Al-Baqarah Section 3: A Challenge To The Disbelievers About The Holy Qur’an
To worship God alone, A challenge to the disbelievers about the Holy Qur’an as the Word of God Warning against setting any equals to God, God’s bounties, Glad tidings to the true believers, The wisdom in the parables set by God, God alone the Lord Creator of the Universe.
Al-Baqarah Verses 21 - 29
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
“O mankind! Worship ye (only) your Lord, Who created you and those before you, happily ye may guard (yourselves against evil)” (2:21).
الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ فِرَاشًا وَالسَّمَاءَ بِنَاءً وَأَنْزَلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَخْرَجَ بِهِ مِنَ الثَّمَرَاتِ رِزْقًا لَكُمْ فَلَا تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّهِ أَنْدَادًا وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
“Who made the earth a bed (resting place) for you and the sky a structure and causeth water to descend from heaven and thereby produceth fruits for your sustenance; set ye not Therefore, equals to God while ye already know” (2:22).
وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِنْ مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاءَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
“If ye be in doubt about what We have sent down unto Our Servant (Muhammad) produce ye then a surah (chapter) like unto it, and call ye your witnesses other than God, if ye be truthful” (2:23).
فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا وَلَنْ تَفْعَلُوا فَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِي وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَافِرِينَ
“But if ye do (it) not, and never shall ye do (it) then guard ye (yourselves) against the (Hell) fire whose fuel shall be the people and stones, prepared for the disbelievers” (2:24).
وَبَشِّرِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أَنَّ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ كُلَّمَا رُزِقُوا مِنْهَا مِنْ ثَمَرَةٍ رِزْقًا ۙ قَالُوا هَٰذَا الَّذِي رُزِقْنَا مِنْ قَبْلُ وَأُتُوا بِهِ مُتَشَابِهًا وَلَهُمْ فِيهَا أَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ وَهُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ
“Give thou (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad) the glad tiding unto those who believe and do good deeds, that for them are gardens beneath which flow rivers, and whenever they are provided with fruits therefrom they shall say, “This is what we were provided with before!” and they shall be provided with the like (of it) and for them shall be mates purified. They shall dwell therein” (2:25).
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَسْتَحْيِي أَنْ يَضْرِبَ مَثَلًا مَا بَعُوضَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَيَقُولُونَ مَاذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِهَٰذَا مَثَلًا ۘ يُضِلُّ بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِيرًا وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِهِ إِلَّا الْفَاسِقِينَ
“Verily God is not ashamed to set forth a parable of a gnat and anything beyond it; those who believe, know that it is the Truth from their Lord; but those who disbelieve say, “What meaneth God by this parable? He leadeth astray thereby many and guideth aright thereby many”; but He leadeth not astray by it except the transgressors” (2:26).
الَّذِينَ يَنْقُضُونَ عَهْدَ اللَّهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مِيثَاقِهِ وَيَقْطَعُونَ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ أَنْ يُوصَلَ وَيُفْسِدُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ
“Those who violate the covenant1of God after its being covenanted thereof, and sever that which God commandeth to be joined,’ and make mischief in the earth; these are they who are the losers” (2:27).
كَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَكُنْتُمْ أَمْوَاتًا فَأَحْيَاكُمْ ثُمَّ يُمِيتُكُمْ ثُمَّ يُحْيِيكُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
“How can ye disbelieve in God; for ye were lifeless (in your mother’s womb). He brought you to life. He causeth you to die and again (He will) restore you to life then unto Him (only) will ye be returned” (2:28).
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي الْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ فَسَوَّاهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
“He, it is who created for you all that is in the earth and then directed to the heavens (and) then fashioned them into seven heavens; and (while) He, of all things, is the Knower” (2:29).
Commentary
Verse 21 & 22
The Word ‘La’ alla’ meaning happly - denotes that the truth preached by Islam is not forced upon any individual. This word stands as clear evidence to the degree to which Islam wants a human individual to exercise his or her personal or individual liberty or freedom in the choice of the faith. Otherwise, there can never be any merit in any virtue extracted of anyone by force.
The word ‘Rabb’ or the ‘Cherisher Lord’ to Whom service is demanded of man, is in the spirit or the meaning of thankfulness for the invaluable gifts, favours and the blessings received and enjoyed.
The first holy Imam Hazrat Ali excellently defines the three kinds of obedience.
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The Servitude offered out of fear i.e., the obedience of a slave.
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The yielding for the return of a compensation or a reward i.e., the obedience of the men of business or trade.
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The Submission of a free man in thankfulness and indebtedness to the bounties he receives from the Benefactor Lord, i.e., the obedience emanating from the sincerity of a soul faithful to his clean independent conscience.
This verse invites the human individual to yield in its individual freedom with his own voluntary choice for the bounties it receives from God Who is the ‘Rabb’, Who is its Creator, Master, Lord Protector Upholder and Sustainer, Who makes every necessary provision not only for its existence but also for the development and the elevation possible, in store for it.
‘Oboodiyat’ as explained in the first chapter is reacting to the order or the authority concordantly, and it is in this sense that the Holy Qur’an admonishes man to submit to none but to the Universal Will of the Absolute as the Lord of the All-Pervading grace and love. No precaution would save man from falling into miseries of the worldly life but complete resignation to His Will. This resignation means action and not any mystic idleness or inactivity.
Man’s personality is the combination of two aspects i.e., physical and spiritual. The physical aspect is a part of the terrestrial realm and the spiritual aspect of it, is heavenly. The heaven and the earth of the Holy Qur’an, i.e., the ups and downs, have already been pointed out that sometimes they mean physical in relation to our vision and sometimes they mean the real ones directed towards the Absolute and the reverse.
Whether used in this sense or the other, the ultimate object of the Holy Qur’an is to convince man that all his needs and expectations are in the heavenly direction towards which he should always direct his attention, against the materialistic tendency which tries to divert man’s attention to the material world as the sole source of his comforts and the fulfilment of his ambitions. As these spiritual heavens end in the Absolute Infinite One, the second of which is inconceivable, and on which depends everything, the Holy Qur’an says, resign to His Will and do not adopt for Him any equals and be devoted to Him to translate His Will into the practical life. And “Wa antum Ta’lamoon” means that when it appeals to your conscience that an equal to Him is inconceivable. (A.P.)
Verse 23
In this verse as in 17:88 an open challenge is thrown against everyone who claims as the master of the Arabic language, to bring ten Surahs or even one of its kind. This heavenly challenge remains current as long as the Holy Qur’an exists. It is a clear challenge and a doubtless proof to say that if What God has given to a man without any external education at the hands of any mortal in the world, is doubted to be a fabrication of any human mind let any man or the humanity as a whole2 joined together produce one like it. The heavenly challenge here refers to the Holy Qur’an itself as a work of literature, knowledge, and Wisdom and not its effects as some commentator means.
If the effect of the teachings of the Holy Qur’an is taken, Christendom today will advance the vast number of the human minds, it could successfully carry with its own Churchian inconceivable doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the unreasonable belief in the theory of the atonement through the blood of Jesus paid as the price of the sins of men. This challenge is to set the argument to prove the Holy Qur’an as a Holy Book by itself as an ever - living veritable miracle of the Holy Prophet who was known to the world as an unlettered one.
Apart from the inimitable literary excellence, the Holy Qur’an presents to the human world, definite prophecies fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled later, and long after. It contains the facts about the endowments in the nature which the human knowledge of science as it progresses will have to know, for its further advancement.
The high order of the inimitable literary excellence of the Holy Qur’an was far beyond the reach of the conception of the literary genius of the Arab world which could not but helplessly confess:
فَقَالَ إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ يُؤْثَرُ
“Then he said, ‘This is naught, but enchantment narrated” (74:24).
A similar challenge has been thrown in 10:38 and 11:13, but the challenge rises to the climax in:
قُلْ لَئِنِ اجْتَمَعَتِ الْإِنْسُ وَالْجِنُّ عَلَىٰ أَنْ يَأْتُوا بِمِثْلِ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنِ لَا يَأْتُونَ بِمِثْلِهِ وَلَوْ كَانَ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ ظَهِيرًا
“Say (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad) If men and jinn combine together to bring the like of this Qur’an’ they would not bring the like of it, though some of them be the aiders of the others” (17:88).
The Divine Majesty and the glory of the Holy Qur’an the Final Word of God for mankind as a whole for all times till the end of the world, is in a manner which is never to be approached by any human effort.
The allowance made to the verdict of the witness adds to the strength of the challenge to say even if anyone attempts, he would not be able to enlist to his side anyone to witness its claim from among the men of common sense i.e. the claim will surely be a solitary boast without any support for the human world.
The view forwarded by the learned Ahmadi commentator regarding the challenging miraculous aspect of the Holy Qur’an has already been evolved by the leading Bahaee scholar Mirza Abul Fazl Gulpaigani in his work known as ‘Faraa’id. Abul Fazl was the contemporary of the Founder of the Ahmadi movement. Besides this, there are many doctrinal points of the Ahmadi school which seem to have been borrowed from the Bahaee movement.
Regarding the Holy Qur’an there is no doubt that as the proof of its Divine Nature as the Word of God revealed to the Holy Prophet of Islam, the challenge has been forwarded in various passages with the utmost unshakable certainty that none, not even the whole of the jinns and the human beings and those whom the unbelievers consider as the witnessing authority, if join hands together and help each other, would ever be able to bring the like of the Holy Qur’an or ten chapters of it or even a single chapter of it. This challenge is not confined to any time or age but to stand current for all times until the end of the world.
There is no doubt that since the commencement of Islam until now the enemies of Islam did not cease resorting to all means to destroy Islam, but they never dared to answer the challenge with any means in spite of the repeated attempts by the greatest and the most celebrated their scholars jointly and severally. The question is, in what respect and regard the Holy Qur’an is an unchallengeable miracle and the proof of its own truthfulness. Several views have been forwarded by the Muslims and the non-Muslim scholars. Some thought that it is a miracle due to its extreme eloquence and the rhetorical beauties and some attributed it to its prophecies. And some considered the precepts and laws forwarded by it as unchallengeable.
Some scholars felt that its fascinating and forceful tone as so effective on the human mind and heart that it defeats one, even to think of challenging it. And there are similar views of the other scholars. But none has tried to find out from the Book itself the miraculous aspect of it. The Book is the Book of guidance which has been repeatedly mentioned in the Holy Qur’an revealed to the Holy Prophet whose duty as the messenger of God is to convey and preach the message to the people whose guidance is meant, as the rhetorical principles suggest it as the duty of the speaker or the author to arrange his speech or work in such a way to convey his ideas to the audience or to the readers.
Speakers and authors differ in their abilities to adopt the shortest and the best way of arranging their ideas in adopting the language. For this purpose, the art of grammar and rhetoric has been developed. It is obvious that the language adopted as the vehicle of the ideas and the ideas aimed at to be conveyed, differ with the different individuals or the class or the people whom it has been addressed. If anyone attempts to convey the metaphysical problems and ideas to the common public, people will consider him to be a fool, however much eloquent be his language, and vice - versa to address some childish stories to great intellects, will be the same. A person who develops rhetoric capacities will adopt his message according to the capacity and the standard of the people he is addressing. There are poets of high standards who have tried to express the feelings and - excite the emotions of the people of a particular period and time but with the change of the circumstances their celebrated and the most appreciated expressions die away and become stale.
There are rhetorical works of great standards which instead of appealing to the temporal sense of the people’s appreciation have gone deeper to touch such feelings and emotions which are rooted in the human heart and thus, become more universal. The expression of such feelings will naturally meet wider and more lasting appreciation but whatever may be the nature of such works is always confined to some aspect of human life. If anyone stands up claiming that he has a message of universal nature dealing with all the aspects of human life, physical and mental, individual and social, political and economic, the life here and hereafter to convey not to any particular person or a class of people but to every human being, community, and nation, educated and uneducated of his time and of the time and the ages to come, such a person would require the knowledge of human nature in general and of the people of different classes, races and tendencies in particular.
The relation of each individual to the other and the relation of the mankind as a whole to the other being surrounding it, and the beginning and the end of the human life, the first and the final cause of the universe of which man is a part, then he should have the rhetorical capacity to be able to express his views and knowledge in such a far reaching manner that would be understood and appreciated by every human being of any standard and accomplishment of all the ages. Such extensive knowledge and such a power of expression is beyond the limitations of the human ability.
The work of such a nature naturally will be the Last word with regard to ideas as well as the linguistic excellence. A word which expresses a lofty idea in such a way that even the simplest and the illiterate man would appreciate it, as a highly accomplished philosopher would do. This universality of the truth in the idea and the beauty and the attractive force of the language is so divine that it is beyond the reach of the expressive power of any limited being. It is in this regard that the Holy Qur’an claims to be, not only the Word of God Inimitable but the Final Word in respect of truth and justice, the better or even the like of it, is impossible to be produced by anyone.
The Truth of this claim is obvious in every verse of the Book and it chapters. This includes all the other views advanced by the other commentators. Therefore, it is true to say that the Holy Qur’an is a miracle with regard to its ‘Balaghat’ eloquence and Guidance. (A.P.)
Verse 24
The words ‘Walan Taf’alu’ further establishes the truth about the veritable position of the Holy Qur’an as a miracle, for the verdict is given in these words ‘Walan Taf’alu’ meaning, ‘And ye shall never be able to do it.’ It is nothing short of a prophecy as well as? warning against the delusion imagining the possibility of any successful imitation of the Holy Word of God, for ever. Thus, the challenge stands for ever and was not confined to the Arabian orators of the time.
When it is a matter of definite surety that the Holy Qur’an is nothing but the inimitable word of God, then, beware of the Hell fire prepared for the disbelievers in it, in which shall be burnt both the disbelievers along with their stone deities.
Here again a Commentator has attempted to interpret Fire (Nar) into War. It has been the consistent characteristic of some schools to interpret the Word of God in a metaphorical meaning. Such interpretations are not always without a definite motive. The attempt to interpret the verses of the Holy Qur’an in figurative meaning had been to find some place for the false and unwarranted authority of some self-assumed leader of some new creed. This has also been to deprive the events of the miraculous aspects because claiming himself to be a Prophet he could not himself work out anything which could reasonably be established as miracles. Since a self-made Prophet was unable to work out any miracle by himself, his followers attempt to deny miracles having been performed by any apostle of God at all. The motive behind their translation of the Holy Qur’an is to secularize the lives of all the apostles of God so that the materialistic life of their hero, may not be peculiar to him alone.
Any attempt to narrow down the meaning of the Qur’anic expression or to support a particular view is dishonesty unless it is supported by clear evidence of the Holy Qur’an itself, or some authoritative and clear saying of the Holy Prophet. Regarding the threatening fire with which the Holy Qur’an warns the infidels and similarly the hell and the punishment, which is abundant in the Holy Qur’an, there has been an attempt on the part of the scholars of the present days to interpret it in a metaphorical way applicable to the miseries, tortures, discomforts and the calamities of the present life to which the infidels were subjected. This attempt shows the materialistic tendency of the interpreters who cannot see anything real beyond the material world but as it cannot be denied that the prophethood in general and Islam in particular is based on two principles as the articles of the faith viz., the faith in God as the Creator and the Law Giver, and the Life hereafter wherein every individual will be rewarded or punished in accordance with his obedience or disobedience to the Divine Law. (A.P.)
Verse 25
Man always relishes and enjoys things or events which are already known to him through his previous experience. No one enjoys an experiment. Fruits which are promised to the virtuous in the hereafter i.e. in the end, will be such which will be seeming to the recipients as already stated. The next life being the continuation of the present one, it is proper and reasonable that the blessings herein should be analogous to be enjoyable by the recipients adopted for the higher and the more realistic life.
After postulating with the decisive sentence of ‘lan Taf’alu’ the failure of the doubtful to answer the challenge, the Holy Qur’an gives warning to those who persist in their doubt of the punishment awaiting them and gives the glad - tiding to the believers of the Paradise prepared for them. The point to be noted here is the expression that the heavenly fruits which the believers would enjoy, bear the similarity with what they had enjoyed in the life before. This shows the continuity of the human consciousness and the memory in the life hereafter and that the fruits in the life hereafter are the developed forms of the experience in the present life. Without these two considerations, there would be no enjoyment, no reward, or no punishment. This is a blow to the Karma theory advanced by the Vedantic school i.e., the theory of the transmigration. In transmigration the consciousness and memory of the past is lost and thus, it is futile to say that the misery or the comfort of one is the result of the virtues and the vice in the life before, of which he is not conscious.
Here and elsewhere in giving the description of the life hereafter mostly reference is made to the physical pain and pleasure and the sensual objects. This has become the subject of criticism. The answer to it is that to present a particular pleasure and pain the sense of which has not yet developed in man, would not be possible unless it is presented in the term of the objects of the senses developed in him viz., if a child is born blind unable to appreciate the brightness of light and beauties of the various colours: unless such objects are presented to him in the terms of the objects of the other senses of which he has the experience, he would never be able to grasp and appreciate it at all. For the pains and the pleasures of the life hereafter the corresponding sense has not yet been developed in man in general.
Therefore, it is natural that the presentation should be in some figurative form3. This presentation is responsible for most of the figurative expressions of the Holy Quran. These are the parables presented to man the intellectual significance of it, will not be grasped save by those endowed with knowledge. Secondly the Holy Qur’an insists saying that the life hereafter is the developed continuation of the present life. Nothing of this life is destroyed there, but it is developed into a very refined form, more real and effective than its crude form of the terrestrial life. The earth and the earthly beings, animate or inanimate, man and all his faculties and the senses will be developed into such a realm of real life in comparison to which the present life is of a mere childish, playful, and imitative value. As stated before, the real phase of the terrestrial phenomenon is in the heavenly sphere. This applies to all objects of our senses and our pleasures and pains. The terrestrial fire here has a corresponding heavenly fire and the terrestrial food here has a corresponding heavenly food then and so on.
The other point to be noted is that the life hereafter is also of social nature and value based on the association of the positive and negative elements. The Holy Qur’an insists on the social phenomenon of the life hereafter and the social realisation of the enjoyment therein. Many Islamic precepts are based on this consideration. (A.P.)
As these are the rewards for gaining the pleasure of God for overcoming the carnal desires, in love of the Creator Lord, it can practically be a creative power bestowed upon the individual to have whatever he wishes to have, to please himself in recompense for pleasing his Lord in his earthly life.
The word ‘Azwaj’ in plural means mates - or wives which in the case of the female sex mean husbands. This may mean the faithful wives of the faithful husbands i.e., women who had been the true and the faithful believers in the truth and who had been the wives of the men who were also believers. The verse:
هُمْ وَأَزْوَاجُهُمْ فِي ظِلَالٍ عَلَى الْأَرَائِكِ مُتَّكِئُونَ
“They and their wives shall be in shades, reclining on raised couches” (36:56).
This verse denotes that women will be equally entitled to the heavenly grace in receiving an equal reward as men.
This verse leads to the hope that in some cases husbands will be saved in reward for the goodness of their godly wives and similarly wives for the sake of their husbands entitled to the reward. The bond of sincere love will have its full play in the next world as well. We are told that similarly parents will be saved for the sake of their innocent children who die in infancy (as these innocent ones most naturally go to heaven). And similarly, friends will be saved for the sake of the godly men whom they sincerely loved.
If a woman has had several husbands, she will be joined to him who had been the most kind and loving to her (B. H.) ‘Hum fiha khalidoon’ meaning that they shall abide therein for ever. The very thought of some blessings or enjoyment being liable to be discontinued or any doubt about the continuity of any pleasure, spoils the full realization of the reward. Similarly, the hope of any punishment ceasing at any stage is liable to create a kind of hope of the relief which may even go to alleviate the dread of the punishment and consequently encourage an individual to remain in sin saying that the punishment after all is temporary. God, while mentioning the reward to the virtuous and the punishment to the wicked, also mentions that it shall be for ever.
Verse 26
‘Yuzillu’ literally meaning misleading. Wherever the word ‘Yuzillu’ is used relating to God it means the withdrawal of His Grace and allowing the individual to have the way of his or her own choice as a punishment consequent upon the individual’s rejecting the divine guidance voluntarily offered to him.
Note: The Holy Qur’an presents the justification to the frequent metaphorical expressions in the form of parables, to stimulate the human mind and heart. The result is obvious that a healthy mind grasps the Truth whereas the perverted mind increases its doubts as to what God meant by the parable. Thus, the one and same expression has two opposite effects. The right impression is ‘Hidayat’ (guidance) already assigned to the ‘Muttaqeen’ (the Pious) and the wrong impression ‘Dhalalat’ (Going astray) which is given in the next verse. The two important aspects of the wrong - doers ‘Naqz al-ahdeilahi’ i.e., the breach of the Covenant of God, after it has been confirmed and the ‘Qata’ ma amarallah’ i.e., the severing of the relation or the connection with what God has commanded man to establish and doing things subversive and harmful to the harmonious life on earth. (A.P.)
Verse 27
‘Allazeena yanquzuna Ahdallah’ Those who break the covenant with God. An intelligent reader of this verse will naturally and immediately ask which covenant? The first or the original covenant is that which every soul before it is sent into this world makes to its Creator Lord that it will exist only to fulfil the Lord’s Will and never to rebel against His Authority. This is the original and the latent covenant and the second and external covenant is the one which the individual makes when he embraces Islam, the truth i.e. to surrender his individual self or ego to the Will of God and never in the least to act against it.
However, the verse clearly demands some covenant taken directly by God through His Apostle Muhammad4 clarifies the point. It cannot be any other than the covenant of Islam taken from the believers at the perfection of Islam as a definite and a complete religion after the Holy Prophet’s declaration at Ghadir Khumm that of whomsoever the Holy Prophet Muhammad is the Lord, Ali son of Abu Talib, is his Lord. This declaration by the Holy Prophet was made in the faithful compliance with God’s command received5 .
This demand from God through His Apostle Muhammad to acknowledge Ali as the Lord in the place of the Holy Prophet is not at all a mere fancy to honour Ali but to guarantee the correctness of the belief in God and His Will, expressed through His own revealed faith Islam, so that the believer in the absence or after the departure of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, might not fall an easy victim to counterfeit leaders of the faith, who might rise just to fulfil their personal and selfish lust for the religious leadership to rule the fate of mankind. Fulfilment to the covenant made with God is demanded in 13:20, 13:21, and 13:25.
‘Wa Yaqta’ ana’ and cut off or deprive anyone of what he rightly claims of us i.e., ‘Sila al-Rehm’ i.e., the regard or the consideration of every possible help and assistance one deserves in relation to the other, man or woman, as his kith and kin and as also one’s neighbour and even as a fellow being, as it has been prescribed by God, especially in regard to the parents and the nearest kith and kin. The main object of correct ethics is to place a human being in the right relationship in the social structure of the human society. The chief aim of a true religion can be nothing but to establish the individual human soul in the right position in the spiritual world so as to enable him to gain the elevations towards divinity as much as he or she, thereafter desires.
For this Islam enjoins every faithful adherent of it, to be attached to the Holy Prophet and in his absence to the Holy Imams or the divinely inspired and commissioned guides towards the right path against the overcrowding or the over - whelming delusions of falsehood. Thus, every faithful one is in duty bound to be attached to the Holy Prophet and the Holy Imams and never to cut away his relationship with these heavenly guides: and this is in bis own individual interest. ‘Wa yafsidoona fil arz’ and they make mischief in the land. Mischief in Islam is one of the most abhorred crimes:
وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَكْبَرُ مِنَ الْقَتْلِ
“Mischief is greater or graver than murder” (2:217).
This is one of the many proofs that Islam stands for peace on earth and never tolerates anything which disturbs it. And when is peace disturbed? Only when anyone wants to have something which rightfully is not his.
This verse undoubtedly applies to everyone who is opposed to the divinely established authority of Imamah (The guidance through the Holy Imams) immediately succeeding the ‘Risalah’ (apostleship of the Holy Prophet which is a covenant entered into by every faithful adherent of Islam.
Verse 28
It must be remembered that the correct conception of God is the basic need of the correct faith which involves all that is in the whole system of the religion as a corollary from that main generative factor. The most practical method of acquiring the basic knowledge about God is to carefully observe and thoughtfully reflect on the creation before our own eyes which method is repeatedly impressed and demanded in the Holy Qur’an. The course adopted in the Holy Qur’an to educate man, is the most scientific and the most modem one, i.e., of proceeding from the concrete to the abstract.
‘Kuntum amwatim’ you were dead i.e., you did not exist on this plane of visible creation. The pre - existence of souls in a proceeding spiritual state is hinted here. The souls though existing in the spiritual realm but were dead, i.e. unable to take any active part in this life on this earth.
Note: The address of ‘Kuntum’, the second person plural, is towards the human ego which was not as it is now as a conscious entity. The previous state is termed as ‘being dead’, brought into the present conscious state, by God means ‘enlivening’. The departure of the conscious self from the body is termed as death caused by God. The state of the human cognitive self, after its departure from the body, is termed as the ‘enlivening’ in that state and from that state proceeding the other states, up to the Infinite means of the return to God. This shows that once the life begins, there is no reversion or the regression. It is the continuous procedure from one state to the other, dying from the previous state and entering life into the succeeding one. Be the succeeding state pleasant or painful, it is the evolutionary consequence of the proceeding state. The following tradition of the Holy Prophet says:
‘Khuliqtum lil baqa la lilfana; Innama tanquluna min Darul Aamaal ila Dare Shaqwatin au Sa’aada’
Ye have been created for eternity and not to be annihilated, Verily, ye travel from the life of activity to the state of misery or of grace i.e., of happiness.
The return is for the final retribution.
This passage points out the continuous evolutionary transformation and the transcending of a conscious human entity up to the communion with the Infinite, not in the sense of annihilation or the absorption of the finite into the infinite but in the sense of the realisation of the fact that nothing is real but the One. (A.P.)
Verse 29
The word ‘Thumma’ is used both to denote succession in time and for enumerating facts, hence it may mean and or then or thereafter.
‘Saba’ Samawat’ i.e., the seven heavens, there has been much speculation by various scholars about the number seven and the word Sama or heavens. Some of the ancient scholars have confused it with the seven spheres Ptolemy. The modem view which evidently seems to have been derived or borrowed from ‘Al-Haiata wal Islam’ of Allama Hibatuddin has been summarized by some Commentators.
The word Saba which signifies the number seven in the Arabic language, is also in a vague manner used to mean seven or more, several or many. According to the Lisan ul-Arab, the Arabic equivalents of the numbers seven, seventy and seven hundred are all used to indicate a large number - Hence the seven heavens mentioned in this verse may mean a large number of heavens.
Besides the significance of the word Sama means what we see above. Raghib Ispahani makes the meaning very clear saying every Sama i.e., heaven, is a heaven in relation to what is beneath it, and at the same time an earth in relation to what is above it.
In verse:
اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَمِنَ الْأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ
“God is He Who created seven heavens, and of the earth, the like of them” (65:12).
This verse denotes that there are seven earths as there are seven heavens. In 23:17 the seven heavens are also mentioned as seven ways, meaning the orbit of a planet as is heaven. Each of the seven earths, together with our earth would thus, make up the eight major planets of the Solar system.
The point is, that this is a very vast subject, and it is impossible to deal with it in all its details, in these limited and brief footnotes.
The modem discoveries by science have found out innumerable solar systems other than ours and the discovery of furthermore such systems is yet expected with the successful invention or the structure of a stronger telescope. Hence the rendering of the word seven can be a large number or the innumerable number.
It is on such occasions when an intelligent reader of the Qur’an encounters problems relating to the last meaning of the word of God stored for those sincerely seeking it and are competent to hold it, that the necessity of the divinely inspired custodians of the deeper knowledge, called the Imams, is proved. Just to keep the faithful and the sincere adherents of Islam informed of the proper and the genuine quarters from which they can always have the clarifications, authentic and reliable, about such problematic points, the Holy Prophet Muhammad declared:
“Ana Madinatul Ilmi wa Aliyun Babuha” i.e., I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate, meaning all that is with me and in me, shall always be had through Ali.
To add to this declaration which is well-known to the Islamic world as a whole, there is another supplementary announcement ‘Alhaqqu Ma’al Ali wa Aliyun Ma’al Haqq’ meaning Truth shall (always) be with Ali and Ali will (always) be with the Truth,’ meaning anyone sincerely desirous of knowing the truth, shall resort to Ali and none else. The author of Hai’atu wal Islam has drawn his conclusions from the analysis given by the Holy Imams. The exposition of the internal meaning of the word Sama by the Holy Prophet and His divinely commissioned successors called the Holy Imams lead us to reliance on the explanatory commentaries by the progress of science. The description of the word Sama agrees with regions of the planetary orbs.
The views here and in 41:9-12, and 79:27-33, are identical in presenting the development of the earthly stuff having taken place before the classification of the heavens into seven, with the illuminating and the non-illuminating bodies, but the presentation made in 79:27-33, seems to contradict but the contradiction will disappear if the verse 30 of chapter 79 is taken into account with regard to the development and not with the creation of the earth and its primitive development which preceded the classification of the heavenly bodies. This verse and the two following verses deal with the further expansion of the earth and the earthly resources for the living beings. As regards the creation of the earth and the heavens the Holy Qur’an says that they were one6 and then were separated from each other, which establishes the simultaneous existence of both. The other passages in this connection should be taken to deal with the development and the last passage of V. 30 deals with the further expansion of the earth. Hence no contradiction, and there is no need for depriving the conjunctive particle ‘Thumma’ of its literal sense.
Another point to be noted is that this verse is dealing with the creation of the terrestrial and celestial beings refer to the evolutionary arc of ascent and this has nothing to do with the heavenly spheres with the beings therein situated in the Arc of Descent. (A.P.)
