Al-Baqarah Section 5: Fulfilment Of The Covenant
Fulfilment of the covenants, Regular establishment of prayers and charity, exhortation to self-first, before exhorting the others.
Al-Baqarah Verses 40 - 46
يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَتِيَ الَّتِي أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ وَإِيَّايَ فَارْهَبُونِ
“O’ children of Isra’il! Remember ye My bounties I bestowed upon you, and fulfil ye your covenant with Me, I shall fulfil My covenant with you and of Me alone (should) ye be afraid” (2:40).
وَآمِنُوا بِمَا أَنْزَلْتُ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا مَعَكُمْ وَلَا تَكُونُوا أَوَّلَ كَافِرٍ بِهِ وَلَا تَشْتَرُوا بِآيَاتِي ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا وَإِيَّايَ فَاتَّقُونِ
“And believe ye in (that) (a) which) I have sent down testifying that which ye have with you (of the scriptures) and be not first to disbelieve therein and barter not My signs with a mean price; and in Me alone shall ye take shelter” (2:41).
وَلَا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُوا الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
“Mix ye not the truth with falsehood and hide ye not the truth when ye know (it)” (2:42).
وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَارْكَعُوا مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ
“Establish ye the prayer and give ye away the poor - rate and bow ye down (while ye bow down (praying)” (2:43).
أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنْسَوْنَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
“What! Enjoin ye upon the people righteousness and ye forget your own selves? Yet ye read the scripture? What! do ye not understand?” (2:44).
وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى الْخَاشِعِينَ
“And seek ye help (from God) through patience and prayer; verily, it is a hard (task) indeed, save upon the humble” (2:45).
الَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُمْ مُلَاقُو رَبِّهِمْ وَأَنَّهُمْ إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
“Those who think that they will surely meet their Lord and that verily unto Him shall they return” (2:46).
Commentary
Verse 40
‘Aufoo be ahdi, Oofi be ahdikum’ meaning fulfil your covenant with Me and I will fulfil My covenant with you 1.
“This day thy Lord thy God had commanded thee to do these statutes and judgement: they shall therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul”
“Thou bast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgements, and to hearken unto his voice:”
“And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldst keep all his commandments;”
“And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be a holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken”
The covenant here referred to is the covenant which the children of Isra’il were bound to, under the command conveyed through Moses to receive a Prophet2 -
“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from among the midst of thee, of thy brethren; like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken”
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him”3
The Holy Prophet Muhammad was the promised Prophet, who was like Moses with all the resemblance meant by the above verses of the Bible.
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Both were the law givers.
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Both were to unify humanity dispersed and oppressed.
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Both were nation builders whose nations were formed and established independent theocracies for their respective life - times.
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Both established independent theocracies for their respective peoples.
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Both were given the aid of a Brother or a Cousin Brother.
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Both established a religion to regulate the spiritual as well as the secular life of their respective peoples.
In the whole hosts of the prophets there is none like the Holy Prophet Muhammad who resembles Moses with so many salient features.
Some Christians in vain try to present Jesus as the one referred to by this prophecy but in their anxiety to somehow claim the position for Jesus, they forget that Jesus in no sense can resemble Moses for:
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Moses was born of a father and mother, whereas Jesus was born only of a Virgin Mother.
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Moses was a law giver whereas Jesus was the abider, of the laws preached by Moses.
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Moses succeeded in establishing his people as a nation by itself, whereas Jesus had to depart from the world betrayed by one of his own disciples and the present structure of the Christians as a nation is only a later development after his departure. Jesus himself founded neither any nation nor established any state.
The claim of the Christian Church to instal Jesus in the place of the promised Prophet is belied by the fact borne out by the Bible that the Jews expected some other Prophet even besides Christ. The Jews asking John (the Baptist) if he was Elias. The reply was no, then it was asked if he was Christ, the reply was no. They asked if he was that Prophet.4.
To add to these facts the announcement made by Jesus to his disciples5.
Jesus has repeatedly prophesied about the advent of Prophet Muhammad6. In verse 13 of the Book of John it is clearly said:
“How be it when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come”
The covenant referred to in this verse, refers to the covenant taken from the children of Isra’il to believe in the Holy Prophet Muhammad and to walk in the way of the Lord.
The factor must not be forgotten that Jesus himself never claimed to have come in the fulfilment of the prophecy about the advent of the promised Prophet. And since the departure of Jesus, none else but the Holy Prophet Muhammad had come claiming this prophecy to himself.
The secret is that it was in the eagerness to have the promised prophet in Jesus, that the Christian Church started the belief in the second advent of Jesus after his alleged death and the imaginary resurrection.
Verse 41
‘Musaddiqan lema Ma’akum.’ meaning testifying that which is with you. Our Christian friends avail of the wrong interpretation of these words of this verse to say that the Holy Qur’an testifies to the correctness of every part of the old scriptures. This is just to escape the charge of the corruption of the Old Books. To imagine so will be nothing short of mere childishness and even sensible children will laugh at such a false claim because the verse refers only to truth which they contest, i.e., about the bonafide of the Holy Prophet Muhammad which is in the perfect fulfilment of the prophecy about the promised Prophet which is there in the very scriptures with them referring to the prophecies mentioned in Deuteronomy, and John etc. And the corruption effected in the old scriptures by the Christians, is referred to in the succeeding verse i.e. 42 of this Surah.
Verse 42
‘Wala ta bisul Haqqa bil-batili’ And mix ye not the truth with falsehood. This clearly speaks of the corruption effected in the scriptures of old.
The truth is that the sacred books of old remained in the minds of the Rabbis who were the repositories of the traditional lore among the Jews. Much of the knowledge about sacred scriptures lived in the oral conveyance from one to another and those who knew the matter were careful to avoid its being recorded in writing, alleging the compilation of the Talmud, much was spared to remain confined only to the few trusted ones and only the invited ones could have access to it. Thus, the Rabbis could play fast and loose with the prophecies conveyed to them through unpublished traditions about the advent of the promised Prophet. And those less cautious among the scholars who disclosed such things were rebuked for having given the weapon in the enemies’ hand (Verse 76). Those who were sincere to know the truth and to embrace it, and had the moral courage to do it recognized the truth and embraced Islam.
Verse 43
Islam as a religion has been revealed with the perfection necessary to train mankind and to discipline it and to enable it to raise itself from the depths of material degradation to unlimited elevations of the spiritual glory to qualify each individual adherent, as much as he or she personally desires to rise towards the divinity in store for every sincere seeker of it. The curbing of the physical existence of a human being is sure to have the natural sequence in sublimating it by having a moral effect on the mind which can gradually be, well on the way to receive the enlightenment of the higher meanings of life. A certain degree of piety and devotion is essential for a human being to be initiated into the realm of spiritual bliss.
All the previous religions particularly the creed of the Jews and the Christians were limited to some systems of optional ascetic hermitage of extremes which did not agree with the natural demands of the social life of the people. The imposition of such extremes with the freedom to do it or not, could help only a few ones to follow the order discarding wholly their worldly life and the rest of the bulk of the people had sunk deep into hypocritical observances and practices.
Islam as a practical and fully regulated religion, bases its foundations first at humiliating the ego in man by making him conscious about his relation to his Creator and thus, making him yield to the Lord his God in complete submission to him by worshipping in a way suiting his humble position. By this Islam brings man in the presence of his Lord. The first cardinal doctrine or the ordinance of Islam is ‘Salat’ or Prayers which develops in a human being the appropriate feeling in relation to God and puts the individual in direct touch with the great qualities of the Absolute Divine.
Verse 44
This verse clearly lays down the rule that one should first remember to reform and correct one’s own self and amend one’s own conduct and character before he aims to preach reformation to anyone else. The reformer here has to reform himself first.
Verse 45
‘Wasta’yeeno’ meaning ‘Seek ye help’ is an indefinite term which covers seeking help in matters temporal as well as spiritual as in verse 1:5.
‘Bis Sabr’, i.e. with patience. It is a natural phenomenon well known to every enlightened one that bodily mortification is to some extent necessary in disciplining the human ego accommodated in the physical framework, to lighten it by liberating it from the clutches of the desires and the passions of the material world Otherwise, it would have sunk its personal interest deep into it. This is essential to elevate it into the heights of the realms spiritual. A religion constituted of some mere formal rituals and the offering of the chanting or the recitation of some verbal prayers or charms without the demand on the individual for the practical control of the animal self in him can hardly be worth anything. The truth endowed or the spiritual strength one gets through overcoming his selfish passions in him, is by itself a very vast subject to be dealt with in the brief notes meant to explain the particular aspects of the wordings of the verses here. However, traditions from the Holy Prophet and the holy Imams say that the verse has a special reference to fasting.
Unfailing strength of conviction or the unshakable faith in God is the first, the foremost and rather the only requisite for anyone to draw the grace he needs from the All-Merciful Lord. This basic demand of faith stands not in need of any nourishment of the physical body either for the creation of the power or for its sustenance. The best example to illustrate the truth in this mystic but natural phenomena can be found in the Holy Prophet, and his Twelve divinely commissioned successors called the holy Imams and also in Lady Fatimah the godly daughter of the Holy Prophet, the Lady of Light.
The practical life of Ali the First of the holy Imams, manifests this wonderful factor, the most. The whole Islamic world cannot but unanimously bear testimony to the fact that Ali’s diet was even far below the minimum necessity for life on earth and yet his valour, his knowledge, his spiritual strength, and his portion in the realm of divinity was so matchless that the titles which his wonderful personality earned, none else could even aspire or dare to adopt for them.
‘Was Salat’ and with prayers - what else can ever be imaginably more effective or successful than any individual in his helplessness approaching the All-merciful, Almighty through prayers for help.
It is reported that whenever any difficulty confronted the Holy Prophet or any one of the holy Imams and our Lady of Light Hazrat Fatimah, they used to resort to prayers to seek God’s help. In fact, the holy personalities of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt were nothing, but the ideals divinely set up for people sincerely seeking their salvation, to follow them. What more does any sincere seeker after truth need than to follow such models, whose character is infallible and whose conduct from the beginning to its end has been flawless and unchallengably godly. Having such ideal heavenly guides before him no sensible man or woman will ever even worry about any others whose personal qualities are doubtlessly the admixture of good and bad and who for their own selves need someone else to guide them.
Verse 46
The term ‘Leqa’. ..i.e., ‘meeting,’ has been repeatedly used in the Holy Qur’an and wrongly interpreted by the superfluous thinkers meaning it as ‘Seeing’ and they evolve the theory of the possibility of seeing God, i.e., ‘Ro’yat’ in this world or in the hereafter. This view leads to the personification of God, i.e., Anthropomorphism.
This is totally opposed to the absolute unity of God in His Essence and His essential attributes, which is the fundamental article of the faith Islam, and which has been proved beyond any doubt by reasoning and is supported by the Holy Qur’an 6:103 and the authentic sayings of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Imams of the Ahl Al-Bayt. ‘Leqa’
Therefore, is to be interpreted as the state of realisation and not a physical vision. The first Holy Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib was asked: ‘Have thou seen God, the Lord? He replied: ‘I worship not the God, Whom I see not” Saying this Ali continued: ‘He is not seen by the sight of the eyes but views Him the hearts with the realisation of the faith.’7. (A.P.)
