7وَوَجَدَكَ ضالًّا فَهَدىٰMir Ahmed AliAnd1 (He) found thee in loss (and immediately) guided thee,Mere common sense would suggest to any learned one to take the meaning of every word in its proper context or study any event with its background. The meaning of the word ‘Zall’ is taken as ignorant, whereas it means also lost and in view of the common story connected with the interpretation of this verse, it means only lost. What the common story says is that when Halima the nurse to the Holy Prophet, started on her journey to Mecca to restore the young Muhammad to his Grandfather, she left him at a place at the outskirts of the town and went into the desert to answer the call of nature. When she returned, she did not find the holy child in the place where she had left. Getting perturbed, the lady reported the matter to Abdul-Muttalib the grandfather of the Holy Prophet. Abdul-Muttalib apprehended some foul play on the part of some enemies, cone out with a drawn sword and collecting all his tribesmen carried out a thorough search for the child, but every one returned disappointed. Halima ran hither and thither and met an old man and implored him to give her the whereabouts of Muhammad. The moment the Holy name Muhammad was pronounced, in the Ka’ba Habl with all the other idols, fell headlong to the ground. The old man seemed to be troubled. Meanwhile arrived Abdul Muttalib with his tribesmen and offering his prayer to God, to be informed of the whereabouts of the child. A voice came saying “Go! he is in the valley of Tahumah.” Abdul-Muttalib started for the place and on his way he met Waraqa bin Nawfil who told him that he saw the boy in the valley of Tahumah. Abdul-Muttalib went there and found the boy playing with the branches of a tree. Abdul-Muttalib had not seen Muhammad since he as a baby was handed over to Halima. He could not recognise the boy and asked the boy if he had seen the child Muhammad. The boy replied, I am Muhammad. Abdul-Muttalib took his grandson and pressed him to his heart and brought him home. The verse is said to refer to his having been taken for lost and the people having been guided towards him. The verse may also mean that whatever knowledge the Holy Prophet possessed, it was not that which he acquired in this world but that which was gifted to him by God Himself, in his very genesis, i.e., he was only the mouthpiece of God. Let none think that whatever is said of the Holy Prophet, is his own, but the revelation from the Lord. The Eighth Holy Imam interprets this to mean that “the people did not know the actual position, i.e., thou wert lost in their ignorance and God guided mankind to know thee and thus raised thee in their knowledge.”The word ‘Zall’ has been used in the Holy Qur’an given different meanings in the different places. See 53:2; 12:8; 12:95; 32:10. Let those who interpret ‘Zall’ as gone astray see 53:2 wherein God emphatically asserts that the Holy Prophet is the one who has not gone astray.