“Till when the messengers despaired and they (disbelievers) thought they had been told a lie, Our help came to them and We delivered whom We pleased.
But Our punishment will not be averted from the guilty people.”
In this ayah, Allah reminds the Prophet (PBUH) and us as well how all of the prophets and messengers who came before us carried dawah.
Not only did they carry dawah but they carried this dawah for years upon years.
However many of them did not find any success in their dawah for a long time.
They called their people to Allah for many years, but for many years their people did not respond.
For a long time, they called on their people to give up sin.
The people thought that here is a man telling us that Allāh is going to punish us if we don’t believe, but we haven’t believed, so where is the punishment?
He must be lying.
The people thought that the prophets are telling lies.
When the people thought that the prophet was telling lies, that was when Allāh’s safety came to save the people of the faith and punishment came for the disbelievers.
In the other qirā’a,
“and they thought that their nations had rejected them.”
The prophets came to the realization that their nations would not believe.
These are the two meanings.
Who is the one doing the thinking and doing the assuming?
If it is the people, then the people have assumed that the prophets are telling lies.
If it is the prophets, then the prophets have realized that the people will not believe.
*SubḥānAllāh*, both of them are correct.
One of the principles of Qur’ānic recitation is that all of them are equally valid and both of them are correct.
When both have become exasperated, when the prophets are fed up of their people and the people are fed up of their prophets – basically it is a two-way street.
They are allowed to preach until this exasperation is reached.
What happens then?
*“*The prophets receive Our Aid. They are saved.”**
Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla) is saying that the people of the past when Allāh’s Command came, We saved them, and as for the ẓālimīn, they will get there punishment.
Prophet (ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) that a time will come when We will save you and you will be saved from the clutches of them, and they shall be punished by the punishment of Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘āla).
POINT TO NOTE
However what is important for us to note is that these messengers did not give up on their dawah.
Even though their situation became so desperate.
Even though they even entertained these thoughts of despair, and they even thought to themselves that perhaps the promise of Allah would not be fulfilled, they still did not give up in their dawah.
They kept going.
This shows us that this thought was only a passing thought that occurred to them.
But they did not act based on this thought.
Rather when this thought came to them, they reminded themselves that the Promise of Allah is indeed true.
Then Allah says “Our Help came and We saved whom We pleased.” Just when the situation was most desperate, and the patience of these messengers had reached the limit, just at that moment that was when the Help of Allah came.
LESSON
1)The benefit that we can take from this part of the ayah is to see that the Help of Allah will eventually come.
So we have to believe with utmost certainty that even if takes a long while, the Help of Allah will eventually come.
We see from this ayah how long those who came before us had to wait, so we also must be prepared to wait.
But while we wait, we must always have the certain knowledge that our wait will be over.
Allah also tells us in this part of the ayah that He (swt) saved whom He (swt) pleased.
The Help of Allah finally came.
The Messengers and the true believers were finally saved.
The Promise was fulfilled.
What happened to those who had turned away from their Creator?
- In the next part of the
ayah Allah tells us that His (swt )’s punishment was not averted from them. - Do not give up on Allah. Always believe that He is there to help you.