Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Surah An-Nisa
Surah 4 · An-Nisa · verse 123 of 176

Quran 4:123 · An-Nisa

لَّيۡسَ بِأَمَانِيِّكُمۡ وَلَآ أَمَانِيِّ أَهۡلِ ٱلۡكِتَٰبِۗ مَن يَعۡمَلۡ سُوٓءٗا يُجۡزَ بِهِۦ وَلَا يَجِدۡ لَهُۥ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَلِيّٗا وَلَا نَصِيرٗا

Paradise is not [obtained] by your wishful thinking nor by that of the People of the Scripture. Whoever does a wrong will be recompensed for it, and he will not find besides Allah a protector or a helper

Translation: Sahih International
Maulana’s commentary · Tazkirul Quran

When the People of the Book, that is, believers in God and the Hereafter, become engrossed in the world, they do not do so by refusing to believe in God and the existence of the Hereafter. What they do is believe in these realities in the formal sense while, in practice, devoting all their efforts to worldly acquisition. They are very serious about the attainment of worldly honour and glory. They know that to achieve success in this world one must struggle. But for the attainment of Paradise, wishful thinking alone is believed to suffice. For instance, through the blessing of some saint, association with a certain group, recitation of some words and phrases, in short, by such cheap formulae or superficial actions, it is hoped that they will be saved from the raging fire of Hell and be ushered into Heaven. Such wishful thinking, in whatever beautiful words it may have been couched, is not going to come to their rescue. God’s system is established on such firm grounds that all divine verdicts are based on realities and not on wishful thinking. In God’s court everyone will be judged exactly in accordance with his actions. There will be nothing other than the law of justice promulgated by God Himself to influence His decisions.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Tazkirul Quran

Maulana explains this verse in 17 lectures2007 to 2013

200520152025
2007
2008
2009
2011
2012

1 further citation is on a recording that is not available on YouTube at the moment, so it is not shown here. It is still counted above and included in the download.

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