ভূমিকা
Soon, then, they shall meet perdition." " Except him who repents, and believes, and does a righteous deed, then these shall enter Paradise, and they shall not be dealt with unjustly in any way." Commentary: It sometimes happens that the offsprings and descendants of a person waste the efforts and endeavours of their ancestors and, thus, there may appear a wicked generation from some people who themselves had been good doers.
The Arabic term /xalaf/ is used for a righteous child, while the term /xalf/ is applied for an impious child. The Qur'anic word /qayy/, used at the end of the first abovementioned verse, means 'destruction, perdition and error' and it is an antonym to the Arabic word /rus(d/ which means: 'rectitude, growth, and development'. The verse says: " Then there succeeded them a later generation who ruined prayers and followed lusts.
Soon, then, they shall meet perdition." This sentence, in this holy verse, may refer to a group of the Children of Israel who paved the path of aberration. They forsook the Lord, preferred lusts to the remembrance of God and prayer, made mischief in the world, and, finally, they faced the fruit of their evil deeds in this life and they will be punished in the coming world, too. However, wasting prayer is different from not establishing it or forsaking it.
He who keeps up prayer, but without observing its conditions, or with delay, has wasted the prayer and has belittled it.(1) Why the Qur'an, among all Divine services, emphasizes on prayer here? Its reason may be the fact that prayer is a barrier between man and sins. When this barrier is removed, it certainly results to man's being drowned in the lusts.
In other words, as the divine prophets began their ranks to be promoted by the remembrance of Allah, and when the Divine revelations were recited to them they fell down prostrating and weeping, the aberration of these impious people began by forsaking the remembrance of Allah.