahu zul fadlil 'azeem )
70. This means Oh believers! Make every effort to progress better than one another i.e. through repentance and good deeds go ahead of one another. This tells us that in matters of religion, competition, envy, greed and covetousness are acts of worship. The great Sufi sages say that the open and straight path to Paradise is Shariah which can be threaded through worship, while the complex, yet nearer, path to it is Tareeqat (mystic way of life) which can be reached through the wings of love. However, the people of mystical life cannot become independent from the people of Shariah.
71. If you can spread the seven heavens and the seven regions of the earth and then join them with one another, they will be equal to the width of Paradise only. Then, what can one say about it's length. It is beyond our imagination.
72. This tells us that Paradise will not be obtained through mere good deeds, but it has to include the mercy of Allah Almighty. However, some believers will obtain Paradise through the grace of Allah Almighty only, and others. through their good deeds. From this we learn. that there is no Paradise for the infidel.
73. Because Allah Almighty is Supreme by Himself, His grace and bounty too are great.
The tafsir of Surah Hadid verse 21 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Hadid ayat 20 which provides the complete commentary from verse 20 through 21.
37. Musabaqat (from which sabiqu of the original is derived) means to compete and vie with each other in order to excel. The meaning is: Give up your rivalries with one another for amassing wealth, and pleasures and benefits of the world and instead make the forgiveness of your Lord and Paradise the object of your struggle and rivalries.
38. Some commentators have taken the word ard in arduha ka-ardis-samai wal-ard in the sense of breadth, but actually this word has been used here in the meaning of spaciousness and extensiveness. In Arabic the word ard is not only used for breadth, as a counterpart of length, but also for spaciousness, as it has been used in (Surah HaMim As-Sajdah, Ayat 51): fadhu dua in arid: Then he is full of long supplications. Besides, one should also understand that the object here is not to foretell the area or extent of Paradise, but to give an idea of its vastness and extensiveness. Here its vastness has been described as the vastness of the heaven and earth, and in Surah Aal-Imran it has been said: Hasten to follow the path that leads to your Lord’s forgiveness and to Paradise whose vastness is that of the universe, which has been prepared for the righteous (Surah Al-Imran, ayat 133). When both these verses are read together, one gets the idea that the gardens and palaces man will receive in Paradise will only serve as his dwellingplace but the entire universe will be his home. He will not be restricted to one place as he is in this world, where just for reaching the moon, his nearest neighbor in space, he has had to struggle hard for years and expend excessive resources only to overcome the difficulties of a short journey. There the whole universe will be accessible to him. He will be able to see whatever he would desire from his station and be able to visit whichever place he would like easily.
Related Ayat(Verses)/Topics