وَلَقَد أَرسَلنا نوحًا وَإِبراهيمَ وَجَعَلنا في ذُرِّيَّتِهِمَا النُّبُوَّةَ وَالكِتابَ ۖ فَمِنهُم مُهتَدٍ ۖ وَكَثيرٌ مِنهُم فاسِقونَ

Certainly We sent Noah and Abraham and We ordained among their descendants prophethood and the book. Some of them are [rightly] guided, and many of them are transgressors.

EXEGESIS

The line of apostles begins with the mention of Prophet Noah (a), one of the earliest known prophets and the first of the five resolute (ulū al-ʿazm) among the apostles (46:35), and major promulgators of divine legislation (aṣḥāb al-sharīʿah), listed in 42:13 as Prophet Noah (a), Prophet Abraham (a), Prophet Moses (a), Prophet Jesus (a), and Prophet Muhammad (s).

Prophet Abraham (a) is regarded as the father of monotheism as he is credited for having revived it in humanity and because all major (and most of the known) messengers and prophets after, were his descendants, following his creed.

Even when the various Jewish and Christian groups argued with Prophet Muhammad (s) on God’s true religion, the Quran repeatedly asks them to revert to the creed of Prophet Abraham (a) (2:130, 2:135, 3:95, 4:125, 6:161, 16:123). And this was because each party claimed Abraham (a) to be theirs and the Quran rejects this exclusive claim (2:140, 3:65, 3:67-68).

Dhurriyyah (children, offspring, descendants, progeny) is from dharra, which is to strew, scatter, spread.[1] Rāghib contends that there are differing opinions on the root of dhurriyyah and that it may also have come from dharaʾa (to create, sow, seed). He also notes that dhurriyyah originally referred to one’s young children, but over time it came to mean offspring or progeny in general, including the young and old.[2] Though a collective noun itself, it can be pluralised (as progenies) using dharārī or dhurriyyāt.[3]

The words and many of them are transgressors concurs with the Quran’s lament that the majority are usually faithless, wrongdoers, ungrateful to God, ignorant, and so on. If you obey most of those on the earth, they will lead you astray from the way of Allah. They follow nothing but conjectures and they do nothing but surmise (6:116). Certainly Iblis had his conjecture come true about them. So they followed him – all except a part of the faithful (34:20).

Rāzī has furthermore refuted any suggestion that many of them are transgressors only refers to the faithless and Some of them are [rightly] guided are the faithful Muslims because even Muslims who are not rightly guided in their actions can be transgressors (fāsiqīn).^[4] The Prophet is also reported as saying of the Muslim community in later times: ‘The upright will depart one after another until nothing remains but impoverished people, the like of leftover barley and dates.’[5]

The guided are given as muhtad, from hidāyah and hudā (guidance) and, implicit in this term, is the idea of softness and kindness (see the Exegesis for 1:6), thus suggesting that the guided are also amenable and given to kindness and compassion for others, unlike the transgressors (fāsiqīn), whose root is derived from fisq and fasaqa, a term explained earlier in detail under verse 16.

EXPOSITION

The discussion in this verse continues from the previous verse and will go on to the next and, as mentioned under the previous verse, this is not a shift in the surah’s focus. It is still to show the faithful that, if they are being asked to sacrifice their wealth and lives for God, it is because they are now custodians of God’s covenant from the very first groups of the faithful and the message that the earliest of God’s apostles brought. They are invited to uphold something that will outlive their time and place and fulfil God’s plan for humanity.

The mention of God ordaining among the descendants of apostles prophethood and the book, tells us that God, in His infinite wisdom, chose to keep guidance for humanity within a common genealogy. It means: We have ordained to choose Our messengers and representatives from this lineage. This is reiterated in several verses, including: Or do they envy the people for what Allah has given them out of His grace? We have certainly given the progeny of Abraham the book and wisdom, and We have given them a great sovereignty (4:54). It also implies that it is God who selects whom to give wisdom and the role of guiding others towards Him.

Many of these prophets from the descendants of Prophet Noah (a) and Prophet Abraham (a) did not receive new revelation or scripture but were chosen by God to uphold the previously-revealed scripture and to revive the teachings of the major apostles before them. In that regard, this verse is similar to, And We gave him [Abraham] Isaac and Jacob, and We ordained among his descendants prophethood and the book (29:27).

But this verse also clarifies: Some of them are [rightly] guided, and many of them are transgressors. And this too is reiterated in other verses, for when Prophet Abraham (a) was appointed an Imam, to lead others to God, he prayed for this to continue in his descendants, to which God replied: My pledge does not extend to the unjust (2:124).

[1] Hans Wehr, dh-r-r.
[2] Raghib, dh-r-r.
[3] Hans Wehr, dh-r-r.
[4] Razi, 29/474.
[5] Nasr, p. 1339.