Transliteration:( Wa qaleelum minal aa khireen )
"And few [16] from the later folks."
✅ [16] This means that among the earliest believers from the Ummah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ—such as the Noble Companions—many are among the favourites and trusted in the court of Allah Almighty.
However, from the later generations, fewer will reach that rank.
🔹 The claim of the Shia sect contradicts this verse. They assert that during the blessed time of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, there were only ten or twenty true believers, and later, many Shias emerged.
➡️ This view denies the truth of this verse, which confirms the righteousness of early believers.
✅ From this verse, we learn that the entire Ummah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ will never go astray.
Until the Day of Judgement, there will always remain individuals who enjoy nearness to Allah Almighty, as affirmed in Hadith Shareef.
📚 Some scholars have interpreted “earlier people” as referring to followers of previous prophets, from Hazrat Adam to Hazrat Isa (peace be upon them).
It is mentioned that there are 120 qualities of the people of Paradise:
– 80 qualities belong to the followers of the Holy Prophet ﷺ,
– 40 qualities to the followers of all previous Ummahs.
➡️ Hence, the majority of the dwellers of Paradise are from the Ummah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ.
The tafsir of Surah Waqiah verse 14 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Waqiah ayat 13 which provides the complete commentary from verse 13 through 26.
(56:14) and a few from later times.[8]
8. The commentators have differed as to who are implied by the former And the latter people.
One group of them has expressed the view that the former people were the communities that passed away since the time of the Prophet Adam (peace be upon him) till the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the people of the latter day are those who will have lived in the world since the advent of the Prophet (peace be upon him) till the Day of Resurrection. Accordingly the verse would mean: The number of the Sabiqoon (the foremost in faith and good deeds) among the people who passed away during the thousands of years before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) would be greater, and the number of those who would attain to the rank of the Sabiqoon among those people who have been born since the advent of the Prophet (peace be upon him), or will be born till the Day of Resurrection, will be less.
The second group says that the former and the latter in this verse imply the former and the latter people of the Holy Prophet’s (peace be upon him) own ummah itself. That is, in his ummah the people belonging to the earliest period were the former among whom the number of the Sabiqoon will be greater, and the people of the later periods are the latter among whom the number of the Sabiqoon will be smaller.
The third group holds the view that this implies the former and the latter people of every Prophet’s own ummah. That is, there will be numerous Sabiqoon among the earliest followers of every Prophet, but among his later followers their number will decrease. The words of the verse bear all the three meanings, and possibly all three ate implied, for there is no contradiction between them. Besides, they give another meaning also and that too is correct: Every early period of a Prophet’s following the proportion of the Sabiqoon in human population would be greater and in the later period less, for the number of the workers of good and right does not increase at the rate of increase of the human populations. They may be more numerous as against the Sabiqoon of the earliest period. But on the whole their number as against the world population goes on becoming less and less.
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