Transliteration:( Alam tara annal fulka tajree fil bahri bini'matil laahi li yuriyakum min Aayaatih; inna fee zaalika la Aayaatil likulli sabbaarin shakoor )
67. It could have two meanings:
1. The ship in the sea sails solely through the bounty and blessings of Allah Almighty, otherwise there are thousands of perils to be found there for it, which can be an obstacle for its smooth sailing and which can cause it to sink.
2. The ships sail at sea loaded with your merchandise, although water is a thin fluid, which is hardly capable of bearing their weight. Or, that through the blessings of Allah Almighty the ship of Shariah sails in the sea of Tareeqat and safely reaches the shore under Divine guidance.
68. The true pleasing and charming scenery of the sea and the huge sign of Divine power is that the ship reaches the shores safely and all the travellers alight on the land unharmed.
69. It means for every intelligent believer. because only a believer is patient and grateful. and only a believer ponders over the signs of the powers of Allah Almighty.
31. See you not that the ships sail through the sea by Allah’s grace that He may show you of His signs Verily, in this are signs for every patient, grateful (person). 32. And when waves cover them like shades, they invoke Allah, making their invocations for Him only. But when He brings them safe to land, there are among them those that stop in between. And Our Ayat are not denied except by every Khattar Kafur.
For if He did not give the water the strength to carry the ships, they would not sail. So he says:
(that He may show you of His signs) meaning, by His power.
(Verily, in this are signs for every patient, grateful.) means, every person who bears difficulty with patience and who gives thanks at times of ease. Then Allah says:
(And when waves cover them like shades,) meaning, like mountains or clouds,
(they invoke Allah, making their invocations for Him only.) This is like the Ayah,
(And when harm touches you upon the sea, those that you call upon vanish from you except Him) (17:67).
(And when they embark on a ship…) (29:65) Then Allah says:
(But when He brings them safe to land, there are among them those that stop in between.) Mujahid said, “This refers to the disbelievers — as if he interpreted the word Muqtasid to mean denier as in the Ayah,
(but when He brings them safely to land, behold, they give a share of their worship to others) (29:65).
(And Our Ayat are not denied except by every Khattar Kafur.) Khattar means one who betrays or stabs in the back. This was the view of Mujahid, Al-Hasan, Qatadah and Malik, narrating from Zayd bin Aslam. This word describes a person who, whenever he makes a promise, breaks his promise, and it refers to the worst form of treachery.
(Kafur) means, one who denies blessings and does not give thanks for them, rather he forgets them and does not remember them.
(31:31) Do you not see that ships sail in the sea by Allah’s Grace that He may show you some of His Signs?[55] Surely there are Signs in this for everyone who is steadfast, thankful.[56]
55. That is, when the people who possess these two qualities, recognize the reality by these signs, they come to understand Tauhid clearly and stick to it firmly. The first quality is that they should be patient: they should not be fickle but fine and persistent: they should remain steadfast on the righteous belief under all circumstances, pleasant or unpleasant, difficult or easy, favorable or unfavorable. They should not have the weakness that when the hard times come they Stan imploring God humbly, and when they change into good times, they forget God altogether. Or that, to the contrary, they should worship God in good times and start cursing Him when touched by afflictions and misfortunes. The other quality is that they should be grateful: they should not prove ungrateful and thankless: but appreciative of favor and should remain perpetually disposed from within to render thanks to the one who conferred the favor.
56. “Iqtisad” in the original may mean uprightness or moderateness. In the first case, the verse would mean: “A few of them only remain steadfast on Tauhid, which they had promised to follow when overwhelmed by the storm, and this makes them adhere to uprightness ever afterwards.” If it is taken to mean moderateness, it would mean: Some of them become moderate and less rigid in their creed of atheism and polytheism, or they lose some of their fervor and enthusiasm that had been caused by the incident of calamity. Most probably Allah has used this meaningful sentence here in order to allude to all the three states simultaneously. The object probably is to point out the fact that during the storm at sea the mind of everybody is automatically set right, and everybody gives up atheism and polytheism and starts invoking One Allah for help. But as soon as they safely land on the shore, only a few of them seem to have learned any enduring lesson from their experience. Then, this small number also is divided into three groups: those who adopt uprightness ever afterwards, and those who become moderate in their disbelief, and Those who retain some of the spirit of enthusiasm caused temporarily by the calamity.
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