Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Surah Al-A'raf
Surah 7 · Al-A'raf · verse 97 of 206

Quran 7:97 · Al-A'raf

أَفَأَمِنَ أَهۡلُ ٱلۡقُرَىٰٓ أَن يَأۡتِيَهُم بَأۡسُنَا بَيَٰتٗا وَهُمۡ نَآئِمُونَ

Then, did the people of the cities feel secure from Our punishment coming to them at night while they were asleep

Translation: Sahih International
Maulana’s commentary · Tazkirul Quran

It happens again and again that a community reaches a high level of honour and prosperity and thereafter faces decline. It is removed from the scene and in its place another community occupies the same position of honour and prosperity that the former community enjoyed. This event is a sign of God, which should remind man of His supremacy. It shows that all the strings controlling gains and losses are in the hands of a supreme being. He may award good fortune to one or take it away from another. Making use of the powers of observation and thinking bestowed on him by God, man can easily understand these facts. He will realise that had the real source of power not been in other hands, the group which once managed to attain ascendancy would never have allowed others to replace it. If man can learn such lessons, he will find divine nourishment in the rise and fall of nations. But whenever a community falls from grace and another community rises in its place, the members of the rising community entertain the misunderstanding that whatever happened to the previous community was the fate particular to that community, and that it was never going to happen to them.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Tazkirul Quran

In the lectures

Maulana does not cite this verse in the lectures indexed so far. The verses of this surah Maulana does cite →