4th January Dars-e-Faizan-ul-Quran No. 4
Surah Al-Baqra
Summary of Surah Al-Baqra:
Description of Kun-Faykoon, repeated mention of supplication, God pleases by
invocation and gets angry by those who quit supplication. Mention of the prayers of
Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S) and Hazrat Ismail (A.S), construction of Caaba, mention of
descendants of Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S) and it is declared that the followers of all
Prophets (A.S) named Muslims. These verses also give a reference to the authority
which was bestowed upon Hazrat Abraham (A.S) and his Ummah.
Verse 121 to 175:
These verses possess the following references; changing of Caaba, assist virtue
and oppose badness, instructions to attain excellence in doing good deeds, and
fright of Allah, and instructions to worship Allah Almighty, a teaching to be grateful to
Allah, a prohibition in being ungrateful. It is declared that martyrs are alive and their
liveliness is beyond the ordinary intellects. It is declared that there are trials in failing
or getting disadvantages. There is good news for tolerants. As-Safa and Al-Marwah
are declared as the symbols of Allah. These verses also consists a description on ―Hajj‖ and ―Umrah‖, the consequences for those who conceal the verse (clear
proofs) of Allah. These verses follows and order to avoid superstitions and to follow
the orders of Allah Almighty and His Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) ﷺ.
Verse 176 to 188:
Mostly the subjects of these verses are civilization, socialization, economy, laws
and principles. The things are declared which are unlawful (forbidden) in Islam and
a prohibition to eat them, admiration of virtue, method of paying Zakat, a description
how to spend in the name of Allah, description of Al-Qisas (the law of Equality in
punishment), a definition of bequest, a complete description on the fasting (As
saum) a mention that Allah responds to the invocations of supplicants, mention of
I‘tikaf (meditation). Sexual relations (relations of husband and wife) and eating
drinking are made unlawful during fasting, a prohibition to seize each other‘s
property. That is also unlawful.
Verse 189 to 199:
Orders to combat, the reasons of Fitnah (disbelief), it is prohibited to put forward
your kindness and goodness. Instruction about Hajj and we (Muslims) are to take
provision for the journey, the country of Taqwa (Piety) is never be left over, trading
is allowed during Hajj and orders about the rights of beings (humans).
Verses 200 to 220:
Allah dislikes disbelief. Prohibition to imitate and monk over Momin (a Muslim
having true practiced belief), no need to be fright of trials, instruction to spend
goods, orders of Jihad (fight in the cause of Allah) and disbelievers are declared to
be murdered. Alcoholic drink and gambling are the greatest sins. Spend all in the
cause of Allah except your needs, instructions about menses. Oaths are prohibited,
Eddat (three menstrual period for a widow) of a widow, a comprehension about
divorce, discussion about Khalla and Eela, and mention of legacy.
Verse 221 to 260:
Spend in the cause of Allah, and description of Jaloot (Goliath) and never be afraid
of lessen in number; we should be determined on the will of Allah. Priority of
Prophets to one another, importance of Ayat-ul-Kursia. No one should be made
Muslim aggressively but after embracing Islam. Everyone should follow the
instructions of Islam. Debate between Hazrat Abraham (A.S) and Nimrood, event of
Hazrat Aziz (A.S). And the miracle of birds which was revealed by Hazrat Abraham
(A.S).
Verse 261 to 286:
Spend your goods, worthy things in the name of Allah but do not remind them.
Answer the question is also Sadqah (charity) avoid to tease someone after giving
Sadqah (alms), a description that spending reduces earning; is a devil intellection.
Spending on improper and unconventional events is also cruelty. Usury is
restricted, a description on dealings, trade is lucrative (profitable), description about
evidence, a description about the evidence of women, and never refuse to be an
evident, there is a big reward of good deeds, and is punishment for the evils. At the
end there is an expanded Dua (prayer).
Translation:
- Alif. Lam. Mim . 2. This Book has no doubt in it – a guidance for the God-fearing, 3. who believe in the Unseen, and are steadfast in Salah (prayer) , and spend out of
what We have provided them; 4. and who believe in what has been revealed to you
and what has been revealed before you; and they have faith in the Hereafter. 5. It is
these who are guided by their Lord; and it is just these who are successful. 6.
Surely for those who have disbelieved, it is all the same whether you warn them or
you warn them not: they do not believe. 7. Allah has set a seal on their hearts and
on their hearing; and on their eyes there is a covering, and for them awaits a mighty
punishment. 8. And among men there are some who say,We believe in Allah and
in the Last Day , yet they are not believers. 9. They try to deceive Allah and those
who believe, while they are not deceiving anyone except themselves, although they
are unaware of it. 10. In their hearts there is a malady, so Allah has made them
grow in their malady; and for them there is a grievous punishment, because they
have been lying. 11. When it is said to them, :Do not spread disorder on the earth ,
they say, :We are but reformers. 12. Beware, it is, in fact, they who spread disorder,
but they do not appreciate. 13. And when it is said to them, Believe as people have
believed, they say, :Shall we believe as the fools have believed? Beware, it is, in
fact, they who are the fools, but they do not know. 14. When they meet those who
believe, they say, :We have entered Faith; but when they are alone with their
satans, they say, :Indeed, we are with you; we were only mocking. 15. It is Allah
who mocks at them, and lets them go on wandering blindly in their rebellion. 16.
These are the people who have bought error at the price of guidance; so their trade has brought no gain, nor have they reached the right Path.
- Their situation is like
that of a man who kindles a fire, and when it illuminates everything around him,
Allah takes away their lights and leaves them in layers of darkness, so that they see
nothing. 18. Deaf, dumb and blind, they shall not return. 19. Or (it is) like a rainstorm
from the sky, bringing darkness, thunder and lightning; they thrust their fingers in
their ears against the thunderclaps for fear of death, and Allah encompasses the
disbelievers 20. and lightning (all but) snatches away their eyesight; every time a
flash gives them light, they walk by it; and when darkness falls upon them, they
stand still. And if Allah willed, He would certainly take away their hearing and their
eyes: surely Allah is powerful to do anything.
The Surah begins with the Arabic letters Alif, Lam and Mim (equivalents of A, L and
M). Several Surahs begin with a similar combination of letters, for example, Ha,
Mim, or Alif, Lam, Mim, Sad. Each of these letters is pronounced separately without
the addition of a vowel sound after it. So, the technical term for them is
(Mugatta`at: isolated letters).
According to certain commentators, the isolated letters are the names of the Surahs
at the beginning of which they occur. According to others, they are the symbols of
the Divine Names. But the majority of the blessed Companions رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ and
the generation next to them, the Tabi‘in, and also the later authoritative scholars
have preferred the view that the isolated letters are symbols or mysteries, the
meaning of which is known to Allah alone or may have been entrusted as a special
secret to the Holy Prophet ﷺ not to be communicated to anyone else. That is why
no commentary or explanation of these letters has at all been reported from him.
The great commentator Al-Qurtubi has adopted this view of the matter, which is
summarized below:
“According to Amir Al-Sha’bi, Sufyan Al-Thawri and many masters of the science of Hadith, every revealed book contains certain secret signs and symbols and mysteries of Allah; the isolated letters too are the secrets of Allah in the Holy Qur’an, and hence they are among the (Mutashabihat: of hidden meaning), the meaning of which is known to Allah alone, and it is not permissible for us even to enter into any discussion with regard to them. The isolated letters are not, however, without some benefit to us. Firstly, to believe in them and to recite them is in itself a great merit. Secondly, in reciting them we receive spiritual blessings from the unseen world, even if we are not aware of the fact. AI-Qurtubi رحمة الله عليه adds: “The Blessed Caliphs Abu Bakr,Umar, Uthman and Ali رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ and most of
the Companions like `Abdullah ibn Mas’ud رحمة الله عليه firmly held the view that
these letters are the secrets of Allah, that we should believe in them as having
descended from Allah and recite them exactly in the form in which they have
descended, but should not be inquisitive about their meanings, which would be
improper”. Citing Al-Qurtubi and others, Ibn Kathir too prefers this view. On the
other hand, interpretations of the isolated letters have been reported from great and
authentic scholars. Their purpose, however, was only to provide symbolical
interpretation, or to awaken the minds of the readers to the indefinite possibilities of
meanings that lie hidden in the Holy Qur’an, or just to simplify things; they never
wished to claim that these were the meanings intended by Allah Himself. Therefore,
it would not be justifiable to challenge such efforts at interpretation since it would go
against the considered judgment of veritable scholars.
The sentence “That Book has no doubt in it” raises a grammatical and exegetical
problem, for the first phrase in the Arabic text reads as ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْكِتَابُ:Dhcilikal kitab. Now,
the word dhalika ذَٰلِكَ (that) is used to point out a distant thing, while the word kitab
(book) obviously refers to the Holy Qur’an itself, which is present before us. So, this
particular demonstrative pronoun does not seem to be appropriate to the situation.
There is, however, subtle indication. The pronoun refers back to the prayer for the
straight path made in the Surah Al-Fatihah, implying that the prayer has been
granted and the Holy Qur’an is the answer to the request, which gives a detailed
account of the straight path to those who seek guidance and are willing to follow it.
Having indicated this, the Holy Qur’an makes a claim about itself: “There is no
doubt in it”. There are two ways in which doubt or suspicion may arise with regard to the validity or authenticity of statement. Either the statement itself is erroneous,
and thus becomes subject to doubt; or, the listener makes a mistake in
understanding it. In the latter case, the statement does not really become subject to
doubt, even if someone comes to suspect it out of a defective or distorted
understanding – as the Holy Qur’an itself reminds us later in the same Surah: If you are in doubt…” (2:23). So, in spite of the doubts and objections of a
thousand men of small or perverse understanding, it would still be true to say that
there is no doubt in this book – either with regard to it having been revealed by
Allah, or with regard to its contents.
هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ”A guidance for the God-fearing”: The Arabic word for the God-fearing is
Muttaqin, derived from Taqwa which literally means “to fear, to refrain from”, and in
Islamic terminology it signifies fearing Allah and refraining from the transgression of
His commandments. As for the Holy Qur’an being a guidance to the God-fearing, it
actually means that although the Holy Qur’an provides guidance not only to
mankind but to all existents in the universe, yet the special guidance which is the
means of salvation in the other world is reserved for the God-fearing alone. We
have already explained in the commentary on the Surah “Al-Fatihah” that there are
three degrees of divine guidance – the first degree being common to the whole of
mankind and even to animals etc., the second being particular to men and jinns,
and the third being special to those who are close to Allah and have found His
favour, the different levels of this last degree being limitless. It is the last two
degrees of guidance which are intended in the verse under discussion. With regard
to the second degree, the implication is that those who accept the guidance will
have the hope of being elevated to the rank of the God-fearing. With reference to
the third degree, the suggestion is that those who are already God-fearing may
receive further and limitless guidance through the Holy Qur’an. This explanation
should be sufficient to remove the objection that guidance is needed much more by
those who are not God-fearing, for now we know that the specification of the God
fearing does not entail a denial of guidance to those who not possess this
qualification.
The next two verses delineate the characteristic qualities of the God-fearing,
suggesting that these are the people who have received guidance, whose path is
the straight path, and that he who seeks the straight path should join their company,
adopt their beliefs and their way of life. It is perhaps in order to enforce this
suggestion that the Holy Qur’an, immediately after pointing out the attributes
peculiar to the God-fearing, proceeds to say: و أُوْلَـٰٓئِكَ عَلَىٰ هُدٗى مِّن رَّبِّهِمۡۖ وَ أُوْلَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلۡمُفۡلِحُونَ
It is these who are on guidance given by their Lord, and it is just these who are
successful.
The delineation of the qualities of the God-fearing in these two verses also contains,
in essence, a definition of Faith (‘Iman نامٌا) and an account of its basic tenets and of
the fundamental principles of righteous conduct:
ٱلَّذِينَ يُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱلۡغَيۡبِ وَيُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقۡنَٰهُمۡ يُنفِقُون
Who believe in the unseen, and are steadfast in Salah and spend out of what We
have provided them.
Thus, the first of the two verses, mentions three qualities of the God-fearing – belief
in the unseen, being steadfast in Salah, and spending in the way of Allah. Many
important considerations arise out of this verse, the most significant being the
meaning and definition of ‘Iman (Faith).
Who are the God-fearing?
The Definition of ‘Iman
The Holy Qur’an has provided a comprehensive definition of ‘Iman in only two
words “يُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱلۡغَيۡبِ”Believe in the unseen”. If one has fully understood the meaning
of the words ‘Iman and Ghayb one will have also understood the essential
reality of ‘Iman.
Lexically, the Arabic word ‘Iman signifies accepting with complete certitude the
statement made by someone out of one’s total confidence and trust in him.
Endorsing someone’s statement with regard to sensible or observable facts is,
therefore, not ‘Iman For example, if one man describes a piece of cloth as black, and another man endorses the statement, it may be called Tasdiq (confirmation) but not ‘Iman’ for such an endorsement is based on personal
observation, and does, in no way, involve any confidence or trust in the man who
has made the statement. In the terminology of the Shari`ah, ‘Iman signifies
accepting with complete certitude the statement made by a prophet out of one’s
total confidence and trust in him and without the need of personal observation
.1 It would be helpful to note that in the everday idiom of the West, and even in
modern social sciences, “faith” has come to mean no more than an intense
emotional state or “a fixe emotion”. As against this, the Islamic conception of Iman is essentially intellectual, in the original signification of “Intellect” which the
modern West has altogether forgotten.
As for the word Ghaib lexically it denotes things which are not known to man in
an evident manner, or which are not apprehensible through the five senses. The
Holy Qur’an uses this word to indicate all the things which we cannot know through
the five senses or through reason, but which have been reported to us by the Holy
Prophet ﷺ. These include the essence and the attributes of Allah, matters
pertaining to destiny, heaven and hell and what they contain, the Day of Judgment
and the things which happen on that Day, divine books, all the prophets who have
preceded the Holy Prophet ﷺ. in short, all the things mentioned in the last two
verses of the Surah Al-Baqarah. Thus, the third verse of the Surah states the basic
creed of the Islamic faith in its essence, while the last two verses provide the details.
So, belief in the unseen ultimately comes to mean having firm faith in everything
that the Holy Prophet ﷺ has taught us – subject to the necessary condition that the
teaching in question must have come down to us through authentic and undeniable
sources. This is how the overwhelming majority of Muslim scholars generally define
‘Iman (See al-‘Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah, ‘Aqa’id al-Nasafi etc.).
According to this definition, Iman signifies faith and certitude, and not mere
knowledge. For, a mental knowledge of the truth is possessed by Satan
himself, and even by many disbelievers – for example, they knew very well that the
Holy Prophet ﷺ was truthful and that his teachings were true, but they did not have
faith in him nor did they accept his teachings with their heart, and hence they are
not Muslims.
The Meaning of `Establishing’ Salah
The second quality of the God-fearing is that they are “steadfast in the prayer.” The
verb employed by the Holy Qur’an here is Yuqimuna (generally rendered in
English translations as “they establish”, which comes from the word Iqamaha
signifying “to straighten out”). So, the verb implies not merely saying one’s prayers,
but performing the prayers correctly in all possible ways and observing all the
prescribed conditions, whether obligatory (Fard) or necessary (Wajib) or
commendable (Mustahabb). The concept includes regularity and perpetuity in
the performance of Salah as also an inward concentration, humility and awe. At this
point, it may be noted that the term does not mean a particular Salah, instead, it
includes all fard, wajib and nafl prayers.
Now to sum up – the God-fearing are those who offer their prayers regularly and
steadfastly in accordance with the regulations of the Shari’ah, and also observe the
spiritual etiquette outwardly and inwardly.
Spending in the way of Allah: Categories
The third quality of the God-fearing is that they spend in the way of Allah. The
correct position in this respect, which has been adopted by the majority of
commentators, is that it includes all the forms of spending in the way of Allah,
whether it be the fard (obligatory) Zakah or the Wajib (necessary) alms-giving or
just voluntary and nafl (supererogatory) acts of charity: For, the Holy Qur’an
usually employs the word Infaq with reference to nafl (supererogatory) alms
giving or in a general sense, but reserves the word Zakah for the obligatory alms
giving. The simple phrase: مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاكُم : “Spend out of what We have provided them”
inspires us to spend in the way of Allah by drawing our attention to the fact that
anything and everything we possess is a gift from Allah and His trust in our hands,
and that even if we spend all our possessions in the way of Allah, it would be proper and just and no favour to Him. But Allah in His mercy asks us to spend in His way
“out of’ what (مِمَّا) he has provided – that is, only a part and not the whole.
Among the three qualities of the God-fearing, faith is, of course, the most important,
for it is the basic principle of all other principles, and no good deed can find
acceptance or validity without faith. The other two qualities pertain to good deeds_
Now, good deeds are many; one could make a long list of even those which are
either obligatory or necessary. So, the question arises as to why the Holy Qur’an
should be content to choose for mention only two – namely, performing Salah and
spending in the way of Allah. In answering this question, one could say. that all the
good deeds which are obligatory or necessary for man pertain either to his person
and his body or to his possessions. Among the personal and bodily forms of Ibadat (acts of worship), the most important is the Salah. Hence the Holy Qur’an mentions only this form in the present passage. As for the different forms of Ibadat pertaining to possessions, the word Infaq (spending) covers all of them.
Thus, in mentioning only two good deeds, `the Holy Qur’an has by implication
included all the forms of worship and all good deeds. The whole verse, then, comes
to mean that the God-fearing are those who are perfect in their faith and in their
deeds both, and that Islam is the sum of faith and practice. In other words, while
providing a complete definition of Iman (Faith), the verse indicates the meaning
of Islam as well. So, let us find out how Iman and Islam are distinct from each
other.
The distinction between Iman and Islam
Lexically, ‘.Iman signifies the acceptance and confirmation of something with
one’s heart, while Islam signifies obedience and submission. Iman pertains to
the heart; so does Islam, but it is related to all the other parts of the human body as
well. From the point of view of the Shari’ah, however, Iman is not valid without
Islam, nor Islam without Iman. In other words, it is not enough to have faith in
Allah and the Holy Prophet ﷺ in one’s heart unless the tongue expresses the faith
and also affirms one’s allegiance and submission. Similarly, an oral declaration of
faith and allegiance is not valid unless one has faith in one’s heart.
In short, Iman, and Islam have different connotations from the lexical point of
view. It is on the basis of this lexical distinction that the Holy Qur’an and Hadith refer
to a difference between the two. From the point of view of the Shari`ah, however,
the two are inextricably linked together, and one cannot be valid without the other –
as is borne out by the Holy Qur’an itself.
When Islam, or an external declaration of allegiance, is not accompanied by Iman or internal faith, the Holy Qur’an terms it as Nifaq (hypocrisy), and condemns
it as a greater crime than an open rejection of Islam:
إِنَّ ٱلۡمُنَٰفِقِينَ فِي ٱلدَّرۡكِ ٱلۡأَسۡفَلِ مِنَ ٱلنَّارِۖ
Surely the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell. (4:145)
In explanation of this verse let us add that so far as the physical world goes, we can
only be sure of the external state of a man, and cannot know his internal state with
any degree of certainty. So in the case of men who orally declare themselves to be
Muslims without having faith in their heart, the Shari’ah requires us to deal with
them as we would deal with a Muslim in worldly affairs; but in the other world their
fate would be worse than that of the ordinary disbelievers. Similarly, if Iman or
acknowledgment in the heart is not accompanied by external affirmation and
allegiance, the Holy Qur’an regards this too as kufr or rejection and denial of the
Truth – speaking of the infidels, it says:
يَعۡرِفُونَهُۥ كَمَا يَعۡرِفُونَ أَبۡنَآءَهُمۡۖ
They know him (that is, the Holy Prophet ﷺ) as they know their own sons (2:146);
or in another place:
وَجَحَدُوا۟ بِهَا وَٱسْتَيْقَنَتْهَآ أَنفُسُهُمْ ظُلْمًۭا وَعُلُوًّۭا ۚ
Their souls knew them (the signs sent by Allah) to be true, yet they denied them in
their wickedness and their pride. (27:14)
My respected teacher, `Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Anwar Shah used to explain it
thus – the expanse which Iman and Islam have to cover in the spiritual
journey is the same, and the difference lies only in the beginning and the end; that is to say, Iman starts from the heart and attains perfection in external deeds, while Islam starts from external deeds and can be regarded as perfect when it
reaches the heart.
To sum up, Iman is not valid, if acknowledgment in the heart does not attain to
external affirmation and allegiance; similarly, Islam is not valid, if external affirmation
and allegiance does not attain to confirmation by the heart. Imam Ghazzali and
Imam Subki رحمة الله عليه both have arrived at the same conclusion, and in
Musamarah, Imam Ibn al-Humam رحمة الله عليه reports the agreement of all the
authentic scholars in this respect.2 …who believe in what has been revealed to you
and in what has been revealed before you, and do have faith in the Hereafter.
Today one finds a very wide-spread confusion, sometimes amounting to a total
incomprehension, with regard to the distinction between Islam and Iman,
essentially under the influence of Western modes of thought and behaviour and, to
be more specific, that of the ever-proliferating Protestant sects and schools of
theology. Since the middle of the 19th century there have sprouted in almost every
Muslim country a host of self-styled Reformists, Revivalists, Modernists et al, each
pretending to have understood the “real” Islam for the first time, and each adopting
an extremist, though untenable, posture with regard to Islam and Iman.
On the one hand, we have people claiming that Islam is only a matter of the “heart” (a word
which has during the last four hundred years been used in the West as an
equivalent of “emotion” or, worse still, of “emotional agitation”) or of “religious
experience” (a very modish term brought into currency by William James). As a
corollary, they stubbornly refuse to see the need for a fixed ritual or an ethical code,
all of which they gladly leave to social exigency or individual preference. They base
their claims on the unquestioned axiom that religion is “personal” relationship
between the individual and “his” God. It is all too obvious that this genre of
Modernist “Islam” is the progeny of Martin Luther with cross-pollination from
Rousseau.
On the other hand, we have fervent and sometimes violent champions
of Islam insisting on a merely external performance of rituals – more often on a
mere conformity to moral regulations, and even these, of their liking. They would
readily exclude, and are anyhow indifferent to, the internal dimension of Islam. A
recent modification of this stance (in the wake of a certain Protestant pioneering, it
goes without saying) has been to replace divinely ordained rituals by acts of social
service or welfare, giving them the status and value of acts of worship.
Counseling on divorce, abortion, premarital sex and the rest of the baggage having already
become a regular part of the functions of a Protestant clergyman, it would not be
too fond to expect, even on the part of our Modernists, the speedy inclusion of acts
of entertainment as well. There is still another variety of deviationists, more visible
and vociferous than the rest, and perhaps more pervasive and pernicious in their
influence, finding easy credence among a certain section of Muslims with a sloppy
western-style education. While dispensing with the subtle distinctions between
Islam and Iman, they reduce Islam itself to a mere system of social
organization, or even to state-craft. According to their way of looking at things, if
Muslims fail to set up a social and political’ organization of a specified shape, they
would cease to be Muslims.
Applied to the history of Islam, this fanciful notion would
lead to the grotesque conclusion that no Muslim had ever existed. These are only a
few examples of the intellectual distortions produced by refusing to define Islam and
Iman clearly and ignoring the distinction between the two. Contrary to all such
modernizing deviations, Islam in fact means establishing a particular relationship of
obedience and servitude with Allah. This relationship arises neither out of vague
“religious experiences” nor out of social regimentation; in order to attain it, one has
to accept all the doctrines and to act upon all the commandments specified in the
Holy Qur’an, the Hadith and the Shari’ah.
These doctrines and commandments
cover all the spheres of human life, individual or collective, right up from acts of
worship down to social, political and economic relations among men, and codes of
ethics and behaviour, morals and manners, and their essential purpose is to
produce in man a genuine attitude of obedience to Allah. If one acts according to
the Shari’ah one, no doubt, gains many worldly benefits, individual as well as collective. These benefits may be described as the raison d’etre of the
commandments, but are in no way their essential object, nor should a servant of
Allah seek them for themselves in obeying Him, nor does the success or failure of a
Muslim as a Muslim depend on attaining them. When a man has fully submitted
himself to the commandments of Allah in everything he does, he has already
succeeded as a Muslim, whether he receives the related worldly benefits or not.
This verse speaks of some other attributes of the God-fearing, giving certain details
about faith in the unseen with a special mention of faith in hereafter. Commenting
on this verse, the blessed Companions Abdullah ibn Masud and Abdullah ibn
`Abbs رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ have said that in the days of the Holy Prophet ﷺ God-fearing
Muslims were of two kinds, – those who used to be associators and disbelievers but
accepted Islam, and those who used to be among the people of the Book (that is,
Jews and Christians) but embraced Islam later on; the preceding verse refers to the
first group, and this verse to the second.
Hence this verse specifically mentions
belief in the earlier Divine Books along with belief in the Holy Qur’an, for, according
to the Hadith, people in the second group deserve a double recompense, firstly, for
believing in and following the earlier Books before the Holy Qur’an came to replace
them, and secondly, for believing in and following the Holy Qur’an when it came as
the final Book of Allah. Even today it is obligatory for every Muslim to believe in the
earlier Divine Books except that now the belief has to take this form: everything that
Allah has revealed in the earlier Books is true (excepting the changes and
distortions introduced by selfish people), and that it was incumbent upon the people
for whom those Books had been sent to act according to them, but now that all the
earlier Books and Shari’ahs have been abrogated, one must act according to the
Holy Qur’an alone. 3. Exactly as predicted by a Hadith, today we see all around us
a proliferation of “knowledge” and of “writing”. One of the dangerous forms the
process has taken is the indiscriminate translation at least into European languages
and the popularization of the sacred books of all possible religious and
metaphysical traditions – not only the Hindu, the Chinese or the Japanese, but also
the Shamanic or the Red Indian.
The lust for reading sacred books has virtually
grown into a mania, especially among the modern young people with their deep
sense of being uprooted and disinherited, and all considerations of aptitude have
been contemptuously set aside. In these circumstances, Muslims with a Western
orientation are naturally impelled to ask themselves as to what they can or should
make of such books which sometimes seem to offer similarities and parallels to the
Holy Qur’an itself, and more often to the Sufi doctrines. The problem has already
attained noticeable proportions, for in 1974 the government of Turkey found it
necessary to ban the entry of certain Hindu sacred books like the Bhagavadgita
and Upanishads.
The correct doctrinal position in this respect is that it is obligatory
for every Muslim, as an essential part of the Islamic creed, to believe in all the
prophets and messengers of Allah and in the Divine Books (not in their distorted
forms, but as they were originally revealed) that have specifically been mentioned
by their names in the Holy Qur’an, and also to believe that Allah has sent His
messengers and His books for the guidance of all the peoples and all the ages, and
that Muhammad ﷺ is the last prophet and the Holy Qur’an the final Book of Allah
which has come down to replace the earlier Books and Shari’ahs. As to the
question of the authenticity and divine origin of a particular book held in reverence
by an earlier religion or metaphysical tradition, a Muslim is not allowed to affirm
such a claim unequivocally, nor should he unnecessarily reject such a possibility.
In so far as contents of the book concerned agree with what the Holy Qur’an has to
say on the subject, we may accept the statement as true, otherwise spiritual
etiquette requires an average Muslim to keep quiet and not meddle with things
which he is not likely to understand. As for reading the sacred books of other
traditions, it should be clearly borne in mind that a comparative study of this nature
requires a very special aptitude which is extremely rare, and hence demands great
caution. A cursory reading of sacred books, motivated by an idle curiosity or by a
craze for mere information, may very well lead to an intellectual disintegration or to
something still worse, instead of helping in the “discovery of the truth” and the acquisition of “peace” which a comparative study is widely supposed to promise.
Even when the aptitude and the knowledge necessary for the task is present, such
a study can be carried out only under the supervision of an authentic spiritual
master. In any case, we cannot insist too much on the perils of the enterprise.
An argument to the Finality of Prophethood
The mode of expression helps us to infer from this verse the fundamental principle
that the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the last of all the prophets, and the Book
revealed to him is the final revelation and the last Book of Allah. For, had Allah
intended to reveal another Book or to continue. The mode of revelation even after
the Holy Qur’an, this verse, while prescribing belief in the earlier Books as
necessary for Muslims, must also have referred to belief in the Book or Books to be
revealed in the future. In fact, such a statement was all the more needed, for people
were already familiar with the necessity of believing in the Torah, the Evangile and
the earlier Books, and such a belief was in regular practice too, but if prophethood
and revelation were to continue even after the Holy Prophet ﷺ, it was essential that
the coming of another prophet and another book should be clearly indicated so that
people were not left in doubt about this possibility. So, in defining Iman نامٌا, the Holy
Qur’an mentions the earlier prophets and the earlier Books, but does not make the
slightest reference to a prophet or Book to come after the last Prophet ﷺ. The
matter does not end with this verse. The Holy Qur’an touches upon the subject
again and again in no less than forty or fifty verses, and in all such places it
mentions the prophets, the Books and the revelation preceding the Holy Prophet ﷺ
but nowhere is there even so much as a hint with regard to the coming of a prophet
or of a revelation in the future, belief in whom or which should be necessary. We
cite some verses to demonstrate the point:
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ And what We have sent down before you. (16:43)
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلًا مِّن قَبْلِكَ And We have certainly sent messengers before you. (40:78)
وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ وَرُسُلًا And certainly before you We have sent messengers. (20:47)
وَمَآ أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ And what was revealed before you. (4:60)
وَلَقَدْ أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ وَإِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكَ And it has certainly been revealed to you and to those who
have gone before you… (39:65)
كَذَٰلِكَ يُوحِيٓ إِلَيْكَ وَإِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكَ Thus He reveals to you and He revealed to those who
have gone before you. (42:3)
كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ Fasting is decreed (literally, written) for you as it was decreed
for those before you. (2:183)
سُنَّةَ مَنْ قَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِن رُّسُلِنَا Such was Our way with the messengers whom We sent
before you. (17:77)
In these and similar verses, whenever the Holy Qur’an speaks of the sending down
of a Book or a revelation or a prophet or a messenger, it always attaches the
conditional phrase, Min qabl (before) or Min Qablik (before you), and
nowhere does it employ or suggest an expression like min ba`d (after you).
Even if other verses of the Holy Qur’an had not been explicit about the finality of the
prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ and about the cessation of revelation, the mode of
expression adopted by the Holy Qur’an in the present verse would in itself have
been sufficient to prove these points.
The God-fearing have Faith in the Hereafter
The other essential quality of the God-fearing mentioned in this verse is that they
have faith in Al-Akhirah (the Hereafter). Lexically the Akhirah signifies ‘that
which comes after something’; in the present context, it indicates a relationship of
contrast with the physical world, and thus signifies the other world which is beyond
physical reality as we know it and also beyond the sensuous or rational perception
of man. The Holy Qur’an gives to the Hereafter other names too – for example, Dar
al-Qarar (the Ever-lasting Abode), Dar al-Hayawan (the Abode of
Eternal Life) and Al-`Ugba (the Consequent). The Holy Qur’an is full of vivid
descriptions of the Hereafter, of the joys of heaven and of the horrors of hell.
Although faith in the Hereafter is included in faith in the unseen which has already
been mentioned, yet the Holy Qur’an refers to it specifically because it may, in a
sense, be regarded as the most important among the constitutive elements of faith in so far as it inspires man to translate faith into practice, and motivates him to act in
accordance with the requirements of his faith. Along with the two doctrines of the
Oneness of God and of prophethood, this is the third doctrine which is common to
all the prophets and upon which all the Shari’ahs are agreed.
4. There is a deplorable misconception with regard to the Hereafter, quite wide
spread among those who are not, or do not want to be, familiar with the Holy Qur’an
and who have at the same time been touched by the rationalism, materialism and
libertarianism of the Western society, which makes them cherish certain mental and
emotional reservations at least about the horrors of hell, if not about the joys of
heaven. Some of them have gone to the preposterous length of supposing that
these are the inventions of the `Ulama’ whom they describe as ‘obscurantist’ of
course, in the jargon of the Western Reformation and of the so-called
Enlightenment. They ignore the obvious fact that faith in the Holy Qur’an
necessitates faith in every word of the Holy Qur’an, and that it is not possible to
affirm one of the Book while denying another and yet remain a Muslim أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ “What, do you believe in one part of the Book and deny
another?”(2:85) Moreover, these enlightened Muslims have never made a serious
attempt to take into account the complex historical factors that led to- the rise of the
Enlightenment in Europe, nor the meaning of the subsequent development in
ethical ideas. We may, therefore, give a few and very brief indications. There has
been no dearth, even in the hey-day of the Enlightenment, of thinkers who have
had no scruples in dispensing with ethics altogether which they look upon as
superstition or tyranny and hence a blight for the human personality. But even those
thinkers who have recognised the indispensable need for regulations and rules, if
not principles, for human conduct in order to preserve social order or to make social
life possible, have in general had no qualms about discarding the very idea of divine
sanction – despite the intimation of Voltaire, the arch-priest of relationalism, that man
would have to invent God, even if He did not exist. As to the nature and origin of the
ethical regulations and the sanction behind them, Western thinkers have fiom time
to time tried to promote various agencies – the sovereign state, social will or
convention or custom, the supposedly pure and innocent nature of man himself
with its capacity for self-regulation, and finally biological laws. The second half of the
twentieth century has witnessed the withering away of all these ethical authorities
which has left the modern man without even a dim prospect of constructing a new
illusion. It is only in this perspective that one can properly consider the significance
of the belief in the hereafter for human society.
Faith in the Hereafter: A revolutionary belief
The belief in the Hereafter, among Islamic doctrines, is the one whose role in
history has been what is nowadays described as revolutionary, for it began with
transmuting the morals and manners of the followers of the Holy Qur’an, and
gradually gave them a place of distinction and eminence even in the political history
of mankind. The reason. is obvious. Consider the case of those who believe that life
in the physical world is the only life, its joys the only joys and its pains the only
pains, whose only goal is to seek the pleasures of the senses and the fulfillment of
physical or emotional needs, and who stubbornly refuse to believe in the life of the
Hereafter, in the Day of Judgment and the assessment of everyone’s deeds, and in
the requital of the deeds in the other world. When such people find the distinction
between truth and falsehood, between the permissible and the forbidden, interfering
with the hunt for the gratification of their desires, such differentiations naturally
become intolerable to them.
Now, who or what can effectively prevent them from committing crimes? The penal
laws made by the state or by any other human authority can never serve either as
real deterrent to crime or as agents of moral reform. Habitual criminals soon grow
used to the penalties. A man, milder or gentler of temperament or just timid, may
agree to forego the satisfaction of his desires for fear of punishment, but he would
do so only to the extent that he is in danger of being caught. But in his privacy
where the laws of the state cannot encroach upon his freedom of action, who can
force him to renounce his pleasures and accept the yoke of restraints? It is the belief in the Hereafter and the fear of Allah, and that alone, which can bring man’s
private behaviour in line with his public behaviour, and establish a harmony
between the inner state and the outer. For the God-fearing man knows for certain
that even in the secrecy of a well-guarded and sealed room and in the darkness of
night somebody is watching him, and somebody is writing down the smallest thing
he does. Herein lies the secret of the clean and pure society which arose in the
early days of Islam when the mere sight of a Muslim, of his manners and morals,
was enough to make non-believers literally fall in love with Islam. For true Faith in
the Hereafter, certitude must follow Oral Affirmation.
Before we proceed, we may point out that in speaking of faith in the hereafter as
one of the qualities of the God-fearing, the Holy Qur’an does not use the word
yu’minuna (believe) but the word yuqinuna(have complete certitude), for the
opposite of belief is denial, and that of certitude is doubt and hesitation. Thus, we
find a subtle suggestion here that in order to attain the perfection of Iman it is
not enough to affirm the hereafter orally, but one must have a complete certitude
which leaves no room for doubt – the kind of certitude which comes when one has
seen a thing with one’s own eyes. It is an essential quality of the God-fearing that
they always have present before their eyes the whole picture of how people will
have to present themselves for judgment before Allah in the hereafter, how their
deeds will be assessed and how they will receive reward or punishment according
to what they have been doing in this world. A man who amasses wealth by
usurping what rightfully belongs to others, or who gains petty material ends by
adopting unlawful means forbidden by Allah, may declare his faith in the hereafter a
thousand times and the Shari’ah may accept him as a Muslim in the context of
worldly concerns, but he does not possess the certitude which the Holy Qur’an
demands of him. And it is this certitude alone which transforms human life, and
which brings in its wake as a reward the guidance and triumph promised in verse 5
of this Surah:
أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ عَلَىٰ هُدًۭى مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُون
It is these who are on guidance given by their Lord; and it is just these who are
successful.
It is these who are on guidance given by their Lord; and it is just these who are
successful.
After affirming the Holy Qur’an as the Book of Guidance and as being beyond all
doubt, the first five verses of the present Surah refer to those who derive full benefit
from this Book and whom the Holy Qur’an has named as Mu’minun (true
Muslims) or Muttaqun (the God-fearing), and also delineate their characteristic
qualities which distinguish them from others. The next fifteen verses speak of those
who refuse to accept this guidance, and even oppose it out of sheer spite and blind
malice. In the time of the Holy Prophet , ﷺ there were two distinct groups of such
people. On the one hand were those who came out in open hostility and rejection,
and whom the Holy Qur’an has termed as kafirun (disbelievers); on the other
hand were those who did not, on account of their moral depravity and greed, had
even the courage to speak out their minds and to express their disbelief clearly, but
adopted the way of deceit and duplicity. They tried to convince the Muslims that
they had faith in the Holy Qur’an and its teachings, that they were as good a Muslim
as any and would support the Muslims against the disbelievers. But they nursed
denial and rejection in their hearts, and would, in the company of disbelievers,
assure them that they had nothing to do with Islam, but mixed with Muslims in order
to deceive them and to spy on them. The Holy Qur’an has given them the title of
Munafiqun (hypocrites). Thus, these fifteen verses deal with those who refuse
to believe in the Holy Qur’an – the first two are concerned with open disbelievers,
and the other thirteen with hypocrites, their signs and characteristics and their
ultimate end.
Taking the first twenty verses of this Surah together in all their detail, one can see
that the Holy Qur’an has, on the one hand, pointed out to us the source of guidance
which is the Book itself, and, on the other, divided mankind into two distinct groups
on the basis of their acceptance or rejection of this guidance – on the one side are
those who have chosen to follow and to receive guidance, and are hence called
Mu’minun (true Muslims) or Muttaqun (the God-fearing); on the other side are those who reject the guidance or deviate from it, and are hence called Kafirun
(disbelievers) or Munafiqun (hypocrites). People of the first kind are those
whose path is the object of the prayer at the end of the Surah Al-Fatihah, صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ
the path of those on whom You have bestowed Your grace”, and people
of the second kind are those against whose path refuge has been sought غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ Not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray.
This teaching of the Holy Qur’an provides us with a fundamental principle. A
division of mankind into different groups must, in order to be meaningful, be based
on differences in _principle, not on considerations of birth, race, colour, geography
or language. The Holy Qur’an has given a clear verdict in this respect: خَلَقَكُمْ فَمِنكُمْ كَافِرٌۭ وَمِنكُم مُّؤْمِنٌۭ “It was He that created you: yet some of you are disbelievers and some of you are
believers” (64:2).
As we have said, the first two verses of this Surah speak of those disbelievers who
had become so stubborn and obstinate in their denial and disbelief that they were
not prepared to hear the truth or to consider a clear argument. In the case of such
depraved people, the usual way of Allah has always been, and is, that they are
given a certain kind of punishment even in this world – that is to say, their hearts are
sealed and their eyes and ears stopped against the truth, and in so far as truth is
concerned they become as if they have no mind to think, no eyes to see and no
ears to listen. The last phrase of the second verse speaks of the grievous
punishment that is reserved for them in the other world. It may be observed that the
prediction that: they shall not believe” is specifically related to those
disbelievers who refused to listen to the Holy Prophet ﷺ and who, as Allah knew,
were going to die as disbelievers. This does not apply to disbelievers in general, for
there were many who later accepted Islam.
What is Kufr کفر? (Infidelity)
As for the definition of kufr (disbelief), we may point out that lexically the word
means to hide, to conceal. Ingratitude is also called kufr, because it involves the
concealing or the covering up of the beneficence shown by someone. In the
terminology of the Shari`ah, kufr signifies the denial of any of those things in
which it is obligatory to believe. For example, the quintessence of Iman as well
as the very basis of the Islamic creed is the requirement that one should confirm
with one’s heart and believe with certitude everything that the Holy Prophet tl has
brought down to us from Allah and which has been established by definite and
conclusive proof; therefore, a man who has the temerity to question or disregard
even a single teaching of this kind will be described as a kafir کافر (disbeliever or
infidel).
The meaning of ‘Indhar’ اِنذار (warning) by a Prophet ﷺ
In translating the first of these two verses, we have used the English verb to warn’
for the Arabic word Indhar. This word actually signifies bringing news which should
cause alarm or concern, while Ibshar signifies bringing good news which should
make people rejoice. Moreover, Indhar is not the ordinary kind of warning meant to
frighten people, but one which is motivated by compassion and love, just as one
warns one’s children against fire or snakes or beasts. Hence a thief or a bandit or
an aggressor who warns or threatens others cannot be called a Nadhir (warner).
The latter is a title specially reserved for the prophets علیہ السلام for they warn people
against the pains and punishments of the other world out of their compassion and
love for their fellow men. In choosing this title for the prophets, the Holy Qur’an has
made the subtle suggestion that for those who go out to reform others it is not
enough merely to convey a message, but that they must speak to their listeners
with sympathy, understanding and a genuine regard for their good.
In order to comfort the Holy Prophet ﷺ the first of these verses tells him that some
of the disbelievers are so vain, arrogant and opinionated that they, in spite of
recognizing the truth, stubbornly persist in their refusal and are not prepared to hear
the truth or to see obvious proofs, so that all the efforts he makes for reforming and
converting them will bear no fruit, and for them it is all one whether he tries or not.
The next verse explains the reason, that is, Allah has set a seal on their hearts and
ears, there is a covering on their eyes, all the avenues of knowing and
understanding are thus closed, and now it would be futile to expect any change in
them. A thing is sealed so that nothing may enter it from outside; the setting of a
seal on their hearts and ears also means that they have altogether lost the capacity
for accepting the truth.
The Holy Qur’an describes .the condition of these disbelievers in terms of their
hearts and ears having been sealed, but in the case of the eyes it refers to a
covering. The subtle distinction arises from the fact that an idea can enter the heart
from all possible directions and not from one particular direction alone, and so can a
sound enter the ears; an idea or a sound can be blocked only by sealing the heart
and the ears. On the contrary, the eyes work only in one direction, and can see only
the things which lie in front of them; if there is a covering on them, they cease to
function. (See Mazhari)
Favour withdrawn by Allah is a punishment
These two verses tell us that the other world is the place where one would receive
the real punishment for one’s disbelief or for some of one’s sins. One may,
however, receive some punishment for certain sins even in this world. Such a
punishment sometimes takes a very grievous form – that is, the divine favour which
helps one to reform oneself is withdrawn, so that, ignoring how one’s deeds are to
be assessed on the Day of Judgment, one keeps growing in disobedience and sin,
and finally comes to lose even the awareness of evil. In delineating such a situation
certain elders have remarked that one punishment for an evil deed is another evil
deed which comes after, and one reward for a good deed is another good deed
which comes after. According to a Hadith, when a man commits a sin, a black dot
appears on his heart; this first dot disturbs him just as a smudge on a white cloth is
always displeasing to us; but if, instead of asking Allah’s pardon for the first sin, he
proceeds to commit a second, another dot shows up, thus, with every new sin the
black dots go on multiplying till the whole heart turns dark, and now he can no
longer see good as good nor evil as evil, and grows quite incapable of making such
distinctions. The Holy Prophet ﷺ added that The Holy Qur’an uses the term Ra’n or
Rain (rust) for this darkness: as in Mishkat from the Musnad of Ahmad and
Tirmidhi.
كَلَّا ۖ بَلْ ۜ رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ No. But what they did has rusted their hearts (83:14)
According to another authentic Hadith reported by Tirmidhi from the blessed
Companion Abu Hurairah رضی اللہ تعالیٰ عنہ the Holy Prophet ﷺ has said, “When a
man commits a sin, his heart grows dark, but if he seeks Allah’s pardon, it becomes
clear again”. (See Qurtubi)
It should be carefully noted that in announcing that it is all one whether the Holy
Prophet ﷺ warns the disbelievers or not, the Holy Qur’an adds the condition Alaihim (for them), which clearly indicates that it is all one for the disbelievers
alone, and not for the Holy Prophet ﷺ for he would in any case get a reward for
bringing the message of Allah to his fellow-men and for his efforts to teach and
reform them. That is why there is not a single verse in the Holy Qur’an which should
dissuade the Holy Prophet ﷺ from calling even such people to Islam. From this we
may infer that the man who strives to spread the Word of Allah and to reform his
fellow-men does always get a reward for his good deed, even if he has not been
effective.
A doubt is removed
We may also answer a question which sometimes arises in connection with the
second of these two verses that speaks of the hearts and the ears of the
disbelievers having been sealed and of their eyes being covered. We find a similar
statement in another verse of the Holy Qur’an:
كَلَّا ۖ بَلْ ۜ رَانَ عَلَىٰ قُلُوبِهِم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ No. But what they did has rusted their hearts (83:14)
which makes it plain that it is their arrogance and their evil deeds themselves that
have settled do their hearts as a rust نار. In the verse under discussion, it is this very rust which has been described as ‘a seal’ or ‘a covering’. So, there is no occasion
here to raise the objection that if Allah Himself has sealed their hearts and blocked
their senses, they are helpless and cannot be held responsible for being
disbelievers, and hence they should not be punished for what they have not
themselves chosen to do. If we consider the two verses (2:7 and 83:14) together,
we can easily see why they should be punished in adopting the way of arrogance
and pride they have, willfully and out of their own choice, destroyed their capacity
for accepting the truth, and thus they themselves are the authors of their own ruin.
But Allah, being Creator of all the actions of His creatures, has in verse 2:7
attributed to Himself the setting of a seal on the hearts and the ears of the
disbelievers, and has thus pointed out that when these people insisted, as a matter
of their own choice, on destroying their aptitude for receiving the truth, Allah
produced, as is His way in such cases, the state of insensitivity in their hearts and
senses.
Lying is contemptible
(4) The verse آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِر :”We believe in Allah and in the Last Day” shows us
how disgusting it is to tell a lie – even the hypocrites, with all their hostility to Islam,
tried to refrain from it as far as possible. In claiming to be Muslims, they used to
mention only their faith in Allah and in the Day of Judgment, but left out the faith in
the Holy Prophet ﷺ for fear of telling a lie.
Misbehaving Prophets علیہ السلام is to misbehave with Allah
(4) These verses denounce the hypocrites for trying to be clever with Allah Himself
and to deceive Him, although no one among them could probably have had such
an intention or even thought of such a possibility. What they were actually doing
was to try to deceive the Holy Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims. Allah has equated this
effort with an attempt to deceive Him, and has thus indicated that a man who is in
any way impertinent to a prophet or a man of Allah is ultimately guilty of being
impertinent to Allah Himself – this should be true above all in the case of the Holy
Prophet ﷺ who stands in his station at the head of all created beings.
The third verse indicates why the hypocrites behave so foolishly and why they fail to
see the folly of their course:
فِي قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌۭ فَزَادَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مَرَضًۭا
In their hearts there is a malady, so Allah has made them grow in their malady.
Now, illness or disease, in the general medical sense, is a state in which a man has
lost the balanced proportion of the elements within him necessary to keep him
healthy, so that his body can no longer function properly, which may finally lead to
his total destruction. In the terminology of the Holy Qur’an and the Hadith, the word
‘disease’ is also applied to certain mental or psychic states (we are using the two
terms in the original and more comprehensive sense) which hinder man from
attaining any degree of spiritual perfection, for they gradually deprive him of the
ability to perform good deeds, and even of ordinary human decency, till he meets
with his spiritual death. The great spiritual master, Junaid of Baghdad, has said that
just as the diseases of the body arise from an imbalance among the four humours,
the diseases of the heart arise from a surrender to one’s physical desires.
According to the present verse, the disease hidden in their hearts is unbelief and
rejection of the truth, which is as much a physical sickness as a spiritual one. It is all
too obvious that being ungrateful to one’s creator and nourisher and going against
His commandments is to be spiritually sick. Moreover, to keep this disbelief
concealed for the sake of petty worldly gains and not to have the courage to speak
out one’s mind is no less a disease of the soul. Hypocrisy is a physical disease too
in so far as the hypocrite is always shuddering4for fear of being exposed. Jealousy
being a necessary ingredient of hypocrisy, he cannot bear to see the Muslims
growing stronger in the world, and yet the poor hypocrite cannot even have the
satisfaction of unburdening his heart of the venom. No wonder that all this tension
should express itself in physical ailment.
The curse of telling lies
(4) There is another subtle and very significant point here. According to these
verses, the hypocrites would meet with a grievous punishment for having told lies.
Now, their greatest crime was disbelief and hypocrisy in matters of faith, and they
had been committing other crimes as well, like nursing envy and malice against
Muslims in their hearts and actually conspiring against them. And yet here the
grievous punishment has been connected with their habit of telling lies. This is an
indication that basically this nefarious habit was their real crime, which gradually led
them to hypocrisy and disbelief. In other words, although hypocrisy and disbelief
are much greater crimes, yet they arise from the habit of telling lies. That is why the
Holy Qur’an combines the sin of lying with the sin of idol worship in the same
phrase:
فَٱجْتَنِبُوا۟ ٱلرِّجْسَ مِنَ ٱلْأَوْثَـٰنِ وَٱجْتَنِبُوا۟ قَوْلَ ٱلزُّورِ
“Guard yourselves against the filth of idols and against telling lies” (22:30)
The fourth and the fifth verses expose the sophistry of the hypocrites -their activities
threatened to produce a general chaos and disorder, and yet, in their mealy
mouthed way, they pretended to be men of good will and to be serving the cause of
peace and order. The Holy Qur’an makes it clear that oral claims alone do not
decide the question whether one is working for order or disorder, for what thief
would call himself a thief? It depends on what one does, not on what one says. If a
man’s activities do result in mischief, he will be called a mischief-maker, even if he
had no such intention.
Who are reformers and mischief-makers
(7) As these verses report, when the hypocrites were asked not to spread disorder
in the land through their prevarication and double dealing, they used to reply
emphatically إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ “We are nothing but reformers.” The word Innama امنإ
(nothing but), used in, the Arabic text, indicates not merely emphasis but exclusivity.
So, their reply would mean that they were nothing but reformers, the servants of
order, and that their activities could have nothing to do with disorder. Commenting
on their reply, the Holy Qur’an says:
أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَٰكِن لَّا يَشْعُرُونَ “Beware, it is, in fact, they who spread disorder, but they are not aware.”
Now, we learn two things from this comment. Firstly, the activities of the hypocrites
did actually produce disorder in the land. Secondly, they did not indulge in these
activities with the express intention or design of creating disorder they were not
even aware of the possibility that their actions could be the cause of disorder. For,
among the things which spread disorder in the world, there are some which are
commonly recognized to be mischievous and disorderly activities, and hence every
sensible and conscientious man refrains from them e.g., theft, robbery, murder,
rape etc.; on the other hand, there are some which in their external aspect do not
appear to be mischief or disorder, but, working unseen, they have the necessary
consequence of destroying the morals of men which, in its turn, opens the door to
all kinds of disorder.
This is exactly what the hypocrites were doing. No doubt, they refrained from theft,
robbery etc.; it was on this count that they denied their being mischievous, and
emphatically asserted that they were serving the cause of order. But all this while
they had been freely giving vent to their malice and envy by conspiring with the
enemies of the Muslims. These are things which finally bring man down to the level
of beasts. Once he has lost his awareness of ethical values and human decency,
even an average man becomes an agent of social disorder of a disorder much
greater than that released by thieves or robbers, or even beasts are capable of
producing. For, the mischief of robbers and beasts can be controlled by the physical
power of law and government. But laws are made and enforced by men. What
happens to laws, when man has ceased to be man, can easily be witnessed all
around us in the world of today. Everyone takes it for granted that humanity is on
the march and the modern man is so far. the ultimate in civilization; the network of
educational institutions covers every hamlet on the face of the earth; legislative
bodies keep buzzing night and day; organizations for the promulgation of laws
spend billions, and circumlocution offices proliferate. And yet crime and disorder
keep in step with the march of civilization. The reason is simple.
Law is not an automatic machine; it requires men to make it work. If man ceases to
be man, neither laws nor can bureaucratic agencies provide a remedy for the all
pervading disorder. It is for this that the greatest benefactor of mankind, the Holy
Prophet ﷺ, concentrated all his attention on making men real men – in all the
plenitude of the term. Once this has been achieved, crime or disorder comes to an
end of itself without the help of enormous police forces and extensive system of
law-courts. As long as people acted upon his teachings in certain parts of the world,
man saw a kind of peace and order prevail the like of which had never been
witnessed before nor is likely to be witnessed when these teachings are abandoned
or disregarded.
In so far as actual practice is concerned, the essence of the teachings of the Holy
Prophet is fear of Allah and solicitude for the assessment of one’s deeds on the
Day of Judgment. If these are absent, no constitution or legal code, nor
administrative body or university can force or induce man to keep away from crime.
Those who run the world in our day invent ever-new administrative measures to
prevent crime, but they not only neglect the very soul of administration, the fear of
Allah, but even deploy the means of destroying it – all of which has the necessary
consequence that the remedy only helps to feed the malady.
To another aspect of the question, it is easy enough to find a cure for thieves and
robbers and for all those who create disorder openly. But the miscreants who have
been described in these verses always appear in the garb of reformers, brandishing
colourful schemes of social amelioration which are only a mask for personal
interests, and for raising the slogan, إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ:”We are nothing but reformers.”
Hence it is that Allah, while asking men not to spread disorder on the earth, has
also said in another place:
وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ الْمُفْسِدَ مِنَ الْمُصْلِحِ
“And Allah knows the one who makes mischief distinct from him who promotes
good.” (2:220)
This is an indication that Allah alone10 knows the states of men’s hearts and their
intentions, and He alone knows the nature and consequences of each human deed
as to whether it would help the cause of order or of disorder. So, to serve the cause
of order, it is not sufficient merely to possess such an intention; much more
essential than that is to orient oneself in thought and deed in harmony with the
Shari’ah, for an action may, in spite of the best intentions, sometimes result in
mischief and disorder, if it is not guided by the Shariah.
This verse also places before the hypocrites a criterion of true faith (Iman آمِنُوا كَمَا آمَنَ النَّاسُ “Believe as people have believed”. According to the consensus of
commentators, the Arabic word Na-s : (people) in this verse refers to the
blessed Companions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ because it is just these ‘people’ who
had embraced the Faith and had accepted the Holy Qur’an as the word of Allah
while it was being revealed. So, the verse indicates that the only kind of Iman
(faith) acceptable to Allah is the one which should be similar to that of the blessed
Companions, and that the Iman of others would be worthy of the name only
when they believe in the same things in the same way as the Companions did. In
other words, the Iman of the Companions is a touchstone for testing the Iman of all the other Muslims; any belief. or deed which departs from their faith and
practice, however pleasing in its looks or good in its intention, is not valid according
to the Shari`ah. There is a consensus of commentators on this position. One should
also notice that the hypocrites used to call the blessed Companions ‘fools’ (Sufaha). This has always been the way of those who go astray – anyone who tries to
show them the right path is, in their eyes, ignorant and stupid. But who could, the
Holy Qur’an points out, be more stupid than the man who refuses to see clear
signs?
In the seventh verse, we see the double-facedness and trickery of the hypocrites. In
the company of the Muslims, they would vociferously declare their faith in Islam;
but, going back to their own people, would reassure them that they had never left
the way of their ancestors, and had been meeting the Muslims only to make fun of
them.
Injunctions and related considerationsﷺ
(1) It has sometimes been debated as to whether the distinction between Kufr
(infidelity or disbelief) and Nifaq (hypocrisy) still holds good even after the days
of the Holy Prophet ﷺ The correct position with regard to this question is this. At that
time, there were two ways of identifying a hypocrite and declaring him to be one
either Allah Himself informed the Holy Prophet ﷺ through revelation that such and
such a man was not a Muslim at heart but a hypocrite, or a man through some
word or deed overtly repugnant to the Islamic creed or practice showed himself up
as a hypocrite, thus providing a clear evidence against himself. Divine revelation
having ceased with the departure of the Holy Prophet ﷺ from this world, the first
way of identifying a hypocrite is no longer available, but the second way is still valid.
That is to say, if a man is found, on certain evidence, to be guilty, in word or deed,
of rejecting or opposing or distorting or holding in scorn the basic doctrines of Islam
undeniably established by the Holy Qur’an, the Hadith and ijma (consensus), he would be regarded as a Munafiq (hypocrite) in spite of his claim to be a true Muslim. The Holy Qur’an Ives such a hypocrite the name of a mulhid or heretic- إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يُلْحِدُونَ فِىٓ ءَايَـٰتِنَا: “Those who distort Our verses”, 41:40), and the Hadith calls them a zindiq. One must also add that since the kufr (infidelity) of such a man has been proved by clear and definite evidence, the Shari’ah will not put him in a separate category, but deal with him as it would deal with any other kafir (infidel). That is why the authentic scholars are unanimous in concluding that after the departure of the Holy Prophet ﷺ the question of hypocrites ceased to be a relevant one – now anyone who is not a genuine Muslim will be regarded as kafir. The famous author, Al-Aini, in his commentary on Al-Bukhari, reports from Imam
Malik that after the days of the Holy Prophet ﷺ this is the only available means of
identifying ‘hypocrisy’, and that a man who carries this mark could be called a
hypocrite.
As we have seen, the Surah Al-Baqarah opens with the declaration that the Holy
Qur’an is beyond all doubt. The first twenty verses of the Surah delineate the
features of those who believe in the Holy Qur’an and of those who do not — the first
five dealing with the former, under the title of Al-Muttaqun (the God-fearing);
the next two with those disbelievers who were quite open and violent in their
hostility — that is, Al-Kafirun (the disbelievers or the infidels), and the following
thirteen with those crafty disbelievers who claimed to be Muslims but, in reality,
were not so. This second variety of the disbelievers has received from the Holy
Qur’an the name of Al-Munafiqun (the hypocrities).
Of these thirteen verses, the first two define the characteristic behaviour of the
hypocrites thus:
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ
And among men there are some who say, ‘We believe in Allah and in the Last Day’,
Yet they are no believers. They try to deceive Allah and those who believe, when
they are deceiving none but their own selves, and they are not aware. These
verses expose their claim to be Muslims as false and deceitful, and show that they
are only trying to be clever. Obviously, no one can deceive Allah – probably they
themselves could not have had such a delusion. But the Holy Qur’an equates, in a
way, their attempt to deceive the Holy Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims with the desire to
deceive Allah Himself (See Qurtubi)
Such a desire, the Holy Qur’an points out, can have only one consequence – they
end up by deceiving no one but themselves, for Allah Himself cannot possibly be
deceived, and Divine Revelation protects the Holy Prophet ﷺ from all trickery and
deceit, so that the hypocrites themselves will have to bear, in the other world as well
as in this, the punishment for their presumptuousness.
As for Allah making them grow in their malady, it means that they are jealous of the
growing strength of the Muslims, but it is Allah’s will to make the position of the
Muslims even stronger, as they can see for themselves, which feeds their bile and
keeps the disease of their hearts growing.
These two verses, thus, describe the state of their insensitivity and ignorance – they
regard their defects as merits. The sixth verse shows the other aspect of this depravity – the merit of others (that is, the unalloyed faith of the Muslims) changes
into a defect, and even becomes contemptible in their eyes.
5. As for the hypocrites declaring openly that they were not prepared to believe as
others did believe, and as for their dubbing the Muslims as fools, it is obvious that
they could have been so outspoken only before the poor among the Muslims,
otherwise they used to be very careful about keeping their disbelief concealed.) (2)
A little reflection on these verses would reveal the true nature of Islam and Iman
(faith) and also that of kufr (disbelief), for the Holy Qur’an reports the claim of the
hypocrites to be Muslims: “we believe in Allah”, (2:8), forthwith refutes this
claim: “yet they are no believers”. In order to understand fully the
implications of these verses, one should bear in one’s mind the fact that the
hypocrites in question were actually Jews. Now, belief in Allah and in Hereafter is,
no doubt, an essential part of their creed as well; what was not included in their
creed, as defined by their religious scholars, was the belief in the prophethood of
Muhammad ﷺ. In declaring their faith in Islam, the Jews very cleverly used to leave
out the belief in the Holy Prophet ﷺ and mention only two elements: belief in Allah
and belief in the Hereafter. So far as such a declaration goes, they cannot be called
liars, and yet the Holy Qur’an refutes their claim to be Muslims, and regards them
as liars. Why?
The fact is that, for one to be a Muslim, it is not sufficient merely to declare one’s
faith in Allah and the Hereafter in any form or manner which suits one’s individual or
collective fancy. As for that, associators of all kinds do, in one way or another,
believe in Allah and consider Him to be Omnipotent’ but the Holy Qur’an does not
allow any of these things to pass for Iman (faith). Iman or faith in Allah
must, in order to be valid and worthy of the name, conform to what the Holy Qur’an
specifically lays down with regards to the divine names and attributes; similarly,
belief in the Hereafter can be valid only when it is true to the specifications of the
Holy Qur’an and the Hadith.76. Even peoples described by the Westerners as
“savages” or “primitives – though “degenerates” would be far closer to the mark –
have at least a vague notion of a Supreme Deity, and usually very vivid ideas about
the other world.7.There is no end to the making of books, and no end to the making
of gods and to the naming of gods – above all, in our own day. Reason, Nature,
Man, Life, all having served their turn and grown rusty, are being replaced by more
fancy names – “the ground of being” of the so-called Christian Existentialism, the
ultimate “archetype of the Collective Unconscious” of Jungian psychology, and
what not.
They have lately invented a goldless theology too.In the light of this
explanation one can see that the Jews who pretended to be Muslims believed
neither in Allah nor in the Hereafter according to these definite requirements. For,
on the one hand, they regarded the Prophet `Uzair or Ezra as the son of
God, and, on the other, cherished the fond belief that the progeny of the prophets,
no matter how it acted, would always remain ‘the chosen of God’, and would not be
called to account on the Day of Judgment, or at the worst receive only a token
punishment. These being their beliefs, the Holy Qur’an rightly rejects their claims to
faith in Allah and the Hereafter.(3) As we have already said, verse 13 defines what
Iman (faith) really is:”Believe as other men have believed”. In
other words, the criterion for judging one’s claim to ‘lman is the ‘ lman of the
blessed Companions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, and any claim to Iman نامٌا which does
not conform to it is not acceptable to Allah and to the Holy Prophet ﷺ. If a man has
the presumption8 to interpret an Islamic doctrine or verse of the Holy Qur’an in a
way which departs from the explicit and clear explanation provided by the Holy
Qur’an itself or by the Holy Prophet ﷺ, his individual opinion and belief, no matter
how much it titillates the palate of his contemporaries or feeds their fancy, will have
no value or validity in the eyes of the Shari’ah. For example, the Qadianis قادیانی
claim that like Muslims they too believe in the doctrine of the Finality of the
Prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ, but in this respect they deviate from what the Holy
Prophet ﷺ has himself stated, and what the Companions believed in, and distort the
doctrine so.as so as to make room for the prophethood of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian; so, according to the indication of the Holy Qur’an, they come under this indictment:”They are no believers.”8.As is all too common these
days.9.Who style themselves as Ahmadis. In short, if a man interprets an Islamic
doctrine in a way which is repugnant to the Iman نامٌا of the blessed Companions,
and yet claims to be a Muslim on the basis of his adherence to this doctrine and
also performs his religious duties exactly like Muslims, he will not be considered a
Mu’min (true Muslim) until and unless he agrees to conform to the criterion of
Iman laid down by the Holy Qur’an. Removal of a doubt.We may also dispel a
misunderstanding which often arises – and is more often made to arise with an
ulterior motive – with regard to the famous dictum in the Hadith and Fiqh (Islamic
Jurisprudence) that the ‘people of the Ka’bah’ (Ahl al-Qiblah), that is, those who
turn towards the Ka’bah in offering prescribed Salah cannot be branded as
infidels. The verse under discussion clearly defines the meaning of the phrase, Ahl
al-Qiblah. The term pertains only to those who do not deny any of the basic
essential doctrines and commandments of Islam which are called the
Daruriat (essentials). For that matter even the hypocrites mentioned in the
Holy Qur’an used to offer their prayers exactly as the Muslims did; but turning
towards Ka’bah while praying was not taken to be sufficient to make them
acceptable as true Muslims, simply because they did not have faith in all the
essentials of Islam as the blessed Companions did.
The eighth verse is a comment
on this attitude of complacency and self-congratulation on the part of the hypocrites.
They are mightily pleased with themselves in the belief that they can so easily make
a fool of the Muslims and get away with it, while they are, in fact, only making a fool
of themselves. For Allah has, in His forbearance and mercy, given them a long
rope, but this is a provision for their being thrown into ridicule. It took place like this.
Since the hypocrites saw no apparent signs of divine punishment descending on
themselves, they were encouraged in their complacency and rebellion, so that the
cup of their iniquity was full, and one day they were caught. Allah acted like this in
response to their mockery; so, the Holy Qur’an describes this divine action too as a
mockery on the part of Allah. The ninth verse shows the basic denseness of the
hypocrites – how they failed to make use of the ordinary sense of discrimination.
They had grown up in a pagan society, and knew very well what the way of the
infidels was. Now they had become familiar enough with Islam too, and could easily
see the difference. But, in their greed, and for the sake of petty worldly profit, they
still chose disbelief as against Islam, and bartered away something as invaluable as
Iman (faith) for something as worthless, and even harmful as kufr (infidelity).
In giving the name of ‘trade’ or ‘commerce’ to this action, the Holy Qur’an suggests
that these worldly-wise men had no understanding even of the art of trading. The
last four verses bring out the miserable plight of the hypocrites with the help of two
extended similes. The choice of two examples is meant to divide the hypocrites into
two kinds of men. On the one hand were those in whom disbelief had taken deep
roots, so that they had little inclination towards Islam, but pretended to be Muslims
for worldly motives – the Holy Qur’an compares them to the man who, having found
light, again loses it, and is left in darkness. On the other hand were those who did
recognize the truth of Islam, and sometimes wished to be genuine Muslims, but
worldly interests would not allow them to do so, and they remained in a perpetual
state of hesitation and doubt – they have been likened to the men caught in a
thunderstorm who move forward a step or two when there is a flash of lightning,
but, when it is over, again get stuck. In the course of these parables, the hypocrites
have also been warned that they are not beyond the power of Allah, and that He
can, as and when He likes, take away their sight and hearing, and even destroy
them.
Dive into the profound journey of the Quran’s initiation and uncover its historical and spiritual significance 3rd January Dars-e-Faizan-ul-Quran No. 3
وآخر دعوانا أن الحمد لله رب العالمين