Verses 97–98
These two verses conclude the sūrah. In them, He (God) makes reference to the descent of the essence of the Qur’an—which is too sublime to be reached by the hands of ordinary intellects or to be touched by those who have not been cleansed—to the level of remembrance through the medium of the Prophet’s tongue.
It is said that the point of making it easy is so he [the Prophet] can give good news through it to His slaves who fear God and warn thereby a vehemently contentious people. He then summarizes the warning to the people by reminding them of the destruction of the generations who preceded them.
Commentary
فَإِنَّمَا يَسَّرْنَاهُ بِلِسَانِكَ لِتُبَشِّرَ بِهِ الْمُتَّقِينَ وَتُنْذِرَ بِهِ قَوْمًا لُدًّا ٩٧
(19:97) So We have only made it easy in your tongue that you may give good news thereby to those who fear (God) and warn thereby a vehemently contentious people.
The word taysīr means making [something] easy. Hence, it can be deduced that what [that is, the Book or the Qur’an] has been made easy was previously in a state in which its recitation and understanding is difficult to understand. God has informed about this [special] state of His Book when He said: I swear by the Book that makes things clear: Surely We have made it an Arabic Qur’an that you may understand. And surely it is in the original of the Book with Us, truly elevated, full of wisdom ().
Thus, He informs us that if He had kept it as it is was in His presence—and as it still is—without making it clear (ʿarabī) and recitable, it could never be hoped that people could understand it and it would have remained as it was, truly elevated, full of wisdom. In other words, it would remain inaccessible and untouchable such that people’s understanding would never be able to reach it and their intellect would never to able to attain it.
From here, support is lent to the interpretation of “the Qur’an’s having been made easy in the Prophet’s tongue”, as its having been revealed in the Arabic [that is, clear] tongue which was his tongue. Thus the verse tells us that He made the Qur’an easy in the Prophet’s tongue—making it easy for him to give good news and warn.
It may be claimed that “making it easy in his tongue” means making it flow along his tongue through revelation and bestowing on him divine speech with which he could give good news and warn [mankind]. Even though in itself this is a profound explanation, the first explanation—besides being supported by the previous verses and similar ones—fits and conforms more to the context provided by the other verses in the sūrah.
A vehemently contentious people means his people. Ludd is the plural of aladd derived from the word ludad which means contention.
وَكَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا قَبْلَهُمْ مِنْ قَرْنٍ هَلْ تُحِسُّ مِنْهُمْ مِنْ أَحَدٍ أَوْ تَسْمَعُ لَهُمْ رِكْزًا ٩٨
(19:98) And how many a generation have We destroyed before them! Do you see any one of them or hear a sound of them?
The word iḥsās means sensory perception. Rikz means sound. It is claimed that rikz in essence means ḥiss which signifies sensory perception or specifically sound. In sum, it is as if the verse read as: “Even though they are vehemently contentious, they can never defeat God in debate. Consider how many a generation We have destroyed before them. See how they all became extinct with no trace of them to be seen and no sound of theirs to be heard”.