Recitation by Mishary Al-Alfasy
Name
This Surah takes its name from vv. 46-47 in which
mention of A'araf occurs.
Period of Revelation
A
study of its contents clearly shows that the period of its revelation is about
the same as that of Al-An'am, i. e., the last year of the Holy Prophet's life at
Makkah, but it cannot be asserted with certainty which of these two was sent
down earlier. Anyhow the manner of its admonition clearly indicates that it
belongs to the same period. As both have the same historical background the
reader should keep in view the preface to Al-An'am.
Topics of
Discussion
The principal subject of this surah is "invitation to
the Divine Message sent down to Muhammad" (Allah's peace be upon him), which is
couched in a warning. This is because the Messenger had spent a long time in
admonishing the people of Makkah without any tangible effect on them. Nay, they
had turned a deaf ear to his message and become so obdurate and antagonistic
that, in accordance with the Divine Design, the Messenger was going to be
commanded to leave them and turn to other people,. That is why they are being
admonished to accept the Message but, at the same time, they are being warned in
strong terms of the consequences that followed the wrong attitude of the former
people towards their Messengers. (Now that the Holy Prophet was going to"
migrate from Makkah the concluding portion of the address has been directed
towards the people of the Book with whom he was going to come into contact. This
meant that the time of migration was coming near and the "invitation" was going
to be extended to mankind in general, and was not to be confined to his own
people in particular as before.
During the course of the address to the
Jews, the consequences of their hypocritical conduct towards Prophethood have
also been pointed out clearly, for they professed to believe in Prophet Moses
but in practice opposed his teachings, disobeyed him and worshiped falsehood and
consequently were afflicted with ignominy and disgrace.
At the end of the
Surah, some instructions have been given to the Holy Prophet and his followers
for carrying out the work of the propagation of Islam with wisdom. The most
important of these is that they should show patience and exercise restraint in
answer to the provocations of their opponents. Above all, they have been advised
that under stress of the excitement of feeling, they should not take any wrung
step that might harm their cause.
Subject: Invitation to the
Divine Message
Topics and their Interconnection
In this
passage, the people have been invited to follow the Message sent down to them
through Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) and warned of the consequences of
its rejection. 1 - 10
The story of Adam has been related with a view to
warning his descendants against the evil devices of Satan who is ever ready to
mislead them as he did in the case of Adam and Eve. 11 - 25
This passage
contains some Divine instructions, and contrasts these with Satan's
instructions, and depicts a graphic picture of the results and the consequences
of the two. 26 - 53
As the Message has been sent down by Allah (Who is
the Creator of the heavens and the earth and everything in them), it should be
followed, for it is like the rain He sends down to give life to the dead earth.
54 - 58
Events from the lives of some well-known Prophets - Noah, Hud,
Salih, Lot, Shu`aib, Moses (Allah's peace be upon them all) -- have been related
to show the consequences of the rejection of the Message, and the addressees of
Prophet Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) have been admonished to accept and
follow the Message in order to escape perdition. 59 - 171
As the Covenant
with the Israelites was mentioned at the end of the preceding passage, the whole
mankind has been reminded very appropriately of the Covenant that was made at
the time of the appointment of Adam as the Vicegerent of Allah so that all of
his descendants should remember it and accept and follow the Message that was
delivered by the Holy Prophet. 172 - 174
The example of the one who had
the knowledge of the Message but discarded it, has been cited as a warning to
those who were treating the Message as false; they have been exhorted to use
their faculties to recognize the Message; otherwise Hell would be there abode.
175 - 179
In this concluding portion of the Surah, some deviations of
those who do not use their faculties properly to understand the Message have
been dealt with and they have been admonished, reproved and warned of the
serious consequences of their antagonistic attitude towards the Message of the
Holy Prophet. 180 - 198
In conclusion, instructions have been given to
the Holy Prophet, and through him to his followers, about the attitude they
should adopt towards those who reject the Message and deviate from it. 199 - 206
Here by `book' is meant this Surah, Al-A`araff.
2That is, "Convey
this to the people without any fear and hesitation and without minding in the
least how the opponents react to it. Let them be offended, let them ridicule,
let them talk derisively and let them show more and snore enmity, if they like,
but you should deliver the Message and propagate it without any fear and
hesitation. "
Literally, the Arabic word harajun (translated into
hesitation) means a thick bush, through which it is hard to pass. Figuratively
the Text will mean, "There should be no indecision, doubt or unwillingness in
your mind in the face of opposition and obstacles about proceeding further on
the way of your Mission". The same thing has been expressed in XV: 97: "O
Muhammad, We know that you feel depressed in your heart by what they say
(against your Mission)", and in XI: 12 " .... lest you should leave out a part
of what is being revealed to you and be depressed in your heart by the fear that
they should say, in answer to your invitation, 'Why has no treasure been sent
down to him and why has no angel come along with him'?"
3It means that
the main object of this Surah is to warn people of the consequences of the
rejection of the Message of the Prophet and to rouse the neglectful.
Incidentally it also reminds the Believers of the implications of the Message
while administering a warning to the disbelievers.
4This is the main
theme of this Surah. It invites the people to accept the Guidance that has been
sent down by Allah through His Messengers, for this alone can impart the true
knowledge to man about himself and the universe, and tell him the aim and object
of his life and teach him the principles on which to build his morality, social
life, culture and civilization. Man should acknowledge Allah alone as his Guide
and follow only His Guidance that has been sent down through His Messengers.
'The discourse warns that it is basically wrong to turn to anyone other than
Allah for guidance, for this has always resulted in utter ruin and will
inevitably lead to ruin.
Here the word "patrons" has been used for all
those beings whom a man follows instead of Allah, whether he praises them as
saints or curses them as satans. (For further explanation see E.N. 6 of XLII).
5That is, "You can learn a lesson from those communities that discarded
the Guidance of Allah and followed the guidance of others, and consequently
became so degenerate as to be a curse for the earth, which was cleansed of their
filth by a scourge of Allah."
The words "Indeed we were transgressors"
have been cited here to serve as a warning about two things. First, "It is
absolutely useless to be sorry for and to confess one's error after the expiry
of the term of respite given for its recompense." It is obvious that the
individual and the community show utter lack of sense, if they waste the period
of respite in negligence and turn a deaf ear to the warning and admonition of
those who invite them to the Truth, and realize the horror of their conduct only
when the scourge of Allah overtakes them. Secondly, "You yourselves have seen so
many instances of individuals and communities. who were suddenly overtaken by
the scourge of Allah, when they transgressed the bounds and reached the end of
the term of their respite. You have also seen that after the scourge came upon
them, there was no way of escape from it. When this has been the repeated
verdict of history, why should a man repeat the same error over and over again,
and wait for the ultimate end to offer repentance, when it cannot benefit in the
least and can produce only grief and regret?
6The repeated occurrence of
scourge in v. 3 is a conclusive proof of the fact that people will be called to
account in the Hereafter, because in this life full punishment is not possible
for the crimes committed by wicked individuals and communities. Here it comes
merely to put a stop to their further crimes, just as a criminal at large is
arrested and deprived of the opportunity for committing further iniquities. The
real punishment will be in the Hereafter. The numerous instances of scourge in
human history are a clear proof of the fact that man has not been left free to
do what he likes. There is the Sovereign above him Who allows him to transgress
only up to a certain limit and before he reaches that limit, administers
warnings one after the other so that he may give up his wicked ways. But if he
does not pay heed, then he is all of a sudden overpowered by a scourge that puts
an end to his nefarious activities. If we consider the matter seriously in the
light of these inevitable occurrences, we will come to the conclusion that the
Sovereign of the universe has most surely appointed a time for calling to
account those criminals and doing full justice to them. As the warning in this
verse (6) is based on the preceding verses (4-5), it begins with "so" to show
that this is a sequel to vv. 4-5.
7This shows that Prophethood will be
the sole criterion of judgment in the Hereafter. On the one hand, the Messengers
will be asked about what they did in conveying the Message to mankind; on the
other, those to whom the Message was sent, shall be questioned regarding their
response to it. As regards the individuals or communities to whom the Message
did not reach, the Qur'an is silent as to the criterion by which they will be
judged and there is no need for us to probe into this because Allah Himself has
not deemed it necessary. But in regard to those individuals and communities who
have received the Message, the Qur'an is quite explicit that they shall be
unable to put forward any excuse whatsoever for their disbelief and rejection,
their evil deeds and disobedience, and they will be wringing their hands when
they shall be driven to Hell with ignominy.
8"On that Day weight will be
identical with the Truth". On the Day of Judgment in the just scales of Allah,
nothing but Truth will have any weight and vice versa; all that will have weight
will be nothing but Truth. The weight of one will increase or decrease in
proportion to the Truth one will have with oneself and that one will be judged
solely by the measure of that weight and by nothing else. The life of falsehood,
irrespective of its longevity and apparent grand deeds, will have absolutely no
weight in those scales of justice. When the deeds of the worshipers of falsehood
will be weighed in these scales, they will see with their own eyes that the
`grand' deeds of their lives have no weight at all. This thing has also been
states in v v. 103-105 in Surah Al-Kahf "Those who spent all their endeavors in
wrong ways during their life in the world with the presumption that what they
were doing was all right, are the losers. These are the people who disbelieved
in the Revelations of their Lord and their meeting with Him. Therefore all their
deeds have got lost; so We will cause these to lose weight on the Day of
Resurrection."
9In other words, all human deeds will be divided into two
categories, the positive and the negative. To know the Truth, to acknowledge it,
to follow it and to exert in its cause, will be on the positive side; for in the
Hereafter these alone will have any weight and value. On the contrary, to
neglect the truth or to reject it or to tallow one's lusts or other human beings
or satans or to exert in the way of falsehood. will be on the negative side. The
deeds on this side will not only be valueless in themselves but will also
decrease the weight of the positive deeds.
From the above it is quite
obvious that success in the Hereafter will depend entirely on this that a man's
good deeds should outweigh his evil deeds. The case of the one whose evil deeds
far outweigh the good deeds, will be like that of a bankrupt who gives away all
his possessions to pay off his debts but still has some outstanding liabilities.
10Please see also vv. 30-36, Al-Baqarah, for comparison.
The wording
of v. 34, Al-Baqarah, might have given rise to the doubt that the command given
to the angels to bow before Adam was meant for the person of Adam, but the
wording of this verse clears that doubt. Here the words preceding the Command
show that the angels were to bow before Adam as representative of the whole of
mankind.
As regards the creation of mankind, first of all, Allah made a
plan for it; then He got ready the necessary material for this purpose; then He
gave it the human shape, and when Adam carne into being in the shape of a living
man, then the angels were commanded to bow before him, who was the
representative of the whole human race.
The above explanation of the
verse is based on some other passages of the Qur'an. For instance, let us
examine vv. 71-72 of Surah sad:
"Just recall the time when your Lord said
to the angels, 'I am going to create a man of clay when I perfect it in every
way, and blow into it of My Spirit, all of you should bow down before hire'."
Here, too, the same three stages, the creation, the perfection and bringing
to life, have been mentioned in a different way. First of all, a man of clay was
created, then he was given a shape and proportionate limbs and faculties and
then he was brought to life as Adam by the blowing of His Spirit into it.
Let us also examine vv. 28-29 of Al-Hijra
"Just recall the time when
your Lord said to the angels, 'I am going to create a man out of clay of molded
mud W hen I perfect it in every way and blow into it of My Spirit, then all of
you should bow down before hint' . "
It is very difficult for us to
understand the exact nature of the creation of the first man, for we cannot
comprehend fully how man was made from the material of the earth, how he was
shaped and perfected and how the Spirit was blown into him. However, it is quite
clear that the story of man's creation as stated in the Qur'an is quite
different from Darwinism. According to this doctrine, the evolution of man has
taken place from a non-human and semi-human state by a continuous process of
elimination, selection and adaptation, and in this there is no line of
demarcation to denote the end of the non-human state and the beginning of the
species of `man' as such. On the contrary, the Qur'an says that man started his
life as man; that in the entire history he has absolutely no connection
whatsoever with any non-human state. Allah created him as man from the very
first day of his life on the earth and endowed him with wisdom and enlightenment
from the very start of iris life.
The above two points of view of the
story of man lead to two opposite conceptions in regard to man. The adoption of
the Darwinian conception reduces man to one of the species of animals: therefore
all the principles of human life (including the moral principles) will be based
on the principles governing animal life and any animal-like behavior of his will
be regarded as natural. Then the only difference between human beings and
animals will be the ability of the former to make use of instruments for the
provision of their necessities and luxuries. On the contrary, the adoption of
the Divine conception raises him from the low position of animal to the high
position of man, His noblest creation. Then he is no longer a mere talking
animal or a social animal but the vicegerent of Allah on this earth. Then what
will distinguish him from all other creatures will not be his faculty of speech
and his social life, but his moral responsibilities and the trust of the power
delegated to him by Allah and his accountability for these to Him. This will
change man's entire outlook about his life on this earth and will demand a
different philosophy of life and system of morality, law and civilization. Then
man will, of his own accord, look upwards in search of the principles of life
and not downwards.
Now let us consider an objection to the Divine
conception of man howsoever high sounding this may be from the moral and
psychological points of view: how can we reject the scientific Darwinian
conception merely on this account? In answer to this, we put a counter question:
has the Darwinian theory of the `Origin of Species' been scientifically proved?
Only those people who have a cursory knowledge of science may be suffering from
this misunderstanding that the theory of evolution has been scientifically
proved to be true, but the majority of the scientists know that it is merely a
theory in spite of its high-sounding technical terms, and that the arguments in
favor of this are not conclusive, but merely hypothetical. The most that can be
said in this connection is that both the theories of the creation of the species
may be equally possible. Their creation might have taken place according to the
Darwinian theory of evolution, or each of the species might have been brought
into existence individually.
11That is, "It is obvious that you invite
your own disgrace because you have formed too high an opinion of yourself,
though you are merely a creation and a servant of your Lord. You have arrogantly
disobeyed the Command of your Creator, thinking it to be below your dignity. The
mere fact that you have shown pride, conceit and haughtiness without airy
personal claim or title to any excellence of your own, cannot make you great and
respectable. It will make you mean, low and disgraceful and you yourself will be
responsible for this ignominy . "
12This (vv. 16-17) is the challenge
that was given by Satan to Allah. It. means, "During the respite Thou hast
granted me till the Day of Resurrection, I will exert my utmost to show that man
does not deserve the superiority Thou hast bestowed upon him over me. I will
show how ungrateful, thankless and disloyal he is!
The respite that was
asked by Satan and granted by Allah was not merely for time but also for
opportunity to do what he intended (to do). What he meant was that he should be
given the opportunity for exploiting man's weaknesses to prove that he was unfit
for the viceregency. Allah granted his request and this has been elaborated in
XVII: 61-65. According to this Allah granted leave to Satan to do whatever he
liked to mislead Adam and his offspring from the Right Way. He was allowed to
practice whatever devices he thought to misguide man. In short, all the ways
would remain open for him to mislead men with this proviso: "Indeed you shall
have no power over My servants." (XVII: 65). This means, "You will be allowed to
make attempts to involve them in misunderstandings and allure them by false
hopes, and by making evil look fair to them, and to invite them to evil ways by
the allurements of lusts and vain hopes. But you shall gave neither any power to
force them to your ways nor to prevent them from following the Right Way, if
they intend to follow it." The same thing has also been stated in XIV: 22: "When
on (the Day of) Resurrection, Allah will pass His judgment on His followers,
Satan will say to them, `I had no power to force you to follow me. The only
thing I did was to invite you to my way; therefore do not blame me now, but
blame yourselves . . . . ' . "
Now let us consider the charge of Satan
against Allah: "Thou hast involved me in deviation." What he meant was this:
"You are responsible for my deviation for You commanded me to bow down before
Adam, who is inferior to me in position. As this has injured my self-respect, I
have disobeyed You. " It is obvious that Satan desired that Allah ought not to
have exposed the feelings of pride and rebellion he was nurturing in his heart
but ought to have let him go unchecked on the way he was going. As his charge
was absurd, Allah did not take any notice of it.
13In this story the
Qur'an has brought to light the following important facts:
(1) The
feelings of shyness and modesty are natural and instinctive. Their first
expression is the natural shyness one feels in exposing one's shameful parts
before anyone else. The Qur'an tells us that this shyness has not been
artificially created in man by the evolution of civilization nor has it been
acquired by him as has been asserted by some disciples of Satan. This is an
instinct that has been inherent in man from the first day of his creation.
(2) The sex instinct is the greatest weakness of the human race. That is
catty Satan selected this weak spot for his attack on the adversary and devised
the scheme to strike at their modesty. Therefore, the first step he took in this
direction was to expose their nakedness to them so as to open the door of
indecency before them and beguile them into sexuality. Even to this day, Satan
and his disciples are adopting the same scheme of depriving the woman of the
feelings of modesty and shyness, and they cannot think of any scheme of
`progress' unless they expose and exhibit the woman to all and sundry.
(3) It is human nature not to accept easily an open invitation to wickedness.
That is why every Satan has to pose as a sincere well-wisher of man in order to
entangle him in his snare.
(4) Man has a great natural yearning for a
higher position than the existing one, or for obtaining immortality. That is why
Satan succeeded in beguiling them by offering to make them angels or immortals.
Even now he first tempts man by the allurements of a higher position and a
better condition, and then leads him to follow the way that throws him into the
abyss of degeneration.
(5) The Qur'an refutes the commonly known version
that Satan first beguiled Eve and then used her to mislead Adam. It says that
Satan beguiled both of them and both of them were deceived. Though the
difference between. the two versions appears to be trivial, yet a careful
appraisal of the two will show that they have far-reaching implications. The
first version played a great part in degrading woman morally, legally and
socially, whereas the Quranic version has helped raise the status of woman to a
high level.
(6) This story makes it, quite clear that whenever man
disobeys Allah, he is exposed sooner or later. The nakedness of Adam and Eve
became visible because they disobeyed the command of Allah, and not because of
any inherent quality of the forbidden tree: At first Allah had made His own
special arrangement to cover their nakedness, but when they disobeyed Him by
eating the forbidden fruit, He undid that arrangement and they were left to
themselves to cover themselves in their own way, if they so desired. And if they
had no intention of covering themselves, or if they did not do anything in this
connection, Allah did not care at all about the condition in which they moved
about. This meant to show that Allah would help them only if they remained
obedient to Him. As soon as they would transgress the bounds of His obedience,
He would withdraw His protection and leave them to do whatever they liked. The
Holy Prophet also stated the same thing in several Traditions. He used to pray,
"O my Allah. I expect Mercy from Thee: so do not leave me to myself even for a
moment" .
(7) In his conflict with man, Satan wanted to prove that man
was not superior to him in any way. So he beguiled him to eat the forbidden
fruit. Though Satan was successful in beguiling him into disobeying his Lord,
yet on the whole man proved his moral. superiority over Satan. (a) Satan
exhibited pride by claiming to be superior to man, but man did not put up such a
claim. (b) Satan disobeyed Allah solely because of his pride without any
external temptation. On the contrary, man did not commit disobedience because he
intended it, but he was beguiled into it by Satan, who approached in the guise
of a well-wisher. Even then, he was misled because he imagined that he was going
towards a higher position. (c) When Satan was warned of his sin, he did not
confess it nor return to the way of obedience, but became all the more obdurate.
On the contrary, when man was warned of his sin, he did not show obduracy, nor
arrogance; but felt ashamed and sorry; he confessed it, turned to the way of
obedience to his Lord and begged His forgiveness in order to seek His blessing.
(8) This story has been related here mainly to teach the lesson that the
right course for the offspring of Adam is to follow His way and not that of
Satan. The Satan's way has been clearly made distinct from Adam's way. It is to
turn away from Allah's obedience and to adopt the way of rebellion against Him
and to persist in it with pride in spite of warning, and to beguile into
disobedience those who are treading the path of obedience. Therefore the Right
Way for man is to fight against satanic deceptions and to understand and
counteract his cunning devices and to be ever on the guard to protect himself
from his evil designs, and to repent, if, in spite of all his precautions; he
sometimes falls a victim to Satan and disobeys his Allah. He should, then,
confess it, feel sorry for it and be ashamed of it and turn to Allah and make
amends for it.
It also meant to warn the people who were opposing the
Holy Prophet, as if to say, "The way you are following is the way of Satan, who
has made you swerve from the Right Way. The very fact that you have made the
satans from among the jinns and mankind your patrons and that you are persisting
in your error, in spite of repeated warnings, shows that you have fallen a
victim to your open and permanent enemy. As you are going to be utterly ruined
by him and meeting with the same consequences that are in store for Satan, if
you are not your own enemies, and if you have any common-sense left in you, you
should take a warning and turn to the way of your first parents., Adam and Eve,
and repent. "
14The words "Go down" should not give rise to the
misunderstanding that they were exiled from Paradise as a punishment for their
disobedience. The Qur'an has at several places declared clearly that Allah
accepted their repentance and forgave them their sin. And there is nothing in
this command that might be regarded as punishment. They were sent to the earth
as His vicegerents and this was the very purpose of the creation of man. (Refer
to E.N.'s 48 and 53 of Al Baqarah. )
15In this passage, the Qur'an has
used the story of Adam and Eve for the eradication of the evil of nakedness.
Satan had seduced the Arabs of the pre-Islamic period into believing that
clothing was meant merely for the purpose of decorating and protecting the body
from the hardships of weather. Accordingly they totally disregarded its real
purpose and paid no heed to cover their shameful parts and did not hesitate to
uncover them before others in the open. Above all, they would go round the
Ka'abah in perfect nudity during the Haj season; and their women were even more
shameless than their men. That was because they considered it a religious act
and did this as if it were a virtuous deed.
The whole human race has been
addressed because this evil was not confined to the Arabs alone but many people
of the world had been (and even today are) guilty of this. Therefore the whole
human race has been warned, as if to say, "O children of Adam! Nudity is a clear
manifestation of the fact that you have been seduced by Satan. As you have
discarded the Guidance of your Lord, and rejected the Message of His Prophets,
you have given yourselves up to Satan who has misled you from the way of natural
modesty into that shameful state, in which he intended to mislead your first
parents. If you consider it seriously, you will come to the inevitable
conclusion that you can neither understand rightly the demands of your nature
nor fulfill them without the Guidance of the Messengers."
16This passage
brings out clearly the following facts about clothing:
(1) The need of
clothing has not been artificially created in man, but it is an important urge
of human nature. That is why Allah has not created a natural covering for the
human body, as He has done in the case of all other animals. Instead, He has
instilled inherently the feelings of modesty and shyness in human nature.
Besides this, He has not made his sex organs as merely sex organs, but has also
made them shameful organs, which, by his very nature, he does not like to expose
before others. Moreover, He has not given man any ready-made covering for hiding
the shameful parts, but has ingrained in the human nature that man should hide
them with a clothing. This is what v. 26 implies. Allah has inspired man with
the urge to hide the shameful parts of the body. Therefore man should understand
the nature of this inspired urge and make clothing for himself from the material
provided by Him.
(2) The fact that in v. 26 the covering of the shameful
parts precedes the protecting and decorating of the body, is a clear proof that
more importance has been attached to the moral than the physical function of
clothing. Thus it is obvious that the human nature is quite different from the
animal nature. That is why Nature has made provision for the protection and
decoration of the body of the animals, but has ingrained no urge in them for the
covering of their shameful parts. But when the human beings discarded the
Guidance of Allah and began to follow the guidance of Satan, they reversed the
above order as if to say, "Your clothing is merely to protect and decorate your
bodies just as the skins cover the bodies of the animals. As regards the
covering of the shameful parts, garments have absolutely no importance, for
these are merely sex organs and not shameful organs."
(3) The garments
should not only be the means of covering the shameful parts and of protection
and decoration but should also enable man to attain piety. The dress should,
therefore, be such as to conceal those parts of the body that should be hidden
from others; it should neither be too expensive nor too poor with regard to the
position of the wearers; it should not smack of haughtiness nor arrogance nor
hypocrisy. Moreover, the garment of piety demands that the male should not wear
the female dress and vice versa, and that the Muslims should not imitate blindly
the non-Muslims in dress. It is obvious that only those who believe in the
Guidance of Allah and follow it, can attain the desired standard of the garment
of piety. But those who discard the Guidance of God and make satans their
guides, are misled by them into one error or the other in regard to clothing.
(4) Clothing is one of Allah's many Signs which are spread all over the
world and which lead men to the recognition of the Reality, provided that one
sincerely seeks it. If one seriously considers the above-mentioned three facts
about clothing, one can easily understand how clothing is an important Sign of
Allah.
17This refers to the custom of the Arabs of going round the
Ka`abah in perfect nudity (E.N. 15), considering it to be a religious act,
enjoined by Allah.
18This brief sentence ("Allah never enjoins a
shameful thing") contains a very forceful argument against their beliefs and
customs of ignorance. In order to understand the force of the argument, it is
necessary to understand two basic things:
(1) Though the Arabs practiced
nudism in the performance of certain religious rituals, they considered
nakedness itself a shameful thing. That is why, in spite of this custom, no
respectable Arab ever chose to practice nudism in a civilized gathering, in the
bazaar or before one's kith and kin.
(2) Even though they considered
nudism to be a shameful thing, they said that they practiced it because this
custom had been enjoined by Allah. This claim was based on the wrong notion that
their religion was from Allah. But the Qur'an refutes their claim by arguing
like this: "You yourselves consider nudism to be an indecent thing. Therefore
your claim that Allah has enjoined the practice of nudism is absolutely false.
As a corollary to this, if this indecent custom is approved by your religion, it
is a clear proof of the fact that your religion is not froth Allah.
19In
v. 29, Allah showed, by contrast, that the religion prescribed by Him had no
connection whatsoever with their senseless customs, which were contradictory to
the following fundamental principles of His religion:
(1) A man should
conduct his life in accordance with justice and righteousness;
(2) He
should keep his direction right during worship. That is, "It should be
exclusively directed towards Allah and there should be absolutely nothing of
shirk in it and he should not show any sort of obedience or obeisance or
servility to any other than Allah.
(3) He should invoke Allah and none
else, for guidance, succor, help and protection. He should, however, dedicate
his entire life exclusively to Allah before invoking His help, for it is absurd
to lead a life of shirk. disbelief, disobedience, and slavery of others, and
then invoke Allah, as if to say, "O God, help us in carrying out successfully
our rebellion against Thyself."
(4) Above all, he should sincerely and
firmly believe that he shall be resurrected in the Next World, just as he has
been given birth in this world, and then shall be called upon to render an
account of all his deeds in this world.
20Here the word "Zinat"means
full and proper dress. The verse exhorts the people to be fully clothed, when
they are engaged in worship. For this purpose, it does not suffice to cover
merely those parts of the body which the Law requires to be hidden in public in
addition to the shameful parts. Therefore one should dress properly and decently
so as to serve both the purposes, in accordance with one's means.
This
command is meant to refute the wrong attitude which the ignorant people at that
time had adopted, and have been adopting since then. They thought that one
should worship Allah in perfect or semi-nudity and should put on a disheveled
appearance before Him. In utter contrast to this, Allah not only prohibits
nudity but also commands that one should be dressed fully, properly and decently
at the time of worship and should put on an appearance that might not have even
a tinge of untidiness and indecency.
21That is, "Allah does not like
those people who transgress the limits imposed by Him by making the lawful as
unlawful. That is why He does not approve of those who put on a disheveled
appearance or starve themselves or deprive themselves of the lawful and pure
flings under the foolish belief that they are pleasing their Allah thereby. He
does not demand this as essential for His worship; nay, He is pleased if one
wears a decent dress and makes use of the pure things provided by Him. According
to His Law, the only thing that is sinful is to transgress His limits by making
the lawful unlawful or the unlawful lawful."
22It should be noted that
this question is a typical way which the Qur'an employs to refute false ways and
religions. The argument implied in the question is this: As Allah Himself has
created all the pure, good and nice things for His servants, it cannot be His
will to make these as unlawful for His servants. Therefore, if a religious,
moral or social system makes these things unlawful or detestable or considers
these as impediments in the spiritual evolution and progress, this very thing is
a clear proof of the fact that it is not from Allah.
23That is, "As a
matter of fact all the good things of life are meant for the believers because
they are the faithful servants of their real Owner and deserve the reward of
faithfulness. But in this world, these are given to the unfaithful also because
this world is for the trial of mankind. That is why, sometimes, the unfaithful
receive even a greater share than the faithful. But in the Hereafter, where
these good things will be distributed on the basis of merit alone, all the good
and pure things shall be reserved for the faithful only. On the other hand, the
unfaithful, who adopted the attitude of rebellion against Allah, in spite of the
fact that they lived on His provisions in this world, shall not get any share in
the Hereafter.
24Please refer to E.N. 128 and E.N. 131 of Al-An'am.
25The literal meaning of "ithm " is negligence. The sense of sin has entered
into this word from athimah"which means a she-camel that can run fast but
willfully does not do so. Likewise that man who neglects to obey the
Commandments of his Lord, in spite of his ability to do so, shall be sinful for
he has no intention of pleasing Him.
26It will be rebellion against the
Truth, if one transgresses the prescribed limits and enters into the bounds
where he has no right. Likewise all such people as transgress the bounds
prescribed for the servants of Allah and follow their own will, behave as
masters in His Kingdom and encroach on the rights that belong to Allah alone,
are really rebels against Allah.
27"Every community has been given a
fixed term": it does not mean a fixed period of time in terms of years, months
and days, after the expiry of which that community is exterminated without fail.
This means that a moral limit has been set to the opportunity that is allowed to
every community for showing its performance as a respectable community. This is
determined by the ratio between its good works and its evil works. Allah
tolerates a community as long as the ratio of its good works to its evil works
does not fall below the normal 1inmils. When it transgresses those limits that
wicked community is given no more respite. In order to grasp this see v. 4, v.10
and v. 12 of LXXI.
28The Qur'an has stated the thing contained in v. 36
in every place where the mention of the sending down of Adam and Eve from
Paradise has been made. (Please see II: 38-39 and XX: 123-124). Therefore, here
too, the same thing will be taken concerning the same occasion i. e. , at the
time of the beginning of the life of man, this thing was clearly explained to
him. (See E.N. 69 of III).
29That is, "They shall live here in this
world for the term that has been set for them and get their destined share, good
or bad, to pass this lift."
30There is a double chastisement for every
generation for the sins it committed as successor, and for the sins it left for
others as predecessor, because it followed the heritage of evil left by its
predecessors and then left the heritage of evil for its successors. Therefore if
its predecessor shares a part of the burden of responsibility for its sins, it
also shares a part of the burden of the responsibility for the legacy of the
sins left by it for its successors.
There is a Tradition to this effect:
"The one who initiates an innovation, that is disapproved of by Allah and His
Messenger, shall be held responsible for the sins of all those people, who
followed his innovation, without lessening in the least the burden of the
responsibility for the sin committed by the inventor." Here is another
Tradition: "Whenever a man is killed unjustly anywhere in the world, a part of
the guilt of this murder is debited against the account pf that son of Adam who
was the first to murder his own brother, because he was the first to open the
way of murder. "
It is clear from the above that the person or the group
or the community that starts the wrong idea or a wrong attitude, is not only
responsible for his or its own error, but is also partly responsible for the
sins of all those who are influenced by the error, and as long as the effects of
that error continue to influence others, they are credited to his or its
account. This also shows that an individual is not only personally accountable
for his own good or bad actions but also for its effects on the lives of others.
As an illustration, let us take the case of an adulterer. All those persons
whose bad example, or bad company or evil inducement misled him to adultery,
share the responsibility for his becoming an adulterer and this responsibility
extends above to all other persons, from whom those persons received this evil
heritage. Thus it will go further and further upwards till it reaches the first
person who initiated this evil way of sexuality.
Then the adulterer
himself shall have w bear the responsibility of his guilt, because he committed
this in utter disregard of many deterrents. He did not discriminate between good
and bad: he did not pay attention to the voice of his conscience: he did not
resort to the power of self-control within him: he did not make use of the
knowledge of good and bad he had received from virtuous people and of their
noble examples, and he did not take warning from the evil consequences of sexual
immorality. In the face of all the above factors, that could have restrained him
from adultery, he gave himself up to the blind sex urge that wanted its
satisfaction in any available way.
Now let us consider the case of the
adulterer from the point of view of its evil influences and heritage in relation
to his contemporaries and successors. The responsibility of his guilt does not
remain confined to his own acts of adultery but extends to all those evil acts
that were prompted and influenced by these. At first he himself catches the
infection of a venereal disease and then communicates it to his own generation
and to countless successive generations: he causes illegitimate births and then
throws the burden of nourishment on others and makes them unlawful inheritors at
the expense of the lawful inheritors, and the evil results of this injustice may
continue to influence countless generations. Moreover, he seduces some innocent
girl and induces her to surrender herself to sexual immorality, and then she, in
her turn, spreads the evil to others and causes the ruin of countless families.
Then he sets a bad example for his own children, his relatives and his friends
and for the other people of his society and becomes a cause of the moral ruin of
many persons, who, in their turn, leave the evil heritage, with all its evil
influences on the countless succeeding generations. Therefore justice demands
that a part of the responsibility for all these evil results should be laid on
him as long as the effects last.
The case of the heritage of virtue may
also be considered in the same way. All those persons, up to the first man, who
left the heritage of virtue for us are entitled to a share of its reward. Then
we shall also be entitled to a share of its reward, if we exert to preserve and
increase it. Then we shall also be entitled to a share of its reward, if we
leave behind us the legacy of virtue for others to follow, as long as its good
effects go on influencing mankind and they benefit from it.
Every
sensible man will admit that the manner of retribution presented by the Qur'an
is the only right and perfect way of doing full justice: The right understanding
of this tact will help remove the misunderstandings of those who regard this
worldly life to be quite sufficient for retribution, and also of those who
believe that this purpose is achieved by the process of the transmigration of
souls. As a matter of fact, neither of the groups has fully grasped the extent,
the effects and the consequences of human acts, nor the full requirements of
just retribution. Obviously it is not possible today to punish here the
countless generations, which contributed to the good or bad acts of a person
during his life in this world. Moreover the effects of his good or bad acts do
not cease with his death, but will continue through the countless centuries and
will go on influencing the lives of countless people after him. Justice requires
that these should he credited to his account as long as the effects last.
Therefore the requital of justice is impossible in this worldly life, when even
the smallest part of the effects of Iris acts has not yet appeared. Then there
are not enough means for awarding fully the rewards or the punishments for the
acts of a man in the limited life of this world and its limited means. Just
imagine the extent of the guilt of a man who kindles the fire of a World War and
destroys and ruins the lives of millions of people and leaves a legacy of evil
that will continue to influence the lives of billions of people for centuries.
Can any punishment in this world, physical or moral, or spiritual, however
severe that may be, fully meet the requirements of justice? Or can any reward in
this world, however great, fully recompense a man for his lifelong work for the
good of humanity, which goes on benefiting millions of people for thousands of
years?
Anyone, who will consider the problem of retribution from this
point of view, will come to the inevitable conclusion that for the requital of
full justice, there should be another world, where all the generations should be
mustered together with their accounts: then there should be an all-knowing and
all-aware judge to administer justice and there should also be human beings with
eternal lives to receive the reward or punishment, as the case may be, and all
kinds of means for the dispensation of justice as well.
This way of
thinking also helps expose the basic error of the doctrine of transmigration,
which has led its advocates to believe in the passage of souls after death into
other bodies according to their merits or demerits. This is because they have
not been able to grasp the fact that for the retribution of the acts of this
short worldly life, a thousand times longer life is required. It is thus obvious
that another reborn life of the same length in this world will not help solve
the problem of retribution because it is quite insufficient for the purpose. On
the contrary, this will make it all the more complex, for the circle of
transmigration will go on multiplying such acts-good or bad-and increasing their
effects more and more in an endless chain. Thus, according to the doctrine of
transmigration, the account of person will remain unsettled for ever.
31The Qur'an has described at several places this sort of altercation between
the dwellers of Hell. For instance, in XXXIV:31-33, it says, "I wish you could
see these unjust people when they will be standing before their Lord and
accusing one another. The people, who were made weak, will say to those who
posed as mighty ones, `But for you, we would have been believers'. But the so
called mighty ones will reply, 'What, did we keep you back from the Guidance
when it came to you? No, you yourselves were the guilty ones' . " In simple
words, it means, "You yourselves are to blame for discarding the Guidance. You
fell an easy prey to the greed with which we tempted you, to become ow slaves,
because you yourselves were greedy for wealth. When we wanted to buy yow
conscience, you sold it because you yourselves were eager to sell it: when we
invited you to the worship of materialism, worldliness, nationalism and the
like, you accepted our invitation, because you had an aversion W God-worship and
a liking for this-worldliness. That is why you rejected the invitation of the
worshipers of Allah, and accepted ours. When we deluded you with false religious
things, you at once accepted these, because you yourselves were cherishing the
same in yow hearts. For instance, you were in starch of such gods as might
fulfill your desires without demanding any moral obligations from you, and we
supplied such ones, and you accepted them. You were in search of such
intercessors as might take the responsibility for your entry into Paradise,
allowing you to do whatever pleased you in the world, without minding the
Guidance of Allah. So we invented such ones and you followed us: you were in
search of such religions as might guarantee short-cuts to salvation, freeing you
from the hardships, restrictions and sacrifices for the cause of Allah, and
permitting you to enjoy all sorts of indulgences, and we invented such easy and
pleasant religions for you, and you followed them. In short, we alone arc not
responsible for your misguidance but you, too, share it equally with us: if we
supplied misguidance, you bought it of your own accord".
32It means that
if there had been any hostile or unfriendly feelings or misunderstandings
between good people in this world, they would all be removed in the Hereafter.
Their hearts will be quite free from enmity, and they will enter Paradise like
sincere friends. So much so that they will not be displeased to see their
opponents, rivals, critics, etc., sharing the joys of Paradise along with
themselves. Once when Caliph `Ali recited this verse, he exclaimed, "I do expect
that Allah will remove the misunderstandings between me and `Uthman and Talhah
and Zubair. "
If we consider this verse in its wider meaning, we come to
the conclusion that Allah will not like to take His good people to Paradise with
any blot on their characters but He will cleanse them by His grace before their
entrance into Paradise. Thus they will enter it in a perfectly pure condition.
33This refers to a fine happening that will take place on the occasion
of the entry of the faithful into Paradise. On the one hand, they will not be
boastful that they have gained Paradise by their good works, but will be
grateful and thankful and will praise Allah, saying, "All this is due to Allah's
grace, for we did not deserve this. " On the other; Allah will not even hint
that it was due to His favor, but will say, "You have gained this by yow
services and in return for yow own earnings. This is not a piece of charity but
a reward of your own efforts, a fruit of yow own labor; it is a respectable
living that you have earned" . To add to His grace, Allah does not say, "We will
reply" but "they will hear a voice."
In fact the servants of Allah behave
like this in this world also. Unlike the workers of iniquity, they do not become
proud of any worldly success and say, "This is the result of ow own ability,
work and effort," and then grow even more rebellious, and spread disorder in the
world. In contrast to these rebels, the true servants of Allah consider every
worldly success as His favor and are thankful and grateful to Him. The more they
are favored by Him, the more humble, generous and merciful they become. They do
not rely on their good works and say, "We an quite sure that we shall get
salvation". Instead of this, they beg Allah's pardon for their shortcomings and
rely on His grace and mercy, and they are always filled with the fear lest their
accounts should turn out to be unfavorable against them.
A Tradition of
the Holy Prophet related both by Bukhari and Muslim, confirms the
above-mentioned thing. Once he warned his Companions, saying, "You should know
that you will not get entry into Paradise merely by virtue of your works". They
asked, "Is it we of you also?" He replied, "Yes, I, too, shall enter Paradise
merely by Allah's grace and mercy."
34The people on 'the Heights' will be
those with pending cases. While their positive sides will not be so strong as to
merit admission into Paradise, their negative sides will not be so weak as to
condemn them to Hell. Therefore they will wait for the decisions of their cases
on 'the Height' between Paradise and Hell.
35From this dialogue between
the inmates of Paradise and the inmates of Hell and the people on 'the Heights,'
we can form some idea of how strong the faculties of men will become in the Next
World. The faculty of sight will become so strong that the people of Paradise
and those of Hell and on 'the Heights' will be able to see one another whenever
they will desire to do so. Likewise their faculties of speech and hearing will
grow so strong that the people of the thee different worlds will be able to
carry on their dialogues without any hindrance. From this and the like
descriptions of the Next World in the Qur'an; we learn that the laws of life in
the Hereafter will be quite different from the physical laws of this world,
though there will be no change in our personalities. It is a pity that such
descriptions in the Qur'an and Hadith have made certain people skeptical because
they cannot imagine that there can be another world with greater potentialities
than the limited physical world they live in. As they judge everything by the
standards of this world, they make fun of such things they come across in the
Qur'an and Hadith. But the fact is that the potentialities of life an not
limited as their narrow minds arc.
36That is, "The Qur'an gives details
of the reality and of the correct attitude man should adopt in the life of this
world and of the basic principles of the Right Way of life. Then it may also be
noted that these details an not based on guess-work or conjecture or whim but on
pure and accurate knowledge."
37The Qur'an is `Guidance' because its
teachings arc so clear that they show the right way to anyone who ponders over
them. Moreover, the practical effects of that guidance can be seen in the lives
of those who believe in it and follow its teachings. And it is really a great
`blessing' because it brings a blessed change in the mental attitude, the moral
out-look and the character of the one who accepts it. The truth of this was
being proved by the wonderful changes that were taking place in the lives of the
Companions of the Holy Prophet.
38In other words, it means: The
distinction between right and wrong has been made clear in the most rational
manner, but there are people who do not see it; they have the examples of those
who have been totally changed for the better by following the Right Way, though
they were just like them before this, yet they do not learn any lesson from
this. Such people will admit their error only when they will suffer the
consequences of their wrong ways.
Their case is similar to the case of a
patient, who does not follow the advice of the physician, nor does he learn a
lesson from the other patients, who regained their health by following the
instructions of the physician, when they were suffering from the same disease.
Such a patient will admit that the ways of life he was following were fatal but
only on his death-bed.
39When they will see, with their own eyes, the
consequences of the rejection of the Message of the Prophets, they will say,
"Now that we have witnessed that reality, which we denied at the time, when the
Messengers informed us about it, we will behave in a different way if we are
sent back to the same world". For response to such a request, see VI: 27, 28;
XIV: 44, 45; XXXII: 12, 13; XXXV: 37; XXXIX: 56-59;XL: 11, 12.
40Here the
word "day"has been used in the sense of period. This word has been used in the
same sense in XXII:47: "The fact is that with your Lord a day is equal to one
thousand years as you reckon", and also in LXX: 4: "Angels and Gabriel ascend to
Him in a day which is equal to fifty thousand years". Allah alone Knows its real
significance. (for further explanation see E.N.'s 11-I5 of XLI).
41It is
very difficult for us to comprehend the nature of "He sat upon the Throne". It
is just possible that after the creation of the universe, He fixed some place as
the center of His limitless Kingdom, which may have been called "The Throne,"
from where He is showering His blessings on the whole universe and it is also
possible that the Arabic word "Al- 'Arsh" " may have been used figuratively to
express His Sovereignty and "seating Himself on the Throne" may mean "the taking
of the reins of His Kingdom in His hands" . Anywise, whatever be the details of
the Text, the Qur'an mentions this to impress the fact that Allah is not only
the Creator of the universe but also its Sovereign as well as Ruler, that after
its creation He has not cut off all connections with it and has not become
disinterested in its affairs, but is practically governing each and every minute
part of it; all the powers of Sovereignty are, in fact, in His hands; that
everything is under His Command and is obedient to Him, and the destinies of
everyone and everything are permanently in His hands. In this way the Qur'an
cuts across the basic misunderstanding that gives rise to the errors like shirk
and rebellion against Him. The creed that God has nothing to do with the affairs
of the universe, inevitably leads to the belief that someone else is the maker
or destroyer of one's destiny, and, therefore, one should bow down before that
one or one should consider one's own self to be its maker and become independent
of Him.
In this connection, it is worth while to consider the use of
words akin to "kingdom" and "kingship", which the Qur'an usually employs to
express the relation between Allah and man. Though it is dune obvious that the
Qur'an has employed such words, technical terms, figures of speech and a style
as may be within the comprehension of human beings, yet some critics with
perverted minds have inferred from this use the strange conclusion that this
Book is the invention of Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him). The line of their
argument is this: "The frequent use of the words like `king' shows that the
'author' of the Qur'an was irresistibly influenced by the system of kingship
that was prevalent all around him during the period when this Book was composed;
therefore its author cannot be Allah, Who knows that there can be no comparison
between Him and a king, etc., etc." Obviously, this argument is very flimsy. The
conception of the Sovereign of the earth and the heavens put forward in the
Qur'an clearly shows that in contrast to the mortal weak kings of this world,
having only a limited authority for a limited period, the King, Allah, is
Eternal, All-Powerful, having the supreme Authority, above all others and for
all times. This conception of the Sovereignty of `King' Allah falsifies the very
basis of the theory of the critics, for no human king can fit in the conception
of the `King' laid down in the Qur'an. For in this conception there is no scope
for anyone to claim or assume powers of sovereignty like the King, because it
requires that man should acknowledge Allah alone as the sole object of worship
in the religious sense and the sole sovereign in the civil and political sense.
42This is a further explanation of the meanings of `seating Himself on
the Throne': "Allah is not only the Creator but is also the Sovereign and Ruler
of the universe. After its creation, He has neither relinquished its rule in
favor of others nor has He made the whole of His creation or any part of it
independent, but He has kept in His own hands the functioning of the whole
universe. Day and night are not following each other by themselves but by the
Command of Allah, Who has the power, to stop or change the present system
totally. Likewise, the sun, the moon and the stars possess no inherent power of
their own but are entirely under His Command, and are functioning perforce like
slaves under His orders."
43The original meaning of barkat ("blessing")
is growth, increase and development along with greatness, exaltation, permanence
and stability. Besides all these meanings, the word carries with it the idea of
goodness and welfare. Thus the Text means, "His good qualities and excellences
are boundless; His beneficence spreads everywhere; He is the possessor of the
highest position that has no limits. Above all, all His excellences are
absolutely permanent and stable, without decay or decline." For further
explanation see E.N.'s 1-19 of XXV.
44According to the Qur'an, the root
cause of disorder in the world is that man breaks away from the service of God
and, giving himself up to the service of his own self or of others and
discarding His Guidance, adopts the guidance of others instead for the building
up of his morality, society and culture. As this creates disorder and gives
birth to many other kinds of disorder, the Qur'an aims at its eradication. At
the same time it warns that disorder is not inherent in the system of the world
so that it may be replaced by order. But it so happens that disorder over-whelms
the order that was set in it, as a result of man's ignorance and rebellion. In
other words, man did not start his life on the earth in ignorance, barbarism,
shirk, rebellion and moral disorder, and then reforms were introduced afterwards
to remove them by degrees. The fact is that he started life in peace and order,
which was corrupted afterwards by the follies and mischiefs of the evil-doers.
Then Allah sent His Messengers to eradicate that disorder and to set right the
system of life again to bring it back to the original state. That is why they
always invited the people to adopt the same old system of peace and order, and
to refrain from spreading disorder.
It should also be noted that the
point of view of the Qur'an in this matter is quite different from that of the
evolutionists who assert that man has gradually come out of darkness into light
and his life is being reformed by degrees. In contrast to this, the Qur'an
declares that Allah settled man on the earth in full light and started his life
with a system based on peace and order. Then afterwards man himself repeatedly
followed the guidance of Satan and went into darkness and corrupted the original
right and orderly system. Then Allah sent His Messengers over and over again to
invite the people to come out of darkness into light and to refrain from
disorder. (Please refer also to E.N. 230, Al-Baqarah).
45It has become
clear from this sentence that the `chaos' referred to above is that man should
adopt someone else as his guardian, protector and helper and invoke that one for
help. The order can, therefore, be restored by acknowledging Allah as the sole
Guardian and Protector and Helper and by invoking Him alone.
46It should
be noted here that the allegorical use of rain and its blessings etc. does not
only aim to describe the powers of Allah and to give a proof of the
life-after-death (though that has been mentioned incidentally). Its main object
is to present Prophethood and its blessings, as also how it helps to distinguish
good from bad, pure from impure. The coming of the Messenger and the sending
down of the Guidance and the teachings have been likened to the winds laden with
clouds and the life-giving rainfall. Just as the rainfall brings back to life
the dead soil, which begins to bring forth the treasures of life, so the
teachings of the Prophet and his guidance bring back to life the dead humanity,
which begins to pour out the treasures of goodness. Further on, the allegory
points out that all these blessings profit only that soil which is intrinsically
rich and fertile, and is only waiting for rainfall to bring forth its treasures.
In the same way, only those people can benefit from the blessings of the
guidance and teachings of the Messengers, who had the required capability but
could not develop their latent qualities for lack of right guidance. As regards
the mischievous and impure people, they are incapable of benefiting from the
blessings of Prophethood for they are just like the bad soil, which brings forth
only useless thorny bushes, if rain falls on it. That is why all their hidden
mischiefs come into full play at the coming of the Messenger. The lesson derived
from this allegory has been illustrated by citing a series of historical events
in the succeeding passages, and it has been shown that on the coming of every
Messenger in every age, mankind divided itself into two groups. One group
consisted of pure and capable people, who benefited from the guidance of the'
Messengers, developed their capabilities to the fullest and brought forth the
fruit of goodness. The second group, that consisted of impure people, displayed
all their impurities in their encounter with the Messengers, and was sorted out,
just as alloy is separated from gold, as a useless and worthless metal.
47The first of the historical events referred to in E.N. 46, is being related
here. According to the Qur'an, Prophet Noah was sent to his people, who were the
first to corrupt the Right Way of life followed by Adam (Allah's peace be upon
him) and taught by him to his descendants. We learn from the brief hints in the
Qur'an and the details in the Bible that the people of Noah lived in the country
which is now called Iraq. The same is confirmed by the tablets found in the
archaeological remains of Babel which are older than the Bible. They tell a
story similar to the one related in the Bible and the Qur'an, and fix the place
of its occurrence near Mosul. Moreover, the traditions that have come down from
the most ancient times from Kurdistan and Armenia say that the ark of Noah
anchored at some place in the same region. They also point out to some relics
connected with the story of Noah near Mt. Ararat and the inhabitants of
Nakhchiwan claim even today that the town was founded by Prophet Noah.
Traditions, similar to the story of Noah, are found in the ancient literatures
of Greece, Egypt, India and China. Besides these, the traditions that have come
down from the roost ancient times from Burma, Malaya, East Indies, Australia,
New Guinea and from different parts of Europe and America are also similar to
it. All this shows that this story is connected with the period when all the
descendants of Adam lived in the same region from where they dispersed all over
the earth. That is why references to the "Flood" are found in the ancient
history of every nation, though they forgot its real facts and mixed it with the
fictions of their own imagination.
48This verse and others, in which the
story of Noah has been related, show that his people did neither deny the
existence of Allah nor were they ignorant of it, nor did they deny His worship.
But the root cause of their deviation was that they were involved in shirk and
had set up other partners with Allah in His Godhead and regarded them worthy of
worship along with Him. This basic deviation led them to numerous other evils.
For instance, this gave birth to a special class to represent the false gods
they had set up. By and by, this class took possession of all the religious,
political and economic powers of the community and created artificial barriers
of high and low among people. Consequently, chaos, tyranny and immorality were
rampant everywhere and humanity sank to the lowest depths of degradation,
Prophet Noah was sent to reform this state of affairs. Accordingly, he exerted
his utmost with great wisdom and fortitude for a very long time to bring about
the desired reform, but that corrupt class had cunningly deluded the common
people so much that all his efforts proved fruitless. When no more hope of their
reform was left, Prophet Noah prayed to Allah and said, "My Lord, do not leave
upon the earth even one of these disbelievers for, if Thou leave anyone of them
alive, he will lead astray Thy servants and will give birth only to wicked and
ungrateful descendants." (For details please refer to XI: 25-48, XXVI: 105-119
and the whole of Surah LXXI).
49The incident has been related here
because what had happened between Noah (Allah's peace be upon him) and his
people was exactly taking place at that time between Muhammad (Allah's peace be
upon him) and his people. His Message was the same as that of Noah and the
response of the chiefs to it was also the same. The chiefs of the Quraish were
raising the same doubts against his Message that were raised by the chiefs of
the people of Noah thousands of years before the Holy Prophet, and the same
things were said in reply as were said by Noah. Further on, it has been shown in
the stories of the Messengers that the attitude of their people towards their
Message was the same that was being shown by the chiefs of Makkah. Thus, the
Qur'an impresses on its addressees the fact that in every age, the basic
deviation of each people had always been the same, and that the invitation of
the Messenger of Allah had also been the same in every age, and the ultimate end
of all those who denied and rejected that invitation, has always been the same
and will always be the same.
50The brief descriptions of certain events
from the mission of Prophets at certain places in the Qur'an have given rise to
the conjecture that the whole thing was finished in a couple of meetings. They
think that a prophet presented his claim before his people and they raised some
objections against it. Then the Prophet answered them, but they rejected him,
and declared the Message to be false. This was repeated a couple of times; then
God sent down His scourge. This is a wrong conjecture made by those who are
ignorant of the style of the Qur'an. These things arc only parts of the long
struggle, for the Qur'an does not give all the details of a story at one and the
same place. In relating some historical event, it confines itself only to that
part of the story which is directly connected with the theme under discussion
and leaves out all other details. As an illustration, let us cite instances of
this from the story of Prophet Noah. Here the aim is to warn the people of the
consequences of the denial and rejection of the Message of the Prophet. So it
was not necessary to mention the long period during which the Prophet continued
preaching the Message to his people. But at places where the story is related to
teach fortitude to Prophet Muhammad and his Companions, a special mention has
been made of the long period during which Prophet Noah went on preaching the
Message. This is to encourage them that they should not lose heart by seeing no
great and immediate result of their efforts of a few years but should learn a
lesson from the story of Prophet Noah, who went on performing his mission with
fortitude for centuries in very adverse circumstances, without losing heart.
(Sec XXIX: 14).
Likewise, some people become skeptical when they read,
over and over again, such a thing as this: "We drowned (destroyed) those who
denied the Message and treated it as false": they ask, "Why do such things not
happen now a-days?" They admit that though the rise and fall of nations is
always taking place in the world, this change is of a different nature from the
one described in the Qur'an, e.g., instant destruction of a nation by an
earthquake or flood or storm or lightning after due notice by a Prophet. In
order to remove this doubt, one should understand the difference between the
case of that community in which a Prophet is born and raised from among
themselves, and the one where a Prophet is not present in person. He conveys
Allah's Message directly to them in their own language and presents a perfect
and excellent model of it in his own person in such a convincing way as to leave
no excuse whatever for them to reject it. Therefore such a community deserves
the severest punishment on the spot for rejecting the Messenger of Allah after
such clear Signs. Obviously the case of such a community is basically different
from the case of that community which does not receive the Message directly from
the Prophet but received it through indirect means. So there is no wonder if
such chastisements arc not inflicted on the spot now, as they were during the
times of the Prophets. This is because after the Prophethood of Muhammad, the
last in the line of prophets (Allah's peace be upon them all), no prophet has
been sent, nor shall any be sent up to the Last Day.
This does not,
however, mean that Allah has now totally given up the infliction of
chastisements. The fact is that even now He sends disasters by way of warning or
punishment on those communities which rebel against Him and deviate into error.
But it is a pity that people do not turn their attention towards the real cause.
Instead of looking at these as the consequences of their own evil ways, their
scientists, their historians and their philosophers, who cannot go beyond
physical causes, mislead them by ascribing these to some physical and historical
laws. These so-called scholars do not let them turn their attention to the fact
that there is Allah above them, Who first warns them of their evil ways by
inflicting minor disasters, and then, if they persist in the wrong ways, He
throws them into the abyss of destruction.
51'Ad was one of the most
ancient tribes of Arabia. Their stories were well known and were related all
over the country. The stories of their power and wealth had become proverbial
and their utter annihilation also was cited as an example. Their notoriety
helped to produce some new words akin to their name. Every ancient thing is
called (`adi) and archaeological remains are called ('adiyyat) The land, which
has no owner left and thus becomes fallow, is called (`adi-ul-ard).
This
tribe is often mentioned in the ancient Arabic poetry. The experts in the art of
genealogy of the Arab tribes mention `Ad as the first of the extinct tribes of
Arabia. There is a tradition that once a man of Bani Zahl-bin-Shaiban, who was a
resident of the territory where the `Ad tribe lived, came to the Holy Prophet
and related stories about 'Ad, that had come down from ancient times.
According to the Qur'an, the tribe of `Ad lived in Ahqaf, surrounded by Hijaz,
Yaman and Yamamah. From here they had established their authority over a vast
territory , that extended from the western coast of Yaman and ' Umman and Hadar
Maut to 'Iraq. Though their remains have become quite extinct from the
historical point of view, yet there arc some remnants in Southern Arabia that
are ascribed to `Ad. At one place in Hadar Maut, there is a tomb which is said
to be of Prophet Hud. In 1837, James R. Wellested, an officer in the British
Navy, discovered near Hisn-i-Ghurab a tablet which contained a mention of
Prophet Hud. Moreover, the writing on the tablet showed that they were the
followers of the Law of Prophet Hud. (For further explanation see E.N. 25 of
XLVI).
52The Arabic word ala means (1) "blessings" (2) Demonstrations of
nature and (3) Praiseworthy qualities. Thus the verse can be elaborated to mean,
"Remember the blessings and favors of Allah and do not forget that He also has
the power to take away these from you" .
53Verse 70 also shows that the
people of Hud were neither ignorant of . the existence of Allah nor did they
deny Him nor did they refuse to worship Him. What they refused to accept was the
invitation of Prophet Hud to worship Allah alone, without associating anyone
else with Him.
54That is "You call one `the lord of rain', the other
`the lord of air' or `lord of wealth' or `lord of disease', when, in fact, none
of these is lord of anything. These are mere names that you have invented". In
our own time they call one `the remover of difficulties' and the other `the
bestower of treasures', whereas he has no treasure to bestow on anyone. They
have made one "the giver", when he owns nothing to give, and so on. In fact,
such titles are empty words without any corresponding possessor of such
qualities, entitling anyone to these titles. Therefore, if one argues to justify
these titles, he, in fact, raises disputes over mere names that have no reality
behind them.
55That is, "Allah, Whom you yourselves acknowledge to be
the Overlord, has not delegated to any of these gods the powers of a lord or
god. He has never said that He has delegated a part of His Godhead to such and
such a one, nor has He sent command authorizing anyone with the powers of
`giver' or `remover of difficulties'. You yourselves have, of your own accord,
bestowed such titles on the ones you pleased.
56"We cut off the roots of
. . ." means, "We destroyed them so completely that no sign of theirs was left
in the world". This is a fact that has been established by the traditions of
Arabia. The archaeological remains also bear testimony that the people of the
"First `Ad" were so completely annihilated that even their monuments were
effaced from the world. The Arab historians count the `Ad tribe among the
extinct tribes. They, however, assert it as a fact that the followers of Hud
were saved and were known as the "Second `Ad" and the tablet of Hisn-i-Ghurab
mentioned in E.N. 51, is one of their monuments. Here are some extracts of the
inscriptions which were inscribed on it some 1800 years before Christ:-
"We have lived for a long period in this fort in great prosperity. Our canals
were always full of water ........ and our rulers were noble kings who were free
from evil. They were, however, hard on those who disturbed the peace. They ruled
over us in accordance with the Law of Hud and used to enter all important
decisions in a book. We believe in miracles and life-after-death."
The
above extracts bear witness to the fact stated in the Qur'an that the followers
of Hud became the inheritors of the ancient glory and prosperity of the `Ad
tribe.
57After `Ad, Thamud is the second most widely known ancient tribe
of Arabia. Before the revelation of the Qur'an, their stories were very common
among the Arabs. Their mention occurs in the poetry and the addresses of
pre-Islamic Arabia, and on the tablets found in Assyria. The ancient historians
and geographers of Greece, Alexandria and Rome also mention this tribe. Some of
their remains existed till some years before the birth of Prophet Christ.
According to the Roman historians, the people of this tribe joined the Roman
army and fought against the Nabataeans, their enemies.
The tribe of
Thamud inherited the territory in the north-western part of Arabia and is even
today known by the name of Al-Hijr. Its capital was Madain-iSalih, which is
now-a-days a railway station on the Hijaz Railway between AI Madinah and Tabuk.
Its old name is Hijr. There are even ' now spread over thousands of acres of
land, those stony buildings that they had carved out of hills. Even a cursory
glance at this dead city leads one to the conclusion that its population must
have been about five hundred thousand people.
At the time of the
revelation of the Qur'an, the trading caravans from Hijaz used to pass through
the archaeological remains of Thamud. When the Holy Prophet was leading his
followers towards Tabuk, he passed by and pointed out towards the remains and
asked them to bear in mind the lesson which such things hold out for every close
observer. He pointed to a well from which the she-camel of Prophet Salih drank
water, and told them to drink water only from that well. Then he showed them a
pass over a hill and said that the she-camel used to come through it to the well
for drinking water. That pass is still called Fajj-un-Nagah (the pass of the
she-camel.) Then he assembled together those Muslims who were enjoying a walk
through the remains and said, "This is the territory of the tribe on which Allah
inflicted His scourge. Therefore pass through this with as much haste as you
can, because this is not a place of enjoyment but a place of lamentation.
58The wording of the Text clearly shows that Allah's she-camel was the clear
proof", which has been called "a Sign" in the next sentence. We learn from XXVI:
154-158 that the people of his tribe had themselves demanded from Prophet Salih
to bring a clear Sign of his appointment as Messenger of Allah. In response to
this, the Prophet presented the she-camel as a Sign. This is a positive proof of
the fact that the birth of the she-camel had taken place in some miraculous
manner and her appearance was a miracle of the same kind as presented by other
Prophets to the disbelievers at their demand of a proof of their Prophethood.
Another proof of her miraculous birth is the fact that Prophet Salih presented
the she-camel to the disbelievers with a warning to this effect: "Your lives are
directly connected with the life of this she-camel. She shall graze freely in
your fields and she shall be privileged to drink water at the well one day all
alone by herself, and all your cattle shall drink water the following day, turn
by turn; and if you touch her with an evil intention, Allah's scourge will
overtake you all of a sudden". It is obvious from this that the she-camel could
have been presented in such a forcible manner only if the people had seen with
their own eyes that she was an extraordinary animal. That is why they let her
graze freely in their fields and let her drink water throughout the day all by
herself, though in their heart of hearts they were not willing to accede to
this. They were so much afraid of her that in order to kill her they had to hold
long consultations and hatch secret plots, though Prophet Salih had no worldly
power to prevent them from this. This shows that they knew there was some hidden
power behind her that made her so bold as to roam about wherever she liked.
The Qur'an does not say anything about its physique as to how it came into
being. Moreover, there is no mention of its miraculous existence in any
authentic Tradition. Therefore. one is not bound to accept the stories the
commentators have related concerning her birth, etc. However, it is quite
evident from the Qur'an that she was a miracle in one way or the other.
59The people of Thamud used to carve out grand houses in the hills as has
already been mentioned in E.N. 57. Some of them are still intact at
Madain-i-Salih and bear witness to the wonderful skill they had achieved in
engineering.
60That is, "You should take a warning from the woeful end
of `Ad. The same Allah, Who destroyed that mischievous tribe and made you its
successor, has the power to destroy you and make someone else your successor, if
you become mischievous like `Ad."
61Though only one man had killed the
she-camel (vide IV: 27-29 and XCI: 12-14), the whole tribe has been declared to
be guilty of the crime because it was backing him as a whole, and he was, in
fact, merely its tool, for every crime which represents the will of a nation or
is approved by it, is a national crime, even though it is committed by one
individual. According to the Qur'an, even that crime, which is committed openly
by an individual, and is tolerated by the community, is a national crime.
62The catastrophe that overtook Thamud has been called "the terrifying
shocker", but in other places it has been called (a cry) and (a thunderbolt) and
(a roaring noise).
63Those people lived in the territory now called
Trans-Jordan and is situated between 'Iraq and Palestine. According to the Bible
its head quarters was Sodom which was situated somewhere near the Dead Sea or
has been submerged in it. The Talmud says that they had four more big cities
besides Sodom, and the land between these cities looked like one big garden for
miles, and charmed the onlookers. But now those cities cannot be located with
accuracy because the whole land is covered with the Dead Sea, which is also
called Lot's Sea.
Prophet Lot was the nephew of Prophet Abraham. He left
'Iraq along with his uncle and traveled with him over Syria, Palestine and Egypt
in order to gain experience for the propagation of the Message. Then he was
appointed as a Messenger by Allah and sent to reform the wicked tribe, which has
been called `his people' because he might have had some blood relation with it.
It is a pity that in the existing Bible, which has been tampered with by the
Jews, the character of Prophet Lot has been blemished. Besides other things,
even his mission to the plains of Jordan has been described as a migration to a
fertile land after "a strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle and the
herdsmen of Lot's cattle". (Genesis 5: 12, 13). But the Qur'an refutes this
allegation and says that Lot was appointed a Messenger and was sent there in
order to reform those people.
64At other places, the Qur'an mentions
some other crimes of these people, but here it mentions only their most heinous
crime that brought about the scourge of Allah on them.
Although wicked
people have always been committing this most heinous sin that has given the
people of Sodom an everlasting notoriety, yet it has always been considered a
filthy and detestable act. But the only people who have ever tried to raise it
to a moral excellence, were the Greek philosophers in the ancient world, and the
Europeans in the modern world. The latter are doing their utmost to make up the
deficiency by making an open propaganda for it, and have succeeded in giving
this filthy act a legal sanction. So much so that the legislatures of some
countries have legalized it. It does not require elaborate argument to show that
homo-sexuality is a horrible social crime and a heinous sin. For the Creator has
made the male and the female of each and every living species different from
difference in the human species has been created to serve another purpose. This
is to urge the two to live together in order to form a family along with their
offspring. For this is the foundation of a civilized life for which man has been
created. That is why their bodies have been made complementary to attract each
other for the satisfaction of sex urges and for the service of the natural
function of reproduction of the species. Therefore the one who satisfies this
sex urge in an unnatural way becomes guilty of many crimes at one and the same
time. (1) Such a one, so to speak, wages a war against the natural and physical
functioning of his own organs and those of the victims of his lust. This
inevitably produces very harmful effects on their physiques, their minds and
their morality. (2) He becomes guilty of treachery and dishonesty against Nature
for he enjoys sexual pleasure, without performing the necessary service of his
species and civilization and without fulfilling the rights and obligations
attached to it. (3) He commits a breach of trust against the society in general
for he enjoys all the benefits of the civilized society, but in his turn does
not take on himself the responsibilities of the married life and wastes all his
powers in the unnatural gratification of his sexual desires. This selfish and
unworthy attitude is not only useless but also positively harmful to the
collective morality. Thus he makes himself unfit for the service of the family
and of the human race and produces unnatural feminine characteristics in, at
least, one other male, and opens the way to adultery and moral degradation for
at least two women.
65The very fact that they could not tolerate even the
presence of pious people among them, shows that they had gone to the lowest
depths of moral degradation. They were not only shameless, wicked and immoral
but also had lost every feeling of goodness and virtue. That is why they wanted
to turn out Prophet Lot and his followers so that none should be left among them
to invite them to virtue. When they, as a community, reached this extreme limit
of wickedness and no vestige of goodness was left in them, Allah decreed that
they should be totally exterminated because there was then no justification for
their existence on the earth. Their case may be likened to a basket of apples,
most of which are rotten, and only a few are good. When the good apples are
taken out of it, then the remaining fruit becomes utterly useless and should,
therefore, be thrown away into a heap of garbage.
66In other places it
has been made clear that Lot's wife, who probably was one of their daughters,
supported her disbelieving relatives in their conflict with the Prophet, and did
not leave them up to the end. That is why Allah ordained that Lot should not
take her away with his followers.
67The "rain" was not a rain of water
but a rain of stones as has been explicitly stated at some other places in the
Qur'an. Their habitations were turned upside down and sunk into the earth.
68Here and at other places the Qur'an merely declares that sodomy is such a
heinous sin that it brought the wrath of Allah on a people. Then we learn from
the guidance of the Holy Prophet that it is the duty of the Islamic State to
eradicate this crime and should punish those who are guilty of it. In regard to
this there are traditions with wording to this effect: (a) "kill the sodomite
and the object of sodomy". (b) " ......whether they are married or unmarried".
(e) "Stone to death the upper one and the lower one". But no definite and
specific punishment was prescribed for the criminals because during his time, no
case of sodomy was ever brought before the Holy Prophet.
There are,
however, some traditions from his successors regarding this. Hadrat 'Ali is of
the opinion that the criminals should be killed with sword and the dead bodies
should not be buried but burnt to ashes. Hadrat Abu Bakr also agrees with it.
Hadrat `Umar and Hadrat `Uthman arc of the opinion that they should be taken
under the roof of a dilapidated building, which should be pulled down on them.
lbn `Abbas has decreed that they should be thrown down headlong from the top of
the highest building of the habitation and then stoned to death. Imam Shafi`i
says that both the criminals involved in sodomy should be killed, whether
married or unmarried. According to Shi`ibi" Zuhri, Malik and Ahmad they should
be stoned to death. Said bin Musayyib, 'Ata, Hasan Basri, Ibrahim Nakh`i, Sufyan
Thauri and Auza`i are of the opinion that the punishment is the same as for
adultery, that is, one hundred stripes and exile for the unmarried, and stoning
to death for the married. Imam Abu Hanifah is of the opinion that the culprit
should be punished in accordance with the circumstances of the crime with an
exemplary punishment. There is also a saying of Imam Shafi`i to this effect.
It should also be noted that it is unlawful for the husband to commit sodomy
with his own wife. The Holy Prophet has declared, "The man who commits such an
act with a woman is accursed" and "Allah will not even look at a person who
commits this offense with a woman". In another Tradition, he has warned, "The
one who cohabits with a woman in her menses or commits sodomy with her or goes
to a soothsayer and believes him to be true, is a disbeliever in what has been
sent down to Muhammad. "
69The territory of (Midian) lay to the
north-west of Hijaz and to the south of Palestine in the eastern side of the Red
Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah and extended to a part of the Sinai Peninsula. The
Midianites were great traders. Their habitations lay at the crossroads of the
trade routes from Yemen-Makkah to Syria along the side of the Red Sea and from
`Iraq to Egypt. Therefore they were well known among the Arabs and were
remembered even after their extermination for their trade caravans to Syria and
Egypt had to pass through their archaeological remains.
In order to grasp
the significance of their story in the Qur'an, it should be noted that the
Midianites claimed to be the descendants of Midian, a son of Prophet Abraham
from his third wife, Qaturah. Though all of them had not directly descended from
him, they claimed to be so. For, according to an ancient custom, all those
people who became attached to some great man, began, by and by, to be counted
among his descendants. That is why all Arabs were called Bani Isma`il, though
the majority of them were not his descendants. The same was the case with Bani
Isra'il. Likewise all the inhabitants of the territory, who came under the
influence of Midian, a son of Prophet Abraham came to be known as Bani Madyan
and the territory itself was called Madyan (Midian).
In the light of the
above historical fact, there is no reason to suppose that they heard for the
first time the voice of the Truth from Prophet Shu`aib. In fact, they were
originally Muslims like the Israelites, but had become corrupt at the time when
Prophet Shu'aib was sent to them, just as the Israelites were at the time when
Prophet Moses was sent to them. Though they had become involved in shirk and
immoralities by mixing with the mushrik and immoral people during the six
centuries or so after Prophet Abraham, yet they professed to be "believers" and
were proud of that.
70This shows that Prophet Shu`aib was sent to reform
them of their two main evils-shirk and dishonesty in trade.
71For a
detailed commentary on this, please refer to E.N.'s 44 and 45 of this Surah.
Here Prophet Shu`aib wanted to draw their attention particularly to this: "You
should not corrupt by your wrong beliefs and immoral ways the Right Way of life
that had been established by the former Prophets."
72The fact that the
Prophet appeals to their Faith shows that they themselves professed to be
Believers, as has been pointed out in E.N. 69. They were corrupt Muslims, who,
though involved in wrong beliefs and misconduct, not only professed to be
"believers" but also were proud of this. That is why the Prophet appealed to
them, "If you are true believers, you should judge good and evil by the standard
of the righteous and honest people, and not by the standards of those worldly
people who do not believe in Allah and the Hereafter. "
73Prophet Shu'aib
hastened to add these words to show that he could not claim with certainty even
this much that they would not return to the creed of the disbelievers. A
believer who rightly and fully comprehends the significance of the power of
Allah, knows that it is His Will that prevails over everything. Therefore he
cannot claim with certainty, "I will do this or I will not do this, for the
fulfillment of this or that depends entirely on the will of my Lord. If He will,
I shall become successful, otherwise I shall fail in it."
Allah has
taught the same thing in XVIII: 23-24:
"Never say about anything, 'I will
do this tomorrow, for you cannot do anything, but say, If it be Allah's Will'."
74We should not pass cursorily over this sentence, but should think deeply
about its implications. The chiefs and the leaders of Midian meant and wanted to
convince the people of this thing: "We shall be utterly ruined if we accept and
practice the fundamental principles of honesty, righteousness, uprightness and
morality. It is obvious that our trade and commerce can never flourish if we
apply the principle of truth to it and carry out our bargains with honesty.
Besides this, if we do not exploit our geographical position on the crossroads
of the most important trade routes, and let the caravans pass on without
molestation and become peaceful citizens, all its political and commercial
advantages will come to art end. This will also bring to an end the awe and
influence we wield over our neighboring countries." This fear of "ruin" was not
peculiar to the people of Shu'aib alone. In every age the corrupt people have
felt the same fear concerning the way of truth, righteousness and honesty. This
has always been the considered opinion of all the corrupt people that it is not
possible to carry out commercial, political and other worldly activities without
resort to lies, dishonesty and immorality. That is why the greatest argument
against the Message of Truth has always been that the community would be ruined,
if it gave up the known worldly wrong ways and adopted the Right Way.
75This total destruction of Midian had become a byword among the neighboring
nations. In Psalms (83: 5-9) Prophet David invokes the help of Allah against the
oppressors, "who have taken crafty counsel against thy people," saying, "Do unto
them as unto the Midianites." And Prophet lsaiah consoles the Israel, saying,
"...... be not afraid of Assyrian....he shall Iift up his staff against thee,
after the manner of Egypt....the Lord of the hosts shall stir up a scourge for
him according to the slaughter of Midian...." (Isaiah: 10: 21-26.)
76A
deep significance underlies all the stories which have been related here. Every
story applied appropriately and exactly to the case of Prophet Muhammad (Allah's
peace be upon him) and his people, the Quraish. In every story there are two
parties - the Prophet and his people. In every story the Message of the Prophet,
his teachings, his admonition and all other things were exactly the same as
those of Prophet Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him). On the other side, in
every case his people, who were sunk deep in wrong creeds, immoralities and
obduracies, and the chiefs who were puffed up with pride, rejected the Message
contemptuously. As the Quraish were behaving exactly in the same way towards
Prophet Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) and his Message, they have been
warned indirectly that their doom would be similar to those people, if they did
not accept his Message, and did not avail of the opportunity that Allah had
afforded them: if they persisted blindly in their obduracy they would meet with
the same destruction which had always been the doom of those peoples who
persisted in their deviation.
77After citing the individual case of every
Prophet and his people, now the general and comprehensive procedure has been
enunciated, that Allah adopted at the appointment of each one of His Messengers.
Whenever a Messenger was sent, Allah afflicted his people with adversities and
calamities so that they should become meek and humble, and be conditioned for
the acceptance of the Message. Accordingly, He sent famines and epidemics to
them and made them suffer economic losses, defeats in wars, and the like, in
order to humble their pride and haughtiness and to frustrate their
over-confidence in their powers, riches, resources, capabilities etc. This was
to make them realize that there is a Higher Power above them that controls their
destinies so that their hearts should be inclined to admonition and they should
bow down humbly before their Lord. But, if this failed to incline their hearts
to the acceptance of the Truth, they were tempted with prosperity. And this was
the beginning of their end. As a rule, when such people, as are afflicted with
adversity and calamities, begin to flourish and are enriched with blessings,
they do not show any gratitude to their Master, and even forget the days of
adversity. Then their intellectuals delude them by arguing like this: "There is
nothing unusual in this. History tells us that the vicissitudes of fortune have
always been taking place independent of moral values and these are not taking
place under the control of Allah or in accordance with moral laws but blind
nature is always working and bringing about adversity or prosperity. That is why
our forefathers also had had their adversities and prosperities. It is,
therefore, a sign of mental weakness to draw any moral lesson from these and to
bow down and humble oneself before Allah.
The Holy Prophet had described
the same thing in a Tradition: "Affliction goes on helping a Believer to reform
himself till he comes out of this furnace cleansed of all impurities. But the
case of a hypocrite in affliction is that of an ass, who does not realize why
his master tied him and why he untied him." This implies that if a community
does not turn to Allah, even when adversities and calamities are inflicted on it
or does not remember Allah in gratitude, when He showers His blessings upon it
and is not inclined at all to reform itself in any way whatsoever, it is doomed
and its destruction is imminent.
In this connection it should also be
noted that the Divine procedure mentioned in vv. 94-95 was at work at' Makkah at
the time when this Surah was revealed. The Quraish were showing the same
antagonistic attitude and were consequently suffering from a severe famine. We
learn from a Tradition, related by Ibn Mas'ud and Ibn `Abbas, that when the
Quraish began to oppose the mission of the Holy Prophet, he prayed, "O Lord,
help me against these people by a seven-year famine, like the one that visited
Egypt during the time of Joseph". Accordingly, Allah sent a very severe famine
to Makkah and things came to such a pass that they began to eat dead animals,
skins, bones and even wool. Then the people of Makkah, under the leadership of
Abu Sufyan, went to the Holy Prophet, and beseeched him to pray to Allah to
remove the famine. But when Allah removed the famine and they began to flourish,
they became all the more arrogant and their evil geniuses began to hinder even
those from it whose hearts were somewhat inclined towards the Faith, saying,
"The famine was due to the vicissitudes of time, and was not different from the
ones that visited us even before the advent of Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon
him). Therefore you should not fall into his trap by its visitation." Such
things as "Our forefathers also had their adversity and prosperity" were being
repeated at the time when this Surah was sent down. As these verses applied very
appropriately to the condition of the Quraish at the time, this background
should be kept in view in order to understand their full significance.
78The Arabic word makr implies such a secret plan as remains hidden from the
person against whom it is directed, and keeps him deluded that as is well, till
it suddenly strikes him a decisive blow.
79It is a pity that the
succeeding nation does not learn any lesson from the mistakes of the fallen
nation it replaces. There would be a great guidance for the people if they
considered seriously the question why those people, who were ruling over the
land before them and were prosperous and flourishing, were utterly ruined and
totally destroyed. The answer would show them the erroneous thoughts and deeds
which resulted in their ruin. Then they can also realize that the Sovereign
Ruler Who seized them for their mistakes and deposed them is All-Powerful even
now, is still ruling over the universe and is able to punish them and depose
them, if they commit the same kind of errors that their predecessors committed.
80According to the Divine Law, the fall of a nation takes place when it
neglects to take a lesson from the history of the former people and from the
ruins of their monuments, but tries to delude itself. Then Allah does not let
them think rightly or accept the admonition of any well wisher. As regards the
individuals, the Divine Law is that if a person himself closes his eyes
deliberately, the light of the sun does not help him; likewise if he does not
want to hear, none else can make him hear.
81In v.101, Allah Himself has
explained the meanings of the previous verse, "We seal their hearts: then they
do not hear anything". From this it is clear that by the `sealing of the
hearts-' is meant that state of mind which is caused as a result of the working
of the Divine Law. When one deliberately refuses to accept the Truth because of
one's ignorance, prejudice, selfishness, lust etc. , then such a person becomes
so obdurate that he persists in error without paying any attention to his own
observations or to the arguments of his true well-wishers.
82The
disbelieves showed no respect for any of the three covenants that should be
binding on every man. They respected neither the natural covenant that makes man
by his very birth the servant of Allah, his Sustainer, nor that collective
covenant that binds every individual to the observance of the known social code
of the community of which he is a member, nor that personal covenant which every
man undertakes with his Allah at the time of distress and helplessness.
83The preceding stories were related to bring home to the people of Makkah the
fact that the community which receives the Message of Allah and then rejects it,
is inevitably doomed to destruction. After these, the story of Moses, Pharaoh
and the Israelites is being related with the same object, though there are other
important lessons also for the disbelievers of the Quraish, the Believers and
the Jews.
In this story the disbelievers of the Quraish have been
admonished that they should not be deluded by their apparent favorable balance
of power in the initial stages of the conflict between the Truth and falsehood.
The whole history of the conflict bears evidence to the fact that a single man
starts the Movement to establish the Truth in his nation, nay, in the whole
world, and wages war, without the help of any material provisions, against
falsehood which had the backing of great nations and powerful kingdoms. But in
spite of this, ultimately it comes out triumphant in the conflict. The Quraish
have also been warned to note how all the devices of the disbelievers directed
against the Messenger of the Truth in order to suppress his Message turn against
themselves: that Allah gives a long respite to the disbelievers so that they
might mend their ways before He makes the final decision to destroy them: that
He gives exemplary punishment to those who do not take any lesson from a warning
or a clear sign or an event that serves for a lesson.
There were two
lessons for the Believers who had become the target of the persecution by the
enemies. First, they should not be discouraged because they were smaller in
number and weaker in power than their opponents, and they should not lose heart
because Allah's succor was late in coming. Secondly, they were warned to guard
against the attitude that was adopted by the Jews after they had professed to
believe in the Truth: otherwise they would become accursed like the Jews.
The past history of the Israelites was related for their own benefit also.
They were warned to consider the consequences of the worship of falsehood, and
admonished to follow the Holy Prophet who was representing the true religion of
the former Prophets after cleansing it of all the impurities that had been mixed
up with it.
84"They, too, treated Our Signs unjustly" by rejecting them
and treating them as pieces of sorcery. It was injustice in the sense that they
were not behaving fairly towards the signs and were treating them as pieces of
sorcery and scoffing at them. There could be no greater injustice than to reject
such Signs as were clear proofs of their being from Allah and about which no
reasonable man could say that they could be produced by sorcery. Besides this,
when the sorcerers themselves bore witness to the fact that it was beyond the
power of sorcery to produce such Signs, it was nothing but injustice to reject
these as pieces of sorcery. Thus they really showed that they were void of
wisdom and truth as well.
85The word Fir`aun (Pharaoh) literally means
"the offspring of the sun god" . The ancient Egyptians called the sun Ra, which
they worshiped as their supreme lord, and Fir`aun was named after it. According
to the creed of the ancient Egyptians, every ruler based his authority on his
relation to Ra `a and claimed to be its incarnation and representative on the
earth. Therefore every royal dynasty that came into power in Egypt presented
itself to be the descendant of the, sun-god and every ruler adopted the title of
Fir`aun in order to show to the people that he was the Supreme Lord.
In
this connection, it should also be noted that two different Pharaohs have been
mentioned in the story of Moses as related in the Qur'an. The one was that
Pharaoh who was ruling over Egypt when Moses was born, and who brought him up in
his own house, and the second was the one whom Moses invited to accept the
Divine Message of God and deliver the children of Israel, and who was drowned .
The research scholars of today are inclined to believe that the first of the
two Pharaohs who oppressed the Israelites was Rameses II, who ruled from 1292 to
1225 B.C. And the second Pharaoh who has been mentioned in these verses was
Mineptah, who assisted his father Rameses II in the affairs of the government,
and succeeded as ruler after his death. But these dates appear to be doubtful
because, according to the calendar of the Israelites, the year of the death of
Moses was 1272 B.C. These are, however, mere historical guesses for it is
difficult to reconcile the days of the Israelite, the Egyptian and the Christian
calendars.
86Prophet Moses was sent to Pharaoh with two missions. First,
he should invite Pharaoh to surrender to Allah by accepting Islam. Second, he
should demand from him to set the Israelites free from his slavery and tyranny.
The Qur'an mentions both the missions at one and the same place or separately,
as required by the occasion.
87These two Signs were given to Prophet
Moses as a proof that he was a representative of Allah, the Creator and
Sovereign of the whole universe. We have already stated that whenever the
Messengers presented themselves before the people as the representatives of
Allah, the people always demanded: "If you are really a representative of Allah,
let such and such an event take place through you as may not be capable of being
explained by the ordinary laws of nature, and which may clearly show that it has
happened by the direct intervention of Allah to prove that you are really a
representative of Allah". In answer to this demand, the Prophets showed those
Signs that are called 'ayat' by the Qur'an and miracles by the common people.
It is a pity that sane learned Muslims try to explain away these Signs or
miracles as ordinary events that took place according to the known physical laws
of nature. They do not realize that in this way they arc adopting a skeptical
attitude towards the Book of Allah, for, in the context, the Qur'an cites a
supernatural event, and it presents the same as a Sigh of Allah as a proof of
his Prophethood. Therefore to explain it away as an ordinary event is, in fact,
to disbelieve the Book. Thus such people make their own position ridiculous. On
the one hand, they do not sincerely believe in the Qur 'an as a Book of Allah
just because it upholds miracles; en the other, they do not have the courage to
declare openly their disbelief in the Book' which upholds supernatural events,
because it would deprive them of the benefit of the religion they profess, as it
would adversely affect their worldly interests.
The decisive question
about miracles is whether Allah suspended His activities after starting the
system of the universe according to certain laws, and now cannot interfere in
any way whatever with the working of that system, Or, whether He keeps the reins
of His kingdom in His own hands and enforces His commands every moment in this
kingdom and He has full powers to make any change, partial or complete, in
shaping things and the course of events, as and when He wills. Those who believe
in the first alternative cannot believe in the miracles for it goes against
their conception of Allah and His universe, but the most proper course for such
people is to deny the Divine Revelation of the Qur'an instead of writing any
commentary on it so as to refute the Quranic conception of Allah and prove their
own. On the other hand, if one is convinced by the arguments of the Qur'an and
accepts the second alternative he would readily understand and believe in the
miracles. It is quite obvious that if one believes that a serpent can come into
being only through a biological process and it is not possible for Allah to
create it in any other way, then such a one should consider it false that a
staff was changed into a serpent and again into the staff. On the contrary, if
one believes that lifeless matter can come to life by the command of Allah, Who
has the power to give any kind of life to anything He wills, he will readily
believe that the staff was changed into a serpent just as he believes that a
live chicken comes out of a lifeless egg. To such a person, there will be
nothing extraordinary, just because the staff was changed into a serpent only
thrice and a chicken comes out of an egg over and over again.
88Naturally
some questions arise here: How was Prophet Moses a danger to Pharaoh and his
kingdom? How could a destitute person of a slave community like him be a menace
to a powerful and rich king like Pharaoh, who was the object of worship of his
subjects as well? How was the turning of the staff into a serpent menace to his
great kingdom which extended from Syria to Libya and from the Mediterranean Sea
to Abyssinia? Why did they then raise the alarm that Prophet Moses intended to
deprive the great Pharaoh and the members of the royal dynasty and the big
chiefs of their kingdom, and drive them out of Egypt? Above all, why was there a
danger at all of a revolution, when he had put forward no other claim than that
he was a Prophet of Allah; and demanded the freedom of the Israelites? These
questions are specially important because so far no political talk had taken
place between them.
The answer is that the claim to Prophethood in itself
implied that Prophet Moses meant to bring about a complete revolution in the
existing system of life, including the political system as well. The very fact
that a person claims to be a Delegate of the Lord of the universe, contains in
itself the demand for total submission of human beings to himself. This is
because the Delegate of the Lord of the universe does not come to live as a
subject of and subordinate to anyone else but as the ruler and the guardian.
For, it is the negation of his claim to Prophethood to acknowledge the
sovereignty of an unbeliever. That is why Pharaoh and his courtiers felt the
menace of a political, social and cultural revolution when Moses made a claim to
Prophethood.
Let us consider the question: Why did the court of the great
Pharaoh of Egypt attach so much importance to the claim of Moses, who had no
other helper than his own brother, and no other emblem of his appointment from
Allah than his miraculous staff and his shining hand? In my opinion there were
two main reasons: First, Pharaoh and his courtiers were fully acquainted with
the great personality of Prophet Moses. They knew that he possessed a pure and
strong character and an extraordinary ability, and was a born leader and
commander. Besides this, if we rely on the stories of the Talmud and Josephus,
Prophet Moses had acquired education in all the sciences of the age, and was
fully trained in the art of war and administration, because these things were
considered essential for the members of the royal family in which he was brought
up, and had proved himself to be an excellent general in the campaign against
Abyssinia. Above all, the hard desert life of eight years or so in Midian had
helped to remove the effects of a life of ease in the royal palace. Therefore,
when this grand, serene and pious man stood in the court of Pharaoh with the
claim of Prophethood, they could not brush aside his. claim as hollow. Secondly,
when they saw the miracles of the staff and the shining hand, they were all
filled with awe and were inclined to admit that there was, indeed, some
supernatural force at his back. Thus there was an apparent contradiction in
their calling him a magician and, at the same time, expressing a fear that he
would drive them out of the country. This also showed that they had been
nonplussed by the very first appearance of the Signs of Prophethood: If they had
really considered Prophet Moses to be a magician, they would have never felt and
expressed the danger of a revolution from him, for magic has never brought about
any revolution in the world.
89These words of the courtiers of Pharaoh
show that they had a clear conception of the distinction between the change
produced by a Divine miracle and the effect of magic. They knew that the change
brought about by a Divine miracle was real, whereas the effect produced by magic
was merely an illusion. That is why they tried to refute the claim of Prophet
Moses, saying, "this man is an expert magician". They meant to say that the
staff had not actually turned into a serpent but had only appeared so to them to
be a serpent because of his magic and they would not acknowledge it as a Divine
miracle. Therefore they counseled Pharaoh to gather together all the expert
magicians so that they may show that they could also turn ropes and sticks into
serpents and remove to some extent from the hearts of the people the awful
effect that had been produced in their minds by the miracle of the staff of
Moses.
90There is no ground to believe that the staff of Moses swallowed
up the sticks and ropes that had been cast by the magicians and had appeared to
be serpents. What the Qur'an says is that the staff swallowed up the false magic
produced by them as soon as it turned into a real serpent. In plain words it
means that wherever the serpent of the staff went, it nullified the effects of
the magic which had made their ropes and sticks appear as moving serpents and as
a result of one round made by the staff they began to look like their real
selves as ropes and sticks. (For further explanation, see E.N. 42 of XX).
91This defeat and acknowledgment turned the tables on the people of Pharaoh.
They had mustered all the expert magicians of the land to demonstrate publicly
that Prophet Moses was a magician or, at least, to create doubts in the minds of
the public about his Prophethood. But after the defeat, their own experts in the
art admitted unanimously that what Prophet Moses was presenting was not magic at
all, but most surely it was the work of the power of the Lord of the worlds, and
that every kind of magic was powerless against it.
Obviously their
considered opinion could not be brushed aside in an offhand way, for none could
judge magic better than the magicians. That is why when the magicians testified,
after practical demonstration and trial, that it was not magic, it became
impossible for Pharaoh and his courtiers to assert that Moses . was a magician.
92When Pharaoh saw the tables turning on himself, he thought out another
device. He declared that the whole show was the outcome of the plot that Moses
and the magicians had devised. Then he threatened the magicians with a severe
chastisement and death so that they should confess that his accusation was true.
But this move also turned against him. As the magicians remained firm in their
new Faith, and were prepared to undergo any torture for its sake, it became
evident that their belief in the Truth presented by Moses was a genuine
confession of faith and not the pretense of any plot. That is why he had to give
up the pretense of truth and justice and resort to open tyranny.
In this
connection it should also be noted that in a few moments, their Faith had
brought about a wonderful change in the character of the magicians. The same
people who had left their homes for the sake of helping the religion of their
forefathers and had, a few minutes before, very humbly requested Pharaoh to give
them rewards if they came out successful in the conflict with Moses, were now
filled with the courage of conviction of the true Faith. They had become so bold
and brave that they were now defying the same king, before whom they were meekly
bowing, and begging a reward for their encounter. But now they had become so
convinced of the truth of their Faith that they were not ready to give it up for
the fear of the worst torture with which they were being threatened.
93It
should be noted that there were two periods of oppression. At first the
Israelites were oppressed during the reign of Rameses II, before the birth of
Prophet Moses. The second period of oppression mentioned in this verse started
during the reign of Mineptah, after the appointment of Moses as a Messenger of
Allah. However, there was one thing common. The sons of Israelites were killed
and the lives of their daughters were spared so that their race should gradually
come to an end and the survivors get merged into other races. A tablet that was
dug up during the archaeological excavations in 1896; probably refers to this
period, when it mentions the exploits and victories of Mineptah, saying, "The
Israelites have been exterminated and no seed has been left for their
reproduction." (For further explanation see v. 25 of XL).
94This was the
height of bigotry and obduracy that the courtiers of Pharaoh were dubbing as
magic that thing which they knew could never be magic. Even a fool would not
believe that magic can bring about famine and scarcity in the whole country. In
connection with the same story the Qur'an says in XXVII: 13-14, "When Our Signs
came openly before their eyes, they said, "This is an obvious magic. Though
their hearts were convinced (of their truth), they denied these unjustly and
rebelliously."
95Probably it was a rain-storm that was accompanied by
hailstones, though it could have been any other kind of storm. As the Bible does
not mention a rain-storm but only a heavy fall of hailstones, the common word
storm has been preferred.
96The Arabic word (qummal) in the original
stands for any of the small insects like louse, small fly, mosquito, small
locusts, weevil and the like. Probably this comprehensive word has been used for
the reason that lice and mosquitoes had inflicted human beings and seed-weevils
had attacked granaries at one and the same time. (For comparison, see Chapters
7-12 of Exodus, and E.N. 43 of LXIII).
97That is, "The Israelites were
made the inheritors of Palestine". Some ' commentators infer from this that the
Israelites were made the masters of Egypt. But we hesitate to accept this
version for there is neither any direct reference to it in the Qur'an nor is
there any historical evidence to support it. (Sec E.N. 57 of XVIII and E.N. 45
of XXVI).
98"These people" were the Egyptians, who lived at Mafqah, a
cantonment in the Sinai Peninsula. The Israelites crossed the Red Sea probably
at a place somewhere between the present Suez and Isma'iliyah, and started on
their journey along the coast towards the southern part of the Peninsula, which
was at that time under Egypt. In its lower part, there wen copper and emerald
mints, and for their protection the Egyptians had built cantonments at some
places. One of these was at Mafqah, where the Egyptians had set up a big idol
temple whose remnants are found even today in the south-western part of the
Peninsula. At another place near it, there was another idol-temple, which was
dedicated to the Moon-god. Probably the Israelites were passing by one of these
idol-temples, when they made their demand for an artificial god. This shows that
slavery under the Egyptians had left a deep mark of their culture on the
Israelites.
It can be easily judged from the following remarks made by
Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' first successor, in his last address to the
Israelites, seventy years after their exodus from Egypt:
"Now therefore
fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods
which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and
serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you
this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land
ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua, 24:
14-15).
This shows that even after forty years of training and guidance
under Prophet Moses, and 28 Rears under Prophet Joshua, the Israelites could not
cleanse themselves of the evil effects that had been stamped upon their lives
during their long slavery under the Pharaohs of Egypt. That is why these
corrupted Muslims were so eager to bow down before those gods, whom their
Egyptian masters served, no sooner did they see an idol-temple after their
exodus.
99After their departure from Egypt, when the Israelites became
free from the shackles of slavery, and won the position of an independent
nation, Prophet Moses was summoned to Mount Sinai by the Divine Command so that
the Law should be given to him for them. This was the first summons of the
series that is being mentioned here. Forty days were appointed so that he should
prepare himself by fast, devotion, worship, prayer, deep thought, meditation and
reflection for the heavy task that was about to be entrusted to him On this
occasion prophet Moses left the Israelites at a place now called Wadiy-u-Shaikh,
between Nabi Salih and Mt. Sinai. That part of the valley where the Israelites
then encamped is now called Maidan-ur-Rahat. At one end of the valley is
situated the hillock, where, according to the local tradition Prophet Salih
migrated from the territory of Thamud. The mosque, which was built in his
memory, stands there even today. On the other side, there is another hillock,
called Jabl-i-Harun, where, it is said, Prophet Aaron had gone in protest
against the cow-worship of the Israelites. On its third side is Mt. Sinai, which
is 7359 feet above the sea level and is usually covered with clouds. On the top
of this is the cave in which Moses spent forty days and nights and which has
become a holy place of pilgrimage. There is a mosque of the Muslims and a church
of the Christians near the cave and at the foot, a monastery built during the
reign of Justinian, Byzantine Emperor. (For details, see E.N.'s 9, 10 of
XXVIII).
100Though Prophet Aaron was the elder of the two by three
years, he was under Prophet Moses in the mission of Prophethood. In fact,
Prophet Aaron was appointed as a Prophet to work as an assistant to Moses in
response to his prayer. The fact that he was appointed by Allah as assistant to
Prophet Moses has. been stated in XXV: 35.
101The Bible says that these
two tablets were slabs of stone. Both the Qur'an and the Bible ascribe the
writing upon them to Allah. We have, however, no specific source to say how that
was done. Therefore we cannot say with certainty whether the writing was
inscribed on the tablets directly by Allah or through the agency of an angel or
by Prophet Moses. (Please compare this with Exodus 31: 18, 32: 15-16, Deut. 5:
6-22).
102That is, "The Divine precepts and instructions should be
followed in their direct and plain meanings, that can be grasped by a man of
average intelligence, who has a pure heart and pure intentions." This condition
has been attached lest one should confuse them with the hair-splitting of those
who, by their legal quibblings, are able to devise ways of crookedness, deceit
and mischief out of the plain words of the Divine Commandments.
103That
is, "In your onward march, you will pass through the ruins of the homes of those
who disobeyed the Divine Law and discarded the way of Allah's worship and
obedience and persisted in the paths of error. When you see these things you
will yourselves know the end of the people who adopt such ways. "
104That is, "This is My law: such people as behave haughtily cannot take any
warning from any exemplary sign and cannot learn any lesson from anything that
may teach a lesson. "
According to the Qur'an, a person behaves haughtily
who considers himself above submission to Allah and becomes heedless of His
Commandments and behaves in a way as if he was not a servant of Allah and Allah
was not his Lord. Obviously such an arrogance is not based on any rightful
claim, for no servant has any right to behave as if he were not His servant,
when he lives on Allah's earth. That is why Allah says, who without any right
behave haughtily."
105".... his deeds became vain," and produced no good
result and were useless and worthless, because these did not satisfy the two
elementary conditions that make human deeds worthwhile. First, these should be
performed in accordance with the Divine Law. Secondly, the object of these acts
and deeds should be success in the Hereafter and not mere success in this world.
If these two conditions are not fulfilled in the performance of any deed, it
shall become vain. Obviously anything done without giving heed to or in defiance
of the Divine Guidance does not deserve any reward from Him, for his case is the
same as that of a usurper of land, who exploits it against the owner's will. He
does not deserve anything but severe punishment for this wrongful possession.
Though he may benefit from it as long as the real owner connives at his
audacity, he knows that he will be deprived of it when he is dispossessed of it.
And there is no reason why (and he himself does not expect that) any portion of
its produce should go to him, after the real owner takes possession of his land
from the usurper.
106They made the image in his absence of forty days,
when Moses went to Mt. Sinai on the summons of Allah, while his people were
encamping in the plain of Ar-Rahah.
107Their calf-worship was the second
manifestation of the change that had taken place in the Israelites during their
stay in Egypt. They were so charmed by the cow-worship of the Egyptians that the
Qur'an says, "......They were so prone to disbelief that they cherished the calf
in their hearts" . It is really strange that hardly three months after their
miraculous escape from Egypt, they began to make demands on their Prophet to
make an artificial god for them, and, as soon as he left them for the Sinai,
they themselves devised a false god. It appears as if they had forgotten their
recent deliverance from slavery, and their safe passage through the sea and the
drowning of Pharaoh and his army in it. Though they knew that all those
wonderful events had happened wholly and solely through the supernatural power
of the Eternal, yet they shame-facedly forgot their Allah. It was this faithless
conduct of the Israelites that prompted some of their Prophets to liken the
Community to that wicked woman who shows love to all men other than her husband
and does not hesitate to be faithless even in the very first night of her
marriage.
108By citing his words "..........do not include me among the
workers of iniquity", the Qur'an has absolved Prophet Aaron from the wicked
blemish that the Jews had stamped upon him. According to the Bible, Prophet
Aaron was guilty of making the golden calf as god for them:
"And when the
people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered
themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall
go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land
of Egypt, we wont not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off
the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of
your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden
earrings, which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received
them at their hand, and fashioned it with a Braving tool, after he had made it a
molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up
out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it;
and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they
rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace
offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
(Exodus, 32: 1-6). The Qur'an has refuted this allegation and related the fact
about the matter that the man responsible for this heinous sin was not Allah's
Prophet Aaron but his rebel Samiri. (For details, see XX : 90-94).
Though
it may appear very strange that the Jews should accuse their own Prophets of the
most heinous sins, yet a deep and critical study of their history will show that
this was done to justify their own moral degradation. When the whole community
in general, and the religious scholars and priests in particular, became
involved in deviations and immoralities, their guilty consciences impelled them
to invent excuses for justifying their own bad conduct. As they committed
heinous sins like shirk, sorcery, adultery, treachery, falsehood and the like,
they Blemished the pure character of their own Prophets by ascribing such sins
to them as were most shameful even for an ordinary good man, not to speak of a
prophet so that they could justify their own wicked deeds. They argued like
this: "When even the Prophets could not save themselves from such sins, how
could ordinary people like us be immune from weaknesses?"
'The Hindus
also did the same during their moral degeneration and the literature of that
period depicts gods, rishis and the like, in the blackest colors so that they
could say, "When such highly placed beings were involved in immoralities, how
could the common people escape froth them? And why should such things be
shameful for them, when they were not shameful for their gods and rishis?"
109The seventy delegates were summoned to Mt. Sinai so that they should
present themselves before their Lord, and on behalf of the community beg
forgiveness for the sin of calf-worship that was committed by the Israelites,
and to renew the covenant of obedience to Him. The Bible and the Talmud do not
mention this, though the Bible says that Moses was summoned to Mt. Sinai so that
he should be given new tablets for those that were broken, when he had thrown
them down. (Exodus chapter 34).
110That is, every occasion of trial is
very decisive for the people: it separates like a winnow useful from the useless
out of a mixed mass. On such decisive occasions, the one who comes out
successful in the trial does so only by Divine guidance and help, and the one
who fails in the test becomes unsuccessful because he is deprived of Divine
guidance and help. Though one gets Allah's guidance and help in accordance with
certain Divine Laws, which are based on absolute wisdom and justice, anyway the
fact is that one's success or failure in the trial depends entirely on Divine
guidance and help.
111That is, "The way, whereby Allah is ruling His
Kingdom is based on mercy and not on wrath. He always shows mercy to His
creatures and manifests His wrath only when the rebellion and arrogance of His
servants transgress the limits"
112After replying to the prayer of Moses
in the previous verse, the Qur'an utilizes the opportunity to invite the
Israelites to follow Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him). It means: "The
conditions that were laid down for Allah's mercy upon you during the time of
Prophet Moses, still stand, and require you to believe in this Messenger. It was
said to you that Allah's mercy is sent to those people who refrain from
disobedience. Now, there is no greater disobedience than to reject the Guidance
of the Messengers appointed by Allah. If you, therefore, do not refrain from
this disobedience, you will have no other basis of virtue left in spite of your
show of piety in the observance of minor and trifling religious rituals. You
were enjoined to pay the Zakat so that you may be blessed with mercy. but today
the only right way of expending the Zakat is to stake contributions towards the
success of the campaign that is being carried on for the establishment of the
Divine Way under the leadership of this Messenger, for the basic requirements of
Zakat can only be fulfilled in this way. You were told that Allah has prescribed
His Mercy for those who believe in His Revelations: therefore if you reject the
Revelations that Allah is sending down to His Messenger, you will have failed to
fulfil this last condition, even though you might go on asserting that you
believe in the Revelations of the Torah."
Here the use of the word (ummi)
for the Holy Prophet is very significant. This title was used to break the
national pride and arrogance of the Jews, who called the non-Jews ummis
(gentiles). In this respect, they were so arrogant that, as a nation, not to
speak of acknowledging an ummi as their leader. they were not ready even to
concede basic human rights to the gentiles. They asserted, "...... We are not to
be called to account for our behavior towards the gentiles ...." (III: 75). That
is why Allah has used the word ummi before "Prophet". as if to say. "Now your
salvation solely depends on following this Ummi Prophet. If you follow him, you
will receive a portion of My mercy. otherwise you are doomed to the same wrath
to which you have been subjected during the centuries of your deviation."
113There are clear references in the Bible to the coming of Muhammad
(Allah's peace be upon him). For instance, see Deut. 18: 15-19, Matthew 21: 33
4V. John I: 19-21. 14: 15-17, 25-30, 15: 25-26, 16: 7-15.
114That is,
"He makes lawful those pure things which they have made unlawful. and stakes
unlawful those impure things which they have made lawful."
115That is,
"He relieves them of the burdens that had been laid on them by the legal
hair-splittings of their jurists and by the exaggerated piety of their spiritual
leaders, and by the superstitious restrictions and regulations imposed by their
common people. Likewise this Messenger makes their lives free from the fetters
with which they themselves had bound their lives"
116The theme of the
address that was interrupted by the parenthesis (vv. 157-158) is again being
resumed.
117The majority of the translators render v. 159 like this:
"Among the people of Moses there is a group that guides and decides in
accordance with the Truth" . They mean to say that there existed such a group
among the Jews at the time of the Revelation of the Qur'an. But from the context
in which this occurs, we conclude that there was such a group of good people
among the Israelites during the time of Prophet Moses. This has been mentioned
here to show that there were some good people even at that time, when the
Israelites had gone to the lowest level of moral and spiritual degradation and
adopted the worship of the golden calf, and were punished by Allah.
118This refers to the organization of the Israelites that has been stated in
v.12 of Al-Ma'idah and given in detail in Numbers. the fourth Book of the Bible.
According to this. Prophet Moses was bidden in the desert of Sinai by the
Eternal to count up the total members of the community of Israel. Accordingly
they were numbered and divided into twelve clans, comprising the descendants of
the ten sons of Prophet Jacob and two sons of Prophet Joseph. The twelve men.
who were at the head of each clan, were made the leaders of their ancestral
clans so that they should look after the moral, religious, social, cultural and
military condition of each clan and enforce the Commandments. However. the
ancestral clan of Prophets Moses and Aaron, the clan of the Levites, the twelfth
son of Prophet Jacob. was left out. It was not counted among the other twelve
clans of Israel. but was organized as a separate community and was entrusted
with the duty of looking after the religious and spiritual welfare of all the
clans of general Israel.
119The above-mentioned organization was one of
the great favors that had been conferred by Allah on the Israelites. In
continuation of the same, three more favors have been mentioned here: (1) The
miraculous supply of water during their stay in the Sinai Peninsula. (2) The sky
was covered with clouds to protect them from the scorching heat of the desert.
(3) Manna and Salva were sent down in a supernatural manner to feed them there.
It is obvious that if adequate arrangements had not been made for the supply of
these three most important necessities of life. this big community that
consisted of about two million people would have perished with heat, hunger and
thirst.
A visit to the Peninsula makes one realize that it is not
possible even today to arrange for the supply of water and food and for shelter
from the sun, if such a large number of people should happen to visit that place
without previous arrangements. It is so thinly populated that its total
population is not more than a few thousands. It would be a headache even for a
modern government, if it wanted to send an army of. say, only 500,000 soldiers
there in this twentieth century of inventions. That is why many research
scholars who believe neither in Revealed Books nor in miracles have rejected the
historical fact that the Israelites ever passed through and stayed in that part
of the Peninsula for years, as mentioned in the Qur'an and the Bible. They opine
that they might have passed through a region somewhere to the south of Palestine
and to the north of Arabia. They consider that it is inconceivable for such a
large number of people to encamp so long, under the hard geographical and
economical conditions of the Peninsula, when in addition to these the means of
supplies from Egypt were also cut off, and there was a constant threat of attack
from the Amelikites who lived in the eastern and northern parts of the
Peninsula.
If we keep in view these things, we can appreciate the true
value of the favors that have been mentioned here. At the same time, it also
becomes obvious that this community showed ingratitude by committing acts of
disobedience and infidelity, which abound in its history. (Compare this with
E.N.'s 72, 73 and 76 of Al-Baqarah).
120Now some incidents from the
history of the Israelites are being related to show that their response to the
above-mentioned favors of Allah was very wicked and rebellious, which gradually
threw them into the lowest abyss of destruction.
121Please refer to
E.N.'s 74 and 75 of Al-Baqarah.
122The research scholars are of the
opinion that the place refers to AiIah or Elat or Elote where the modern Jewish
state of Israel has constructed a seaport of the same name and near which is
situated Jordan's famous seaport of Aqabah. It is at the end of that long inlet
of the Red Sea which is between the eastern pan of the Sinai Peninsula and the
western side of Arabia. It was a very important trade center in the heyday of
the Israelites. Prophet Solomon had made this city the chief port of his fleet
in the Red Sea.
The incident referred to here has neither been mentioned
in the religious books of the Jews nor in their history books but the way in
which the Qur'an has related it here and in Al-Baqarah clearly shows that at the
time of its Revelation, it was well known among the Israelites. That is why the
Jews of AI-Madinah did not challenge its validity; although they never missed a
chance of raising an objection against the Holy Prophet.
123Sabbath
(Saturday) is the Holy day of the week. The Lord made Saturday the Sabbath day
for the Jews, saying, "Verily my Sabbaths ye will keep: for it is a sign between
Me and you throughout your generations .... every one that defileth it shall
surely be put to death: for whosoever death any work therein, that soul shall be
cut off from among his people. . . wherefore the children of Israel shall keep
the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a
perpetual covenant." (Exodus 31: 12-16). But, in spite of this Commandment that
held out the punishment of death for any worldly work-from burning fire in the
houses to taking any service from animals or slaves, the Israelites had begun to
practice open violation of this law. So much so that during the time of Prophet
Jeremiah (628-586 B.C.), they used to carry in loads through the gates of
Jerusalem on the sabbath day. Therefore the Prophet had to hold out the threat
that he would 'light a fire in the city-gates that would burn up the buildings
of Jerusalem and never be put out.' (Jeremiah 17: 21-27). Likewise Prophet
Ezekiel (595-536 B.C.) also complains bitterly of the desecration of Lord's
Sabbath by the Jews on a national scale (Ezekiel 20: 12-24). From these
quotations it appears that the desecration of Sabbath mentioned here in the
Qur'an probably took place during this period.
124Allah puts His
servants to trial in many ways. When He sees that some of them are turning away
from obedience to His Law, and are growing more and more prone to disobedience,
He opens the doors of disobedience before them by holding out such temptations
as are very alluring to those people. Thus their evil intentions openly come to
the surface and they commit such crimes from which they had refrained only for
the lack of necessary opportunities for them.
125This shows that there
were three kinds of people in that town. First, there were those who were openly
and boldly violating the Divine rules and regulations. Then there were some who
did not violate the laws themselves but silently saw others violating them: they
told admonishers that it was no good to give any piece of advice to those
hardened law-breakers. Lastly, there were others who were so much imbued with
the sense of honor and courage that they could not tolerate such open violations
of the Divine Law. They enjoined the lawbreakers to practice virtue and refrain
from evil in the hope that they would return to the Right Way, or at least, they
themselves would be in a position to present the proof before their Lord that
they, on their part, did their duty to admonish those law-breakers. Accordingly,
when the scourge of Allah befell that township, the only people who were
delivered from it were those who belonged to the third group. According to the
Qur'an, they were delivered because they had shown their concern for the
eradication of evil. The other two groups were counted among the workers of
iniquity and punished in proportion to the nature and extent of their crime.
Some commentators are of the view that it cannot be said with certainty
whether the second group was among those who were delivered or among those who
were punished, for the Qur'an is not explicit about this. According to a
tradition from Ibn `Abbas (Allah be pleased with him), he was at first of the
opinion that the second group was among those who were punished, but afterwards
his disciple 'Ikrimah convinced him that it was among those who were delivered.
But when we consider deeply the words of the Qur'an, we feel that his tirst
opinion was correct for it is obvious that on the occasion of a scourge, the
concerned township was divided into two groups only. One group consisted of
those who were visited by the scourge, and the other of those who were delivered
from it. Now when the Qur'an is explicit that the group that was delivered
consisted of those who were forbidding evil, the other two groups must have been
among those who were not delivered. This conclusion is supported by "in order to
offer an excuse before your Lord", and also by the succeeding verse, It is quite
clear from this that the whole township, wherein the law of Allah is openly
violated, is seized by His wrath, with the only exception of those who forbid
evil. One will not be delivered simply because one did not violate the Law but
shall (rave to show practically that one did exert one's utmost to establish
virtue and eradicate vice. This view is further supported by other passages from
the Qur'an and Hadith that this is the Law of Allah concerning collective
crimes. The Qur'an says, "Fear that trial which will not involve in scourge only
those who will be guilty of transgression from among you ......." (VIII: 25).
Explaining this verse, the Holy Prophet says, "Allah dces not punish the common
people for the sins of sinful people unless the common people connive at those
glaring sins that are committed before their very eyes and show no displeasure
at them, in spite of the fact that they are in a position to do so. When they
degenerate to such a degree, then Allah seizes the criminals as well as the
connivers".
Besides this, it appears from the verses under discussion
that the scourge of Allah was sent to that township in two installments. The
first has been called a severe scourge. The second was "Be apes". We are of the
opinion that the scourge in the first case was inflicted on both the first and
the second groups, but in the second case it was inflicted on the first group
only. (And Allah knows best. If I am right, this is from Allah and if I am
wrong, it is from me. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. ) known
126Please refer to E.N. 83, Al-Baqarah.
127The Arabic word (ta-azzana)
"to give notice" or ,"to make known".
128Such a warning had been
administered over and over again to the Israelites ever since the eighth century
before the Christian era and is contained in the Books of lsaiah. Jeremiah and
of the Prophets after them. Then Prophet Christ also administered the same in
several of his addresses in the Gospels. Last of all, the Qur'an also gave the
same warning. The fact that since then the Jewish people have always been abased
and degraded at one place or the other is a clear proof that the Qur'an and
those Books are really the Books of Allah.
129In other words, "They
commit a sin, like illegal possession, knowing well that it is a sin, in the
expectation of forgiveness. They rely on the presumption that they are the
favorites of Allah; therefore, they will be pardoned somehow or other, in spite
of what they did. That is why they neither feel ashamed bf a sin nor repent of
it. Moreover they would again commit a similar sin, as soon as there is another
opportunity for it. What a wretched people they are! They inherited the Book
that was to make them the leaders of the world; yet they aspired to nothing
higher than to grab the transitory things of this world. Thus they became the
wretched worshipers of this world, instead of being the bearers of the banner of
justice and righteousness and the leaders of virtue and reform."
130They
themselves have studied the Book, and know that there is absolutely no mention
in the Torah of an unconditional salvation of the Israelites. When neither Allah
guaranteed to them nor did their Prophets ever give them the assurance that they
would obtain salvation anyhow, what right have they to ascribe to Allah what He
never told them? Besides this, their guilt becomes more heinous because they
were breaking the Covenant they had made with Allah that they would say nothing
but the truth in the name of Allah.
131This verse may be translated in
two ways. The one that has been adopted in the Text means this: "The abode of
the Hereafter is worthy of good people and will be given only to those who arc
God fearing for it is not the monopoly of any person or family as such. How can
it be possible that one should commit such deeds as deserve punishment yet get a
good place in the Hereafter, just because one is a Jew or an Israelite"? The
second rendering will be this: The abode of the Hereafter is better for God
fearing people who prefer the good life in the Hereafter to a life of pleasure
in this world, for only those people who have no fear of Allah can prefer the
pleasures of this life to the joys and peace of the Next World.
132This
is a reference to the event that occurred at the foot of Mt. Sinai on the
occasion when the Stone Tablets containing the Covenant were given to Moses. The
Bible says, "And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with
God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was
altogether on a smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke
thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly".
(Exodus 19: 17-18).
Allah caused such conditions before taking a Covenant
from the children of Israel in the above environment so that they might realize
the greatness, the exaltation and the glory of Allah with Whom they were making
the Covenant, and the importance of the Covenant itself. It does not, however,
mean that they were not willing to enter into the Compact with Allah and were
coerced to do so in this terrifying way. The fact is that they all were sincere
believers and had gone to the foot of the mountain for the very object of making
a Covenant with Allah. But, instead of making the Covenant in an ordinary way,
these awe-inspiring conditions were created in order to impress on theta its
great importance so that they should keep in mind the power of the Almighty God,
with Whom they were making it and the fear of grave consequences of breaking it.
Here the address to the Israelites comes to an end. In the succeeding
passages, it is directed to mankind in general, and to the people of the Holy
Prophet in particular.
133The previous theme ended with this that God
took a Covenant from the children of Israel to the effect that they should
surrender to and obey their Lord. From here the address is being directed to the
whole of mankind, which is being reminded that all the people, and not the
Israelites alone, are bound by a .Covenant. Therefore they shall be called upon
to render individually an account as to how far they had observed it.
134We team from several traditions that. this thing happened on the occasion of
the creation of Adam. At that time the angels were gathered together and
commanded to bow down before him and man's appointment as Allah's vicegerent was
proclaimed; likewise the whole of mankind that was to be born up to the Day of
Resurrection was brought into existence at one and the same time and imbued with
common-sense and brought forth in His presence and asked to testify that Allah
is their Lord.
A tradition of Hadrat Ubayy-bin-Ka`ab which is most
probably based on the knowledge he received from the Holy Prophet, is the best
commentary or this verse. He says:
"Allah gathered the whole of mankind
and arranged it into separate groups according to their kinds or periods and
gave them human shape and power of speech. Then He took a Covenant from them and
made them witnesses concerning themselves and asked, `Am I not your Lord?' They
answered, 'Most certainly, You alone are our Lord.' Then Allah said, `I ask the
earth and the heavens and your father Adam to bear witness to this effect lest
you should say on the Day of Resurrection that you had no knowledge of this. So
note it well that none other than I is worthy of worship and that there is no
other Lord than I. You should not set up any partner with Me. I will send to you
My Messengers, who will remind you of this Covenant that you are Making with Me;
I will also send My Book to you . At this the whole of mankind replied, "We bear
witness to this: You alone are our Lord and our Deity: we have no other lord or
deity than You."
Some people take vv.172-173 as a symbolic narration:
They are of the opinion that in this way the Qur'an intends merely to impress
the fact that Allah's Divinity is implanted in the human nature and relates it
in a way as if it had happened as a tangible event. But we do not consider this
interpretation as correct because the Qur'an and the Hadith describe it as an
event which actually took place. More than that it has been asserted that on the
Day of Judgment the event of the Covenant will be brought forward as an
authentic proof against mankind. Therefore there is no reason why we should
regard this event as a symbolic narration. We believe that this event actually
took place in the physical world. The All-Powerful Allah did actually bring into
existence and gave understanding and power of speech to each and every
individual in the posterity of Adam whom He intended to create up to the Day of
Resurrection and assembled before Himself at one and the same time and took the
Covenant from all of them to the effect that they had no other lord or god than
Himself and that they had no other right way of life than Islam (surrender and
submission to Allah).
Those who consider such an assemblage as impossible
are in fact skeptical of the limitless powers of Allah: otherwise they would not
have entertained any doubts about it because this is as easy for Allah as the
gradual birth of mankind. The All-Powerful Allah, Who is bringing human beings
into existence in the way he is doing now, has also the power to assemble all
mankind before its birth and after its death. It meals to reason that Allah let
all mankind know that He was going to make His vicegerents after giving them
wisdom and understanding and authority and the right to exploit the resources of
the earth, and that He also took the oath of allegiance from them. Thus it is
obvious and clear that there is nothing impossible or strange in this assemblage
of the whole of mankind on the occasion of Adam's creation.
135In this
verse the object, for which the Covenant was taken from the whole of mankind has
been stated: it was to make each and every individual fully and consciously
responsible for his deeds so that those who would rebel against their Lord
should be held accountable for their guilt. It has been made plain that after
this Covenant they could not justify any sin on the ground that they had
committed it in ignorance nor could they shift the responsibility for deviation
on to their predecessors. Allah warns that by taking this Covenant He has imbued
in the heart of every individual that He alone is his Allah and Lord. Therefore
none can absolve himself from the responsibility for a deviation, saying, "I was
quite unaware of this", or "I was led astray by my wrong environment."
In
this connection, let us now consider a few questions that might arise. Supposing
that this Covenant did take place, do we have any remembrance of this? Is anyone
of us conscious that he was brought before his Allah on the occasion of the
Creation and that the said dialogue did actually take place? If the answer is in
the negative, then how can it be justified to bring such a Covenant as evidence
against us, when we do not remember it nor are conscious of this Covenant?
The answer is that this will be brought against us as an evidence because,
though its remembrance and consciousness has been removed from the memory and
the conscious mind, it has been retained in the subconscious mind.
As to
why it has been removed from the memory and the conscious mind the answer is
obvious. If the impression of the Covenant had remained fresh in the memory and
the conscious mind, then everyone would have automatically observed it, and the
trial and test would have become meaningless. Thus the very object for which man
has been created would have been tendered meaningless. It has, however, been
retained in the subconscious mind as a potentiality, and can be brought into
consciousness by intuition and internal factors as in the case of all other
branches of subconscious knowledge. The fact is that whatever man has achieved
in culture, civilization, morality, sciences and all other aspects of human
activities, lay hidden as potentialities and was brought out by external factors
and intuition. But it is also a fact that no education, no training, no
environment, no external factor, no intuition is capable of creating any other
thing than the one that already lies potentially in the subconscious mind.
Likewise none of these factors is in any way capable of totally effacing the
things that lie hidden potentially in the subconscious mind. The most that these
factors can do is to pervert its nature, but in spite of all efforts to pervert
it, it will still remain latent in the subconscious mind and will try to come to
the surface in response to external factors. The following is true of all the
branches of potential knowledge:
All these exist as potentialities in our
subconscious minds and prove their existence when they appear as actual actions.
All potentialities require external stimuli, teaching and training to take
practical shapes which, in fact. are a response of our potentialities to the
external stimuli.
All these things can be suppressed and made dormant by
wrong desires and environment and perversions but can never be effaced totally
from the subconscious mind. Therefore these can be reformed and converted by the
help of inner feelings and external efforts.
Exactly the same is true of
the intuitional knowledge we have regarding our own position in the universe and
our relationship to the Creator of the universe.
That this knowledge does
really exist is proved by the fact that it has been appearing every now and then
in every period of human life in every pan of the earth, in every habitation, in
every posterity and in every generation and that no earthly power has been
successful in effacing it.
That this conforms to the reality is shown by
the fact that whenever this knowledge has actually been applied to practical
life, it has always produced good and useful results.
There has always
been need of some external appeal to cause them to appear and take practical
shapes. Accordingly the Prophets, the Books, and inviters to the Truth from
among the followers of the Prophets have been performing this service. That is
why the Qur'an calls them remembrancers: for the Prophets, the Books and the
inviters to the Truth do not create anything new in the minds of the people but
refresh and bring to the surface by reminders what was already latent in them.
Another proof of the existence of this hidden knowledge in the human mind is
that in every age, it has made a positive response to the call of the inviter
and has come out as soon as it recognized his voice.
Above all, the
greatest proof of the existence of this knowledge is that it Has survived in the
human heap in spite of the strenuous and continuous efforts to suppress, conceal
and pervert it. Though the powers of ignorance and folly, lusts and prejudices,
misguidance and temptations, have succeeded in producing shirk, atheism,
irreligiousness, deviation, they have failed to efface the impress of this
inherent knowledge from the human heart. That is why it comes to the surface
whenever efforts are made to revive it.
As regards the evidence of this
inherent knowledge on the Day of Judgment, Allah will refresh and revive the
memory of this Covenant, whereby they all acknowledged Allah alone as their Lord
and Deity. Then He will show that this remained embedded in their hearts, in
spite of its persistent denial in this world and will provide from their own
selves the proof of the fact that the impress of this Covenant was always
present in their minds and will show from the records of their lives how and
when they suppressed the voice of this inherent knowledge: how and when their
intuitional knowledge rebelled against their deviations, and how often it urged
theta to respond to the invitation of the inviters to the Truth and how they
silenced their inner voice by means of different pretexts. At that time, when
all the secrets will be exposed, none will be able to put forward any excuses.
Everyone shall have to confess one's guilt in plain and clear words. That is why
the Qur'an says that they shall not say, "We had no knowledge of this Covenant,"
but will have to confess, "We were disbelievers and knowingly denied the Truth".
They will stand witness against themselves to the effect that they were
disbelievers.
136"Our Signs" are the impresses of the knowledge of the
Truth that have been embedded in the human heart and point clearly to Allah's
existence.
137That is, "So that these people should (turn away from the
paths of deviation and rebellion and) come back (to the paths of obedience and
service)".
138The wording of the Text shows that he was not an imaginary
person invented for the sake of a parable but did really exist. Allah and His
Messenger did not mention him by name because the purpose for which the event
had been narrated was served without this. Therefore his name was kept secret so
as to avoid giving him unnecessary notoriety; and this generous way has
generally been followed both in the Qur'an and the Traditions. That is why they
have not mentioned the name of the person who has been cited as a bad example.
Some commentators have, however, mentioned some specific names belonging to the
ancient history or to the time of the Holy Prophet. For instance, some mention
the name of Ba'alam, the son of Ba`ura, others that of Umayyah-bin-Abi-Assalt
and Saifi-ibn Ar-Rahib. But the fact is that the identity of that person has not
been established by the Qur'an or the Hadith. Therefore it is still a secret,
but the parable applies to everyone who bears such a conduct.
139As this
passage deals with a very important subject, it requires detailed continents.
The person, who has been held out as a bad type, possessed the knowledge of
the Revelations of Allah and was acquainted with the Reality.
Therefore
it was reasonably expected that his knowledge ought to have guarded him against
the way he knew to be wrong, and guided him to the way he knew to be right. Then
Allah would have exalted him to the high rank of humanity because of his
practice in accordance with the knowledge of the Revelation. But he became
inclined towards the benefits, lusts and comforts of the world and succumbed to
temptations. He was so overpowered by avarice of these lower desires that he
discarded all the higher things and let go waste all the rational and moral
potentialities of progress. Thus he transgressed all the limits that he ought to
have observed in accordance with the demand of his knowledge. When Satan, who
was lying in ambush nearby, saw him turning away deliberately and willfully from
the Truth because of his moral weaknesses, he chased him down and down froth one
abyss to the other, till he fell into the company of those who had utterly last
their reason under his misguidance.
Allah has likened such a person to a
dog because of his similarity to it in avarice and lust. The dog is proverbial
for these characteristics: its ever hanging tongue and watering mouth point to
its insatiable greed: it goes on smelling the earth even when it is hit with a
piece of stone; it picks it up in its teeth, hoping that it might be a piece of
bone. Its intense greed for exclusive ownership becomes manifest when it comes
across a big carcass, sufficient to feed a number of dogs; but it does not let
any other dog share it. The second characteristic of the dog is its being very
sexy. It is because of these things that the worldly man, who transgresses all
bounds imposed by Faith and knowledge, has been likened to a dog. Then he, like
the dog, looks for nothing but the means of filling up his belly and gratifying
his lust.
140It does not mean that.... "There are many Jinns and human
beings whom We have created for the sole purpose of sending them to Hell and
with the intention of making them fuel for it." But what it means is this: "We
created them and gave them hearts, brains, eyes and ears but these wicked people
did not make use of these faculties to discern the Truth from falsehood and made
themselves fuel for Hell by their evil deeds."
The way that has been
adopted to express the above thing is that of showing intense regret in human
language. For example, when the young sons of a mother are killed in the battle
she says to the people, "I brought them up to become fodder for the cannon". But
she does not mean that she really brought them up for this purpose. She wants to
show her intense regret and sorrow and blame those who were responsible for the
battle.
141Now that the discourse is coming to an end, the people are
being admonished and reproved to guard against some well known deviations. At
the same time they have been warned of the serious consequences of the attitude
of ridicule and denial they were adopting towards the Message of the Holy
Prophet.
142This admonition about giving names to Allah is of great
importance, for different names reflect different concepts which people form of
Him in their minds. It is obvious that people give such names to things as
express their conception of them. The defects in the conceptions of things are
reflected by the defects in the names and defects in the names show the defects
in the conceptions. Besides this, man's relationships and his dealings depend on
that particular. conception which he forms about some one or some thing. The
defect in the conception of things shows itself in the defect of one's
relationship to it. On the other hand, if one's conception of a thing is correct
and right, one's relationship to it will also be of the correct and right son.
The same is true in the case of one's relationship with Allah. The error one
commits in giving wrong names to Allah (whether for distinction with reference
to His attributes) is the result of one's error in the creed and in the
conception of Allah and His attributes. A man commits the same kind of error and
to the same extent in the formation of his moral attitude towards life that he
commits in his creed and his conception of Allah. In fact a man's moral attitude
towards life is wholly governed by his conception of Allah and his relationship
to Him and the universe. That is why Allah has commanded the people to give most
excellent names to Him and to refrain from giving wrong names to Hint, for He is
worthy of excellent names only. Therefore the best thing is to give Him
excellent names because the results of the perversion of His names are most
serious "Excellent names" are those names that point to the greatness, the
supremacy, the sanctity, the purity and the perfection of His attributes. It
shall be deemed perversion of His names to give Hint such names as are below His
dignity; which are against the reverence due to Him; which ascribe defects and
shortcomings to Him or mislead one to form wrong creeds about Him. Again it
shall also be a perversion to give such names to any of His creation as are
worthy of Allah alone
As regards the Command ".....leave alone those who
pervert His names," it means, "........you need not involve yourself in useless
discussions with them, if they do not listen to your admonition and do not try
to understand what you say, but use crooked arguments to confuse the issue They
themselves shall see the consequences of their deviation".
143These
questions have been posed to refute the charge that their comrade, Muhammad
(Allah's peace be upon him), was suffering from a disorder of the mind, for
otherwise he would not have given the Message he was conveying. They have been
asked to reflect upon the fact that he was born and bred among them and had been
their comrade before he claimed that he was appointed a Messenger by Allah.
During all those years they had known him to be of a sound mind and of a good
nature. Thus it is obvious that they charged him of having a distracted mind not
because of what he said before his Prophethood but because of what he proclaimed
as a Prophet. That is why they have been asked to reflect upon and point out
anything from his Message which they regarded as meaningless, unreal and
irrational. If they had ever reflected upon the wisdom of the wonderful
administration of the heavens and the earth or observed closely any creation of
Allah, they would have come to the inevitable conclusion that the whole system
of the universe, nay, each and every particle of His creation is a clear
evidence of the Truth of His Message. For all these things refute shirk and
prove the Oneness of Allah and invite people to His worship and arouse in them
the sense of responsibility and accountability. And that was what their brother
was preaching.
144That is to say, "They do not realize even this much
that none knows the exact time of one's death, and that they should, therefore,
make the best use of the respite that has been given them and repent and reform
themselves; otherwise they will meet with serious consequences."
145That
is, "I cannot tell you the exact time of Resurrection because I myself do not
know anything about the unseen. Had I possessed any knowledge of the future, I
would not have suffered any harm because I would have avoided it and achieved
many benefits because of my fore knowledge. Therefore it is very foolish on your
part to ask me about it merely to test my Prophethood."
146In order to
understand this passage, it should be kept in mind that it criticizes the pagan
Arabs for associating partners with Allah in the matter of the birth of
children. They have been told to remember that the first man and his mate were
brought into being by Allah: and they could not deny this. Then they also knew
that it is He Who has arranged the birth of human beings after the first pair:
that it is He by Whose will a woman becomes pregnant and who nourishes the child
in her womb in a wonderful manner, and that it is He Who imbues it with a sound
body and sound mind with various powers and capabilities and lets it come out as
a healthy human being. They could not deny that all this is in the power of
Allah alone. If Allah willed, He could have created a monkey, a serpent or any
other animal in her womb or made the child deformed or physically or mentally
defective. They knew that no one had the power to make any change in Allah's
creation. That is why all their hopes were centred in Allah during the period of
pregnancy and prayers were invoked for the birth of a perfect child. But it is
an irony that the pagans as well as the Believers change their whole attitude
after the birth of a child, and, instead of being grateful to Allah, they make
their grateful offerings to some god or goddess or saint or the like and give
such names as smack of shirk-Pir Bakhsh, "Favor of the Saint," or Abdur-Rasul,
"Servant of the Prophet" etc.
Though the passage is quite clear, yet a
misunderstanding has arisen about it, which has been supported by weak
traditions. The mention of the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) in the
beginning, and immediately after it of a man and a woman, has led to the
confusion that both the pairs were one and the same. Therefore some commentators
were of the opinion that the man was Adam and the woman who became pregnant was
Eve and that they prayed to Allah for their child in the womb, but when it was
born, they associated others with Allah in this favor. Then, with the help of
weak traditions they concocted a complete story about it: When several children
of Eve died soon after their birth, Satan came to her at the birth of one, and
seduced her saying, "If you give him the name of `Abdul Harith, the servant of
Satan, he will survive." It is all the more regrettable that some of these
traditions have been linked up to the Holy Prophet. But the fact is that all
these traditions are unauthentic and are not supported by the wording of the
Qur'an and by the context in which they occur. The Qur'an criticizes the pagans
for associating others with Allah in the matter of birth, when they themselves
acknowledge that it is He Who is the Creator of the children which are born as a
result of the cohabitation of a man and a woman. That is why they also invoke
Allah for the safe delivery of the child; when they are not sure of the
perfection of the child. But after the safe delivery of a sound child, they turn
to others with gratitude and offerings. It is thus clear that it is not any
particular man and woman who have been admonished for their behavior, but every
man and every woman, (including pagan men and women) who behave like that.
In this connection it should also be noted that the condition of the
present-day Muslims is even worse than that of the pagan Arabs whom the Qur'an
has condemned in this passage. They committed shirk after the delivery of the
child, though before this they prayed to Allah for the child. But the Muslims of
today, who claim to be the bearers of the creed of Tauhid, go far beyond this.
These wretched people pray to others even for the birth of a child and make vows
to others during the period of pregnancy, and after the delivery of the child
make offerings to the associates they set up with Allah. Yet they consider those
Arabs as pagans who deserved Hell, and themselves as Believers in One Allah, for
whom Paradise has been guaranteed!
147This is to show the helplessness
of the deities of the pagans. Not to speak of guiding their worshipers to the
Right Way, they themselves are unable to follow the guidance of others. So much
so that they cannot give any answer to the call of any one.
148It is
obvious that here they are being criticized for one of the three kinds of shirk
they practiced. First, they worshiped idols, images or some other symbols of the
objects of their worship. The second kind of shirk was the worship of some
persons or spirits which were represented by idols, pictures, etc. The third
kind of shirk consisted of the wrong creeds that were the basis of these
practices of shirk. All the three kinds of practices have been criticized
severely in the Qur'an at different places. Here it condemns the idols before
which the pagan Arabs performed their religious rituals and presented their
supplications and made their offerings.
149This is the answer to the
threats which the pagan Arabs held out to the Holy Prophet to this effect, "If
you do not refrain from opposing our deities and from preaching against them
they will inflict their wrath on you and destroy you."
149aThat is,
"Those who are under the influence of Satans".
150In this passage Allah
has taught His Messenger some very important things about the methods of
inviting people to promulgating the Message of Islam, and of guiding and
reforming people. The object is to instruct the Holy Prophet and, through him,
his successors to enable them to carry on his mission after him. Some salient
points are given below and should be considered in the order they are given:
(1) The most important thing is that the inviter to the Truth should have a
large and tender heart, and should be forgiving and forbearing. He should be
friendly to his companions, kind to the common people, and should show
forbearance to his opponents. He should tolerate the weaknesses of his comrades
and endure patiently the persecution of his enemies. He should keep cool even
under the greatest provocation and connive at the most unpleasant things. He
should bear patiently the bitterest words, the most wicked slanders and the most
cruel persecutions. Harsh treatment, hard-heartedness, bitter talk, and
vindictive retaliations are as harmful as poison for this work: this spoils the
work and does not mend it.
There is a tradition of the Holy Prophet to
the same effect: "My Lord has enjoined me to utter what is just whether I am in
a state of anger or happiness: to try my best to have cordial relations even
with those who are inimical to me: to render their rights even to those who
deprive me of my rights: to forgive even those who are cruel to me." He advised
those whom he sent on this Mission: "Wherever you go, your visit should be a
harbinger of happiness and not of hatred: you should become the source of
comfort to the people and not of bringing hardships on them". Allah has also
praised this characteristic of the Holy Prophet: ("O Messenger, ) it is a great
blessing of Allah that you are very lenient towards and gentle with them. If you
had been harsh and hard-hearted, they would have scattered away from you. . . "
(III: 159).
(2) The second formula for the success of this Mission is to
avoid philosophizing and to enjoin those simple and well-known virtues that are
universally accepted to be virtues, and are easily recognized by common sense
which an ordinary person possesses. Thus the appeal of the inviter to the Truth
convinces every one. Its greatest advantage is that it helps win over the common
people to the side of promulgators of the Truth, against its antagonists. When
the common people, in spite of their prejudices, see on one side a gentle and
kind person inviting them towards simple virtues, which they themselves wider
stand well, and on the other, his antagonists opposing his noble mission with
unmoral and inhuman devices, they turn away by and by from those degraded
opponents and come to the inviter of the Truth. As a result of this, in the end,
only those remain in tire field to oppose the Truth, whose own interests are
closely linked with falsehood or those who are slaves of the traditions of their
forefathers and of the customs of ignorance. The Holy Prophet owed his great
success in Arabia to this wise policy. Then his successors achieved the same in
the adjoining countries, where Islam spread by leaps and bounds and was accepted
by the overwhelming majority of the people.
(3) The other important
instruction that has been given for the promulgation of Islam is to avoid
useless discussions with the ignorant people. The inviter to the Truth should
always be strictly on the guard against involvement in useless talk and
discussion with mischievous and quarrelsome people. He should take the utmost
care to approach and converse with those people only who adopt a reasonable and
rational attitude towards his Message. As soon as he feels that his addressees
are adopting the attitude of ignorance and are resorting to argumentations,
wranglings and taunts, he should make an honorable retreat from them. This is
because it is not only useless to be involved in such things but it is harmful
to the mission, as valuable time and energy, that could have been usefully
employed for the promulgation of the Message, go to waste.
(4) In case
the inviter to the Truth feels that the provocations from the mischievous people
are becoming too much for him to bear and he cannot withstand their tyrannies,
mischiefs, foolish objections and accusations, he should at once realize that it
is Satan who is tempting him to retaliate. Then the best thing is to seek refuge
in Allah, and invoke His help to protect His servant from doing in anger
anything that might be harmful to his Mission. This is possible only if one
remains cool-headed even under the greatest provocations, for one can never
think or act wisely if one is easily excited by anger, insult, injustice or
cruelty etc. But Satan who does not like this Mission to succeed and is always
devising schemes to defeat it, first incites own disciples to attack the inviter
to the Truth and then incites him to make counter-attacks on them. As Satan's
appeal is couched in very alluring words and pious terms, it is not an easy
thing to withstand it. That is why pious people have been fore-warned, in vv.
201-202, of this serious danger and instructed that if they intend to refrain
from evil, they should immediately get alarmed as soon as they feel the evil
effects of the temptation of Satan and its incitement in their hearts and stand
on their guard. Then they will clearly see the right course that they should
adopt on such occasions and under such circumstances for the sake of their
Mission.
As for "the brethren of Satan", they become self-seekers under
their influence, and cannot withstand their temptation. So they follow satans,
who tempt them to retaliate, and resort to every kind of abuse and dishonesty
like their enemies.
Besides the above-mentioned particular implications
of this passage, it bears a general meaning as well. It helps differentiate the
way of the pious from that of the impious. Those who really fear Allah and
sincerely desire to refrain from evil, are so sensitive that even if an evil
thought so much as touches their hearts, it pricks their consciences and rankles
in their hearts and they seek Allah's refuge from Satan. This is because they
are not used to evil thoughts, evil desires and evil intentions, for these are
foreign to their nature. As soon as they become conscious of their presence in
their minds, their eyes are opened and their consciences recognize them. Then
they seek Allah's refuge from Satan in order to cleanse their hearts of those
dirty things. In contrast to them, those, who do not tear Allah nor desire to
refrain from evil and those who have satans as their brethren, go on cherishing
evil thoughts, evil intentions and evil designs in their hearts without feeling
anything strange in them. So much so that no sense of cleanliness is left in
their minds: and in due course, these ding things take practical shapes and
expose them before the world.
151This question of the disbelievers
implied a taunt. They meant to say, "Well sir, as you are posing to be a
Prophet, you ought to have faked up a miracle in proof thereof". The grandeur
that is contained in the answer that follows is worthy of the Book of Allah.
152This is the answer to the question: "I am not in a position to invent
miracles or compose or patch up verses on your demand or when I feel their need.
I am only a Messenger and my duty is to follow the Guidance of the One Who has
sent me. Therefore instead of demanding miracles from me, you should consider
seriously the contents of the Qur'an that has been sent down to me, as it
contains spiritual lights. Those who accept this, see the straight path of life,
and their good moral qualities begin to show the signs of "Divine Mercy".
153It means, "In your bigotry and obduracy you turn a deaf ear to the Qur'an
when it is being recited, and make a loud noise so that no one should be able to
listen to it. Leave this wrong attitude towards it and listen to it with
attention and consider the teachings contained in it. It is just possible that
your acquaintance with it may enlighten your hearts and make you co-sharers with
the Believers in the mercy of your Lord."
Incidentally, it should be
noted that the above answer to the taunts of the opponents is so nice and sweet
and appealing to the hearts that words cannot describe its excellence. There is
also a lesson of wisdom for those who are engaged in the missionary work.
Though the real object of this verse is the same that has been stated above,
incidentally it also enjoins the hearers to remain silent and listen to it as a
mark of respect which is due to the Book of Allah. It is also deduced from this
that when the Imam recites the Qur'an during the Salat, the followers in the
congregation should listen to it in silence, and they should not recite
anything. There is, however, difference of opinion among the Imams in regard to
its interpretation. According to Imam Abu Hanifah and his companions, the
followers in the congregation should not recite anything whether the Imam is
reciting the Qur'an aloud or silently in his mind. However, Imam Malik and Imam
Ahmad arc of the opinion that only in that case when the Imam is reciting the
Qur'an aloud, the followers should not recite anything, but in the other case
they should recite Surah Al-Fatihah. But according to Imam Shafi'i, the
followers must recite Surah AI-Fatihah, whether the Imam is reciting loudly or
silently in his mind. He bases his opinion on the Traditions according to which
one's Sales is not complete without the recital of Surah AI-Fatihah.
154"Remember your Lord" means "offer .Salat" as well as "keep Allah in mind
whether by utterance or without it."
And "morning and evening" means both
the times as well as "always". Therefore "Remember your Lord morning and
evening" means "Offer Salat in the morning and in the evening", and also "always
keep Allah in mind."
The Surah concludes with the above admonition, which
is meant to warn the Muslims against their negligence in the remembrance of
Allah, for this alone is responsible for all the chaos and the evils in the
world. Whenever man forgets that Allah is his Lord, and that he is the servant
of Allah Who has sent him to this world for a trial and that he shall have to
render his account to Him immediately after his death, he deviates from the
Right Way and commits acts of wickedness and immorality. Therefore the man who
intends to follow the Right Way and guides others to the same Way, should
strictly guard against such a negligence. That is why the Qur'an has emphasized,
over and over again, the importance of the observance of Salat and of the
remembrance of Allah and of turning to Him on each and every occasion.
155In contrast to the ways of pride and vanity of satans that mislead into
disobedience to Allah, and consequently to the depths of degradation, the
example of the angels has been cited to teach the lesson of humility. They bow
down before Allah and are always engaged in His service. Therefore if one
desires to achieve high ranks in the sight of Allah, one should follow the
angels and refrain from the paths of satans.
156The Arabic
word(yusabb-i-huna-hu) means, "They acknowledge and declare that Allah is
flawless, and is absolutely free from every sort of defect, error or weakness,
and has neither any partners nor compeers nor the like of Him, and that they are
always engaged in this"
157Everyone, who recites this verse or heats its
recital, is required to perform a (sajdah-prostration) so that ones physical
state may be in agreement wish the angels near to Allah to give a practical
proof of ones humility, servitude and obedience to Allah simultaneously with His
angels.
This is the first of the fourteen verses of the Qur'an, the
recital of which requires the performance of a sajdah (prostration). Though all
the Jurists agree that a prostration should be performed at these places, there
is a difference in regard to its obligatory status. According to Imam Abu
Hanifah, it is wajib (compulsory) but the other scholars are of the opinion that
it is sunnat (optional). It may also be noted that a thing which is sunnat is
not as binding as wajib but its intentional omission, though not sinful, is
considered bad for a true Muslim and its permanent omission is sinful.
As
regards the manner of the performance of sajdah. we learn from Traditions that
it was different in form on different occasions. Sometimes while the Holy
Prophet was reciting a verse that required the performance of sajdah, he himself
would prostrate then and there, and everyone in the gathering did the same so
much so that if one did not find room fur it on the ground. he would perform it
by laying his head on the back of the man in front of him. We also learn from
Traditions that on the occasion of the Conquest of Makkah, when the Holy Prophet
was reciting the Qur'an, a verse requiring the performance of sajdah occurred.
Then those who were standing on the ground performed it on the ground, while
those who were riding their horses or caramels performed it on the backs of
animals they were riding. Sometimes when he recited a verse requiring sajdah
during his address, he came down from the pulpit, and performed it on the ground
and then climbed the pulpit and resumed his address.
The majority of the
Muslims arc of the opinion that the conditions for the performance of sajdah are
the same as for the performance of Salat. But there is no proof for these
conditions in the Traditions concerning sajdah. we find from them that when a
person hears a verse requiring sajdah, he should bend down his head wherever and
in whatever position he may be irrespective of these conditions. He should not
mind whether he is in a state of ablutions or not; whether he can turn his face
towards the qiblah or not; whether it is possible for hull to prostrate his head
on the ground or not. We trod examples of the lcarncd and pious people in the
past following the same practice. According to Imam Bukhari, Hadrat 'Abdullah
bin 'Umar would perfom sajdah whether he was In a state of ablutions or not. It
is cited in Fatehulbari that Abu 'Abdur-Rehman Sulami would recite the Qur'an
while he was walking and would merely bend down his head when he read a verse
requiring sajdah, whether he was in a state of ablutions or not and whether he
was facing qiblah or not. From these we have come to the conclusion that, though
the method followed by the majority is more prudent, if a person follows a
practice different from that of the majority, he should not be reproved for this
because there is no proof in Sunnah for the method followed by the majority,
while there are examples of learned personages for this practice.