The Holy Qur’an -The Final Testament – Juz 3

This text is the third volume of the translation and commentary of the Holy Qur’an by Mir Ahmad Ali and Ayatullah Agha Hajj Mirza Mahdi Pooya Yazdi. It covers the third Juz of the Holy Qur'an, from Surah Al-Baqarah Verse 253 to Surah Aal 'Imran Verse 91.

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The Holy Qur’an -The Final Testament – Juz 3 Arabic Text, With English Translation And Commentary With Special Notes From Ayatullah Agha Haji Mirza Mahdi Pooya Yazdi Translated By S.V. Mir Ahmed Ali Published by Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc. Publishers and Distributors of Holy Qur’an 80’08 51st Avenue Elmhurst, NY 11373’4141 Tel: 718’446’6472 Fax: 718’446’4370 email: read@koranusa.org http://www.koranusa.org Eighth U.S Edition, 2019 Library of Congress Catalogue Number: British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data ISBN: (paperbound) 978’0’940368’85’9 ISBN: (casebound) 978’0’940368’84’2 ISBN: (Vinyl) 978’0’940368’524 ISBN: (eBook) 978’0’940368’54’5 The World Federation of KSIMC - Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities - helped us pay for part of the project

Al-Baqarah Verses 253

تِلكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضَّلنا بَعضَهُم عَلىٰ بَعضٍ ۘ مِنهُم مَن كَلَّمَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَرَفَعَ بَعضَهُم دَرَجاتٍ ۚ وَآتَينا عيسَى ابنَ مَريَمَ البَيِّناتِ وَأَيَّدناهُ بِروحِ القُدُسِ ۗ وَلَو شاءَ اللَّهُ مَا اقتَتَلَ الَّذينَ مِن بَعدِهِم مِن بَعدِ ما جاءَتهُمُ البَيِّناتُ وَلٰكِنِ اختَلَفوا فَمِنهُم مَن آمَنَ وَمِنهُم مَن كَفَرَ ۚ وَلَو شاءَ اللَّهُ مَا اقتَتَلوا وَلٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفعَلُ ما يُريدُ

“These apostles, We have exalted some of them above the others; of them are some unto whom God hath spoken and some He hath raised in degrees; and we gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear evidence and aided him with the Holy Ghost; and hath God so willed, those who came after them had not have fought among themselves after the clear evidences had come unto them. But they differed; and of them there were some who believed and some who disbelieved; and hath God so willed they would not have fought among themselves: but God doeth whatever He willeth” (2:253).

Commentary

Verse 253

The divinely designed plan of some apostles excelling the others in excellence, indicates that though all apostles of God are equally truthful and holy, yet their personal excellence is graded. The particular mention of Moses and Jesus is evidently to show that these two apostles of God have some distinguished positions as the reformers. Moses had the privilege to be addressed directly by God and Jesus had the distinguished benefit of being aided by the Holy Spirit (Ruhul Qudus). Notwithstanding their exclusive distinctions these two prophets of God had to sing the praise of the Holy Prophet, as his forerunners. Both these apostles of God had to give to their followers in particular, and the people in general the glad tidings about the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad identifying him with different titles. Moses referred to the Holy Prophet as “Prophet like unto him to”1. God addressing Moses says: -

“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I command him”

“And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him”2.

A similar prophecy goes before: -

“For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, and him and his sons for ever”3

In this verse there is the mention of the Holy Prophet and his sons referring to the twelve Holy Imams, all of them will be from his seed.

This prophecy has again been referred to in Acts 3/22-25.

“For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you”

“And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people”

“Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days”

“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth he blessed”4

Jesus had foretold about the advent of the Holy Prophet in the following words: -

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that, he may abide with you for ever”

“Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it secth him not, neither knoweth him: hut ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”5

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me”6

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; hut if I depart I will send him unto you”

“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sins, and of righteousness, and of judgment”

“Of sin, because they believe not on me”

“Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more”

“Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged”

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now”

“How be it when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come”7

The prophecies by the two most eminent of the Israelite prophets Moses and Jesus and the numerous verses of the Holy Qur’an bear testimony to the immeasurable greatness of the exclusive excellence of the Holy Prophet, over the other apostles of God. The Holy Prophet has been repeatedly spoken of as the one endowed with all the qualities of greatness and excellence in the highest degree, which to the other prophets were given in parts or in a lesser degree. In short, in the Holy Prophet Muhammad, divinity manifests to the maximum degree it can possibly do in any mortal on earth. His personality divinely designed with the essential unique perfection in all aspects necessary for a medium or means, for divinity to radiate or to reflect through it, into other beings. He was created thus by the Almighty as a ‘Mercy unto the worlds.’

وَما أَرسَلناكَ إِلّا رَحمَةً لِلعالَمينَ

“We have not sent thee (O’ Muhammad) but as Mercy unto the worlds” (21:107).

Since the other apostles were endowed with these qualities in a lesser degree they were sent for a particular people in a particular place - Jesus openly declared:

“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive”

“And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?”

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things”

“The baptism of John, whence, was it? from heaven, or of men?” and they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, from heaven; he will say Why did ye not then believe him”

“But if we shall say, of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet”

Not only did Jesus declare his advent being only and exclusively for the lost sheep of the House of Israel, he also warned his disciples whom he sent to preach his message, not to go to any others but only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel: -

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not;”

“But go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”8

The Holy Prophet Muhammad was endowed with all the qualities necessary to manifest the glory of the divinity of the Lord in the highest, and was sent, not for any particular people but to mankind as a whole for all times9.

While the Holy Prophet is the greatest and the best of all the apostles of God, of his followers a distinguished group is called by God as the best of the people10.

As regards God’s speaking - God Himself has said - in the Holy Qur’an:

وَما كانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَن يُكَلِّمَهُ اللَّهُ إِلّا وَحيًا أَو مِن وَراءِ حِجابٍ أَو يُرسِلَ رَسولًا فَيوحِيَ بِإِذنِهِ ما يَشاءُ ۚ إِنَّهُ عَلِيٌّ حَكيمٌ

“It is not for man, God should speak to him except by inspiration or through a veil or send a messenger (angel) who might reveal by His permission what He liketh. He is the Highest, the All-Knowing” (42:51).

The veil can be anything which can be caused to produce sound as a radio-box does in the modern days.

The passage means that God sent the huge number of his apostles, and at the end of them was sent the greatest and the best one of them, the Holy Prophet, to guide mankind against their being led astray by their declared enemy, Satan. But the design of guidance was never to force it upon any individual or community, nor is it to affect any obstruction against anyone who, in spite of the clear guidance from his Lord, likes drifting towards error, for such a design would never have any moral value whatsoever. There is no undertaking by God to those who avail of the guidance, to forcibly keep them on the right-way if they themselves do not care for it and endeavour to maintain themselves on it. The followers of the various prophets and those of even the Last Apostle of God, in spite of the doubtless guidance they had, no sooner the heavenly guides left them, gave way to Satan, and fell into schisms and quarrelled among themselves. God could have prevented this straying of the people if He had only willed it. And equally so, God could have guided mankind without any means of any prophet at all for He can always give effect to whatsoever He might will. But the will of the Lord is to give man the freedom to act, using the native endowments of the various faculties in him and thus allow him to work out his own desired future of earning the reward or the punishment for his merits or demerits, by his own voluntary will and personal efforts.

At the same time the All-Knowing All-Merciful Providence kept ready the door of guidance wide open to those who earnestly seek it, with a declared promise in His Final Word to man, the Holy Qur’an:

وَالَّذينَ جاهَدوا فينا لَنَهدِيَنَّهُم سُبُلَنا

“To those who strive in Us, certainly do We show them Our ways” (29:69).

It is in the fulfilment of this promise that the institution of the divine guidance ‘Imamat’ has been instituted by the All-Merciful Lord to immediately follow the conclusion of the apostleship ‘Risalat, through His own commissioned, infallible ones the Holy ‘Imams’ - The first of whom is Ali and the last or the Twelfth one is Muhammad al-Mehdi, the living Imam of the age.

It is for this exigency that man has been mercifully’ instructed by God to be ever seeking His help in the daily prayer - in his maintaining himself on the Right Path vide the concluding verses of the First Sura (Sura al-Fatiha) without reciting which no prayer is complete.

After having shown the right way, everyone is left to act independently at his own will11.

Presenting the prophets as the leading figures in conducting the struggle for the right and wrong and that all of them have been working for one and the same cause as pointed out here, that the existence individual differences among them, had been only in their respective rank and degree appropriate to the needs of the respective stages of the intellectual development of man that each one of them served. They differed accordingly in the way and the manner of receiving the inspiration from God, and also in the nature and the limitation of their mission. But the highest rank, degree and the state, for the divine mission is the last and the final one. Whoever is commissioned for the greatest task would naturally and essentially be the most superior in all aspects, so that none could match with him in the hierarchy of the arc of ascent. He would naturally be the topmost and the foremost in the absolute submission to the Universal Will.

‘Roohul-Quds’ or the Holy Spirit. The prophets of God were inspired in various manners12. Moses was honoured with a particular form of inspiration presented in the Qur’an as the divine speech. Jesus was given the distinction of being aided by the Holy Spirit (i.e. the Arch-angel Gabriel). Abraham received the inspiration in ‘Shuhood’ i.e. visions i.e. dreams or in the wake. The Holy Prophet had all the distinctive ways of receiving the inspiration and the revelation. See for:

Vision in sleep - 8:43 and 17:60.

In the wake - 17:1.

The Holy Spirit - 26:192-195, 42:52, 16:102, 53:1-16.

Direct instruction - 55:1-3.

Presenting the prophets as inspired persons sent to preach one and the same truth, this passage terms the differences and the fight among the followers of the prophets, after receiving sufficient proof of the truth, as the outcome of the belief ‘Iman’ and disbelief ‘Kufr.’ This roots out the apologetic attempt on the part of some theologians to justify the dissensions and the conflicts between the various religions or the various sects of each religion, or the various groups of the followers of one and the same prophet, as the outcome of ‘Ijtihad’ or discretion. Qur’an here and in many other places expressively asserts that such differences among the people of the scriptures, is the outcome of the revolting and the rebellious attitude against the clearly pronounced will and the explicit order of God13.

Regarding the agency of the divine will in human action in the term of action and the re-action, the responsibility for the wrong deeds, is man’s and not God’s.

1. For the text of the prophecy given through Moses. see Deuteronomy 18/18,19.

2. Deut. 18/18, 19.

3. Deut. 18/5.

4. Acts. 3/22-25.

5. John 14/16 and 17.

6. John 15/26.

7. John 16/7-13.

8. Math. 10/5, 6.

9. Vide 34:28.

10. See Note to 3:109.

11. Vide76:3, 17:7 17:15, 2:48, 6:165, 35:18, 39:7, 29:6, 45:17, 41:46. (A.P.)

12. Vide 42:51.

13. See 3:18, 42:13, 42:14.

Al-Baqarah Section 34 - No Compulsion In Religion

To spend in charity, Unity of God, None can ever comprehend God’s knowledge whereas His knowledge comprehends everything, there shall be no compulsion in religion as the truth has been made clearly manifest against falsehood, Belief in God leads to light and the disbelief in Him leads the disbeliever to darkness, Punishment to the disbelievers.

Al-Baqarah Verses 254 – 257

يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا أَنفِقوا مِمّا رَزَقناكُم مِن قَبلِ أَن يَأتِيَ يَومٌ لا بَيعٌ فيهِ وَلا خُلَّةٌ وَلا شَفاعَةٌ ۗ وَالكافِرونَ هُمُ الظّالِمونَ

“O’ ye who believe! Spend (in alms) out of what We have provided you with before the day cometh wherein there shall be no bargaining, nor friendship, nor intercession; and those who disbelieve they are the unjust” (2:254).

اللَّهُ لا إِلٰهَ إِلّا هُوَ الحَيُّ القَيّومُ ۚ لا تَأخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلا نَومٌ ۚ لَهُ ما فِي السَّماواتِ وَما فِي الأَرضِ ۗ مَن ذَا الَّذي يَشفَعُ عِندَهُ إِلّا بِإِذنِهِ ۚ يَعلَمُ ما بَينَ أَيديهِم وَما خَلفَهُم ۖ وَلا يُحيطونَ بِشَيءٍ مِن عِلمِهِ إِلّا بِما شاءَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُرسِيُّهُ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضَ ۖ وَلا يَئودُهُ حِفظُهُما ۚ وَهُوَ العَلِيُّ العَظيمُ

“God! There is no God but He, the (Ever) Living the self-subsistent. Slumber seizeth Him not nor sleep; His it is whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth; Who is he that can intercede with Him but with His permission; He knoweth what is before them and what is behind them, while they cannot comprehend anything out of His Knowledge save that which He willeth, His Throne extendeth over the heavens and the earth, and the preservation of them both, tireth Him not, And He is the Most High and the Most Great” (2:255).

لا إِكراهَ فِي الدّينِ ۖ قَد تَبَيَّنَ الرُّشدُ مِنَ الغَيِّ ۚ فَمَن يَكفُر بِالطّاغوتِ وَيُؤمِن بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ استَمسَكَ بِالعُروَةِ الوُثقىٰ لَا انفِصامَ لَها ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَميعٌ عَليمٌ

“No compulsion be in religion; Indeed, truth has been made manifest distinct from error; therefore he who disbelieveth the rebels (false deities) and believeth in God, hath indeed laid hold on the strongest handle no break is for it; and verily God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing” (2:256).

اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذينَ آمَنوا يُخرِجُهُم مِنَ الظُّلُماتِ إِلَى النّورِ ۖ وَالَّذينَ كَفَروا أَولِياؤُهُمُ الطّاغوتُ يُخرِجونَهُم مِنَ النّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُماتِ ۗ أُولٰئِكَ أَصحابُ النّارِ ۖ هُم فيها خالِدونَ

“God is the Guardian of those who believe; He taketh them out of darkness into light; and those who disbelieve, the rebels are their guardians they take them out from light into darkness; They are the companions of the (Hell) fire, therein shall they abide” (2:257).

Commentary

Verse 254

Spending in charity too has been declared as spending in the way of God. It is a great incentive to be as much charitable as one can afford to do. The Holy Qur’an has repeatedly exhorted the believers i.e. the Muslims, to spend out of what they have been provided with. It is noteworthy that Islam is the first to regulate charity, fixing its rates universally applicable to the rich as well as the poor. While encouraging the people to be charitable, Islam does not use any harsh words of compulsion but only exhorts appealing to the good sense and the sanity of the individual’s conscience. Thus, with all the compulsory laws to abide with, the regard for individual liberty of thought and action has always been kept in view.

The words ‘Of what We have provided you with’, indicate that the responsibility to be charitable as demanded in the exhortations, is not confined only to the rich but it is applicable to one and all, to the extent of the individual means.

‘Before the day cometh in which there is no’ - These words make the matter plain that whatever good one wants to do for himself or for the others, one has to do in this life before death. This life is the sowing season and from death onwards starts the reaping of whatsoever was cultivated in this life.

People laboured under the false belief that they could earn salvation only through the barter of their wrongs by the goodness of their ancestors or through the intercession of their religious heads or by the charities of their prosperity. Some thought that Jesus’ blood has been bartered for the sins of the sinners among his followers. This verse is a clear warning against any such false belief which had made the people idle and encouraged them to live a wicked life, depending upon their imaginations about the intercession as stated above.

The same meaning has been given in Verse 2:48 and Verse 2:123 with a little change in the wording. (A.P.)

The life here is social wherein each one should contribute out of what God has given him towards the welfare of the others, so that he also may be benefited by the others, so long as the link is duly maintained. Every individual should act as a cell in the organism of the universe and if he fails to function properly, he will neither be benefited by his own actions nor by the deeds of the others.

The emphatic terming of the disbelievers as the unjust ones, implies that injustice is the ultimate wrong to which all other wrongs are reduced, and secondly the attitude of revolt against the Absolute One, is the greatest injustice1.

Verse 255

This verse is called ‘Ayatul Kursi’ the verse of the Seat or The Throne of the All-Pervading, All-Comprehensive Power, Authority and the Knowledge of God. In this one verse, is given in nutshell, of all that we mortals can ever know about God.

‘Allahu La ilaha illa Huw’ - God, there is no god but He.

The verse begins with the word: ‘Allahu’ with which we mortals, His creatures with the native limitations of our knowledge and the strength of the intellect with which we have been endowed, can conceivably address Him with. The very word ‘Allah’ meaning God, suggests our inability to name the Infinite Existence. Ali Ibn Talib, the first Holy Imam has very beautifully exposed the inability to have any conception about God in the famous prayer ‘Du’a al-Mashlool.’

‘O’ He, O’ He, the He, O’ the one whom none knoweth what is He, Where is He, How is He, save He alone knoweth Himself’

As regards naming God, none could do it till now, nor can anyone ever do it at all. Every name given to Him by any philosopher relates only to some attribute of His, and none till now could coin a personal name relating to Him directly, for it is not at all possible to conceive about Him without His attributes. Hence the Shi’a school or the Islam Original, holds it as a cardinal doctrine of the faith, not to think of any of His attributes as separate from His Existence but as the Existence itself. The best name which can possibly be used to address Him, is ‘Allah’ (i.e. God). This name comprehends all the divine attributes of His perfect existence.

The first and the foremost doctrine of the faith Islam, is not merely the denial of the existence of all false gods but also to believe in the absolute Unity of God without any complexity of any kind whatsoever in any sense in His Self-Existent Essential Being. Complexity be that of any kind suggests an inter-dependence among its various components and consequently the ‘whole’ depending upon the completeness of the complexity.

The other apostles of God preceding the Holy Prophet, who appeared in the different parts of the world, in different times, preached nothing but the Unity of God, but that was merely to believe in the oneness against the many imaginary false gods. The details of the perfect Unity which has now been disclosed through the Holy Prophet, could not have been profitably preached to the people before him, in whom the faculties of intellect had not yet then developed, to duly conceive the higher or the subtle thoughts about the existence of the All-divine Universal Self-Existing Self i.e. God. Even Jesus though the most recent of the apostles of God, preceding the Holy Prophet, could not give out the whole truth and had to helplessly conclude his ministry without declaring everything about it, for Jesus himself said before his departure:

“I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now.’’

“Howbeit, when he the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you unto all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come”2

Every apostle of God preached only the Unity of God but just as much as his people in the age could easily conceive. A few quotations from the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible, will suffice to give the reader that it was the Unity and not Trinity, which was preached by all the apostles of God, preceding the Holy Prophet, and even Jesus who is imagined as one of the components of the Trinity of the Christian faith, had himself preached nothing but the Unity of God:

Old Testament:

“And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the house of bondage”

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waler under the earth”3

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one LORD”4

“Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God”5

“Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my call; I am the first, I also am the last”6

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God”7

“I am the LORD: that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images”8

“I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me”9

“I am the Lord, there is none else”10

“Tell ye, and bring them near; let them take council together: who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else besides me, a just God, and a Saviour there is none beside me, I am God there is none else”11

“For I am God, there is none else, I am God, and there is none like me”12

New Testament:

“As concerning therefore, the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idol, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him”13

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

“One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”14

Apostle after apostle from God came and gradually awakened man, improved the human intellect and fitted it to be profited by the higher and subtler facts about the Creator Lord of the Universe. Ultimately through the Last of His Apostles, Muhammad, was fulfilled the divine promise of giving man the blessings of the brightest light from the Lord to enlighten the human mind with knowledge and the divinity to the maximum extent the human heart and mind can bear. We have been informed that there can be only three kinds of existence: -

The Wajib ul-Wujood: The Self-Existent Existence - The Primeal Cause - The existence of God to have created the Universe for there can never be any effect without a cause i.e. the creation without a creator.

The Mumkin ul-Wujood: The Possible Existence i.e. of a creature like the objects in the Creation, which may be created and brought into existence and also may not be created if the Creator does not will it.

The Mumtane ul-Wujood: The Impossible Existence, like there being more than one God, for there cannot be two equals in the absolute meaning or sense of equality or oneness. If any two are equals in the meaning of absolute equality there can be no meaning in their being two, separated from each other. They must necessarily, naturally and unavoidably be one. If they be two there must be some dividing factor which makes the two as two and also maintains their two separate entities, in which case the dividing factor will be the First kind of existence i.e. the ‘Wajib ul-Wujood.’ Therefore, such an existence is beyond possibility.

Now we are concerned here with the first kind of existence i.e. the ‘Wajib ul-Wujood’ i.e. God - Who must essentially be Self-Existent. A self-existent Being must be Omnipotent to be and to maintain its existence for ever. And such a Self-Existent and Omnipotent being can never exist without the knowledge of the existence and the power. Thus, we have to necessarily’ believe in the Essential Self-Existence or the Life, Essential Self-Existent Strength or the Power, or Authority and the essential Self-Contained Knowledge of the Essential Absolute One, i.e., all His attributes are His Self, itself, inseparable from Him, never separable from any point of view, in any meaning or sense imaginable. His attributes are essentially His Self, as the meaning is inseparable from a word or as equi-angularity is inseparable from an equilateral triangle, else they would be affecting the perfection of the absoluteness of His Unity. The limitation of knowledge or the conception of the finite beings can never conceive about anything without any reference to any of its attributes. Hence, we have to call the attributes of God with their variant names given by our conceivable imagination just because without doing so we cannot even imagine of His Absolute Existence to name it. The truth is that He can never be conceived by any imagination without all His attributes together as an unavoidable necessity even for imagination of His Being.

Thus, all the attributes of God are essentially One Absolute Whole. His one attribute is in no way separable from the other. If there be the least difference or variation with any factors separating each other it would necessarily suggest complexity’ in the absolute nature of unity and it would negate the absolute independence of the Omnipotent One. His life means His Power or Authority and His authority means His knowledge and so on. No single attribute of His can ever be imagined isolated from the others. But we are helplessly bound by the verbal terms without which we can never conceive about the Being at all. Hence, we have to, as a necessary sin, name His attributes differently for our own limited conception, in our attempts to imagine about Him.

The sum total or the ultimate verdict of all our arguments is that God is a Transcendental Reality, Unknowable, Unimaginable, even to approach any worthy conception about His attributes. He is an Infinite Being which can never at all be conceived by our finite consciousness. Yet every one of us certainly knows His Being for we come from Him. Our knowledge about Him marks the limits of our own conception of the Absolutely Inconceivable Reality.

‘Al-Hai’ - The Ever-Living - The Self-Existing - The Absolute All-Mighty, - All-Conscious, - All-Knowing, Existence.15

‘Quyyum’ - Self-Subsistent - Absolutely independent of all others subsisted by Him, and for Him - also the Sustainer without whose hold and attention nothing can be sustained.

‘Qayyoom’ is the exaggerative form of the agencial adjective ‘Qaayam’ i.e. the standing one. The exaggerated form of this means, the one who stands by himself and all others by him. This attribute presents both the nature of the Absolute in Himself and His relation to the creatures and their relation to Him. It shows that He is to the creatures like the source of the light is to the rays or the mind to the concepts and not like the relation of the engineer to any building. And Ali Ibn Abi Talib puts it in this way: ‘Kullu shayyin Qaaimun bihi’ i.e., Everything stands by Him. This attribute explains many other attributes of the Absolute, given in the Qur’an - He is the First and the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden, His Being with everything but not to be counted with anything.16

It must be remembered that every verbal expression of His attributes, His relation to His creatures must be understood with large qualifications in their meaning, for we can express our own conception in human terms. We must always be careful not to be led away by the finite implications. Thus, His being active does not at all mean his putting forth energy as we human beings do, to cause any action. Indeed, even when thus diverted of all their correct implications, we must remember that the notion however pure and perfect to our human intellect, is but a shadow of the reality which really transcends all our power of comprehension.

‘Slumber overtaketh Him not’ - meaning He is not subject to any change whatsoever - He is ever vigilant - or the True or the Perfect Vigilance itself.

‘His is whatsoever is in the heavens or the earth.’ Nothing could ever be His own in completeness or perfection of the term, propriety if he were merely a fashioner of things out of the matter eternally existing and not created by Him. If the matter and God are believed to be two independent eternals, such a faith can never be more than an unreasonable imagination for neither of the two can be independent, for they will be interdependent upon each other, upon their individual utility for neither of the two can ever be known to exist. God to prove this existence will need the matter to work out his creative plan and the matter will be idle without God to use it. Besides there must be some dividing factor to maintain the two different individualities and that cause must be superior in strength, will and existence, and that will be the controlling factor, and that one supreme, will be God real.

‘Manzallazi’ - These words indicate that God with all His Might and Power is Merciful, and it is there for the sinner, but one and all shall not be entitled to intercede on His behalf. It means that intercession is allowed with God but only those who are authorized or those who have earned the title to it by their own unique virtues and distinguished services to the Lord. Only such distinguished ones only, will be able to intercede on behalf of others and none else. This qualification prescribed for intercession proves that those who intercede must themselves be totally free from sins, big or small, simple, or serious, not to need intercession for themselves, for a sinner asking for the pardon for the other sinners, while he himself has to face the judgment against his own self, will be nothing short of foolishness and will be ridiculous.

Similar verses about intercession being allowed only to the particular ones, are there - 20:109 and 19:87. It also proves that there must exist such beings of unique purity and excellence otherwise the provision made for the intercession to be only by those permitted by God’s permission, without any such beings qualified to be permitted, will be meaningless. We come across in the Holy Qur’an with the verse 33:33.

إِنَّما يُريدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذهِبَ عَنكُمُ الرِّجسَ أَهلَ البَيتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُم تَطهيرًا

“God only willeth to keep away from you (every) uncleanness, O’ people of the House and to purify you (a thorough) purifying” (33:33).

The above verse clearly indicates that none but the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ who have been thoroughly- purified by God Himself, shall be entitled to intercede for the sinners, for they the ‘Holy Ahl Al-Bayt’ as the divinely purified ones, are naturally sinless, and they only need no intercession at all.

Intercession is nothing but reconciling justice with mercy. Man has been kept hopeful of the divine mercy for the All-Merciful Lord Himself has declared through the Qur’an: ‘Sabaqat Rahamati ala ghazabi’ i.e. My mercy excels My wrath. If studied properly, justice is nothing but an aspect of mercy, for through justice alone one is kept on the right path to get his due, and none is deprived of his rights.

Acceptance of an intercessor is an active setting of an extraordinarily high value to the special attachment of the intercessor to God by the strongest ties of love. It is the original design of the All-Mighty, All-Merciful that His mercy shall always excel His justice, and to enact this design, the excuse of intercession has been made the causative factor. Of all the deluding factors, Love has been made the strongest force against which everything else loses its worth and value.

‘Ya’lamu ma baina’ - meaning God’s Omniscience - Man must know- that he can never hide anything from God.

‘Wala Yuheetuna’ - None can ever comprehend God’s knowledge save what He pleases. His knowledge is absolute and infinite. He is the Knowing One before the Origin of knowledge and causality. None can have any access to God’s knowledge, save what He Himself pleases to reveal of His own independent will.

‘Man Zallazi-Yashfaho’ - Presenting all beings as non-entities before Him, discords the possibility of any one and every one’s intercession except with His permission. This exception indicates the possibility of the intercession by those who would be authorised by Him to do it,17 i.e. Those who witness the truth are the authorised ones to intercede. (A.P.)

‘Wasea Kursiyuhas’ - His seat or authority extends over the heavens and the earth.

The word ‘kursi’ has been variously interpreted by different commentators. It literally means chair, like ‘Arsh’ used in the other places of the Holy Qur’an which means throne. It is clearly evident that the word ‘Kursi’ has been used here metaphorically, meaning actually the divine attributes of knowledge and the Mighty Power of the Supreme Authority of God, in relation to His creation. His ‘relationship’ with His creation in time and space is absolutely unaffected by the ordinary sense or meaning or relativity. His seat here means his perfect sway, complete hold, and absolute authority over everything, concrete or abstract, of His creation. Limitations can never approach this absolute infinity of His existence, for Existence is only His, and everything else is given existence by Him at His free will. In expressions such as ‘He is here, there and everywhere’ we manifest our own limitation of conception and inability of adequate expression of the absolute infinity through our finite vehicle of our limited verbal energy. Otherwise, His infinite existence can never be conceived through any sense or meaning of time or space, which are themselves His creation. Thus ‘Kursi’ here means His knowledge, Might, Power and Authority and nothing connected with matter of any kind.

‘Ya’lamu ma baina’ - This clearly indicates that the knowledge of the creatures; however sublime and the excellent one may be in the hierarchy of existence, is only limited to the amount as God wills it. Hence there are always facts unknown to the finite beings which are known only to the Infinite. This does not mean that whatever be imperceivable by the ordinary human means of understanding, is unknown to the divinely gifted ones. (A.P.)

‘Kursi’ - The first and the immediate being in the order of creation wherein God’s authority manifests itself comprehensively, has been termed as ‘Kursi’ or the Seat in relation to the further creation, and ‘Arsh’ in relation to God’s hold over it. ‘Kursi’ includes all the heavens and the earth. (A.P.)

In the interpretation of the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’, ‘kursi’ or ‘Arsh’ means God’s Knowledge, Might and Authority over the creation, for there is nothing whatsoever in the heavens and in the earth but it is God’s creation and a manifest sign of His Existence; Knowledge, Wisdom, Might, Power, Authority. So the creation as a whole is the ‘kursi or the ‘Arsh’ or the Throne of God from which manifest all His divine attributes of Know ledge, Wisdom, Might and Glory, radiating through the creation.

‘Wala Yaoduhu’ - Though all things, the creation as a whole is sustained by Him and but for Him nothing could ever exist or continue to exist, it never in the least has the remotest analogy of any exhaustion of energy to cause fatigue or tiresomeness in His absolute existence, which is always there and will also remain so, as it already was. No change in any sense or in any meaning whatsoever can ever be conceivable about His absolute existence.

‘Wa Huwa al-Aliyyu al-Azeem’ - He is the Most High and the Great in the light of His matchless divine attributes briefly given above.

‘Wa Huwa al-Aliyyu al-Azeem’ - This passage is presented by the commentators of all schools on the authority of the Holy Prophet as one of the most outstanding passages of the Holy Book, dealing with the Unity of God, His prime attributes, positive and negative and His relation to His creatures, the position of man in the order of creation, the spontaneous turn of the heart towards Him, man’s means of salvation, the ultimate end of the opposite ways of the right and the wrong.

In order that the greatness of the ‘Seat’ thus represented here, should not occupy the mind of any one with awe, this adverbial clause has been used meaning that this greatness is nothing, while He alone is the Sublime and the Great. (A.P.)

Verse 256

This passage is clearly indicative and not imperative. It states a psychological fact that ‘Deen’ i.e. religion or the submissive attitude of mind and heart towards any object held as sacred, cannot be obtained by force or compulsion but by spontaneous conviction with a clear view of what is really sacred from what is otherwise. Therefore, there is no room for considering the passage having been abrogated by any other passage dealing with ‘Jehad’. The passage also asserts that after the clear view of the right and wrong, man is required to deny or reject all the rebellious entities and believe in God alone. (A.P.)

This verse answers to the false and the blasphemous charge that the Holy Prophet Muhammad offered Islam to the people at the point of the sword. Firstly, such a charge will most miserably betray the ignorance of the accusing antagonist, for when and where could the Holy Prophet have used a sword or any physical weapon to start his mission. On the other hand, sword was in the hands of his enemies and Islam was given a start facing the sword and under the worst inhuman, brutal and torturous persecution at the hands of the pagans, the heathenic jews and the idolatrous Christians. Such a charge is historically proved against Christianity which started its march trampling under its merciless feet, the corpses of the poor and helpless Jewish men, women and innocent children including even their innocent babes. Christianity as the religion of the Church established in the name of Jesus by the pagan king Constantine of Rome, got itself baptized with blood of the hundreds of thousands of Jewish victims18.

Let any sincere seeker of truth about Islam refer to what the great celebrated Christian scholar Sir Edward Dennison Ross, has to helplessly confess about the spread of Islam:

“For many centuries the acquaintance which the majority of Europeans possessed of Muhammadanism was based almost entirely on distorted reports of fanatical Christians which led to the dissemination of a multitude of gross calumnies. What was good in Muhammadanism was entirely ignored, and what was not good, in the eyes of Europe, was exaggerated or misinterpreted.

It must not, however, he forgotten that the central doctrine preached by Muhammad to his contemporaries in Arabia, who worshipped the Stars; to the Persians, who acknowledged Ormuz and Ahriman; the Indians, who worshipped idols; and the Turks, who had no particular worship, was the unity of God, and that the simplicity of his creed was probably a more potent factor in the spread of Islam than the sword of the Ghazis.19

And now after knowing the unreserved opinion of one of the learned non-Muslims - let the reader hear what one of the worst enemies of Islam in the modern days, William Muir has to helplessly divulge the whisper of his heart:

“It is strongly corroborative of Muhammad’s sincerity that the earliest converts to Islam were not only of upright character, but his own bosom-friends (the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’) and people of his viz (Salman, Buzar, Miqdad and others) household; intimately acquainted with his private life, could not fail otherwise to have detected those discrepancies which ever more or less exist between the professions of the hypocritical deceiver abroad and his actions at home”

This verse clearly lays down or prescribes the law or the leading principle for the Muslims to follow in the wars which might be forced upon them. There is another Verse:

ادعُ إِلىٰ سَبيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالحِكمَةِ وَالمَوعِظَةِ الحَسَنَةِ ۖ وَجادِلهُم بِالَّتي هِيَ أَحسَنُ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبيلِهِ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعلَمُ بِالمُهتَدينَ

“Call (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad) unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and discuss with them in the best manner; verily thy Lord best knoweth those who go astray from His path and He knoweth best those guided aright” (16:125).

The object before the Muslims should always be peace, and mutual understanding by love, through the best possible behaviour. The Holy Prophet concerned with the presentation of Islam (i.e. the conveyance of the Message) needed no compulsion in religion, for the truth has been revealed against falsehood, and ultimately the following Verse was revealed:

إِنّا هَدَيناهُ السَّبيلَ إِمّا شاكِرًا وَإِمّا كَفورًا

“Verily, We have shown him (man) the (right) way; let him accept (it) or reject it” (76:3).

‘Faman Yakfur bittaghoot’ - ‘Taghoot’ i.e. the One inordinate or rebellious, or he who errs, straying away from the path of righteousness like Satan. The one-word Satan or Devil carries most of the meaning of all the interpretations, the word Devil here would mean the Devil with ail the devilish agencies busy misleading people. Hence it means ‘whosoever rejects the Devil and believes in God.’ The one factor here which needs to be essentially noted, is that the first and the foremost step prescribed towards the genuine belief in God is the rejection of the Devil. This means in other words ‘Tabarra’ or the hatred of evil and the wicked ones, being the first, or the foremost requisite before one adopts ‘Tawalla’ i.e. the love of God and godliness. A man has to first clean the plate of his heart, of all disturbing impressions of falsehood and then expose it for the correct reflection or the impressions of truth on it, when only Truth will make a proper or the desired impression of it, otherwise the impression of truth over the other existing impressions of falsehood, will be disfigured and create confusion and chaos in the mind, instead of enlightening or desirably beautifying it.20

The word ‘Wali’ originally means nearness or contact between two objects without anything else in between them. Thus, it has been used for two brothers, two close neighbours, close friends, close helpers. A slave being close to his master by his hold in him is called ‘Wali’. Anyone who exercises authority over someone else is ‘Wali’ or ‘Waali’ a guardian, a ruler is called ‘Wali’. Here it means that God is the nearest authority over the faithful, and the rebellious entities are the exercising authorities on the minds and the hearts of the unbelievers pushing them into the eternal hell. It is clearly indicated that faith consists of two fundamental factors:

The negation of what is against the Legislative Will of God i.e. ‘Tabarra.’

Believing in God and in whatever He likes and commands ‘Tawalla.’

Ba badaan bad baash O ba nekaanneko - To the wicked be averse and to the virtuous be good.

Jaa-e-Gol gol baash O jaa-e-Khaar khaar- - In the place of flowers, be with them as a flower and where there are thorns be away. (A.P.)

‘Faqadis Tamsaka’ - The strong cord or rope or cable for which there is no breakage at all. According to Saafi, it is reported from the 6th Holy Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq, that the handle, the rope or the cord means, faith in God, and the 5th Holy Imam Muhammad al-Baqir has said that it is love of or the attachment to the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt for a lover of these godly ones is always correctly attached to God and remains ever in genuine godliness. And the Holy Prophet has declared, let him (a faithful) hold himself Fastly attached to Ali for with the attachment to Ali, none can get lost and detached from Ali, none can be safe. Ali is the perfect model or the true ideal of faith in God, as the Divinely Commissioned Successor to the Holy Prophet, and the correct practice of the faith, is perfectly integrated in the personality of Ali and his issues who succeeded him as the Holy Imams. Hence ‘Tawallah’ i.e. the love of God and godliness is one of the articles of the practice (Furo al-deen) of the faith, Islam Original (i.e. Shi’ism).

Verse 257

‘Noor’ i.e. light means the light of the faith or the correct knowledge or the conviction about God.21

‘Zulumaat’ i.e. Darkness means the darkness of the disbelief in God or the ignorance or the uncertainty about God.

1. Refer to 31:13. (A.P.)

2. John 16/12, 13.

3. Exodus 20/1-5.

4. Duet. 6/4.

5. Isa. 44/6.

6. Isa. 48/12.

7. Ps. 90/2.

8. Isa. 42/8.

9. Isa. 45/5.

10. Isa. 45/18.

11. Isa. 45/21, 22.

12. Isa. 46/9.

13. 1 Corin. 8/4 and 6.

14. Ephesians 4/5 and 6.

15. See 3:2, 40:65, 20:111.

16. See 57:3, 53:4, 58:7 read with 5:73. (A.P.)

17. See 43:86.

18. For details see the enactment of the Edict of Milan.

19. Vide introduction to the Translation of Qur’an by Sell

20. See also 5:6.

21. See 24:35.

Al-Baqarah Section 35 - How The Dead Are Again Raised By God

Abraham’s argument against Nimrod, Illustration of how the dead are again raised by God, Abraham directed to an experiment to see how God raises the dead.

Al-Baqarah Verses 258 – 260

أَلَم تَرَ إِلَى الَّذي حاجَّ إِبراهيمَ في رَبِّهِ أَن آتاهُ اللَّهُ المُلكَ إِذ قالَ إِبراهيمُ رَبِّيَ الَّذي يُحيي وَيُميتُ قالَ أَنا أُحيي وَأُميتُ ۖ قالَ إِبراهيمُ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأتي بِالشَّمسِ مِنَ المَشرِقِ فَأتِ بِها مِنَ المَغرِبِ فَبُهِتَ الَّذي كَفَرَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لا يَهدِي القَومَ الظّالِمينَ

“Didst thou not see he who disputed (argued) with Abraham about his Lord, because God hath given him kingdom, when Abraham said unto him (saying) “My Lord is He who giveth life and causeth death,” he said “I (also) give life and cause death;” (then) said Abraham “(well then) Verily, God (My Lord) bringeth the Sun from the East, do thou (then) bring it from the West” whereupon he who disbelieved was confounded; And verily God guideth not unjust people” (2:258).

أَو كَالَّذي مَرَّ عَلىٰ قَريَةٍ وَهِيَ خاوِيَةٌ عَلىٰ عُروشِها قالَ أَنّىٰ يُحيي هٰذِهِ اللَّهُ بَعدَ مَوتِها ۖ فَأَماتَهُ اللَّهُ مِائَةَ عامٍ ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُ ۖ قالَ كَم لَبِثتَ ۖ قالَ لَبِثتُ يَومًا أَو بَعضَ يَومٍ ۖ قالَ بَل لَبِثتَ مِائَةَ عامٍ فَانظُر إِلىٰ طَعامِكَ وَشَرابِكَ لَم يَتَسَنَّه ۖ وَانظُر إِلىٰ حِمارِكَ وَلِنَجعَلَكَ آيَةً لِلنّاسِ ۖ وَانظُر إِلَى العِظامِ كَيفَ نُنشِزُها ثُمَّ نَكسوها لَحمًا ۚ فَلَمّا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ قالَ أَعلَمُ أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلىٰ كُلِّ شَيءٍ قَديرٌ

“Or (didst thou not see) like him who passed by a town, and it had fallen on its roofs, he exclaimed, “(Oh!) How can God (ever) bring it to life (again), after (this) its death,” Where-upon God caused him to die a hundred years and thereafter raised him (again) to life; He (God) asked him “How long didst thou tarry (thus)”? said (he) “Perhaps I tarried a day or part of a day;” He said “Nay! Thou hast tarried (thus) a hundred years; But look at thy food and thy drink they indicate not (in the least) passing of any time (upon them) changing (its original state) and look at thy donkey and verily We (will to) make thee a sign (of Our powers) unto mankind and look thou further on the bones how We assemble them together and thereafter (how We) clothe them with flesh”; And when it became clear to him, said he (then) “Now I know that God hath power over all things” (2:259).

وَإِذ قالَ إِبراهيمُ رَبِّ أَرِني كَيفَ تُحيِي المَوتىٰ ۖ قالَ أَوَلَم تُؤمِن ۖ قالَ بَلىٰ وَلٰكِن لِيَطمَئِنَّ قَلبي ۖ قالَ فَخُذ أَربَعَةً مِنَ الطَّيرِ فَصُرهُنَّ إِلَيكَ ثُمَّ اجعَل عَلىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلٍ مِنهُنَّ جُزءًا ثُمَّ ادعُهُنَّ يَأتينَكَ سَعيًا ۚ وَاعلَم أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَزيزٌ حَكيمٌ

“And (Recollect O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) when said Abraham: “My Lord! Let me see how Thou enliveneth the dead” He said What! Dost thou not (then) believe (in it)”? He said, “Yea but (I ask Thee for) only that my heart resteth convinced”. He said, “Take thou four of the birds and make them to incline unto thee, and (cutting them into parts) place thou on each mountain a part of them and thereafter call them and they will come unto thee rushing” and know (thou) that God is All-Mighty, All-Wise!” (2:260).

Commentary

Verse 258

Idolatrous people, more commonly in the ancient times, held and regarded their kings as the representatives of God and therefore revered them as their deities. As the living example of such a belief has come down to our own times, even in the highly civilized and advanced countries like Japan where the King is still worshipped as a deity. It was in this sense ‘Nimrod’ held his sway over his people and claimed himself not as the representative of God but God Himself. Having been in possession of the Kingdom, ‘Nimrod’ argued against Abraham’s exhortations inviting him to the right way (to God). Nimrod contested the apostleship or the authority of Abraham against his position as the Almighty Monarch, by which he held sway over his kingdom, and the power over the life and death of his subjects, saying that whomsoever he desired, he could put him to death and whomsoever he liked, he could spare him from being killed.

Some say that ‘A’fa’ does not mean ‘gave.’ It originally means ‘promised.’ Any other interpretation here is an unnecessary departure from the original and the ordinary meaning. The misinterpretation is only to make people believe that the grant of temporal kingdom to Abraham mentioned in verse as well as Verse 4:54 was only a promise and remained only a promise. It must be remembered that God is the best fulfiller of promise. The promise of God to grant the Kingdom to Abraham and his seed is mentioned in Gen. 15/7.

“I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it” Gen. 15/7

The above quotation refers to the actual giving of the land to Abraham to be inherited by his seed. The Holy Qur’an repeats it. If the meaning of the word ‘A’ta’ is taken as merely a promise and not an actual grant of the Kingdom, the question arises, whether God’s promise was ever fulfilled or not. If the promise was a true promise from a true God, it must have been fulfilled and if it was not as imagined by some commentators then, do such commentators mean that the promise mainly to Abraham by God was a bogus and a false one, never to be fulfilled? Such a belief will immediately and directly go to disprove the commentators’ faith in God.

The personal pronoun of the third person singular in the objective case ‘ho’ may refer to Abraham and then the ‘Mulk’ means kingdom, the Spiritual and Dejure1. And if the pronoun refers to his opponent, then the ‘Mulk’ referred to, would mean Temporal and De facto2. However, the significance of the passage remains the same, that the opponent in his argument based his divinity on the temporal power he apparently possessed. Abraham defeated him by pointing out his (Nimrod’s) helplessness against the divine force working in Nature. Though ‘Nimrod’ was silenced by Abraham’s arguments, he was inclined towards injustice, hence could not avail himself of the guidance. (A.P.) (See the next Verse).

Some commentators seem to have a horror for the raising of the dead to life as they everywhere seek to make the mention of it as a metaphorical use for the revival of the dead nations to prominence. In the same spirit they explained away this verse which is very clear in its meaning.

Verse 259

As said in the note to the preceding verse the Ahmadi commentator seems to insist on interpreting every miraculous event with some metaphorical expression. In case of the death and the returning to life of the apostle Uzair (Ezra or Esdras) a modern commentator interprets it as only a vision and not an actual death. Since the prophets who assume apostleship of their own, could never work any miracles, their devotees have decided not to accept any miracle as having ever been wrought by any prophet at all. To somehow accommodate his own interpretation the commentator drags his arguments quoting at length the reference to the events connected with Ezekiel, though it is quite obvious that there is nothing in common in the event referred to in this verse and the reference from the Bible which the commentator quotes. It is to be noted that in the event referred to in this verse is the resurrection of the apostle and his ass which had suffered death, and not that all the dead then reduced to rotten bones were raised or revived.

When intending to distort some facts commentators adopt peculiar methods which can very easily mislead any careless reader. Here the Ahmadi commentator first starts interpreting a word or a sentence or a passage with his own presumption and then creates some sort of probability and then aligns it with a similar probability or a possibility in some other seemingly similar or allied instance which in fact can never be a correct analogy or a perfectly similar case, and ultimately establishes the far-fetched, remotest probability as an actual fact, against the ordinary, usual, popular and the well-known meaning of the word, sentence or the passage and by that he establishes his peculiar interpretation as being correct and all the others as mistaken and false ones.

Here again as elsewhere in similar cases, the arguments are based on the individual presumption saying ‘it appears that’ and with this the commentator carries the reader to the details of ‘Ezekiel’ Ch. 37 interpreting them as it suits him, whereas this chapter deals with the event connected with ‘Ezekiel’ to lower the estimation of the Holy Qur’an in the eyes of the world particularly presenting the fair-minded Christians from acknowledging the true position of the Holy Qur’an, some hostile Christian Scholars have thoughtlessly said that the event mentioned in Ezekiel Chapter. 37 mentioned in ‘Nahum’ Chap. 2, in their Bible, has been perverted in the Qur’an. The Muslim commentators, Shi’as and Sunnis have distinctly mentioned that it was not Prophet ‘Ezekiel’ but the Prophet ‘Ezra’ who is referred to in this verse, and it was he who gave back the ‘law’ which was totally lost to the people and forgotten by them. This verse refers to the death caused to prophet ‘Ezra’ and his ass whereas the event related to ‘Ezekiel’ Chap. 37 refers to the revival of the town. However, there is sufficient historic proof along with the unanimous verdict of the Muslim schools which can reasonably discard the peculiar view, that it was prophet Ezra who had desired and prayed to be shown how resurrection of the dead will be effected - as Abraham3 desires and prays to be shown how the dead are raised again to life. The event happened as follows:

The commentators differ as to the exact names of the city and the persons referred to in this verse but Muslim commentators after discussing the whole situation, hold that it was the prophet ‘Ezra’, and the city was Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, burnt it and reduced it to ashes. The corpses of the inhabitants were left to be eaten by the wild beasts and birds and many were taken as captives4 When Ezra happened to pass the ruins of the city he wondered if so, ruined a habitation could ever be rehabilitated and the people who had been reduced to dried and rotten bones, could ever be resurrected? Ezra along with his ass was caused to die and remain dead and hidden from the sight of the people. When seventy years had passed, Nebuchadnezzar had died and Anoshak (Cyrus) gave permission to rebuild the town Jerusalem and rehabilitate it. In thirty years’ time Jerusalem was again a town well inhabited. By this time a hundred years had passed since death had been caused to ‘Ezra’ and his ass.

When death was cast upon ‘Ezra’ it was in the morning and when he was again brought to life it was an afternoon and the Sun had not set. An angel in a human form was sent to ask ‘Ezra’, as to how long he had slept. ‘Ezra’ replied a day or a part of the day’. The man (the angel) told ‘Ezra’ ‘Nay!’ but thou slept for a hundred years.’ ‘Ezra’ wondered and found the devastated town lying in a ruin around him, was a fully rebuilt town with things quite new to him. The man (the angel) again told ‘Ezra’ to look upon the food and the drink which he had left in his bag which was quite as fresh as it was left there by him. His ass he saw was dead and had become dust and only his bones were lying there in its place. Ezra was asked to look towards the bones of his ass. The bones, by the will of the Lord, were caused to come to get duly joined and clothed with flesh, and the ass was again a living animal as it was before. ‘Ezra’ was informed by the Angel that he was made himself to experience all those experiences so that he might himself be a sign or an example to those who disbelieved or knew not how the dead would be bodily resurrected on the day of the final judgment. When ‘Ezra’ has experienced all those events, he replied that though he tills then knew only by argument, but he now was convinced by his own personal experience that God, over everything is Powerful.

When ‘Ezra’ returned home to his native place as it was after a hundred years, he found his grandsons had become old men while he was himself of fifty years of age. People could not believe the young ‘Ezra’ to be really the same ‘Ezra’ of before the hundred years. The maid-servant whom ‘Ezra’ had left at prime in her twentieth was then very old and of 120 years of age. And the son who was to be born to him when he left the place, was then of hundred years of age. Thus ‘Ezra’ became a living sign of God’s Omnipotence.

Verse 260

This verse is very clear in its meaning. With all its clarity it could not escape twisting and interpreting by some commentator in his own way. It has already been notified in the note of the preceding verse what his attitude was towards miracles wrought by the apostle of God.

The commentator takes miracles as a metaphorical expression. Here again as elsewhere, he has his own interpretation which reduces Abraham from a prominent and a leading apostle of God to an idiot to have asked God of a factor which any ordinary man of common sense would know without anybody else informing him. To somehow cloud the vanity of his argument he quotes.

“And he said, Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” Gen. 15/8.

This verse of Genesis (The Old Testament) refers to the prayers of Abraham about the kingdom he had been promised. Whereas the verse of the Holy Qur’an refers to Abraham’s prayer to God to show him as how the dead will be raised once again to life. He makes his own presumption of the text of the verse, as having been tampered. All this he endeavours to relate this event to the promise of the grant of the land of Canaan to Abraham. The references from the Bible given by the commentator are irrelevant.

The words of this verse are clear to say that the great prophet Abraham prayed to be shown as to how the dead were raised to life, meaning nothing else whatsoever other than the resurrection of the dead in the respective bodies after their being reduced to dust and nothing but dust. Abraham was directed by God to take four different kinds of birds, cut them and render their bodies into smallest bits and mix the particles well together into one well-mixed whole and then place a part of the lump on the top of four mountains in the different directions and then call the birds with their respective names and he shall see that the birds with their respective names will be re-assembled of the lump and restored to life and will rush flying in returning to him. It is said that Abraham took a pigeon, a peacock, a cock, and crow and did as he was bidden.

Thus, it was shown to Abraham that when God wills, not only the bodies of the birds are revived, but their individualities are also perfectly preserved intact with all their nature and endowments wholly active. The birds flew not only in response to the command of God but with their individual attachment to Abraham.

When Abraham had witnessed the event to his conviction, about the raising of the dead, God addressed Abraham ‘Know thou O’ Abraham that God is Mighty’ and never helpless to execute whatever He willeth and in whatever He worketh there is always His infinite wisdom in it.

Some spiritualists interpret this slaying of the four kinds of birds, also a directive to those who aspire for eternal life:

Pigeon stands for the symbol of easy mixing with men i.e. the love of this world which must be slain or sacrificed.

The Cock stands for animal passion which must be cut down.

The Crow stands for greed and avarice which must be shunned.

Peacock a symbol of worldly decoration which must be given up.

When all the above four passions in man are crushed together the soul of the individual, be that a man or a woman, gets the excellence which fits the individual for the bliss of the eternal life.

Verses 258, 259, 260

About these three verses the following points be noted:

Though it may refer to an Israelite story as some commentators say, yet the similarity of the subject matter justified it.

The attempt of the Ahmadi and the other commentators giving metaphorical and proverbial significance to the passages dealing with the power of the Almighty, to bring back the dead to life, is based on the same tendency as already referred to, of denying all the unusual, supernatural and miraculous happenings just to satisfy the material tendency of the days, as if they know all that is possible and the impossible, and they know all the forces working in the process of creation, for what Qur’an says about such a claim on the part of any creature see 17:85.

‘Pashsha kai danad ke in Bagh az keh ast

Dar Bahar ash zad o margash dar dai ast’

What does the mosquito know from whence and how the garden grew.

It (the mosquito) is born in the spring and dies away in autumn.

The comparison of the life on earth in relation to the heavenly bodies is beautifully exposed through the above couplet by a Persian poet. The heavenly bodies addressing the earth say:

‘Qarne to nizde ma dami

Bahre to nizde ma nami

Me nigareem wa me raweem’

A century of thine to us is only a breath

An ocean of thine to us is only a damp

We only see and pass on

The terms life and death in their wider sense can be applied to the physical life and the death of an individual, a group, or a nation, of a man or any other being. And it can also be applied to man’s spiritual rise and fall, as an individual or a nation, in knowledge or faith, or any other accomplishment and in both the senses, it may take place in its usual course known to us and it may take an unusual course not known to us. All is possible depending on the will of the Almighty.

Though the commentators have taken the passage as referring to particular stories of Abraham and some other Israelite prophets, yet it is not necessary that their statements to be concerned with the Old and the New Testaments held authentic by the Jews and the Christians of today. The Shi’a commentators in giving such statements depend on the reports from the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ who in turn have received their knowledge from the Holy Prophet and who received from the divine source independent of any mortal agency. If the statements made in Qur’an or the explanation given by the Imams do not agree in whole or in part with some story given in the Old or the New Testament, one should not bother about it. (A.P.)

1. See 4:54.

2. See 3:189.

3. Vide 2:260.

4. Kings 24/10.

Al-Baqarah Section 36 - Spending Money In Way Of God

Wealth spent in the way of God compared to sowing in fertile soil, Charity not to accompany with reproach, injury or obligation, Kind speech better than charity followed by reproach or injury, spending for show condemned and discouraged, parables.

Al-Baqarah Verses 261 – 266

مَثَلُ الَّذينَ يُنفِقونَ أَموالَهُم في سَبيلِ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ حَبَّةٍ أَنبَتَت سَبعَ سَنابِلَ في كُلِّ سُنبُلَةٍ مِائَةُ حَبَّةٍ ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُضاعِفُ لِمَن يَشاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ واسِعٌ عَليمٌ

“The similitude of those who spend their wealth in the path of God is the similitude of a grain of corn that groweth seven ears, in each ear whereof are a hundred grains; And verily God giveth manifold increase to whosoever He willeth, And God is Omniscient, All Knowing” (2:261).

الَّذينَ يُنفِقونَ أَموالَهُم في سَبيلِ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ لا يُتبِعونَ ما أَنفَقوا مَنًّا وَلا أَذًى ۙ لَهُم أَجرُهُم عِندَ رَبِّهِم وَلا خَوفٌ عَلَيهِم وَلا هُم يَحزَنونَ

“Those who spend their wealth in the path of God, (and) thereafter follow it not obligation or injury, for them is their reward with their Lord, and neither shall they have (any) fear and nor shall they grieve” (2:262).

قَولٌ مَعروفٌ وَمَغفِرَةٌ خَيرٌ مِن صَدَقَةٍ يَتبَعُها أَذًى ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَنِيٌّ حَليمٌ

“A kind word and pardon is better than charity that is followed by injury, and verily God is Self-Sufficient, the Most Forbearing” (2:263).

يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا لا تُبطِلوا صَدَقاتِكُم بِالمَنِّ وَالأَذىٰ كَالَّذي يُنفِقُ مالَهُ رِئَاءَ النّاسِ وَلا يُؤمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَاليَومِ الآخِرِ ۖ فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ صَفوانٍ عَلَيهِ تُرابٌ فَأَصابَهُ وابِلٌ فَتَرَكَهُ صَلدًا ۖ لا يَقدِرونَ عَلىٰ شَيءٍ مِمّا كَسَبوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ لا يَهدِي القَومَ الكافِرينَ

“O’ ye who believe! Render not your charities worthless by obligation and injury (laid on them) like one who spendeth his wealth to be seen of men and believeth not in God and the Last Day (of Judgment); His similitude is as the likeness of a smooth hard rock, on it is (a little) dust, a heavy rain falleth upon it and leaveth it just a bare stone; They shall not gain anything of what they have earned (in this world) and verily God guideth not the disbelieving people” (2:264).

وَمَثَلُ الَّذينَ يُنفِقونَ أَموالَهُمُ ابتِغاءَ مَرضاتِ اللَّهِ وَتَثبيتًا مِن أَنفُسِهِم كَمَثَلِ جَنَّةٍ بِرَبوَةٍ أَصابَها وابِلٌ فَآتَت أُكُلَها ضِعفَينِ فَإِن لَم يُصِبها وابِلٌ فَطَلٌّ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِما تَعمَلونَ بَصيرٌ

“The similitude of those who spend their wealth seeking God’s pleasure and or asserting of thesmelves in devotion, is as the similitude of a garden on an elevation; heavy rain falleth upon it and it yieldeth its fruit two-fold, and if heavy rain falleth not upon it, then a gentle shower (itself suffices it); And verily God be- holdeth all that ye do” (2:265).

أَيَوَدُّ أَحَدُكُم أَن تَكونَ لَهُ جَنَّةٌ مِن نَخيلٍ وَأَعنابٍ تَجري مِن تَحتِهَا الأَنهارُ لَهُ فيها مِن كُلِّ الثَّمَراتِ وَأَصابَهُ الكِبَرُ وَلَهُ ذُرِّيَّةٌ ضُعَفاءُ فَأَصابَها إِعصارٌ فيهِ نارٌ فَاحتَرَقَت ۗ كَذٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمُ الآياتِ لَعَلَّكُم تَتَفَكَّرونَ

“(What!) would any one of you like that there should be for him a garden of palms, vines, (with) streams flowing from underneath it for him all kinds of fruit therein, he is stricken with old age, and for him there be issues (young and) weak, striketh it a whirlwind with fire therein and it gets burnt up? Thus doth God make clear to you His signs; that ye may reflect” (2:266).

Commentary

Verse 261

It is noteworthy that one’s identification with the cause of the interest of the further welfare of his brethren has been deemed as the cause of God. The words ‘in the way of God’ has been repeatedly used in the Holy Qur’an for charity, particularly for the cause of the faith, its defence, its security, and its propagation. Anything selflessly spent in a charitable cause is deemed as spent in the way of God. The promise of an enormously multiplied return is one of the primary objects of Islam i.e. to exhort the sincere believers in God i.e. the Muslims, towards spending of whatever God has provided them with, in service above self and thus inculcate charity among the faithful. This verse includes ‘Jehad’ or the striving for the faith and all the other kinds of charity.

The return or the reward promised is current for both the present life of the individual as well as the life hereafter (i.e. after death).

As the Verse 254 has begun to deal with man’s contribution out of what he has, to secure his happiness in the life hereafter, it was necessary to draw one’s attention towards the relation between the Creator and the creatures, the duty of man towards God and the other beings and what a man ought to do and what he ought not to do, and the possibility of the dead returning to life as willed by God. Now it comes back to encourage man to spend of his wealth in the way of God which will be returned to him manifold with the provisions given in the text of this verse and the succeeding 262-264. (A.P.)

Verse 262

‘Manna’ means a favour to one, giving expression to the good done to someone, or reminding one of the favours done to him, by way of reproach. ‘Aza’ signifies harm or arrogance or inflicting of slight injury. Hence any favour done to any one must never be with any selfish motive and never be accompanied or followed by any reproach. Even a mention of any favour done is forbidden, lest it may put the recipient of the favour to shame or humiliation in the eyes of the others. The Holy Imam Husayn used to give to the seeker, whatever he gave, from behind the door, lest the beggar might feel ashamed or humiliated. And the Holy Imam Ali Ibn al-Husayn, whenever he gave anything in charity, used first to kiss the hand of the recipient, as it represented the hand of God1.

Verse 263

‘Qaulun Maaruf.’ Sympathetic speech to the beggar and forgiveness refers to forbearance if the beggar or any seeker insists in his demand and continues to worry for it. On no account should one get irritated or show any sign of anger or irritation at the poor man’s importunity. This verse clearly declares that charity accompanied or followed by any action on the part of the giver of the charity which in the least pains, hurts, humiliates or puts to shame the recipient, ceases to be a charity worth any consideration.

It is reported that once the first Holy Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib met the Holy Apostle of God ‘Kizr’ and Ali asked Kizr: ‘please say something good’.

The Holy Apostle ‘Kizr’ said: “Best is the charity of the wealthy towards the poor which is merely to please God”

Ali asked Kizr: “Knowest thou as to what will be better than this?”

Kizr replied: “No! Then Ali said: “Better (than what thou sayest) will be the pride of the poor over the wealthy, emanating from the dependence on God”

Kizr said: “This saying of thine deserves to be written in gold” (M.S.)

Charity indicates the fellow-feeling, and fellow-feeling is generated from the conviction of the individual about the fellowship of his brethren and the commitment of each to each for all and all for each which is nothing but the universal nature of the fellowship or the true brotherhood of men.

Verse 264

The giving of alms just for a show of charity is base, strongly condemned and disapproved. The Holy Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib says:

There are four kinds of valour:

Modesty in spite of wealth.

Pardon in spite of the power to avenge.

Goodly advice even to an enemy.

Charity without obligation and without a show of it. (M.F.)

Charity accompanied with obligation and reproach is compared to charity given for show in futility. (A.P.)

Giving of alms for a show of charity, is strongly condemned and disapproved. One who does this is compared to the one who does not believe in God and the Day of Judgment. Thus, charity merely for show is so much hateful in the view of God.

Asserting one’s self in obedience to God. The point to be noted here is that ‘Zakat’ or any charitable contribution is assertion. One contributes of what he possesses while prayer ‘Salat’ or ‘Namaz’ is a form of devotion which implies self-denial when the devotee absorbs himself in the greatness of the Absolute. Sublime would be the devotee who could continue these two opposites, i.e., both of these two forms of devotion at one and the same time2. (A.P.)

Verse 265

The extraordinary or the special stress on charity that Islam lays, is clear evidence of the main or the sole object of the religion being the welfare of the human race as a whole, and thus the creed being undoubtedly a universal religion revealed by the Creator Lord of all, Who has Himself made Mercy incumbent upon Himself3.

No other religion in the world has stressed so much upon charity as Islam has done. It is a cardinal doctrine or the fundamental article of the practice of the faith, closely associated or identified with the ‘Wajib’ or the compulsory prayer to God. The faith, Islam, when translated into action takes the form mainly of prayer and charity. Faith unless proved in action is nothing but a bogus claim, acceptable neither by man nor by God.

The merit of the charity lies in the spirit or the intention underlying it. The tall trees of a garden do not very much depend upon the rainfall. To draw sufficient nutrition from the soil in which they have sent roots very deep, it makes very little difference to such trees whether it rains heavily or lightly. The heavy or light rain is compared to the external circumstances that seems to make a difference in the productive aspect of the charity.

Charity during the time of the Holy Prophet was needed the most, for Islam at its start was in the struggle for its very existence and the Muslims had to sacrifice all that they owned and even their lives whenever it was needed. Muslims were a small group, and lived amidst an atmosphere wholly hostile to their faith and to themselves. It was a period of actual trial and test of the hearts of the people who ventured to embrace the truth which was itself in agony for its very existence against the overwhelming forces of falsehood, which were ever busy to cause hurt and harm to the maximum limits possible for them. Naturally even the least effort of self-sacrifice in these times rightly deserved the bountiful rewards promised to those sufferers in the way of God.

The verse exhorts to assure the sincere believers in particular and every member of the human family in general that every act of virtue has an energy of its own, to grow in this life and also in the next, and it has fountains of life to draw upon even if there were nothing to nourish them.

Verse 266

The necessity of conscientiousness in paying the prescribed charity when it has to be paid in kind. Note how Islam, even after prescribing the law for the legal dues from each individual, does not treat it as a state tax, but expects everyone to come forward to be true to one’s own conscience. The people have been given the chance to exercise fully their individual liberty by binding themselves to their moral responsibility towards their religious commitments. How beautifully an act of prescribed law has been used to develop and promote moral consciousness in the people by allowing it to be enforced voluntarily by each individual to the best of his conscience.

As regards giving in charity, one has been warned against giving away things he would not like to own for himself. On the other hand, the following Verse says:

لَن تَنالُوا البِرَّ حَتّىٰ تُنفِقوا مِمّا تُحِبّونَ

“Never shall ye attain to righteousness until ye give (in charity) out of what ye love…” (3:92).

Here is a warning that good deeds accompanied or followed by evils may result in bringing all the efforts to naught, when the return for the efforts one might urgently need. (A.P.)

1. Vide 9:104.

2. See 5:55.

3. Verse 6:12 and 6:54.

Al-Baqarah Section 37 - Spending Wealth In Charity

To give only good things in charity, Charity enhances bounties of God, God knows every charity and vow we make, Persons who deserve to receive charity.

Al-Baqarah Verses 267 – 273

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْفِقُوا مِنْ طَيِّبَاتِ مَا كَسَبْتُمْ وَمِمَّا أَخْرَجْنَا لَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ ۖ وَلَا تَيَمَّمُوا الْخَبِيثَ مِنْهُ تُنْفِقُونَ وَلَسْتُمْ بِآخِذِيهِ إِلَّا أَنْ تُغْمِضُوا فِيهِ ۚ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ حَمِيدٌ

“O’ ye who believe! Give in charity out of (only) the good things which ye have earned and of that which we have produced for you from the earth and (even) aim not at the bad things to spend thereof (in charity); while ye yourselves would not accept it except that ye connive at it; and know ye, God is Self-Sufficient, Praiseworthy” (2:267).

الشَّيْطَانُ يَعِدُكُمُ الْفَقْرَ وَيَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالْفَحْشَاءِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُمْ مَغْفِرَةً مِنْهُ وَفَضْلًا ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

“The Satan threatened! you with poverty and enjoineth on you sordidness, whereas God promiseth you pardon from Him and grace; And verily God is Omniscient, All-Knowing” (2:268).

يُؤْتِي الْحِكْمَةَ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَنْ يُؤْتَ الْحِكْمَةَ فَقَدْ أُوتِيَ خَيْرًا كَثِيرًا ۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ

“He granteth wisdom to whomsoever He willeth, and he who hath been granted wisdom hath been given abundant good; and none shall mind it save those endowed with wisdom” (2:269).

وَمَا أَنْفَقْتُمْ مِنْ نَفَقَةٍ أَوْ نَذَرْتُمْ مِنْ نَذْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُهُ ۗ وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ أَنْصَارٍ

“And whatever alms ye give or whatever vow ye make, Verily God knoweth it; but for the unjust there shall be no helpers” (2:270).

إِنْ تُبْدُوا الصَّدَقَاتِ فَنِعِمَّا هِيَ ۖ وَإِنْ تُخْفُوهَا وَتُؤْتُوهَا الْفُقَرَاءَ فَهُوَ خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ ۚ وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنْكُمْ مِنْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ

“And if ye give alms openly (even so) it is well, and if ye hide it and give it to the poor, it will be better still for yourselves; and (it) will remove from you some of your sins, and verily God is aware of all that ye do” (2:271).

لَيْسَ عَلَيْكَ هُدَاهُمْ وَلَٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَلِأَنْفُسِكُمْ ۚ وَمَا تُنْفِقُونَ إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ اللَّهِ ۚ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ يُوَفَّ إِلَيْكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تُظْلَمُونَ

“Not on thee (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) is incumbent their guidance, but (nay!) God guideth aright whomsoever He willeth; and whatever good thing ye spend (in charity) shall be for your own selves; and ye give not except seeking the pleasure of God; and whatever ye shall spend of good, shall be rendered back to you (in full) and ye shall not be wronged” (2:272).

لِلْفُقَرَاءِ الَّذِينَ أُحْصِرُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ ضَرْبًا فِي الْأَرْضِ يَحْسَبُهُمُ الْجَاهِلُ أَغْنِيَاءَ مِنَ التَّعَفُّفِ تَعْرِفُهُمْ بِسِيمَاهُمْ لَا يَسْأَلُونَ النَّاسَ إِلْحَافًا ۗ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ بِهِ عَلِيمٌ

“(Charity is) for those poor that are besieged in the path of God and thereby prevented from moving about in the land the ignorant thinketh them to be rich for their Self-Control (from begging) thou wouldst recognise them by their Countenance, they beg not of men importunately; and whatever of good things ye give in charity, verily God fully knoweth of it” (2:273).

Commentary

Verse 267

This is a warning against the usual practice of the rich and the wealthy ones, who give away as charity their rejected and unwanted stuff. (A.P.)

Verse 268

‘Fahsha’ ordinarily means indecency. Here meaning niggardliness or tenaciousness (bukhl) to mean that one should be as much ashamed of it as for indecent conduct.

This is a warning as well as an attempt to raise the mentality of the rich and the wealthy, who refrain from charity fearing poverty, while they indulge freely in all sorts of waste, vices and licentiousness calling it the enjoyment of life.

The fear of ‘Fakhr’ (i.e. poverty) i.e. niggardliness and ‘Fahsha’ i.e., both are devilish tendencies, the outcome of narrow selfishness, while the expectation of forgiveness and grace are commended as godly. This lofty character of avoiding the Satanic temptations and seeking God’s blessings and grace, is an outstanding specimen of theoretical and practical wisdom. (A.P.)

Verse 269

‘Wisdom’ - The word wisdom, as used in this verse does not mean as in English something purely predominantly intellectual. It implies the best knowledge seeking to act with fullness and soundness of one’s own conscience. True knowledge is spiritual illumination or divine guidance worked through the grace of God as and when the necessity for it occurs. This being the active result of the constant seeking for it by man from the All-Wise and the Almighty. The highest kind of this unique gift is revelation through divine agency which is conferred upon the divinely chosen and the purified ones1. It is a matter easily conceivable by simple common sense that every bit of iron cannot bear or resist the charge of the electrical energy to get its heat to convert it to light and reflect it to the others. Only a specially purified and a purposefully conditioned metal can do it.

Humanity could never have had the necessary guidance for its existence without the guidance from its Creator Lord, and He created some of His chosen beings. Himself purifying them and conditioning them to fit to be charged with the special gifts of His Knowledge and Wisdom. The souls that were called the apostles who were created for the purpose of the guidance of man in his primitive stages of life yet to be developed, had come and played their role as best as they could and had gone.

Now that man had reached the stage of the progressive evolution of his intellect, fit to be initiated to the higher spheres of knowledge and wisdom, and now for the guidance of man were needed some specially purified souls duly conditioned to serve the higher purpose in the far improved conditions. The Holy Prophet, the Last of the Apostles of God, had to convey the final message of Guidance from the All-Merciful Lord and with him, the apostleship had to conclude its mission. With the conclusion of the apostleship there was the need to make provision for the security or the preservation of the revealed truth in its originality against corruption and the source of guidance towards it and its correct availing in the practical life. As the world has yet to continue, there would remain the necessity for humanity to be guided aright towards the last message in its purity as delivered by the Last Apostle of God against Satan’s devices to lead men astray.

The divine grace of the All-Merciful, Almighty had in His merciful plan, the institution of Imamat i.e., the apostolic guidance through His own chosen guides who shall not be ‘Rasools’ or ‘Nabis’ i.e., Apostles or Prophets but ‘Imams’ i.e. Guides, towards what the Last Apostle had said and himself acted. This divine plan to send the Last Apostle with the most advanced knowledge and wisdom, to convey the final message along with the provision for the continuance of the divine guidance to the last day of the life of the world, through the institution of Imamat, could not naturally have been enacted without the personnel fit for the purpose. It needed specially purified and purposefully conditioned souls. Hence, the All-Wise, Almighty created the ‘Ahl Al-Bayt,’ The People of The Holy House, ‘with the purity needed for the purpose of their mission’. Holy Qur’an 33:33.

It has been left to the independent choice or the responsibility of every individual seeker after truth, to know these divine agencies of true guidance and be guided aright, or to reject them and get astray. The right way has been shown to man for all times.

إِنَّا هَدَيْنَاهُ السَّبِيلَ إِمَّا شَاكِرًا وَإِمَّا كَفُورًا

“Verily, We have shown him (man) the way, be he (man) grateful or ungrateful.’’ (76:3)

Verse 270

‘Nazr’, a vow, a voluntary undertaking of an act of virtue as binding one’s self in gratitude for some special favour prayed for.

‘God knoweth it’ i.e. appreciates it to reward it, over and above the grant of the favour prayed for.

The last words of the verse are applicable to those who obstruct charity and righteousness.

Verse 271

It is reported that the Holy Prophet had so much insisted on charity being given in secret so that “One hand knoweth not what giveth the other” that people could have doubted about charity given in public being of any worth or having any reward at all. This verse clears the position saying that the giving of charity in open is no doubt well but giving it in secret is better.

The Bible says:

“Take heed that ye do not give your alms before men, to be seen of them’. Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven”2

This sounds very well but charity in open is barred altogether and deprived of any reward or any return at all. Mark that giving of any help for any cause of public utility or national security or welfare, has no place at all, for the help rendered to public institutions has always to be acknowledged by the men in charge of the management and it can never remain a secret at all, for none else to know. Whereas note the Qur’anic teachings, taking into consideration the ever-varying circumstances of the human society and enjoining public as well as private charity, exhorting to be modest by keeping charity as secret as far as possible. Sometimes charity has to be given in open to encourage others to follow the example.

“The words ‘yu Kaffir ankum’ - in this verse clearly indicate that there are some virtues like charity mentioned here that entitle the doer to his sins being erased or taken away from his personal accounts.

It is reported of the 6th Holy Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq that the Holy Prophet said that:

“Charity in secret quiets the wrath of God and takes away one’s sin as the water puts out the fire and keeps away seventy kinds of calamities”

It has also been reported of the Holy Prophet having declared that:

“Seven persons shall have refuge in God When there shall be no refuge but God alone”

The just ruler or an impartial judge.

The man brought up in virtue.

The man attached to the place of worship and loves and helps the worshippers.

The man loves people and hates them only for the cause of God.

The man whom a beautiful woman invites to her (illegally), and he replies, ‘I fear the Lord.’

The man who gives away charity (in secret) by one hand and his other hand knows it not.

The man who prays to the Lord in secret and sheds tears for fear of the Lord.

It is pointed out that there is no difference in giving charity openly or hidden, as what is accounted is the intention which cannot be known to anyone but God. (A.P.)

Verse 272

The opening words of the verse clearly speak of the general policy of Islam which is never to force its guidance upon anyone. It is quite obvious that every endeavour on the part of the Holy Prophet and Muslim Society under him, was just the defence against the unprovoked aggression from the enemies of Islam and the Muslims, and never to force anyone to accept the religion against his individual and independent will.

The ordinance that charity should not be restricted only to an individual, but it should extend to the general use of the common welfare of the society as a whole and for the amelioration of the public in general3.

It is for this purpose a portion of the ‘Zakat’ and the ‘Khums’ money has necessarily to be spent, only at the direction of some ‘Mujtahid.’ The ‘Mujtahid’ is entitled to collect such a portion and see it is spent for the general benefit of the society or the public as a whole.

If charity towards the unbelievers is expected to bring out healthy results of turning their hearts from infidelity to faith in God, from the falsehood of their belief in false and imaginary deities to truth i.e., Islam, then the charity for the purpose is commendable.

It is also clearly stated that whatever one spends in charity, it is for one’s own benefit as whatever one spends will be returned to him in full with the reward added to it. Hence one who does charity does not in fact oblige anyone but his own self.

Verse 273

The people who deserve the first consideration for charity, are those who are confined in service to the cause of truth i.e. in the way of God. Among them are.

Those engaged in fighting in the defence of the faith and the faithful.

Those who cannot go on trade owing to the insecurity in the journey and the constant attacks from the enemy.

Those wounded and disabled in the defensive battles.

And those who are actually in imperative wants of life but do not openly beg or pest anyone with their begging, whom the fools take to be rich enough for not begging or giving vent to their needs.

This passage excludes the professional beggars from being entitled to any share in the charity mentioned here.

This verse while qualifying or including the needy who do not ask for anything, in the list of those who deserve charity, indirectly condemns open beggary. Islam abhors begging and honours and appreciates concealing the personal needs and appearing outwardly as quite content.

‘Dharban fil’ actually means here as journeying in the land, seeking sustenance for his wife, (family).

Palmer obviously misinterprets the word ‘Dharb’ as striking or beating with the ulterior motive of spreading wrong information about Islam and the Muslims.

1. Vide 33:33.

2. Math. 6/1.

3. Vide Verse 60:8.

Al-Baqarah Section 38 - Interest Prohibited

Reward for benevolence towards debtors, Prohibition of Interest, Interest already accrued to be foregone, Capital to be recovered with respite and lenity.

Al-Baqarah Verses 274 - 281

الَّذِينَ يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ سِرًّا وَعَلَانِيَةً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

“Those who spend their wealth by night 1 and (by) day, secretly and openly, for them shall be their reward with their Lord, fear shall not be on them nor shall they grieve” (2:274).

الَّذِينَ يَأْكُلُونَ الرِّبَا لَا يَقُومُونَ إِلَّا كَمَا يَقُومُ الَّذِي يَتَخَبَّطُهُ الشَّيْطَانُ مِنَ الْمَسِّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا الْبَيْعُ مِثْلُ الرِّبَا ۗ وَأَحَلَّ اللَّهُ الْبَيْعَ وَحَرَّمَ الرِّبَا ۚ فَمَنْ جَاءَهُ مَوْعِظَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ فَانْتَهَىٰ فَلَهُ مَا سَلَفَ وَأَمْرُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ وَمَنْ عَادَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ

“Those who swallow interest will not (be able to) stand (in resurrection) except as standeth one whom Satan hath confounded with his touch; this because they say, trade is only like (earning) interest, whereas God hath decreed trade lawful and hath forbidden interest, wherefore whosoever (after) the admonition hath come unto him from his Lord desists, shall have what hath gone before; and his affair rests with God, and whoever returneth (to it even after the admonition); They are the inmates of the (Hell) fire, therein shall they abide” (2:275).

يَمْحَقُ اللَّهُ الرِّبَا وَيُرْبِي الصَّدَقَاتِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ كَفَّارٍ أَثِيمٍ

“God blotteth out (the gains of) interest and causeth charities to grow; God loveth not any ingrate sinner” (2:276).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ لَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلَا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

“Verily those who believe, and act righteously and establish prayer and disburse away the (Prescribed) poor-rate, they shall have their reward with their Lord, neither shall they have (any) fear nor shall they grieve” (2:277).

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَذَرُوا مَا بَقِيَ مِنَ الرِّبَا إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ

“O’ Ye who believe! take shelter 2 in God and forego what remaineth (due to you) of the interest if ye are (indeed) believers” (2:278).

فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ۖ وَإِنْ تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ

“And if ye do it not, then be ye apprised of war from God and His Apostle, and if ye repent (and give up interest) then shall ye have your capital; Deal ye not unjustly (with others) and nor ye be dealt with unjustly” (2:279).

وَإِنْ كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَىٰ مَيْسَرَةٍ ۚ وَأَنْ تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَكُمْ ۖ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

“And if (any debtor) be in straitened 3 circumstances, then let there be respite until (he is in) ease; and that if ye forego it (even the capital) (as charity) it is better for you if ye only knew” (2:280).

وَاتَّقُوا يَوْمًا تُرْجَعُونَ فِيهِ إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ ثُمَّ تُوَفَّىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ

“And Fear ye the Day 4 wherein ye shall return unto God; each one shall be measured back (in full) what he earned and they shall not be wronged” (2:281).

Commentary

Verse 274

It is an accepted fact even by the scholars of the Sunni school that this verse was revealed in praise of Ali who offered them only four dirhams (or shs) and gave away in charity - one by night, one in day, one secretly and one openly5. It is reported through Ibraham Ibn Saleh, Yousuf bin Bilal, Muhammad bin Haroon, Muhammad bin Saleh, Abi Saleh and from Ibn Abbas, that the Holy Prophet said: that this verse was revealed in the praise of Ali since he parted with the four dinars he possessed in this world, as said above. Once Ali met the Holy Prophet, the Holy Prophet asked why he parted with whatever he had. Ali replied, “to please God I had nothing more than this and I will be fully satisfied if God accepts it” This verse was revealed to the Holy Prophet.

Verse 275

‘Riba’ literally means an excess or an addition. Here meaning the additional amount collected over and above the capital lent as loan, termed usury, or interest. Usury or interest is strictly forbidden in Islam. It must be remembered by every sincere Muslim that charity and fellow-feeling is one of the essential qualities of the faith. If with the necessary means to help his brother in need, one does not do it, it is a sin. The minimum that is expected of a Muslim to relieve his brother in faith is by a loan with precautions for the repayment of the amount lent without any extra-payment imposed upon the repayment. Taking advantage of the distress of another and availing of the opportunity to create a source of income is fiendish in Islam and strictly forbidden.

The social evils that the business of lending money for interest are too well known to be detailed here. The money-lender becomes miserly and becomes day by day more and more inordinate in the love for hoarding wealth, and gets possessed by selfishness. This quality in any individual or society is diametrically opposed to the very aim of the religion, Islam. One of the primary objects of the faith in God is to establish a true and practical brotherhood of man. The facility and temptation that the usurious system of lending money offers to the extravagant, has ruined innumerable families. Islam wants to strike a death-blow to the system altogether and reduce the easy availability of money. When there is no monetary profit in lending money to anyone, the lending would naturally be affected only in cases in which it should be done, and it can never be but in charity with fellow-feeling. The lender would also be careful to know that it is a case of genuine need and whether the borrower actually deserves the help or not.

There is a clear distinction between trade and usury. In trade the investment is with hope of gain as well with the risk of the loss in the business. Whereas in usury the lender counts only upon gain at the cost of the interest on the part of the borrower. Hence trade stands on a footing quite different from usury. A lender has nothing to concern himself whatsoever whether the business flourishes or fails.

The question arises as to financing trade and the other productive concerns. Islam has no objection to any capitalist financing any trade or any such regular business concern, as a partner with a right both in the profit and the loss of it.

Those who advance an argument in support of usury comparing it with trade, would be resurrected from their graves in a delirious state of insanity. The state of their minds is attributed to the touch of Satan i.e. bewildered.

That which has already been received of usury prior to the declaration of the prohibition need not be paid back, for it would create confusion in business. The prohibition to take effect from the revelation received against act.

As regards the Banking System, essential for the modern business life, it is the leading jurist of the age (the A’lam) to decide on the merits of the business system, whether it is a fixed or agreed dividend of the business profits, or the commission or the interest.

‘Riba’ literally means the growth of or the addition to the same thing6. (A.P.)

Verse 276

‘Muhuq’, blotting out of a thing. Here meaning, taking away of ‘Barakat’ or blessings from the wealth accumulated of usury. Usury is condemned and charity is highly commended.

According to declaration of the Holy Prophet, one who upholds usury as legal is a ‘kafir’ an infidel. And usury has been declared as one’s wedding with one’s own mother. (S.M.S.)

Verse 277

It is to be noted that faith alone has been exclusively mentioned as the requisite merit to be free from dread and agony in the life hereafter. Faith has been associated or has to be followed by deeds of virtue, prayer and charity. This is the ideal of the pure Islamic teachings.

Verse 278

To give up or to forego the balance of interest which may be due at the time of the revelation forbidding usury.

Verse 279

‘Fa’zana’ - Be ye apprised. Be apprised of war with God and His Apostle. Can there be any stronger words and ways of condemning any act and warning people against it?

It has been reported by Amirul-Momineen Ali Ibn Abi Talib that the Holy Prophet cursed the receiver, the giver, the consumer, the writer and witness of usury. And usury is equal to one’s wedding his own mother.

Verse 280

Respite to be given to the debtor until he is able to repay the debt. The poor and helpless ones not to be prosecuted or even in any way harassed. Better still is enjoined to remit at least a part of the indebtedness. The Holy Prophet said: ‘He who gives respite to his debtor or remits a part or the whole of the capital due to him, God will grant him shelter on the day when there shall not be any shelter i.e. (The Day of Judgment). (M.S.)

The Holy Prophet is reported to have also said: -

“Whosoever giveth respite to his debtor, in straitness, the amount due shall be accounted as charity on his part, till it is paid to him.’’ (B.H.)

Once Zarara told the sixth Holy Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq that one of his debtors was contemplating to sell away his house to repay the debt. On this the Holy Imam said: “O’ Zarara! I charge thee in the Holy name of the All-Merciful Lord not to take away the shelter over his head” The Holy Imam repeated this thrice. (B.H.)

Such is the sympathy demanded of a Muslim towards others. While respite and remission, in cases of straitness has been so highly commended by Islam, it is noteworthy to know the warning issued to the debtors who avoid repayment or the debts in spite of sufficient means.

It is reported that once a dead body was brought into the mosque and the Holy Prophet was requested to conduct the Namaze-Janazah i.e., the funeral prayer. The Holy Prophet refused to pray. The people present there requested the Holy Prophet to let them know the reason. The Holy Prophet replied that the man whose dead body was there, in spite of sufficient means did not pay a debt due of him. Abu Qatadah offered to pay away the debt of the man, and actually paid away the amount which was seventeen or eighteen dirhams. Then the Holy Prophet offered the prayers.

According to a declaration of the Holy Prophet one of the worst things with God is a debtor’s dying with debts not repaid and not having left behind anything of his earnings to repay the debts on his behalf.

Verse 281

‘Then shall every soul be paid what it earned.’ This is sufficient encouragement to every doer of good and a sufficiently strong warning to every evil doer for the return shall be whatsoever he earned here by spending or endeavouring in the way of the Lord. The virtuous can rest assured that the good they do, is not wasted but they will find it to their credit. Hence blessed will be those who provide as much as they can for the return is according to the investment here. Similarly, let every doer of evil be warned that whatever evil he does here does not remain here behind him but goes in advance of him to be done to him the same way he has done to others in this life.

But having in view that the arrangement of the verses in the Sura was done in some cases before the revelation or in some cases of the revelation by the order of the Holy Prophet, it would be immaterial as to which verse was revealed earlier or which was later. However taking into consideration the internal evidence of the verses, one should say that the last verse was 5:3, because if any part of the Qur’an had not yet then been revealed, the announcement in 5:3 i.e., the religion had been completed, could not be correct. Similarly the Verse 5:67 either should have been revealed in the early days of the Holy Prophet’s mission as the relative pronoun ‘that which’ could be taken as to refer to all the details of the subsequent teachings of Islam, or it should be taken as to refer to the very matter of great importance the declaration of which would cause the Holy Prophet apprehension. If the statement of the Holy commentators is taken into consideration that it was revealed after the last Haj, however this cannot have been revealed after 5:3, although in the arrangement 5:3 has been earlier. This shows that the divine arrangement was not based on the chronological consideration. (A.P.)

1. Ali Ibn Abi Talib used to approach the needy and the poor, night and day and provided them with the necessities, So did the other Imams of the Ahl Al-Bayt.

2. Ar. ‘Taqwa’ Piety-Taking Shelter in God by guarding against every evil.

3. Note what this verse commends

4. The Day of Judgement Every man and woman to be mindful of the day in the life. Refer to Verse . 3:30.

5. Vide D.M.K.

6. Vide 22:5 on how the Verbe “raib” is used.

Al-Baqarah Section 39 - Business Contracts To Be Recorded In Writing

Business contracts to be recorded in writing with witnesses, Caution to the recorder and the witnesses to be just and God fearing, Security and trust and its discharge.

Al-Baqarah Verses 282 - 283

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا تَدَايَنْتُمْ بِدَيْنٍ إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى فَاكْتُبُوهُ ۚ وَلْيَكْتُبْ بَيْنَكُمْ كَاتِبٌ بِالْعَدْلِ ۚ وَلَا يَأْبَ كَاتِبٌ أَنْ يَكْتُبَ كَمَا عَلَّمَهُ اللَّهُ ۚ فَلْيَكْتُبْ وَلْيُمْلِلِ الَّذِي عَلَيْهِ الْحَقُّ وَلْيَتَّقِ اللَّهَ رَبَّهُ وَلَا يَبْخَسْ مِنْهُ شَيْئًا ۚ فَإِنْ كَانَ الَّذِي عَلَيْهِ الْحَقُّ سَفِيهًا أَوْ ضَعِيفًا أَوْ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُ أَنْ يُمِلَّ هُوَ فَلْيُمْلِلْ وَلِيُّهُ بِالْعَدْلِ ۚ وَاسْتَشْهِدُوا شَهِيدَيْنِ مِنْ رِجَالِكُمْ ۖ فَإِنْ لَمْ يَكُونَا رَجُلَيْنِ فَرَجُلٌ وَامْرَأَتَانِ مِمَّنْ تَرْضَوْنَ مِنَ الشُّهَدَاءِ أَنْ تَضِلَّ إِحْدَاهُمَا فَتُذَكِّرَ إِحْدَاهُمَا الْأُخْرَىٰ ۚ وَلَا يَأْبَ الشُّهَدَاءُ إِذَا مَا دُعُوا ۚ وَلَا تَسْأَمُوا أَنْ تَكْتُبُوهُ صَغِيرًا أَوْ كَبِيرًا إِلَىٰ أَجَلِهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ أَقْسَطُ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ وَأَقْوَمُ لِلشَّهَادَةِ وَأَدْنَىٰ أَلَّا تَرْتَابُوا ۖ إِلَّا أَنْ تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً حَاضِرَةً تُدِيرُونَهَا بَيْنَكُمْ فَلَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ أَلَّا تَكْتُبُوهَا ۗ وَأَشْهِدُوا إِذَا تَبَايَعْتُمْ ۚ وَلَا يُضَارَّ كَاتِبٌ وَلَا شَهِيدٌ ۚ وَإِنْ تَفْعَلُوا فَإِنَّهُ فُسُوقٌ بِكُمْ ۗ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ ۖ وَيُعَلِّمُكُمُ اللَّهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

“O’ ye who believe: when ye contract each other, a loan for a fixed term, then write 1 it down; and let a scribe write it down justly between you, and the scribe should not refuse to write (record it down) as God hath taught him so let him write and let him who oweth dictate, and he should take shelter in God his Lord and diminish not aught thereof; but if he who oweth be witless 2 or infirm 3 , or if he be not able to dictate himself then let his guardian dictate justly, then call to witness two witnesses from among your men and if there not be two men, then (take) a man and two women, of those ye approve of the witnesses, so that should one of the two (women) forget the (second) one of the two may remind the other; the witnesses should not refuse when summoned (to evidence); disdain not ye of writing it down, be the transaction small or big, with its fixed 4 term, (of its falling due): this procedure is the most equitable with God and the most confirmatory for evidence and nearest (to confirmation) that ye may not fall in (any kind of) doubt (thereafter) except (when) it be a ready (hand to hand) transaction of trade in which ye give and take among yourselves or then there be no blame on you if ye write it not; and have witnesses when (in this way) ye transact together and no scribe or witness should cause or suffer harm and if ye do (so), verily then it will be transgression of you; and take shelter in God, and God teacheth you; and God knoweth all things” (2:282).

وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ وَلَمْ تَجِدُوا كَاتِبًا فَرِهَانٌ مَقْبُوضَةٌ ۖ فَإِنْ أَمِنَ بَعْضُكُمْ بَعْضًا فَلْيُؤَدِّ الَّذِي اؤْتُمِنَ أَمَانَتَهُ وَلْيَتَّقِ اللَّهَ رَبَّهُ ۗ وَلَا تَكْتُمُوا الشَّهَادَةَ ۚ وَمَنْ يَكْتُمْهَا فَإِنَّهُ آثِمٌ قَلْبُهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ عَلِيمٌ

“And if ye be on a journey and ye find not a scribe then take a pledge 5 with possession; but if one of you trusteth the other, let the one trusted fulfil 6 his trust, and take shelter in God his Lord; and conceal not evidence; And whosoever concealeth it, then surely his heart is sinful; And Verily God knoweth all that ye do” (2:283).

Commentary

Verse 282

This verse deals with the subject of contracts. Note the precautions safeguarding the property rights instituted by Islam, as the first and the only religion to detail it as one of the doctrines commended by the faith which the parties profess. Such injunctions go to prove the universal welfare of the human society as a whole, Islam as a religion aims at, preparing mankind for an ever progressive and a well-developed civilized life in the world. The laws prescribed and the conduct commended to be current for all times without the least need for any amendment whatsoever.

The fact that women are more subject to tender emotions, hence more amenable to be easily influenced by circumstances, is recognised in holding two women’s evidence as equal to that of one man. It is in view of this native factor about the emotions in women that even in the law courts it is not held desirable and healthy to force a woman’s appearance in the open court of law as a witness with the purpose to subject her to any severe cross-examination so freely as a man can be done.

For the details of the precautionary legal step to be taken against the possible disputes in contracts refer ‘Fiqha.’ But what is noteworthy, is the importance attached to the recording in writing which shows the keen interest Qur’an takes to popularise literacy on one hand and to record down in writing the facts which might become the subject of disputes later on. For this purpose, the Holy Prophet did his best to remove the illiteracy to the extent that after the battle of Badr he asked the pagan captives who knew the art of writing that each should teach ten Muslim boys the art, and that would be considered a sufficient ransom to secure his freedom (Tabari). Nevertheless, that some of the ruling parties of the companions of the Holy Prophet where not in favour of writing down the sayings of the Holy Prophet although they used to quote his sayings whenever it served their purpose. If Qur’an recommends the faithful to note down the transactions taken place between individuals to avoid disputes among them, it would be much more imperative to note the saying and the deeds of the Holy Prophet, which is the second source of the Islamic theology and jurisprudence without which the whole edifice of the Islamic faith would tumble down to the ground. The disputes among the Muslims since the time of the departure of the Holy Prophet down to the present days, is due to this failure. But it should be noted that whether the ruling party was in favour of it or not, Ali and the people attached faithfully to the. House of the Holy Prophet were the advocates of writing down the teachings of the Holy Prophet.

Even Bukhari hints briefly at the existence of the records ‘Sahifa’ maintained by Ali which contained the actual dictations of the Holy Prophet. And the historians tell us about Abdullah Ibn Abu Rafe the freed slave attached to Ali, had produced records of the sayings of Holy Prophet narrated by Ali. Students of Qur’an and the life of the Holy Prophet, and the members of his family, would hardly doubt the amount of the importance attached by Islam to literacy and the intellectual progress in all aspects of human life. But for some political reasons the rulers of the Muslim state, immediately succeeding the Holy Prophet wanted to stop this movement lest the militant spirit of the Arabs might be affected by turning their attention to the intellectual progress. Not only did they stop the writing down of the Holy Prophet’s sayings, one of them (Omar) even ordered huge libraries in the conquered lands like Egypt and Persia to be burnt down with the plea that if those books be in agreement with the Holy Qur’an, we need them not, and if they disagree with the Holy Qur’an, we hate them7.

However, all the reasons given here in favour of writing down the contracts whether smaller or big, would be more in favour of writing down the sayings of the Holy Prophet which the companions did not do in the early days.

Neither the writer nor the witness should harm, nor be harmed. (A.P.)

Verse 283

A pledge of security stands separately on its own independent footing as a very convenient method of dealing in a situation in which the parties cannot trust each other, and when a proper documentary agreement with proper witnesses be not possible.

1. Note the practicability preached by Islam, Caution to avoid troubles in the future, to maintain strict justice and peace

2. Foolish

3. Protection of the interest of the weak

4. Agreed

5. Security.

6. Return the entrusted charge fully- Discharge of the trust one of the greatest demands of Islam.

7. Tabari, Yacoobi Etc.

Al-Baqarah Section 40 - Everything In The Heavens And The Earth Belongs To God

Everything in the heavens and in the earth belongs only to God, God knows everything hidden and manifest, The Muslim Prayer.

Al-Baqarah Verses 284 - 286

لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَإِنْ تُبْدُوا مَا فِي أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ يُحَاسِبْكُمْ بِهِ اللَّهُ ۖ فَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“God’s is whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth; and whether ye manifest what is in your selves or conceal it, God will call you to account for it; and then will He forgive whomsoever He willeth and will punish whomsoever He willeth and Verily God is powerful over all things” (2:284).

آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْ رُسُلِهِ ۚ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ

“The 1 Prophet believeth in what hath come down unto him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers; all believe in God, and in His Angels and in His Books and in His apostles; (they say) “We make no difference 2 between His apostles;” and they say, “We have heard and obeyed 3 (and we implore 4 ) Thy forgiveness, O’ Our Lord! and unto Thee is our march” (2:285).

لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِنْ نَسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ ۖ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا ۚ أَنْتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ

“Imposeth not God, any soul but to its (individual) 5 ability; for it shall be (the good) what he hath acquired and against it (shall be) (the evil) he hath wrought; O’ Our Lord ! hold us not responsible if we 6 forget or make a mistake; O’ Our Lord! lay not on us a burden 7 as thou didst lay on those before us and lay not on us that which we have not the strength (to bear): pardon us; and forgive us, and have mercy on us; Thou art our Lord 8 , so help us then against the unbeliever people!” (2:286).

Commentary

Verse 284

The heavens and the earth mentioned in this verse may be taken in the higher sense of the realms of spirit and matter i.e. God’s are the realms concrete as well as abstract, the seen and the unseen.

Evil thoughts and evil inclinations are as much punishable without their expression as when they express themselves in speech and action, for God knows equally the hidden as well as the manifest.

لَا يَتَّخِذِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۖ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَيْسَ مِنَ اللَّهِ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلَّا أَنْ تَتَّقُوا مِنْهُمْ تُقَاةً ۗ وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ ۗ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ الْمَصِيرُ

“Say [O’ Apostle Muhammad!] Whether ye hide what is in your hearts or manifest it, God knoweth it, and He knoweth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and God hath power over all things” (3:28).

The Holy Imam Ali says:

“By what is in the hearts, doth God requits the servants”

“He forgiveth whomsoever He willeth and punisheth whosoever He willeth” The sovereignty over the kingdom is God’s. He alone knows best who deserves mercy and who should be rightfully punished. The verse can mean to say that His reward or punishment which will go to whosoever seeketh by his merits and demerits9.

وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنْكُمْ مِنْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ

“It will remove from you some of your sins” (2:271)

Who can know for certain as to the persons whom God grants this His grace of wiping out the sins. It all depends upon the independent approval and disapproval. Hence it is God’s will that ultimately works, but never without equity, as even the mercy goes only to those who deserve it by their personal merits.

The passage states the doubtless fact that God will take account of man’s intentions and the inner motives of the actions, whether expressed or hidden. Hence it is purely indicative, it leaves no room for its being abrogated.

In this passage and in many other passages wherein the reward and the punishment or the other actions of God have been assigned to the will and the pleasure of God, some would think that this supports the doctrine of the arbitrary action of God, whereas it shows only that His action follows His will, but it is silent with regard to His will, whether His will is based upon any other consideration or not. This is to be proved by taking His other attributes into consideration, of which justice, wisdom, grace, love and mere) are of great importance in the shaping of His will, in other words His will is based on these attributes, and He never contradicts His attributes, and no attribute contradicts the other. The result is that His will follows His Wisdom. (A.P.)

Verse 285

This verse contains the clearest evidence of Islam being the universal faith, the faith which enjoins belief in all the angels, all the holy scriptures and all the apostles of God - without any distinction in their holiness and their truthfulness as the messengers from God10.

There is no religion in the world which can ever be compared to the universality of Islam and its acknowledging of the truth and divinity, irrespective of the agency through which it manifested.

Verse 286

Note the spirit of humility and supplications forwarded through Islamic prayer and the ultimate end sought by the supplicant, is the triumph of the truth against falsehood, or of godliness against Satan, and the faith against infidelity.

‘Os’at’ literally means extent not ability. It means more than capacity i.e., ability with ease. However, it refutes the doctrine of the Determinists ‘Jabriah’ that God may order man beyond his ability. If it is taken in the second sense, it would mean that not only God does not order beyond the capacity, but He even does not order man to do what is difficult for him, which would be in agreement with 22:78 and the saying of the Holy Prophet:

“I have brought you a very easy religion with lots of facilities”

‘Wala tahmil alaina’ i.e. Burden us not with such duties as the hard injunctions regarding the too extreme or the ideal cleanliness for man and woman, the validity of the voluntary celibacy and the prohibitory orders on ‘Sabt’ etc.

For ‘Isri’ i.e., undertaking11, ‘Kasb’ i.e., an act or action, the result or the ‘consequence of an act or action, and its derivation, has been used in many places in the Qur’an mostly as the consequences of our action and sometimes measuring the notion itself done by a person. There is no justification whatsoever for the ‘Jabriah’ the Determinist School to differentiate between God, the Act and the ‘kasb’ the earning, by considering the former as done by God and attributing the latter to man. Whoever be held as the agent, the one should be the agent for the other, the separation of the agency of action from the agency of the consequence, is the effort on the part of the Determinist which they themselves are unable to explain as the Christians with regard to the doctrine of Trinity. (A.P.)

1. Note the universality of the religion Islam - Faith in all the apostles of God and the holy Scriptures preached only by Islam and no other creed in the world. Refer to Verse . 3:84.

2. In their being equally truthful - Not partial to anyone of them.

3. Thy Commandments.

4. Ask For.

5. Capacity Everyone charged to the individual capacity.

6. Neglect.

7. A Hard.

8. Maula.

9. The concluding words of Verse 271.

10. This should be read with Verse 2:253 and 17:55 (A.P.).

11. See also 7:157.

Surah Aal ’Imran, The Family of Imran

(Revealed at Mecca)

199 Verses - in 20 Sections

Sections of Surah Aal ’Imran

The Qur’an and the previous scriptures.

The ultimate triumph of the Unity of God.

Chastisement for those who slay the Apostles.

God’s choice of the Descendants of Abraham.

The glad tidings about the birth of Jesus.

Promise of rescue to Jesus - the Christians invited to the Spiritual Contest (Mubahila).

Invitation to the followers of the Book to belief in the Unity of God as a common basis of faith.

Attempts to discredit Islam.

Previous scriptures confirm the Truth of Islam.

The Everliving testimony of the Truth of Islam.

To hold fast to the Cord of God.

Muslims raised for the welfare of Mankind.

The Battle of Uhud.

Prohibition of interest & usury - Means of achieving success.

Perseverance and patience in suffering; enjoined.

Delinquency and the Dread of some Muslims.

The faithful identified from the Hypocrites at the Battle of Uhud.

Uhud, a defeat to the enemy.

Jewish carpings at the Apostle.

The triumph of the faithful.

Important Topics

God the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent (Verse 2)

Qur’an a Book verifying the Evangel and the Torah (Verse 3)

Qur’an contains verses plain as well as ambiguous the meaning of the ambiguous verses, none but God and those firm in knowledge know (Verse 7)

The Religion with God is Islam (Verse 19)

The wealth and the enjoyment of this world a provision only for this life. (Verse 14)

Punishment for those who slay the apostles and those who stand for justice - the deeds will become null (Verse 21-22)

All will be collected on the Final Resurrection, and everyone will be repaid justly (Verse 25)

The believers should not take the disbelievers as friends (Verse 28)1

Following the Apostle is Loving God, and it earns God’s love (Verse 31)

God hath chosen the descendants of Adam, Noah, Abraham and Imran, offsprings one after another (Verse 33-34)

Virgin Mary dedicated by her mother for God’s service (Verse 35)

Zachariah granted a son (Yahya - John) in old age and with a barren wife. (Verse 39)

Virgin Mary purified and chosen by God (Verse 42)

Virgin Mary given glad tidings of having a son without being a mate of any mortal to be named ‘‘Messiah’ (Verse 45)

Jesus, while yet a baby in the cradle, divinely caused to speak (Verse 46)

Jesus an Apostle of God to the children of Israel - his miracles of enlivening the dead and curing the incurables (Verse 49)

Jesus divinely promised of his rescue from the hands of the Jews and of being raised into heavens by God Himself (Verse 55)

The Christians challenged to a ‘Mubahila’, a spiritual contest (Verse 61)

To God alone submits everything in the heavens and the earth. (Verse 83)

Commandment to believe in the Qur’an and the previous scriptures and the apostles and not to differentiate between any one of them and submit (Verse 84)

Religion other than Islam will never be accepted (Verse 85)

The wicked cursed by God, by the angels and the men of God. (Verse 87)

Never will anyone attain to goodness without expending from whatever he loves (Verse 92)

The Creed of Abraham to be followed (Verse 95)

The First House of Divine blessings and guidance for man built on earth (Verse 96)

The Holy Ka’ba declared a Sanctuary (Verse 97)

To hold fast to the Cord of God (Verse 103)

The Best group raised for mankind (Verse 109)

Wealth and issues will be of no avail to anyone on the Day of Judgement. (Verse 116)

The divine help rendered at Badr. (Verse 123)

Interest and usury prohibited (Verse 130)

The Qur’an a guidance only to the pious (Verse 138)

Muhammad (the Holy Prophet) is none else but the Apostle of God (Verse 144)

Those slain in the way of God are alive (Verse 169)

The respite given to the disbelievers, no advantage to them (Verse 178)

The wealth given to the niggardly is not good but worse for them (Verse 180)

1. Refer to Verse . 4:144.

Aal ’Imran Section 1 - The Qur’an And The Previous Scriptures

The Qur’an and the previous scriptures, The correct knowledge of the verses of the Qur’an, Misinterpretation of the figurative verses, Prayer for correct guidance from God.

Aal ’Imran Verses 1 – 8

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

“In the name of God the Beneficent, the Merciful”

الم

“Alif Laam, Mim” (3:1).

اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ

“God! there is no God but He, the Ever 1 Living the Se1f-Subsistent 2 (The Sustainer of all things)” (3:2).

نَزَّلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَأَنْزَلَ التَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ

“He hath sent down unto thee the Book 3 with Truth confirming what was before it; And He sent down the Torah 4 and the Evangel 5 ” (3:3).

مِنْ قَبْلُ هُدًى لِلنَّاسِ وَأَنْزَلَ الْفُرْقَانَ ۗ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِيدٌ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَزِيزٌ ذُو انْتِقَامٍ

“Aforetime, a guidance for people and sent down the Distinction 6 (Furqan), Verily for those who disbelieve in the signs of God, for them is a severe punishment; God is Mighty, Lord of Retribution” (3:4).

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَخْفَىٰ عَلَيْهِ شَيْءٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ

“Verily, God, nothing hidden is there from Him, in the Earth and in the Heavens” (3:5).

هُوَ الَّذِي يُصَوِّرُكُمْ فِي الْأَرْحَامِ كَيْفَ يَشَاءُ ۚ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

“He it is Who fashioneth you in the wombs (of your mothers) as He liketh; There is no God but HE, the All-Mighty, the All-Wise” (3:6).

هُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ مِنْهُ آيَاتٌ مُحْكَمَاتٌ هُنَّ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ وَأُخَرُ مُتَشَابِهَاتٌ ۖ فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ زَيْغٌ فَيَتَّبِعُونَ مَا تَشَابَهَ مِنْهُ ابْتِغَاءَ الْفِتْنَةِ وَابْتِغَاءَ تَأْوِيلِهِ ۗ وَمَا يَعْلَمُ تَأْوِيلَهُ إِلَّا اللَّهُ ۗ وَالرَّاسِخُونَ فِي الْعِلْمِ يَقُولُونَ آمَنَّا بِهِ كُلٌّ مِنْ عِنْدِ رَبِّنَا ۗ وَمَا يَذَّكَّرُ إِلَّا أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ

“He it is Who hath sent down to thee (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) ‘the Book 7 of it there are (some) verses 8 decisive 9 these are the Basis 10 of the Book, and others are ambiguous 11 ; But those in whose hearts there is perversity, they are after that which is ambiguous therein seeking to mislead and 12 seeking to interpret (to suit their selfish motives) while none knoweth 13 its (hidden) interpretation except God and those firmly rooted in knowledge; say they: “We believe in it, all is from our Lord” but none mindeth save those endowed with (Wisdom)” (3:7).

رَبَّنَا لَا تُزِغْ قُلُوبَنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَيْتَنَا وَهَبْ لَنَا مِنْ لَدُنْكَ رَحْمَةً ۚ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْوَهَّابُ

“(They pray) “Our Lord! Suffer not our hearts to perverse after Thou hast guided (aright) and grant us from unto Thee mercy, for verily Thou, and Thou (Alone) art the 14 Ever- Bestower” (3:8).

Commentary

Verse 1

Alif, Laam, Meem, (Huraf al-Muqatta’at15).

Verse 2

See Note on the opening words of Verse 2:255.

‘Ibn Ishaq says that over 80 verses from the beginning of this Surah, were revealed about the Christians of ‘Najran’ whose embassy to the Prophet is described in the note to verse 54. The whole of the section 2 refers to the stress laid on the two attributes of God, the Ever-living (Hai) and the Self-Subsisting by whom all things subsist (Qayyum) which deals a death-blow to the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ, because his birth and his death, do not entitle him to claim these attributes, “i.e. one who was not, and came into existence by his birth, can never be ‘Hai’ i.e. self-existing or the Ever-living and the Ever-Subsisting one, and the one who suffered death, can never be ‘Qayyoom’ i.e. Self-Subsistent”

The obvious absurdity of the doctrine of the god-head of Jesus has led to subtle speculations, in which, the doctrine is vapourised or etherised by means of subtle distinctions and great deal of metaphysical jargons which it is presumptuous for them to pretend to understand, while they themselves do not claim to understand it. Moreover, there is no agreement in the thoughts of the various theologians of the School which may be read in various books, one of them is ‘The History of the Deity of Christ’ published by the Unitarian Association.

The most popular form of the belief is that which is sought to be vindicated in ‘God’ as ‘Triune’ by Gardiner (C.I.S. Madras) in which God is taught to be a sort of spiritual organism, having the living organism as its component members, which can be called organs only so long as united and inter-related to each other in the whole. And so God is said to be One, but has members, having different functions for each. Christ, it wants to be understood, has a mysterious double nature, only one aspect of’ which will be bestowed on him later in his life, as God or a member of God-head. None can conceive anything reasonable of this or any other of the ‘mysteries’ preached by Christianity. None can understand or form any notion at all of them, but whatever the conception may be, this verse is sufficient to give a ‘death blow’ to it. Besides, this or any such complicated or confusing doctrine of the religion formulated by the Church, is diametrically opposed to the simple and the plain teachings of their Holy Bible, about the absolute Unity of God:

Old Testament:

Deut. 6/4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord,”

Ex. 6/3 “And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, hut the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

Is. 44/6 “Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God”

Jer. 10/10 “But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation”

Isa. 42/8 “I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images”

Isa. 44/8 “Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a god beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any”

There is no God but He! He is the one. The Self-Existing - The Absolute One - The Essential Omnipotent and the All-Knowing One, to disprove whose Essential Existence ail arguments of logic and philosophy go only to end in a muddle of chaos and confusion which ultimately put the philosopher to shame and render him helpless to confess his foolishness to have laboured with the arguments which had been to fool none but himself. Any organism, it will be naturally finite as any other thing in the world of nature. The components of the whole will naturally be inter-dependent to function in a harmonious whole. The question arises, what is the wilful omnipotent factor which keeps the various and the variant components together without allowing them to get disunited to get the harmony and get the desired design duly effected, for without any such causative factor the unity and the harmony among the variant components, can never take effect or be maintained. If there is any Primeal Cause, as there should necessarily be, that cause is God and not the components or their whole which functions subject to the will of the Primeal Cause.

‘Hai’ i.e. Ever-Living, who is knowing and acting freely without any limitations on these functions. An organism cannot be called perfectly living, for whatever it does it is because of the parts which are not in themselves infinite and perfect.

‘Qayyoom’ is intensive of ‘Qiam’, and is used only for the self-subsisted. It means one self-subsistent and by whom others are subsisted. Now saying that God is self-subsistent, means that He is not subject to the Law of Sufficient Reason, else He would need a cause, not to be Self-subsistent. Anything having components with separate functions must be subject to the Law of Sufficient Reason, else it would need a cause and that which needs a cause cannot be Self-subsistent.

Verse 3

‘Taurat’, ‘Injeel’, and the ‘Books’ used here and elsewhere in Qur’an refer to what was revealed to the respective prophets. Hence the present gospels of the Christian church cannot be termed as the ‘Injeel’ revealed to Jesus, to which Jesus himself refers while he commands his disciples, saying, “Go and preach the Gospel”, and while he exhorts his people to believe in the Gospel16. The book called the Bible contains only some extracts from the utterances of Jesus and his experiences in Galilee, Jerusalem, and some other habitations of the Israelites. This book with the anecdotes contained in it, can be valued as only a book of traditions like the books of traditions of the Muslims, ‘Bukhari’ and ‘Muslim’. The question arises as to what happened to the ‘Gospel’ referred to in Mark 1/15 which Jesus commands his disciples to go and recite out to the children of Israel. Where has it gone?

Holding these four gospels as the only authentic ones and the other gospels edited by the other disciples as apocryphal or non-canonical documents, is not based on any historical documents, or any historical fact-finding, but on merely theological considerations, adhered to by the First Council of Venice. Thus, the position of the Holy Qur’an is unique being the one, the only unchanging and uncorrupted record containing nothing but the Word of God in its original purity as revealed to the Holy Prophet, as uttered by him and recorded then and there, duly preserved and handed to generation after generation, down to us, without any hand being able to tamper with it in any sense of the Word whatsoever:

لَا يَأْتِيهِ الْبَاطِلُ مِنْ بَيْنِ يَدَيْهِ وَلَا مِنْ خَلْفِهِ ۖ تَنْزِيلٌ مِنْ حَكِيمٍ حَمِيدٍ

“La yateenihil batil min baina yadaih mala min khalfeh, tanzeelun min Hakeemin al Hameed” (A.P.)

“Falsehood shall not come to it from before it nor from behind it; a revelation from the Wise, the Praised One” (41:42).

‘Kitab’ i.e. Book stands for the Word of God, revealed gradually i.e. the Holy Qur’an17.

‘Bil-Haq’ i.e. with truth, facts, right, and justice, in contrast to the false notions and fabricated dogmas in the other corrupted creeds.

‘Musaddiqan’ - verifying, testifying - confirming the unity of God and the righteousness demanded of man, already preached by the preceding apostles of God.

‘Taurat’ and ‘Injil’ - the ‘Torah’ and ‘Evangel.’ The ‘Taurat’ and ‘Injil’ mentioned in this verse refer to the scriptures given to Moses and Jesus and not the books of the Old and the New Testaments edited by the leaders of the Christian Church, from the corrupted, distorted and the tampered records of the Jewish scripts, and which were further added to and interpreted with selfish motives of catering to the desire and the anxieties of establishing a church of the imaginary Trinity of God. Besides ‘Taurat’, cannot signify the Old Testament because the latter is a collection of the several other books along with the Pentateuch. ‘Torah’ in the Hebrew language signifies the ‘Revealed Will of God.’ The word ‘Torah’ in Hebrew means ‘Light.’

Similarly, ‘Injil’ does not mean the present book, i.e., The New Testament of the Christian Church. The New Testament contains not only some fragments of some stories about Jesus and his teachings but also the stories and the teachings of some leading personalities of the followers of Jesus, whom the Christian Church holds as the apostles. The teachings of Jesus were called the Gospel, i.e., the Good News or the Glad Tidings because it gave the glad tidings or the prophecies about the advent of the Last of the apostles of God (i.e. the Holy Prophet Muhammad), which prophecy Jesus gave exhorting his followers saying:

“And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” Mark 50/15.

“When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?” Math. 21/40.

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” John 14/16.

“When the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” John 14/17.

‘Furqan’ i.e. ‘The Distinction’ - This is another name of the Holy Qur’an referring to its quality of distinguishing the truth from falsehood.

Verse 5

The knowledge of everything in the world, be that manifest or hidden, belongs to none but God. Verse Mark. 13/32 clearly denotes that Jesus was nothing more than a man, a mortal and not God as conceived by the Christian Church. Jesus in this verse clearly says that he does not know what God alone knows: -

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the son, but Father” Mark 13/32.

Verse 6

‘Kaifa Yasha’ i.e. As He likes or as it pleases Him. This indicates the Omnipotence and the absolute power and the absolute freedom of the divine will. God acts in whatever way or manner it pleases Him. He may create an issue in the ordinary or the usual course of the union of male and female matters, or He, if it be His will, create an issue out of a female element alone, as in Parthenogenesis which is common in insects and the bees, etc. The ignorance of this factor in the natural phenomenon working in some special species of creation, makes some semi-educated ones hold such a happening in men, as impossible even when the Almighty and the absolutely independent Author of nature wills it, and thus discredit the working of miracles when wrought on the occasions of proving the absolute potency of the Universal Will, to the arrogant disbelievers. There are freaks of nature abounding everywhere, crying aloud that God is not bound by nature, but nature works at God’s will, though ordinarily the laws of nature work subject to a fixed plane. The disclosures made by the present-day knowledge of the world of nature, inform us that a man becomes a woman and a woman developing the natural features of a man, an Oyster changing its colour18.

When we know it as a matter of an undeniable fact that by a merely acquired intensity of the will power, a hypnotist can exercise manifestly remarkable influence on the physical world how can any sensible and educated one among men, ever doubt about the Omnipotent will of the Almighty God effecting His desired change in the working of the biological functions in the womb of a woman. When we have to unquestionably acknowledge the power endowed in the will of a human mind, how can we reasonably restrict or limit the functioning of the unlimited potencies of the Omnipotent will of the Almighty Author of nature and the Regulator of its laws.

A thorough study of the development of the embryo of every specie from the specific protoplasm of the specie and the particular protoplasm of each individual, will no doubt prove that the development is not the outcome of mere accident. They are very well designed, carefully, and minutely; and the inter relation of the parts of one individual and that of the inter relation of the members of one specie and the inter relation of the species to each other; all as the component parts of the Universe as a harmonious whole, is a sufficient proof of the unity of the Designer, the Creator and the Architect of the whole as well as the parts of the phenomena of existence. And taking into consideration ‘Qayyoomiat’ by the hold of which the whole and the parts of the edifice of the universe stands, the contents of this passage would come into evidence, that He is All in All, and there is none else besides Him. Tolstoy was asked whether he does not see a miracle or the hand of God in the birth of Christ. He answered am observing miracles and the hand of God in the birth of every child’ and this is the case with every aspect, the bent and the turn of nature. Thus HE is the FIRST and the LAST; the APPARENT and the HIDDEN. This passage here can be taken as a foreword to the history of the birth of Christ in the subsequent passages. (A.P.)

Verse 7

This verse loudly sounds a clear warning against any imagination, that everything in the Holy Qur’an cannot be intelligible to everyone - as already said elsewhere in this work, the Holy Qur’an is not a revelation to anyone but the Holy Prophet. Most of its verses being open, clear, plain, and decisive about their meanings, of which there can be no doubt for those with average intelligence. They are called the ‘Muhkamat.’ These are the verses relating to the cardinal doctrines or the articles of faith viz. The Unity of God, the directions relating to the practice of the faith, the law governing the practical life of the faithful. These verses, the meanings of which is fully secured against being changed or altered.

The ‘Mutashabihat’ i.e. the dubious verses - are couched in allegorical or figurative language susceptible to different interpretations, i.e., having meanings other than the literal one, like

يَدُ اللَّهِ فَوْقَ أَيْدِيهِمْ

“The hand of God is on their hands” (48:10).

Verse 11:1 speaks of the Holy Qur’an, as the Book whose verses are clear and decisive, whereas Verse 39:23 refers to the same Holy Book which is confirmable in its various parts. The Holy Qur’an has established the basic principles of faith and its practice, in clear cut words of the ‘Muhkamat’ or the decisive verses, while the higher thoughts of further improvement upon the basic ones could not reasonably have been laid bare for one and all, irrespective of the individual differences among the people of the various levels of understanding, for it would have created perplexities and confusion in the ordinary minds. Hence the higher thoughts fit for the tested minds of higher intellect, were couched in dubious verses and the code of the ‘Huruf al-Muqatta’at’ or the letter-symbols with which this Sura and some other suras are begun with, and in the ‘Mutashabihat’ or the dubious verses.

‘Zaigh’ i.e. disease or perversity, evil or wicked intention.

‘Fitna’ i.e. dissension or to creating difference of opinion to mislead or to create mischief.

The Christians avail of the ‘Mutashabihat’ and the ‘Huruf al-Muqatta’at ’ and fabricate their own interpretations of the dubious meanings and by calculating the numerical value of the various letters in the Huruf al-Muqatta’at and assign divinity to Jesus.

The concluding clause of the verse declares that ‘Wama Ya’luma Taveelahu’, saying, ‘None knows the correct interpretation of them’, leaves no room for any of the ordinary scholars to ever claim to possess the knowledge of these verses, for those said here are the ones ‘rooted in knowledge’ to mean those who have been given the knowledge, by God Himself, and this meaning is given in Verse 29:49. None in the ranks of the Muslims, however learned he may be, could ever be imagined to possess knowledge unless it has been given to him by God.

The Ahmadi Commentator says: ‘And thus reading various passages in the light of each, discover the true significance of ambiguous passages’ (M.A.)

But this is quite opposed to what God has declared in 3:7.

The mention in the verse is of the persons who besides God, are by God Himself endowed with the knowledge or the interpretation of these verses and not about the method by which one can draw the interpretation. The ‘Huruf al-Muqatta’at’ at the beginning of the suras, are clear in their mysterious nature which none by any method whatsoever can ever give an acceptable interpretation. This indicates that for such classes of the passages of the Holy Qur’an, there are some beings specially endowed with the necessary knowledge and interpretation which the others cannot be entrusted to. The use of such passages totally obscure for the ordinary human mind, also indicates the serious nature and the extraordinary or the special value of the knowledge so carefully secured as close secrets and the specially trusted status of those who have been entrusted with them.

Verse 6, perusing the word ‘God’ as in the previous verses as ‘Qayyoom’ to whom nothing in the earth or the heavens is hidden, and Who is the Author of even the minutest part of the Book of Creation, such as the development of the embryo, He says that the same Author is the Author of this revealed Book of Legislation (The Qur’an) and in the same way that the Book of Creation (the Universe) contains different signs, some clear and firm in significance and some ambiguous, the Book of Legislation (the Qur’an) also contains signs of similar nature viz. the human structure in the Book of Nature the significance of every part of the body and the particle of it has been known to the scientist but there still remain some parts the significance of which is not yet known to them viz., the Appendix.

A balanced mind would read the significance of this part in the light of the significance of the known parts and would say, ‘as no part was without some significance of its own, this also must have some significance though I could not yet grasp it.’ And a mischievous or a perverted mind will take the reverse course of throwing the known in the darkness of the unknown saying ‘no reason or any significance is found in this part, hence no reason or any significance to be attached to the whole.’ Similar is the case with the Book of Legislation (the Qur’an), the balanced mind will always follow the passage, the significance of which is firm and clear and interpret the ambiguous passages in the light of the clear ones, in the logical process of going from the known to the unknown, or proceeding from the concrete to the abstract. And those whose heart is not clean would follow the ambiguous passage, interpreting as it suits them. And it is generally the case with the process of judging the doubtful in the light of the undoubtful, and vice versa.

‘Mohkam’ and ‘Mutashabeh’ in the sense of clarity and ambiguity should be taken as relative terms. A passage may be clear from one aspect and ambiguous from the other. A passage may be clear to one and may not be clear to the other. However, the ambiguous verse should always be interpreted in the light of the clear ones, or as explained by the Holy Prophet, or by those whose authority has been established by the Qur’an and the declaration of the Holy Prophet19. Which says that the collection, recitation, and the interpretation of the Qur’an should be done through the divine agency.

The term ‘Mohkam’ and ‘Motashabeh’ has been used as to apply to the Book as a whole and in parts20. Hence all the verses of the Holy Book have been presented as firm and well established, and 39:23 the whole of the Book is presented as ‘Motashabihath’ while here some have been termed ‘Mohkam’ and some as ‘Motashabihat’. The meaning of ‘Mohkam’ and ‘Motashabihat’ here is slightly different from the same term in these two passages. There, the term has been used with regard to the place and the sura, and every passage of the Qur’an has been termed as well established in the sense that the arrangement of the words in the verses and the verses in the suras are done so well and properly, that they all appear as a component whole though in revelation the parts were separately conveyed. This passage shows that Qur’an was already arranged and established before its revelation21, which shows the existence of the Book in the Qur’anic form (i.e. a Collective Book Form).

The Qur’an itself means a ‘Collected Recital’ though revealed in parts or piecemeal, and ‘Motashabihat’ in 39:23 the resemblance, miraculous beauty, eloquence, force, and guidance which applies to the Book as a whole and in parts. But here the term ‘Mohkam’ and ‘Motashabeh’ refer to the meanings, the implications, connotations, and the denotations of the various passages in which they differ in clarity some being self-evident and some ambiguous and complex. In that also the relativity should be borne in mind as has been said. However, as a revealed Book for the guidance of mankind, there should not be a passage in the Qur’an to remain entirely unknown to man as the revelation of such a passage will be purposeless, vain, and futile. Hence the ‘Rasikhoona fil Ilm’ be taken as conjuncted to Allah and the clause ‘Yaqooloona’ be treated as adverbial clause qualifying the state of the process of the knowledge as referred to ‘Rasikhoon.’

This is the interpretation of the ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ and of many other commentators viz. ‘Majma’ol Bayan.’ But having in view that Qur’an implies the hidden significance and meanings latent, fold under fold of which some may remain unknown even to the sublime entities other than the Absolute, as already pointed out in the question of ‘Ilmul Ghaib’. To this aspect of the ‘Motashabihat’ Ali refers in the ‘Nahjul Balaghah’ that those well established in knowledge will believe in the unknown in the light of the known. Hence Ali’s statement cannot be taken as contradictory to what the Fifth Holy Imam Muhammad Ibn Ali Al-Baqir has said.

In short to say that the interpretations, implications, and the folds of the ambiguous passage (the ‘Motashabihat’) are not known to anybody but God, means the futility of such revelations and on the other hand to say that everything in its entirety is known to a finite being as in the sense, manner and the extent, known to the Infinite, would be impossible and absurd. A finite being knows only as much as God has made known to him; whatever may be the extent of his knowledge, it will be limited, capable of further increase or progress. There is always room for having faith in the unknown matter and the folds in the light of what is known. Therefore both the readings are justified.

The word ‘Zaigh’ i.e., the inclination and the bent of mind against what is right, and this is the source of blunder, leading men astray to revolt against the truth. (A.P.)

Evidently, they are matters of very great importance to be disclosed only to the tested higher minds of special or extraordinary intellect with some desired purity of heart and soul, essential to receive and hold the higher aspects of truth and use it profitably to themselves and for others.

Who are they? If the meaning of such obscure passages the ‘Mutashabihat’ and the signal or symbol letters the ‘Huruf al-Muqatta’at’ had to remain only in the knowledge of God and none else to ever know their interpretation there was no conceivable necessity of revealing such verses at all, unless it is acknowledged that the Holy Prophet was endowed with the knowledge or the interpretation. The Holy Prophet must essentially be the first of the “Rasikhona fil ilm’ (i.e. the well-rooted in knowledge). Otherwise, there cannot be any earthly use of an Apostle of God getting a book from God the meaning of some parts of which the Apostle himself did not know. Thus, there can never be any doubt about the Holy Prophet being the custodian of the fullest meaning and the correct interpretation of every letter of the Holy Qur’an. But the question arises as to who are the others along with him, or those who, in his absence should be resorted to, or who can be relied upon as regards the interpretation of such passages and symbols. If we ask the Holy Prophet, his guidance is always readily available. He says:

أَنَا مَدِينَةُ الْعِلْمِ وَعَلَىٌ بَابُهَا

‘Ana Madinatul Ilmi was Aliyun Babuha.’

“I am the City of Knowledge and Ali its Gate” (Hadith).

And before departing from among us, the Holy Prophet further declared about the other ‘Rasikhona fil ilm’ saying: -

“I leave behind me Two very important things: the Book of God (The Holy Qur’an) and my (divinely chosen) descendants, (the Ahl Al-Bayt), should ye be attached to These Two, never, never shall ye get astray after me, These Two (the Holy Book) and the descendants (the Ahl Al-Bayt) shall never be separated from each other, until they meet me at the Spring of Kauthar” (Hadith)

Thus the ‘Rasikhona fil-ilm’ are undoubtedly the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt.

Anas bin Malik relates that he asked the Holy Prophet as to who the ‘Rashikhona fil ilm’ are. The Holy Prophet in reply said: the ‘Rasikhona fil ilm’ are those whose hands have never wrought anything but righteousness, whose tongue uttered not but truth, whose hearts and mind are always on the right, whose stomachs have always been free from every prohibited or forbidden stuff” “All these qualities can be found only in the Holy Prophet and the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ about whose purity and cleanliness God Himself has declared Verse 33:33 and none else.

The Holy Qur’an in Verse 31:13 The greatest iniquity is ‘Shirk’ polytheism, and it has been declared as impurity or uncleanliness. Who can deny the historic fact that while the Holy Qur’an was being revealed, except the Holy Prophet and his vicegerent Ali, everyone had once been a polytheist. All the prominent ones among the ‘Sahabas’ (i.e. the companions of the Holy Prophet) were sunk in polytheism, and the curses of the impurities of the heathenic life were there in them up to their advanced ages. Only a few years before their death they joined the ranks of the Muslims. Ali alone was there besides the Holy Prophet, who could rightly claim equal purity of body and soul with the Holy Prophet and this fact has also been vouched by the Holy Prophet in his saying: - (Ali thy flesh is my flesh, and thy blood is my blood)22.

With the knowledge of the sure inability of the people as a whole to know the meaning of the Holy Qur’an as a whole, the divine mercy guides, every sincere seeker of the truth, to resort to the ‘Ahliz Zikr’ (the people of the Zikr i.e. Holy Qur’an) as those divinely inspired ones of the scholars have been titled 16:43 and 21:7.

Verse 8

This is the prayer of those ‘Raasikhoona fil ilm.’

This is a precautionary prayer against the possible perversion (of the mind and heart, even after receiving the guidance. (A.P.)

1. Self-Living 2:255.

2. Sustainer of all things-or By Whom all things are sustained 2:255.

3. The Qur’an.

4. The Scripture given to Moses.

5. The Scripture given to Jesus.

6. Ar. Furqan i.e. Qur’an - The Distinctive Standard.

7. Qur’an.

8. Refer to: 13:39, 4:162, 29:49, 3:11, 38:11

9. Clear.

10. Mother or Essence.

11. Figurative.

12. Others.

13. This is why the Holy Prophet had said ‘I leave behind the book of God and my Ahl Al-Bayt and if ye be attached to these Two, never will ye get astray and never these Two will be separated from each other - And said ‘I am the City of knowledge and Ali is its Gate’ 2:69.

14. Ar. ‘Wahab’

15. See Note to 2:1

16. Mark. 1/15.

17. See note to 2:2.

18. Vide the issues of the Times of India Illustrated Weekly 1931

19. Vide 6:19, 16:43.

20. See 11:1 and 39:23.

21. See 17:106.

22. For a similar reference to those divine ones endowed with knowledge please refer to the following Verses: 3:18, 4:162, 29:49, 58:11.

Aal ’Imran Section 2 - The Ultimate Triumph of the Unity of God

Prophecy about the Vanishment of the disbelievers, God’s help in the Battle of Badr, Unity the basis of the faith in God, Islam the only True Religion.

Aal ’Imran Verses 9 - 20

رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ جَامِعُ النَّاسِ لِيَوْمٍ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُخْلِفُ الْمِيعَادَ

“Our 1 Lord! Verily Thou art the Gatherer of mankind unto the Day (of Judgment) about which there is no doubt; (Be Merciful to us then); Verily God faileth not His promise” (3:9).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَنْ تُغْنِيَ عَنْهُمْ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُهُمْ مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا ۖ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمْ وَقُودُ النَّارِ

“Verily, those who disbelieve, never shall their wealth 2 nor their progeny avail them aught against (the Wrath of) God; They and They are the fuel of the (Hell) fire” (3:10).

كَدَأْبِ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ وَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا فَأَخَذَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِذُنُوبِهِمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ

“Like 3 unto the wont of the people of Pharaoh and those before them; they belied our signs; so God caught them for their sins; and Verily God is (very) severe in requiting (evil)” (3:11).

قُلْ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَتُغْلَبُونَ وَتُحْشَرُونَ إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ ۚ وَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ

“Say (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) to those who disbelieve “ye shall be vanquished and gathered together unto Hell; (what) a wretched resting place (it shall be)” (3:12).

قَدْ كَانَ لَكُمْ آيَةٌ فِي فِئَتَيْنِ الْتَقَتَا ۖ فِئَةٌ تُقَاتِلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَأُخْرَىٰ كَافِرَةٌ يَرَوْنَهُمْ مِثْلَيْهِمْ رَأْيَ الْعَيْنِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ يُؤَيِّدُ بِنَصْرِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَعِبْرَةً لِأُولِي الْأَبْصَارِ

“Indeed, there was a sign for you in the two hosts (which) met together in the 4 encounter; one host fighting in the path of God and the other disbelieving, (they’) 5 saw them twice their number with their (own) sight 6 of the eye; Verily God aideth with His 7 aid whomsoever He liketh; Indeed in this there is a lesson for those who have (sound) sight 8 ” (3:13).

زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ الشَّهَوَاتِ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ وَالْبَنِينَ وَالْقَنَاطِيرِ الْمُقَنْطَرَةِ مِنَ الذَّهَبِ وَالْفِضَّةِ وَالْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ مَتَاعُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَاللَّهُ عِنْدَهُ حُسْنُ الْمَآبِ

“(It has been) made to seem attractively fair unto men, the love of the lusts for women and sons and the hoarded treasures of gold and silver and well-bred horses 9 and cattle and tilth 10 ; this is the provision of the life of this world, while God! Verily with Him is the best destination” (3:14).

قُلْ أَؤُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِخَيْرٍ مِنْ ذَٰلِكُمْ ۚ لِلَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا وَأَزْوَاجٌ مُطَهَّرَةٌ وَرِضْوَانٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ

“Say (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) “Shall I tell you of what is better than these?; for those who take shelter 11 in God are gardens with their Lord, beneath which flow rivers, to abide in them and mates pure, and God’s pleasure; and verily God is well aware of the servants” (3:15).

الَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا إِنَّنَا آمَنَّا فَاغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ

“Those who pray saying “O’ Our Lord! Indeed, we believe, so forgive us our sins and save us from the torment of the (Hell) fire” (3:16).

الصَّابِرِينَ وَالصَّادِقِينَ وَالْقَانِتِينَ وَالْمُنْفِقِينَ وَالْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ بِالْأَسْحَارِ

“The patient, and the truthful, and the devout (ones), and those who spend (in the way of God) and those who seek forgiveness e’re 12 dawn” (3:17).

شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَأُولُو الْعِلْمِ قَائِمًا بِالْقِسْطِ ۚ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

“God 13 (Himself) witnesseth that there is no god but HE, and (so do) the angels and those possessed of knowledge, 14 standing firm for justice 15 ; (there is) no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise” (3:18).

إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ الْإِسْلَامُ ۗ وَمَا اخْتَلَفَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ إِلَّا مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْعِلْمُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ ۗ وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ

“Verily the religion with God is ISLAM 16 (Submission to God’s will), and those whom the Book had been given 17 did not differ but after the knowledge (of the Truth) had come unto them, out of envy among themselves; and whosoever disbelieveth in the signs 18 of God, then, verily, God is quick in reckoning” (3:19).

فَإِنْ حَاجُّوكَ فَقُلْ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّهِ وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِ ۗ وَقُلْ لِلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ وَالْأُمِّيِّينَ أَأَسْلَمْتُمْ ۚ فَإِنْ أَسْلَمُوا فَقَدِ اهْتَدَوْا ۖ وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ الْبَلَاغُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ

“But if they dispute with thee (O’ Our apostle Muhammad!) then say, “I have submitted myself (wholly) to God and (so) doeth everyone who followeth me and say 19 to those who have been given the Book and the unlettered (ones’) 20 “have ye (too) submitted;”? If they submit (themselves to God) then indeed they are rightly guided, and if they turn away, then upon thee is only the delivery (of the message) 21 ‘, and verily, God is well-aware of the servants” (3:20).

Commentary

Verse 9

The prayer in this verse and in the preceding one, refers to the ideal or the life-object of those ‘Raasikhoona fil ilm.’ They pray for their welfare in the life hereafter and on the Day of Judgment This prayer itself speaks loudly that the object of the lives of those ‘Raasikhoona fil ilm’ is nothing connected with their welfare in this life which, they know it for certain, is nothing but a passing show.

Verse 10

This verse along with the two others immediately succeeding, is a clear prophecy of the vanquishment of the enemies of the Holy Prophet. Though the ‘Quraish’ had suffered a crushing defeat at ‘Badr’ they could yet muster heavy forces from their allies around them and gather tremendous strength against the poor and practically unarmed Muslim group at Madina. The number of the Muslims was very small, and they were surrounded by their enemies from all around them. The defeated enemy was busy gathering strength and had determined and sworn to take revenge.

The heathen world around Mecca was ever ready to give the maximum possible help to the ‘Quraish’ in their attempt to put an end to the new religion of monotheism (i.e. Islam) which aimed at stopping idolatry, and all other polytheistic beliefs and practices, and the heathenic life of ignorance of the truth about God and godliness. It is quite evident that nothing but inspiration from the Almighty Lord could have emboldened the Holy Prophet to prophesy the victory of the ill-armed, unequipped very few, over the strongest and the fully equipped battalions of the well-prepared enemy with their strong allies. The Muslims were tried with such a hopeless and dangerous state of siege that they were warned not to part with their armour even at the time of prayer22.

Verse 11

‘Daab’ is generally interpreted as ‘manner’ or ‘wont’ but here it more appropriately signifies ‘striving hard’ or ‘labouring’ or ‘endeavouring.’ The Quraishites were feverishly busy day and night, in preparing themselves for a decisive onslaught. To be sure of their attack this time, at least being fully successful in taking their desired revenge upon the Holy Prophet and the poor Muslims, they were busy enlisting the Jewish and the Christian tribes around them instigating them to attack the Muslims at Madina from their respective sides. Abu Sufiyan (the father of Mu’awiyah) and the grandfather of Yazeed, was busy intriguing with the other tribes to take up arms against the Holy Prophet and the Muslims.

Verse 12

The Jews of ‘Bani Qaniqaa’ who lived in the suburbs of Madina got greatly alarmed by the crushing and the decisive victory the Muslims won at Badr and became active to do everything possible to prevent the growing power of the Muslims. They inflamed the fire already burning in the hearts of Quraish to a speedy revenge. Kaab Ibn Ashraf went to Mecca with a delegation to instigate the Quraish against the Muslims, stimulating the feelings of their tribal honour and their grief for their chiefs killed in the battle of Badr. From Mecca went Abu-Sufiyan to Madina and staying with ‘Salam Ibn-Mishkan’, entered into pledges of mutual help, and finalised the plans for attacking the Muslims from all around, with simultaneous attack from within Madina.

Such of the infidels who had joined the ranks of the Muslims, not by conviction but with selfish motives of availing the privileges allowed to the converts by the fast-growing power of the Muslims at Madina, were the hypocrites who by themselves were a powerful party among the converts. These hypocrites though in the Muslim ranks, always awaited for an opportunity and were ever ready to avail of every opportunity to inflict every possible hurt, harm or loss to the Holy Prophet, and his faithful adherents to weaken their fast-growing strength and power. These hypocrites were in intimate connection with the Jews, and they readily joined the intrigue. The first step planned was to create hostilities between the great tribes the ‘Aus’ and the ‘Khazraj’ of the Ansars. This was easy because these two tribes had always been against each other and only their recent conversion to Islam had brought them together. The Holy Prophet coming to know of the matter, immediately reconciliated the two factions. Verse 148 is said to have been revealed on this occasion.

Under the mutual instigation and according to intrigued plan between them and the Meccans, the Jews in the suburbs of Madina began troubling the unarmed Muslims, both men and women. Once when a Muslim woman was at a Jew’s shop, a Jew quickly cut off her garment in such a way that when the poor woman stood up, she was quite naked, at which the other Jews around ridiculed her, laughing at her and clapping their hands making fun of the helpless woman. The Holy Prophet appeared on the scene and warned the Jews in the words of this verse admonishing the Jews to beware, lest the fate that overtook the heathens at ‘Badr’ should fall on them too. The Jews got furious and threatened to fight the Holy Prophet to prove their strength and power, and they returned the treaty which the Holy Prophet had entered into, with them.

The Holy Prophet quietly returned to Madina and ordered the siege of the forts of these Jewish tribes who were bent upon starting bloodshed and when besieged, none of their sworn allies could go to their rescue, neither the heathens of Mecca nor their other Jewish tribes ‘Bani Nazeer’ and ‘Bani Quraiza’ who were in their immediate neighbourhood, nor the hypocrites among the Muslim converts. Thus, the mischief was arrested in its own place. But Abdullah Ibn Obay the ringleader of the hypocrites in Madina made repeated attempts to intercede on behalf of the besieged enemy. Ultimately the Holy Prophet granted the raising of the siege on condition that the mischievous tribes of the Jews should leave the place and migrate to some distant place taking away all their belongings along with them.

Such events loudly speak of the special care and precaution the Holy Prophet had to take at every step, to avoid and stop mischief and bloodshed before any aggression or aggressive attitude on the part of the enemies is enacted.

As regards the Battle of ‘Badr’ no intelligent reader can fail to find out from the authentic historic records like Tabari etc. as to who all stood by the Holy Prophet on the most trying calamitous day of that battle which was facing the question of life and death of the Holy Prophet his Mission and the Muslims, all together, for ever, and who were they who fought for the truth, and who sat quite safe under a shelter refusing to enter the field, and who were the ones on whose hands was given the promised victory for the Holy Prophet and Islam, and how those who quietly kept themselves away from fighting the enemy, later, after the departure of the Holy Prophet, manoeuvred as the faithful companions of the Holy Prophet, to rule over the destinies of the people.

Verse 13

In the Battle of ‘Badr’ the Muslims numbered only 313 whereas the heathens were 1000 strong (i.e. over three times the Muslims). But by the Will of God, Muslims were made to see the enemy only as twice their number. The Muslims had been told that they will be able to overcome even if the enemy be twice themselves23.

Verse 14

The words used in this verse are to be carefully noted, and the verse as a whole to be studied and understood with the meaning of the words and their construction. Mark the words ‘love of desires’ i.e. the mad passion to own things for the sake of owning them. Things necessary for life must be owned, the love to own such good things for use in the life, is not referred to here, for it is lawful and essential for man. The aspect referred to here, is the mad attachment or the passion for things and enjoyment not to meet any necessity but for the sake of owning the things, or for mere enjoyment of the ownership or the realisation of the object. Asceticism is reprobated in Islam (i.e. hating or discarding everything in the world, necessary and the unnecessary for life).

Man may own the good things, but he must not be madly attached to them, to make parting with them, when necessary, a difficulty for him. Such attachment must be cut off to the very root. The test of a true believer in God, lies in owning the good things through legal means and at the same time, himself being only a trustee ready to dispense with them, as willed by God. What is demanded in Islam is not the total annihilation of all the emotions in man, but keeping or maintaining the passions duly subjugated to the higher aims of the moral and the spiritual progress of the individual in this world, so that the desires may be readily sacrificed when needed for higher objects, opposed to selfish ends.

If the problem is viewed and studied properly, it will be found that it is more difficult to control the passions than to annihilate them altogether. One has to own the good things necessary for his life in this world, but the individual should be free of unnecessary attachment to any of his possessions, to be able to part with them immediately as it may be necessary for the discharge of the duties prescribed by the Lord, for the welfare of the individual in the life hereafter:

لَنْ تَنَالُوا الْبِرَّ حَتَّىٰ تُنْفِقُوا مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ ۚ وَمَا تُنْفِقُوا مِنْ شَيْءٍ

“By no means shall ye attain to righteousness until ye spend (benevolently) out of what ye love” (3:92).

The best example of love of the good things in life, viz., property, wife, children, relatives, friends, honour, respect, and integrity, and at the same time, complete detachment from them to effect immediate separation from all these things, when necessary, can be found only in Karbala. Here Husayn the third Holy Imam owned the best things in the world, but readily sacrificed his all in the way of God. Total discordance or a total annihilation of the passions altogether, and resorting to any kind of monastic or ascetic life is nothing short of running away from the test of the human life on earth. Man has been endowed with life to be tested as God wills it. God says:

الَّذِي خَلَقَ الْمَوْتَ وَالْحَيَاةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا

“He hath created life and death to prove which one of you is the best in righteousness” (67:2).

This same argument holds good with reference to the owning of wealth and having issues, referred to in this verse.

Refers to the constant conflict between the animal tendency in man towards his timely sexual pleasures and the immediate enjoyment of the temporal life with the everlasting intellectual and spiritual pleasures in store for man. (A.P.)

Verse 15

The life after death is only a continuation of the present life, heading towards the state of realisation and spiritual perfection which, is in store for every human soul but only for those sincerely desirous and have duly endeavoured for it. The march of life in the spiritual realm after death is only of upward trend, without any liability of going down if one does not go up, a stationary condition is also possible. To qualify for the bliss in the life after death, the essential condition is maintaining the soul in its original purity away from love of desires for things and enjoyments forbidden by the Lord (i.e. guarding against the evil of transgressing the limits of the divinely prescribed law called the ‘Shariat’). This state of being self-guarded is called Piety and it qualifies the individual for bliss in degrees corresponding to the intensity of piety practised in this life.

The practice of piety in this life is nothing but training the soul for the upward march heading towards perfection in the life hereafter.

The blissful life in the gardens, with rivers and streams, in the company of mates, pure and fair, promised in this verse is only the minimum recompense for the piety and righteousness practised in the present life, but God’s pleasure mentioned in this verse shall be the ultimate goal or the final destination of the upward journey of the human soul which is only a continued course of the spiritual perfection.

Verse 16

The prayer is nothing but a preparation for the life hereafter. No radical change is possible in the spirituality of the individual, unless one endeavours hard for it and feels remorse for his failure in maintaining the original attachment to those who have earned God’s pleasure and thus become one of the beloved or the blessed ones of God.

Verse 17

This verse gives the qualities that entitle one to the grace of God, and gives the clue to the special potency and effectiveness of prayer in the early hours of the dawn.

Verse 18

God Himself witnessing to His Own Unity, is quite logical and meaningful, for unless God Himself, out of His Infinite Mercy, declares to us about His Own Existence, how can any of His creation by itself ever know about the truth about Him.

All that we can say is, that God, there can be One and only One God and never more than One.

‘Qaiman-bil-qist’ standing or established firmly for justice and maintaining it. In the first place, any unjust being or any one with the least injustice or iniquity in him, can never be God, at all, for if independent arbitrariness should be the essential feature of the ultimate causative and the controlling factor of the universe, there could not be even the bare validity in any law if it lacks in the degree to satisfy reasoning and equity. God could not be a necessary or essential existence - His existence would not have the capacity or the properties of proving the existence by reason. He could be a contingent existence that might or might not exist. Absolute justice means strict conformity of the acts to the nativity of the active factor. So, the absolute justice of God, is by itself one of the aspects of the infinite mercy which is the ruling principle of the Kingdom of God and the objective factor essentially existing in every action of His. God has Himself of His own infinite mercy and His own independent will, made mercy incumbent upon His own Omnipotent Self24.

Here it is necessary to make it clear that definite belief in God being All-Just, and injustice or iniquity of every other being besides Him, is one of the five cardinal doctrines of the Original Islamic Faith (now called Shi’ism) just for the sake of distinguishing it from the other schools of thought which also term themselves as Islam). The five cardinal doctrines of the Original Islam (Shi’ism) are: -

‘Tawhid’ - Faith in The Unity of God.

‘Adl’ - God being All-Just.

‘Risalat’ - The Apostleship, i.e., the 1,24,000 prophets were all infallible, true, and holy (the number given might be for the huge innumerable number, for all the names or the number are not mentioned in the Holy Qur’an).

‘Imamat’ - Divine Guidance - After the conclusion or the termination of the Apostleship with the Last of God’s Apostles, Muhammad, the divine guidance to the truth, continued in the serial of the Twelve Holy Imams.

‘Qiamat’ - The Day of Final Judgment.

The word ‘Shahadat’, here meaning bearing witness, has been confined to God, the angels and those who possess knowledge, though in many other verses it is said that everything and every being in the heavens and the earth praises God and bears witness to His Unity. If ‘Shahadat’ is taken to mean a particular form and the state of knowledge, i.e., the perceptual realisation, then the restriction would be justified as the knowledge of His Unity, common to every one of us, is of the conceptual nature, in other words ‘‘Ilm al-Shuhoodi’, i.e., the state of knowledge, when the object is known to the conscious-self immediately, and the ‘‘Ilm al-Husooli’, i.e., the state of knowledge, when the object gets known to the conscious-self through the medium of the concept.

The Unity of God is known to Himself direct, as He is the Known, the Knowing and the Knower as one and the same. The same is the knowledge of those who have attained the state of realisation by complete mental absorption in the absolute. Whoever reaches this stage of bearing witness to the unity of God, would also naturally be a witness over His creation, and these are the ones termed in the Qur’an as ‘Shuhada’, i.e., the witness of whom the Last Prophet Muhammad has been called to be the witness over the witnesses25.

‘Qaiman bil Qist’, meaning standing firm for justice and maintaining it. Some commentators thought this as the adverbial clause qualifying the state of those endowed with knowledge ‘Olul-ilm’ but in that case grammatically it ought to have been in plural, hence the rest of the commentators assert the phrase to qualify the state of the divine unity. Thus it may be taken as stressing the interrelation between the unity of His Essence and His attribute, Justice.

Justice is His most comprehensive attribute qualifying His action and implies all the divine attributes and Excellence.

The unity of His Essence is the source responsible for all the attributes manifesting in His Justice. The Holy Prophet refers to the importance of this attribute of justice as the sole pillar on which stand the edifice of the universe as a whole.

‘Bil adl qamatis samawaat wal Ardh’, i.e., On justice stand the heavens and the earth. And none can realise Him and His Unity unless he stands firm for justice and maintains it. Where justice is, there will be unity and wherever unity is, there will be justice. This is why Islam reduces all excellence to justice and all vices to injustice26. Having in view the importance of justice as the manifestation of His Unity in action as well as in human action, the justification of counting justice as the second article of faith next only to the divine unity, is obvious here as the Qur’an has referred to the ‘Aayaate Mohkamat’ (i.e., the decisive verses) as the Essence of the Book in the light of which all other verses of ambiguous nature should be read and interpreted. It may be asserted here that unity is the essence of justice and justice is the essence of all His actions which means that all the verses in His Book of Nature or that of Legislation should be interpreted to be in utter harmony with His unity and justice. Thus, Qur’an here establishes the logical method to be followed when one, in search of truth, proceeding from the known to the unknown, and along with this laid down the first proposition to be taken as an indispensable factor on which religion is based, i.e., Unity and Justice of the Absolute by Whom the whole universe stands. Thus, Qur’an gives in Verse 6 the process and in this verse - the matter for a believer to proceed with. (A.P.)

These doctrines of faith are called ‘Usoole-Din’ - i.e., the roots of the faith. For details refer to the introduction.

Faith in God’s being All-just is essential, for any position contrary to this will infer in God’s being unwise or subject to some unfair motives. And if any act of God be other than just and right, there can be no limit to the wrongs, harms and the disharmony that will be perpetually getting effected and the Universe will not work in perfect harmony as it goes on now, and there will be nothing but chaos and confusion instead.

Verse 19

‘Al-Islam’ literally means surrender or submission. As the name of the religion, Islam, means - surrender or the submission of the self of the adherent to the will of the Lord. The act of submission to God is referred to in Verse 2:112 and Verse 31:22. Qur’an discloses the fact that the religion of submission to God was preached by one and all of the apostles of God - in whatever part of the world they would have appeared and in whatever language the truth had been preached. The religion preached was essentially the submission to the divine will which act in Arabic, is called ‘Islam’. It is also the natural religion of every human being as mentioned in Verse:

فِطْرَتَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا

“The nature made by God in which He hath made man” (30:30).

This is in perfect agreement with the saying of the Holy Prophet:

“Every child is born in the model of nature (Islam): it is his parents that make him a few or a Christian” (Hadith).

It was Islam alone and nothing but Islam in its essentials that was taught by every apostle of God from the earliest times. The original teachings were later on corrupted by the mistakes, misunderstandings, unwarranted bias, and the unwholesome hatred on the part of the adherents, inflamed by the communal factions and sectarian hatred between the camps opposite to each other.

‘Ayaat’ literally means signs - and in a general application of the meaning every apostle and every Imam was one of the greatest signs of God through whom God was more plainly and effectively proved and known. Thus, denial of the ‘ayaats’ or the sign includes the denial of the Holy Apostles as well as the Holy Imams.

In view the above note the justification of presenting Islam as the sole or the only religion of God and that the differences among the various religions and their sects are due only to the tendency of revolt against the truth after it is duly known. (A.P.)

Verse 20

Submission to reason is tantamount to submitting one’s self to God, for it is in reason God reveals His will. If people only get agreeable to reason in preference to their personal bias, pride and prejudice, there will be no difficulty at all in bringing the members of the human family together in one brotherhood and the life on earth will only then be really enjoyable.

Here Qur’an shows the line of argument to be adopted against the people of the Book who are required to quote the expressive divine verdict in any argument and not any opinion of any created being or beings. (A.P.)

1. This is the continuation of the prayer of the believers Refer to Verse . 8.

2. This is a clear warning to the puffed ones with wealth against their irreligiousness.

3. A warning to those who depend on their wealth and forget God.

4. The Battle of Badr.

5. The believers saw the dis-believers as only double in number.

6. Refer to Verses. 8:44, 8:66.

7. As Moses was aided by Aaron the Holy Prophet was aided with Ali who displayed the most, his faith in God on all occasions of the fight in the way of the Lord and remained steadfast, even when the Companions deseited the Holy Prophet and had fled away.

8. The Conscience intact.

9. Beautiful and Luxurious Conveyances like the costly cars of the modern days.

10. The Zamindaries and the landed properties.

11. The pious.

12. Before.

13. Refer to: 57:25, 3:6, 4:162 5:8 15:27 29:49. Refer to Verses 2:112; 3:84; 42:14.

14. See note to Verse 6 for ‘Rasikhoona fil ilm’.

15. Not inclined to any extreme.

16. Total Submission to God’s will.

17. Reference is to those who after believing in the Book of God and then differed from it - applicable to those who differed after embracing Islam. Refer to Verses 85 and 86.

18. Including the apostles and the Holy Imams.

19. Ask.

20. Applicable to all those who follow not any heavenly scripture.

21. Islam.

22. Vide 4:102.

23. Vide 8:44 and 8:66.

24. Vide Verse 6:12.

25. See: 4:41, 16:84, 16:89. (A.P.)

26. Vide: 5:5, 4:135 and 57:25.

Aal ’Imran Section 3 - Chastisement For Those Who Slay The Apostles

Those who slay the apostles of God and those who enjoin justice (the successors to the apostles i.e., the Holy Imams) shall be punished and their deeds shall become null on the Day of Judgment, To God alone belongs the kingdom and He alone bestows the kingdom upon whomsoever He wills and takes it away from whomsoever He wills.

Aal ’Imran Verses 21 - 30

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَيَقْتُلُونَ الَّذِينَ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْقِسْطِ مِنَ النَّاسِ فَبَشِّرْهُمْ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

“Verily 1 to those who deny the signs of God, and unjustly slay the apostles, and slay 2 those among men who enjoin justice, give tidings to them of a painful chastisement” (3:21).

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ نَاصِرِينَ

“These are they whose works come to naught in this world and in the next; and for them there shall not be any helper” (3:22).

أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا نَصِيبًا مِنَ الْكِتَابِ يُدْعَوْنَ إِلَىٰ كِتَابِ اللَّهِ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَهُمْ ثُمَّ يَتَوَلَّىٰ فَرِيقٌ مِنْهُمْ وَهُمْ مُعْرِضُونَ

“Hast thou not (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) 3 seen those (the Jews) who have been given a portion 4 of the Book, when they are summoned unto the Book of God that it may judge between them, then a faction of them turn back while they are those who withdraw 5 ” (3:23).

ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا لَنْ تَمَسَّنَا النَّارُ إِلَّا أَيَّامًا مَعْدُودَاتٍ ۖ وَغَرَّهُمْ فِي دِينِهِمْ مَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ

“This, because they say “The (Hell) fire shall by no means touch us but for (some) numbered 6 days, and deceiveth them in the matter of their religion what they have forged 7 “ (3:24).

فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جَمَعْنَاهُمْ لِيَوْمٍ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ وَوُفِّيَتْ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ

“How then (will it be with them) when We shall gather them together for the Day (of Judgment) about which there is no doubt; and every soul shall be paid in full 8 that which it hath earned, and they shall not be wronged?” (3:25).

قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتَنْزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَنْ تَشَاءُ ۖ بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ ۖ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“Say (O’ Apostle Muhammad!) “O’ God! Master of the Kingdom, Thou givest the kingdom 9 unto whomsoever Thou likest and takest away the kingdom from whomsoever Thou likest! Thou exaltest whomsoever Thou likest and abasest whomsoever Thou likest; in Thine hands is all good; verily Thou art over all things Mighty” (3:26).

تُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ ۖ وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَيَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الْمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَيِّ ۖ وَتَرْزُقُ مَنْ تَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

“Thou causest the night to pass into the day, and Thou causest the day to pass into the night, Thou bringest forth the living out of the dead, and Thou bringest forth the dead out of the living, and Thou givest sustenance to whomsoever Thou likest, without measure” (3:27).

لَا يَتَّخِذِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۖ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَيْسَ مِنَ اللَّهِ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلَّا أَنْ تَتَّقُوا مِنْهُمْ تُقَاةً ۗ وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ ۗ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ الْمَصِيرُ

“Let 10 not the believers take the disbelievers as their friends 11 rather than the believers, whoso shall do then nothing 12 of God is his, except (when) ye (have to) guard yourselves against (them) for fear from them 13 ; but cautioneth 14 you of Himself; for unto God is the end of your (life) journey” (3:28).

قُلْ إِنْ تُخْفُوا مَا فِي صُدُورِكُمْ أَوْ تُبْدُوهُ يَعْلَمْهُ اللَّهُ ۗ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“Say (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) whether ye conceal what is in your hearts or manifest it, God knoweth it; and knoweth He all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth; and verily God hath power over all things” (3:29).

يَوْمَ تَجِدُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مُحْضَرًا وَمَا عَمِلَتْ مِنْ سُوءٍ تَوَدُّ لَوْ أَنَّ بَيْنَهَا وَبَيْنَهُ أَمَدًا بَعِيدًا ۗ وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ رَءُوفٌ بِالْعِبَادِ

“(Remember) 15 the 16 Day (of Judgment) when every soul shall find present whatever it hath wrought of good; and whatever it hath wrought of evil; it will wish that wide were the interval 17 between it 18 , and himself; But God cautioneth 19 you of Himself; and God is affectionate to His (faithful) servants” (3:30).

Commentary

Verse 21

Reference to the Jews who were notorious for slaying apostles of God and the righteous ones20 which they themselves admit21. The reference here seems to point out the Jewish plans to kill the Holy Prophet.

“And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in. your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city22.

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and altar23.

This verse puts under the same category three criminal classes of the rebels:

‘Kafir’ the disbelievers in the signs of God.

The murderers of the apostles of God.

The murderers of the advocates of Justice. (A.P.)

Verse 22

It is a prophetic declaration consisting also of admonition, meaning all their plans in this world will be frustrated and all their good deeds, if there be any, will be of no avail in the life after death and on the Day of Requital.

Good deeds of righteousness of anyone, be he a believer or an unbeliever, will never go without the due recompense, both in the present life and in the hereafter. The reward may be possible in case of unbelief or disbelief owing to ignorance or indolence. But those who deliberately hated and wantonly killed the Holy Apostles of God and the other godly beings like the Holy Imams who were no less in their holiness than the Apostles, can never hope for any value to be assessed for any of their goodness in any matter whatsoever. This factor should be noted in regard to the fate of the assassins of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt.

These are such unpardonable heinous crimes which reduce even the good deeds of the criminals, if there be any, to naught. These crimes are so inter-related that each of them leads to the other to which Hazrat

Zainab the daughter of Ali referred to in her courageous sermon in the court of Yazid after the martyrdom of her brother, the Holy Imam Husayn, when she quoted the verse 30:10 in condemning Yazid’s denial of the revelation and the prophethood, saying: -

‘Played only a Hashimite with the kingdom’

Otherwise, neither was anything revealed

Nor did any angel descend. (A.P.)

Verse 23

A portion of the Book, God’s revelation of His will regarding disciplining the human soul to qualify it for higher levels of spirituality, through all the ages, is “The Book” The Law of Moses and the Evangel of Jesus were only portions of the revelation, i.e., a partial exposure of the glory of the truth, the whole or the complete or the perfect form of which was fulfilled in the Holy Qur’an which is par excellence the ‘Book of God’. This fact is borne out by the declaration by the Holy Apostle Jesus24.

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

“How be it when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come” John 16/12 and 13.

It is reported that in a dispute about the punishment for adultery in the early state of the revelation of the Holy Qur’an, a wealthy married man and a woman were caught committing the act. The Jewish priests were not inclined to punish them with stoning to death as was prescribed in the Law of Moses. They thought to somehow avoid punishing according to Law, and wanted to consult the Holy Prophet, thinking him to be unlearned and uninformed of their scripture. The Holy Prophet gave the decree as per the Law of Moses. The Jews said that it was not in the Law. The Holy Prophet called for their scripture and in spite of it being corrupted and tampered by the Jews, the punishment as decreed by the Holy Prophet was found in it. In the extant version of the Law of Moses (Leviticus 20/10-21):

“And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death”.

“And the man that Heth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them”.

“And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them”

“If a man also lie with mankind, as he Heth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them”.

“And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they: that there be no wickedness among you”.

“And if a man He with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast”.

“And if a woman approach unto any beast, and He down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them”.

“And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity”.

“And if a man shall He with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath’ discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people”.

“And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, nor of thy father’s sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity”.

“And if a man shall He with his uncle’s wife, he hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness: they shall bear their sin: they shall die childless”

“And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless” O.T. Lev. 20/10-21.

In John 8/5 it is clearly said that the law of Moses prescribes stoning the adulterer man or woman.

They say unto him Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

Now Moses in the Law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? John 8/5.

But the Bible of the Church has some peculiar statement in Verse 7 of the same chapter 8 of John saying: -

They say unto him. Master this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

“This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not”

“So, when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” John 8/7.

This is obviously an amendment added to the story by some unauthorised hand otherwise Jesus could never have said it for it is paradoxical and diametrically opposed to what Jesus himself says in 5/17, 18 of Math:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

“For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” Math.

and in 20/22 of Lev:

“Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spew you not out”

In the above verse Moses speaks of the definite command about the fulfilment of statutes or the laws enforced by him. How could Jesus who had come to fulfil the law, break it.

It is to be noted that the law punishing adultery has been explained in Leviticus so openly that today it sounds very crude but the people of the age of Moses needed such explicit explanations. But note the decent and the polished language used by the Holy Qur’an 24:2, laying a universal law in the most comprehensive way to punish the crime of adultery.

But John 8/5 gives stoning to death as the correct punishment. Thus, even the corrupt forms of the Jewish scripture sometimes give out the truth declared in the Holy Qur’an. In Safi, is related that once the Holy Prophet entered a school of the Jews. The Jews asked him as to what religion he followed to which he replied that he followed the religion of Abraham. The Jews said that Abraham was a Jew. The Holy Prophet invited them to refer to even the distorted records of their own scripture, the Law, but they did not agree, for even in the corrupted form of their holy scriptures, were available the information about the faith of Abraham and the prophecies about the advent of the Holy Prophet.

Verse 24

In continuation of the same line of argument, the verse condemns the people of the Book who seek judicial favour other than what is established by the scripture. The mental background for this rebellious tendency of the people of the Book, is the fanciful belief that the ultimate salvation rests in the mere declaration of the faith, for misdeeds and wrong actions, if there be any punishment, it would be only temporary.

This concocted fanciful vanity will disappear with reference to what is said in the preceding verse of the interrelation of the action and the notion. (A.P.)

Verse 25

Everyone, be he a believer or disbeliever, shall be recompensed for whatever one has wrought in the present life25. This proves that a believer shall not be convicted to hell for all times for the reward for his true faith in God, he can never have in the hell or before it. Hence it is quite reasonable that a believer might be committed to hell for his sins but must be relieved from it to receive also the reward for his faith; for once one is rewarded, it will not be becoming to convict him afterwards to suffer any punishment. Punishment may go before a reward, and not a reward before the punishment.

Verse 26

As already pointed out from the beginning of this sura, the Quranic aim is to make man in his thinking, alive to the fact that God is the sole and the ultimate authority in both the realms, of creation as well as legislation. Hence Islam means absolute submission to His will, and can be the only religion acceptable to Him, and the only means of salvation for man. Everything is the outcome of His creation and is held by Him as subservient to Him. The whole idea is summed up here, and man is enjoined to be mindful and to confess praying to Him in the words of this verse, and it has been recommended by the Holy Prophet and the Holy Imams, the repetition of this formula on every occasion of distress.

The only point to be noted here is that the kingdom and the glory mentioned here should be taken as to mean both de facto and de jure. God’s kingdom from the legal and the de jure point of view may be with some, and from the de facto point of view with the others. It is not necessary if the temporal kingdom and the worldly glory is with one, he should from the legal and the de jure point of view also to be entitled to it, and be the deserving one, as some of the fatalist schools of the theologians have inclined towards this.

So far, the history records the first person who expressed this view of the de facto and the de jure being one and the same, was Yazeed Ibn Mu’awiyah who in his argument with Ali Ibn Al-Husayn when along with the ladies brought to his court after the martyrdom of Husayn, quoted this passage in support of his right to the throne. In reply to the Holy Lady Zainab, the daughter of Ali, refuted the argument quoting the verse of the Holy Qur’an. The temporary triumph and glory given to any tyrant, does not mean also that he legally deserved it and it is only a trial otherwise the divine kingdom and glory is always with those chosen ones who surpass all, in their submission to God26.

The following passage from the prayer of the fourth Holy Imam Ali Ibn Al-Husayn regarding the right of leading the Friday Prayers supports this argument.

O’ My Lord this status of occupying the pulpit belongs to Thy Vicegerents, the chosen ones. This was the place of Thine trusted ones. This was the lofty and the exalted position Thou hast assigned to them which has been usurped by the others. And Thou hast destined this for the reason known only to Thee. Thou hast given them (the usurpers) the chance to the extent that Thy chosen ones, Thy Vicegerents, seem to be defeated and overpowered and deprived, and their right they (Thy chosen ones) see Thy commandments altered, Thy Book thrown away. Thy ordinances have been distorted and misused against the spirit of Thy purpose and the tradition of Thy Apostle (Muhammad) forsaken” Besides, the view that whoever possessed the power has the right to rule, or in other words might is right, then usurpation will have no meaning at all. (A.P.)

Verse 27

These verses aim at preparing the hearts of the Muslims, the sincere believers in God’s Omnipotence and His most supreme authority, by inculcating in them the conviction that God and God alone can do and undo things, conceivable and inconceivable by any human mind, and thus create complete resignation to His independent will, for man to hope for everything easy or difficult, only from God and from none else. It is then the grace of God abounds, and the All-Merciful Providence does its work.

Ibn Abbas says that this verse contains the secret greatest name of God, i.e., ‘Isme-Aazam.’ If any one were to pray to God reciting these verses with full concentration in the spirit of the expression of this verse, his prayer is sure to be granted. There is to be a recognition of God’s absolute sovereignty and His exclusive right to bestow on whosoever He likes, irrespective of any claim or desert for the same on the part of one so favoured, so that there should be no murmur or grudge on that account. None has any right or any claim of any kind whatsoever upon God. All that one can do is to pray to God for the fulfilment of his desires with full conviction that He and He alone and none else can grant it. Nothing is impossible for Him.

Verse 28

Muslims holding belief in the one true God, as diametrically opposed to the polytheistic and the other beliefs in the false fanciful deities, are forbidden to look to the disbelievers as their friends or guardians, to guard their interest or for help of any kind. This ordinance does not forbid any dealing with the disbelievers in the course of ordinary business, in the day-to-day life, or living in harmony with them in the social structure of citizenship. What is meant here is love which means extraordinary attachment beyond the necessity of the ordinary life.

‘Aulia’ is the plural of ‘Wali’ meaning a friend or a guardian or one who holds a command or be in charge of others’ affairs. It indicates nearness in respect of places, relationship, religion, friendship, help and belief, faith etc. The meaning of the word comprehends all relationship of nearness in every respect and of every kind, i.e., the intimacy or relationship in which one’s interest is entrusted to the other.

It is a well-known fact that union between two souls is always amenable to change of even religious feelings and even convictions of one in favour of another. By constant association and alliance with the idolaters with intense love active between them, let that be for any objective whatsoever, the one of them who may be once a strict monotheist may gradually lose his horror for idolatry and ultimately not dislike it at all. Love is always subject to the effects of close association and intimacy. When one loves a man, he is apt to love everything concerned with him, not only his relations but also his conduct, character and habits and even his religion.

It is obvious that a man of faith and a true believer would never make friendship with, or seek help from his opponent in faith, and in case it is done, it would mean nothing but diversion from his faith. The question is that whether in certain circumstances a faithful can make friendship with his opponent in faith and seek his help to save his life and property or not. This is the question of ‘Taqiah’ which has already been dealt with.

Here it is enough to note the difference between ‘Taqiah’ and ‘Nifaq.’ ‘Taqiah’ means to hide one’s faith to save his life and property in the interest of the faith, whereas ‘Nifaq’, i.e., hypocrisy is to pretend to believe what actually one does not, for worldly gains see 16:106, for details refer to ‘Fiqh.’ ‘Nifaq’ is condemned throughout Qur’an and see the note on it. However, this point should be remembered that whether one hides what is in his heart or expresses it, God and His pleasure should be the object. (A.P.)

Under such a state of advanced attachment man loses his sense of reasoning and the conscience in him becomes totally blind.

It is with this natural phenomenon active in the human personality ‘Tawalla’ or attachment to the divine personalities has been prescribed as one of the cardinal doctrines of the practice of the original faith, Islam, now called ‘Shi’ism.’

The proviso ‘except that ye fear them’ is a very important factor in this verse to be noted with reference to the rationalistic view of the practical life in a human society. In case of genuine fear, or a real danger to life, permission is given for a timely compromising degree of friendship with the unbelievers by appearing to be with them in everything and even in their religious views, but having the real faith in the truth always intact at heart. This is called ‘Tiqiya’, i.e., guarding one’s self in a helpless situation against an unprovoked danger to life or the risk of any heavy loss. It is criticised, why not suffer such a fate, openly surrendering life for the sake of faith? This may appeal to sentimentalism, but true Islam (Shi’ism) does not want to swell the number of mere martyrs for its sake. It does not want to leave room for its enemies to slaughter all helpless ones among the faithful. It wants the true believer to somehow live with his heart always attached to the truth I if that alone be the only alternative left and live to serve the cause of truth with his own safety in this world.

‘God cautioneth you of Himself’. In a Sunni tradition, The 6th Holy Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq is reported to have said on this verse that ‘God who knows all that is in the heart (As stated in the previous verses), wants to see nothing in the hearts but Himself (His love). So he warns people to see that they do not allow anything else to have possession of it. The idea is that heart is given to man to be a receptacle of divine emotions only, and is virtually a property of God, which he is constantly keeping His eye over. Anything of personal attachment (which is not based on divine command) is to be felt as abominable as a wrongful misappropriation of what rightly belongs to another27.

Verse 29

It is for everyone to beware that nothing is hidden from the All-Knowing Lord. All the actions and droughts of everyone, hidden as well the manifest, are equally known to God. No thought or action can ever be concealed from the knowledge of God.

Verse 30

Man’s wish would be that by repentance he had cast away his sins long, long ago and they should have gone into oblivion.

Cautioning man against the retribution of God, is to make man to have God and His pleasure as the ultimate object of all the actions of his life. (A.P.)

1. Refer to Verses. 2:61 and 3:111.

2. Applicable to the assassins and their persecutors of the Holy Imams of the Ahl Al-Bayt the successors to the Last Apostle of God The Holy Prophet.

3. Considered.

4. Rut. John 16/5-14.

5. Withdraw i.e. arrogantly persist on infidelity.

6. Counted.

7. Applicable to the modern days irreligious arrogants and their conjectures.

8. Fully repaid according to the merit and the demerit of one’s own faith and deeds.

9. Refer to: 2:269, 2:258, 3:73.

10. Refer to: 16:106.

11. Verse 29, referring to Prophet Muhammad (S).

12. A guidance and grace.

13. The principal underlaying taqiyyah.

14. Hence hiding the faith at heart under the sanction of Verse 29 is not objectionable for God knoweth what is at heart and what is expressed.

15. Or “On”.

16. Refer to 2:281.

17. Distance.

18. Evil.

19. Refer to: Verse 28.

20. Vide 2:27.

21. Math. 23/30-35

22. Refer to: 2:61, 3:21, 3:112.

23. Math. 23/30-35.

24. John 16/12 and 13.

25. See note on Verse 21.

26. Vide: 2:247, 3:177, 3:178, 4:54, 63:7.

27. B.H. Vol. II.

Aal ’Imran Section 4 - God’s Choice Of The Descendants Of Abraham

Sins of those who love God and his Apostle are forgiven, Mary’s dedication for service to God, The glad tidings to Zachariah, of being granted a son.

Aal ’Imran Verses 31 - 41

قُلْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

“Say (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) “If ye do love God, then follow 1 me 2 , God will love you and forgive you your sins; Verily, God is Forgiving, Merciful” (3:31).

قُلْ أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ ۖ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ الْكَافِرِينَ

“Say (O’ Qur Apostle Muhammad!) Obey God and the Apostle; but if they turn back, then verily God loveth not the disbelievers” (3:32).

إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَىٰ آدَمَ وَنُوحًا وَآلَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَآلَ عِمْرَانَ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ

“Verily, God did choose Adam and Noah and the descendants of Abraham and the descendants of Imran 3 above all the worlds” (3:33).

ذُرِّيَّةً بَعْضُهَا مِنْ بَعْضٍ ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ

“Offspring, one from the other; and verily God is All-Hearing; All Knowing” (3:34).

إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَتُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ

“When said (Hanna) the wife of Imran 4 “My Lord! I have vowed unto Thee what is in my womb to be (dedicated) for Thee (exclusively for Thy service) freed (from all worldly responsibilities) therefore accept (it) from me; Verily Thou art the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing” (3:35).

فَلَمَّا وَضَعَتْهَا قَالَتْ رَبِّ إِنِّي وَضَعْتُهَا أُنْثَىٰ وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا وَضَعَتْ وَلَيْسَ الذَّكَرُ كَالْأُنْثَىٰ ۖ وَإِنِّي سَمَّيْتُهَا مَرْيَمَ وَإِنِّي أُعِيذُهَا بِكَ وَذُرِّيَّتَهَا مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

“And when she delivered her, she said “My Lord! I have delivered a female 5 (child); and God knew best what she delivered; and the male is not like the female; and I have named it Mary 6 and commend her to Thy protection and also her offspring from Satan the castaway 7 (accursed)” (3:36).

فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنْبَتَهَا نَبَاتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَهَا زَكَرِيَّا ۖ كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا الْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِنْدَهَا رِزْقًا ۖ قَالَ يَا مَرْيَمُ أَنَّىٰ لَكِ هَٰذَا ۖ قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

‘‘So accepted her Lord with a gracious acceptance and made her grow up a graceful growing and trusted her into the charge of Zachariah; Whenever Zachariah entered (to see) her in the Sanctuary, (he) found her with a sustenance; He said “O’ Mary! whence (cometh) this to thee?” Said she “It is from God; Verily God provideth whomsoever He liketh without measure” (3:37).

هُنَالِكَ دَعَا زَكَرِيَّا رَبَّهُ ۖ قَالَ رَبِّ هَبْ لِي مِنْ لَدُنْكَ ذُرِّيَّةً طَيِّبَةً ۖ إِنَّكَ سَمِيعُ الدُّعَاءِ

“There did Zachariah pray 8 to his Lord; said he “Lord! grant me from unto Thee a good 9 offspring; Verily, Thou art the Hearer of Prayer” (3:38).

فَنَادَتْهُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَهُوَ قَائِمٌ يُصَلِّي فِي الْمِحْرَابِ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُبَشِّرُكَ بِيَحْيَىٰ مُصَدِّقًا بِكَلِمَةٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَسَيِّدًا وَحَصُورًا وَنَبِيًّا مِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ

“Then 10 called unto him the angels while he stood praying in the sanctuary 11 ; “Verily, God giveth thee the glad tidings of (a son) Yahya (John) (who shall be) the confirmer of a Word 12 from God and (besides, he shall be) the honourable and the chaste, and a Prophet from among the virtuous ones” (3:39).

قَالَ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِي غُلَامٌ وَقَدْ بَلَغَنِيَ الْكِبَرُ وَامْرَأَتِي عَاقِرٌ ۖ قَالَ كَذَٰلِكَ اللَّهُ يَفْعَلُ مَا يَشَاءُ

“Said he 13 “O’ My Lord! How can there be a son (born) to me, when indeed old age hath affected me and my wife is barren?” Said he 14 “Even so God doeth whatsoever He liketh” (3:40).

قَالَ رَبِّ اجْعَلْ لِي آيَةً ۖ قَالَ آيَتُكَ أَلَّا تُكَلِّمَ النَّاسَ ثَلَاثَةَ أَيَّامٍ إِلَّا رَمْزًا ۗ وَاذْكُرْ رَبَّكَ كَثِيرًا وَسَبِّحْ بِالْعَشِيِّ وَالْإِبْكَارِ

“Said he 15 “My Lord! appoint 16 Thou a sign for me;” Said He 17 “The Sign for Thee shall be that thou shalt not speak unto men for three days except by signs; and remember God much and glorify Him in the evening and (early) (in) the day break. 18 ” (3:41).

Commentary

Verse 31

Love of God has to be proved by the faithful following of the Holy Prophet. Only when we follow the Holy Prophet, God will love us and forgive our sins. No amount of any claim to love of God in any individual without the individual’s faithfully following the Holy Prophet in his practical life, can get the individual any return from God.

The essence of the faith ‘Islam’ is the love of God without which the religion is a dead letter. Obedience or prayer, if it be an outcome of sheer fear of God’s wrath, totally void of love for His grace, will be nothing more than the demon-worship of the heathens, who offer their prayers and sacrifices just to appease the anger of their woeful deities. The fear of God that Islam demands of man, is that which is based upon love or reverence for Him. The Verse says:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ

‘O’ ye who believe, fear God as He deserves to be feared’ (3:102).

meaning the fear akin to the care that makes an individual cautious to refrain from thinking or acting in any way which may, in the least hurt the feelings of the one whom the individual loves intensely and holds him in high reverence and regard.

Love and hatred or friendship and enmity, is of three kinds or it has three phases.

Love of one’s own friend.

Love of those whom the friend loves.

Enmity with those whom the friend holds as his enemies.

All the three kinds of love constitute the doctrine of ‘Tawallah’ which is one of the cardinal articles of the practice of the Islam-Original now called Shi’ism. It means that every sincere follower of Islam should love the Holy Prophet, love everyone whom the Holy Prophet loved, and hate the enemies of the Holy Prophet.

One’s own enemy.

Enemy of one’s friend.

Friend of one’s enemy.

Hatred for the above three kinds of enemies form the doctrine of ‘Tabarra’ which is one of the cardinal articles of the practice of the Original-Islam, i.e., Shi’ism. It means that every sincere lover of the Holy Prophet should hate the enemies of the Holy Prophet, should not be friend of those who hated the Holy Prophet or were inimical to him.

The love of the Holy Prophet means the love of God and living a godly life following the footsteps of the Holy Prophet and the Ahl Al-Bayt in the day-to-day life, and the enmity of the Holy Prophet means living against the Word of God and the Holy Qur’an, and following the footsteps of the enemies of the Holy Prophet and the Ahl Al-Bayt.

A true lover of God and the Holy Prophet will naturally be God-minded and be devoted to the Holy Prophet and the Ahl Al-Bayt, ever mindful of the life after death.

True Love mil be constantly impelling the individual to be al mays trying to do something to please God and the holy ones, and refrain from every evil that might even in the least displease them.

A sincere lover of God and the Holy Prophet mill naturally be always attached to the Holy Prophet and the Ahl Al-Bayt and remain away from the ungodly ones, he they hi, own kith and kin.

The best and the most practical examples of godliness on the part of human being can be found in the life of the Holy Prophet and the lives of His Holy Ahl Al-Bayt.

Thus, the fear of God must emanate from the love and intense regard for God’s pleasure. The fear must be the fear or the care against displeasing God, in view of His infinite grace and innumerable bounties.

In short what is demanded of a true, or a sincere Muslim, is to follow the footsteps of the Holy Prophet and the Ahl Al-Bayt, both in thought as well as action, as faithfully and as closely as possible. If one does this, in the true sense of doing it, the development of one’s personality in its spiritual identity or association with the Holy Prophet, will consequently be the natural result.

This passage asserts that to follow the footsteps of the Holy Prophet, will be the necessary consequence of one’s love of God and the cause of God’s loving the individual. And any slightest deviation from his footsteps will mean the reverse as the Holy Prophet does not follow but the Divine Will revealed to him19. Ali says that the Holy Prophet’s life and action from his birth to his departure from this world, was actuated by the divine revelation and I did not follow but him (the Holy Prophet). Thus, Ali had the distinction of loving God, and His Prophet and being loved by God and His Prophet. (A.P.)

Verse 32

The address is to the Muslims. Disobedience or even reluctance to obey the Holy Prophet is referred to as infidelity, i.e., ‘Kufr.’

Verse 33

In this verse Adam and Noah are mentioned alone, whereas Abraham and Imran are referred to in connection with their posterity. Perhaps the ‘Aal’ or the posterity of Adam and Noah, was not brought into the special reference because in the immediate issues of both Adam and Noah (i.e., the son of Adam, Cabel, and the notorious son of Noah) were among the worst sinners. Though there were in their posterity many apostles of God, but an indefinite or an unqualified mention of the common term ‘Aal’ meaning the issues or sons or the family as a whole, would include both the good as well as the wicked ones of the progeny. But in the ‘Aal’ of Abraham and Imran, their immediate successors were holy men of God who were chosen for the Apostleship. These were the two apostles of God, Ishmael and Isaac, as the immediate issues of Abraham, and of the apostles of God, Moses, and Imran.

The one marked aspect of the fact that this verse indicates is that while the mention of their ‘Aal’ (i.e., issues) is mentioned in this verse, the names of Abraham and Imran are not mentioned alone while the names of Adam and Noah are mentioned separately, though Abraham and Imran are undisputably among the holiest of the godly personalities of the apostles of God, which this statement clearly indicates that in the religious annotation the word ‘Aal’ means, the identity of the spiritual quality of a posterity which automatically includes the immediate or the progenitor ancestors in it. ‘Aal’ therefore is equivalent to ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ which in spite of being a common word of address to the members of family, in the religious or the spiritual reference, the word ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ will address only to the purest and the holiest members of the family identical with each other in their personal purity and spiritual sanctity, excluding all those who do not deserve association with such blessed ones of God.

As the Holy Prophet and his divinely chosen issues or the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’, all belong to the posterity of Abraham, in the clear declaration made by this verse, the Holy Prophet and his Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ are the chosen ones of God who are naturally made superior to everyone in the human race as a whole (M.L. and D.M.)

After establishing the fact that it is the requirement of Islam and the love for God to follow the Last Prophet who represents God and all the other prophets preceding him, now attempting to establish another fact in connection with prophethood, i.e., the status of prophethood is based on a proper course of the divine selection in which heredity plays a great part. To have a brief outline of the divine selection in its theological colour the following points should be taken into consideration:

The beings in the order of creation whether in the Arc of Descent (preceding from the Absolute down to the last stage of the primeaval matter) or in the Arc of Ascent (proceeding from the primeaval matter to the Absolute) each has been placed in complete accordance to the design planned by God, and it is in the place where it deserves to be.

Accordingly, selection means putting each part and particle of the universe in the proper place which it deserves in the order of existence.

The selection of Adam as superior to the rest of the creatures means that the primeaval matter though it carries in it the capacity of assuming the various forms of beings in its revolutionary movement yet each part of it differs from the other in the amount of the capacity which it bears viz. take the matter what constitutes our solar system as a whole it carries the capacity of assuming the most complicated form of human beings, but this is not true of every part and portion of it. Only some portion of it, is capable of becoming a planet situated in a particular orbit neither too close to the centre (the sun) nor too close to it (the Earth). Of the earth all parts and portions do not carry the same capacity of assuming any animal form. Of the portions which carry the capacity of life, all are not carrying the capacity of becoming man which means that portion is the selected one to become Adam. Likewise of the portion which carries the capacity of becoming human being, every portion, or the part of it, has not the capacity of becoming man of superior quality and character. In the same way that education is a selecting process by means of which the mental capacities latent in every portion of the matter which has assumed the form of man, to come to evidence that the process of creation is the same.

Of the portion of the matter which assumes the form of human being some should carry the capacity of assuming the highest possible form or forms of humanity. It is necessary that the portion in the course of its development and passing from the parental channels should not meet any obstacle to adulterate its original capacity.

This means a vigilant care by the divine agency of keeping the chain of the pedigree pure and refining that portion in stage after stage until it reaches its purposeful end.

The Qur’an here and in the other passages refers to this process of selection and asserts that it has resulted in choosing a particular parental lineage for the particular stage of prophethood and Imamat over the rest of the worlds. And this is the lineage of Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham and from Abraham it is bifurcated into Ishmael and Isaac, the former is known as the Aali Ibrahim and the latter as Aali Imran. The line of ‘Aali Imran’ ends with Jesus whose birth and disappearance and re-appearance is of unusual and of miraculous nature and the lineage of ‘Aali Ibrahim’ through Ishmael continues to Abdul Muttalib, and there gets again bifurcated into Abdullah and Abu Talib. Of Abdullah comes the Holy Prophet Muhammad and of Abu Talib comes the Holy Imam Ali and these two channels are re-united through the Lady Fatimah, the daughter of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, and the lineage of ‘Aali Ibrahim’ continues into the Eleven Holy Imams of Ali and Fatimah’s descent, concluding in the Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi whose disappearance and re-appearance as divinely designed to become the example of the House of Ishmael in the same way and manner as of Jesus has been made to be an example in the House of Israel20 and both to re-appear at the end of the world (i.e., before the Day of Resurrection) the latter to follow the former and the whole mankind to follow them and none else.

This means that all the prophets and the Imams chosen by God are of this lineage throughout the world.

It does not mean that all the descendants of Noah and Abraham had this capacity, otherwise the selection will have no meaning. This is supported by a well-known tradition of the Holy Prophet: -

“Of all the creation God has selected Adam, of the descendants of Adam, God has selected Noah, of the descendants of Noah, God has selected Abraham, of the descendants of Abraham, God has selected Ishmael, of the descendants of Ishmael, God has selected the Quraysh, of the Quraysh God selected Hasham.

All carrying my ‘Noor’ (The First Light which proceeded from the Absolute, which was to manifest in the Last in the Arc of Ascent, to last until the Day of Resurrection), and it was passed to Abdul Muttalib where it was bifurcated into the Two brothers Abdullah and Abu Talib: Of Abdullah came I (the Holy Prophet Muhammad) and. of Abu Talib came All (The First Holy Imam). Thus I and Ali are of one and the same ‘Noor’ (the Divine Light) carried through one and the same channel”

It should be noted that of the descendants of Ali and Fatimah, Hasan and Husayn were chosen and of Husayn the Light passed to the Nine succeeding Imams: -

Ali Ibn Al-Husayn ‘Az-Zain al-‘Abidin.’

Muhammad Ibn Ali ‘Al-Baqir.’

Ja’far Ibn Muhammad ‘As-Sadiq.’

Musa Ibn Ja’far ‘Al-Kazim.’

Ali Ibn Musa ‘Ar-Ridha.’

Muhammad Ibn Ali ‘At-Taqi.’

Ali Ibn Muhammad ‘An-Naqi.’

Hasan Ibn Ali ‘Al-Askari.’

Muhammad Ibn Al-Hasan ‘Al-Mahdi.’ (The Twelfth Holy Imam).

It should be noted that the appositional phrase ‘Dhurriatan ba’zoha min Ba’z’ leaves no room for the possibility of including in ‘Aal’ . . .the followers as some commentators attempt to compare the word ‘Aal’ used here with the same word in ‘Aali Fir’awn’ ... where it means anyone who was, in some way or the other, attached to Pharoah. It is true that whoever followed Pharoah is ‘Aali Fir’awn’ but this is not the case with ‘Aali Mustafa’, for here heredity or the birth is the consideration, plus character. If Salman was taken into the folds of ‘Aal’ it was a figurative and an honorary inclusion which requires a highly established and confirmed excellence declared by the Holy Prophet himself as otherwise the wives of the Holy Prophet such as ‘Umm Salama’ in spite of her piety and righteousness was refused the inclusion, with the consoling assurance of her personal righteousness. And the same happened with some other wife of the Holy Prophet who coveted the inclusion but was refused without even a consolation.

As to who were meant by ‘Aali Ibrahim’ and ‘Aali Imran’ here, there is a controversial view among the commentators. However, there is no doubt that the Holy Persons descending from Ishmael, i.e., the Holy Prophet Muhammad, his parental line and his descendants are included, and what is stated in some traditions that ‘Aali Muhammad’ was mentioned here, it does not mean that it was the wording of the Holy Qur’an. It means either it was included in the ‘Aali Ibrahim’ or it was mentioned in the revealed commentary of the passage.

The inclusion of Muhammad and ‘Aali Muhammad’ in ‘Aali Ibrahim’ is obvious in the passages: 2:124, 128, 129 14:36, 37 and the descendants of Isaac also can be included in ‘Aali Ibrahim.’ Regarding ‘Aali Imran’ it may refer to ‘Imran’ the father of Moses and ‘Aaron’ (Haroon) or it may refer to ‘Imran’ the father of Mary the mother of Jesus, but to mean the latter will be more appropriate, having the following passage in view which deals with the births of Mary and Jesus. Here ‘Aali Ibrahim’ includes Abraham also in the same manner as Moses and Aaron (Haroon) in ‘Aali Moosa’ and ‘Aali Haroon’ respectively in 2:248. (A.P.)

Verse 34

The fact pointed out here is that the choice of God has fallen not only upon the holy persons referred to in this verse but also upon their posterity. But the wording of the verse suggests the continuation of the divine choice of God, without any break or cessation, and such an aspect of the declaration is absent in the case of Adam and Noah whose names are mentioned as the recipients of the divine choice, for one of the sons of Adam, and the son of Noah, were the cursed ones. Adam’s son Cabel having been an assassin of his own brother Abel, and Noah’s son being an open unbeliever in God, thus both were sinners.

The statement in this verse as far as it refers to the past, is no doubt a declaration of what had already happened in the course of the facts, although it was only a partial realisation, but when it refers to the future, it becomes a prophecy about the perfection of the realization of the Divine Will in the ultimate end. The full, the complete or the perfect realization of the prophecy as meant in the statement was affected in the Holy Prophet. The choice of God in the seed of Abraham through Isaac stopped with Jesus and it did not continue further, for Jesus was not given any posterity of his own, and it again started with the Holy Prophet Muhammad who was a descendant of Abraham through his son Ishmael, and continued without any break in his family, (which was no other than the family of Abraham). And the fact about Abraham’s family being blessed for ever is borne out from a similar declaration found in the Old Testament: -

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy hindered, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I mill shew thee;

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” O.T. Gen. 12/1-3.

“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shall be a father of many nations.

Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham for a father of many nations have I made thee.

And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

And God said unto Abraham, Thou shall keep my covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.

Gen; 17/1-9;

According to the divine command, Abraham left his native land with Hagar and his posterity through Ishmael started at Mecca, in which line came the Holy Prophet Muhammad and Ali-Ibn-Abi Talib, and through these two continued the posterity of Abraham. The Holy Prophet Muhammad had declared:

I and Ali are of one and the same Light!

Ali is a part of me and I of Ali.

The people are of various stocks but I and Ali of one stock!21

Islam was the faith of Abraham. It was revealed in all its perfection to the Holy Prophet, and which was continued in its pristine purity through Ali and his posterity which was the posterity of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, Abraham, and Ishmael as well. Thus in the Holy Prophet and Ali and their progeny the Ahl Al-Bayt, the families of the earth have been blessed.

The promise of God to Abraham about Ishmael in Genesis was thus fulfilled.

“And as for Ishmael I have heard thee: Behold I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly, twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation” Gen. 18/20.

Accordingly, Ishmael son of Abraham was blessed through the Holy Prophet Muhammad in his posterity and the promise of the Twelve Princes in his seed were fulfilled in the Twelve Holy Imams, starting from Ali-Ibn Abi Talib, consecutively succeeding one after another without any break until the Last one, Muhammad al-Mahdi, all belonging to the posterity of Abraham through his son Ishmael.

Verse 35

Devotees to the temple in the Jewish creed, remained as recluses, cut off from worldly life and practised celibacy. Imran the father of Mary (the mother of Jesus) seems evidently to be of priestly descent. This factor is borne out from the vow which his wife makes about her issue in her womb to dedicate it to the service of God. It is reasonably considered that it is possible that because of the vowful will of his grand-mother that her issue be dedicated to God’s service, i.e., as a devotee to the temple, Jesus adopted the ascetic mode of life. Otherwise, he had great respect for married life in support of this possibility22.

The Ahmadi commentator who denies the supernatural aspect of the events of the miracles wrought by the apostles of God and to deny any extraordinary sanctity to the apostolic personalities, here again seems to be confused with simple issue of the wife of Imran praying about her issue in her womb, interpreting the word ‘Imrat’ as a woman, and not as the wife. The word ‘Imra’at’ when related to another personal noun means wife and when used alone will mean a woman (a common noun). Here in this verse the word ‘Imra’at’ is used related to ‘Imran’ which will clearly and simply mean the wife of ‘Imran’ but the Ahmadi commentator starts with an arbitrary declaration of his own saying I take ‘Imra’at’ meaning a woman. To justify his own choice, he goes on arguing and twisting the meaning of the wording of the verse, taking the obscure interpretation aside leaving the immediate and the direct meaning of the words. About the name Imran and the relationship of Mary with Imran and the terms, ‘Ukht’ sister, ‘Ab’ father etc. used in the verses, he again gives his own interpretation. The confusion created by the Ahmadi commentator is referred to here just by way of warning against the misleading arguments. Otherwise, to deal with the Ahmadi arguments here will be to unnecessarily lengthen this work.

Regarding the name Imran there are three persons named Imran;

Imran - the father of Apostle Moses and Aaron.

Imran - the father of Mary (the Maternal grand-father of Apostle Jesus).

Imran - The father of Ali, and the paternal uncle of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, generally called Abu-Talib.

Imran referred to in this verse is the father of Mary.

‘Muharraran’ actually means liberated or freed. Here it means freed or liberated from the worldly affairs and thus devoted to God’s service.

It is a mischievous attempt of some Christian critics of the Holy Qur’an to say that the Holy Prophet did not know about the long interval period which passed between Moses and Jesus and they allege that the Holy Prophet meant the mother of Mary to be the sister of Moses, but the sincere and the earnest students of the Holy Qur’an who get the knowledge of the Holy Word of God from the proper sources, have no doubt that the Holy Prophet was well-informed divinely that Jesus was the Last Prophet of the House of Israel after whom none would come save ‘Ahmed’ 61/6 Deut. 18/18, 19 John 16/12,13, 14/16, 16/7,8, 15/25, and that Moses was the First Law-Giver Prophet of the House of Israel after Abraham, and in between, there are the names of David, Solomon, Yes’a, Zul-Kifl, and the others mentioned. (A.P.)

Verse 36

It was a custom in the days of Mary that people used to dedicate one of their sons to the service of the temple at Jerusalem. Imran’s wife, Lady Hanna, had vowed to dedicate her issue when it was yet in her womb, to the service of the temple. Evidently the Lady expected a son, but she got a daughter and thus she was disappointed, and yet she named her ‘Mariam’ meaning in the Hebrew language, ‘the Maid-servant of God.’

The disappointment was that the girl, a female, could not be dedicated to the service of the temple. Yet Imran’s wife named her baby daughter ‘Maryam’ (meaning in the Hebrew language ‘a maid-servant of God’) and brought the baby to the temple at Jerusalem to dedicate her to the service of the sacred house. When her offer was not accepted by the people, the Lady implored for the acceptance of her offer saying that she had already vowed to dedicate the issue even prior to the birth. The question arose as to who should be in charge of the child. Lots were cast and it fell in favour of Zachariah the brother-in-law of Imran, i.e., the husband of Imran’s wife’s sister, a maternal uncle of the baby. When Mary reached the age of majority, Zachariah erected a balcony for Mary which could not be mounted without a ladder. Zachariah used to leave Mary in the balcony to stay there praying, and take her home in the evening along with him. While Mary stayed in the room, Zachariah used to keep its door locked with its keys in his own careful custody.

While dedicating her daughter Mary to the Temple-service, Mary’s mother, Lady Hanna, the wife of Imran, prayed, commanding her daughter Mary and her posterity to God’s protection against any satanic influence.

It is related by the well-known scholar, author of Sawaiqa Mohriqa and Abu Dawood, that this verse was in fact revealed as an analogy to an allied event when once it happened that the Holy Prophet visited his daughter Fatimah, he asked for some water and Fatimah brought some water in a wooden cup. He took it, sprinkled it upon the head and the shoulders of the holy Lady and prayed with a prayer exactly in the words in which Mary had been prayed for, commending Fatimah and her issues to God’s protection against any Satanic influence. The prayer of the Holy Prophet was granted by God and Fatimah became the Lady of Light and her posterity got Eleven Holy Imams or the Divinely Commissioned Guides.

Verse 37

The desire of Lady Hanna to dedicate a son to the service of the Temple was destined to be fulfilled in Jesus, associated with his miraculous birth as a clear sign of the Omnipotent will of God, which can act without any dependence upon any ordinary law of nature. It was to show that God is in no way subject to any law of nature, and nature being nothing but a particular formulation of the will of God, and it shall always be subject to God’s will, thus Jesus was given a miraculous birth.

Whenever Zachariah visited Mary in her room, he used to always find fresh unusual seasonal fruit (i.e. summer fruits during winter and winter fruits during the summer season) kept ready for Mary’s sustenance. Zachariah in surprise used to ask Mary as to wherefrom she got the fruits to which Mary used to reply, ‘It is from God.’ The Ahmadi commentator here again interprets this event in a ridiculous way, saying, the fruits might be the offerings from the worshippers to Mary. This is just in resentment to the Holy Lady Mary getting the grace of God in her being miraculously provided with her sustenance from on high, for the mother of the Qadiani Messiah being only an ordinary Lady could not have any special grace from God.

The Ahmadi commentator deals with the miraculous event at length saying the fruits were the gifts from the worshippers to Mary. It is unimaginable when Mary was in so much a safe custody in a secured compartment, how could the worshippers have any access to her without the knowledge of Zachariah. Would it suit the dignity of the holy Lady to receive visitors stealthily without the knowledge of her guardian and even that to accept the charity from the worshippers which were alms of the temple. And was Zachariah a fool to have been surprised at so simple a thing? Besides, it is not conceivable of Zachariah, an Apostle of God, to have been fooled with the same event repeatedly every time he visited Mary for the verse says ‘kuilama’ meaning every time or whenever. The concluding words of the verse ‘Yarzuqu man yasha’ (He, God, provideth whomsoever He liketh) - clearly indicate the sustenance which Mary was provided with, was from above all ordinary sources.

It is related that miracles which took place during the times of all the other prophets of God, miracles similar to all those miracles took place during the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. It was referring to this fact the great Persian poet Sa’di said

“Hume Yousuf, Dame Eesa Yade Baiza dari,

Onche khooban hama darand to tanha dari”

The beauty of Joseph, the radiating palm of Moses and the raising of the dead by Jesus, hast thou ‘O’ Muhammad (the Apostle of God) been granted. All that the beloved ones of God severally had, thou alone hast them all together.

It is reported by the greatest Sunni authorities of ‘Anwarut-Tanzeel, Kashshaf and Ma’alimut- Tanzeel, that the Holy Prophet with his Ahl Al-Bayt was once starving, the Holy Prophet visited his daughter Fatimah and asked her to provide him with some food. It was the third day that Fatimah, her husband Ali and her children Hasan and Husayn had anything to eat. But Fatimah went into her room and spread the prayer-mat and prayed to the All-Merciful Lord to help her against disappointing the Holy Prophet. No sooner the prayer ended than from one of the vessels which was lying empty’ for the last three days, was found some steam coming out.

When the lid was removed, it was found full of the best kind of bread with nicest kinds of viands. The Holy Lady rushed to her father with the divine provision. The Holy Prophet asked Fatimah as to whence did she get that, to which the Holy Lady replied, ‘It is from God’, ‘He provideth sustenance to whosoever He liketh without any measure.’ The Holy Prophet said: “God be praised, He has made thee similar to Mary” The whole family partook of the food and yet it remained as it was. It was distributed to the neighbours. (M.S.)

Verse 38

When Zachariah found clear evidence of the extraordinary benevolence of the All-Merciful Lord, he also desired to pray for something for which he longed all his age, i.e., an issue. The action on the part of Zachariah was quite a natural reaction to his witnessing the miraculous provision for the sustenance of Mary.

It is obvious that the passage tends miraculously to assert the unusual means of Mary being heavenly fed when she was attached to the Holy Altar, but the Ahmadi commentator as usual with him tries to distort the statement, otherwise there was no need of mentioning any usual story of Mary being fed by the charities of the Altar, and it should not create a hope in the heart of Zachariah to covet for the same unusual grace from the Lord. (A.P.)

Verse 39

Zachariah’s prayer was granted, and the glad tidings were about the birth of John (the Baptist). Thus, John was the cousin of Jesus. (Luke 1/5-13).

‘Kalimah’ means a Word. Jesus has been designated in the Qur’an as ‘the Word of God.’23, i.e., the One born of a mere command of the Almighty Lord Creator of the Universe, referring to the immaculate Virgin birth of Jesus which is a distinction. Jesus being designated as the ‘Word of God’ may have the significance that a letter alone does not give any meaning, but a Word has always some meaning or the other. Jesus is the Word of God signifying his immaculate virgin birth which is the most manifest and the most eloquent and the loudest declaration of the Almighty and the All-powerful God that ‘He, if He wills can create a being without being bound by any law of nature. It means nature is subservient to the Will of God, and God is never subservient to nature. The Holy Prophet has also been referred to as ‘Zikr’ which means Reminder24.

The Ahmadi commentator as usual with him, writes a long note trying to interpret ‘Word’ into prophecy - quotes Verses 6:115; 6:34; 10:64; 18:27; 18:109; 31:27 and 66:12 in which the word ‘Kalimah’ has been used in a different meaning. He does not seem to recognize or remember that one and the same word used in different context means differently. He conveniently avoids the significance in connection with the same word in Verse 45 and in 4:171.

John (the Baptist) was the cousin of Jesus, senior in age only by six months, and was the first to believe in Jesus as a true apostle of God sent to revive the faithful practice of the Mosiac Law. John was killed before Jesus’ ascension into the heavens.

The phrase ‘Bi Kalimatin’ used here as a common noun ‘Nakerah’ in an indefinite, shows that Jesus is not the only ‘Kalimah’ (or the word proceeded from God) but he is only one such. (A.P.)

Verse 40

According to Ibn-Abbas, Zachariah was 120 years of age, and his wife was 98 years old (M.S.). The word ‘Anna’ signifies the surprise on the part of Zachariah as to how himself and his wife who were of such an advanced age could ever in the ordinary course of nature have any issue at all. Zachariah did not till then have, or in the ordinary course of nature could ever expect to have, any issue in the future. But the Ahmadi commentator who is in a determined policy opposed to miracles, interprets ‘Anna’ as ‘When’ just to avoid the sense of surprise in the word when it will mean ‘How.’ But when the same word ‘Anna’ is used25 by ‘Mary’ in surprise, meaning how, when she was informed by the Angel about the birth of a child to her, without any man touching her, the Ahmadi commentator gives the correct meaning of the word ‘Anna’, i.e., ‘How’ in the margin of his translation and draws the reader in some arguments of his own.

The succeeding words of the verse giving the definite meanings of Zachariah’s old age and his wife being barren, justify and establish the meaning of the word ‘Anna’ as ‘Hom’, to signify Zachariah’s surprise and to clearly indicate the event of the birth of John as nothing ordinary but a definite miracle effected by the will of the Almighty God. The concluding words that ‘God doeth whatsoever He willeth’ seal the meaning of the event as a definite miracle (PR Luke 1/18):

“And Zachariah said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years”. (Luke 1/18).

‘Anna’ here undoubtedly means ‘How’, and the clause ‘Qad balaghanial Kibr’ i.e., certainly old age has been inflicted on me, is not a conjunctive clause. It is adverbial subordinate to the principal clause ‘Jumla al-Haliah’ The Arabic letter ‘Vow’ means ‘While ‘and not ‘And’ both in ‘Wa qad balaghani’ and ‘Wa amra’ati’ i.e., while my wife, otherwise the answer would not be corresponding to the question clearly suggesting surprise. If it was to mean that the Ahmadi commentator thinks, the answer instead of ‘Ma yasha’ ought to have been ‘Mehma yasha’ for in answer to a question about time, cannot be about the WAY IN WHICH. (A.P.)

Verse 41

Zachariah in his surprise wanted a sign of God’s promise being actually fulfilled in his hopeless age. He was informed that the sign would be that he would not be able to speak for three days. The demand for a sign was not due to any incredulity on the part of Zachariah but it was owing to his curiosity to know as to how it will come to pass (i.e., how he and his wife would be rejuvenated). The sign given emphatically denied saying it was nothing of the kind. The Bible relates something allied to this verse (Luke 1/20)

“And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season”. (Luke 1/20).

A commentator, to deny the miraculous aspect of the sign, translates the verb ‘Lukallim’ as should, i.e., a command, whereas the verb is in Aorist term which is used for the present and the future. The demand was for super-natural or the extraordinary effect and how can anything be affected under a command which Zachariah could have himself, without any such order, at his own free will, alone be a sign to satisfy the demand.

There is no doubt that Zachariah asked for a divine sign for the time of his wife being blessed with a child. Then God gives the sign that you would not be able to talk to the people, while you will and must be absorbed in your remembering and praising Him in the mornings and in the evenings. That shows that there was nothing wrong with the articulation otherwise he would not be able to praise God as commanded by the Lord. But due to his total absorption in his communion with God, he would not be able to talk to the people at all. This is a divine sign through which a special blessing and grace can be obtained. This shows that by spiritual attainments one can overcome the physical disabilities and obstacles. The laws of nature known to us can be controlled, modified, and altered by the spiritual and the divine forces.

If by mere will power used in Mesmerism or Hypnotism can seemingly control the natural law of the sight or the individual will of man and the other animals, where is the room to doubt about the really great and the superior power of Spirit particularly of the Divine Absolute Authority, effecting any change in any natural phenomena. (A.P.)

1. Following the Holy Prophet is loving God and earning God’s love and His pardon for the Sins, Following the Holy Prophet in his love of those whom he loved, is loving God and enmity with them is the enmity of God.

2. The Holy Prophet.

3. Father of Moses.

4. Father of Virgin Mary- not the father of Moses.

5. Virgin Mary.

6. Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.

7. The accursed one of God.

8. Refer to: 19:5, 19:7.

9. Ar. Thayyab, i.e virtuous or blessed, pure-good.

10. Refer to: 19:5, 19:7 4:171. See also Verse 45.

11. Ar. ‘Mehrab’ Chaneel - The private chamber of a prayer house partitioned and safe from public eye.

12. Jesus.

13. Zachariah. Refer to: Verse 46, and 19:8 19:9.

14. God.

15. Zachariah.

16. Fix.

17. God.

18. Refer to: 19:10.

19. Refer to the Verses: 6:50; 7:203; 10:15; 46:9; 53:3; 53:4.

20. Refer to 43:59.

21. Asemi’s Zainul-Fata, Ibne-Maghazali, Shafayi. Kanz Al-Ummal, Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hambal.

22. Pr. Burkit’s lectures on Syrian Church.

23. Vide 4:171.

24. Refer to: 65:10.

25. In Verse 47.

Aal ’Imran Section 5 - The Glad Tidings About The Birth Of Jesus

Mary given the glad tidings of a son, The miraculous birth of Jesus and his speaking while still an infant in the cradle, His ministry.

Aal ’Imran Verses 42 - 54

وَإِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ اصْطَفَاكِ وَطَهَّرَكِ وَاصْطَفَاكِ عَلَىٰ نِسَاءِ الْعَالَمِينَ

“And (recall O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) when said the Angels “O’ Mary! Verily, God hath chosen thee and purified 1 thee and chosen thee above the women of the worlds” (3:42).

يَا مَرْيَمُ اقْنُتِي لِرَبِّكِ وَاسْجُدِي وَارْكَعِي مَعَ الرَّاكِعِينَ

“O’ Mary! (for this great grace of thy Lord upon thee) be devout unto thy Lord and prostrate thyself and bow thee down (in prayers) with those who bow down (unto Him)” (3:43).

ذَٰلِكَ مِنْ أَنْبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ نُوحِيهِ إِلَيْكَ ۚ وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ يُلْقُونَ أَقْلَامَهُمْ أَيُّهُمْ يَكْفُلُ مَرْيَمَ وَمَا كُنْتَ لَدَيْهِمْ إِذْ يَخْتَصِمُونَ

“This is of the news about the (things) unseen which We reveal 2 unto thee (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!)’, for thou wast not with them when they did cast their lots with their pens as to which of them should have the charge of Mary; nor wast thou with them when among themselves they disputed 3 “ (3:44).

إِذْ قَالَتِ الْمَلَائِكَةُ يَا مَرْيَمُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُبَشِّرُكِ بِكَلِمَةٍ مِنْهُ اسْمُهُ الْمَسِيحُ عِيسَى ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَجِيهًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ

“(Recall) (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) when said the Angels “O’ Mary! Verily, God giveth thee the glad tidings of a Word from Him; whose name shall be Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary 4 ; illustrious 5 in this world and in the Hereafter and (shall be) of those near (to God”)” (3:45).

وَيُكَلِّمُ النَّاسَ فِي الْمَهْدِ وَكَهْلًا وَمِنَ الصَّالِحِينَ

“And 6 he shall speak to men (alike when) in cradle 7 and when aged; and (he shall be) of the righteous ones” (3:46).

قَالَتْ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِي وَلَدٌ وَلَمْ يَمْسَسْنِي بَشَرٌ ۖ قَالَ كَذَٰلِكِ اللَّهُ يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ ۚ إِذَا قَضَىٰ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ

“Said 8 she “O’ My Lord! How can I have a son when, hath not touched me (any) man?” He 9 said “Even so doth God create whatsoever He willeth; When He decreeth a thing then He only saith unto it BE and it IS 10 “ (3:47).

وَيُعَلِّمُهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَالتَّوْرَاةَ وَالْإِنْجِيلَ

“And 11 He 12 will teach 13 him the Book and the Wisdom, and the Torah and the Evangel 14 ” (3:48).

وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَنِّي قَدْ جِئْتُكُمْ بِآيَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ ۖ أَنِّي أَخْلُقُ لَكُمْ مِنَ الطِّينِ كَهَيْئَةِ الطَّيْرِ فَأَنْفُخُ فِيهِ فَيَكُونُ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَأُبْرِئُ الْأَكْمَهَ وَالْأَبْرَصَ وَأُحْيِي الْمَوْتَىٰ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَأُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا تَأْكُلُونَ وَمَا تَدَّخِرُونَ فِي بُيُوتِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَةً لَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ

“And (appoint him) an Apostle to the children of Israel 15 (and who will declare) “that now I have come unto you with a sign from your Lord; Out of clay 16 will I make for you like the figure of a bird, and I will breathe into it, and it shall becomes flying bird by God’s permission; and I shall heal the blind and the leper and will raise the dead to life by God’s permission; and I will declare to you what ye eat and what ye store up in your houses; Verily, in this will be a sign for you if ye (indeed) be believers. 17 “ (3:49).

وَمُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ مِنَ التَّوْرَاةِ وَلِأُحِلَّ لَكُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي حُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۚ وَجِئْتُكُمْ بِآيَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ

“And (I come) Confirming that which is before me of the Torah: and to allow you some of that which has been forbidden unto you: And I come unto you with a sign from your Lord: take shelter in God, and obey me” (3:50).

إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَبِّي وَرَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُوهُ ۗ هَٰذَا صِرَاطٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ

“Verily 18 God (HE) is my Lord and (also) your Lord: therefore worship (only) Him; This is the Right Path 19 “ (3:51).

فَلَمَّا أَحَسَّ عِيسَىٰ مِنْهُمُ الْكُفْرَ قَالَ مَنْ أَنْصَارِي إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ قَالَ الْحَوَارِيُّونَ نَحْنُ أَنْصَارُ اللَّهِ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَاشْهَدْ بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ

“And when Jesus perceived disbelief on their part: said he, “Who are (there) to be my helpers towards God?” The disciples 20 said “We are the helpers (towards) God! We believe in God! and bear thou witness that we are the ‘Muslims’ 21 unto Him” (3:52).

رَبَّنَا آمَنَّا بِمَا أَنْزَلْتَ وَاتَّبَعْنَا الرَّسُولَ فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّاهِدِينَ

“(And prayed they 22 unto God saying) “O’ Our Lord! we believe in what Thou hast sent down and we follow the Apostle (Jesus); record us then with those who bear witness (unto him)” (3:53).

وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

“And they (the Jews) planned, and God (also) planned and verily, God is the best of planners” (3:54).

Commentary

Verse 42

The distinction conferred upon Mary referred to in this verse, applies to her position among the women of only her own age. It is universally acknowledged by all Muslim scholars that the Holy Prophet had said that Mary was the most blessed or the choicest of the women of her own age, but my daughter Fatimah is the most blessed and the choicest of the women of all ages. None of the non-Shi’a commentators has touched this point in his notes.

The superiority of the position of Lady Fatimah to that of any woman including Mary, the mother of Jesus, is definitely established by the Holy Qur’an in Verse 33:33 by which the purity par excellence of the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt has been universally acknowledged23.

It may be asked how can anyone who has been definitely praised in the Holy Qur’an, be superseded by Lady Fatimah whose mention in the Holy Book of God has not been made openly. The answer is that the praise of Mary if studied duly in the context in which the praise became imperative, the fact will be disclosed. It became essential to praise Mary, to defend her chastity when her becoming the mother of Jesus without a husband, aroused all sorts of blasphemous doubts against her chastity, whereas the chastity of Lady Fatimah was a doubtless and unquestionable fact that there occurred no necessity at all to praise Fatimah, whose purity physical as well as spiritual was already recognized both by the friends and the foes alike.

It is referring to the unique and the matchless position of Fatimah, the great poet Iqbal says: -

“Maryam az ek nisbate Eesa Aziz

Az se nisbat Hazrate Zahra Aziz”

Revered is Mary for only being related to Jesus, for three relationships is Zahra (Fatimah) revered.

“Noore Chushme Rahmatun lil-Aalameen

On Imame Awwaleen wa Aakhareen”

The Beloved Daughter she is of the Mercy unto the worlds (the Holy Prophet) Who is the Leader of the foregone and the subsequent generations.

Banue e On Taj dare Hal’ata

Murtuza, Mushkil Kusha, Shere Khuda.

Wife she is of the one distinguished by Hal-ata (The Holy Imam Ali). God’s Chosen one, The Divine Helper, the Lion of God.

Maadare On Markaze Parkaar e Ishq

Maadare On Karvan Saalaare Ishq.

The Mother of the Pivot of the Divine Love (the Holy Imam Hasan and Husayn). The Mother of the Leader of the Caravan of Love. (Husayn - from whom started the successive line of the other nine Holy Imams - Husayn the Chief of the Martyrs of Karbala. (Dr. Iqbal’s Quran & Iqbal).

Three questions arise: -

The justification for the repetition of ‘istafake’?

In what sense Mary has been given the superiority over the women of the worlds and How this would be reconciled with the well-known tradition of the Holy Prophet about Syyeda Fatimah Zahra declaring her as the Chief of the ladies of the worlds?

Why Mary was honoured by being mentioned by her name as a chosen and a purified lady and Fatimah was not mentioned by her name.

Before answering the questions one by one, the saying of the Fifth Holy Imam Muhammad Ibn Ali Al-Baqir commenting on this passage needs to be viewed: -

He says that God selected ‘thee’ (i.e., Mary) out of the descendants of the prophets; and purified (saved) ‘thee’ (Mary) against fornication, and selected ‘thee’ (Mary) for the birth of Jesus without a male partner. This shows that the distinction mentioned in the verse is in a restricted sense for a definite purpose and not general.

Question 1. The first ‘istefake’ means the selection from the seed of the apostolic lineage which is common to Mary and Fatimah.

Question 2. Mary is only the chosen one to become the mother of a Prophet without a male partner. In this regard there is no match for her, but Fatimah has been honoured to be: -

The daughter of the Last Prophet in the seed of Abraham.

The wife of an Imam who is next only to the Holy Prophet in all respects as of one and the same Divine Light; and the mother of eleven holy Imams of the same grade and of the same Divine Light with the Last one through whom the Divine will and Justice shall prevail on earth, and the son of Mary, (Jesus) to follow him. In this distinction Fatimah has no match at all.

The Jewish accusation against Mary needed an open defence by mentioning her name but in the case of Fatimah there was no such need at all and hence the honour of an absolute purification was conferred not only on her but on every member of the Family of which she is either the daughter, the wife, or the mother24 (referring to Fatimah, her father, her husband and her issues). (A.P.)

(It is to this unique position of Fatimah that Iqbal refers in the first verse quoted above).

Verse 43

Mary enjoined by God to pray along with the praying ones, i.e., to be among those devoted to God.

Verse 44

‘Al-Ghaib’, i.e., things unseen, mystic, spiritual, something unknown or unknowable through the sources of the corrupted and tampered extracts of the scriptures like the books of the Jews and the Christians. A knowledge that could come only through some mystic source like the revelation. Nothing could be received from such unreliable records with any certainty of the information being correct or incorrect. The Holy Prophet could not have known about what happened about the contest for the honour of receiving the charge of Mary. But for the revelation he could not have known the event with the vividness he gives as if he was by the side of those who cast the lots. This signifies that the knowledge that the Holy Prophet possessed was not that which he learned from any source other than the direct revelation from God.

It is related from the Fifth Holy Imam Muhammad al Baqir that as casting was done for Lady Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a similar casting was done for Abdullah son of Abdul Muttalib the grandfather of the Holy Prophet. Abdul-Muttalib had nine sons, he had vowed that if the 10th son is born, he would sacrifice him in the name of God. When Abdullah was born to Abdul Muttalib, he was the 10th son and Abdul Muttalib decided to sacrifice his new son in whose seed The Holy Prophet had to be born. The people somehow made Abdul Muttalib agree to cast lots to sacrifice camels in the place of the baby Abdullah. The lot began with the camels, but the lot fell in the name of Abdullah. Ten more camels were added to the number of the camels and yet the lot fell to Abdullah. Every time the lot fell to Abdullah ten more camels were added to the number of the animals. At last, the lot with too camels fell to the animals and Abdullah had to be spared from being sacrificed but Abdul-Muttalib was reluctant and said that he would cast the lots again. Thrice the lot was cast and all the three times the lot fell to the camels. Then Abdul Muttalib said that he was satisfied that God wants the baby Abdullah to be spared from the sacrifice. The Holy Prophet used to say ‘I am the son of the two sacrifices’, i.e., Ismail son of Abraham and Abdullah son of Abdul Muttalib.

Here is a clear assertion of the fact that God informs His Prophet of the unseen event, unknown to him through the common means of knowledge, and it does not contradict with the passage which asserts that the Prophets, do not know the unseen and what is not obtainable through the usual common means of knowledge. Those passages indicate that prophets do not know of their own accord. Here and in many similar passages assertion is made that God informs his prophets of the unseen and they know through revelation as much as He wills. Otherwise the statement of the prophets regarding the unseen genetic process in the past and the unseen events and the situations that are going to take place in the world hereafter, should not be known to them, though all come under the category of ‘Ghaib’ i.e., the unseen.

This points out that not only in the case of the events unobtainable by ordinary means, the Holy Prophet depended on revelation but in the ordinary routine also he depended on what is revealed to him. (A.P.)

Verse 45

‘Kalimah’, i.e., word25.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad has been called ‘Zikr’, i.e., a Reminder or a Sermon26.

‘Al-Masih’ - The title of Jesus - meaning the Anointed, i.e., the Divinely Blessed.

The Ahmadi commentator purposefully interprets the word ‘Masih’ as the one who travels much. This is only to establish the Ahmadi contention about Jesus, that he, after escaping the crucifixion, travelled to Kashmir.

Since there is no mention of the name of Jesus’ father in the Holy Qur’an, a commentator wants to assign a father to Jesus to deny his immaculate birth. Since a modem claimant to Christhood was an ordinary man born of ordinary parents, instead of scrutinising his claim in view of the heavenly excellence of the True Christ, the reverse course of a negative approach to the question has been adopted, i.e., of bringing down Jesus to the level of the claimant, for the claimant can by no means be raised to the divine height of the True Jesus, and thus Jesus having an immaculate birth, of a virgin mother is denied.

As said before there are some who do not relish any miracle being wrought by any prophet or any chosen one of God because some hero of theirs could not enact any such things in support of his own assumption.

If God’s power is also to be limited by man’s reasoning, what could be said about the advent of Adam and Eve without both father and mother. In the same course of their own logic the deniers of miracles might one day find a father for God also, denying the essential existence of a ‘Wajib al-Wajood’, i.e., the ultimate cause of the causes.

‘Minal Muqarrabeen27‘ wherein it is clearly asserted the inclusion of a group of the righteous ones preceding the Holy Prophet in the rank of those who are foremost in their submission and the others nearer to God, along with a small number of these righteous ones who follow the Holy Prophet which means the inclusion of all their ‘Ausia’, i.e., their vicegerents, preceding the Holy Prophet who are greater in number in comparison to the post-prophetic period which is confined to the holy number of Fourteen. (A.P.)

Verse 46

One of the commentators, does not regard the speaking of Jesus while a Baby in the cradle as any miracle. He somehow wants to deny Jesus even the least extraordinary gift from God because no such grace of God could ever be assigned to some self-made Christ. First of all the prattling of a child in the cradle can never be called or compared to the speaking of a fully grown human being, even drat of an apostle of God. Secondly, if the event was that of the ordinary speaking of a child, there was no necessity of its being mentioned at all. Does any ordinary thing which always takes place in the usual course of the nature need any special mention at all, connected with a specially distinguished gift from God and the life of a prophet from Him.

The old age refers to the second advent of Jesus when he would naturally be in an advanced age in which it would be practically an impossibility for the individual to talk with the same sense of prophetic wisdom. It means the divine gift would uniformly continue irrespective of the peculiarities of the changing age.

Besides his usual way of denying the prophets in general and Christ in particular, of any miracles attached to their lives, the Ahmadi commentator’s note here is an insult to the Holy Qur’an as the Word of God, and to the literary world. It is very surprising that he should betray his dishonesty so openly and ridiculously reducing him to open vulgarity. He could easily say that he did not believe in the Qur’an. It would have been considered decent and fair on his part if he had openly confessed his disbelief in what the Holy Qur’an asserts, saying: - ‘This is what the Holy Qur’an says, and I do not believe in it’ instead of such a vulgar distortion of the facts.

‘Be Kalimatin’ ...28

Verse 47

‘Anna’ - the wonder or surprise expressed by Mary is similar to that of Zachariah in Verse 40.

‘Lum Yamsas ni’ - Clearly indicates that the prophecy or the tidings about the birth of Jesus was given in her virginity, and the event was definitely meant to take place without the agency of any male partner to Mary, i.e., something against the ordinary natural course, necessary for a virgin to become a mother.

The Ahmadi commentator in his search for some room or other to accommodate his denial of miracles and to deny Jesus in his immaculate virgin birth, starts arguing saying that the Holy Qur’an does not mention the name of Mary’s husband. Why Holy Qur’an does not mention the name of Mary’s husband and why such an argument is advanced, the reason is given in the note to the preceding verse. The Ahmadi commentator starts contending that Mary had other children also. Mary’s having other sons is yet to be proved. And if Mary had to bear one son through the ordinary natural course to serve the object of God, there could be no purpose in the announcement of the birth beforehand even that in the state of her virginity unless it was to avoid the natural scare on the part of the Lady in her suddenly passing from virginity to motherhood without the natural causative factor of her union with a husband. And where was the necessity at all of expressing the event if that was the ordinary matter of the natural course, as an ease for the Lord to effect it, unless there was the necessity to counter the surprise or the apprehension against its possibility.

Again, what could be said of the angel saying in Verses 19:17-22 that he would give the virgin the boy which clearly means that the gift is not from the ordinary natural course but from High above. A perverted mind determined to some purposeful corruption in a statement, will never fail to argue in some way or the other, to justify its stand and will always be in a perpetual search for occasions to play its role.

However, the context shows beyond doubt that ‘Anna’ here also means ‘Hom’ and there is no room for ‘when’. According to the Islamic tradition, Mary the virgin mother of Jesus, did not meet any male before or after the birth of Jesus and she remained a virgin in the sense, till her departure from this world, refer to 66:12 which clearly declares that she had been kept away from sexual intercourse and the birth of Jesus had been by a miraculous process of the flow of the Holy Spirit into her womb.

The Ahmadi view of Mary having children other than Jesus is based on the four canonical gospels, which are unauthentic and a baseless folklore and is of no value in the face of the revealed statement of the Holy Qur’an.

‘Kazalika Yaqluqu ma Yasha’ i.e. ‘This is how createth (the Lord) as He willeth. Here is a brief reference to the process of creation in which the principal active factor is His Will and His Command. Hazrat Ali explains that God’s saying ‘Kun’ i.e., Be, is not the sound effecting the ear, not a voice to be heard. His Word is, His Work done by Him.

In this sense every creature is the outcome of His creative word or the manifestation of the imperative word ‘Kun’ - i.e., ‘BE.’ Hence every creature is the Word of God. The difference between word and word is in regard to the comprehensiveness in presenting His attitude and excellence - Vide our notes. (A.P.)

Verse 48

‘Yu’allimuhul Kitab’ - i.e. He (alone i.e., God Himself) will teach him (Jesus) the Book and Wisdom, and Torah (The Law) and the Evangel. A question arises as to when did Jesus receive the education promised in this verse. It cannot but be unquestionably acknowledged that Jesus was sent into this world with the knowledge of the Book, Wisdom, and the knowledge of Torah and the Evangel. If Jesus the forerunner of the Holy Prophet had his knowledge and wisdom with him from his very conception, what about the Holy Prophet? Could it be reasonably imagined that the Holy Prophet Muhammad whose advent had been continuously promised by God from ages long before the advent of Jesus, and even before the prophecy about Jesus’ advent was made, or at least as early as the days of Moses (Deut. 18/15, 18/19) about whom Jesus himself declares designating him as the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, be an ignorant being like any one of us and earn his knowledge through the agency of mortals like us:

“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; (Deut 18/15)

“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. (Deut 18/18)

“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I mil require it of him.’’ (Deut. 18/19).

To have any such imagination would be betraying our own imaginative power and every common sense. Can there be any sense in any report about the Holy Prophet’s getting frightened at the sight of the Messenger Angel on the Mount Hira, his returning home mortally scared, his being consoled or encouraged by his wife lady Khadija, and the worst of all, his being introduced to his own apostleship by Waraqa bin Nawfil, a Jewish convert to Christianity, and his being informed that what he (the Holy Prophet) saw was the Angel and not a devil. (God save us from such satanic straying).

Refer to 55:1-4 i.e., it was the Beneficent God alone and none else that taught (the Book) to the Holy Prophet who has been designated as a MAN meaning the ideal or divinely perfected model man to be copied by everyone desirous to be a real human. It will suffice here to quote what the Holy Prophet himself says: -

“Kunto Nabiyan wa Adama Bainal Ma al-Wat teen”

i.e., I was a prophet when Adam was yet amidst water and the clay

(i.e., when Adam had not yet been fashioned - or given a physical form). - Hadith

This verse is a sufficient and a silencing reply to every one’s doubts about the miraculous personality of Jesus, the apostle of God, who was born as a miracle, to live a godly life against the Jewish hypocrisy and corruption, and to bear the glad tidings of the advent of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the last of the Apostles of God, who had to be the Final Warner to mankind conveying the Final Word of God, the Holy Qur’an. The attention of the reader is invited to Verse 19:29. This verse presents Jesus as a ‘Muta’allim’, i.e., a student, who was taught the Book of Wisdom, the Torah and Evangel by the Divine Agency and sent to the children of Israel as an apostle, whereas the Last Prophet is presented as one sent by God to those born of women ‘Ummi’ as an apostle to recite to them God’s signs, to purify them and then to teach them. It includes all who have been born of women not only of the children of Israel, the Arabs or the Persians or any other people. This includes all the prophets who have been sent with the limited mission, even Jesus himself who himself says: “I have yet many things to say unto you” Etc., John 16/12 (A.P.)

Verse 49

‘Rasoolan ila Bani Israel’ - i.e., an apostle to the children of Israel, i.e., the Jews. The same position has been claimed by Jesus in Math. 15/22-24:

“And, behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, ‘Have mercy on me O’ Lord, thou son of David’, my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.’

“But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us.

“But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

“Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord help me.

“But he answered and said: It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.’’ Math, 15/22

Jesus also commanded his disciples to go only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel:29

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”30

The miracle of turning of two toy birds into real ones is an event of Jesus’ boyhood. Once when Jesus was still a boy, playing with two toy-birds and it was a Sabbath day. The Jews complained to Joseph. When Joseph approached Jesus to rebuke him, Jesus let the toy-birds loose commanding them to fly away, and off they flew, and the whole crowd was stunned with wonder.31 There are many such miracles wrought by Jesus.

It is stated that once Jesus, in his boyhood in a dyer’s house dipped all the clothes which had to be dyed in the different colours, in one potful of indigo colour. The dyer being shocked at the action, raised shouts of anger and agony. Jesus said “why dost thou get perturbed? I shall get you the clothes out of this same pot, in any colour you want” and he brought each cloth from the same pot of indigo, dyed in the various colours as the dyer went on desiring each of it to be dyed into (F.A.) Jesus curing the lepers and raising the dead with the permission of God, has been reported by the Christian as well as the Muslim authorities:32

“And as he entered into a certain village there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off”

“And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus Master, have mercy on us”

“And when he saw them, he said unto them Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed”33

“He said unto them Give place: for the maid is not dead hut sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

“But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand and the maid arose”34

Whatever be their position with our brethren of the Christian church, it cannot be denied that the received Gospels do not give whole of the life-reading of Jesus, and books of the Old and the New Testaments contain nothing but the collection of some distracted bits of distorted scriptural writings by different persons of different ages, based wholly upon the memory of the people and also upon the folklore which can never be free from the dominating influences of bias, pride and prejudice of the various religious sects, the Jewish and the Christian camps which were ever hostile to each other, each throwing dust upon the other and each group coining the worst blasphemies to paint and present the other, in the worst form possible, glorifying themselves and their own heroes with all sorts of fabricated fabulous legends of their own righteousness. Hence simply because any miracle or event the like of it is not to be found in the Old or the New Testament, it can never be reasonably rejected.

The miracle of turning water into wine for a marriage party is said to be the first miracle of Jesus. First of all, no sensible man or woman can ever imagine that an apostle of God supplying a nasty, demoralising stuff as wine, even that as a miracle which infers as a direct act of God. The use of the spirituous liquor may not have been forbidden by the law prevalent then but to provide it by a miracle is nothing short of commencing its use for all times for whatever the All-Wise Providence deemed as good for use, it can never be declared by anyone else as bad. The Christian missionaries preaching temperance now will obviously be against the expressed will of their god.

Secondly, it is unimaginable that an apostle of God like Jesus to rebuke and address his own mother as reported: “Woman what have Ito do with thee?” It is surprising how the people of the Christian Church swallow such unbecoming legends of Jewish folklore about their god. In view of these and many such unbelievable damaging tales diametrically opposed to the holy personality of the great Prophet Jesus, one has to helplessly declare that the books of the Old and the New Testaments are an admixture of true and false stories. It is the Holy Qur’an, the traditions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Imams that present the Holy Apostle Jesus as the Holy Spirit of God and an infallible apostle of the Lord.

Now as regards working of miracles something should essentially be said. It is not that Jesus alone was vested with such powers. Every apostle of God was armed with this power to convince the people in the primitive stages when logical arguments could not effectively appeal to the yet to be developed human intellect.

Jesus particularly had to necessarily show miracle after miracle to earn the confidence of his people in his really being an apostle of God, for two reasons: -

A man of a mysterious birth, which was deemed suspicious by his people as a whole, could never have expected to be listened to, by any section of the people; much less to be believed in, as an apostle of God.

His people believed more in witchcraft than in any other kind of appeal to their intellect or reasoning.

Whereas the Holy Prophet, though possessing the power to work any of the miracles wrought by any of his predecessor apostles of God, needed the least to resort to miracles, for it is no glory or greatness to force a belief or canvass confidence in one’s personality by something beyond reasoning. The Holy Prophet had: -

The unquestionable nobility of his birth in the direct line of the great Prophet, Prophet Abraham.

The stamp of his matchless and ideal character, conduct, truthfulness, and trustworthiness which have earned for him the voluntary title of ‘Al-Ameen’, i.e., the Trusted, even before the regular start of his ministry.

He had been granted a perpetual miracle, the Holy Book revealed to him, which was an open and ever current challenge for all times to the world of human intellect as a whole:

وَإِنْ كُنْتُمْ فِي رَيْبٍ مِمَّا نَزَّلْنَا عَلَىٰ عَبْدِنَا فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِنْ مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا شُهَدَاءَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ

“And if ye be in doubt concerning that which we reveal unto our slave (Muhammad), then produce a surah of the like thereof, and call your witnesses beside Allah if ye be truthful” (2:23).

فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا وَلَنْ تَفْعَلُوا فَاتَّقُوا النَّارَ الَّتِي وَقُودُهَا النَّاسُ وَالْحِجَارَةُ ۖ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْكَافِرِينَ

“And if ye do it not-and ye can never do it-then guard yourselves against the Fire prepared for disbelievers, whose fuel are men and stones” (2:24).

His mission was to call unto the way of the Lord, not by the force of wonder-striking performances but by wisdom and sweet speech, appealing to the good sense of reasoning intellect:

دْعُ إِلَىٰ سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ ۖ وَجَادِلْهُمْ بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنْ ضَلَّ عَنْ سَبِيلِهِ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ

“Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the best way Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who go aright” (16:125).

Otherwise, whenever necessary, the Holy Prophet and his immediate successors, the Holy Imams, could work any miracle, or the miracles of the kind shown by the other apostles of God, and they actually did work such miracles as and when they deemed desirable. There are innumerable miracles which the Holy Prophet and the Holy Imams worked.

The Ahmadi commentator consistently interprets every miracle of every prophet into a parable or a figure and advances arguments of his own, extending sometimes to pages together.

It is absurd to say that God sent a person of such a unique calibre who did not know reading or writing, to remain ignorant for forty years. The tradition of such a nature, if there be any, should be thrown away as invalid in the face of the Holy Qur’an and reasoning, in the same way as we have rejected the biblical tradition that Mary had children other than Jesus. The Holy Qur’an clearly declares that ‘Rahman’, i.e., the Beneficent Lord Himself taught the ‘Rahmantun lil Aalameen’ (i.e., the Mercy unto the worlds) i.e., the Holy Prophet Muhammad, in the process of the creation itself, giving him at the same time the power or the faculty of reception and expression35.

We hardly need to refute the Ahmadi commentator’s distorting effort to deny the miracles given to Jesus, by God. The point to be noted here is that though the ultimate agent and authority, in whatever form takes place in the realm of creation and legislation, is God the Absolute, yet it is allowed to attribute action to the secondary or the subordinate agencies which have been empowered by Him. It is not incorrect, neither a blasphemy on the part of Jesus to say, ‘I create for you a bird’ and ‘I cure the dumb and leper’, ‘I bring the dead to life’ by His permission. On the other hand, to deny any creatures of the quality or the properties or of the power granted to it by God, is blasphemy. God has given honey the curative property36. Where is the wonder if it gives curative property to the dust (Khake-Shifa) of the grave of a devotee of His, Husayn, who has surrendered his all in His way. The only question is to find out from the authentic source, what has been given to whom, by Him. (A.P.).

Verse 50

Indicate that Jesus had no new message other than what had already been delivered by Moses. He had come to renew faith in the only true God.

Jesus, confirming the previous revelations, asserts the exercise of his own authority to repeal some of the prohibitory orders and restrictions already imposed on them. This shows that Jesus had actually repealed some of the laws of Torah but in the present Bible, is narrated that Jesus said that mountains may move but not a word from the Torah (the Law) shall be removed:

However, the present gospels fail to show any legislation confirming or repealing the previous laws while Qur’an asserts Jesus as a Law-giver Prophet. Thus, Jesus’s expectance of obedience from the people itself suggests that he had some orders or laws for them other titan what they already had. Furthermore, Jesus’ suggesting the right path to be adhered to, is not in adhering to a particular rule or legislation but in obeying God, in the compliance of the laws issued by Him. Hence, whoever obeys the laws laid down by the succeeding prophets has actually obeyed the preceding ones, and whoever adheres to what is laid down by the preceding ones discarding those of the succeeding one, has rejected all (i.e., rejected the preceding one also). The same is true of the orders of the prophets, the Last one is to be taken and the same is the case with the carrying out of the orders of God. If one obeys Him throughout his life but disobeys or revolts against His orders in the last moment of his life, he Will be branded with curse as ‘Iblees’ was done. On the contrary if one concludes or closes his life in obedience to Him, his past life will be washed off by the closing repentance of the reformed individual. (A.P.)

Verse 52

‘Kufr’ or the disbelief on the part of the Jews as a result of which they had determined to kill Jesus. ‘Hawari’ (i.e., Witness) refers to the disciples of Jesus who usually dressed in white garments or referring to the purity of their heart or those who were deputed by Jesus to go and preach the purity of faith in God and to give the bath of Baptism to the converts.

‘Man Ansari’ This corroborates with the identical event of the ‘Dawate Asheera’... where like Jesus, Muhammad, the Last Prophet of God, when he too felt the adamance of the people, invited the men, the leaders of the Quraysh, asking them as to who among them would like to undertake to help him in his mission to be his heir, his brother, his assistant, the executor of his will and to succeed him as his vicegerent after him, to which none responded but Ali whom the Holy Prophet, then and there declared to be his Heir, his Brother, his Assistant, the Executor of his will and his Successor after him, and Ali also proved faithful and true to his undertaking throughout his life.

Here the devoted disciples pray to God to be included with the witnesses. In the passage 11:17 Qur’an declares next to the Holy Prophet the presence of a witness who is of him (the Holy Prophet), which cannot be but Ali who has been presented in the Qur’an in the verse 3:61 regarding the Historic ‘Mubahila,’ as identical with the Holy Prophet where the Holy Prophet had declared ‘Ali is of me and I am of Ali’ to the extent Bukhari puts this in the headlines when he deals with Ali’s testimony to his unique status (vide Sahih Bukhari Chap. Manaqib). (A.P.)

Verse 54

‘Makr’ means gaining an object against another contestant for it, through a device not known to the opponent or a device or plan used by one to gain an object contested for, which did not strike the other contestant. The device may be for an evil purpose, in which case it is condemnable and if that be a wholesome purpose, it is natural and commendable. The Jews devised to kill Jesus and God through His own device rescued him.

A similar but unsuccessful attempt was made by the hypocrites on the life of the Holy Prophet on his return journey from ‘Tabuk’ and also on his return after the Hajjat ul-Wida but the evil device was divinely frustrated. (A.P.)

Hozaifa the trusted companion of the Holy Prophet knew the names of the members of the plot to kill the Holy Prophet. Many prominent companions of the Holy Prophet used to repeatedly ask Hozaifa if their name was there in the list of the hypocrites, the members of the plot. (A.P.)

1. Includes the clearing of the doubts or the Jewish allegations against her, through the Holy Qur’an and through the Holy Prophet See note. 362, 363

2. The knowledge which the Holy Prophet possessed was that which was revealed to him by the Lord and not acquired from anyone in this World. Refer to: 53: 3; 53:4.

3. Refer to: 3:38; 19:8; 66:12; 4:171.

4. Note Jesus is called by God Himself as the son of the Virgin Mary as he was given birth without a male partner to his mother.

5. Prominent.

6. Refer to: 5:110; 19:29; 19:30.

7. While still a baby, as a miracle.

8. Refer to: 3:40; 66:12; 19:17-22.

9. God.

10. Comes into existence.

11. Refer to: 5:110.

12. God.

13. This indicates that the apostles are taught by God Himself and not by anyone else.

14. Ar. ‘Injeel’ - The Scripture given to Jesus. Refer to: 5:110.

15. Refer to: Math 22/26

16. Refer to: 2:260.

17. Note: If Jesus an apostle sent only to a part of mankind, the children of Israel, could work out such miracles, what power the last of the apostles of God sent to mankind as a whole, should possess and what is that he could not do - All the miracles given to the other apostles were in totality given to the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Let the materialist note.

18. Jesus preached only the unity of God and so did the ancient Scriptures - not Trinity. James 2/19, John 20/17, Tim 2/5, 17, Jude 25, Ed 2/3, Duet 6/4, Ed 6/3, Is 44/6, Jer 10/10, Isa 42/8 44/8, Math 19/17, Mark 12/29. Refer to: 61:14.

19. To God - to salvation.

20. The puritans - true believers.

21. Those who have Submitted themselves (to God).

22. Faithful devotees of God.

23. PR. Mishkatul-Masabih-Babul-Manqib.

24. Vide 33:33.

25. Refer to Verse 3:39.

26. Refer to Verse 65:10 (M.S., U.B., and S.).

27. Refer to: 56:10-14.

28. See note to Verse 39. (A.P.)

29. Math. 10/5

30. Math 10/5.

31. B.H. Vol. II.

32. (M.S.) Luke 17/12 and Math. (24 & 25).

33. Luke 17/12-14.

34. Math. 9/24 and 25.

35. Refer to: 55:1-4.

36. Refer to: 16:68.

Aal ’Imran Section 6 - Promise Of Rescue To Jesus-The Christians Invited To The Spiritual Contest (Mubahila)

The Divine promise to Jesus for the ultimate rescue from the Jews, The Christians of Najran invited to a spiritual contest a Mubahila to prove the truthfulness of each of the parties (i.e., the Muslims and the Christians)

Aal ’Imran Verses 55 - 63

إِذْ قَالَ اللَّهُ يَا عِيسَىٰ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ وَمُطَهِّرُكَ مِنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَجَاعِلُ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوكَ فَوْقَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ ۖ ثُمَّ إِلَيَّ مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَأَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ فِيمَا كُنْتُمْ فِيهِ تَخْتَلِفُونَ

“Recall 1 (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) when God said: O’ Jesus, I will take thee away 2 and lift thee up unto Me; and purify 3 thee of those that disbelieve, and make those who follow thee 4 triumphant upon those who disbelieve, to the Day of Resurrection. then unto Me shall be your return and I will judge between you in what ye differ” (3:55).

فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَأُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ نَاصِرِينَ

“And as to those who 5 disbelieve, I will chastise them with a severe chastisement in this world and the hereafter and for them shall not be any of the helpers 6 “ (3:56).

وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فَيُوَفِّيهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ

“But to those who believe and do good deeds, He will pay them in full their recompense; and God loveth not the unjust. 7 “ (3:57).

ذَٰلِكَ نَتْلُوهُ عَلَيْكَ مِنَ الْآيَاتِ وَالذِّكْرِ الْحَكِيمِ

“This, We recite unto thee of the signs and the Wise Reminder 8 “ (3:58).

إِنَّ مَثَلَ عِيسَىٰ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ كَمَثَلِ آدَمَ ۖ خَلَقَهُ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ قَالَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ

“Verily, similitude of Jesus with God is as the similitude of Adam; He created him out of dust then said He unto him BE, and he became” (3:59).

الْحَقُّ مِنْ رَبِّكَ فَلَا تَكُنْ مِنَ الْمُمْتَرِينَ

“The Truth is from thy Lord, therefore be not thou 9 of those of the doubters 10 “ (3:60).

فَمَنْ حَاجَّكَ فِيهِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ فَقُلْ تَعَالَوْا نَدْعُ أَبْنَاءَنَا وَأَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَنِسَاءَنَا وَنِسَاءَكُمْ وَأَنْفُسَنَا وَأَنْفُسَكُمْ ثُمَّ نَبْتَهِلْ فَنَجْعَلْ لَعْنَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَى الْكَاذِبِينَ

“And unto him who disputeth with thee therein 11 after the knowledge hath come unto thee, Say! (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) (Unto them!) “come ye, let us summon our sons, and (ye summon) your sons, and (we summon) our women and (ye) your women, and (we summon) ourselves 12 and (ye) your selves and then let us invoke 13 and lay the curse of God on the liars! 14 “ (3:61).

إِنَّ هَٰذَا لَهُوَ الْقَصَصُ الْحَقُّ ۚ وَمَا مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ إِلَّا اللَّهُ ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

“Verily, this 15 is the true narrative; there is no god but God; and verily, God is All-Mighty 16 , All-Wise” (3:62).

فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُفْسِدِينَ

“But if they turn back, then 17 , verily, God knoweth the mischief makers” (3:63).

Commentary

Verse 55

The event of the miraculous escape of Jesus from the crucifixion has been reported to have so happened that he was imprisoned in a room for the night to be crucified the next morning. The Almighty Lord Who had caused Jesus to have his advent in this world through an immaculate virgin birth as a sign of his Omnipotence and supreme power, to act in whatsoever way He wills, even in spite of the want of ordinary natural causative factors, to prove that He is not subservient to the laws of nature, but the Laws of nature are always subject to His independent will, caused Jesus to be taken into the heavens.

The next morning when Judas the hypocrite disciple of Jesus who betrayed Jesus pointed him out to the Roman soldiers, went into the room to fetch Jesus to be crucified, he was miraculously transformed to resemble Jesus in all his physical features. When Judas came out of the room looking exactly like Jesus, the Roman soldiers caught hold of him, and however much Judas shouted saying that he was Judas their spy and friend and not Jesus, he was crucified. (M.S.)

Sale’s note about this event runs thus:

“It is supposed by several that this story mas an original invention of Mohammad’s, but they are certainly mistaken, for several sectarians held the same opinion, long before his time. The Basilidians18 in the very beginning of Christianity, denied that Christ himself suffered, but that Simon the Cyrranean was crucified in his place. The Corinthians before them and the Carpocratians next (to name no more of those who affirmed Jesus to have been a mere man) did believe the same thing, it was not himself, but one of his followers very like him that was crucified. Photius tells us that he read a book entitled “The Journeys of the Apostles,” relating the acts of Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas and Paul, and among other things contained therein, this was one, that Christ was not crucified, but another in his stead, and that therefore he laughed at his crucifiers19 or those who thought they had crucified him20“21

However, it is clear that the Jewish plan to kill Jesus was frustrated by a super-plan from the Almighty Lord.

The Ahmadi commentator interprets the Arabic word relating to the raising of Jesus into heavens as his physical death. He quotes the use of the word in the other verses of the Holy Qur’an, while the word may mean death and also raising, though the learned commentator cannot dent’ that one and the same word, in the different context may mean differently.

The Holy Prophet has definitely declared in clear-cut words that Jesus will have a second advent from heaven before the Day of Resurrection (Qiamat i.e., Day of final Judgment) and offer prayers behind the Last Holy Imam Muhammad Al-Mahdi, who will be from the seed of the Holy Prophet. The traditions of the Holy Prophet and the Holy Imams about the second advent of Jesus from heavens are many (M.S.)

The prophecy of the followers of Jesus being always triumphant or dominant over those who disbelieved in him, refers not to the present-day Christians but those faithful ones who believed in Jesus as a genuine apostle of God and followed his teachings and eagerly awaited for the one, the Last apostle of God, whose advent Jesus had repeatedly foretold and which prophesy was recorded even in the other scriptures of old22. In fact all the true believers in Jesus were true Muslims. This cannot refer to those who believe in Jesus as the son of God or God Himself which the Holy Qur’an terms as infidelity or even ‘Shirk’, i.e., polytheism.

‘Mutah’ harake’ i.e., cleared the Virgin Mary from the accusation of the infidels through the miracles given to her son Jesus and through the confirmation by the Last Prophet Muhammad. A thorough study of the present gospels and the inconsistencies evident from them regarding the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, his burial and his resurrection, is a clear proof that the story was purposefully fabricated to suit the doctrines of the church and the Paulian School (of St. Paul who has distorted Christianity to suit the tendencies of the Roman paganism).

Taking the present Gospels as the basis for this story, one can easily say:

The party which came to arrest Jesus at night did not know him by his face.

So that Judea had to show to identify him by standing beside him.

And Judea was himself resembling Jesus.

The light was very dim, so that the faces were not clearly seen.

The soldiers were in a hurry apprehending troubles to start.

Judea’s crucifixion a certainty.

The body of the crucified one was brought down from the cross very soon, most probably in the early hours of dawn.

The disciples had escaped, hence did not witness the burial.

The grave in which the body of the crucified one was laid was found empty.

The witness for the resurrection is only Mary Magdalene whose statement given in the four Gospels is in different version. In some she was there when Jesus rose from the grave, while in another version she was only told by someone when she approached the graveyard that her lord was raised to heaven.

Jesus was seen afterwards by the disciples after the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Taking all these points in view one would not doubt the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection but on the contrary he would form a firm opinion that the crucified one was by mistake someone else and Jesus was saved and disappeared and the disciples gave currency to the rumour so that the Jews may not chase him in any further attempt on the life of Jesus, or the Jews and Romans realising their mistake, did not like to be blamed for crucifying the wrong man. However, the arrest of the man happened in an important village of Baitul-Lahm, and he was brought to Jerusalem at night and crucified then and there in utter haste. Thus, the story of the Gospels cannot be believable particularly when there are the various schools in the early Christians who do not believe or at least doubt in the crucifixion. (G. Sale).

So far as Muslims are concerned their sole authority is Qur’an and nothing else, and all are unanimous about the falsehood of the crucifixion, killing and the resurrection of Jesus as depicted by the Christian church.

‘Tawaffa’ was ‘Rafe’aka’ there is no doubt that there are three things regarding Jesus ‘Tawaffa’

Taken away, ‘Rafa’ Raised, ‘Nuzool’, descended. The first two, according to Qur’an have already taken place and the third is expected.

Regarding ‘Tawaffa’ whether it means (death) or some state of departure other than death, is a matter of controversy among the commentators. If it is death, then his ‘Nuzool’ would mean his return to this world after death and for the believer in the possibility of the returning to life on the Resurrection Day should not be surprising, be that of one person or more, coming back to life after their death as a partial resurrection before the final or the total resurrection. To this view tends Shaik Sadooq in his celebrated book on the Shi’a belief. In case ‘Tawaffa’ is taken to mean the departure other than death, then his return to life means re-appearance after his temporary disappearance, similar to the case of the Twelfth Holy Imam Muhammad Al- Mahdi. The differences between the two is, that the latter is living on the earth as to be the Centre to mediate between man and God, while the former has been raised from his earthly station whether to ‘Him’ as worded in the Holy Qur’an ‘ilyya’ or to the heaven as the commentaries say, makes no difference vide the note about heaven. The only point is that he is no more concerned with the terrestrial affairs while the Twelfth Imam is alive on the earth and in sole charge of it, and at the re-appearance of these Two, Jesus will be the follower and the lead will be with Muhammad Al-Mahdi, the last Deputy of the Holy Prophet.

The popular view about the four promises given to Jesus viz., ‘Tawaffa’, ‘Rafa’a’, ‘Tathur’ and ‘Taffamiq’ are those that took place simultaneously or immediately following each other. It suggests considerable lapse of time between each stage, and it would be completed before the Final or the Total resurrection. Hence of these whatever has not taken place, we should expect it to be done when His promise of His Religion to triumph over all the other creeds is fulfilled and the Light of Truth is perfected in practice before the world comes to an end. (A.P.)

Verse 57

Note the decree of the All-Just Lord that He does not love the unjust or the tyrants whoever they may be. Anybody who is unjust or tyrannical, let him call himself a Muslim, shall not be loved by God. What about those among the Muslims who were tyrannical to the members of the Holy family of the Holy Prophet, i.e., the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt.

Verse 58

‘Aayaat’, i.e., signs-the miracles-meaning the miracle of Jesus immaculate birth and the miracles that manifested from the various apostles of God including what Jesus worked.

“Reminder”- another name given to Qur’an23 - The “Book”

‘Hakim’ the word standing alone will mean Wise. Here qualifying the Word ‘Zikr’-the Book of the All-Wise God, i.e., the Book or the Qur’an which is nothing, but Wisdom clothed in words-or the Book free from incongruity or imperfection or unsoundness.

Verse 59

The Christians of Najran came in a deputation to the Holy Prophet and asked him as to why he abuses Jesus by calling him a man. The Holy Prophet replied, “Far be it from me to abuse Jesus the Word of God communicated through the Chaste and pure Holy Lady Mary” The Christians asked the Holy Prophet ‘Then, What do thou sayest, hast thou seen any man born without a father?” The reply to the question is accommodated in this verse, i.e., Adam was created without the medium of both a father and a mother.

Here and also wherever the reference is made to the birth of Jesus which took place as presented by the Holy Qur’an, from the Virgin Mary without any male partner, a process absolutely unusual, the example of which is not recorded in the history of the human genesis. Qur’an resorts to the Creative will and the order of God, which is the principal factor in the process of creation. And in order to make it easy for man to grasp the possibility of such an event, Qur’an gives the example of the birth of Adam, which according to the generally accepted view of the time, had taken place without the agency of either sex. This example stands through, even if we put aside the view of the immediate creation of Adam from the earth and adhere to the evolutionary process of creation, because then the question will be shifted further, as to the creation of the first living cell from the unliving elements wherein there will be no alternative left but to accept the possibility of a living being coming into being without one or both of the sexual agencies. Whatever once becomes possible in the order of creation, shall remain possible for ever. The rarity of the events will not make it impossible.

The unusual turn of events in the process of creation is not confined only to the history of Adam and Jesus. For the students of the phenomena of nature, there are thousands and thousands of examples wherein the natural process known to us, entirely fails to explain. Man is bound to find the explanation for these events in what is termed as the hand of God, as Qur’an tells us it is the imperative Word of God.

Another point in comparing the birth of Jesus to the birth of Adam, is to refute the Christian argument about the divinity of Jesus, based on his virgin birth. If one born without the agency of a male, could be considered as the son of God, the one born without the agency of either sex, would be doubly deserving to be so. There is hardly any need for refuting the note of die Ahmadi commentator on this verse.

The comparison between the creation of Adam and Jesus stands proper if Adam means the first human being and the comparison will have no meaning if Adam is taken to mean a common name which includes Jesus as the Ahmadi Commentator takes it. (A.P.)

Verse 60

The address in this verse is to the people through the Holy Prophet.

This refers to a general principle, if adhered to, one would be saved from the sceptic tendencies, i.e., God is the Absolute Truth and Reality. Anything real and true proceeds only from Him, and it should be explained in the term of His Truth and Reality and not in the natural or the material process known to us.

This principle is laid down here as the answer to the people and not to the Holy Prophet, and to warn that doubting against the unusual event because of its seeming unusual, would lead to doubt the process of the creation as a whole. (A.P.)

Verse 61

This verse refers to the famous event of ‘Mubahila’ which took place 10 A.H. against the Christians of Najran. A deputation of sixty Christians of Najran headed by Abdul Mashih their chief monk priest came and discussed with the Holy Prophet about the personality of Jesus. The Holy Prophet told them not to deify Jesus for he was only a mortal created by God, and not God Himself. Then they asked as to who the father of Jesus was. By this, they thought that since Jesus was born without a father the Holy Prophet would helplessly accept Jesus father being God Himself. In reply to this question, was revealed the preceding verse in which the instance of Jesus has been compared to that of Adam who was created without a father and also a mother. When the Christians did not agree to any amount of reasoning, then this verse was revealed enjoining upon the prophet to call the Christians to ‘Mubahila’ (a spiritual contest invoking the curse of God upon the liar). To this the Christians agreed but they wanted to return to their place and would have the Mubahila the next day.

Early next morning the Holy Prophet sent Salman to the open place, fixed outside the city, for the historic event, to erect a small shelter for himself and those he intended to take along with him for the contest. A number of the companions of the Holy Prophet also assembled in the Mosque for the Holy Prophet to take them along with him to the contest. On the opposite side appeared the Christians with their selected Holy men, women and children. At the appointed hour the Christians witnessed the Holy Prophet entering the field with Husayn in his lap, Hasan holding his finger and walking beside him, Lady Fatimah following him with Ah behind her. The Holy Prophet reaching the appointed spot stationed himself with his daughter, her two sons and her husband, raising his hands to heavens said: ‘Allahumma haa’oolaae Ahl Al-Bayt’ i.e., Lord these are the people of my house. At the appearance of these godly souls with the hallow of the divine light radiating from their holy faces, the chief Monk who had brought the selected group of the Christians, began to gaze at the faces and exclaimed “By God! I see the faces which, if they pray to God for mountains to move from their places, the mountains mill immediately move” The Leader Monk asked as to who were those whom the Holy Prophet had brought along with him. He was informed that the baby in the lap of the Holy Prophet was his young grandson, Husayn, the child walking holding the Holy Prophet’s finger in his tiny hand was his first grandson, Hasan, the Lady coming behind him was his daughter, his only surviving issue was Fatimah the mother of the two children and the one who followed the Lady was his son-in-law, the husband of Fatimah. The Chief Monk, the Leader of the selected holy group of the Christians turned to the huge crowd of his people who had gathered on the spot, and addressed them saying:

“O’ believers in Jesus of Nazareth, I will tell you the truth that should ye fail to enter into some agreement with Muhammad and if these godly souls whom Muhammad hath brought with him, curse you, ye will be wiped out of existence to the last day of the life of the earth”

Every one of the crowds of the Christians had also witnessed the halo of the divine light around the holy faces of the godly ones whom the Holy Prophet had brought with him. The people readily agreed to the advice counselled by their Leader. They beseeched the Holy Prophet to give up the idea of the agreed ‘Mubahila’ and requested for themselves to be allowed to continue in their faith-offering to pay ‘Jizya’ the ‘Protection Tax’ the payment of which entitles the payers, full freedom in their religious practice, with full protection for themselves, their religious places and their life, property and personal integrity.

This historic event of a unique triumph of Islam took place on 23-12-10 A.H. and thus, the Shi’a, the adherents of the Islam-Original, celebrate it as religious thanksgiving festival of the triumph of the truth against falsehood, and which is the believer in Islam who will not rejoice at such a decisive triumph of his Faith.

This event has a great significance with regard to what it discloses about those who accompanied the Holy Prophet on that memorable and unique occasion of highest sanctity and great import. Many great Sunni scholars, commentators and traditionists have given the details of the event with die various aspects of its significance, saying:

The event unquestionably establishes the truth about the spiritual purity and the holiness of the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt.

It proves beyond all doubt as to who are the members of the family of the Holy Prophet, i.e., the Holy Prophet’s Ahl Al-Bayt.

The seriousness and the solemnity of the occasion demands absolute purity, spiritual as well as physical in the individuals, to serve in the fateful occasion for the Holy Prophet to present them to God as the best ones of His creation to be heard in their prayers for the Truth.

Thus, it was unquestionably and firmly established and openly proved beyond all doubts, before the huge crowds of the Muslims as well as the non-Muslims to bear witness that the Holy Prophet, his daughter the Lady Fatimah, her sons, Hasan and Husayn and her husband Ali Ibn Abi Talib, are the divinely purified ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ addressed to, in Verse 33:33 and none else, for God’s command in this verse contains plurals as regards each kind of the relations to be summoned for the event, i.e., to call sons, women, and the selves to invoke the heaven’s curse on the liars, but the Holy Prophet took only two children whereas there were innumerable other children of his followers, only one lady was taken whereas there were nine other ladies in his own household who were his wives among whom were the daughter of Abu Bakr and also of Omar; and only one soul Ali, in place of his Self was taken whereas there were those who claimed to be his companions and very close companions too. This act of the godly selection on the part of the Holy Prophet, loudly declares that there were no others either among the children or the women or the other adults to be compared to these godly souls in their personal purity and holiness (Bd. MM, TH).

The one most significant and the most important point is that the word about the Selves or Souls ‘Anfus’ is the plural, the singular of which is ‘Nafs’ (i.e., self or soul). Self or soul when used in relation to any individual only means as another being of the same identity of the person implying perfect unity in equality, each one of the two being the true replica of the other, be that in thought, in action, in status or position to the extent that the one to be fully qualified to be identified and substituted for the other whenever any occasion demands it. ‘Nafs’ the Self or the Soul of the Holy Prophet, the term ‘Nafs’ in the verse has been misinterpreted as ‘the people’. Even so since Ali alone was taken on the occasion, Ali alone will be the ‘People’ of the Holy Prophet and none else.

The irony of fate presents quite a surprising scene of the events which followed immediately as the Holy Prophet departed from this world. Far from recognizing the Ahl Al-Bayt in consideration of their position par excellence, what happened to them was:

The same Fatimah: The Lady of Light about whom the Holy Prophet had openly declared: “Fatimah is my part and parcel; whosoever hurts her, hurts me; and whosoever hurts me, hurts God; and whosoever hurts God turns an infidel,” was martyred with a fall of the door on her side caused by the kick by one in an insurgent crowd which surrounded her holy house to arrest her husband Ali.

The same Ali about whom the Holy Prophet had declared: “I and Ali are of one and the same Light” “He who displeased Ali displeased me” was martyred while in prayer in the Mosque at Kufa”

The same Hasan who accompanied his grand-father to the fateful scene of ‘Mubahila’ while a child, walking besides him holding the finger of his holy grand-father, was poisoned through a woman who was hired for the purpose. The same Husayn who appeared for the ‘Mubahila’ to defend the Truth from the lap of his grand-father, was put to the sufferings unequalled in any tragedy and was heartlessly butchered at Karbala with all his comrades, and his ladies and children were taken prisoners and put to the most miserable and the torturous plight of indignity, suffering, captivity and imprisonment. The body of Husayn was left unburied for days together.

The worst was that anyone who professed friendship with these holy souls was chastised, persecuted bullied and condemned calling him a ‘Rafazi’ or a dissenter.

But those blessed with independent minds, able to distinguish the right from the wrong, the truth from the falsehood, did not care and had always been with these divines, even if it was to cost them to suffer the worst miseries or to face death or even destruction in this life. In short those who are after the pleasures and the prosperity of this world can never be their followers.

The whole Muslim world recognises these five as the ‘Panjatane-Pak’ the ‘Pure Five’.’ and this Sacred term is not used for any others.

The points to be noted here are:

That the Mubahila or resorting to prayer to curse the liar, is after forwarding all sound arguments to convince the opponent and if he still insists on his wrong belief or doctrine, was the test of the truthfulness of the persons commissioned with the apostolic mission.

Each side has to stake all that is nearest and the dearest to him.

For a prophet who has devoted himself and whatever belongs to him, to God, and has been purified from all egoistic liking and disliking and the limited carnal desires and passions, the dearest and the nearest to him, will naturally be those the closest or the identical with him in his devotional excellence.

The Prophet has been ordered to call certain categories of the people and to ask the opponents also to bring the similar categories, and the call is not of his own choice but of the order and the will of God24.

Right from the very commencement of his mission to the last moment of his departure, on all important occasions, the Holy Prophet called only Ali or one of the same categories as the occasion demanded:

The Holy Prophet called Ali, when he started his apostolic mission, when Ali was only of ten years of age.

When he was ordered by God to call his closest kith and kin, Ali who was then of only thirteen years of age, was the first, the foremost to be called, and he was the only person who responded to it.

When leaving Mecca on his historic immigration to Madina, Ali was called by the Holy Prophet, to lie down occupying his place in the bed, facing the dangers of the situation, when death for the one in the situation was a sure return.

To return the deposits entrusted to him, the Holy Prophet, handed over the deposits to restore them to the owners on his behalf.

In Badr, Ali was called to fight and repulse the enemy when many of his companions were quietly witnessing the critical event.

In Uhud, Ali was called to fight and repulse the enemy who had gained the upper hand against the Muslims on account of the desertion of the companions of the Holy Prophet, who had even run away from the field and had disappeared for days together.

In Ahzab, Ali was called to fight the enemy, whom none in the Muslim army was ready to face, to protect the disheartened army of the Muslims and save them from annihilation and lead them to victory.

In Khaybar, Ali was called to fight the enemy who was not conquered by any one of the Holy Prophet’s companions, and win the decisive victory.

While proceeding to Tabuk, Ali was called to succeed the Holy Prophet in his place in Madina, as his vicegerent, to assume the place as Haroon (Aaron) was for Moses with the exception of ‘Nubuwwah’ (apostleship).

To preach the first verses of the ‘Sura al-Bar’at’ which contains the declaration of complete disassociation from idolatry and paganism, Ali was called and deputed to rush and take away the matter of the ‘Sura’ from Abu Bakr who was leading the pilgrims to Mecca, as the only one identical with the Holy Prophet competent to convey what the Holy Prophet had himself to do to the people.

And here Ali is called as one of the ‘Selves’ of the Holy Prophet ‘Anfosona’-, not alone but with his two sons Hasan and Husayn in the term ‘Abna’ana’ (sons) and with his wife Fatimah in the term ‘Nisa’ana’ (women), while there were the other souls, sons and women of the Hashimites, the Qurayshites, the Ansaars and also the wives of the Holy Prophet, but the early Muslim historians, traditionists, commentators and even a man like ‘Ibn Hazm’ who was of a staunch Omayyid tendency, all have unanimously stated that on this important occasion of the Holy Prophet facing the enemy with the spiritual forces, none was brought to participate save Ali, Fatimah, Hasan and Husayn. And Muslim (Sahih Muslim) tells us that on this occasion the Holy Prophet praying to God said:

‘Allahumma Ha’oola’ee Ahli Bayti’

O’ my Lord! these are my Ahl Al-Bayt (the People of my House).

It is surprising that some historians, commentators and theologians of modern times have started to deface the fact of history regarding the historic ‘Mubahila’ or to entirely ignore it as has done Bukhari (Saheeh Bukhari), but the truth is there and shall be there for ever, shining ever bright as the Persian poet says:-

Shab’para gar waste Aaftaab nakhahad

Raunaqe Baazaare Aaftaab nakahad

i.e., If the (night bird) bat liketh not the Sun Light

Never will the beauty of the sunshine decrease.

Some of the modern writers have gone to the extent of denying the applicability of the word ‘Nisa’ana’ to daughters saying that in the Arabic literature ‘Nisa’ has not been used for daughters. This betrays the failure of their memory or the lack of their knowledge of the verse of the Holy Qur’an on inheritance25. And even supposing Fatimah was not represented as the daughter of the Holy Prophet but as the wife of Ali as the soul of the Holy Prophet, in the term ‘Anfusana’ the significance becomes greater still, to mean that no wife of the other partner in the term ‘Anfusana’ (i.e., the Holy Prophet) was competent to participate in the spiritual contest, the fact which is supported by the well-known traditions narrated by Omme-Salema and Ayesha in connection with verse 33:33 (Aya al-Tat’heer). Both the ladies report that they were denied inclusion among those under the Holy Mantle (‘Kisa’ i.e., Chadar al-Tatheer). Furthermore, 66:5 shows that there were women better than the wives of the Holy Prophet to be substituted in their places, if divorce takes place. But no better one than the persons included in the ‘Mubahila’ or even equals to them were available otherwise they would have been taken by the Holy Prophet to complete the plural numbers of the candidates invited for the contest (vide the wordings of the verse).

The justification for the use of the plural number in the passage in spite of the historical fact that of ‘Nisa’ana’ only one and of ‘Abna’ana’ only two and of ‘Anfusona’ only one was taken on that occasion, is that, in this Holy House though not at that time, there would be people, males and females, of that standard of excellence to face the challenge of falsehood, with the force of their truthfulness. No wonder if one takes the tragedy of Karbala as the maximum challenging of falsehood wherein the fifth member of the Holy Team on this challenging occasion took the souls, the sons, the daughters and wives of his Holy House to bring down the heavenly curse on his opponents and their followers and gained the Everlasting Victory of Truth over falsehood.

Hence whoever is included in this verse and Verse 33:33, is undoubtedly included in the term ‘Siddeeq al-Akbar’ i.e., the Greatest Truthful, and ‘Shaheed’ i.e., The Martyr, and if there were any others, males or females entitled to these terms at that time they would have been included. This is supported by what Ali has said: -

“Ana Siddiq ul-Akbar wa Farooq ul-Aazam

La Yad’aeeyahunn ghairi illa Kazzab”

I am the ‘Siddiq al-Akbar’ (the Greatest Truthful) and the ‘Farooq al-Aazam’ (The Greatest Distinguisher of Truth and Falsehood) None shall claim this besides me save the greatest Liar.

The question that on such an important occasion of ‘Mubahila’ how the children of three and four years were taken; what part could the minors play in the prayers and the Test of Truth? The answer to this question and that of as similar nature, is that when Ali was called at the commencement of the Holy Prophet’s mission and at the ‘Dawate Asheera’, i.e., the Historic invitation to the nearest kin of the Holy Prophet to embrace Islam, that the Prophet’s call was not his call, i.e., not of his own accord, but was the order or by the permission of God who has found in these particular children what He has found in Jesus and John when He gave them the ‘Nubuwwah’, i.e., prophethood, the ‘Kitab’ (Book) and ‘Hikmat’, i.e., Wisdom. It is true that intellectual maturity is the necessary condition for man’s becoming fit for responsibility towards the divine order, and that the intellectual maturity does not develop during babyhood and at the age of ten or thirteen, but there are persons who are exceptions to the ordinary rule of nature and of those exceptional persons are the chosen persons of the House of Abraham, of which John, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Ali, Fatimah, Hasan and Husayn as the outstanding personalities.

The term ‘Anfusona’, though plural, does not include the Holy Prophet himself, as it would be meaningless as one to call himself, but it means that whoever is included in the term is identical in soul and spirit with the Holy Prophet who summons the Contest. The distinction of being presented as the Prophet’s soul and self, is so exalting that no creature of the angelic order or of the human rank can compete with Ali in this regard. As already referred to, there are authentic traditions in support of this lofty status of Ali. When asked about some of his companions, the Holy Prophet when speaking about them did not mention the name of Ali. When asked ‘What about Ali?’ the Holy Prophet replied: ‘You asked me about the people; you did not ask about my ‘Nafs’ Self or Soul. The Holy Prophet told Boraida: ‘O’ Boraida! hate not Ali. Verily he is of me and I am of him. People are created of different trunks, and I and Ali are of one and the same.’ In the battle of Uhud Gabriel pointing out Ali’s sacrifices there, exclaimed, ‘What a wonderful sacrifice.’ The Holy Prophet replied ‘O’ Gabriel! Verily he is of me and I am of him.’ The Angel replied: ‘Yes! I am of you both. The same expression of the Holy Prophet, has been recorded on the occasion of sending Ali to preach the first verses of the Sura al-Bar’at, and it had been such an established fact about Ali’s status that it was known to Sahabas (the Companions of the Holy Prophet) and their followers, that even the traditionists who were careful as far as possible not to narrate any traditions which were in favour of Ali, had to helplessly state them, and Bukhari has gone to the extent of putting it in the headlines of his Chapter ‘Manaqib’.

The same identical status of Ali with the Holy Prophet has been declared by the Holy Prophet for Fatimah, Hasan, and Husayn saying: ‘Fatimah is a part of mine, whoever annoyeth her annoyeth me.’ And in some other places the Holy Prophet has been reported to have declared about Fatimah ‘Whoever maketh her angry hath made me angry’, ‘Fatimah is the Chief of the ladies of Paradise.’ The same expression has been recorded about Hasan and Husayn, that they are the Two Chiefs of the Youths of Paradise, and they (both) are Imams (divinely commissioned guides) be they active or retired. The Holy Prophet has also declared ‘Husayn is of me and I am of Husayn.’

From the above statement of the Holy Prophet and many of his other declarations supported by the above passage of the Holy Qur’an, along with Verse 33:33 that these Five personalities have been considered as a class clearly distinguished from the rest of the followers from among the people. The Holy Qur’an has consecrated and exalted them to an extent that it is beyond the reach of everyone. They have been declared by the Holy Qur’an and the Holy Prophet as the people of the House ‘Ahl Al-Bayt.’

It is therefore surprising that some theologians should dispute the application of the term ‘Sahabi’ to Hasan and Husayn in the sense they have coined it, saying that Sahabi is the Muslim who saw the Holy Prophet or the Muslim who saw the Holy Prophet and heard from him something. In view of this definition of the term ‘Sahabi’, they disputed the inclusion of the children of the companions who were minors at the time of the Holy Prophet and hence made the position of Hasan and Husayn disputable. It is immaterial whether the term of their coinage is applicable to Hasan and Husayn, Ali or Fatimah or not, for they are admittedly included in the ‘Aate-Tat’heer’ 33:33 and ‘Aaya al-Mubahila.’ God has treated them as the majors of the majors, let the critics treat them as they like. They are the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’, to call them ‘Sahaba’ is far below their highly exalted dignity and position, the test of the ‘Sahabiyat’ i.e., the companionship, is in the amount of the love and attachment to these holy ones. The ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ as a class have been purified but not the ‘Sahabis’ as any class, as the term includes all sorts of the people, good and bad; faithful and unfaithful; sincere and the hypocrites. (A.P.)

Verse 62

Reasoning the story of Jesus and Mary and the actual position of Jesus as an apostle of God and nothing more than that are the facts, i.e., other legends about Jesus being the son of God or God Himself, are false legends and fabricated folklore for there is no god but the One God and none else besides Him.

Verse 63

An open warning to the mischief-mongers.

1. Refer to: 4:157, 4:158, 5:117.

2. Complete thy term.

3. Clear.

4. This promise was to the sincere believers in Jesus, of his time, before the advent of the Holy Prophet and thereafter to those good Christians who with then faith in what Jesus prophesied, embraced Islam.

5. Refers to those who disbelieved during Jesus time and thereafter disbelieved in the Holy Prophet.

6. This clearly establishes that there will be helpers for the sinners among the sincere believers. On the Day of Judgement - i.e. the divinely permitted intercessors.

7. Refer to: 2:254, 4:85, 34:23, 19:86, 39:44, 20:109, 74:48, 21:28, 10:3, 43:86.

8. Quran.

9. The Prophet addressed for the people.

10. Disputants.

11. Jesus or the argument forwarded.

12. The nearest or the dearest as the very soul itself.

13. Supplicate.

14. Note This Verse is a reference to the historic ‘Mubahila’ or The Spiritual Contest with The Christians of Najran - when The Holy Prophet declared the personnel of his Ahl Al-Bayt.

15. The whole argument.

16. Ar. ‘Azeez’.

17. Behold that.

18. Irrenus I.I.C. 23 and C. Epiphan Haeres 24 num 111.

19. Photius, Bible Cod 114, col. 291.

20. Tolands’ Nazrenus p. 17 and c.

21. B.H. Vol. II, p. 14.

22. Acts 3/24, 3/22-25, Gen. 18/20, Gen. 17/7-8, John 1/19-21, John 14/7-8, John 14/26, John 16/12, 13.

23. Vide 16:43; 21:7.

24. Refer to 33:46.

25. Refer to 4:7, 4:11.

Aal ’Imran Section 7 - Invitation To The Followers Of The Book To Unity Of God As A Common Basis Of Faith

The controversy with the Jews and the Christians and the invitation to the Jews to a common basis of faith.

Aal ’Imran Verses 64 - 71

قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ تَعَالَوْا إِلَىٰ كَلِمَةٍ سَوَاءٍ بَيْنَنَا وَبَيْنَكُمْ أَلَّا نَعْبُدَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ وَلَا نُشْرِكَ بِهِ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَتَّخِذَ بَعْضُنَا بَعْضًا أَرْبَابًا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ ۚ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُولُوا اشْهَدُوا بِأَنَّا مُسْلِمُونَ

“Say; “O’ people of the Book, come ye to a Word 1 Common 2 between us and you, that we worship 3 none but God and shall not associate 4 anything with Him and some of us take not any others for lords 5 other than God;” and if they turn back; then say ye: “Bear ye witness that we are Muslims 6 (those surrendered unto God)” (3:64).

يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تُحَاجُّونَ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَتِ التَّوْرَاةُ وَالْإِنْجِيلُ إِلَّا مِنْ بَعْدِهِ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ

“O’ ye People of the BOOK! Why dispute ye about Abraham when the Law 7 and the Evangel 8 were not sent down till after him? (what?) Do ye not then understand (so much)?” (3:65).

هَا أَنْتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ حَاجَجْتُمْ فِيمَا لَكُمْ بِهِ عِلْمٌ فَلِمَ تُحَاجُّونَ فِيمَا لَيْسَ لَكُمْ بِهِ عِلْمٌ ۚ وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

“Lo! ye are those who disputed about which ye had knowledge; but why dispute ye about which ye have no knowledge? And God knoweth and ye know not!” (3:66).

مَا كَانَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ يَهُودِيًّا وَلَا نَصْرَانِيًّا وَلَٰكِنْ كَانَ حَنِيفًا مُسْلِمًا وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ

“Abraham was neither Jew nor Christian; but upright in faith (was he) a Muslim; and he was not of the polytheists 9 “ (3:67).

إِنَّ أَوْلَى النَّاسِ بِإِبْرَاهِيمَ لَلَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُ وَهَٰذَا النَّبِيُّ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“Verily, of men the nearest 10 to Abraham, are surely those who followed him and this (Our) Prophet (Muhammad) and those who believe; and verily, God is the Guardian 11 of the faithful 12 “ (3:68).

وَدَّتْ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ لَوْ يُضِلُّونَكُمْ وَمَا يُضِلُّونَ إِلَّا أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُونَ

“A group among the people of the Book would fain mislead you; while they mislead not but themselves, but they sense it not” (3:69).

يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَأَنْتُمْ تَشْهَدُونَ

“O’ People of the Book why do ye disbelieve the signs of God while ye yourselves witness (them)?” (3:70).

يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَلْبِسُونَ الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

“O’ people of the Book: Why confound ye the truth with falsehood, and why hide ye the truth while ye know (it)?” (3:71).

Commentary

Verse 64

This verse loudly speaks out the main policy of Islam and the Holy Prophet Muhammad about the dealing with the non-Muslims, which to maintain peace and general social harmony while preaching the Truth.

The original scriptures possessed by both the Jews and the Christians, preached nothing but the Unity of God, which is the basic principle of the faith, Islam. The belief in the other man-gods and the worship of the priests and the other holy men was a later innovation and a fanciful grafting which is referred to in 9:31. The verse enjoins to invite the Jews and the Christians to the point of the faith in one God which is the common demand of all the three religions. And since the belief in other than the absolute Unity of God, is nothing but ‘Shirk’ (i.e., associating others with God), which is abhorred in Islam, the Muslims have been informed to dissociate with the Jews and the Christians in their faith, just to make them know that the Muslims being the pure monotheists, without anything to do with any of their own fanciful fabrications about the godhead of Moses or Jesus.

From the beginning of this chapter, Qur’an has laid down such principles to be taken as the common ground for argument between the people of the scriptures to settle the disputable question. Of these principles, the fundamental is the Unity of God, not only as the Ultimate Creative Authority but as the Ultimate and the Absolute Sovereign Lord of the universe before whose Legislative Will or Order, all have to submit. Everyone has to surrender to His Will and obey Him as the sole object of worship, Reverence and Obedience. All beings of the angelical, human, animal or of the other spheres, and the nature in the heavens and in the earth and in between, though one may be greater than the other, are the created ones of His, subordinate as slaves and subservient to Him.

To associate anything in any stage as a separate authority besides Him is ‘Shirk’ or Polytheism. After arguing the case of Jesus being wrongly defied, here Qur’an addresses the people of the Book and warns them to be alive to the fundamental principle common to all who believe in the Absolute Authority and the Sovereignty of God. Whatever view or doctrine they may hold, it should be based on the divine declaration. The view of the doctrines laid down by any individual or anybody of the people, as right or wrong should have no value whatsoever as adherence to such views means holding others as authorities besides God. The principle is free of all doctrinal controversies which created sects and the various contestant schools after each prophet as Qur’an says in 3:19.

If the followers of the prophets had strictly adhered to the Word of God and the sayings of their respective prophets without any interference from their own selves, and had not allowed the ambitious priesthood to exercise its own discretion for its selfish ends, there would not have been any division or dissension among the people of the various scriptures. The Muslims in this regard are not exempted from this warning. To adhere to the doctrines and follow the views not based on Qur’an and the authentic sayings of the Holy Prophet, amounts to obedience to other than God and to hold the others as the authority besides Him. But to pay respect, regard or reverence to those who were the embodiment of absolute obedience and submission to God, is itself the obedience and submission to God Himself. Remembrance and the commemoration of such godly ones is itself the service and devotion to God’s order by Him13. It is particularly mentioned here so that the two issues might not be confused.

In short, every Muslim should always be on guard against any of his actions being motivated with anything other than the divine authority and order.

It must also be borne in mind that worshipping God and obedience to Him, is to follow the prophets sent by Him and those who have been declared by them as their successors and their representatives. To consider them as having been declared to be so, and following them means nothing but obedience and worship to God. But if they have been considered to be more or less than what they have been declared to be, or if people other than them are considered to be of the same status without- having any divine declaration to that effect, would amount to admitting the other authorities besides God’s14.

Verse 65

The dispute referred to in this verse is of the Jews and the Christians claiming that the faith of Abraham was the same as theirs.

“The Jewish belief is also difficult to define. Time was when it was grossly anthropomorphic and ‘monolatros’ (as Charles expressively calls it) The Yahweh was only the tribal God of Israel, the gods of other nations were not false, but it was the duty of Israelites to reject them. As culture extended the other gods began to be denied and Yahweh remained the sole Lord and anthropomorphism also decreased and explanations were devised to interpret passages in the Pentateuch that spoke of God as walking in the gardens, fighting duels with men and the like”15.

Verse 65-68 In further consolidation of the fundamental principle common to all the revealed religions and the people of the scripture, Qur’an warns the Jews and the Christians against their attempt to give racial, parochial or any other colour of their own fancy to the religion of God. The Jews would consider Abraham to be a Jew and the Christian hold him to be a Nazarene. Qur’an refutes this argument saying that these religious colours came to stay after the revelation of Torah and the Evangel, but the Religion of God comes down from Adam and shall continue to the end of the world. Hence it should be presented in the most comprehensive and universal term, which means the changes and the substitution of prophets, alterations in the commandments of the laws, does not affect the unity of the religion prescribed by God16. The Religion is Islam, which means total submission to God’s Will, Authority, and His Absolute Sovereignty. Changes in the subordinate rules and regulations do not affect the Sovereignty but rather confirms it. Abraham as well as the other prophets preceding him and those who followed him, all were Muslims, not Jews or Christians or Mohammadans. The nearest to Abraham were not those who were his mere descendants but those who followed him faithfully. And how closest attached to Abraham is the Holy Prophet and his faithful adherents and God is the closest One to all the believers. (A.P.)

Verse 66

Beware, you, (the Jews and the Christians) are those who dispute about the knowledge which you have about the identity of our Prophet Muhammad, the details about whom you know from your own scriptures which you possess. How can you know about Abraham whom you do not know, and God alone knows him, i.e., about the faith of Abraham.

Verse 67

The position of Abraham with regard to his faith is made clear. The word ‘Muslim’ used for Abraham indicates that Islam is not a new religion, and the word ‘Muslim’ has been the term used for everyone who submits himself to God irrespective of the age even prior to the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Thus, submission to God, done in any part of the world in any age, by any people, if done duly, was Islam. ‘Islam’ is only an Arabic word meaning submission and one who had done this had been a Muslim.

Verse 68

i.e., The nearest of the people to Abraham during his time were those who followed him, and in this age this Prophet (i.e., the Holy Prophet Muhammad) and those who believe as the Holy Prophet Muhammad does.

Amirul-Momineen Ali-Ibn-Abi Talib says that the nearest to the Holy Prophet is he who obeys God though he might not be related to him, and the enemy of the Holy Prophet is he who disobeys God though he might be related to him. The fourth Holy Imam Zainul-Abideen says: ‘The Paradise is for the pious, be he an Abyssinian slave and the Hell is for the wicked, be he a Quraishite Syed, i.e., a descendant of the Holy Prophet.’ (M.S. U.B. F.A.)

Verse 69

The Jews were always inviting Huzaif al-Yamani and Ammar Yasir and other faithful followers of the Holy Prophet to join their faith (i.e. Judaism). But these great Muslims never paid any heed to the invitations.

It needs to be considered a little seriously that perfect obedience to God means the perfect obedience to the Holy Prophet. And perfect obedience to the Holy Prophet means the unconditional love, perfect love of the Holy Prophet and everything he loves. How can those who sat quite in a safe place without taking part in the battle which was for the survival of the faith, and those who even ran away from it, leaving the Holy Prophet in the midst of the fighting enemy, be ever justifiably termed as friends of the Holy Prophet, and how can those who were the bloodthirsty enemies of the ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ of the Holy Prophet, whom he loved the most, be the nearest ones to him? Will they not be the hidden enemies and the worst hypocrites?

Verse 70

This verse speaks of the appeal to reason and to the conscience, which Islam always makes in inviting the people to the Truth.

Verse 71

It is made clear by this verse that the Jews and the Christians knew the truth about the apostleship of the Holy Prophet and the main doctrine of the Unity of God which Islam re-preached, but they had been confounding the Truth with falsehood of their own.

1. Term.

2. Equally agreeable.

3. Supplicate - pray - in absolute Submission.

4. Submission to - as an authority.

5. Ar. ‘Rabb’.

6. Those Submitted themselves to God. Refer to: 9:31.

7. The Torah - the Scripture given to Moses.

8. The Injeel - The Scripture given to Jesus.

9. Those who associate others with God in authority.

10. Note - nearness Vests in faithful following - while the son of Noah was disowned. Refer to Verses 11:45, 11:46.

11. Ar. – ‘Wali’

12. Refer to: 42:48.

13. Refer to: 38:48; 38:49.

14. Refer to: 9:31; 4:69; 4:80. (A.P.)

15. B.H. Vol. II p. 53

16. Refer to: 2:128, 22:78.

Aal ’Imran Section 8 - Attempts to Discredit Islam

A show of false belief followed by relapse, Their dishonest dealings with others, Their alteration of scriptures, Claim to divinity not to be attributable to any apostle.

Aal ’Imran Verses 72 – 80

وَقَالَتْ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ آمِنُوا بِالَّذِي أُنْزِلَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَجْهَ النَّهَارِ وَاكْفُرُوا آخِرَهُ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

“And said a group of the people of the Book, “Believe in what hath been sent down to the believers 1 at daybreak and deny it at its close perchance (by this device) they may return (to disbelief)” (3:72).

وَلَا تُؤْمِنُوا إِلَّا لِمَنْ تَبِعَ دِينَكُمْ قُلْ إِنَّ الْهُدَىٰ هُدَى اللَّهِ أَنْ يُؤْتَىٰ أَحَدٌ مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيتُمْ أَوْ يُحَاجُّوكُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّكُمْ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ الْفَضْلَ بِيَدِ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ

“(And they say) And believe not in any but those who follow your religion; Say (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) “Verily, the (true) guidance is the guidance from God; ‘(envy ye) that to any other (also) hath been given the like of what hath been given to you; or (fear ye that) they (would) dispute you in the presence of your Lord”. Say, Thou, - “Grace is in the hands of God; He granteth 2 it unto whomsoever He liketh; and verily, God is Omniscient, All-Knowing” (3:73).

يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ

“He singleth 3 out for His mercy whomsoever He liketh; and verily, God is (the Lord) of Great Grace” (3:74).

وَمِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ مَنْ إِنْ تَأْمَنْهُ بِقِنْطَارٍ يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكَ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ إِنْ تَأْمَنْهُ بِدِينَارٍ لَا يُؤَدِّهِ إِلَيْكَ إِلَّا مَا دُمْتَ عَلَيْهِ قَائِمًا ۗ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ قَالُوا لَيْسَ عَلَيْنَا فِي الْأُمِّيِّينَ سَبِيلٌ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

“And from among the people of the Book are such whom if thou entrust (even) a heap of Gold, he will restore it unto thee: and from among them are such whom if thou entrust (even) a dinar, he will not restore it unto thee unless thou keepeth standing firmly upon him demanding it; This because they say “It is not incumbent on us” (to be faithful) to the ignorant and they utter a lie against God while they know (what they do is wrong)” (3:75).

بَلَىٰ مَنْ أَوْفَىٰ بِعَهْدِهِ وَاتَّقَىٰ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الْمُتَّقِينَ

“Yea, whoso keepeth his promise 4 and guardeth himself (against evil), for 5 verily, God loveth those who guard themselves (against evil)” (3:76).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَشْتَرُونَ بِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ وَأَيْمَانِهِمْ ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا أُولَٰئِكَ لَا خَلَاقَ لَهُمْ فِي الْآخِرَةِ وَلَا يُكَلِّمُهُمُ اللَّهُ وَلَا يَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلَا يُزَكِّيهِمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

“Verily 6 , they who barter their covenant with God and their oaths for a paltry price 7 ; These! are they for whom there is no share in the hereafter, and God will not speak to them will not look towards them on the Day of Resurrection; nor will He purify them, and for them (shall be) a grievous punishment” (3:77).

وَإِنَّ مِنْهُمْ لَفَرِيقًا يَلْوُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُمْ بِالْكِتَابِ لِتَحْسَبُوهُ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ وَمَا هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ وَيَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبَ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

“And verily among them is a group who twist 8 their tongues (with) the book that ye may reckon it to be of the Book, but it is not of the Book, and they say, “It is from God”, and it is not From God; and they tell a lie against God while they know (it well)” (3:78).

مَا كَانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَنْ يُؤْتِيَهُ اللَّهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحُكْمَ وَالنُّبُوَّةَ ثُمَّ يَقُولَ لِلنَّاسِ كُونُوا عِبَادًا لِي مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَلَٰكِنْ كُونُوا رَبَّانِيِّينَ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تُعَلِّمُونَ الْكِتَابَ وَبِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَدْرُسُونَ

“It is not for a man, that God should give him the Book and Judgment and apostleship and yet he should say to people, “Be ye worshippers of me, besides God’s”; but rather, (he would say) “Be ye godly 9 what ye teach the Book and what ye read (yourselves)” (3:79).

وَلَا يَأْمُرَكُمْ أَنْ تَتَّخِذُوا الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ أَرْبَابًا ۗ أَيَأْمُرُكُمْ بِالْكُفْرِ بَعْدَ إِذْ أَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ

“And 10 nor would he enjoin you that ye should take the Angels and the Apostles for lords: What! would he enjoin you with disbelief after ye are ‘Muslims’ 11 unto God?” (3:80).

Commentary

Verse 72

To make a show of belief for some time and then to avow that they were mistaken; this was one of the tactics which the Jews had been adopting to at least create doubts in the minds of the simple-minded ignorant people about Islam. But they were never successful in this device also, as in their other plans and intrigues.

This tactic of the opponents of posing as impartial seekers of truth by accepting some doctrinal views and denying the other ones, or accepting the doctrine for some time and rejecting them afterwards, is an old trick played by the Jews and the Christians against Islam and it was continued to be played by the ruling party in Islam against the Holy House of the Prophet and its devoted adherents. It can be noticed in the authentic books of traditions and the theology sponsored by the ruling party. While the author narrates some of the sayings of the Holy Prophet in favour of the ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ to show his impartiality, he narrates side by side some spurious traditions which nullify the previous one or reduces its importance. The same is the case with the modern orientalists who pose to be very impartial when writing about Islam, and some of them go to the extent of praising Islam to camouflage or conceal their bigotry and then vomit the venom against it. (A.P.)

Verse 73

Grace stands for knowledge and wisdom. It may mean prophethood, which position is the highest grace of God. (B.H.)

Regarding the grammatical construction of the clauses in this verse, there are several possibilities given by the commentators. The clearest one to us, is to take the clause ‘believe not save the one who follows your religion’ as the supplementary clause co-ordinating with the previous clause ‘believe that which. The following clause is given by the Qur’an in the refutation of their statement, that they are wrong in their narrow-mindedness in confining to their doctrine which they followed. It says that guidance is God’s, Who can give it, and has given the same what you have been given, or to give them the means to argue against you before your Lord. (A.P.)

Verse 74

Mercy here means Prophethood, Islam or the revelation, i.e. of the Holy Quran. (UB. M.S.).

From ‘Man Yasha’... (i.e., whomsoever He likes, some commentators infer that God’s blessings is not based on merit but at His will. This does not mean that His will is arbitrary, not based on His wisdom. His will is not restricted by any external condition, but it cannot be denied that His wisdom dominates His will, and His wisdom and His justice do not give any room for any arbitrary action. (A.P.)

Verse 75

It is quite evident from this verse as to how far and how much Islam stresses upon the discharge of a trust. Note the appreciation and the admiration of the quality even in the enemies of the faith as in the faithful which indicates as to how essentially it must be expected of the Muslims.

The amount of importance attached to Trusts by Islam, is evident from the verses 4:58, 33:72, 8:27, 16:90, 4:135 which means undertaking and shouldering responsibility towards others. In this sense, one’s responsibility and undertaking towards God, is estimated. Whatever we possess of the senses and the faculties, is an endowment entrusted to us by God. Man is responsible to use it according to His will and order.

Some are the obligations and the responsibilities of man to each other. All the promises, contracts, pacts and the covenants, whether political, economic or social, according to Qur’an come under the principle of trust. The prophet of Islam was so cautious about trusts throughout his life that even his deadliest enemies had utmost faith in his reliability, and was popularly known as the ‘Al-Ameen’ (i.e., The Trustworthy), or (the Trusted one). They used to deposit their valuable things even at the time of the hostility. When he was forced to leave Mecca, he handed over the deposits to Ali to restore them to the respective owners on his behalf. When he came back to Mecca as a victor or a conqueror, he called for the key of the Holy Ka’ba, and after cleaning the Holy House of the idols, he returned the key to the old custodian saving: ‘I am ordered to return the trust to the owner.’ The Holy Prophet said that ‘All the customs, the rules and the regulations of the pagan days, are under my feet save the trust that shall be fulfilled or restored to the people, be they good or bad’. The Holy Prophet said that there are three things if done by any person, he is a hypocrite, though he may stick to prayer and be fasting and think himself to be a believer:

If he talks, he tells lies.

If he promises, he breaks.

If trusted, he cheats.

Having this noble principle as the basis of the Islamic Social, Economic and Political life, Qur’an criticises the narrowminded tendency of the Jewish and the Christian people of no responsibility towards the non- Jewish and the non-Christians.

Islam enjoins Justice, Fulfilment of Promises and the Holding of Trust for others, no matter whatever be their caste, creed or faith, and whatever be their attitude towards the Muslims, be that hostile or friendly. And these three qualities are counted among the principal requisites of piety.

‘Qintaar’, i.e., The maximum gold measurement.

‘Dinar’, i.e., The minimum gold measurement.

Verse 76

Fulfilment of a covenant or a promise and piety is preached on condition for one to be loved by God.

‘Bait’ or allegiance to the Holy Prophet or the acceptance of the faith, is a covenant or a promise of fidelity to him, which is actually a covenant with God. Those who desert the Holy Prophet on every occasion and particularly in battles deciding the fate of the faith, have actually broken the Covenant.

Piety means guarding one’s self against evil, both in thought as well as action. And those who desert the Holy Prophet on any occasion in thought and action have actually deserted the good and joined the evil. To know those who have done this during the time of the Holy Prophet a sincere seeker after the truth may refer to the Islamic history of that period.

Verse 77

‘To take, purchase or to exchange for a little price’, i.e., to forfeit or surrender or give up the truth for a paltry sum, i.e., for the profit of this world or for some enjoyment of the earthly life which, however much it may seem to anyone, is in fact nothing when compared to the reward in the life hereafter. Note the penalty for doing so against which people are warned that God will not speak to them, i.e., no appeal from such ones will be heard and God will not look towards them, i.e., no amount of imploration and repentance on the part of such people will then have the least value to qualify the individuals for any merciful attention nor shall such convicts be purified for any later merciful consideration of their cases, meaning that the conviction or the condemnation shall be final and for ever.

‘Ahdallah’.. .The Covenant accepting God’s Sovereignty. (A.P.)

Verse 78

‘Yalo’na’ Alsinatahum’ corrupting the correct recital of the Book with unnecessarily twisted tongues with the evil motive of contriving the pronunciation, leading to the wrong meanings of the original words. This was the most feasible course adopted by the Jews and the Christians as regards the original version of the Torah and the Evangel. The Holy Qur’an also when it was first inscribed on various materials and was in the position of the half-hearted believers and the hypocrites, different kinds of recitals were assigned to one and the same version by the seven different reciters of the Qur’an. But only Ali and the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt knew the correct pronunciation of each letter of the Holy Book for it was only Ali and none else who was with the Holy Prophet from the very start of the revelation of the Holy Book until it was concluded, all the others joined the ranks of the Muslims during: the course of the ministry of the Holy Prophet. Besides, Ali alone and none else remained always with the Holy Prophet both in his domestic as well as his Public life. And it is about Ali, the Holy Prophet had declared that:

“Verily, the Holy Qur’an has been revealed with seven letters of which there is no letter which has not a manifest and a latent meaning. And Ali Ibn Abi Talib, with him is the manifest and the latent (of it). (Saheeh Bukhari).

The twisting of pronunciation was particularly easy with the words of the language owing to the then imperfect or the crude and the defective system of writing.

After convening the people of the Book who had broken the divine covenant and had gone against their oaths and solemn promises for a limited interest, Qur’an refers to the other group who tried to pose as talking on the authority of the scripture and falsely claiming the statements to be from God.

Utmost care was taken by Ahl Al-Bayt and their adherents to guard Qur’an against such mis recitations which were liable to affect the originality and the significance of the meaning. (A.P.)

Verse 79

‘Rabbani’ meaning a highly learned holy man devoutly devoted to God (root-being Rab, i.e. Lord). Hence Rabbani, one who possesses the knowledge of the Lord, i.e., God. A teacher of religious knowledge. Abu-Rafe, a Jew, one of the chiefs of Najran asked the Holy Prophet, ‘Dost thou O’ Muhammad want us to worship thee? The Holy Prophet replied: ‘I seek refuge in God against my worshipping anyone else other than God or enjoining upon anybody to worship any one besides Him.’ On this occasion was revealed this verse. (M.S.,U.B.)

This verse clearly indicates that no prophet could ever have preached to his people to take him as a god or worship him in God’s place. If any people have taken any of the Prophets, including Jesus, as God or worship him in the place of God it is their own innovation, and it is a calumny against the Prophet if any such thing is assigned to his teachings.

Verse 80

A precautionary warning to Muslims not to deify any personality, whatever the degree of [the excellence be that, either of the apostolic or saintly order, and not to consider them anything more than the true and the obedient servants of God though in degree some of them may be above the others, yet all are His created ones and equally subordinate to His will and order.

Another point to be noted is the admonishing clause to practice to the extreme, the contents of the Book which they used to preach and to exemplify by their deeds, the lessons they had to teach to the people.

In the last clause of Verse 79 it is pointed out that all the above negative and the positive statements are contained in the term Islam. (A.P.)

Angels are mentioned here because the pagans worshipped the angels as the daughters of their god.

1. The Muslims.

2. Refer to: 2:269, 3:26.

3. Chooseth. Vide 2:105.

4. Applicable to the Covenant or the Bait or the promise taken at Ghadir Khumm under Verse 5:67.

5. This is the reply understood.

6. Refer to: 2:174.

7. of some worldly profit.

8. Distorting it.

9. Divine.

10. Vide 19:93.

11. Become Muslims i.e. Submitted ourselves to God.

Aal ’Imran Section 9 - Previous Scriptures Confirm the Truth of Islam.

Covenant taken from all prophets to support the Holy Prophet (Muhammad), Islam natural religion of man, enjoins equal belief in the truthfulness of all the apostles of God, End of those who turn away from Islam.

Aal ’Imran Verses 81 - 91

وَإِذْ أَخَذَ اللَّهُ مِيثَاقَ النَّبِيِّينَ لَمَا آتَيْتُكُمْ مِنْ كِتَابٍ وَحِكْمَةٍ ثُمَّ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مُصَدِّقٌ لِمَا مَعَكُمْ لَتُؤْمِنُنَّ بِهِ وَلَتَنْصُرُنَّهُ ۚ قَالَ أَأَقْرَرْتُمْ وَأَخَذْتُمْ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكُمْ إِصْرِي ۖ قَالُوا أَقْرَرْنَا ۚ قَالَ فَاشْهَدُوا وَأَنَا مَعَكُمْ مِنَ الشَّاهِدِينَ

“And when God took the pledge 1 of the Prophets, “Verily, what I have given you of the Book and (of) Wisdom - then cometh a Prophet 2 unto you confirming that which is with you; Ye shall surely believe in him and help him”; He 3 said: “Do you affirm and accept to take up (on these terms’) my burden (which I lay upon you)”; They said “We affirm;” He said: “Bear ye then the witness (among yourselves) and I am a witness with you” (3:81).

فَمَنْ تَوَلَّىٰ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ

“Therefore, whoever turneth away after this, these are they that are the transgressors” (3:82).

أَفَغَيْرَ دِينِ اللَّهِ يَبْغُونَ وَلَهُ أَسْلَمَ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ طَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا وَإِلَيْهِ يُرْجَعُونَ

“Seek they other than the religion of God? when unto Him submitteth whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly and unto Him they shall be returned” (3:83).

قُلْ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَمَا أُوتِيَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ وَالنَّبِيُّونَ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ

“Say: 4 (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) (unto the people) “We believe in God, and in what hath been sent down to us, and what hath been sent down to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the Tribes, and in what was given to Moses, and Jesus and the Prophets from their Lord, we make no difference between any of them, and we unto Him are Muslims 5 “ (3:84).

وَمَنْ يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الْإِسْلَامِ دِينًا فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ وَهُوَ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ

“And 6 whosoever Seeketh any religion other than Islam 7 (total resignation unto God) never shall it be accepted from him, and in the next world 8 he shall be among the losers” (3:85).

كَيْفَ يَهْدِي اللَّهُ قَوْمًا كَفَرُوا بَعْدَ إِيمَانِهِمْ وَشَهِدُوا أَنَّ الرَّسُولَ حَقٌّ وَجَاءَهُمُ الْبَيِّنَاتُ ۚ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ

“How shall God guide a people who disbelieved after 9 their (once) believing and after they had borne witness that the Apostle (Muhammad) was true, and clear evidence had come unto them; and God guideth not people (who are) unjust” (3:86).

أُولَٰئِكَ جَزَاؤُهُمْ أَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ لَعْنَةَ اللَّهِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ

“These 10 , their return is that upon them shall rest the curse 11 of God and the angels and of mankind together” (3:87).

خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا لَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْظَرُونَ

“Therein shall they abide, their torment shall not be lightened, nor shall they be respited” (3:88).

إِلَّا الَّذِينَ تَابُوا مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ وَأَصْلَحُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ

“Except those who after this 12 repent and amend 13 ; for verily God is Forgiving Merciful!” (3:89).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بَعْدَ إِيمَانِهِمْ ثُمَّ ازْدَادُوا كُفْرًا لَنْ تُقْبَلَ تَوْبَتُهُمْ وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الضَّالُّونَ

“Verily 14 , those who disbelieve after their believing, then increase in their infidelity; never shall their repentance be accepted, and these are they who have gone astray” (3:90).

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَمَاتُوا وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ فَلَنْ يُقْبَلَ مِنْ أَحَدِهِمْ مِلْءُ الْأَرْضِ ذَهَبًا وَلَوِ افْتَدَىٰ بِهِ ۗ أُولَٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ نَاصِرِينَ

“Verily, those who disbelieve and die while they are disbelievers, never shall be accepted even earthful of gold from any of them, if he should offer it in ransom, these, for them awaiteth a painful torment and for them (there shall be) no helpers” (3:91).

Commentary

Verse 81

‘Meethaq’ a covenant. It signifies the Covenant of God made with the Prophet and Allah.

This must have been in the pre-existence state, before they were born in this world.

The Covenant of God with His Apostle was that they would be given the scripture and wisdom and after every one of them had played his respective role of preaching to his people the truth and the right way to salvation then would come the Holy Prophet (Muhammad) verifying that which is with them, i.e., testifying their truthfulness and the scriptures given to them. They must not only believe in the Holy Prophet’s position as the last one of the Apostles but also assist or aid him by describing his personality beforehand and prophesying his advent to their respective peoples. God took a firm and a positively affirming reply from the apostles and also warned them to be aware that He shall Himself be a witness to their fulfilling the covenant that they executed.

The scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments though they contain nothing, but some old reminiscences yet clearly prove that the prophecy about the advent of the last of the apostles of God, the Holy Prophet Muhammad, was dominant and unforgettable and not a negligible factor of the teachings of the Apostles of yore that whatever else might have been lost but this was not to be a forgettable factor. The question put to John the Baptist about his identity asking him if he was Elias or Christ and his replying in the negative and then his being asked by the Levites if he was ‘That Prophet’ shows how, the people had remembered particularly the prophecies about the Last Prophet they had from the previous apostles of God and how eagerly they waited for his advent.

What the Apostle of God Moses had prophesised to his people is recorded in Deut. 18/15, 18, 19, Acts 3/22-24, Acts 7/37.

“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken”

“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him”

“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him” Deut. 18/15, 18, 19.

“For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you”

“And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people”

“Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days Acts. 3/22-24”

“This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear” Acts 7/37.

“And this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him. Who art thou?”

“And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ”

“And they asked him. What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No” (John 1/19-21).

Jesus the last one of the Israelite line of the apostles of God, has prophesied about the advent of the Holy Prophet with great clarity, with a further description of his personality. (John 14/16, 17 John 15/26 and John 16, 7-14).

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for-ever”

“Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” John 14/16,17.

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” John 15/26.

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.

“Of sin, because they believe not on me.

“Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more”

“Of judgement because the prince of this world is judged.

“How be it when he the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will shew you things to”

“He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you” John 16/7-14.

The above references clearly give out the various titles with which Jesus has referred to the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Jesus has definitely declared that what the Spirit of Truth, i.e., the Holy Prophet, will preach, will be the final guidance from God and it shall be current for ever and he, in spirit also, shall abide with his people for ever.

The meaning of the declaration in John 14/16. ‘that he may abide with you for ever’ can also be that there shall always be on the earth some one of his own blood and flesh, i.e., of his own issues with perfect identity with him in the purity of his body and soul15 and with the perfection of the knowledge of the truth he preached. This testifies the existence of an Imam from the issues of the Holy Prophet in every age until the last day of the life of this world. This also testifies the truth in the declaration of the Holy Prophet about the Holy Imam saying:

“Awwalona Muhammad, Ausatona Muhammad, Akharona Muhammad, Kullona Muhammad”

i.e., the First one of us is Muhammad, The Middle one of us is Muhammad and the Last one of us is Muhammad, Every one of us is Muhammad (i.e., from the Holy Prophet Muhammad to the Last Holy Imam Muhammad Al-Mahdi all are of one and the same Divine Light manifesting the glory of the Lord through various outlets).

This verse if studied properly with all its implications in their details, guides to many funda-mental factors of the Islamic faith, of vital importance to the reader, if he be sincere in his quest for the fuller knowledge about the divine sources of guidance provided, by the All-Merciful Lord for the members of the human family on earth who are earnestly in the quest for the correct course to Salvation.

The verse rings a death knell of all false claimants to the position of ‘Imamat’ for the everlasting stay of the Apostolic office of the ministry of the heavenly guidance has been granted only to the Holy Prophet which clearly indicates that the ‘Imamat’ shall always be in his seed and with none else.

‘Meethaq’, i.e., covenant, used here and also wherever used in the Qur’an and particularly in verses 7:172, 7:173, is thought by some commentators that this reference is made to the pre-physical existence of man, in general and the Prophets in particular. Whether there are stages of human development prior to the stages of the physical birth of man, responsible for the conditions of the present stage, or not, the matter will be dealt with when the question of ‘Rooh’ Spirit and ‘Nafs’, i.e., the Self, will be dealt with. Here it is enough to be noted that the Covenant referred to here or in verses 7:172, 7:173, should be the one of an individual’s accountability for his actions. And there is no such conscious memorable state, prior to the physical birth of man. Any assumption of the existence of any conscious state prior to the physical birth, will give room to the Muslim theologians of all schools.

Regarding the grammatical construction of this passage, there are several possibilities based on the reading of the phrase ‘lema’ or ‘lama’, as to whether it is a relative or a conditional phrase. But whatever be the grammatical implication, it has no substantial bearing on the significance of the passage, and the gist will remain as follows:

That God has made a Covenant with the Prophets, each as an individual and as the Leader of his respective followers, saying, ‘that with all I have given you the scripture and wisdom, when a prophet comes to you confirming your scripture, and the wisdom, you should believe in him and help him.!’ This is in pursuance of Qur’an’s blaming the Jews for not believing in Jesus, and the Christians for not believing in Muhammad, though each of the prophets had come to confirm his predecessor. And Qur’an here declares that this Covenant was taken from every Prophet concerning the Prophet succeeding him, the result of which is that to believe and to help the last one, is a Covenant entered into by every Prophet. However, the Prophets accepted the Covenant and made the promise to be executed by themselves and to witness its being done by their respective followers.

The question is as to how the preceding prophets could help the succeeding one, it is detailed in this note.

A true follower of Moses will fulfil the covenant of God taken from Moses, in his belief in Jesus, and likewise a true Christian would do, in his belief in the Holy Prophet Muhammad.

This applies to the Muslims as well, regarding their fulfilment of the Last Covenant which God took from them through the Holy Prophet Muhammad, at the ‘Ghadir Khumm’ about the ‘Wilayah’ (i.e., Guardianship) of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the Last Divine Trust placed before man for ever, towards which man has been graciously given the continuous lead through an Imam after an Imam in every age, until the last one, divinely kept alive for the guidance of mankind towards this commitment.

However, it should be remembered that the covenant repeatedly referred to by the Qur’an, is implied in the spontaneous confession of every human being, being perceptively conscious of his own self, having been brought into the conscious state from a non-conscious state, by a purposefully active will which is dominating him and his environment. This is called the inherent or the natural submission (Islam al-Fitri). These passages and the preceding ones as well as the succeeding ones, are attempts to introduce the religion prescribed by God for mankind, in the most universal and natural form, automatically appealing to human common sense and the native consciousness of man, setting aside the Jewish, the Christian and the other narrow concepts of religion based on racial, parochial or any other sectional and limited considerations. Thus, one will find all the passages from the beginning of this chapter are directed towards the development of the one object, i.e., the inherent consciousness holding it as the basis of the religious truth to be realised by man for ever. (A.P.)

Verse 82

Those who profess to follow the apostles of God, in spite of all the prophecies they had about the Last Apostle of God, Muhammad, and yet do not believe in him.

Verse 83

The Holy Prophet said that those who willingly submitted to God are the angels and, on the earth, his sincere companions.

The secret about the hatred the non-Muslims have against Islam is that they have suffered at the hands of the so-called Muslim monarchs who were actually, or in fact were not only non-Muslims in their personal character and conduct but also anti-Muslim in their treatment to their subjects, the tragedy is that every crime they committed, they did it, calling themselves as Muslim monarchs and the leaders of the Islamic faith, while in fact they were not. Hence the hatred against their tyrannical conduct bred the hatred against the faith which the tyrants professed to hold and propagate, whereas they were the worst enemies of Islam. Thus, the non-Muslims attributed all the tyrannies they committed, as the practical side of the doctrines of the faith they professed and began, to hate the religion by its very name. Islam in fact means nothing but unconditional and a total submission of one’s self to God.

There are two kinds in submission, one that which is offered willingly and the other done under the force of any influence or for fear of any loss or infliction.

As regards submission to the Divine Will; there is not an atom in the universe which does not act in the fulfilment of the will of the Lord. Man: he may submit his mind and body to God’s will or not, but he is totally subject to the laws of nature which work in complete submission to the will of the Omnipotent Lord.

As knowledge and civilization advance, the world will automatically march towards Islam.

The Hindu polytheism has now become monotheistic.

The Hindu idolaters are gradually becoming anti-idolatrous through the Arya Samaj movement of Dyanand Saraswathi.

The doctrine of Sati in Hinduism has been abolished and is giving place to widow marriage.

Woman’s right in her parents and her husband’s property has been recognized.

Places of worship of the Hindus are now open to all worshippers.

Caste system has been abolished.

Use of intoxicants has been stopped under prohibition.

The belief in the Trinity is giving place to the faith in one God, under the move of the Watch Tower Society.

Attachment to any one particular prophet, in opposition to all the other apostles of God, has given way to the respect for all the religious leaders, under the movement of theosophy.

Undue local patriotism and the illegal aspiration of territorial expansion is being defied by the U.N.O. for universal peace among mankind.

Verse 84

It is a natural demand from God16 that nothing short of complete submission to His will could ever be accepted. Anybody who fails to do it, will naturally be a loser in the end.

Verse 86

This relates to those who having once been believers, i.e., Muslims, disbelieved and became infidels, i.e., ‘Kafirs’ Their repentance shall never be acceptable.

In the light of the previous passage, the justification of the argument is clear, that denial of the succeeding prophets who bear sufficient proof and testimony to the truth of their mission, is an act subversive to the requirement of the inherent Islam Islam al-Fitri and the result would be nothing but missing the benefit of the inner guidance with which God has blessed all.

Verse 87

This refers to the fate of the disbelievers mentioned in the preceding verse 85.

Verse 88

They shall abide in the curse and the chastisement of the Hell for ever.

In asserting the universality of Islam as a religion approved by God, every being of the celestial or the terrestrial nature, is presented here to be submissive to His will, and in Verse 19:93, 19:94, all beings are presented to be subservient to His will. The truth in this is obvious, so far as His creative will is concerned. No event in the universe can take place against His creative will. So far as His legislative will is concerned, it is also true that to please the Absolute Authority and to make an all-out effort to approach Him, is inherent in man. And this native tendency is commonly active in the course of human conduct, sometimes consciously and sometimes subconsciously.

The phrase willingly and unwillingly here in this passage refers to the two states of the conscious and the subconscious activities of the inherent Islam, Islam al-Fitri. The Holy Prophet’s mission is to develop this inherent and natural tendency to the full state of consciousness. Any religion short of Islam, in this sense, i.e., the complete submission to the Absolute Sovereignty of God or parallel to this, is not acceptable to Him. (A.P.)

Verse 89

Room for sincere repentance and making amends has been made available to earn the pardon of the All-Merciful Lord.

‘Tauba’ and ‘Inaba’ means almost the same, i.e., to turn to. It has been used for both the creature and the Creator, in the same way as ‘Salat’ has been used for God’s turning towards His creature, meaning to give or to bless or to favour or to help, and when used in the case of a creature, to mean to receive or to beg or to implore or to place his needs, seeking God’s bounteous blessings etc. Any deviation from God’s command and disobedience to Him means turning away from Him which is a sin, and it is punishable. Deviation and disobedience is of degrees beginning from minor sins and proceeding to the major ones and then to the major of the majors, i.e., the infidelity or the open denial of God’s sovereignty which is ‘Kufr’, i.e., Infidelity. The temporal and the spiritual punishment of each degree differs, from degree to degree as detailed in the ‘Fiqh.’ But however great the sin may be, if the sinner felt sincerely sorry for what he has committed and sincerely repents with the necessary amendment of his conduct, and sincerely turns towards God for forgiveness at any stage, his repentance will be accepted17. ‘Tauba’ has been presented in the Qur’an as a cleansing means, removing the internal dirt or the pollution of the heart and the mind, caused by the theoretical and the practical deviation from the Right Path of Islam, in the same way as water removes the dirt from the bodies and the belongings of mankind18.

And taking into consideration all the passages of the Holy Qur’an, dealing with the question of ‘Tauba’ here and elsewhere, the conclusion is that a sincere ‘Tauba’ with repentance and the return to God, is accepted by God at any stage and in any circumstances, before one loses his power of choice and discretion which means that the temporal punishment prescribed by Islam, for the various degrees of the sins, are avoidable if the sinner repents before getting into the grip of the law, i.e., before the sin is proved against him, and the punishment in the life hereafter can be avoided by one’s returning to the Right Path of Islam and repenting for the shortcomings before he is overpowered by the agony of death19 .

The story of the people of Yunus20 redemption of the punishment at the last moment when the punishment was hanging on them shows that how a sincere repentance is effective, and there is another story in contrast to this which shows that repentance just for the purpose of avoiding the punishment is of no avail21. It is said that during the reign of the Kalif Mutwakkil, a Jew committed adultery with a Muslim woman and was caught and brought to the court of the Kalif. Then and there the Jew recited the ‘Kalima’ and professed Islam. All the jurists present there, said that no punishment should be meted out against him, quoting the Holy Prophet’s ruling that Islam cuts one, away from the past. The Kalif was not satisfied and sent for the Tenth Holy Imam Ali-Ibn-Muhammad an- Naqi and he decreed that the man should be punished quoting against the protest of the jurists, the verse 40:85. For further details for the acceptance and the non-acceptance of ‘Tauba’ see ‘Fiqh’. (A.P.)

Verse 90

Like the Jews who believed in Moses and Torah and disbelieved in Jesus and the Evangel, and added to their disbelief by disbelieving in the Holy Prophet Muhammad. This verse has an application also to those who believed in the Holy Prophet and again they disbelieved and they further insisted upon their infidelity or disbelief, never will their repentance be accepted.

Verse 91

This indicates the gravity or the seriousness of the sin and the definite decision or the finality of the decree of the punishment for it.

This is a warning against those who think that by their lavish charities and extravagance, they can secure the pleasure of God and the bliss in the hereafter, though they had disregarded God’s laws and commands in this life22. It shows that the quantity of the charity for the redemption from the divine punishment, is of no use with a rebellious heart and indifferent attitude towards God’s commandments and laws, and no amount of charity would be of any avail to open any way for the individual to approach God. (A.P.)

1. Concerning the promise taken front the people given the Book and Wisdom. For the pledge from the Prophet see 33:7, 33:8.

2. The Holy Prophet Muhammad. See 07. Deut 18/15, 18, 19 NT John – 16/7, 13, 14/16, 1/21.

3. God. Refer to: 7:172.

4. Refer to: 2:258, 2:136, 4:136, 4:152, 2:285.

5. Those Submitted themselves to God.

6. Refer to: 3:l9, 2:112.

7. Absolute submission to God.

8. Life after death.

9. Refer to 18:87.

10. Refer to: 2:88 2:159.

11. Cursing the wicked a godly and an angelic act- - Validity of ‘Tabarra’.

12. Heresy.

13. Before death.

14. Refer to: 4:137.

15. See 33:33.

16. Refer to 2:112; 3:18.

17. Vide 39:53; 39:54.

18. See for example 2:222.

19. Refer to: 4:17; 4:18; 10:97 and 40:85.

20. Vide 10:98.

21. Vide 4:85.

22. Refer to 18:32-35.

Topic Tags:

Qur'anic Exegesis (Tafsir) [8]

Surat al-Baqara [9]

Surat Aal Imran [10]

Author(s):

Mirza Mahdi Pooya [2]

S.V. Mir Ahmad Ali [3]

Publisher(s):

Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an [4]

Source URL: https://al-islam.org/holy-quran-final-testament-juz-3-mirza-mahdi-pooya-sv-mir-ahmad-ali

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[4] https://al-islam.org/organization/tahrike-tarsile-quran
[5] https://al-islam.org/printpdf/book/export/html/183829
[6] https://al-islam.org/printepub/book/export/html/183829
[7] https://al-islam.org/printmobi/book/export/html/183829
[8] https://al-islam.org/tags/tafsir
[9] https://al-islam.org/tags/surat-al-baqara
[10] https://al-islam.org/tags/surat-aal-imran