The qualities of the hypocrites, their mischief and their false pride, their examples.

Al-Baqarah Verses 8 - 20

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَمَا هُمْ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ

“And of the people (are some) who say, “we believe in God and in the Last Day (of Judgment)”, (while in fact) they are not believers (at all)” (2:8).

يُخَادِعُونَ اللَّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلَّا أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ

“They (intend to) ‘deceive God and those who believe, while they deceive not but themselves, but they perceive (it) not” (2:9).

فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ مَرَضٌ فَزَادَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَرَضًا وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ

“In their heart is a disease, and God increaseth their disease, for them is a painful chastisement, because of the lie they were saying” (2:10).

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا تُفْسِدُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُصْلِحُونَ

“And when it is said unto them, “make ye not mischief in the earth” say they, ‘Verily, we are only the well – doers’” (2:11).

أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ الْمُفْسِدُونَ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ

“Beware! Verily, they are the mischief - mongers but they perceive (it) not” (2:12).

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا كَمَا آمَنَ النَّاسُ قَالُوا أَنُؤْمِنُ كَمَا آمَنَ السُّفَهَاءُ أَلَا إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ السُّفَهَاءُ وَلَٰكِنْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

“When it is said unto them, “Believe ye as the (other) people did believe, they say, “shall we believe as the fools did believe?” Beware! Verily, they are the fools, but they know not” (2:13).

وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَالُوا آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْا إِلَىٰ شَيَاطِينِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمْ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهْزِئُونَ

“And when they meet with those who believe, they say, “we believe” but when they go apart to their devils, they say, “surely we are with you, verily, we did but mock” (2:14).

اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ وَيَمُدُّهُمْ فِي طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُونَ

“God mocketh at them and He only alloweth them to continue bewildered in their rebellion” (2:15).

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَىٰ فَمَا رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ

“These are they who purchase error for guidance, hence their transaction profitteth them not, neither are they guided aright” (2:16).

مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ الَّذِي اسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًا فَلَمَّا أَضَاءَتْ مَا حَوْلَهُ ذَهَبَ اللَّهُ بِنُورِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهُمْ فِي ظُلُمَاتٍ لَا يُبْصِرُونَ

“The likeness of them is like unto one who kindleth a fire, and when it lighteth all around him, God taketh away the light and leaveth them in darkness, they see not” (2:17).

صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُونَ

“(They are) deaf, dumb and blind; hence they will return not (from their darkness)” (2:18).

أَوْ كَصَيِّبٍ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فِيهِ ظُلُمَاتٌ وَرَعْدٌ وَبَرْقٌ يَجْعَلُونَ أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِي آذَانِهِمْ مِنَ الصَّوَاعِقِ حَذَرَ الْمَوْتِ وَاللَّهُ مُحِيطٌ بِالْكَافِرِينَ

“Or like a rainstorm from heaven fraught with darkness, thunder and lightning, they put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps for fear of death; and verily, God encompasseth the disbelievers” (2:19).

يَكَادُ الْبَرْقُ يَخْطَفُ أَبْصَارَهُمْ كُلَّمَا أَضَاءَ لَهُمْ مَشَوْا فِيهِ وَإِذَا أَظْلَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ قَامُوا وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ لَذَهَبَ بِسَمْعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَارِهِمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“The lightning well - nigh snatcheth away (a)their sight (from them)’, as often as it gleameth for them, they walk therein and when it getteth dark for them, they halt; if God willed, He could take away their hearing and their sight. Verily, God hath power over all things” (2:20).

Commentary

Verse 8

This verse and the next twelve verses refer to the conduct of the hypocrites. By the faith in God and in the Later Day i.e., the Day of Judgment means Islam.

The Munafiq i.e., the hypocrites are those disbelievers who just to serve their own purpose of justifying their social position or the safety and security of themselves and their personal interest, had made just a show of their joining the ranks of the Muslims, against the fast - increasing power and strength of the adherents of Islam. The Leader of the hypocrites in Madina was Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy who for a long time intended to gain the position of the ruling chief of Madina but all the prospects of realizing his long - cherished desire for his sovereignty, vanished away altogether with the arrival of the Holy Prophet into Madina from Mecca.

‘Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy’s aim was to win the command of all the tribes in Madina and in its surrounding and to end the long - continued hostilities between the Aus and Khazraj who were two principal tribes of Madina. With the arrival of the Holy Prophet into Madina began the conversion of the tribes to Islam and the hostilities between the two tribes died a natural death and consequently the Holy Prophet was automatically acknowledged as a supreme spiritual authority whom all the tribes which were converted to Islam, paid their allegiance and even those who were yet to be converted had to pay regard to him on consideration for the control of themselves and their affairs which the fast growing influence which the spiritual supremacy of the authority of the Holy Prophet had gained. Now Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy and those like him who enjoyed some privileged position and controlled the affairs of men with some authority or other, with them maintained their own personal position of dignity and personal profit, were totally neglected by the people, and were looked at as like ‘he other members of the tribes.

This generated an ineradicable jealousy and envy in this vicious man and his wicked partisan’s and - this man and his fellows constituted secret centres of concealed mischief. Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy and the other allied fellow characters had embraced Islam, not with conviction but just to meet the need of the situation which had been automatically created over which they had no control. There became Munafiqoon or the hypocrites.

It must be remembered that the term Munafiqeen or Munafiqoon used in the Holy Quran is not meant exclusively or restricted only to those hypocrites in Madina or elsewhere. The term is used in the Meccan Surahs revealed earlier to the Madani ones1 when Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy and his fellows had not yet appeared on the scene. It is the characteristic of the Qur’anic usage of such terms that though they might apply to the immediate objects who had earned the distinctions, but they apply in general to one and all in any age who might possess the qualities.

All those who believed or followed the Holy Prophet were not naturally equal in the degree of their conviction and faith. Most of them were reluctant believers, some believed with their personal doubts about the truth as well as about the bonafide of Muhammad as the Apostle of God. Some were believers only by declaration to follow the crowd, but at hearts they were inclined to their own creeds, and some were those who were antagonists but were making a mere show of their belief. Such half or partial believers had little or no capacity at all for higher spiritual conceptions or for the sincere or perfect practice of their faith2.

It is natural that such half - hearted adherents could never be able to keep themselves attached to their faith when it demands of them anything which did not well harmonize with everything else in their minds, or that which they Otherwise, held to be true or probable. The incident referred to in Surah 59:5 regarding the cutting down of the trees in the siege of Bani - Nazeer’s discloses the actual degree of the belief or faith. Besides, there is the example of the conduct of the early converts, including even ‘Umar son of Khattab, who at the conclusion of the Treaty of Hodaibiyah expressed his own doubt about bonafide of the Apostles of God. All such men could neither be the believers in the true sense of the term, nor could they be classed with the pure hypocrites. There are infinite degrees of half - hearted acceptance and decided rejection.

The question of pure faith is a very subtle matter. None can ever know the degree of his own faith or conviction. Great majority of men are in the state of partial belief in God. It is in the event of a trial that the wavering state of one’s belief gets patented to the individual as to the others. This self-delusion is referred to in verse 9. When people, born and bred in faith for generations in the all - favourable environment, miserably fail when at the time when their faith is tried, how little can we expect pure and testable faith among the early converts, who had little or no capacity to understand fully the faith they had just adopted whether in following the crowd or for the consideration of their material benefit in this world.

The actual position or the degree of the faith of the general masses of the believers, during the time of the Holy Prophet was laid bare or openly manifested by their deserting the Holy Prophet during the state of trial in the Battles the Holy Prophet was forced to fight. But those who deserted the Holy Prophet leaving him in the midst of his worst enemies, and disappeared for days together, later immediately as the Holy Prophet departed from this world appeared as the greatest heroes of Islam.

Note. In reacting to the act of apostolic guidance the Holy Qur’an has already given the description of the two extreme opposite reactions. It gives here another kind of reaction or the response to the same preaching. This new class also has two sub-classes:

(1) those who verbally profess faith in God but in fact they have it not. Their bent of mind is towards the worldly gain and their profession is for nothing but to deceive the faithful. This tendency towards materialism here and in many other places has been termed as the disease of the heart, the reaction of which may be ‘Kufr’ i.e. disbelief

(2) ‘Nifaq’ i.e., Hypocrisy.

It has been the fashion among the commentators to refer to Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy and his associates whenever a reference is made to the hypocrites, but the fact is that the attempt is entirely misleading, narrowing down the view of the Holy Qur’an to focus on a person of no important status, except that he was a man of wealth aspiring for the chieftainship of the people of Madina and was disappointed due to the advent of Islam. For this reason, he had developed some grudge in his heart against the Holy Prophet, his mission, and his activities which he had been giving vent to in some prejudicial conduct every now and then, and would also apologise whenever found fault with. He had no effective voice even among the members of his own family as his own son, a faithful believer, had more than once sought the permission of the Holy Prophet to slay him.

The Holy Prophet, on the contrary, used to be lenient towards him. And at the death of Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy, the Holy Prophet, as the token of his grace and clemency, even led the funeral prayers. Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy was made a scapegoat as a substitute for the really dangerous hypocrites whose subversive and far - reaching activities proved to be more antagonistic and harmful for Islam.

There are passages in the Holy Qur’an regarding the hypocritic attitude of some of the disciples of the Holy Prophet which are more applicable to the people of Quraish than to the other groups who joined Islam. In any case the Holy Qur’an in its description of the ‘Munafiqeen’ i.e., the hypocrites, in the various ways aims at the psychological condition of the people surrounding the Holy Prophet. The Holy Qur’an wants to classify people in their reaction to the Last Message from God conveyed through the Holy Prophet, to the people of his time and of the time to come. The Holy Qur’an wants to explain that some of them were of such nature or bent of mind that they would react to the massage in complete concordance, and some less in degree, and some in complete opposite, openly, with no hope of any improvement in their attitude. Some would react in a hypocritical manner with mere lip profession of the faith with the rigid antagonistic attitude of mind and heart. And of this class some are in a wavering and a shaking condition.

Regarding this class whose heart, ear and sight is not yet entirely sealed, there is hope of improvement, but they come under the term ‘Munafiqeen’ until their faith or its opposite is improved in them. This state of wavering is true of most of the disciples of the Holy Prophet who for ages were attached to their old habits, customs, and creeds and now the force of the truth in the new mission had been shaking and detaching them from the old bent of mind.

This conflict between the tendency of the ‘Jahiliyat’ and that of the irresistible force of the Truth created the state of the mental conflict which is responsible for many of their activities mentioned in the Holy Qur’an during the life-time of the Holy Prophet and many activities recorded by history after his departure. This wavering condition is sensed out by the Holy Qur’an3 and in many other places where the Holy Qur’an expresses its concern about the retreat of some of the companions of the Holy Prophet to the customs, habits, and practices of the days of ignorance, and there are authentic traditions accepted by all schools which show that the Holy Prophet also expressed his concern about this retreat of his companions. Taking all these facts in view, one would have no doubt that the Holy Qur’an’s treatment of the ‘Munafiqeen’ was not aimed only at Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy.

This attempt of putting Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy, in the focus itself seems to have been done by those who were more suspected for their reactionary and subversive activities against the cause of Islam and who came into power after the Holy Prophet. It is worthy of being noted here that the Holy Qur’an deals with the hypocrites in so many of its chapters in different tones and description, but the history becomes silent about them totally after the departure of the Holy Prophet. Not only does history become silent but a general view is developed that every one of the companions is true, faithful, and just and a shining star worthy of being followed for guidance. Is it that all the hypocrites referred to by the Holy Qur’an died before the Holy Prophet or remained hidden in the garb of power and authority.

See further reference in the respective places which will disclose the facts that of the companions there were a few in number who had totally detached themselves from their old customs and had submitted their mind and heart entirely to the new order. And if taken into consideration the well-known saying of the Holy Prophet about the minimum degree of hypocrisy - a hypocrite is the one who when speaks, he lies; when promises, he breaks them, and when entrusted with, he proves himself to be dishonest thus, it becomes very difficult to exempt people of the hypocritical tendency. The Holy Qur’an says:

“Wa qaleelun min Ibadiyash - shakour’

وَقَلِيلٌ مِنْ عِبَادِيَ الشَّكُورُ

“And few of My servants are grateful” (34:13).

i.e., there are very few among the people who are faithful or loyal to the Divine Cause. From Vs. 7 to 17 reference is made to the hypocrites of class I whose conscience, hearing, and sight have been lost to their adamance and there is no hope of their return to the Truth. (A.P.)

Verse 9

This verse clearly shows their individual position. When it is proved to delude himself thinking that the real state of his mind is hidden from God and many a time bases his belief upon his own imaginations and false conceptions. When for any worldly considerations to gain reputation in the world and the goodwill of the people, he does something of seeming virtue, he gains honour for him and expects God also to reward him so much. This is nothing but the individual’s deceiving the All-Knowing God Who fully knows the latent intentions concealed in the depths of the hearts of everyone, but on the other hand God deceived him in the sense that He also allows the individual to be deluded as he desires.

Hypocrisy might lurk in any heart which is not fully purified. Hence every sincere one among the believers must always guard himself against it. It was glaring in the earliest converts whose admission into the creed was caused by mere circumstances and not by individual independent conviction. However much they had pretended to be the most faithful ones, but their conviction was never perfect and faith had not reached their hearts, and consequently they could not overcome the powerful spirit of envy and grudge against the Holy Prophet who was ever rising in power, setting up a supreme theocratic authority for himself and the selected godly ones from his own holy family whose personal purity was only the fulfilment of the Divine Will4 and whose native virtues had been universally acknowledged. All men who lack certain virtues or certain goodness in them are not such sincere lovers of those virtues and the goodness to relish others owning them. The want for any virtue in any individual suggests lack of goodness in that personality, meaning that the individual has no taste for that kind of goodness.

The word ‘Anfusahum’ means themselves as well to their fellowmen. It can mean such deluded minds who intend to deceive God, they actually deceive not God but they deceive their own selves and also those who think alike with them among their followers.

The last two words of this verse give out the latent state of the minds of such men who imagine themselves to be good and those who follow such men thinking that what they do is right, that they are wrong and are actually self-deluded, but they do not at all know what they in fact are, what they are actually doing. This is the state of the minds of all those who are misguided and misled by their own wrong judgment.

One must remember that whatever attitude one has for the Holy Prophet according to the decree of the Holy Qur’an, the same relates to God also5. Whoever pleases or displeases the Holy Prophet he is doing the same thing to God6. It is a well-known and universally acknowledged hadith or the Tradition of the Holy Prophet about his daughter Fatimah az-Zahra, who is universally hailed by every Muslim as the ‘Holy Lady of Paradise:

“Fatimah is a part of me, whosoever pained her in fact pained me, and whosoever pained me, he has in fact pained God and whosoever pained God, indeed he is an infidel”

Thus, he who pained Fatimah is a ‘Kafir’ or an infidel. The Holy Qur’an can profit anyone only to the extent the individual reflects upon the implications of the Word of God. A mere reading cannot serve any useful purpose. The Holy Qur’an repeatedly demands reflection upon its verses. This has been declared in clear and plain words7.

Unless one knows the Word of God and who are all those who have fulfilled it in the best way possible and earned the reward from the Lord and who defied it and went astray, it will not serve the individual in copying the virtuous and in being away from the wicked ones.

Verse 10

The disease referred to, is the envy and jealousy which burnt those who had not sincerely believed and had envied the Holy Prophet’s ever increasing supreme power and authority. The more and evermore increased the glory of the Holy Prophet, the more did increase also the envy and the jealousy of the hypocrites. The disbelief, the envy and the jealousy of the hypocrites is termed as disease, and since it was God’s Will that caused the increase of the Holy Prophet’s supreme power and authority over the peoples, the increase in the consequent disbelief, envy, and jealousy of hypocrites, is said to have been caused by God.

Verse 11 & 12

The notorious hypocrite of Madina, Abd Allah Ibn Ubayy and those like him continued their intimacy with the infidels. When the suspicion, against their faithfulness to Islam and the Muslims arose, they said they only endeavoured to bring the infidels to friendly terms with the Muslims, and hence they were the peacemakers, but the truth was that the fire of envy and jealousy did not allow them to rest. They had resorted to duplicity and underhand dealings to upset the growing supremacy of the Holy Prophet and the increasing dominance of Islam which was rapidly spreading all around the place.

But this duplicity of their conduct was against their own selves for the Muslims suspected them, while the infidels also looked at them with suspicion.

Thus, along with the birth of a purely Islamic group of sincere believers in the truth, was also born the gangs of hypocrites who had adopted Islam to suit their personal convenience and serve their selfish interest. Such vested interest generated the fire of envy and jealousy which gradually developed into definite enmity against the Holy Prophet and his Ahl Al-Bayt.

The hypocrites were those who loved this material world and madly coveted for the political power and authority. The fast - developing supreme spiritual theocracy, which was nothing but the Kingdom of God, which was being evolved under the direct rule of the supreme authority of the Holy Prophet, shattered the hopes of the hypocrites to gain hold over the people. Hence, they became the hidden enemies of the Holy Prophet and those faithful to him.

It was this kind of the believers in Islam who having failed to gain their selfish objects during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, who immediately as he departed from this world, started all sorts of corrupted interpretations of the ‘Qur’an’ to suit their devilish aims and the wicked conduct and assume the unwarranted power and authority which they were only waiting for the opportunity to do.

Verse 13

To believe in a new phenomenon, independent of any personal profit or loss, and against one’s personal pride or prejudice, is not an ordinary problem. Ordinary men who constitute the general masses of the human beings inhabiting the earth, follow only those principles which agree to their personal inclinations and which harmonize with their individual selfish interest in this world. A faith, demanding a complete conquest of the vicious self in man, and the control of one’s animal passions and the other emotional and the sentimental urges in him, needs a really awakened mind. The pride in man, of his individual status and that of his own group in any sphere of life, is a common product in the human beings.

However much noble or rightful be the claim countering a selfish stand, the attachment to selfish interest and the false pride and dignity does not allow the individual or his group, to accept the truth, and even if circumstances demand a compulsory acceptance or acknowledgment of it, the genuine faithfulness or loyalty due to the factual position of the truth, is never easily yielded. This is the factor that this verse refers to i.e. the excuse which the infidels advanced against their inability to accept Islam. They could say nothing against the truth in Islam but since the people who in their fanciful pride and personal prejudice were deemed as inferior to them, had embraced it, they thought it below their position and their false dignity to yield themselves too to the same religion.

The Holy Qur’an declares their real position saying that on the other hand, it is those who reject the truth that are mean and not those who have embraced it8

Verse 14 & 15

‘Istehza’ or mockery which is repeated in the retort, in the sense that they will reap in the end only that which they sow here, for the law of nature is ‘Ma lil insan ilia ma Sa’a’. For man there is nothing but what he strove for. God’s mockery lies in instead of punishing the disbelievers immediately, granting them respite until the Day of Judgment and allowing them to enjoy life and their false pride with the worldly acquisitions and prosperity and to be deluded to expect the same status and privileges in the life hereafter. On the Day of Judgment, will be laid bare to them, their actual position. They will then be disappointed to receive the punishment instead of a reward and be abased instead of occupying any place of respect.

Verse 16

The adopting of error is compared to purchasing, and their foregoing the right guidance from God, as the price paid and in their dealing.

Verse 17

The simile in this verse refers to people first believing in the truth which is compared to kindling the fire, and the illuminating of the surrounding is compared to the social and the other privileges which profited such believers consequent upon their embracing the truth. The spark of faith which had just been kindled could have been developed into a full fire but the adverse attitude of the people made them lose their inner light and they could not avail of the light kindled in them for the personal evils like envy, malice, jealousy and the love, of this world, reigning supreme in the hearts of such reluctant and partial believers, extinguished the spark, and God owing to the dominant evils in such individuals, allowed them to have their own way of prevailing even upon their faith.

Thus, the act of taking away the light of the faith kindled in the people, is attributed to Him i.e., God allowed their (inner) light to be removed by their vices and left them in the darkness that they could not see anything in spite of the shining of the outer light. The loss of their inner light is expressed here as deaf, dumb, and blind, the consequence of which is that there will be no hope of their return to the Truth. The Ahmadi commentator interprets this verse that it was the Holy Prophet who kindled the fire, but it is against what the verse says. The verse compares the kindler of the fire to those gone astray yet the Ahmadi commentator holds the Holy Prophet to be the kindler.

Verse 19 & 20

Rain is the life - giving source for the dead dry earth. Islam has been compared to the life - giving rain. Those who embraced Islam were definitely profited as they were taken out of the darkness of their belief in the false and imaginary deities. The lightning mentioned in this verse, stands for the occasional triumph Islam had over the forces of the infidels. On every such occasion when the Muslims gained a victory over their enemies, the hypocrites rejoiced their having joined the Muslim ranks and whenever the Muslims had to face any trials with miseries at the hands of the disbelievers, the hypocrites had their own doubts against the truthfulness of Islam and the bonafide of Muhammad as the true Apostle of God. God says that He had willed it. He would have deprived them of their hearing and their sight which means that in the start of the Islamic campaign it was in the interest of Islam and the Muslims that the hypocrites were allowed to remain deluded, lest they might become open enemies of the truth and of the believers in it.

Another metaphorical presentation of the new mission and the reaction of some people who were attached to their old creeds in which they had their personal interest that the new mission is likened to a heavy shower coming down from heaven which as a whole is a promising event worthy of welcome by everyone. But it is accompanied with darkness, thunder and lightning which excite fright and awe and causes dread and make people take precaution against them which threaten their lives. They could see the promising aspect of the new mission which attracted them towards it. Meanwhile they could see the inevitable loss of their interest which they enjoyed in their attachment to the old creeds viz., the people of the Quraish being the custodians of the Holy Shrine the Ka’ba which was respected by whole of the people of Arabia and by which they enjoyed such reverence and regard that they alone could pass throughout the land without any fear of ever being molested by anyone else.

This sanctity gave them the opportunity of monopolising the trade from the Indian Sea to the Mediterranean, and from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea and the African coast. By giving up idolatry and the class distinctions and coming down to the level of such equality which Islam advocated for the human race as a whole, would undoubtedly affect their immediate interest which was nothing short of their economic and social death. In spite of that they could see how grand they would be if they become the torch - bearers of such a lofty message and the universal brotherhood.

The message of death to their limited interest is presented as frightful darkness and thunder accompanied with the promising shower of divine nature, and the interesting aspect of it as an awful lightning which threw light on their path momentarily but excites their awe too as it would show them some new avenues with which they were not acquainted. They would try to guard themselves against it sometime and would be attracted towards it at some other time.

They did not want to detach themselves from the old creed, the force, and the beauty of the new one was at the same time dragging them to it. To them sometimes the lightning of the new mission was so forceful that they could not resist it. The result as a whole was a wavering reaction. But these were not like the other class who had lost their inner light totally. The faith of these was still undecided as the Holy Qur’an says it.

Having classified the people with regard to the different reactions to the apostolic mission, the Holy Qur’an addressed mankind as a whole, irrespective of their classes. This shows the universal nature of the mission of the Holy Prophet. The Holy Qur’an aims at stimulating the reaction of man to the Divine Message whatever be the reaction. The idea is to develop the aptitude of every individual, community, and nation to its full extent, whatever it may be, so that each would take its final place in the order of the arc of ascent or the evolutionary curve of existence. The full manifestation of this will be realised on the Day of the Total Resurrection or the ‘Qiamat al-Kubra’.

There is the criticism of some that when the Holy Qur’an asserts that some people’s hearts are so sealed or they have lost their inner sense and sight totally that there is no hope of their returning to the Truth, what will be the use of addressing such closed minds. Therefore, either the Holy Prophet’s mission should be restricted to those who avail themselves of it, which would affect its universality, or maintain its universality, proving the futility of the Mission. The answer is that none of the classes would remain without some reaction or the other to the mission as has already been said, which is the ultimate object of the mission. The Holy Qur’an will enhance and improve the aptitude of some towards the lofty direction and of some towards the opposite direction9. The great mystic poet Rumi says:

‘‘Hadi al-Ba’zi wa Ba ‘zi ra mozih” i.e., to some it is a guide and to some it is a misguider. (AP)

• 1. Vide: 29:11.
• 2. Vide: 3:155.
• 3. Vide: 3:137-139; 47:32; 47:34.
• 4. Vide: 33:33.
• 5. Vide: 4:59.
• 6. Vide: 33:57.
• 7. Vide: 3:137.
• 8. Vide: 49:13.
• 9. Vide: 17:82.