ভূমিকা

Will you not keep from evil?’ ” In the previous verses, Allah spoke of the creation of man and what supplies his material needs. Now in these verses, He attends to the supply of man’s intellectual and doctrinal food. In other words, the previous noble verses mentioned monotheism, knowledge of Allah, and the reasons of His majesty in the world of creation.

This matter has been told from the mouths of the great prophets and by using the events that have unfolded in their history in this verse and the ones that follow. It first begins with Noah, an arch-prophet and the bearer of the news of monotheism, the verse says: “And indeed We sent Noah unto his folk, and he said: ‘O’ my people! Worship Allah. You have no other god save Him. Will you not keep from evil?’ ” To serve other than Allah is impiety and recklessness.

We have not heard of this (invitation) among our ancestors of old’.” The elite were the most intractable of those who opposed the prophets. The prophets (as) had come to guide mankind but the unbelievers used to say that a heavenly messenger should not be a human being! Because of this the rich and conceited elite among Noah’s folk, used to say: This is only a mortal like you who seeks to dominate you.