A group of the tribe of Bani Asad and Bani Ghatfeh, who had a treaty of peace with the prophet said:ِ ``We are afraid that God may not help the prophet, and eventually our relations with the Jews might peril so that they refrain from giving us food stuffs.'' So the above verse revealed to blame them severely for their wrong idea.

RESURRECTION IS THE END OF DIFFERENCES

      Through the above verses, those who are weak in mind, and infirm in faith, are introduced from another point of view:ِ

      ``Whoever deems that Allah will never help him in this world, and in the Hereafter, then let him stretch a rope to the sky....''

      Some of the expounders of Qurän have written the following comments on the above verses:ِ

      The pronoun, ``HIM'' in the phrase, ``WILL NOT HELP HIM'' refers to Mohammad (SA) our prophet, whose enemies wished to get rid of him at any price. Therefore, the clause may mean; if the enemies of the prophet are enraged at his successes that are bestowed on him from the heavens, let them then stretch a rope up to their ceiling to hang themselves; and then let them cut the rope down, to see if they can intercept Allah's help by their petty plans, that their rage may perhaps be removed.

      The last verse (NO.7) refers to six group of people of various religions, one of which are Muslims and the rest are all non-Muslims. The verse implies that in the Day of Judgement, God will judge between various faiths and cults and creeds, and will differentiate between varieties, and will give an end to all differences. This is because one of the names of Resurrection Day is the, ``Day of Separation'', separating the wrong from right and true from false.

WHO ARE THE MAGIANS (MAJUS)?

      There is no doubt that today's Magians are the followers of ZOROASTER, or the majority of them are Zoroastarians. But the history of Zoroaster himself is not as clear as it is thought, because some historians have known his advent to have been in the eleventh century B.C. And in the sight of some other it was the seventh century B.C. This five hundred years of difference shows how obscure the history of Zoroaster is. It is said that they have had a Divine Book named AVISTA, which was destroyed by Alexander the Great, and later in the Sassanid dynasty it was written once again. We do not know much about their faith in God. Yet it is known that they believed in dualism, which is the doctrine that the universe is under the dominion of two opposing principles, a good and an evil.

MAGI

      This is the only verse through which Magians (MAJUS) are mentioned in QURÄN. They are of a very ancient cult and creed. Originally, they were Median priestly brotherhood of Iran. After the Persian conquest of Media, the Magi became priests of the Iranian nature religion possessing special privileges. Accepted by the Achamenid king, the Magi adopted the near Monothestic Zoroasterian religion, which under their influence became increasingly diluted by the introduction of old Arayan gods and Magian ceremonies.

      Later, the Magi spread this modified Zoroastarianism throughout the near East.

      The word, ``MAGIC'' derives from the supposed power of the Magi over demons. A group of them is reported to have come to Bethlehem shortly after Jesus birth because they had seen an unusually bright star. (MATTِ2:1ِ12)

INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE