God’s help to be sought through patience and prayer, during trials, Reward for steadfastness in faith and reliance upon God, Regard for the signs of God - Infidelity cursed by God, by the angels and by mankind, The disbelievers shall abide under the curse and the torment for ever without any remission of the torment, nor shall they have any respite.

Al-Baqarah Verses 153 - 163

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اسْتَعِينُوا بِالصَّبْرِ وَالصَّلَاةِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الصَّابِرِينَ

“O’ ye who believe! seek help with patience and prayer; Verily God is with the patient ones” (2:153).

وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَنْ يُقْتَلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتٌ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ

“And say not of those who are slain in the path of God that they are dead; Nay, (they are) living, but ye perceive not” (2:154).

وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ

“We will surely test you with something of fear, and hunger and loss of wealth and lives and fruits; and give glad tidings to the patient ones” (2:155).

الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

“Who when, misfortune befalleth them, say, “Verity we are God’s and verity unto Him shall we return” (2:156).

أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَرَحْمَةٌ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ

“Those are they on whom are the blessings from their Lord and (His) Mercy; and they are the ones that are (rightly) guided” (2:157).

إِنَّ الصَّفَا وَالْمَرْوَةَ مِنْ شَعَائِرِ اللَّهِ فَمَنْ حَجَّ الْبَيْتَ أَوِ اعْتَمَرَ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِ أَنْ يَطَّوَّفَ بِهِمَا وَمَنْ تَطَوَّعَ خَيْرًا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ شَاكِرٌ عَلِيمٌ

“Verily, ‘‘Safa’ and ‘Marwa’ are among the signs of God; whoever therefore, maketh a pilgrimage to the House or performeth ‘Umra’. Therefore, it shall be no blame on him to go round them both; and whoever of his own accord doeth anything good in deed, verily God is Grateful, All-Knowing” (2:158).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْتُمُونَ مَا أَنْزَلْنَا مِنَ الْبَيِّنَاتِ وَالْهُدَىٰ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا بَيَّنَّاهُ لِلنَّاسِ فِي الْكِتَابِ ۙ أُولَٰئِكَ يَلْعَنُهُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَلْعَنُهُمُ اللَّاعِنُونَ

“Verily, those that conceal what We have sent of (Our) manifest evidences and guidance, after what We have (so) clearly shown for mankind in the Book, (they are) those that God doth curse them and (also) curse them (all) those who curse (such ones)” (2:159).

إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا وَأَصْلَحُوا وَبَيَّنُوا فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَنَا التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ

“Except those who turn (repentant) and amend (themselves) and make manifest (The Truth), these it is unto whom I turn (mercifully), and I am the Oft-returning (to mercy), the All-Merciful” (2:160).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَمَاتُوا وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ أُولَٰئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ لَعْنَةُ اللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ

“Verily, those who disbelieve and die while they are disbelievers, on them shall be the curse of God, and (of) the angels and (of) mankind all together” (2:161).

خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا لَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْظَرُونَ

“Abiding in it the torment shall not be lightened for them nor shall they have respite” (2:162).

وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَاحِدٌ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الرَّحْمَٰنُ الرَّحِيمُ

“And your God is one God! There is no god but He! He is the Beneficent, the Merciful!” (2:163).

Commentary

Verse 153

One most naturally and reasonably qualify for the special blessings from God. If this verse is to be taken referring to the conquest of Mecca, even then it holds good, if it means to say that the people must prove their worth or value to the Truth in Islam, by bearing hardest trials with constant prayers to the Lord, for prayer suggests the praying individual’s acknowledgment of God’s Omnipotence and the individual’s confidence in God being the All-Merciful one, as the only One who can grant the prayers of the sincere supplicants.

Faith real can never be mere empty words. It must express or manifest itself through patience or endurance in all that befalls to the individual for his being faithful to God, and the help from God be sought through prayers or supplication to the Lord.

Verse 154

This phenomenon is more clearly given in 3:169 which gives further information about the truth that those who surrender or sacrifice their lives in the way i.e. the cause of the Lord (i.e. the martyrs), are alive receiving their sustenance from their Lord.

The passage should not be taken as a reference to the leaving of the soul at its departure from the body, for this state is not confined to the soul of only the Muslims. It is true of the soul of every conscious being,1, but it should be taken as referring to a particular state of blissful life which the other souls are deprived of.

The term life and death has been used in the Holy Qur’an to also signify the knowledge and the ignorance2; faith and infidelity3. The life after the departure of the soul, if it is more torturous and miserable than the present state, can be termed as death because of its being deprived of the bliss which it was enjoying here. And if the life there be more blissful than here, the life here will be death in comparison to that, and that state in comparison to this will be life. A similar statement is narrated from the Holy Prophet:

‘Ad-Dunya sijnun lil Momin wa Jannatun lil Kafir’.

i.e., This world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the infidel.

It is said that a poor Jew argued with the Second Holy Imam Hasan Ibn Ali, who was in plenty:

‘Horn can the state thou art in, be a prison for thee and the state I am in, be a paradise for me?’

The Holy Imam replied:

‘O’ Yes! If thou only knowest the miseries awaiting the infidels, in the hereafter and the bliss awaiting the faithful there, thou wilt then realise that even thy present miserable state is a paradise in comparison to those miseries, and the state- of the plenty I am now in, in comparison to the bliss awaiting for me there, is nothing short of a prison for me.’

In short, the term, life and death should be taken in the relative sense, i.e., in the sense of gain and loss in the various stages, man passes through. It is in this sense that the Holy Qur’an says:

وَلَا تَقُولُوا لِمَنْ يُقْتَلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتٌ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا تَشْعُرُونَ

“Consider not those who have given their lives for the sake of God as dead, they are indeed alive. By losing the temporary material life of miseries, they have gained eternal life of bliss.’’ (2:154).

In 3:169 is said that the martyrs are with their Lord receiving their sustenance: meaning that they are in direct communion with their Cherisher Lord and the same will be the state in which the faithful who are obedient to the Holy Prophet. The term ‘Shaheed’ used in many places in the Holy Qur’an refers to this state of realisation. (A.P.)

This verse clears the doubt of the materialist who believes that with death, man’s life gets extinct, i.e., there is no life after death, and so believed the infidels among the people of Arabia, particularly of Mecca and Madina. It is reported that this verse was revealed about the Muslims who were martyred in the battle of Badr about whom the disbelievers said that those slain had lost their lives. Some new converts to Islam seem to have shared this view, for this fact is quite evident from the address of the verse being to the Muslims.

The Verse 17:106 indicates that the course of the teaching of higher ideals was slow and gradual. And now not only the Muslims but even non-Muslims subscribe to this phenomenon. One of the most eminent scientists and philosophers Sir Oliver Lodge has gone to the extent of preaching this view through his famous work ‘‘The Survival of Man.’ ‘In the way of God’ means for the cause of Truth as opposed to ‘the way of the devil’ which means the cause of falsehood4

Sale interprets ‘fi Sabil Illah’ as wars undertaken against non-Muslims to propagate Islam, whereas this is a gross misinterpretation of the fact, and it is diametrically opposed to Qur’an which prohibits compulsion in religion.5. All the wars the Muslims had to fight during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet were forced upon them in which the Muslims had been attacked for nothing but their merely professing Islam.

Thus, all the wars were totally defensive against the unprovoked aggression from the Jews, the Christians, and the idolaters. It is a blasphemy coined and levelled against the Holy Prophet and Islam, to say that Islam was spread by the sword, whereas the fact is that Islam spread facing the swords of the idolaters, the Jews, and the Christians. Such unreasonable and unjust charges against the Holy Prophet and Islam are motivated more by the Christians to forestall by an argument, be that a false and unreasonable one, against their own inhuman and brutal atrocities enacted by the Edict of Milan by which innumerable innocent souls of men, women and even children and babes of the Jews were made to suffer the most miserable and horrible kinds of death under the freezing cold in the snowy mountains, in the flaming fires and in torturous prisons for nothing but professing their own faith of Judaism.

Verse 155

The emphasis laid upon the trying of everyone is noteworthy. It is also worth noting that the trial will be with a partial fear or dread, a partial hunger (and thirst) and a partial loss of fruits (Issues) and with the whole of any kind of feeling, suffering or loss. The more an individual rises in his faith in God, his personal virtues, and the quality of patience, more he is beset with trials through calamities to prove his personal excellence, and as he passes through the trials successfully, he is raised into higher and higher elevations of the excellence of divinity and promoted to be nearer to God. Those who do not suffer any calamities at all in this life are not much to be congratulated for it might be that these souls are not considered fit to be tried. The respite may be to allow the infidelity to increase to qualify for an intensive punishment6

It is an undeniable and incontestable fact that the Holy Prophet and all the twelve of the Holy Imams succeeding him, were in the highest ranks of faith in God and their lives are full of the most miserable kinds of torturous sufferings, and they suffered the most heart-rending calamities all in the way of God, i.e., for the cause of truth. The reference in particular, of this verse is towards these Holy Ones and the others can also come under this to the extent that their own sufferings qualify them for it.

It was only once in the history of the creation of the earth that all the kinds of trials mentioned in the verse were enacted all together to the maximum degree conceivable, with the Holy Imam Husayn and the small band of his faithful comrades in the plain of Karbala. This verse had its fullest realization only in the sufferings and the martyrdom of Husayn and his faithful comrades and the suffering of the other Imams at different times under the Omayyids and Abbaside Khalifs.

Verse 156

This clause used by a Muslim when he hears any loss, should be the motto of the life of every Muslim. It is the brief expression of all that Islam means. We are His, being His, our duty should be nothing short of absolute submission to His Will. We are returning to Him, which implies that we have proceeded from Him and that we are in our march towards Him and He is the destination.

It is obvious that whoever has moulded himself according to this motto is naturally subject to His blessing and His grace and he is the guided one. But it should not be a mere verbal expression. A more detailed expression of this motto is given in 6:163 as the motto of the life of the Holy Prophet who stands first and foremost in the order of Islam (i.e., submission to God). It is obvious that there can be no loss for a person of such realisation. His march is gain after gain, i.e., an ever-progressive gain. (A.P.)

Verse 157

‘Salawat’ from God may be interpreted as God’s blessings. The words suggest recognition of some merits of extra-excellence and of a very high order7.

The souls referred to in this verse must necessarily be personalities of extraordinary position in view of the Lord worth being associated with the Holy Prophet deserving to receive the same blessings from God along with him, and not the ordinary believers who had just approached the truth from the ranks of infidelity, the most prominent of whom proved to be disloyal and who even deserted the Muslim ranks leaving the Holy Prophet to his fate in the times of danger, in the heat of the battles fought for the survival of the faith and the faithful.

Verse 158

This verse clearly indicates how hardships borne by the holy ones are rewarded by their remembrance by God. Abraham had left his wife Hagar and his baby son Ishmael in the wilderness which Mecca then was. Safa and Marwa are the two hillocks in Mecca between which Hagar ran to and fro in search of water for her baby son Ishmael.

It is by-way of remembrance or as a memorial that the running of this godly lady in search of water for Ishmael (who was to be an apostle of God), has been prescribed as a compulsory part of the pilgrimage (i.e. Hajj). Formerly on the Safa was kept an idol called Usaf and on the Marwa was one called Nu’allah, the people were averse to going to these hillocks. This verse was revealed to remove the aversion.

‘Sha’airallah’ or the signs of God. Anything which reminds one of God or a godly person (viz. an apostle or an Imam), whose remembrance itself would be an act of virtue or devotion to God, i.e., ‘Sha’airallah.’ It is as such that the Shi’as regard the ‘Tazias’, ‘Alams’, the ‘Tabut’ or the ‘Zareeh’ of the Holy Imams.

‘Shakir’ meaning thankful, but when used for God it will mean appreciation of merit in effect, Bountiful in rewarding.

Verse 159

The reference is to the Jews who are held as those who knew all about the Holy Prophet and also the sanctity of the Holy Ka’ba and all about it8, but they were concealing the facts from the people out of their spite for the Holy Prophet who was an Ismaelite and not an Ishraelite. The Jews were most vehemently cursed by Moses9 in the event of their failure to observe all his commandments.

15. “But It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

16. Cursed shall thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

17. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.

18. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

19. Cursed shalt thou be when thou earnest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

20. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.

21. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until He have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.

22. The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.

23. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

24. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

25. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

26. And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.

27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

29. And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled everymore, and no man shall save thee.

30. Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another than shall lie with her: thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shall not gather the grapes thereof.

31. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee, thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33. The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not, eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always:

34. So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

35. The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.

36. The Lord shall bring thee, and thy kind which shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known’, and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood, and stone.

37. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.

38. Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in-, for the locust shall consume it.

39. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes’, for the worms shall eat them.

40. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil’, for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

41. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters but thou shalt not enjoy them’, for they shall go into captivity.

42. All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

43. The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high’, and thou shalt come down very low.

44. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.

45. Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed’, because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and statutes which he commanded thee.

46. And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever.

47. Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.

48. Therefore, shall thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

49. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand.

50. A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young.

51. And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.

52. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.

53. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:

54. So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:

55. So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.

56. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter.

57. And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.

58. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD.

59. Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

60. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and they shall cleave unto thee.

61. Also every sickness, and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed.

62. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude’, because thou wouldst not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.

63. And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off’ the land whither thou goest to possess it.

64. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other-, and thee thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known even wood and stone.

65. And among these nations shall thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

66. And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee-, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

67. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I speak unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.”10

The angels and men praying for curse, along with God in this Verse and 3:87 is an expression of the angels and the men being with the will of God.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ ۚ يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا

“While God and the angels bless the Holy Prophet, He enjoins the believers also to join Him and the angels, in the blessing of His Apostle [Muhammad]” (33:56).

Likewise, God takes men and the angels along with Him in cursing the wicked ones like the Jews in this verse. Thus, it becomes the duty prescribed by God himself, upon the true believers to curse the wicked ones as they bless the holy one like the Holy Prophet. Unless we curse the enemies of the Holy Prophet, our blessing him can never be perfect and true.

According to the command of God received through Verse 2:157 and Verse. 33:56 the Shi’as bless the Holy Prophet and the other godly ones, and following this verse they, to be in harmony with the will of the Lord, have to curse the wicked ones. There are some who are unreasonably opposed to cursing anyone who professes to be a Muslim, even though his profession be only from his lips and not from his heart and however much his conduct be giving a lie to his lip profession. This unjust and unreasonable defence extends even to the worst tyrants and this stand is mainly to defend those who professed themselves to be the Khalifs or the successors of the Holy Prophet, hailed themselves as the religious leaders like Yazid and others. But justice demands to identify the devil as devil and condemn him duly however much he may pretend to be a devotee of God, for the cloak of virtue and godliness which he puts on, is only to lead others astray. Those who do not want to call the devil as devil and condemn devilishness, will naturally be responsible jointly with the devil for all the beguiling instituted or spread among the general public.

Besides, when infidelity in any individual becomes a declared matter of fact, leaving no shadow of doubt, there cannot be any argument to spare such an infidel being cursed and condemned, however much he may try to escape the condemnation and the curse, by mere profession of faith and fidelity just to serve his own purpose.

Cursing and the expression of hatred and disgust against any evil or evil ones is undoubtedly necessary and rather essential, for the sustenance of any healthy emotion or for sinking it deeper into the nature of the individual, for without expressing itself openly, it is liable to get extinct altogether. It is for this necessity of training the mind of the believers ‘Tabarra has been prescribed as one of the basic doctrines of the practice of the faith11.

Verse 160

This verse clears the point that for a sinner to qualify himself for the pardon and mercy from the All- merciful Lord, there is the pre-requisite of his repenting for the evil committed, with the determination to amend for the future. Mere belief in any saviour without genuine repentance and personal amendment of the conduct; will never benefit any sinner, in the least. The personal amendment implies and includes the determination and even promise on the part of the sinner to see that the sin is never repeated thereafter.

Verse 161

‘Kufr’ or rejection of the truth or the disbelief in that which is preached by the Holy Prophet, wilfully by perversity or indolence. Hence all disbelievers or non-Muslims do not come under the declaration. A clear exception is declared in 4:98. Those mentioned in 9:106 are those who will have to wait for the command of God to be punished or to be pardoned.

They are the weak in intellect who are unable to readily distinguish between the truth and the falsehood or those who being in the lands of enemies, have not the means to go in search of the truth, or those who lived in the days of ignorance during the interregnum between the tenures of the prophets, when the followers of error preponderated, and the followers of truth remained concealed for their lives. These are those who shall wait God’s command, and the salvation of such is possible. Hell is only for those who wilfully and perversely reject the truth, or for those who having the facilities or the means to know it, do not care to do it.

Verse 162

Regarding the eternity of the chastisement the sixth Holy Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq has explained it.

Since the virtuous in this life however long they had lived, they would have been virtuous, they naturally deserve to be recompensed with eternal bliss. Similarly, the wicked in this life however long they had lived in this world they would have been only wicked, they naturally deserve to be condemned for ever.

Verse 163

This verse doubtlessly suggests that Unity of God was the grand object to be set before the believers in God (i.e. the Muslims). It is the main or the sole basic factor upon which the whole edifice or the superstructure of the faith or the religion Islam rests, towards which all guidance and the enlightenment for the human mind had to be focused.

The question is that in what sense the word ‘Wahid’ i.e. one, has been used about God. It is not in any numerical sense nor in the sense of order i.e., the First one of any second, nor in the sense of the oneness of a genus or a specie or in any other general term, but it is used in the sense of His being indivisible and unanalysable organically, chemically, geometrically, logically, mentally, or physically or in any sense whatsoever. This unity in essence does not tally with any limitation. Thus, He (God) is unlimited. Being unlimited no second, or an equal or an opposite to Him is ever conceivable.

Thus, He is One in all respects, and in every sense and regard. To this effect there is a statement of Hazrat Ali in the Book of Tawheed of Ibn Babwaih that during the battle of Jamal when the war was going on a Bedouin asked Ali ‘Do thou say that God is one?’ The people around objected to the question at that moment and blamed the questioner saying that it was no occasion for such a question when Ali was busy in mustering his forces. Ali said ‘Object ye not to the man’s questioning for what he asks is the very object of the battle here, we are demanding the same faith in the unity of God from our enemy.’ Ali proceeded giving the various above-mentioned explanations of the term ‘Wahid’ i.e., the Unity of God. (A.P.)

• 1. Vide: 3:185.
• 2. Vide: 36:70.
• 3. Vide: 6:123.
• 4. Vide: 4:76.
• 5. Vide: 2:256.
• 6. Vide: 3:178.
• 7. Vide: 33:56.
• 8. Vide: Psalms 118/22 and Math. 21/42-45.
• 9. Vide: Duet 28/15-68.
• 10. Old Testament Deut 28/15-68.
• 11. Vide: Furu’ Ad-Din explained in the introduction.