Translation
Perhaps you may be inclined to forgo a part of the revelations or your heart feels distressed due to what the deniers say: “Why you have not been given wealth [treasure] from God or why has not an angel come down with you (if you are truly a prophet of God)?” (They fail to understand that) you are only a messenger [warner] and it is God Who oversees all affairs. Likewise, they say: “He (prophet) himself had manufactured this.” Tell them: “If you are speaking the truth, then bring ten forged chapters similar to what is in this (Qur’an) and seek help from anyone other than God.” If they fail to respond, then you should know that this has been revealed by God’s knowledge alone and that there is no deity worthy of worship but He (God). Will you then submit to God [be a muslim]? 492
Those who strives for this world’s life and its possessions and vanities, We (God) give them their dues without suffering any losses (for their pursuits) but in the hereafter they will have nothing left but suffering and deprivation [Fire], because all of their works in their lives will bear no fruits and all their possession and activities will amount to pure vanities.493
Interpretation
492 The Prophet had undergone lots of oppositions, name calling, and vain demands by those who were persistent in denying God and in denying the Prophet. They would ask that the Prophet change some parts of the Qur’an that they did not agree with or found not to their liking. They would ask him to bring angels to his aid or turn the mountains in Makkah into gold as a proof of his prophethood. All of these were certainly distressing to the Prophet, and instead of trying to appease them in their vain desires and demands, he always looked for better ways to make the Qur’an understandable, relevant, and inspiring to them and even challenged them to come with a better version of the Qur’an if they were truly committed to understand God’s revelation, a challenge that still stands unmatched by anyone to this day. There have been several occasions that the Qur’an similarly challenges the deniers of faith; see 2:23–24, 10:38, 17:88–89.
493 Striving for this world only for enjoyment and vanities without any regard for other human beings, our natural environment, or attention to morals, justice, and truths is condemned, and more so for those who deny the life that comes after our death so that their primary concern is to maximize their selfish gains at the expense of others. They are told that while God will give them what they strive for in this world as a compensation for their effort, they will have no share in the life to come, as their aimless and extravagant pursuits amount to vanities, and without substance in the eye of God and also of good people—who strive to earn an honest living, pay attention to others, take care of the environment, and are always mindful about the true intents of their actions and pursuits that pay due respect to morals, ethics, rule of law, truth and justice, and human freedom to make informed and reasoned choices that uplift our physical and spiritual conditions. Verse 42:20 also echoes similar realities of our efforts and actions, which will be viewed and compensated by God in this life and the life to come.
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REFLECTION
Many people today still deny the Qur’an as God’s final revelation and try to find reasons to doubt the guidance in the Qur’an, while there are also Muslims who fail to understand the truer meaning of the Qur’an and its relevance to our generation, which then pushes many Muslims as well as those of different faith to question the Qur’an, Islam, and Muslims.
ACTION
We need to create a culture of discussion, challenging one another’s understanding of faith and goodness as explained in the Qur’an, and mutual respect for various perspectives that can emanate from our reading of the Qur’an. Collective wisdom is always going to be better than a few select and “self-claimed” scholars and imams, especially given that throughout the Muslim world, the quality of education has deteriorated, and there are, unfortunately, no institutions that I know of that provide intellectually driven and deeper discourse on faith, Islam, and the Qur’an without undue influence from corrupt politics, cultural baggage, and old practices and ideas that have not been challenged and contextualized in the manner that verse 3:7 asks for all generations of Muslims.