Transliteration:( Wa maa kaanan naasu illaaa ummatanw waahidatan fa khtalafoo; wa law laa kalimatun sabaqat mir Rabbika laqudiya bainahum fee maa feehi yakhtalifoon )
57. During the period of Hazrat Adam (Alaihis Salaam) all people, until the murder of HABEEL, were believers or that after the Deluge of Nooh (Alaihis Salaam), only believers were found on the earth. Some have said from the period of Hazrat Ebrahim (Alaihis Salaam) all Arabs were believers until the introduction of idolatory by Umar bin Luhay.
Under this circumstances people mean those specific Arabs. It could also mean that first everyone by nature was a believer, as every child is born on nature. Thereafter some in the world remain believers and others become infidels. (Khazainul Irfaan, Roohul Bayaan).
58. By this is meant this Divine decision that the punishment of the Hereafter would be after Qiyamah, or there is an appointed time for the destruction of every nation
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The tafsir of Surah Yunus verse 19 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Yunus ayat 18 which provides the complete commentary from verse 18 through 19.
25. See (Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 213) note 230 and (Surah Al-Anaam, ayat 35) note 24.
26. The decree that Allah has ordained is that the reality that shall be kept hidden from man’s senses in order to test whether he recognizes this by using his common sense, intelligence, conscience and intuition, and if he does not, he shall be allowed to tread the wrong ways he chooses. That is why their differences about the reality are not being resolved by uncovering it today.
This thing has been stated here to remove a common misunderstanding about the diversity of religions in the world.
At that time, there was a confusion in the minds of the people (and is even today) concerning this. They said: Different people profess different religions, and the followers of each religion claim that their religion alone is the true one. How may then a seeker of truth judge which one of these is the true religion? The answer is: In the beginning all mankind had only one religion, and that was the true religion. Then people strayed away from it and invented different religions of their own with different creeds and ways. Now if you desire that Allah Himself should uncover the truth and present it to you to enable you to decide which religion is the true one, you should know that this will not be done in this life, because you are required to decide this by using your common sense and intelligence. This worldly lift is a trial to see whether or not you yourselves recognize the truth by using your common sense and intelligence.
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