Surah Al-Hadid Verse 20

5302 Cf. 6:32 , and n. 855. In the present passage the idea is further amplified. In this life people not only play and amuse themselves and each other, but they show off, and boast, and pile up riches and manpower and influence, in rivalry with each other. 5303 Cf. 39:21, and n. 4273. Here the Parable is meant to teach a slightly different lesson. Allah's mercies are free and open to all, like His rain. But how do men make use of them? The good men take the real spiritual harvest and store the spiritual grain. The men who are in love with the ephemeral are delighted with the green of the tares and the grass; but such things give no real nourishment; they soon wither, become dry, and crumble to pieces, like the worldly pleasures and pomps, boastings and tumults, possessions and friends. 5304 Kuffar is here used in the unusual sense of 'tillers or husbandmen', because they sow the seed and cover it up with soil. But the ordinary meaning, 'Rejectors of Truth' is not absent. The allegory refers to such men. 5305 Cf. 3:185, and n. 492. Many of the attractive vanities of this world are but nets set by the Evil One to deceive men. The only thing real and lasting is the Good Life lived in the Light of Allah.