2وَأَنتَ حِلٌّ بِهٰذَا البَلَدِMir Ahmed AliWhile1 thou (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) hath been settlerI in this City!It is given as an exclusive privilege to the Holy Prophet to act freely in the city irrespective of the conventional observance of the sanctity of the place, i.e., to use force, arrest the disbelievers, punish them, deal with them as he deems necessary in the execution of his duties as the Apostle of God, which freedom none else had or would ever have, till the end of the world. This refers to the freedom that God gave the Holy Prophet when he had to enter Mecca by force to free the Holy Place from the control of the pagans who had desecrated the Holy House by turning it into the centre of idol worship and all kinds of barbaric customs and rituals and restored it once again to be exclusively used as the Holiest of the Holy for worshipping none but the One True God, the Lord of the Universe. None else thereafter was allowed even to pluck out a plant or even a blade of grass or kill any living being, to drag out even any one who takes shelter therein—Refer ‘Fiqh’. The interpretation of the word ‘Hill’ has also been taken as having descended, i.e., the Holy Prophet had been horn at Mecca, by which also the sanctity of the place is established because he was the one prayed for by Abraham. Deut. 18:18, 2:129 and promised by God to send as the Final Deliverer of mankind, who would convey to the human race God’s Final Word, the Holy Qur’an, and teach them the most Perfect Code of life, i.e., the religion Islam, to he current for all times until the end of the world 2:129 and who would be the Mercy to the worlds, 21:107. This establishes the natural phenomenon that the Honour, the Regard or the Reverence of a premises is due to its occupant and not that the occupant receives the grace on account of the premises. The swearing in the name of the city of Mecca has been done to disclose to mankind the excellence of the holy personality of the Holy Prophet and the greatness of its position in view of the Lord. See 2:127; 22:29; 3:95; 22:33.The commentators give different interpretation of ‘still’, the most appropriate one is the ‘settler’ and the next is ‘unfettered’ as the passage indicates that the respect or the importance of the city is due to his being a citizen of it or due to his being the sole person who has the right to exercise authority in the city which is not allowed for any one else. Thus, wherever the chosen personalities settle down, the place shall have its importance and sanctity. (A.P.)Unfettered (A.P.)