The Beautiful Message of The Qur’an:
a guide to some essential teachings of Islam – for learners and seekers

 

 

This compendium is a tribute to The Message of The Qur’an, by Muhammad Asad.

 

Available from: honestthinking.org/en/Islam/

 

Preface

For a non-Muslim, the Qur’an can be a hard book to approach. Both its structure and style will at first feel unfamiliar to many – in particular to people brought up in a Western and/or Christian tradition (like myself).

However, I hope this compendium will help convince you that the Qur’an is a truly marvellous book; a source of profound wisdom and beauty. As the Prophet is reported to have said: God is beautiful and He loves beauty (al-Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ 6902).

Even though any attempt at translating the Qur’an is bound to have its shortcomings, anyone who is not fluent in Arabic, will need a translation in order to approach the holy book of Islam. In my own experience, The Message of The Qur'an, by Muhammad Asad, is an excellent place to start. Its pages are permeated by rational thinking and profound learning. And unlike many other translations of the Qur’an, it comes with an extensive set of explanatory footnotes.

The book is therefore a treasure trove for anyone interested in something more than just a superficial understanding of Islam.

I hope this modest compendium of excerpts will be useful as an initial guide to the Quranic text, and perhaps also as an easily accessible online reference to Quranic verses addressing topics of special interest (along with Asad’s helpful explanations). In particular, I hope this compendium might be useful to others who wish to study the Qur’an deeply (and thus also systematically): "Become men of God by spreading the knowledge of the divine writ, and by your own deep study [thereof]" (3:79).

Having said that, any serious student of the Qur’an should of course read it in its entirety. Thus, if this compendium wets your appetite, I recommend that you get your own copy of Asad’s magnum opus.

The Qur’an contains 6236 verses. Approximately 8% of these verses (roughly 500) have been included in this compendium.

Those verses have been selected because they have been important in shaping my understanding of what constitutes the essential message of the Qur’an, i.e., the core Islamic beliefs. If you think I have left out important verses (or if you find any errors or typos), please use email and contact me via ole at HonestThinking dot org.

Italics are used as in the original text, while underlining has been added by me.

For some more personal thoughts of mine on Islam and the Qur’an, as well as on Asad himself, please see Appendix I and Appendix H. Even so, by way of introduction, here are a few words about Muhammad Asad (1900 – 1992): He was an Austro-Hungarian-born Muslim journalist, traveller, writer, linguist, political theorist, diplomat, and Islamic scholar. Asad was one of the most influential European Muslims of the 20th century. His translation of the Qur’an into English, The Message of The Qur'an, is among his most notable works. (Source: Wikipedia; emphasis added.)

 

Table of Contents

Preface. 1

1. Al-Fatihah (The Opening) 3

2. True Religion and The Religion of Truth. 5

3. God. 8

4. Faith and wisdom.. 13

5. The Qur’an. 20

6. God’s relationship with mankind. 32

7. The true, the good, and the beautiful 103

8. Falsehood and related evils. 113

9. Brotherhood of believers. 125

10. Christianity and other faiths based on earlier revelations. 127

11. The doctrine of the Trinity. 138

12. Relationship to non-Muslims. 141

13. Communities. 144

14. God’s creation. 160

15. Man. 171

16. Prophets. 182

17. Paradise and hell 185

Appendix A – Prologue by Gai Eaton. 189

Appendix B – Foreword by Muhammad Asad. 191

Appendix C – Asad on symbolism and allegory in the Qur'an. 198

Appendix D – The classical commentators. 202

Appendix E – Challenging or controversial verses. 202

Appendix F – Tolerance of ambiguity. 210

Appendix G – The crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 211

Alternative view #1: Jesus was indeed crucified, but not by the Jews. 212

Alternative view #2: Jesus was not crucified in the full sense of that term.. 212

Appendix H – Some reflections on Asad’s footnotes. 213

Appendix I – Some personal reflections. 215

Appendix J – Further reading. 217

Appendix K – About this document. 217

 

 

1. Al-Fatihah (The Opening)

The first Surah, Al-Fatihah (The Opening), is used by Muslims as part of their five daily prayers. Asad writes the following in his introduction to this Surah.

Quote:

THIS SURAH is also called Fatihat al-Kitab ("The Opening of the Divine Writ"), Umm al-Kitab ("The Essence of the Divine Writ"), Surat al-Hamd ("The Surah of Praise"), Asas al-Qur'an ("The Foundation of the Qur'an"), and is known by several other names as well. It is mentioned elsewhere in the Qur'an as As-Sab' al-Mathani ("The Seven Oft-Repeated [Verses]") because it is repeated several times in the course of each of the five daily prayers. According to Bukhari, the designation Umm al-Kitab was given to it by the Prophet himself, and this in view of the fact that it contains, in a condensed form, all the fundamental principles laid down in the Qur'an: the principle of God's oneness and uniqueness, of His being the originator and fosterer of the universe, the fount of all life-giving grace, the One to whom man is ultimately responsible, the only power that can really guide and help; the call to righteous action in the life of this world ("guide us the straight way"); the principle of life after death and of the organic consequences of man's actions and behaviour (expressed in the term "Day of Judgment"); the principle of guidance through God's message-bearers (evident in the reference to "those upon whom God has bestowed His blessings") and, flowing from it, the principle of the continuity of all true religions (implied in the allusion to people who have lived – and erred – in the past); and, finally, the need for voluntary self-surrender to the will of the Supreme Being and, thus, for worshipping Him alone. It is for this reason that this surah has been formulated as a prayer, to be constantly repeated and reflected upon by the believer.

"The Opening" was one of the earliest revelations bestowed upon the Prophet. Some authorities (for instance, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib) were even of the opinion that it was the very first revelation; but this view is contradicted by authentic Traditions quoted by both Bukhari and Muslim, which unmistakably show that the first five verses of surah 96 ("The Germ-Cell") constituted the beginning of revelation. It is probable, however, that whereas the earlier revelations consisted of only a few verses each, "The Opening" was the first surah revealed to the Prophet in its entirety at one time: and this would explain the view held by 'Ali.

Unquote.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Al-Fatihah (The Opening)

 

1:1 In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser of Grace: (1)

 

1:2 ALL PRAISE is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all the worlds, (2) (1:3) the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace, (1:4) Lord of the Day of Judgment!

 

1:5 Thee alone do we worship; and unto Thee alone do we turn for aid.

 

1:6 Guide us the straight way (1:7) the way of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings, (3) not of those who have been condemned [by Thee], nor of those who go astray! (4)

 

1 According to most of the authorities, this invocation (which occurs at the beginning of every surah with the exception of surah 9) constitutes an integral part of "The Opening" and is, therefore, numbered as verse 1. In all other instances, the invocation "in the name of God" precedes the surah as such, and is not counted among its verses. – Both the divine epithets rahman and rahim are derived from the noun rahmah, which signifies "mercy", "compassion", "loving tenderness" and, more comprehensively, "grace". From the very earliest times, Islamic scholars have endeavoured to define the exact shades of meaning which differentiate the two terms. The best and simplest of these explanations is undoubtedly the one advanced by Ibn al-Qayyim (as quoted in Manar I,48): the term rahman circumscribes the quality of abounding grace inherent in, and inseparable from, the concept of God's Being, whereas rahim expresses the manifestation of that grace in, and its effect upon, His creation – in other words, an aspect of His activity.

 

2 In this instance, the term "worlds" denotes all categories of existence both in the physical and the spiritual sense. The Arabic expression rabb – rendered by me as "Sustainer" – embraces a wide complex of meanings not easily expressed by a single term in another language. It comprises the ideas of having a just claim to the possession of anything and, consequently, authority over it, as well as of rearing, sustaining and fostering anything from its inception to its final completion. Thus, the head of a family is called rabb ad-dar ("master of the house") because he has authority over it and is responsible for its maintenance; similarly, his wife is called rabbat ad-dar ("mistress of the house"). Preceded by the definite article al, the designation rabb is applied, in the Qur'an, exclusively to God as the sole fosterer and sustainer of all creation – objective as well as conceptual – and therefore the ultimate source of all authority.

 

3 i.e., by vouchsafing to them prophetic guidance and enabling them to avail themselves thereof.

 

4 According to almost all the commentators, God's "condemnation" (ghadab, lit., "wrath") is synonymous with the evil consequences which man brings upon himself by wilfully rejecting God's guidance and acting contrary to His injunctions. Some commentators (e.g., Zamakhshari) interpret this passage as follows: "... the way of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings – those who have not been condemned [by Thee], and who do not go astray": in other words, they regard the last two expressions as defining "those upon whom Thou hast bestowed Thy blessings". Other commentators (e.g., Baghawi and Ibn Kathir) do not subscribe to this interpretation – which would imply the use of negative definitions – and understand the last verse of the surah in the manner rendered by me above. As regards the two categories of people following a wrong course, some of the greatest Islamic thinkers (e.g., Al-Ghazali or, in recent times, Muhammad 'Abduh) held the view that the people described as having incurred "God's condemnation" – that is, having deprived themselves of His grace – are those who have become fully cognizant of God's message and, having understood it, have rejected it; while by "those who go astray" are meant people whom the truth has either not reached at all, or to whom it has come in so garbled and corrupted a form as to make it difficult for them to recognize it as the truth (see 'Abduh in Manar 1,68 ff.).

 

 

 

2. True Religion and The Religion of Truth

Islam is a religion where truth is a central concept; indeed, Islam is The Religion of Truth. Above all, Islam is concerned with the truth of God’s existence as well as His oneness (tawhid), but Islam is also concerned with truth in general – speaking the truth, pursuing the truth, and acknowledging and respecting truth wherever we encounter it – even when it’s challenging or painful.

This must be so, since all truth is God’s truth, and any other attitude towards truth would – with logical necessity – violate the concept of tawhid, which would amount to polytheism (shirk), since one would then implicitly be placing some human “truth” next to or above God’s truth.

What about the concept of true religion? According to the Qur’an, true religion boils down to one thing, and one thing only; self-surrender unto God (see e.g., 2:112, 3:19, 5:3, 6:125). Anyone who surrenders to God, is per definition a Muslim (albeit not necessarily in the "institutionalized" sense of that term), whether he or she realises it or not. Conversely, anyone who does not surrender to God, is not a Muslim. All else is non-essential; possibly interesting or even important, but not essential.

Consider note 13 of Surah 3, where Asad writes of “those who were vouchsafed revelation aforetime”, pointing out that they “at first subscribed to the doctrine of God's oneness and held that man's self-surrender to Him (islam in its original connotation) is the essence of all true religion.” (Boldface emphasis added).

Interestingly enough, this is fully in line with important statements by Jesus and His apostles. After telling His Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Jesus concludes thus: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14, NIV). Confer John 5:24-29 where Jesus makes it clear that those who believe in God and do good will be resurrected by God and granted eternal life. This is echoed in the following famous sentence: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6, NIV).

These central teachings of The New Testament do not emphasise holding any particular tenets about Jesus, but rather tell us that the main essentials are submission to and faith in God (these two virtues being intimately interrelated, since each one may be perceived as a fruit of the other). Carefully note that the just mentioned verses also emphasise humility and good deeds, without which true submission to God is precluded (confer 23:55-61, 9:67, and 21:90; see also, e.g., 2:148, 2:195, 3:114, 3:172, 5:48, 5:93, 6:154, 10:26, 16:30, 18:30, 39:10).

Finally, consider what the scholars behind The Study Quran write in their general introduction (page xxix): “The message of the Quran concerning religion is universal. Even when it speaks of islam, it refers not only to the religion revealed through the Prophet of Islam, but to submission to God in general.”

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Being conscious of God

 

Surah 8

8:29 O you who have attained to faith! If you remain conscious of God. He will endow you with a standard by which to discern the true from the false, (29) and will efface your bad deeds, and will forgive you your sins: for God is limitless in His great bounty.

 

Note on Surah 8

29 I.e., the faculty of moral valuation (Manar IX, 648). See also surah 2, note 38.

Religion of truth

48:28 He it is who has sent forth His Apostle with the [task of spreading] guidance and the religion of truth, to the end that He make it prevail over every [false] religion; and none can bear witness [to the truth] as God does.

 

 

Confer 61:9, 9:29, 9:32.

 

 

See also: God – do not attribute unto Him aught but what is true.

 

 

 

Religious humility versus the pitfalls of arrogance and exclusivism

 

Surah 7

7:55 Call unto your Sustainer humbly, and in the secrecy of your hearts.

 

 

See also: Humility and inner purity.

 

 

Surah 68

68:34 For, behold, it is the God-conscious [alone] whom gardens of bliss await with their Sustainer: (68:35) or should We, perchance, treat those who surrender themselves unto Us (17) as [We would treat] those who remain lost in sin?

 

68:36 What is amiss with you? (18) On what do you base your judgment [of right and wrong]?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 68

17 This is the earliest occurrence of the term muslimun (sing. muslim) in the history of Qur'anic revelation. Throughout this work, I have translated the terms muslim and islam in accordance with their original connotations, namely, "one who surrenders [or "has surrendered"] himself to God", and "man's self-surrender to God"; the same holds good of all forms of the verb aslama occurring in the 'Qur'an. It should be borne in mind that the "institutionalized" use of these terms – that is, their exclusive application to the followers of the Prophet Muhammad – represents a definitely post-Qur'anic development and, hence, must be avoided in a translation of the Qur'an.

 

18 Sc., "O you sinners".

 

True religion

 

Surah 2

2:112 Yea, indeed: everyone who surrenders his whole being unto God, (91) and is a doer of good withal, shall have his reward with his Sustainer; and all such need have no fear, and neither shall they grieve. (92)

 

 

Confer 2:38, 2:62, 4:125, 5:69, 7:35, 10:62, 20:112, 43:68, 46:13-14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 3:19

3:19 Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him.

 

Pickthall (3:19): Lo! religion with Allah (is) the Surrender (to His Will and Guidance).

 

Rashad (3:19): The only religion approved by God is "Submission."

 

Yusuf Ali (3:19): The Religion before Allah is Islam (submission to His Will).

 

 

Surah 3:76

3:76 Nay, but [God is aware of] those who keep their bond with Him, (59) and are conscious of Him: and, verily, God loves those who are conscious of Him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 73

73:15 BEHOLD, [O men,] We have sent unto you an apostle who shall bear witness to the truth before you, even as We sent an apostle unto Pharaoh: (9)

 

Notes on Surah 2

91 Lit., "who surrenders his face unto God". Since the face of a person is the most expressive part of his body, it is used in classical Arabic to denote one's whole personality, or whole being. This expression, repeated in the Qur'an several times, provides a perfect definition of islam, which derived from the root-verb aslama, "he surrendered himself" – means "self-surrender [to God]": and it is in this sense that the terms islam and muslim are used throughout the Qur'an. (For a full discussion of this concept, see my note on 68:35 (found in this compendium under Religious humility versus the pitfalls of arrogance and exclusivism), where the expression muslim occurs for the first time in the chronological order of revelation.)

 

92 Thus, according to the Qur'an, salvation is not reserved for any particular "denomination", but is open to everyone who consciously realizes the oneness of God, surrenders himself to His will and, by living righteously, gives practical effect to this spiritual attitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 3:76

59 Some of the commentators relate the personal pronoun in 'ahdihi to the person or persons concerned, and therefore take 'ahd as meaning "promise" – thus: "[as for] him who fulfils his promise ...", etc. It is, however, obvious from the next verse that the pronoun in 'ahdihi refers to God; consequently, the phrase must be rendered either as "those who fulfil their duty towards Him", or "those who keep their bond with Him" – the latter being, in my opinion, preferable. (For the meaning of man's "bond with God", see surah 2, note 19.)

 

 

Note on Surah 73

9 This is probably the oldest Qur'anic reference to the earlier prophets, to the historic, continuity in mankind's religious experience, and, by implication, to the fact that the Qur'an does not institute a "new" faith but represents only the final, most comprehensive statement of religious principle as old as mankind itself: namely, that "in the sight of God, the only [true] religion is [man's] self-surrender unto Him" (3:19), and that "if one goes in search of a religion other than self-surrender unto God, it will never be accepted from him" (3:85).

 

 

3. God

This section provides several examples of what the Qur’an says about God.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

God – above and beyond anyone or anything that could ever be imagined

 

59:22 GOD IS HE save whom there is no deity: the One who knows all that is beyond the reach of a created being's perception, as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature's senses or mind: (27) He, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace. (59:23) God is He save whom there is no deity: the Sovereign Supreme, the Holy, the One with whom all salvation rests, (28) the Giver of Faith, the One who determines what is true and false, (29) the Almighty, the One who subdues wrong and restores right, (30) the One to whom all greatness belongs!

 

Utterly remote is God, in His limitless glory, from anything to which men may ascribe a share in His divinity!

 

59:24 He is God, the Creator, the Maker who shapes all forms and appearances! (31)

 

27 See note 65 on the second paragraph of 6:73.

 

28 Lit., "the Salvation" (as-salam): see surah 5, note 29.

 

29 For this rendering of muhaymin, see 5:48 – where this term is applied to the Qur'an – and the corresponding note 64.

 

30 Since the verb jabara – from which the noun jabbar is derived – combines the concepts of "setting right" or "restoring" (e.g., from a state of brokenness, ill-health, or misfortune) and of "compelling" or "subduing (someone or something) to one's will", I believe that the term al-jabbar, when applied to God, is best rendered as above.

 

31 Thus Baydawi. The two terms al-bari' ("the Maker") and al-musawwir ("the Shaper", i.e., of all forms and appearances) evidently constitute here one single unit.

Face of God

 

Surah 2

2:115 And God's is the east and the west: and wherever you turn, there is God's countenance. Behold, God is infinite, all-knowing.

 

 

Surah 55

(55:26) All that lives on earth or in the heavens (10) is bound to pass away: (55:27) but forever will abide thy Sustainer's Self, (11) full of majesty and glory.

 

 

 

Arberry: (55:27) yet still abides the Face of thy Lord, majestic, splendid.

 

 

Surah 28

(28:88) ... There is no deity save Him. Everything is bound to perish, save His [eternal] Self. (100) With Him rests all judgment; and unto Him shall you all be brought back.

 

 

Sahih International: ... Everything will be destroyed except His Face.

 

Pickthall: ... Everything will perish save His countenance.

 

Yusuf Ali: ... Everything (that exists) will perish except His own Face.

 

Mohsin Khan: ... Everything will perish save His Face.

 

Arberry: ... All things perish, except His Face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 55

10 Lit., "Everyone who is upon it", i.e., on earth and/or, according to Ibn Kathir, in the heavens – since the pronoun in 'alayhd apparently relates to the whole universe.

 

11 Lit., "face", or "countenance", a term used metonymically in classical Arabic to denote the "self" or "whole being" of a person – in this case, the essential Being, or Reality, of God. Cf. also 28:88, "Everything is bound to perish, save His [eternal] Self".

 

 

Note on Surah 28

100 See 55:26-27 and the corresponding note 11.

 

 

God alone is perfect (and freedom from faults is beyond human reach)

 

Surah 7

7:180 AND GOD'S [alone] are the attributes of perfection; (145)

 

 

Sherali: And to Allah alone belong all perfect attributes.

 

Pickthall: Allah's are the fairest names.

 

Yusuf Ali: The most beautiful names belong to Allah.

 

Omar: And to Allah alone belong all the fairest and most perfect attributes.

 

Ahmed: All the names of God are beautiful.

 

 

 

Surah 48

48:1 VERILY, [O Muhammad,] We have laid open before thee a manifest victory, (1) (48:2) so that God might show His forgiveness of all thy faults, past as well as future, (2) and [thus] bestow upon thee the full measure of His blessings, and guide thee on a straight way, (3) (48:3) and [show] that God will succour thee with [His] mighty succour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 55

55:31 [ONE DAY] We shall take you to task, (13) O you sin-laden two! (14) (55:32) Which, then, of your Sustainer's powers can you disavow?

 

Note on Surah 7

145 This passage connects with the mention, at the end of the preceding verse, of "the heedless ones" who do not use their faculty of discernment in the way intended for it by God, and remain heedless of Him who comprises within Himself all the attributes of perfection and represents, therefore, the Ultimate Reality. As regards the expression al-asma' al-husna (lit., "the most perfect [or "most goodly"] names"), which occurs in the Qur'an four times – i.e., in the above verse as well as in 17:110, 20:8 and 59:24 – it is to be borne in mind that the term ism is, primarily, a word applied to denote the substance or the intrinsic attributes of an object under consideration, while the term al-husna is the plural form of al-ahsan ("that which is best" or "most goodly"). Thus, the combination al-asma' al-husna may be appropriately rendered as "the attributes of perfection" – a term reserved in the Qur'an for God alone.

 

 

Notes on Surah 48

1 Namely, the moral victory achieved by the Truce of Hudaybiyyah, which opened the doors to the subsequent triumph of Islam in Arabia (see introductory note, which explains many allusions to this historic event found in the subsequent verses).

 

2 Lit., "so that God might forgive thee all that is past of thy sins and all that is yet to come" – thus indicating elliptically that freedom from faults is an exclusive prerogative of God, and that every human being, however exalted, is bound to err on occasion.

 

3 Sc., "to a fulfilment of thy mission", which the Truce of Hudaybiyyah clearly presaged.

 

 

Note on Surah 55

13 Lit., "We shall apply Ourselves to you".

 

14 I.e., "you sin-laden men and women" (see note 4 above). According to an interpretation quoted by Razi, the designation thaqalan (the dual form of thaqal, "a thing of weight") signifies that both these categories of human beings are liable to, and therefore burdened. with, sinning.

 

God – always warning man (and thus calling every one of us unto Himself)

 

44:3 Behold, from on high have We bestowed [this divine writ] on a blessed night: (3) for, verily, We have always been warning [man]. (4)

 

(44:4) On that [night] was made clear, in wisdom, the distinction between all things [good and evil] (5) (44:5) at a behest from Ourselves: for, verily, We have always been sending [Our messages of guidance] (44:6) in pursuance of thy Sustainer's grace [unto man]. Verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing, (44:7) the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them – if you could but grasp it with inner certainty! (6)

 

44:8 There is no deity save Him: He grants life and deals death: He is your Sustainer as well as the Sustainer of your forebears of old. (44:9) Nay, but they [who lack inner certainty] are but toying with their doubts. (7)

 

 

See also:

·         Doubts, toying with.

·         Follow not the crowd.

·         Inner certainty.

·         Self-deception.

 

3 I.e., the night on which the revelation of the Qur'an began: see surah 97.

 

4 The revelation of the Qur'an is but a continuation and, indeed, the climax of all divine revelation which has been going on since the very dawn of human consciousness. Its innermost purpose has always been the warning extended by God to man not to abandon himself to mere material ambitions and pursuits and, thus, to lose sight of spiritual values.

 

5 Lit., "was made distinct everything wise", i.e., "wisely" or "in wisdom": a metonymical attribution of the adjective "wise" – which in reality relates to God, the maker of that distinction – to what has thus been made distinct (Zamakhshari and Razi). The meaning is that the revelation of the Qur'an, symbolized by that "blessed night" of its beginning, provides man with a standard whereby to discern between good and evil, or between all that leads to spiritual growth through an ever-deepening realization (ma'rifah) of God's existence, on the one hand, and all that results in spiritual blindness and self-destruction, on the other.

 

6 Lit., "if you had but inner certainty". According to Abn Muslim al-Isfahani (as quoted by Razi), this means, "you would know it if you would but truly desire inner certainty and would pray for it".

 

7 Lit., "are toying in doubt": i.e., their half-hearted admission of the possibility that God exists is compounded of doubt and irony (Zamakhshari) – doubt as to the proposition of God's existence, and an ironical amusement at the idea of divine revelation.

 

God and His creation (it all belongs to Him)

 

20:6 Unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth, as well as all that is between them and all that is beneath the sod.

 

 

God – beyond description or definition

 

Surah 6

6:100 Limitless is He is His glory, and sublimely exalted above anything that men may devise by way of definition: (88)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 30

(30:27) His is the essence of all that is most sublime in the heavens and on earth, (19) and He alone is almighty, truly wise.

 

Note on Surah 6

88 I.e., utterly remote is He from all imperfection and from the incompleteness which is implied in the concept of having progeny. The very concept of "definition" implies the possibility of a comparison or correlation of an object with other objects; God, however, is unique, there being "nothing like unto Him" (42:11) and, therefore, "nothing that could be compared with Him" (112:4) – with the result that any attempt at defining Him or His "attributes" is a logical impossibility and, from the ethical point of view, a sin. The fact that He is undefinable makes it clear that the "attributes" (sifat) of God mentioned in the Qur'an do not circumscribe His reality but, rather, the perceptible effect of His activity on and within the universe created by Him.

 

 

Notes on Surah 30

19 Primarily, the term mathal denotes a "likeness" or "similitude", and hence is often used in the Qur'an (e.g., in the next verse) in the sense of "parable". Occasionally, however, it is synonymous with sifah, which signifies the intrinsic "attribute", "quality" or "nature" of a thing, concept or living being (cf. the reference to "the nature of Jesus" and "the nature of Adam" in 3:59). With reference to God, who is "sublimely exalted above anything that men may devise by way of definition" (see 6:100 and the corresponding note 88), the expression mathal clearly points to a quality of being entirely different from all other categories of existence, inasmuch as there is "nothing like unto Him" (42:11) and "nothing that could be compared With Him" (112:4): hence, the rendering of mathal as 'essence" is most appropriate in this context.

 

God’s existence, signs of

 

51:20 AND ON EARTH there are signs [of God's existence, visible] to all who are endowed with inner certainty, (51:21) just as [there are signs thereof] within your own selves: (13) can you not, then, see?

 

13 See note 3 on 45:4.

 

 

God – sovereign ruler of the universe

 

(39:67) And no true understanding of God have they [who worship aught beside Him], inasmuch as the whole of the earth will be as a [mere] handful to Him on Resurrection Day, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand: (66) limitless is He in His glory, and sublimely exalted above anything to which they may ascribe a share in His divinity!

 

66 I.e., the whole universe is as nothing before Him: for this specific allegory of God's almightiness, see 21:104. There are many instances, in the Qur'an as well as in authentic ahadith, of the clearly metaphorical use of the term "hand" in allusions to God's absolute power and dominion. The particular reference, in the above, to the Day of Resurrection is due to the fact that it will be only on his own resurrection that a human being shall fully grasp the concept of God's almightiness; referred to in the subsequent words, "limitless is He in His glory" (subhanahu)".

 

God – the ultimate reality

 

57:1 ALL THAT IS in the heavens and on earth extols God's limitless glory: for He alone is almighty, truly wise! (57:2) His is the dominion over the heavens and the earth; He grants life and deals death; and He has the power to will anything. 57:3 He is the First and the Last, (1) and the Outward as well as the Inward: (2) and He has full knowledge of everything. (57:4) He it is who has created the heavens and the earth in six aeons, and is established on the throne of His almightiness. (3) He knows all that enters the earth, and all that comes out of it, as well as all that descends from the skies, and all that ascends to them. (4) And He is with you wherever you may be; and God sees all that you do. 57:5 His is the dominion over the heavens and the earth; and all things go back unto God [as their source].

 

1 I.e., His Being is eternal, without anything preceding His existence and without anything outlasting its infinity: an interpretation given by the Prophet himself, as recorded in several well-authenticated Traditions. Thus, "time" itself – a concept beyond man's understanding – is but God's creation.

 

2 I.e., He is the transcendental Cause of all that exists and, at the same time, immanent in every phenomenon of His creation – cf. the oft-repeated Qur'anic phrase (e.g., in verse S), "all things go back unto God [as their source]"; in the words of Tabari, "He is closer to everything than anything else could be". Another – perhaps supplementary – rendering could be, "He is the Evident as well as the Hidden": i.e., "His existence is evident (zahir) in the effects of His activity, whereas He Himself is not perceptible (ghayr mudrak) to our senses" (Zamakhshari).

 

3 Cf. the identical phrase in 7:54 and the corresponding note 43.

 

4 See 4 note 1 on 34:2.

 

Necessary existence

 

3:2 GOD – there is no deity save Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent Fount of All Being!

 

Confer 20:111, where the phrase “the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent Fount of All Being” is also found.

 

 

 

4. Faith and wisdom

Philosopher Blaise Pascal has said that “In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.” Alternatively rendered as “There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition”, or “There is enough light for those who want to see, and enough darkness for those who do not want to.”

Confer Surah 7 which speaks of men who “cling to the earth” (i.e., adopt a predominantly materialistic or “earthly” outlook on life; verse 176), “have hearts with which they fail to grasp the truth, and eyes with which they fail to see, and ears with which they fail to hear” (verse 179), fail to properly consider the wonders of God’s creation (verse 185; quoted under God's mighty dominion over the heavens and the earth), and thus become characterised by “overweening arrogance” (verse 186).

Pride and arrogance are the antitheses of humility, and the latter is an essential element of any true religion. The final verse of Surah 7 says: “Behold, those who are near unto thy Sustainer are never too proud to worship Him; and they extol His limitless glory, and prostrate themselves before Him [alone]” (verse 206), and 23:2 speaks of “those who humble themselves in their prayer” (similar expressions are found, e.g., in 21:19 and 57:16).

If you are searching for formal proofs of God’s existence, you are likely to be disappointed. If you are humble enough to observe and take to heart the innumerable signs of God’s existence, of His wisdom and love, as well as of His grace and mercy, you will be overwhelmed by joy.

The Qur’an recommends that, in order to approach God, we should (1) think, we should (2) strive to be knowledgeable, and to the best of our ability we should (3) use our God-given reason (see 30:21-30 below).

And, in all of this, we must be willing to listen and also willing to receive God’s gift of faith; see 7:203 below. These are essentials that could help us move in the direction of wisdom.

Carefully note that willingness to listen to the still, small voice of the heart (fitrah; confer 30:30 below) requires humility, without which true wisdom cannot be achieved (confer Humility and inner purity as well as Religious humility versus the pitfalls of arrogance and exclusivism).

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Faith, deepest meaning of

 

4:162 But as for those from among them who are deeply rooted in knowledge, (176) and the believers who believe in that which has been bestowed upon thee from on high as well as that which was bestowed from on high before thee, and those who are [especially] constant in prayer, (177) and spend in charity, and all who believe in God and the Last Day – these it is unto whom We shall grant a mighty reward.

 

 

See also: Allegory in the Qur’an.

 

176 I.e., those from among the Jews who do not content themselves with a mere observance of rituals, but try to penetrate to the deepest meaning of faith.

 

177 According to the grammarians of the Basrah school, and especially Sibawayh, the use of the accusative (mansub) case in the expression al-muqimin as-salah ("those who are constant in prayer") – instead of the nominative al-muqimun – is a legitimate grammatical device meant to stress the special, praiseworthy quality attaching to prayer and to those who are devoted to it (see Zamakhshari and Razi); hence my interpolation of "especially" between brackets.

 

Faith, no coercion in matters of

 

2:256 THERE SHALL BE no coercion in matters of faith. (249)

 

 

See also: Heart, deafness and blindness of.

249 The term din denotes both the contents of and the compliance with a morally binding law; consequently, it signifies "religion" in the widest sense of this term, extending over all that pertains to its doctrinal contents and their practical implications, as well as to man's attitude towards the object of his worship, thus comprising also the concept of "faith". The rendering of din as "religion", "faith","religious law" or "moral law" (see note 3 on 109:6) depends on the context in which this term is used. – On the strength of the above categorical prohibition of coercion (ikrah) in anything that pertains to faith or religion, all Islamic jurists (fuqaha), without any exception, hold that forcible conversion is under all circumstances null and void, and that any attempt at coercing a non-believer to accept the faith of Islam is a grievous sin: a verdict which disposes of the widespread fallacy that Islam places before the unbelievers the alternative of "conversion or the sword".

 

Heart, deafness and blindness of

 

Surah 27

27:80 [But,] verily, thou canst not make the dead hear: and [so, too] thou canst not make the deaf [of heart] hear this call when they turn their backs [on thee] and go away, (27:81) just as thou canst not lead the blind [of heart] out of their error; none canst thou make hear save such as [are willing to] believe in Our messages, and thus surrender themselves unto Us. (72)

 

 

Confer 30:52-53.

 

 

Surah 28

28:56 VERILY, thou canst not guide aright everyone whom thou lovest: but it is God who guides him that wills [to be guided]; (55) and He is fully aware of all who would let themselves be guided. (56)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 17

(17:72) for whoever is blind [of heart] in this [world] will be blind in the life to come [as well], and still farther astray from the path [of truth]. (87)

 

 

 

Surah 2

2:272 It is not for thee [O Prophet] to make people follow the right path, (260) since it is God [alone] who guides whom He wills.

 

 

See also:

·         Remembering God.

·         Self-destruction.

·         God’s guidance.

·         Faith, no coercion in matters of.

 

Note on Surah 27

72 This passage corresponds to the oft-repeated Qur'anic statement that "God guides him that wills [to be guided] (yahdi man yasha')".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 28

55 Or: "God guides whomever He wills" – either of these two renderings being syntactically correct. According to several extremely well-authenticated Traditions, the above verse relates to the Prophet's inability to induce his dying uncle Abu Talib, whom he loved dearly and who had loved and protected him throughout his life, to renounce the pagan beliefs of his ancestors and to profess faith in God's oneness. Influenced by Abu Jahl and other Meccan chieftains, Abu Talib died professing, in his own words, "the creed of 'Abd al-Muttalib" (Bukhari) or, according to another version (quoted by Tabari), "the creed of my ancestors (al-ashyakh)". However, the Qur'anic statement "thou canst not guide aright everyone whom thou lovest" has undoubtedly a timeless import as well: it stresses the inadequacy of all human endeavours to "convert" any other person, however loving and loved, to one's own beliefs, or to prevent him from falling into what one regards as error, unless that person wills to be so guided.

 

56 The above rendering of the expression al-muhtadin conforms to the interpretations offered in this context by many classical commentators – e.g., "those who accept guidance" (Zamakhshari), "everyone who in time would find the right way" (Razi), "those who are prepared (musta'iddin) for it" (Baydawi), "all who deserve guidance" (Ibn Kathir), and so forth. Thus, God's guidance is but the final act of His grace with which He rewards all who desire to be guided. For a further consideration of this problem, the reader is referred to Zamakhshari's illuminating remarks quoted in note 4 on 14:4 (found in this compendium under God’s guidance I).

 

 

Note on Surah 17

87 Cf. 20: 124-125. This passage shows that man's life in the hereafter is not merely conditioned by the manner of his life on earth, but is also an organic extension of the latter, manifested in a natural development and intensification of previously-existing tendencies.

 

 

Note on Surah 2

260 Lit., "their guidance is not upon thee" – i.e., "thou art responsible only for conveying God's message to them, and not for their reaction to it": the people referred to being the needy spoken of in the preceding verses. It appears that in the early days after his migration to Medina, the Prophet – faced by the great poverty prevalent among his own community – advised his Companions that "charity should be bestowed only on the followers of Islam" – a view that was immediately corrected by the revelation of the above verse (a number of Traditions to this effect are quoted by Tabari, Razi and Ibn Kathir, as well as in Manar III, 82 f.). According to several other Traditions (recorded, among others, by Nasa'i and Abu Da'ud and quoted by all the classical commentators), the Prophet thereupon explicitly enjoined upon his followers to disburse charities upon all who needed them, irrespective of the faith of the person concerned. Consequently, there is full agreement among all the commentators that the above verse of the Qur'an – athough expressed in the singular and, on the face of it, addressed to the Prophet – lays down an injunction binding upon all Muslims. Razi, in particular, draws from it the additional conclusion that charity – or the threat to withhold it – must never become a means of attracting unbelievers to Islam: for, in order to be valid, faith must be an outcome of inner conviction and free choice. This is in consonance with verse 256 of this surah: "There shall be no coercion in matters of faith."

 

Heart, disease of

 

(2:10) In their hearts is disease, and so God lets their disease increase; and grievous suffering awaits them because of their persistent lying. (8)

 

 

See also:

·         Falsehood – should be shunned.

·         Sinning against oneself.

·         Suppressing testimony from God.

 

8 i.e., before God and man – and to themselves. It is generally assumed that the people to whom this passage alludes in the first instance are the hypocrites of Medina who, during the early years after the hijrah, outwardly professed their adherence to Islam while remaining inwardly unconvinced of the truth of Muhammad's message. However, as is always the case with Quranic allusions to contemporary or historical events, the above and the following verses have a general, timeless import inasmuch as they refer to all people who are prone to deceive themselves in order to evade a spiritual commitment.

 

Knowledge – always to be sought after

 

20:114 [...] [always] say: "O my Sustainer, cause me to grow in knowledge!" (101)

 

 

See also: Qur’an – to be read in its entirety.

101 Although it is very probable that – as most of the classical commentators point out – this exhortation was in the first instance addressed to the Prophet Muhammad, there is no doubt that it applies to every person, at all times, who reads the Qur'an. The idea underlying the above verse may be summed up thus: Since the Qur'an is the Word of God, all its component parts – phrases, sentences, verses and surahs – form one integral, coordinated whole (cf. the last sentence of 25:32 and the corresponding note 27). Hence, if one is really intent on understanding the Qur'anic message, one must beware of a "hasty approach" – that is to say, of drawing hasty conclusions from isolated verses or sentences taken out of their context – but should, rather, allow the whole of the Qur'an to be revealed to one's mind before attempting to interpret single aspects of its message. (See also 75:16-19 and the corresponding notes.)

 

Majority, be not led astray by

 

6:116 Now if thou pay heed unto the majority of those [who live] on earth, they will but lead thee astray from the path of God: they follow but [other people's] conjectures, and they themselves do nothing but guess. (103) (6:117) Verily, thy Sustainer knows best as to who strays from His path, and best knows He as to who are the right-guided.

 

103 Le., regarding the true nature of human life and its ultimate destiny, the problem of revelation, the relationship between God and man, the meaning of good and evil, etc. Apart from leading man astray from spiritual truths, such guesswork gives rise to the arbitrary rules of conduct and self-imposed inhibitions to which the Qur'an alludes, by way of example, in verses 118 and 119.

Messages unto people of [innate] knowledge, people who can grasp the truth, and people who will believe

Surah 6

(6:96) [He is] the One who causes the dawn to break; and He has made the night to be [a source of] stillness, and the sun and the moon to run their appointed courses: (81) [all] this is laid down by the will of the Almighty, the All-Knowing.

 

6:97 And He it is who has set up for you the stars so that you might be guided by them in the midst of the deep darkness of land and sea: clearly, indeed, have We spelled out these messages unto people of [innate] knowledge!

 

(6:98) And He it is who has brought you [all] into being out of one living entity, (82) and [has appointed for each of you] a time-limit [on earth] and a resting-place [after death]: (83) clearly, indeed, have We spelled out these messages unto people who can grasp the truth!

 

6:99 And He it is who has caused waters to come down from the sky; and by this means have We brought forth all living growth, and out of this have We brought forth verdure. (84) Out of this do We bring forth close-growing grain; and out of the spathe of the palm tree, dates in thick clusters; and gardens of vines, and the olive tree, and the pomegranate: [all] so alike, and yet so different! (85) Behold their fruit when it comes to fruition and ripens! Verily, in all this there are messages indeed for people who will believe!

 

Notes on Surah 6

83 The commentators differ widely as to the meaning of the terms mustaqarr and mustawda' in this context. However, taking into account the primary meaning of musstagarr as "the limit of a course" – i.e., the point at which a thing reaches its fulfilment or end – and of mustawda' as "a place of consignment" or "repository", we arrive at the rendering adopted by me above. This rendering finds, moreover, strong support in 11:6, where God is spoken of as providing sustenance for every living being and knowing "its time-limit [on earth] and its resting-place [after death]" (mustagarraha wa-mustawda'aha), as well as in verse 67 of the present surah, where mustaqarr is used in the sense of "a term set for the fulfilment [of God's tiding]".

 

84 In contrast with its sequence, which is governed by the present tense, the whole of the

above sentence is expressed in the past tense – thus indicating, obliquely, the original,

basic aspect of God's creating life "out of water" (cf. 21:30 and the corresponding note 39).

 

85 I.e., all so alike in the basic principles of their life and growth, and yet so different

in physiology, appearance and taste.

People who will not use their reason

 

Surah 8

8:22 Verily, the vilest of all creatures (23) in the sight of God are those deaf, those dumb ones who do not use their reason.

 

[…]

 

(8:55) Verily, the vilest creatures in the sight of God are those who are bent on denying the truth and therefore do not believe. (58)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 59

(59:14) [...] Severe is their warlike discord among themselves: thou wouldst think that they are united, whereas [in fact] their hearts are at odds [with one another]: this, because they are people who will not use their reason.

 

[…]

 

59:18 O YOU who have attained to faith! Remain conscious of God; and let every human being look to what he sends ahead for the morrow! And [once again]: Remain conscious of God, for God is fully aware of all that you do; (59:19) and be not like those who are oblivious of God, and whom He therefore causes to be oblivious of [what is good for] their own selves: [for] it is they, they who are truly depraved! (25)

 

Notes on Surah 8

23 Lit., "animals that walk or crawl" (dawab, sing. dabbah), including man as well.

 

 

 

[…]

 

58 Cf. verse 22 of this surah, where the same epithet is applied to human beings "who do not use their reason". In the present instance, it should be noted, the particle fa at the beginning of the phrase fa-hum la yu'minun has the meaning of "and therefore" ("and therefore they do not believe"): thus showing that lack of belief in spiritual verities is a consequence of one's being "bent on denying the truth". Expressed in positive terms, this amounts to the statement that belief in any ethical proposition depends on one's readiness to consider it on its merits and to admit the truth of whatever one's mind judges to be in conformity with other – empirically or intuitively established – truths. As regards the expression alladhina kafaru, the use of the past tense is meant here, as so often in the Qur'an, to stress the element of intention, and is, therefore, consistently rendered by me – wherever the context warrants it – as "those who are bent on denying the truth" (see also surah 2, note 6).

 

 

Notes on Surah 59

20 Sc., "with a view to achieving what is good for themselves": implying that people who have no real faith and no definite moral convictions can never attain to true unity among themselves, but are always impelled to commit acts of aggression against one another.

 

 

 

[…]

 

25 I.e., by having made a deliberately wrong use of the faculty of reason with which God has endowed man, and – by remaining oblivious of Him – having wasted their own spiritual potential.

 

True believers

 

Surah 2

2:2 HIS DIVINE WRIT – let there be no doubt about it is [meant to be] a guidance for all the God-conscious (2) (2:3) who believe in [the existence of] that which is beyond the reach of human perception, (3) and are constant in prayer, and spend on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance; (4) (2:4) and who believe in that which has been bestowed from on high upon thee, [O Prophet,] as well as in that which was bestowed before thy time: (5) for it is they who in their innermost are certain of the life to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 8

8:2 Believers are only they whose hearts tremble with awe whenever God is mentioned, and whose faith is strengthened whenever His messages are conveyed unto them, (3) and who in their Sustainer place their trust – (8:3) those who are constant in prayer and spend on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance (4) (8:4) it is they, they who are truly believers! Theirs shall be great dignity in their Sustainer's sight, and forgiveness of sins, and a most excellent sustenance. (5)

 

Notes on Surah 2

2 The conventional translation of muttaqi as "God-fearing" does not adequately render the positive content of this expression – namely, the awareness of His all-presence and the desire to mould one's existence in the light of this awareness; while the interpretation adopted by some translators, "one who guards himself against evil" or "one who is careful of his duty", does not give more than one particular aspect of the concept of God-consciousness.

 

3 Al-ghayb (commonly, and erroneously, translated as "the Unseen") is used in the Qur'an to denote all those sectors or phases of reality which lie beyond the range of human perception and cannot, therefore, be proved or disproved by scientific observation or even adequately comprised within the accepted categories of speculative thought: as, for instance, the existence of God and of a definite purpose underlying the universe, life after death, the real nature of time, the existence of spiritual forces and their interaction, and so forth. Only a person who is convinced that the ultimate reality comprises far more than our observable environment can attain to belief in God and, thus, to a belief that life has meaning and purpose. By pointing out that it is "a guidance for those who believe in the existence of that which is beyond human perception", the Qur'an says, in effect, that it will – of necessity – remain a closed book to all whose minds cannot accept this fundamental premise.

 

4 Ar-rizq ("provision of sustenance") applies to all that may be of benefit to man, whether it be concrete (like food, property, offspring, etc.) or abstract (like knowledge, piety, etc.). The "spending on others" is mentioned here in one breath with God-consciousness and prayer because it is precisely in such selfless acts that true piety comes to its full fruition. It should be borne in mind that the verb anfaqa (lit., "he spent") is always used in the Qur'an to denote spending freely on, or as a gift to, others, whatever the motive may be.

 

5 This is a reference to one of the fundamental doctrines of the Qur'an: the doctrine of the historical continuity of divine revelation. Life – so the Qur'an teaches us – is not a series of unconnected jumps but a continuous, organic process: and this law applies also to the life of the mind, of which man's religious experience (in its cumulative sense) is a part. Thus, the religion of the Qur'an can be properly understood only against the background of the great monotheistic faiths which preceded it, and which, according to Muslim belief, culminate and achieve their final formulation in the faith of Islam.

 

 

Notes on Surah 8

3 Lit., "and whenever His messages are conveyed to them, they increase them in faith"

 

4 See surah 2, note 4 (above).

 

5 I.e., in paradise. According to Razi, however, the "most excellent sustenance" is a metonym for "the spiritual raptures arising from the knowledge of God, the love of Him, and the self-immersion (istighraq) in worshipping Him". In Razi's interpretation, this expression refers to the spiritual reward of faith in this world. Some commentators (cf. Manar IX, 597) regard the above definition of true believers as the most important passage of this surah. – The phrase rendered by me as "theirs shall be great dignity" reads, literally, "they shall have degrees", namely, of excellence and dignity.

 

Two seas (allegory)

 

Surah 18

18:60 AND LO! (67), [In the course of his wanderings,] Moses said to his servant: "I shall not give up until I reach the junction of the two seas, even if I [have to] spend untold years [in my quest]!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 55

55:50 In [each of] these two [gardens (of paradise)] two springs will flow. (24)

 

 

Confer 18:65.

 

Note on Surah 18

67 The subsequent parable of Moses and his quest for knowledge (verses 60-82) has become, in the course of time, the nucleus of innumerable legends with which we are not concerned here. [...] Baydawi offers, in his commentary on verse 60, a purely allegorical explanation: the "two seas" represent the two sources or streams of knowledge – the one obtainable through the observation and intellectual coordination of outward phenomena ('ilm az-zahir), and the other through intuitive, mystic insight ('ilm al-batin) – the meeting of which is the real goal of Moses' quest.

 

 

Note on Surah 55

24 The "two springs" of paradise call to mind the "two seas" spoken of in 18:60-61, which, according to Baydawi, symbolize the two sources or streams of knowledge accessible to man: the one obtained through the observation and intellectual analysis of external phenomena ('ilm az-zahir), and the other through inward, mystic insight ('ilm al-batin).

 

Wisdom – some essential prerequisites

 

Surah 30:21-24, 30:30

30:21 And among His wonders is this: He creates for you mates out of your own kind, (15) so that you might incline towards them, and He engenders love and tenderness between you: in this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who think! (30:22) And among his wonders is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your tongues and colours: for in this, behold, there are messages indeed for all who are possessed of [innate] knowledge! 30:23 And among His wonders is your sleep, at night or in daytime, as well as your [ability to go about in] quest of some of His bounties: in this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who [are willing to] listen! 30:24 And among His wonders is this: He displays before you the lightning, giving rise to [both] fear and hope, (16) and sends down water from the skies, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless: in this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who use their reason!

 

[…]

 

30:30 AND SO, set thy face (25) steadfastly towards the [one ever-true] faith, turning away from all that is false, (26) in accordance with the natural disposition which God has instilled into man: (27)

 

 

Confer 6:96-99

 

 

Surah 7

7:203 Say [, O Prophet]: "I only follow whatever is being revealed to me by my Sustainer: this [revelation] is a means of insight from your Sustainer, and a guidance and grace unto people who will believe. (7:204) Hence, when the Qur'an is voiced, hearken unto it, and listen in silence, so that you might be graced with [God's] mercy." (7:205) And bethink thyself of thy Sustainer humbly and with awe, and without raising thy voice, at morn and at evening; and do not allow thyself to be heedless.

 

 

Alternative endings of 7:203

 

Yusuf Ali: ... for any who have faith.

 

Shakir: ... for a people who believe.

 

Muhammad Sarwar: ... for those who have faith.

 

Arberry: ... for a people of believers.

 

 

See also: Fitrah (original disposition, natural constitution, innate nature).

 

 

Notes on Surah 30

15 Lit., "from among yourselves" (see surah 4, note 1).

 

16 I.e., hope of rain – an oft-recurring Qur'anic symbol of faith and spiritual life (cf. 13:12).

 

[…]

 

25 I.e., "surrender thy whole being"; the term "face" is often used metonymically in the sense of one's "whole being".

 

26 For this rendering of hanif, see note 110 on 2:135 (found under keyword Hanif in this compendium).

 

27 See 7:172 and the corresponding note 139 (found under keyword Fitrah in this compendium). The term fitrah, rendered by me as "natural disposition", connotes in this context man's inborn, intuitive ability to discern between right and wrong, true and false, and, thus, to sense God's existence and oneness. Cf. the famous saying of the Prophet, quoted by Bukhari and Muslim: "Every child is born in this natural disposition; it is only his parents that later turn him into a 'Jew', a 'Christian', or a 'Magian'." These three religious formulations, best known to the contemporaries of the Prophet, are thus contrasted with the "natural disposition" which, by definition, consists in man's instinctive cognition of God and self-surrender (islam) to Him. (The term "parents" has here the wider meaning of "social influences or environment").

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. The Qur’an

This section provides several examples of what the Qur’an says about itself. The entry labelled Allegory in the Qur’an may, according to Asad, be regarded as a key to our understanding of the Qur'an (for a more thorough discussion of the Qur’an’s use of symbolism and allegory, see Appendix C).

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Allegory in the Qur’an

 

3:7 He it is who has bestowed upon thee from on high this divine writ, containing messages that are clear in and by themselves – and these are the essence of the divine writ – as well as others that are allegorical. (5) Now those whose hearts are given to swerving from the truth go after that part of the divine writ (6) which has been expressed in allegory, seeking out [what is bound to create] confusion, (7) and seeking [to arrive at] its final meaning [in an arbitrary manner]; but none save God knows its final meaning. (8) Hence, those who are deeply rooted in knowledge say: "We believe in it; the whole [of the divine writ] is from our Sustainer – albeit none takes this to heart save those who are endowed with insight.

 

 

Confer 4:162 and its corresponding note 176 where those [from among the Jews] “who are deeply rooted in knowledge”, are described by Asad as people “who do not content themselves with a mere observance of

rituals, but try to penetrate to the deepest meaning of faith.”

 

 

For a full rendering of 4:162 and its notes, see: Faith, deepest meaning of.

 

5 The above passage may be regarded as a key to the understanding of the Qur'an. Tabari identifies the ayat muhkamat ("messages that are clear in and by themselves") with what the philologists and jurists describe as nass – namely, ordinances or statements which are self-evident (zahir) by virtue of their wording (cf. Lisan al-'Arab, art. nass). Consequently, Tabari regards as ayat muhkamat only those statements or ordinances of the Qur'an which do not admit of more than one interpretation (which does not, of course, preclude differences of opinion regarding the implications of a particular ayah muhkamah). In my opinion, however, it would be too dogmatic to regard any passage of the Qur'an which does not conform to the above definition as mutashabih ("allegorical"): for there are many statements in the Qur'an which are liable to more than one interpretation but are, nevertheless, not allegorical – just as there are many expressions and passages which, despite their allegorical formulation, reveal to the searching intellect only one possible meaning. For this reason, the ayat mutashabihat may be defined as those passages of the Qur'an which are expressed in a figurative manner, with a meaning that is metaphorically implied but not directly, in so many words, stated. The ayat muhkamat are described as the "essence of the divine writ" (umm al-kitab) because they comprise the fundamental principles underlying its message and, in particular, its ethical and social teachings: and it is only on the basis of these clearly enunciated principles that the allegorical passages can be correctly interpreted. (For a more detailed discussion of symbolism and allegory in the Qur'an. see Appendix 1.)

 

6 Lit., "that of it".

 

7 The "confusion" referred to here is a consequence of interpreting allegorical passages in an "arbitrary manner" (Zamakhshari).

 

8 According to most of the early commentators, this refers to the interpretation of allegorical passages which deal with metaphysical subjects – for instance, God's attributes, the ultimate meaning of time and eternity, the resurrection of the dead, the Day of Judgment, paradise and hell, the nature of the beings or forces described as angels, and so forth – all of which fall within the category of al-ghayb, i.e., that sector of reality which is beyond the reach of human perception and imagination and cannot, therefore, be conveyed to man in other than allegorical terms. This view of the classical commentators, however, does not seem to take into account the many Qur'anic passages which do not deal with metaphysical subjects and yet are, undoubtedly, allegorical in intent and expression. To my mind, one cannot arrive at a correct understanding of the above passage without paying due attention to the nature and function of allegory as such. A true allegory – in contrast with a mere pictorial paraphrase of something that could equally well be stated in direct terms – is always meant to express in a figurative manner something which, because of its complexity, cannot be adequately expressed in direct terms or propositions and, because of this very complexity, can be grasped only intuitively, as a general mental image, and not as a series of detailed "statements": and this seems to be the meaning of the phrase, "none save God knows its final meaning".

 

 

Divine authorship

10:37 Now this Qur'an could not possibly have been devised by anyone save God: nay indeed, it

confirms the truth of whatever there still remains [of earlier revelations]

 

 

Divine inspiration

Surah 16

16:2 He causes the angels to descend with this divine inspiration, (2) [bestowed] at His behest upon whomever He wills of His servants: "Warn [all human beings] that there is no deity save Me: be, therefore, conscious of Me!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 34

34:1 ALL PRAISE is due to God, to whom all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth belongs; and to Him will be due all praise in the life to come. For He alone is truly wise, all-aware: (34:2) He knows all that enters the earth, and all that comes out of it, as well as all that descends from the skies, and all that ascends to them. (1) And He alone is a dispenser of grace, truly-forgiving.

 

Note on Surah 16

2 The term ruh (lit., "spirit", "soul" or "breath of life") is often used in the Qur'an in the sense of "inspiration" – and, more particularly, "divine inspiration" – since, as Zamakhshari points out in connection with the above verse as well as with the first sentence of 42:52, "it gives life to hearts that were [as] dead in their ignorance, and has in religion the same function as a soul has in a body". A very similar explanation is given by Razi in the same context. The earliest instance in which the term ruh has been used in this particular sense is 97:4.

 

 

Note on Surah 34

1 This definition comprises things physical and spiritual: waters disappearing underground and reappearing; the metamorphosis of seed into plant, and of decaying plant into oil and coal; traces of old artifacts and entire civilizations buried in the earth and then reappearing within the sight and consciousness of later generations of men; the transformation of dead bodies of animals and men into elements of nourishment for new life; the ascent of earthy vapours towards the skies, and their descent as rain, snow or hail; the ascent towards the heavens of men's longings, hopes and ambitions, and the descent of divine inspiration into the minds of men, and thus a revival of faith and thought and, with it, the growth of new artifacts, new skills and new hopes: in short, the endless recurrence of birth, death and re-birth which characterizes all of God's creation.

 

Divine writ

21:10 [O MEN!] We have now bestowed upon you from on high a divine writ containing all that you ought to bear in mind: (13) will you not, then, use your reason?

(13) The term dhikr, which primarily denotes a "reminder" or a "remembrance", or, as Raghib defines it, the "presence [of something] in the mind", has also the meaning of "that by which one is remembered", i.e., with praise – in other words, "renown" or "fame" – and, tropically, "honour", "eminence" or "dignity". Hence, the above phrase contains, apart from the concept of a "reminder", an indirect allusion to the dignity and happiness to which man may attain by following the spiritual and social precepts laid down in the Qur'an. By rendering the expression dhikrukum as "all that you ought to bear in mind", I have tried to bring out all these meanings.

 

Message from God (Qur’an)

 

17:59 And nothing has prevented Us from sending [this message, like the earlier ones,] with miraculous signs [in its wake], save [Our knowledge] that the people of olden times [only too often] gave the lie to them: (71)

71 This highly elliptic sentence has a fundamental bearing on the purport of the Qur'an as a whole. In many places the Qur'an stresses the fact that the Prophet Muhammad, despite his being the last and greatest of God's apostles, was not empowered to perform miracles similar to those with which the earlier prophets are said to have reinforced their verbal messages. His only miracle was and is the Qur'an itself – a message perfect in its lucidity and ethical comprehensiveness, destined for all times and all stages of human development, addressed not merely to the feelings but also to the minds of men, open to everyone, whatever his race or social environment, and bound to remain unchanged forever. Since the earlier prophets invariably appealed to their own community and their own time alone, their teachings were, of necessity, circumscribed by the social and intellectual conditions of that particular community and time; and since the people to whom they addressed themselves had not yet reached the stage of independent thinking, those prophets stood in need of symbolic portents or miracles (see surah 6, note 94) in order to make the people concerned realize the inner truth of their mission. The message of the Qur'an, on the other hand, was revealed at a time when mankind (and, in particular, that part of it which inhabited the regions marked by the earlier, Judaeo-Christian religious development) had reached a degree of maturity which henceforth enabled it to grasp an ideology as such without the aid of those persuasive portents and miraculous demonstrations which in the past, as the above verse points out, only too often gave rise to new, grave misconceptions.

 

Nothing new (in Muhammad’s message)

 

41:43 [And as for thee, O Prophet,] nothing is being said to thee but what was said to all [of God's] apostles before thy time. (36)

 

36 This is an allusion to the allegation of the Prophet's opponents that he himself was the "author" of what he claimed to be a divine revelation, as well as to their demand that he should "prove" the truth of his prophetic mission by producing a miracle: a scornful attitude with which all the earlier prophets had been confronted at one time or another, and which is epitomized in the "saying" of the unbelievers mentioned in verse 5 of this surah.

 

Qur’an – appealing to man’s reason and moral sense

 

50:1 Qaf. (1) CONSIDER this sublime Qur'an! (50:2) But nay – they deem it strange that a warner should have come unto them from their own midst; (2) and so these deniers of the truth are saying, "A strange thing is this!

 

1 Chronologically, the above is the second occurrence (after surah 68) of one of the disjointed letter-symbols which precede some of the Qur'anic surahs. For the theories relating to these symbols, see Appendix II. As regards my rendering of the adjurative particle wa which opens the next sentence as "Consider", see first half of note 23 on 74:32, where this adjuration appears for the first time in the chronological order of revelation.

 

2 This is the earliest Qur'anic mention – repeated again and again in other places of people's "deeming it strange" that a purportedly divine message should have been delivered by someone "from their own midst", i.e., a mortal like themselves. Although it is undoubtedly, in the first instance, a reference to the negative attitude of the Meccan pagans to Muhammad's call, its frequent repetition throughout the Qur'an has obviously an implication going far beyond that historical reference: it points to the tendency common to many people, at all stages of human development, to distrust any religious statement that is devoid of all exoticism inasmuch as it is enunciated by a person sharing the social and cultural background of those whom he addresses, and because the message itself relies exclusively – as the Qur'an does – on an appeal to man's reason and moral sense. Hence, the Qur'an explicitly mentions people's "objections" to a prophet "who eats food [like ordinary mortals] and goes about in the market-places" (25:7; see also note 16 on 25:20).

 

Qur’an – consistent (i.e., free of inner contradictions)

 

4:82 Will they not, then, try to understand this Qur'an? Had it issued from any but God, they would surely have found in it many an inner contradiction! (97)

97 I.e., the fact that it is free of all inner contradictions – in spite of its having been revealed gradually, over a period of twenty-three years – should convince them that it has not been "composed by Muhammad" (an accusation frequently levelled against him not only by his contemporaries but also by non-believers of later times), but could only have originated from a supra-human source.

 

Qur’an – convincing, and fulfilling an old promise

 

17:107 Behold, those who are already (130) endowed with [innate] knowledge fall down upon their faces in prostration as soon as this [divine writ] is conveyed unto them, (17:108) and say, "Limitless in His glory is our Sustainer! Verily, our Sustainer's promise has been fulfilled!" (131)

130 Lit., "before it" – i.e., before the Qur'an as such has come within their ken.

 

131 This may be an allusion to the many Biblical predictions of the advent of the Prophet Muhammad, especially to Deuteronomy xviii, 15 and 18 (cf. surah 2, note 33). In its wider sense, however, the "fulfilment of God's promise" relates to His bestowal of a definitive revelation, the Qur'an, henceforth destined to guide man at all stages of his spiritual, cultural and social development.

 

Qur’an – divinely inspired

16:103 whereas this is Arabic speech, clear [in itself] and clearly showing the truth [of its source].

For an explanation of this composite rendering of the descriptive term mubin, see surah 12, note 2. 'the term is used here to stress the fact that no human being – and certainly no non-Arab – could ever have produced the flawless, exalted Arabic diction in which the Qur'an is expressed.

 

Qur’an – full of wisdom

 

(36:2) Consider this Qur'an full of wisdom: (36:3) verily, thou [Muhammad] art indeed one of God's message-bearers, (2) (36:4) pursuing a straight way (36:5) by [virtue of] what is being bestowed from on high by the Almighty, the Dispenser of Grace, (3)

 

2 This statement explains the adjurative particle wa (rendered by me as "Consider") at the beginning of the preceding verse – namely: "Let the wisdom apparent in the Qur'an serve as an evidence of the fact that thou art an apostle of God". As regards my rendering of al-qur'an al-hakim as "this Qur'an full of wisdom", see note 2 on 10:1.

 

3 Cf. 34:50 – "if I am on the right path, it is but by virtue of what my Sustainer reveals unto me".

 

Qur’an – inimitable

 

17:88 Say: "If all mankind and all invisible beings would come together with a view to producing the like of this Qur'an, they could not produce its like even though they were to exert all their strength in aiding one another!" (17:89) For, indeed, many facets have We given in this Qur'an to every kind of lesson [designed] for [the benefit of] mankind!

 

 

Qur’an – its messages should be pondered in humble realization that their understanding requires insight

 

38:29 [All this have We expounded in this] blessed divine writ which We have revealed unto thee, [O Muhammad,] so that men may ponder over its messages, and that those who are endowed with insight may take them to heart.

 

Sahih International: [This is] a blessed Book which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that they might reflect upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded.

 

Pickthall: (This is) a Scripture that We have revealed unto thee, full of blessing, that they may ponder its revelations, and that men of understanding may reflect.

 

Yusuf Ali: (Here is) a Book which We have sent down unto thee, full of blessings, that they may mediate on its Signs, and that men of understanding may receive admonition.

 

Shakir: (It is) a Book We have revealed to you abounding in good that they may ponder over its verses, and that those endowed with understanding may be mindful.

 

Muhammad Sarwar: It is a blessed Book which We have revealed for you so that you will reflect upon its verses and so the people of understanding will take heed.

 

Mohsin Khan: (This is) a Book (the Quran) which We have sent down to you, full of blessings that they may ponder over its Verses, and that men of understanding may remember.

 

Arberry: A Book We have sent down to thee, Blessed, that men possessed of minds may ponder its signs and so remember.

 

 

 

Qur’an – its truth and purport will gradually dawn on us

 

(38:87) [SAY O Prophet]: "This [divine writ], behold, is no less than a reminder to all the worlds – (38:88) and you will most certainly grasp its purport after a lapse of time!"

 

Sahih International: And you will surely know [the truth of] its information after a time.

 

Pickthall: And ye will come in time to know the truth thereof.

 

Yusuf Ali: "And ye shall certainly know the truth of it (all) after a while."

 

Muhammad Sarwar: You will certainly know its truthfulness after a certain time.

 

Mohsin Khan: "And you shall certainly know the truth of it after a while."

 

 

Qur’an – repeating truths in manifold forms

 

39:23 God bestows from on high (27) the best of all teachings in the shape of a divine writ fully consistent within itself, repeating each statement [of the truth] in manifold forms (28) – [a divine writ] whereat shiver the skins of all who of their Sustainer stand in awe: [but] in the end their skins and their hearts do soften at the remembrance of [the grace of] God. ... Such is God's guidance: He guides therewith him that wills [to be guided] (29) – whereas he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide. (30)

 

27 Lit., "has been bestowing from on high", i.e., step by step. The verbal form nazzala indicates both gradualness and continuity in the process of divine revelation and may, therefore, be appropriately rendered by the use of the present tense.

 

28 This is the most acceptable meaning, in this context, of the term mathani (pl. of mathna), as explained by Zamakhshari in his commentary on the above verse. Another possible meaning, preferred by Razi, is "pairing its statements", i.e., referring to the polarity stressed in all Qur'anic teachings (e.g., command and prohibition, duties and rights, reward and punishment, paradise and hell, light and darkness, the general and the specific, and so forth). As regards the inner consistency of the Qur'an, see also 4:82 and 25:32, as well as the corresponding notes.

 

29 Or: "He guides therewith whomever He wills", either of these two formulations being syntactically correct.

 

30 See note 4 on 14:4.

 

Qur’an – revealed over a long time period

 

25:32 Now they who are bent on denying the truth are wont to ask, "Why has not the Qur'an been bestowed on him from on high in one single revelation?" (26) [It has been revealed] in this manner so that We might strengthen thy heart thereby – for We have so arranged its component parts that they form one consistent whole. (27) – (25:33) and [that] they [who deny the truth] might never taunt thee with any deceptive half-truth (28) without Our conveying to thee the [full] truth and [providing thee] with the best explanation. (29)

26 Lit., "in one piece" or "as one statement" (jumlatan wahidatan) – implying, in the view of the opponents of Islam, that the gradual, step-by-step revelation of the Qur'an points to its having been "composed" by Muhammad to suit his changing personal and political requirements.

 

27 I.e., free of all inner contradictions (cf. 4:82). See also 39:23, where the Qur'an is spoken of as "fully consistent within itself". The concise phrase rattalnahu tartilan comprises the parallel concepts of "putting the component parts [of a thing] together and arranging them well" as well as "endowing it with inner consistency". Inasmuch as full consistency and freedom from contradictions in a message spread over twenty-three years of a life as full of movement and drama as that of the Prophet does give a clear indication of its God-inspired quality, it is bound to strengthen the faith of every thinking believer: and herein lies, according to the Qur'an itself, the deepest reason. for its slow, gradual revelation. (When applied to the reciting of the Qur'an – as in 73:4 – the term tartil refers to the measured diction and the thoughtful manner in which it ought to be enunciated.)

 

28 Lit., "come to thee with a parable (mathal)" – i.e., with all manner of seemingly plausible parabolic objections (exemplified in verses 7-8, 21 and 32 of this surah as well as in many other places in the Qur'an) meant to throw doubt on Muhammad's claim to prophethood and, hence, on the God-inspired character of the Qur'anic message.

 

29 Sc., "of the problem or problems involved": an allusion to the self-explanatory character of the Qur'an. Throughout this section (verses 30-34) the personal pronoun "thou" (in the forms "thy" and "thee") relates not only to the Prophet but also to every one of his followers at all times.

 

Qur’an – revealed step by step

 

3:3 Step by step has He bestowed upon thee from on high this divine writ, (2)

2 The gradualness of the Qur'anic revelation is stressed here by means of the grammatical form nazzala.

Qur’an – self-evident

 

2:185 It was the month of Ramadan in which the Qur'an was [first] bestowed from on high as a guidance unto man and a self-evident proof of that guidance, and as the standard by which to discern the true from the false. […]

 

 

Qur’an – source of eminence

 

43:43 So hold fast to all that has been revealed to thee: for, behold, thou art on a straight way; (43:44) and, verily, this [revelation] shall indeed become [a source of] eminence for thee and thy people: (36) but in time you all will be called to account [for what you have done with it]. (37)

 

36 For the above rendering of dhikr as "[a source of] eminence", see first half of note 13 on 21:10 (found in this compendium under Divine writ).

 

37 The meaning is that on the Day of Judgment all prophets will be asked, metaphorically, as to what response they received from their people (cf. 5:109), and those who professed to follow them will be called to account for the spiritual and social use they made – or did not make – of the revelation conveyed to them: and thus, the "eminence" promised to the followers of Muhammad will depend on their actual behaviour and not on their mere profession of faith.

 

Qur’an – to be read in its entirety

 

20:114 [Know,] then, [that] God is sublimely exalted. the Ultimate Sovereign, the Ultimate Truth: (99) and [knowing this,] do not approach the Qur'an in haste, (100) ere it has been revealed unto thee in full, but [always] say: "O my Sustainer, cause me to grow in knowledge!" (101)

 

 

See also: Qur’an – to be seen as its own commentary.

Note 99 is found in this compendium under Truth, ultimate.

 

100 Lit., "be not hasty with the Qur'an" (see next note).

 

101 Although it is very probable that – as most of the classical commentators point out – this exhortation was in the first instance addressed to the Prophet Muhammad, there is no doubt that it applies to every person, at all times, who reads the Qur'an. The idea underlying the above verse may be summed up thus: Since the Qur'an is the Word of God, all its component parts – phrases, sentences, verses and surahs – form one integral, coordinated whole (cf. the last sentence of 25:32 and the corresponding note 27). Hence, if one is really intent on understanding the Qur'anic message, one must beware of a "hasty approach" – that is to say, of drawing hasty conclusions from isolated verses or sentences taken out of their context – but should, rather, allow the whole of the Qur'an to be revealed to one's mind before attempting to interpret single aspects of its message. (See also 75:16-19 and the corresponding notes.)

 

Qur’an – to be seen as its own commentary

 

75:16 MOVE NOT thy tongue in haste, [repeating the words of the revelation:] (6) (75:17) for, behold, it is for Us to gather it [in thy heart,] and to cause it to be read [as it ought to be read]. (7) (75:18) Thus, when We recite it, follow thou its wording [with all thy mind]: (8) (75:19) and then, behold, it will be for Us to make its meaning clear. (9)

 

 

See also: Qur’an – to be read in its entirety.

6 Lit., "Move not thy tongue therewith so that thou might hasten it" – the pronoun undoubtedly referring to the contents of revelation. In order to understand this parenthetic passage (verses 16-19) more fully, one should read it side by side with the related passage in 20:114, together with the corresponding note 101. Both these passages are in the first instance addressed to the Prophet, who is said to have been afraid that he might forget some of the revealed words unless he repeated them at the very moment of revelation; but both have also a wider import inasmuch as they apply to every believer who reads, listens to or studies the Qur'an. In 20:114 we are told not to draw hasty – and therefore potentially erroneous – conclusions from isolated verses or statements of the Qur'an, since only the study of the whole of its message can give us a correct insight. The present passage, on the other hand, lays stress on the need to imbibe the divine writ slowly, patiently, to give full thought to the meaning of every word and phrase, and to avoid the kind of haste which is indistinguishable from mechanical glibness, and which, moreover, induces the person who reads, recites or listens to it to remain satisfied with the mere beautiful sound of the Qur'anic language without understanding – or even paying adequate attention to – its message.

 

7 I.e., "it is for Us to make thee remember it and to cause it to be read with mind and heart". As pointed out in the preceding note, the Qur'an can be understood only if it is read thoughtfully, as one integral whole, and not as a mere collection of moral maxims, stories or disjointed laws.

 

8 Lit., "follow thou its recitation", i.e., its message as expressed in words. Since it is God who reveals the Qur'an and bestows upon man the ability to understand it, He attributes its "recitation" to Himself.

 

9 I.e., if the Qur'an is read "as it ought to be read" (see note 7 above), it becomes – as stressed by Muhammad Abduh – "its own best commentary".

 

Qur’an – to be studied deeply

 

3:79 [...] but rather [did he exhort them], "Become men of God (62) by spreading the knowledge of the divine writ, and by your own deep study [thereof]."

 

62 According to Sibawayh (as quoted by Razi), a rabbani is "one who devotes himself exclusively to the endeavour to know the Sustainer (ar-rabb) and to obey Him": a connotation fairly close to the English expression "a man of God".

Qur’an versus poetry

 

36:69 AND [thus it is:] We have not imparted to this [Prophet the gift of] poetry, nor would [poetry] have suited this [message]: (38) it is but a reminder and a [divine] discourse, clear in itself and clearly showing the truth, (39) (36:70) to the end that it may warn everyone who is alive [of heart], and that the word [of God] may bear witness (40) against all who deny the truth.

 

38 This passage resumes the theme enunciated in the opening verses of this surah, namely, the revelation of the Qur'an. As in 26:224, we have here an allusion to the allegation of Muhammad's opponents, in his own as well as in later times, that what he described as divine revelation was in reality an outcome of his own poetic invention. This the Qur'an refutes by alluding to the fundamental difference between poetry – especially Arabic poetry – and divine revelation as exemplified by the Qur'an: whereas in the former the meaning is often subordinated to the rhythm and the melody of language, in the Qur'an the exact opposite is the case, inasmuch as here the choice of words, their sound and their position in the sentence – and, hence, its rhythm and melody – are always subordinated to the meaning intended. (Cf. also 26: 225 and the corresponding note 100.)

 

39 For this composite rendering of the adjective mubin, see surah 12, note 2. Literally, the above phrase reads, "a reminder and a [divine] discourse ..., etc., with the conjunctive particle wa ("and") being used here, as in 15:1, to point out that the Qur'an is an integral element in the process of divine revelation.

 

40 Lit., "may come [or "be proved"] true", i.e., on the Day of Judgment (cf. verse 7 of this surah).

 

Qur'an – will

cease to be of benefit to people who have lost their moral virtues and their faith

 

32:23 AND, INDEED, [O Muhammad,] We did vouchsafe revelation unto Moses [as well]: so be not in doubt of [thy] having met with the same [truth in the revelation vouchsafed to thee). (18) And [just as] We caused that [earlier revelation] to be a guidance for the children of Israel, (32:24) and [as] We raised among them leaders who, so long as they bore themselves with patience and had sure faith in Our messages, guided [their people] in accordance with Our behest (19) – [so, too, shall it be with the divine writ revealed unto thee, O Muhammad]. (20)

18 With this passage the discourse returns to the theme enunciated at the beginning of this surah – namely, the divine origin of the revelation granted to Muhammad, which, as the present passage points out, proceeds from the same source as that granted to Moses (the last of the great apostles of God accepted as such by all the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Furthermore, the identity of the fundamental truths in all divine revelations, stressed in the above verse, implies an identity of the moral demands made of the followers of those revelations irrespective of period, race or social environment.

 

19 I.e., in accordance with the divine ordinances enunciated in and for their time in the Torah: an allusion to the decline of faith, frequently mentioned in the Qur'an, among the children of Israel of later times, and the tendency among many of their leaders and learned men to corrupt the text of the Torah and, thus, to "overlay the truth with falsehood" (see, e.g., 2:42, 75, 79, and the corresponding notes).

 

20 This interpolation reflects Zamakhshari's commentary on the above passage, to the effect that the Qur'an is destined to provide guidance and light so long as the community's religious leaders are patient in adversity and steadfast in their faith: an interpretation which implies that the Qur'an will cease to be of benefit to people who have lost their moral virtues and their faith.

 

Revealed words – not to be taken out of context

 

4:46 Among those of the Jewish faith there are some who distort the meaning of the [revealed] words, taking them out of their context and saying, [as it were,] "We have heard, but we disobey," and, "Hear without hearkening," (59) and, "Hearken thou unto us, [O Muhammad]" – thus making a play with their tongues, and implying that the [true] Faith is false. (60) […]

 

 

Confer 5:13, 5:41.

 

 

59 Cf. 2:93. figure of speech "hear without hearkening" addressed, as it were, by the Jews to themselves, describes their attitude towards both their own scriptures and the message of the Qur'an.

 

60 Lit., "making a thrust (ta'n) against the Faith" – i.e., attributing to it a fundamental defect. The saying "Hearken thou unto us" is meant to convey the conviction of the Jews that they had nothing to learn from the teaching propounded by the Prophet Muhammad, and that he should rather defer to their views on religious matters. See, in this connection, their assertion, "Our hearts are already full of knowledge", in 2:88.

 

 

6. God’s relationship with mankind

God is gracious and merciful. He is calling us to recognise Him as the ultimate source of all that exists, as well as the ultimate source of all truth. And therefore, He asks us to surrender ourselves unto Him. He will lead us on the right path if we allow Him to, but He will not in any way force us.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Best conformation

 

(95:4) Verily, We create man in the best conformation; (2) (95:5) and thereafter We reduce him to the lowest of low (3) (95:6) excepting only such as attain to faith and do good works: and theirs shall be a reward unending! (95:7) What, then, [O man,] could henceforth cause thee to give the lie to this moral law? (4) (95:8) Is not God the most just of judges?

 

2 I.e., endowed with all the positive qualities, physical as well as mental, corresponding to the functions which this particular creature is meant to perform. The concept of "the best conformation" is related to the Qur'anic statement that everything which God creates, including the human being or self (nafs), is "formed in accordance with what it is meant to be" (see 91:7 and the corresponding note 5, as well as in a more general sense – 87:2 and note 1). This statement does not in any way imply that all human beings have the same "best conformation" in respect of their bodily or mental endowments: it implies simply that irrespective of his natural advantages or disadvantages, each human being is endowed with the ability to make the, for him, best possible use of his inborn qualities and of the environment to which he is exposed. (See in this connection 30:30 and the corresponding notes, especially 27 and 28.)

 

3 This "reduction to the lowest of low" is a consequence of man's betrayal – in another word, corruption – of his original, positive disposition: that is to say, a consequence of man's own doings and omissions. Regarding the attribution, by God, of this "reduction" to His Own doing, see note 7 on 2:7.

 

4 I.e., to the validity of the moral law – which, to my mind, is the meaning of the term din in this context – outlined in the preceding three verses. (For this specific significance of the concept of din, see note 3 on 109:6.) The above rhetorical question has this implication: Since the moral law referred to here has been stressed in the teachings of all monotheistic religions (cf. verses 1-3 and note 1 above), its truth ought to be self-evident to any unprejudiced person; its negation, moreover, amounts to a negation of all freedom of moral choice on man's part and, hence, of justice on the part of God, who, as the next verse points out, is – by definition – "the most just of judges".

 

Bond with God

2:27 [the iniquitous,] who break their bond with God after it has been established [in their nature], (19) and cut asunder what God has bidden to be joined, and spread corruption on earth: these it is that shall be the losers.

 

 

See also:

·         Nafs – the human self.

·         Covenant; insight; true faith.

19 The "bond with God" (conventionally translated as "God's covenant") apparently refers here to man's moral obligation to use his inborn giftsintellectual as well as physical – in the way intended for them by God. The "establishment" of this bond arises from the faculty of reason which, if properly used, must lead man to a realization of his own weakness and dependence on a causative power and, thus, to a gradual cognition of God's will with reference to his own behaviour. This interpretation of the "bond with God" seems to be indicated by the fact that there is no mention of any specific "covenant" in either the preceding or the subsequent verses of the passage under consideration. The deliberate omission of any explanatory reference in this connection suggests that the expression "bond with God" stands for something that is rooted in the human situation as such, and can, therefore, be perceived instinctively as well as through conscious experience: namely, that innate relationship with God which makes Him "closer to man than his neck-vein"(50:16). For an explanation of the subsequent reference to "what God has bidden to be joined", see surah 13, note 43.

 

Borderline of faith

 

22:11 And there is, too, among men many a one who worships God on the border-line [of faith]: (8) thus, if good befalls him, he is satisfied with Him; but if a trial assails him, he turns away utterly, (9) losing [thereby both] this world and the life to come: [and] this, indeed, is a loss beyond compare. (10)

 

22:12 [By behaving thus,] he invokes, instead of God, something that can neither harm nor benefit him: (11) [and] this is indeed the utmost one can go astray. (12) (22:13) [And sometimes] he invokes [another human being –] one that is far more likely to cause harm than benefit: vile, indeed, is such a patron, and vile the follower! (13)

8 I.e., wavering between belief and disbelief, and not really committed to either.

 

9 Lit., "he turns about on his face" the "face" (wajh) of man signifying metonymically his whole being.

 

10 Lit., "the [most] obvious loss".

 

11 By failing to commit himself unreservedly to the faith which he professes, man is often inclined to attribute to all manner of extraneous forces, be they real or imaginary, a decisive "influence" on his own destiny, and thus invests them, as it were, with divine qualities.

 

12 Lit., "this, this (dhalika huwa) is the straying far-away". For an explanation of my paraphrase, see note 25 on the last sentence of 14:18.

 

13 The interpolation of "another human being" in the opening clause of this verse is necessitated by the relative pronoun man ("one that" or "who"), which almost always relates to an animate person – in this case, a human being who, by allowing himself to be idolized by those who "worship God on the border-line of faith", causes infinite spiritual harm to himself and to his followers.

 

Condition of man, dependent on our inner selves

 

13:11 Verily, God does not change men's condition unless they change their inner selves; (26)

 

 

See also: Communities that go extinct.

26 Lit., "that which is in themselves". This statement has both a positive and a negative connotation: i.e., God does not withdraw His blessings from men unless their inner selves become depraved (cf. 8:53), just as He does not bestow His blessings upon wilful sinners until they change their inner disposition and become worthy of His grace. In its wider sense, this is an illustration of the divine law of cause and effect (sunnat Allah) which dominates the lives of both individuals and communities, and makes the rise and fall of civilizations dependent on people's moral qualities and the changes in "their inner selves".

 

Covenant; insight; true faith

13:19 CAN, THEN, he who knows that whatever has been bestowed from on high upon thee by thy Sustainer is the truth, be deemed equal to one who is blind? Only they who are endowed with insight keep this in mind: (13:20) they who are true to their bond with God and never break their covenant; (42) (13:21) and who keep together what God has bidden to be joined, (43) and stand in awe of their Sustainer and fear the most evil reckoning [which awaits such as do not respond to Him]; (13:22) and who are patient in adversity out of a longing for their Sustainer's countenance, and are constant in prayer, and spend on others, secretly and openly, out of what We provide for them as sustenance, and [who] repel evil with good. (44)

 

 

Confer 24:22 and the corresponding note 27.

 

 

See also:

·         Nafs – the human self.

·         Bond with God.

 

 

42 The "covenant" is, in this context, a general term embracing the spiritual obligations arising from one's faith in God and the moral and social obligations, resulting from that faith, towards one's fellow-men (Zamakhshari) – I see in this connection the first sentence of 5:1 (where the term 'aqd is used) and the corresponding note 1. As regards my rendering of 'ahd Allah as "bond with God", see surah 2, note 19.

 

43 This refers to all ties arising from human relationships – e.g., the bonds of family, responsibility for orphans and the poor, the mutual rights and duties of neighbours – as well as the spiritual and practical bonds which ought to exist between all who belong to the brotherhood of Islam (cf. 8:75 and the corresponding notes). In its widest sense, the phrase "what God has bidden to be joined" applies to the spiritual obligation, on the part of man, to remain conscious of the unity of purpose underlying all of God's creation, and hence – according to Razi – man's moral duty to treat all living beings with love and compassion.

 

44 Some of the commentators take this to mean that "if they have committed a sin, they repel it [i.e., its effect] by repentance" (Ibn Kaysan, as quoted by Zamakhshari), while others think that the "repelling" connotes the doing of a good deed in atonement of a – presumably unintentional – bad deed (Razi), or that it refers to endeavours to set evil situations to rights by word or deed (an alternative interpretation mentioned by Zamakhshari). But the great majority of the classical commentators hold that the meaning is "they repay evil with good"; thus Al-Hasan al-Basra (as quoted by Baghawi, Zamakhshari and Razi): "When they are deprived [of anything], they give; and when they are wronged, they forgive." Tabari's explanation is very similar: "They repel the evil done to them by doing good to those who did it"; and "they do not repay evil with evil, but repel it by [doing] good". See also 41:34-36.

 

Devotion, utter

 

73:8 But [whether by night or by day,] remember thy Sustainer's name, and devote thyself unto Him with utter devotion.

 

 

Doubts, toying with

 

(44:9) Nay, but they [who lack inner certainty] are but toying with their doubts. (7)

 

 

See also:

·         Follow not the crowd.

·         God – always warning man (and thus calling every one of us unto Himself).

·         Inner certainty.

·         Self-deception.

 

7 Lit., "are toying in doubt": i.e., their half-hearted admission of the possibility that God exists is compounded of doubt and irony (Zamakhshari) – doubt as to the proposition of God's existence, and an ironical amusement at the idea of divine revelation.

 

Ethics, perverted by “revelations” having sources other than God

 

42:21 Is it that they [who care for no more than this world] believe in forces supposed to have a share in God's divinity, (25) which enjoin upon them as a moral law something that God has never allowed? (26)

 

 

Sahih International: Or have they other deities who have ordained for them a religion to which Allah has not consented?

 

Muhammad Sarwar: Do they have idols who have established a religion without the permission of God?

 

25 Lit., "Is it that they have partners [of God]" – i.e., "do they believe that circumstantial phenomena like wealth, power, 'luck', etc.., have something divine about them?" – the implication being that belief in such "forces" is usually at the root of men's pursuance of exclusively worldly ends. (For my above explanatory rendering of the term shuraka' – lit., "partners" or "associates" [of God] – see note 15 on 6:22.)

 

26 I.e., which cause them to abandon themselves with an almost religious fervour to something of which God disapproves – namely, the striving after purely materialistic goals and a corresponding disregard of all spiritual and ethical values. For my rendering of din, in this context, as "moral law", see note 3 on 109:6.

 

Excuses for not believing

 

46:11 But they who are bent on denying the truth speak thus of those who have attained to faith: "If this [message] were any good, these [people] would not have preceded us in accepting it!" (13) And since they refuse to be guided by it, they will always say, "This (14) is [but] an ancient falsehood!"

 

13 Lit., "towards it". Almost all of the classical commentators assume that this refers, specifically, to the contempt with which the pagan Quraysh looked down upon the early followers of Muhammad, most of whom came from the poorest, lowliest strata of Meccan society. However, the above "saying" has undoubtedly a timeless import inasmuch as the poor and lowly have always been among the first to follow a prophet. Moreover, it may also have a bearing on our times as well, inasmuch as the materially powerful nations, whom their technological progress has blinded to many spiritual verities, are increasingly contemptuous of the weakness of those civilizations in which religion still plays an important, albeit largely formalistic, role; and so, not realizing that this very formalism and the ensuing cultural sterility, and not religious faith as such, is the innermost cause of that weakness, they attribute it to the influence of religion per se, saying as it were, "If religion were any good, we would have been the first in holding on to it" – thus "justifying" their own materialistic attitude and their refusal to be guided by spiritual considerations.

 

14 I.e., the concept of divine revelation as such, as is evident from the subsequent reference to the revelation of Moses.

 

Faith – what it really implies

 

42:52 And thus, too, (54) [O Muhammad,] have We revealed unto thee a life-giving message, (55) [coming] at Our behest.

 

[Ere this message came unto thee,] thou didst not know what revelation is, nor what faith [implies]: (56) but [now] We have caused this [message] to be a light, whereby We guide whom We will of Our servants, and, verily, [on the strength thereof] thou, too, shalt guide [men] onto the straight way – (42:53) the way that leads to God, to whom all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth belongs.

 

Oh, verily, with God is the beginning and the end of all things! (57)

 

54 I.e., in all the three ways mentioned in the preceding verse.

 

55 The term ruh (lit., "spirit" or "soul") has in the Qur'an often the meaning of "divine inspiration" (see surah 16, note 2). In the present context, it evidently denotes the contents of the divine inspiration bestowed on the Prophet Muhammad, i.e., the Qur'an (Tabari, Zamakhshari, Razi, Ibn Kathir), which is meant to lead man to a more intensive spiritual life: hence my above rendering.

 

56 I.e., that the very concept of "faith" implies man's complete self-surrender (islam) to God.

 

57 Lit., "unto God do all things (al-umur) pursue their course": i.e., all things go back to Him as their source, and from His will depends the course which they take (Baydawi).

 

Empty formalism

 

57:27 And thereupon We caused [other of] Our apostles to follow in their footsteps; and [in the course of time] We caused them to be followed by Jesus, the son of Mary, upon whom We bestowed the Gospel; (46) and in the hearts of those who [truly] followed him We engendered compassion and mercy. But as for monastic asceticism (47) – We did not enjoin it upon them: they invented it themselves out of a desire for God's goodly acceptance. (48) But then, they did not [always] observe it as it ought to have been observed: (49) and so We granted their recompense unto such of them as had [truly] attained to faith, whereas many of them became iniquitous. (50)

 

 

Confer 9:19 and its footnote 29, which mentions “the immense superiority of real self-surrender to God over mere ritual”.

 

 

See also: Going astray (by inventing rules, regulations, and doctrines beyond God’s revelation – at the risk of, e.g., lapsing into empty formalism).

 

46 See surah 3, note 4.

 

47 The term rahbaniyyah combines the concepts of monastic life with an exaggerated asceticism, often amounting to a denial of any value in the life of this world – an attitude characteristic of early Christianity but disapproved of in Islam (cf. 2:143 – "We have willed you to be a community of the middle way" – and the corresponding note 118).

 

48 Or: "they invented it themselves, [for] We did not enjoin it upon them: [We enjoined upon them] only the seeking of God's goodly acceptance". Both these interpretations are equally legitimate, and are accepted as such by most of the classical commentators. The rendering adopted by me corresponds to the interpretation given by Sa'id ibn Jubayr and Qatadah (both of them cited by Tabari and Ibn Kathir).

 

49 I.e., not all of them observed it in the right spirit (Tabari, Zamakhshari, Iba Kathir), inasmuch as in the course of time many of them – or, rather, many of those who came after the early ascetics (Tabari) – corrupted their devotions by accepting the ideas of Trinity and of God's incarnation in Jesus, and by lapsing into empty formalism (Razi).

 

50 Sc., "and were deprived of Our grace".

 

Faith, the purpose of

 

57:16 IS IT NOT time that the hearts of all who have attained to faith should feel humble at the remembrance of God and of all the truth that has been bestowed [on them] from on high, (22) lest they become like those who were granted revelation aforetime, (23) and whose hearts have hardened with the passing of time so that many of them are [now] depraved? (24) 57:17 [But] know that God gives life to the earth after it has been lifeless! (25) We have indeed made Our messages clear unto you, so that you might use your reason.

 

22 I.e., "Should not the remembrance of God and His revelation make them humble rather than proud?" This is an emphatic warning against all smugness, self-righteousness and false pride at having "attained to faith" – a failing which only too often attains to such as consider themselves "pious".

 

23 This is apparently an allusion to the spiritually arrogant among the Jews, who regard themselves as "God's chosen people" and, therefore, as predestined for His acceptance.

 

24 I.e., so that now they act contrary to the ethical precepts of their religion: implying that the purpose of all true faith is to make man humble and God-conscious rather than self-satisfied, and that a loss of that spiritual humility invariably results in moral degeneration.

 

25 According to most of the commentators – and, particularly, Zamakhshari, Razi and Ibn Kathir this is a parabolic allusion to the effect of a re-awakening of God-consciousness in hearts that had become deadened by self-satisfaction and false pride.

 

Fitrah (original disposition, natural constitution, innate nature)

 

(7:172) AND WHENEVER thy Sustainer brings forth their offspring from the loins of the children of Adam, He [thus] calls upon them to bear witness about themselves: "Am I not your Sustainer?" – to which they answer: "Yea, indeed, we do bear witness thereto!" (139)

 

139 In the original, this passage is in the past tense ("He brought forth", "He asked them", etc.), thus stressing the continuous recurrence of the above metaphorical "question" and "answer": a continuity which is more clearly brought out in translation by the use of the present tense. According to the Qur'an, the ability to perceive the existence of the Supreme Power is inborn in human nature (fitrah); and it is this instinctive cognition – which may or may not be subsequently blurred by self-indulgence or adverse environmental influences – that makes every sane human being "bear witness about himself" before God. As so often in the Qur'an, God's "speaking" and man's "answering" is a metonym for the creative act of God and of man's existential response to it.

 

Follow not the crowd

 

45:18 And, finally, (17) [O Muhammad,] We have set thee on a way by which the purpose [of faith] may be fulfilled: (18) so follow thou this [way], and follow not the likes and dislikes of those who do not know [the truth]. (19) (45:19) Behold, they could never be of any avail to thee if thou wert to defy the will of God (20) – for, verily, such evildoers are but friends and protectors of one another, whereas God is the Protector of all who are conscious of Him.

 

45:20 This [revelation, then,] (21) is a means of insight for mankind, and a guidance and grace unto people who are endowed with inner certainty.

 

 

See also:

·         Doubts, toying with.

·         God – always warning man (and thus calling every one of us unto Himself).

·         Inner certainty.

·         Self-deception.

 

 

17 Lit., "thereafter" or "in the end" (thumma) – i.e., after the failure of the earlier communities to realize the ideal purpose of faith in their actual mode of life.

 

18 Lit., "on a way of the purpose [of faith]": see note 15 above. It is to be borne in mind that the literal meaning of the term shari'ah is "the way to a watering-place", and since water is indispensable for all organic life, this term has in time come to denote a "system of laws", both moral and practical, which shows man the way towards spiritual fulfilment and social welfare: hence, "religious law" in the widest sense of the term. (See in this connection note 66 on the second part of 5:48.)

 

19 I.e., who are not – or not primarily – motivated by God-consciousness and, hence, are swayed only by what they themselves regard as "right" in accordance with worldly, changing circumstances.

 

20 Lit., "against [i.e., "in defiance of"] God".

 

21 I.e., the Qur'an, which unfolds to man the purpose of all faith.

 

Forgiveness

17:25 Your Sustainer is fully aware of what is in your hearts. If you are righteous, [He will forgive you your errors]: for, behold, He is much-forgiving to those who turn unto Him again and again.

 

 

Free will

 

36:67 And had it been Our will [that they should not be free to choose between right and wrong], We could surely have given them a different nature (35) [and created them as beings rooted] in their places, so that they would not be able to move forward, and could not turn back. (36)

 

35 Lit., "transformed [or "transmuted"] them".

 

36 I.e., if it had been God's will that men should have no freedom of will or moral choice, He would have endowed them from the very beginning with a spiritually and morally stationary nature, entirely rooted in their instincts ("in their places"), devoid of all urge to advance, and incapable either of positive development or of retreat from a wrong course.

 

Fulfilment in life

20:1 O MAN!(1) (20:2) We did not bestow the Qur'an on thee from on high to make thee unhappy,(2) (20:3) but only as an exhortation to all who stand in awe [of God]: (20:4) a revelation from Him who has created the earth and the high heavens – (20:5) the Most Gracious, established on the throne of His almightiness.(3)

 

2 I.e., the ethical discipline imposed upon man by the teachings of the Qur'an is not meant to narrow down his feel of life, but, on the contrary, to enhance it by deepening his consciousness of right and wrong.

 

3 For my rendering of the metaphorical term al-'arsh as "the throne of His almightiness", see note 43 on 7:54.

Future, (belongs to the God-conscious)

 

Surah 11

11:49 Be, then, [like Noah,] patient in adversity – for, behold, the future belongs to the God-conscious!

 

 

Confer 20:132, 28:83.

 

 

Surah 6

6:134 Verily, that [reckoning] which you are promised is bound to come, and you cannot elude it! (6:135) Say: "O my [unbelieving] people! Do yet all that may be within your power, [while] I, behold, shall labour [in God's way]; and in time you will come to know to whom the future belongs. (118) Verily, never will evildoers attain to a happy state!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 6

118 Lit., "to whom the [happy] end of the abode shall belong". The term "abode" (dar) is used in the Qur'an with reference to both the life of this world (dar ad-dunya) and the life to come (dar al-akhirah). Most of the commentators are of the opinion that it refers here to the life to come; Zamakhshari, however, relates it to life on earth. Since either of these interpretations is agreeable with the text, I have chosen the above rendering which comprises both.

Godlessness, consequences of

(16:26) Those who lived before them did, too, devise many a blasphemy (19) – whereupon God visited with destruction all that they had ever built, (20) [striking] at its very foundations, so that the roof fell in upon them from above (21) and suffering befell them without their having perceived whence it came.

19 Lit., "schemed" (makara): i.e., they blasphemed by describing the divine revelations as "fables of ancient times" and by refusing to admit the truth of God's existence or of His oneness and uniqueness.

 

20 Lit., "their building" (see next note).

 

21 This is obviously a metaphor (Razi) describing the utter collapse of all endeavours – both individual and social – rooted in godlessness and false pride.

 

God – do not attribute unto Him aught but what is true

 

7:169 Have they not been solemnly pledged through the divine writ not to attribute unto God aught but what is true, (136) and [have they not] read again and again all that is therein?

 

136 A reference to their erroneous idea that God's forgiveness could be obtained without sincere repentance. The divine writ mentioned twice in this passage is obviously the Bible.

God – our only source of light and guidance

 

24:40 Or [else, their deeds (60) are] like the depths of darkness upon an abysmal sea, made yet more dark by wave billowing over wave, with [black] clouds above it all: depths of darkness, layer upon layer, (61) [so that when one holds up his hand, he can hardly see it: for he to whom God gives no light, no light whatever has he!

 

60 I.e., their bad deeds, as contrasted with their good deeds, which in the preceding verse have been likened to a mirage.

 

61 Lit., "one above another".

 

 

The Study Quran comments thus on 24:40 (italics in original): The three kinds of darkness mentioned here – the sea, the waves, the clouds – are interpreted [by some of the classical commentators] to be the darkness of one’s heart, one’s sight, and one’s hearing (R); see 2:7c for the notion of hearts and spiritual faculties being sealed or covered. […] That the disbeliever can hardly see his hand suggests that human beings can never be left in total darkness, and the light of guidance is available as long as they are still alive.

 

God’s blessings – in this life, and in the life to come

 

8:2 Believers are only they whose hearts tremble with awe whenever God is mentioned, and whose faith is strengthened whenever His messages are conveyed unto them,; and who in their Sustainer place their trust – (8:3) those who are constant in prayer and spend on others out of what We provide for them as sustenance (4) (8:4) it is they, they who are truly believers! Theirs shall be great dignity in their Sustainer's sight, and forgiveness of sins, and a most excellent sustenance. (5)

 

4 See surah 2, note 4.

 

5 I.e., in paradise. According to Razi, however, the "most excellent sustenance" is a metonym

for "the spiritual raptures arising from the knowledge of God, the love of Him, and the self-immersion (istighraq) in worshipping Him". In Razi's interpretation, this expression refers to the spiritual reward of faith in this world. Some commentators (cf. Manar IX, 597) regard the above definition of true believers as the most important passage of this surah. – The phrase rendered by me as "theirs shall be great dignity" reads, literally, "they shall have degrees", namely, of excellence and dignity.

God’s compassion

 

2:143 God is most compassionate towards man, a dispenser of grace.

 

 

Sahih International: Indeed Allah is, to the people, Kind and Merciful.

 

Pickthall: for Allah is Full of Pity, Merciful toward mankind.

 

Yusuf Ali: For Allah is to all people Most surely full of kindness, Most Merciful.

 

Mohsin Khan: Truly, Allah is full of kindness, the Most Merciful towards mankind.

 

Arberry: truly, God is All-gentle with the people, All-compassionate.

 

 

 

God’s grace (holding people accountable for conscious wrongdoings only)

 

6:131 And so it is that thy Sustainer would never destroy a community (116) for its wrongdoing so long as its people are still unaware [of the meaning of right and wrong]: (6:132) for all shall be judged according to their [conscious] deeds (117) – and thy Sustainer is not unaware of what they do.

116 Lit., "communities". The term qaryah (lit., "town", "village" or "land") denotes also the people of a town or land – in short, a "community" – and it is in this sense that this term is mostly, though not always, used in the Qur'an.

 

117 Lit., "all shall have grades out of what they did", i.e., consciously – since God does not take people to task for any wrong they may have committed unless it was done in conscious contravention of a moral law already made clear to them by the prophets.

 

God’s guidance I

 

Surah 6

6:125 And whomsoever God wills to guide, his bosom He opens wide with willingness towards self-surrender [unto Him]; and whomsoever He wills to let go astray, his bosom He causes to be tight and constricted, as if he were climbing unto the skies: it is thus that God inflicts horror upon those who will not believe. (6:126) And undeviating is this thy Sustainer's way. (111)

 

Clearly, indeed, have We spelled out these messages unto people who [are willing to] take them to heart! (6:127) Theirs shall be an abode of peace with their Sustainer; and He shall be near unto them in result of what they have been doing.

 

 

Surah 14

14:4 AND NEVER have We sent forth any apostle otherwise than [with a message] in his own people's tongue, so that he might make [the truth] clear unto them; (3) but God lets go astray him that wills [to go astray], and guides him that wills [to be guided] – for He alone is almighty, truly wise. (4)

 

 

Confer 24:46, 28:56.

 

 

See also:

·         Christianity and other faiths based on earlier revelations.

·         Heart, deafness and blindness of.

 

Note on Surah 6

111 Lit., "and this thy Sustainer's way is straight" – i.e., unchanging in its application of the law of cause and effect to man's inner life as well. – The term rijs occurring in the preceding sentence, and rendered by me as "horror", signifies anything that is intrinsically loathsome, horrible or abominable; in this case, it would seem to denote that awesome feeling of utter futility which, sooner or later, overcomes everyone who does not believe that life has meaning and purpose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 14

3 Since every divine writ was meant to be understood by man, it is obvious that each had to be formulated in the language of the people whom the particular prophet was addressing in the first instance; and the Qur'an – notwithstanding its universal import (cf. note 126 on 7:158) – is no exception in this respect.

 

4 Or: "God lets go astray whomever He wills, and guides whomever He wills". All Qur'anic references to God's "letting man go astray" must be understood against the background of 2:26-27 – "none does He cause to go astray save the iniquitous, who break their bond with God" (regarding which latter expression, see surah 2, note 19): that is to say, man's "going astray" is a consequence of his own attitudes and inclinations and not a result of an arbitrary "predestination" in the popular sense of this word (cf. surah 2, note 7). In his commentary on the above verse, Zamakhshari stresses this aspect of free choice on the part of man and points out that

"God does not cause anyone to go astray except one who, as He knows, will never attain to faith; and He does not guide anyone aright except one who, as He knows, will attain to faith. Hence, the [expression] 'causing to go astray' denotes [God's] leaving [one] alone (takhliyah) and depriving [him] of all favour, whereas [the expression] 'guidance' denotes [His] grant of fulfilment (tawfiq) and favour. ... Thus, He does not forsake anyone except those who deserve to be forsaken, and does not bestow His favour upon anyone except those who deserve to be favoured."

 

Commenting on the identical phrase occurring in 16:93, Zamakhshari states:

"[God] forsakes him who, as He knows, will [consciously] choose to deny the truth and will persevere in this [denial]; and ... He bestows His favour upon him who, as He knows, will choose faith: which means that He makes the issue dependent on [man's] free choice (al ikhtiyar), and thus on his deserving either [God's] favour or the withdrawal of [His] aid ... and does not make it dependent on compulsion [i.e., predestination], which would rule out [man's] deserving anything of the above."

 

God’s guidance II

 

19:58 THESE WERE some of the prophets upon whom God bestowed His blessings – [prophets] of the seed of Adam and of those whom We caused to be borne [in the ark] with Noah, and of the seed of Abraham and Israel: and [all of them were] among those whom We had guided and elected;

 

 

God’s guidance III

19:76 And God endows those who avail themselves of [His] guidance with an ever-deeper consciousness of the right way; (64) and good deeds, the fruit whereof endures forever, are, in thy Sustainer's sight, of far greater merit [than any worldly goods], and yield far better returns.

 

64 Lit., "God increases in guidance those who ...", etc.

God’s guidance IV

 

(20:123) [...] None the less, there shall most certainly come unto you guidance from Me: and he who follows My guidance will not go astray, and neither will he be unhappy.

 

 

God’s Light, parable of

 

24:35 God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is, as it were, (50) that of a niche containing a lamp; the lamp is [enclosed] in glass, the glass [shining] like a radiant star: (51) [a lamp] lit from a blessed tree – an olive-tree that is neither of the east nor of the west (52) – the oil whereof [is so bright that it] would well-nigh give light [of itself] even though fire had not touched it: light upon light! (53) God guides unto His light him that wills [to be guided]; (54) and [to this end] God propounds parables unto men, since God [alone] has full knowledge of all things. (55)

 

Confer 24:46.

50 The particle ka ("as if" or "as it were") prefixed to a noun is called kaf at-tashbih ("the letter kaf pointing to a resemblance [of one thing to another]" or "indicating a metaphor"). In the above context it alludes to the impossibility of defining God even by means of a metaphor or a parable – for, since "there is nothing like unto Him" (42:11), there is also "nothing that could be compared with Him" (112:4). Hence, the parable of "the light of God" is not meant to express His reality – which is inconceivable to any created being and, therefore, inexpressible in any human language but only to allude to the illumination which He, who is the Ultimate Truth, bestows upon the mind and the feelings of all who are willing to be guided. Tabari, Baghawi and Ibn Kathir quote Ibn 'Abbas and Ibn Mas'ud as saying in this context: "It is the parable of His light in the heart of a believer."

 

51 The "lamp" is the revelation which God grants to His prophets and which is reflected in the believer's heart – the "niche" of the above parable (Ubayy ibn Ka'b, as quoted by Tabari) – after being received and consciously grasped by his reason ("the glass [shining brightly] like a radiant star"): for it is through reason alone that true faith can find its way into the heart of man.

 

52 It would seem that this is an allusion to the organic continuity of all divine revelation which, starting like a tree from one "root" or proposition – the statement of God's existence and uniqueness – grows steadily throughout man's spiritual history, branching out into a splendid variety of religious experience, thus endlessly widening the range of man's perception of the truth. The association of this concept with the olive-tree apparently arises from the fact that this particular kind of tree is characteristic of the lands in which most of the prophetic precursors of the Qur'anic message lived, namely, the lands to the east of the Mediterranean: but since all true revelation flows from the Infinite Being, it is "neither of the east nor of the west" – and especially so the revelation of the Qur'an, which, being addressed to all mankind, is universal in its goal as well.

 

53 The essence of the Qur'anic message is described elsewhere as "clear [in itself] and clearly showing the truth" (cf. note 2 on 12:1); and it is, I believe, this aspect of the Qur'an that the above sentence alludes to. Its message gives light because it proceeds from God; but it "would well-nigh give light [of itself] even though fire had not touched it": i.e., even though one may be unaware that it has been "touched by the fire" of divine revelation, its inner consistency, truth and wisdom ought to be self-evident to anyone who approaches it in the light of his reason and without prejudice.

 

54 Although most of the commentators read the above phrase in the sense of "God guides unto His light whomever He wills", Zamakhshari gives it the sense adopted in my rendering (both being syntactically permissible).

 

55 I.e., because of their complexity, certain truths can be conveyed to man only by means of parables or allegories: see notes 5 and 8 on 3:7.

 

God’s messages – called into question only by those who are bent on denying the truth

 

40:4 NONE BUT THOSE who are bent on denying the truth would call God's messages in question. But let it not deceive thee that they seem to be able to do as they please on earth

 

 

Yusuf Ali: None can dispute about the Signs of Allah but the Unbelievers. Let not, then, their strutting about through the land deceive thee!

 

OJA: Asad renders the word "bent" in italics when quoting verse 4 in his introduction to Surah 40; hence my use of italics in the heading here.

 

God’s messages – God’s wonders

 

(30:46) for among His wonders is this: He sends forth [His messages as He sends forth] the winds that bear glad tidings, (42) so that He might give you a taste of His grace [through life-giving rains], and that ships might sail at His behest, and that you might go about in quest of some of His bounties, and that you might have cause to be grateful.

 

42 The mention of God's messages, interpolated by me between brackets, is justified by the verses which precede and follow this passage. Moreover, it is only by means of such an interpolation that the symbolic purport of the above reference to "the winds that bear glad tidings" can be made fully obvious.

God’s Own fire – God’s own light (which bestows illumination)

 

(27:8) But when he (Moses) came close to it, a call was sounded: "Blessed are all who are within [reach of] this fire, and all who are near it! (7) And limitless in His glory is God, the Sustainer of all the worlds!"

7 Thus Zamakhshari explains the expression hawlaha (lit., "around it"). According to some of the earliest commentators, quoted by Tabari, the "fire" (nar) is in this context synonymous with "light" (nur), namely, the illumination which God bestows on His prophets, who – one may presume – are a priori "near it" by virtue of their inborn spiritual sensitivity. Alternatively, the phrase man fi 'n-nar wa-man hawlaha may be understood as referring to God's Own light, which encompasses, and is the core of, all spiritual illumination.

 

God’s spirit – breathed into man

 

32:7 Thus, He begins the creation of man out of clay; (7) (32:8) then He causes him to be begotten (8) out of the essence of a humble fluid; (32:9) and then He forms him in accordance with what he is meant to be, and breathes into him of His spirit: (9) and [thus, O men,] He endows you with hearing, and sight, and feelings as well as minds: (10)

7 Cf. note 4 on 23:12. In view of the next verse, this "beginning" of man's creation seems to allude to the basic composition of the human body as such, as well as to each individual's pre-natal existence in the separate bodies of his parents.

 

8 Lit., "He caused [i.e., as pointed out in note 6 above, "He causes"] his procreation [or "his begetting"] to be out of ..., etc.

 

9 As in 15:29 and 38:72, God's "breathing of His spirit into man" is a metaphor for the divine gift of life and consciousness, or of a "soul" (which, as pointed out in surah 4, note 181, is one of the meanings of the term ruh). Consequently, "the soul of every human being is of the spirit of God" (Razi). Regarding the verb sawwahu – rendered by me as "He forms him in accordance with what he is meant to be" – see note 1 on 87:2 and note 5 on 91:7.

 

10 Lit., "hearts" (af'idah), which in classical Arabic is a metonym for both "feelings" and "minds"; hence my composite rendering of this term.

 

 

Confer Asad’s note on Surah 21

87 […] As a matter of fact, the Qur'an uses the same expression in three other places with reference to the creation of man in general – namely in 15:29 and 38:72, "when I have formed him ... and breathed into him of My spirit"; and in 32:9, "and thereupon He forms [lit., "formed"] him fully and breathes lit., "breathed"] into him of His spirit". In particular, the passage of which the last-quoted phrase is a part (i.e., 32:7-9) makes it abundantly and explicitly clear that God "breathes of His spirit" into every human being.

 

God, unto whom there are many ways of ascent

 

(70:3) [...] God, unto whom there are many ways of ascent: (3)

 

 

Pickthall: Lord of the Ascending Stairways.

 

Yusuf Ali: Lord of the Ways of Ascent.

 

3 Lit., "He of the [many] ascents": a metonymical phrase implying that there are many ways by which man can "ascend" to a comprehension of God's existence, and thus to spiritual "nearness" to Him – and that, therefore, it is up to each human being to avail himself of any of the ways leading towards Him (cf. 76:3).

 

God with us

 

Surah 8

(8:12) Lo! Thy Sustainer inspired the angels [to convey this His message to the believers]: "I am with you!" (13)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 5

5:12 And God said: "Behold, I shall be with you [i.e., the children of Israel]! If you are constant in prayer, and spend in charity, and believe in My apostles and aid them, and offer up unto God a goodly loan, (23) I will surely efface your bad deeds and bring you into gardens through which running waters flow. But he from among you who, after this, denies the truth, will indeed have strayed from the right path!"

 

 

Surah 20

20:45 The two [brothers] said: "O our Sustainer! Verily, we fear lest he act hastily with regard to us, (29) or lest he [continue to] transgress all bounds of equity." 20:46 Answered He: "Fear not! Verily, I shall be with you two, hearing and seeing [all]. (20:47) Go, then; you two unto him and say, 'Behold, we are apostles sent by thy Sustainer: let, then, the children of Israel go with us, and cause them not to suffer [any longer]. (30) We have now come unto thee with a message from thy Sustainer; and [know that His] peace shall be [only] on those who follow [His] guidance: (20:48) for, behold, it has been revealed to us that [in the life to come] suffering shall befall all who give the lie to the truth and turn away [from it]!'"

 

 

Surah 26

26:15 Said He: "Not so, indeed! Go forth, then, both of you, with Our messages: verily, We shall be with you, listening [to your call]!

 

[…]

 

(26:60) And so [the Egyptians] caught up with them at sunrise; (26:61) and as soon as the two hosts came in sight of one another, the followers of Moses exclaimed: "Behold, we shall certainly be overtaken [and defeated]!" 26:62 He replied: "Nay indeed! My Sustainer is with me, [and] He will guide me!" […] (26:67) In this [story], behold, there is a message [unto all men], even though most of them will not believe [in it]. (26:68) And yet, verily, thy Sustainer – He alone – is almighty, a dispenser of grace!

 

 

Surah 57

57:3 He is the First and the Last, (1) and the Outward as well as the Inward: (2) and He has full knowledge of everything. (57:4) He it is who has created the heavens and the earth in six aeons, and is established on the throne of His almightiness. (3) He knows all that enters the earth, and all that comes out of it, as well as all that descends from the skies, and all that ascends to them. (4) And He is with you wherever you may be; and God sees all that you do.

 

Note on Surah 8

13 The phrase "I am with you" is addressed (through the angels) to the believers – "for, the purport of these words was the removal of fear, since it was the Muslims, and not the angels, who feared the deniers of the truth" (Razi).

 

 

Confer these two Biblical verses:

 

Isaiah 7:14 (NIV) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

 

Mathew 1:23 (NIV) "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us").

 

 

Note on Surah 5

23 I.e., by doing righteous deeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 57

1 I.e., His Being is eternal, without anything preceding His existence and without anything outlasting its infinity: an interpretation given by the Prophet himself, as recorded in several well authenticated Traditions. Thus, "time" itself – a concept beyond man's understanding – is but God's creation.

 

2 I.e., He is the transcendental Cause of all that exists and, at the same time, immanent in every phenomenon of His creation – cf. the oft-repeated Qur'anic phrase (e.g., in verse 5), "all things go back unto God [as their source]"; in the words of Tabari, "He is closer to everything than anything else could be". Another – perhaps supplementary – rendering could be, "He is the Evident as well as the Hidden": i.e., "His existence is evident (zahir) in the effects of His activity, whereas He Himself is not perceptible (ghayr mudrak) to our senses" (Zamakhshari).

 

3 Cf. the identical phrase in 7:54 and the corresponding note 43.

 

4 See 4 note 1 on 34:2.

 

Grace and love

11:90 Hence, ask your Sustainer to forgive you your sins, and then turn towards Him in repentance – for, verily, my Sustainer is a dispenser of grace, a fount of love!

 

 

Gradually finding one’s way to the truth

10:19 And had it not been for a decree – that had already gone forth from thy Sustainer, all their differences would indeed have been settled [from the outset]. (29)

 

 

See also: Revelation, step by step.

 

29 […] Since, however, such a uniformity would have precluded men's intellectual, moral and social development, God has left it to their reason, aided by prophetic guidance, gradually to find their way to the truth.

 

 

Grieved (be not)

10:65 And be not grieved by the sayings of those [who deny the truth]. Behold, all might and glory belong to God alone: He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing.

 

 

Guidance (i.e., having received understanding from God)

 

2:143 those whom God has guided aright. (120)

 

 

Shakir: ... those whom Allah has guided aright

 

Muhammad Sarwar: ... those to whom God has given guidance.

 

120 I.e., "whom He has given understanding" (Razi). ...

 

Hanif (inclining towards truth and that which is right)

2:135 Say: "Nay, but [ours is] the creed of Abraham, who turned away from all that is false, (110) and was not of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God."

 

 

Sahih International: Abraham, inclining toward truth, and he was not of the polytheists.

 

Pickthall: Abraham, the upright, and he was not of the idolaters.

 

Yusuf Ali: Abraham the True, and he joined not gods with Allah.

 

 

Confer 16:120, 123.

 

 

See also: Truth, men and women of.

 

 

110 The expression hanif is derived from the verb hanafa, which literally means "he inclined [towards a right state or tendency]" (cf. Lane II, 658). Already in pre-Islamic times, this term had a definitely monotheistic connotation, and was used to describe a man who turned away from sin and worldliness and from all dubious beliefs, especially idol-worship; and tahannuf denoted the ardent devotions, mainly consisting of long vigils and prayers, of the unitarian God-seekers of pre-Islamic times.

 

 

Health, physical

 

Surah 26

Said [Abraham]: (26:77) "Now [as for me, I know that,] verily, these [false deities] are my enemies, [and that none is my helper] save the Sustainer of all the worlds, (26:78) who has created me and is the One who guides me, (26:79) and is the One who gives me to eat and to drink, (26:80) and when I fall ill, is the One who restores me to health, (26:81) and who will cause me to die and then will bring me back to life – (26:82) and who, I hope, will forgive me my faults on Judgment Day!

 

 

Surah 41

41:44 Say: "Unto all who have attained to faith, this [divine writ] is a guidance and a source of health; but as for those who will not believe in their ears is deafness, and so it remains obscure to them: they are [like people who are] being called from too far away." (38)

 

 

Confer 16:69.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 41

38 Lit., "from a far-off place": i.e., they only hear the sound of the words, but cannot understand their meaning.

Health, spiritual

 

Surah 17

17:82 THUS, step by step, We bestow from on high through this Qur'an all that gives health [to the spirit] and is a grace unto those who believe [in Us], the while it only adds to the ruin of evildoers: (98) (17:83) for [it often happens that] when We bestow Our blessings upon man, he turns away and arrogantly keeps aloof [from any thought of Us]; and when evil fortune touches him, he abandons all hope.

 

 

Surah 27

(27:77) and, verily, it [i.e., The Qur’an] is a guidance and a grace unto all who believe [in it].

 

 

See also: Health, physical.

 

Note on Surah 17

98 By "evildoers" are meant people who, out of self-conceit or an excessive "love of this world"; reject out of hand any suggestion of divine guidance – and, with it, any belief in the existence of absolute moral values – and in the end, as the sequence shows, fall prey to spiritual nihilism.

Hearts – peace and rest for the hearts of the believers (as opposed to those who are bent on denying the truth, and who prefer to go astray)

13:27-29 NOW THOSE who are bent on denying the truth [of the Prophet's message] say, "Why has no miraculous sign ever been bestowed upon him from on high by his Sustainer?" (49) Say: "Behold, God lets go astray him who wills [to go astray] (50), So just as He guides unto Himself all who turn unto Him – (13:28) those who believe, and whose hearts find their rest in the remembrance of God – for, verily, in the remembrance of God [men's] hearts do find their rest –: (13:29) [and so it is that] they who attain to faith and do righteous deeds are destined for happiness [in this world] and the most beauteous of all goals [in the life to come]!"

 

49 See verse 7 of this surah and the corresponding note 16. The repetition of this question at this place points to its connection with the reference to "those who break their bond with God after it has been established [in their nature]" in verse 25 above (elucidated in note 19 on 2:27). The abandonment of their original, innate faculty to realize the existence of God and their own dependence on His guidance – caused by their utter immersion in the passing pleasures of this world's life – makes it impossible for "those who are bent on denying the truth" to sense the breath of the divine in the message propounded to them by Muhammad: and so they refuse to accept it as true unless it is supported by an outward "miracle". (See in this connection note 94 on 6:109.)

 

50 Or: "God lets go astray whomever He wills". Regarding the rendering adopted by me, see surah 14, note 4.

 

Hidden knowledge and understanding

 

19:64 ...unto Him belongs all that lies open before us [i.e., the angels] and all that is hidden – from us and all that is in-between. (50)

 

50 I.e., that which even the angels can only glimpse but not fully understand.

Human soul, illumination of

 

17:78 BE CONSTANT in [thy] prayer from the time when the sun has passed its zenith till the darkness of night, and [be ever mindful of its] recitation at dawn: (95) for, behold, the recitation [of prayer] at dawn is indeed witnessed [by all that is holy]. (96)

96 Most of the classical commentators take this to mean "witnessed by the angels of night as well as those of day", since dawn is the time between night and day. Razi, however, is of the opinion that the "witness" to which the Qur'an refers here is the spark of God-given illumination in man's own soul – the heightening of his inner perception at the time when the darkness and stillness of night begins to give way to the life-giving light of day, so that prayer becomes a means of attaining to deeper insight into the realm of spiritual truths and, thus, of achieving communion with all that is holy.

 

Humility and inner purity

 

Surah 7

7:55 Call unto your Sustainer humbly, and in the secrecy of your hearts.

 

 

See also: Religious humility versus the pitfalls of arrogance and exclusivism.

 

 

Surah 23

23:1 TRULY, to a happy state shall attain the believers: (23:2) those who humble themselves in their prayer, (23:3) and who turn away from all that is frivolous, (23:4) and who are intent on inner purity; (1) (23:5) and who are mindful of their chastity, (2) (23:6) [not giving way to their desires] with any but their spouses – that is, those whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock]: (3) – for then, behold, they are free of all blame, (23:7) whereas such as seek to go beyond that [limit] are truly transgressors; (23:8) and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges, (23:9) and who guard their prayers [from all worldly intent].

 

23:10 It is they, they who shall be the inheritors (23:11) that will inherit the paradise; [and] therein shall they abide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 23

1 Lit., "working for" or "active in behalf of [inner] purity", which is the meaning of zakah in this context (Zamakhshari; the same interpretation has been advanced by Abu Muslim).

 

2 Lit., "who guard their private parts"

 

3 Lit., "or those whom their right hands possess" (aw ma malakat aymanuhum). Most of the commentators assume unquestioningly that this relates to female slaves, and that the particle aw ("or") denotes a permissible alternative. This conventional interpretation is, in my opinion, inadmissible inasmuch as it is based on the assumption that sexual intercourse with one's female slave is permitted without marriage: an assumption which is contradicted by the Qur'an itself (see 4:3, 24, 25 and 24:32, with the corresponding notes). Nor is this the only objection to the above-mentioned interpretation. [...]

Hypocrites

 

29:10 [...] Is not God fully aware of what is in the hearts of all creatures? 29:11 [Yea –] and most certainly will God mark out those who have [truly] attained to faith, and most certainly will He mark out the hypocrites. (7)

 

 

Confer 63:1-8.

 

7 This is probably the earliest occurrence of the term munafiq in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation. Idiomatically, the term is derived from the noun nafaq, which denotes an "underground passage" having an outlet different from the entry, and signifying, specifically, the complicated burrow of a field-mouse, a lizard, etc., from which the animal can easily escape or in which it can outwit a pursuer. Tropically, the term munafiq describes a person who is "two-faced", inasmuch as he always tries to find an easy way out of any real commitment, be it spiritual or social, by adapting his course of action to what promises to be of practical advantage to him in the situation in which he happens to find himself. Since a person thus characterized usually pretends to be morally better than he really is, the epithet munafiq may roughly be rendered as "hypocrite". It should, however, be noted that whereas this Western term invariably implies conscious dissembling with the intent to deceive others, the Arabic term munafiq may also be applied – and occasionally is applied in the Qur'an to a person who, being weak or uncertain in his beliefs or moral convictions, merely deceives himself. Hence, while using in my rendering of the Qur'anic text the conventional expression "hypocrite", I have endeavoured to point out the above differentiation, whenever possible and necessary, in my explanatory notes.

 

Hypocrisy – a sure way to earn God’s wrath

 

48:6 And [God has willed] to impose suffering [in the life to come] on the hypocrites, both men and women, and on those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, both men and women: all who entertain evil thoughts about God. (6)

 

6 I.e., who deny His existence or man's responsibility to Him, or offend against the concept of His oneness.

Ignorance – know and respect your own limitations; be humble

17:36 And never concern thyself with anything of which thou hast no knowledge: (45) verily, [thy] hearing and sight and heart – all of them – will be called to account for it [on Judgment Day]!

(45) Or: "do not follow [or "pursue"] anything ...", etc. This would seem to relate to groundless assertions about events or people (and hence to slander or false testimony), to statements based on guesswork unsupported by evidence, or to interfering in social situations which one is unable to evaluate correctly.

 

Ignorance followed by repentance

16:119: And once again: Behold, thy Sustainer [shows mercy] to those who do evil out of ignorance and afterwards repent and live righteously: behold, after such [repentance] thy Sustainer is indeed much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

 

 

Inherit the earth

21:105-106 AND, INDEED, after having exhorted [man], We laid it down in all the books of divine wisdom that My righteous servants shall inherit the earth: (101) herein, behold, there is a message for people who [truly] worship God.

101 Zabar (lit., "scripture" or "book") is a generic term denoting any "book of wisdom": hence, any and all of the divine scriptures revealed by God to the prophets [Tabari]. The statement that "My righteous servants shall inherit the earth" is obviously an echo of the promise, "You are bound to rise high if you are [truly] believers" (3:139) – the implication being that it is only through faith in God and righteous behaviour on earth that man can reach the heights envisaged for him by his Creator's grace.

 

Inner certainty

 

45:3 Behold, in the heavens as well as on earth there are indeed messages for all who [are willing to] believe. (2) (45:4) And in your own nature, and in [that of] all the animals which He scatters [over the earth] there are messages for people who are endowed with inner certainty. (3)

 

45:5 And in the succession of night and day, and in the means of subsistence (4) which God sends down from the skies, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless, and in the change of the winds: [in all this] there are messages for people who use their reason.

 

 

See also:

·         Doubts, toying with.

·         Follow not the crowd.

·         God – always warning man (and thus calling every one of us unto Himself).

·         Insight and inner assurance.

·         Self-deception.

 

2 Cf. 2:164, where the term ayat has been rendered by me in the same way, inasmuch as those visible signs of a consciously creative Power convey a spiritual message to man.

 

3 Cf. 7:185 and the corresponding note 151. – The intricate structure of human and animal bodies, and the life-preserving instincts with which all living creatures have been endowed, make it virtually impossible to assume that all this has developed "by accident"; and if we assume, as we must, that a creative purpose underlies this development, we must conclude, too, that it has been willed by a conscious Power which creates all natural phenomena in accordance with an inner truth" (see note 11 on 10:5).

 

4 I.e., rain, with the symbolic connotation of physical and spiritual grace often attached to it in the Qur'an.

 

Inner strength and vision

 

38:45 AND CALL to mind Our servants Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, [all of them] endowed with inner strength and vision: (38:46) for, verily, We purified them by means of a thought most pure: the remembrance of the life to come. (42) (38:47) And, behold, in Our sight they were indeed among the elect, the truly good! 38:48 And call to mind Ishmael and Elisha, (43) and every one who [like them] has pledged himself [unto Us]: (44) for, each of them was of the truly good!

 

42 Lit., "of the [final] abode".

 

43 Al-Yasa' in Arabic – the Biblical prophet who succeeded Elijah (see surah 37, note 48).

 

44 For an explanation of this rendering of dhu'l-kifl, see surah 21, note 81.

Insight and inner assurance

 

(6:75) And thus We gave Abraham [his first] insight into [God's] mighty dominion over the heavens and the earth – and [this] to the end that he might become one of those who are inwardly sure.

 

[…]

 

"[...] (6:79) Behold, unto Him who brought into being the heavens and the earth have I turned my face, having turned away from all that is false; and I am not of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him."

 

6:80 And his people argued with him. He said: "Do you argue with me about God, when it is He who has guided me? But I do not fear anything to which you ascribe divinity side by side with Him, [for no evil can befall me] unless my Sustainer so wills. (67) All things does my Sustainer embrace within His knowledge; will you not, then, keep this in mind? (6:81) And why should I fear anything that you worship side by side with Him, seeing that you are not afraid of ascribing divinity to other powers beside God without His ever having bestowed upon you from on high any warrant therefor? [Tell me,] then, which of the two parties has a better right to feel secure – if you happen to know [the answer]? (6:82) Those who have attained to faith, and who have not obscured their faith by wrongdoing – it is they who shall be secure, since it is they who have found the right path!" 6:83 And this was Our argument (68) which We vouchsafed unto Abraham against his people: [for] We do raise by degrees whom We will. (69) Verily, thy Sustainer is wise, all-knowing.

 

 

See also: Inner certainty.

 

67 Lit., "unless my Sustainer wills a thing".

 

68 The description of Abraham's reasoning as God's own argument implies that it was divinely inspired, and is therefore valid for the followers of the Qur'an as well.

 

69 This is evidently an allusion to Abraham's gradual grasp of the truth, symbolized by his intuitive progress from an adoration of celestial bodies – stars, moon and sun – to a full realization of God's transcendental, all-embracing existence. Alternatively, the expression "by degrees" may be taken to mean "by many degrees", signifying the great spiritual dignity to which this forerunner of a long line of prophets was ultimately raised (see 4:125).

Intellectual approach, differing in

 

10:19 And had it not been for a decree – that had already gone forth from thy Sustainer, all their differences would indeed have been settled [from the outset]. (29)

29 Lit., "it would indeed have been decided between them regarding all that they were differing in": i.e., had it not been for God's decree – which is the meaning, in this context, of the term kalimah (lit., "word") – that men should differ in their intellectual approach to the problems touched upon by divine revelation, "they would not have contended with one another after having received all evidence of the truth", but would all have held from the very outset, and would continue to hold, the same views (cf. 2:253 and the corresponding note 245). Since, however, such a uniformity would have precluded men's intellectual, moral and social development, God has left it to their reason, aided by prophetic guidance, gradually to find their way to the truth. (See also surah 2, note 198.) The above parenthetic passage must be read in conjunction with 2:213.

 

Intellectual insight

 

19:43 [Abraham spoke [thus] unto his father:] "O my father! Behold, there has indeed come to me [a ray] of knowledge such as has never yet come unto thee: (32) follow me, then; I shall guide thee onto a perfect way."

 

32 I.e., a cognition of God's existence and uniqueness through intellectual insight (cf. 6:74-82).

Intellectual quality and progressive realization

 

21:51 AND, INDEED, long before [the time of Moses] We vouchsafed unto Abraham his consciousness of what is right; (59) and We were aware of [what moved] him (21:52) when he said unto his father and his people, "What are these images to which you are so intensely devoted?"

59 The possessive pronoun "his" affixed to the noun rushd (which, in this context, has the meaning of "consciousness of what is right") emphasizes the highly personal, intellectual quality of Abraham's progressive realization of God's almightiness and uniqueness (cf. 6:74-79 as well as note 69 on 6:83); while the expression min qabl – rendered by me as "long before [the time of Moses]" – stresses, once again, the element of continuity in man's religious insight and experience.

 

Jesus

 

Surah 19

19:20 Said she: "How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me? – for, never have I been a loose woman!" (19:21) [The angel] answered: "Thus it is; [but] thy Sustainer says, 'This is easy for Me; (15) and [thou shalt have a son,] so that We might make him a symbol unto mankind and an act of grace from Us.'" (16)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 21

21:91 AND [remember] her who guarded her chastity, whereupon We breathed into her of Our spirit (87) and caused her, together with her son, to become a symbol [of Our grace] Unto all people. (88)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 23:

(23:50) And [as We exalted Moses, so, too,] We made the son of Mary and his mother a symbol [of Our grace], (25)

 

Notes on Surah 19

15 (omitted here).

 

16 One of the several meanings of the term dyah is "a sign" or, as elaborately defined by Raghib. "a symbol" (cf. surah 17, note 2). However, the sense in which it is most frequently used in the Qur'an is "a [divine] message": hence, its metonymic application to Jesus may mean that he was destined to become a vehicle of God's message to man – i.e., a prophet – and, thus, a symbol of God's grace. – As regards the words "thou shalt have a son" interpolated by me between brackets, a statement to this effect is implied in the subsequent phrase beginning with "so that" (Zamakhshari and Razi).

 

 

Notes to Surah 21

87 This allegorical expression, used here with reference to Mary's conception of Jesus, has been widely – and erroneously – interpreted as relating specifically to his birth. As a matter of fact, the Qur'an uses the same expression in three other places with reference to the creation of man in general – namely in 15:29 and 38:72, "when I have formed him ... and breathed into him of My spirit"; and in 32:9, "and thereupon He forms [lit., "formed"] him fully and breathes lit., "breathed"] into him of His spirit". In particular, the passage of which the last-quoted phrase is a part (i.e., 32:7-9) makes it abundantly and explicitly clear that God "breathes of His spirit" into every human being. Commenting on the verse under consideration, Zamakhshari states that "the breathing of the spirit [of God] into a body signifies the endowing it with life": an explanation with which Razi concurs. (In this connection, see also note 181 on 4:171.) As for the description of Mary as allati ahsanat farjaha; idiomatically denoting "one who guarded her chastity" (lit., "her private parts"), it is to be borne in mind that the term ihsan – lit., "[one's] being fortified [against any danger or evil]" – has the tropical meaning of "abstinence from what is unlawful or reprehensible" (Taj al-'Arus), and especially from illicit sexual intercourse, and is applied to a man as well as a woman: thus, for instance, the terms muhsan and muhsanah are used elsewhere in the Qur'an to describe, respectively, a man or a woman who is "fortified [by marriage] against unchastity". Hence, the expression allati ahsanat farjaha, occurring in the above verse as well as in 66:12 with reference to Mary, is but meant to stress her outstanding chastity and complete abstinence, in thought as well as in deed, from anything unlawful or morally reprehensible: in other words, a rejection of the calumny (referred to in 4:156 and obliquely alluded to in 19:27-28) that the birth of Jesus was the result of an "illicit union".

 

88 For my rendering of the term ayah as "symbol", see surah 17, note 2, and surah 19, note 16 (the latter is included above, here in this compilation).

 

 

Note on Surah 23:

25 For my rendering of ayah, in this instance, as "symbol", see surah 19, note 16. Jesus and his mother Mary are mentioned here specifically because they, too, had to suffer persecution and slander at the hands of "those who were bent on denying the truth".

 

Judgment according to gravity of sins

 

Please refer to:

·         Self-destruction.

·         Heart, deafness and blindness of.

 

 

 

Judgment belongs to God alone

 

Surah 26

(26:112) Said he [i.e., Noah]: "And what knowledge could I have as to what they were doing [before they came to me]? (26:113) Their reckoning rests with none but my Sustainer: if you could but understand [this]! (50) (26:114) Hence, I shall not drive away [any of those [who profess to be] believers; (26:115) I am nothing but a plain warner."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 68

68:44 Hence, leave Me alone with such as give the lie to this tiding. (23)

 

 

See also: Kafir.

 

Note on Surah 26

50 This is obviously a retort to the unbelievers' suggestion (elliptically implied here) that those "abject" followers of Noah had declared their faith in him, not out of conviction, but only in order to gain some material advantages. Noah's answer embodies a cardinal principle of Qur'anic ethics and, hence, of Islamic Law: No human being has the right to sit in judgment on another person's faith or hidden motives; whereas God knows what is in the hearts of men, society may judge only by external evidence (az-zahir), which comprises a person's words as well as deeds. Thus, if anyone says, "I am a believer", and does not act or speak in a manner contradicting his professed faith, the community must consider him a believer.

 

 

Note on Surah 68

23 I.e., to divine revelation in general, and to the tiding of resurrection and judgment, in particular – the implication being that God alone has the right to decide whether or how to chastise them.

 

Justice, do not deviate from

 

5:8 O YOU who have attained to faith! Be ever steadfast in your devotion to God, bearing witness to the truth in all equity; and never let hatred of anyone (19) lead you into the sin of deviating from justice. Be just: this is closest to being God-conscious. And remain conscious of God: verily, God is aware of all that you do.

 

19 Lit., "of people".

Kafir

 

Surah 2

2:6 BEHOLD, as for those who are bent on denying the truth (6) – it is all one to them whether thou warnest them or dost not warn them: they will not believe. (2:7) God; has sealed their hearts and their hearing, and over their eyes is a veil; (7) and awesome suffering awaits them.

 

 

See also:

·         Laws of nature – God’s way – sunnat Allah.

·         Truth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 74

74:8 And [warn all men that] when the trumpet-call [of resurrection] is sounded, (9) that very Day shall be a day of anguish, (10) not of ease, for all who [now] deny the truth! (4)

 

74:11 LEAVE Me alone [to deal] with him whom I have created alone, (5)

 

Notes on Surah 2

6 In contrast with the frequently occurring term al-kafirun ("those who deny the truth"), the use of the past tense in alladhina kafaru indicates conscious intent, and is, therefore, appropriately rendered as "those who are bent on denying the truth". This interpretation is supported by many commentators, especially Zamakhshari (who, in his commentary on this verse, uses the expression, "those who have deliberately resolved upon their kufr"). Elsewhere in the Qur'an such people are spoken of as having "hearts with which they fail to grasp the truth, and eyes with which they fail to see, and ears with which they fail to hear" (7:179). – For an explanation of the terms kufr ("denial of the truth"), kafir ("one who denies the truth"), etc., see note 4 on 74:10, where this concept appears for the first time in Qur'anic revelation.

 

7 A reference to the natural law instituted by God, whereby a person who persistently adheres to false beliefs and refuses to listen to the voice of truth gradually loses the ability to perceive the truth, "so that finally, as it were, a seal is set upon his heart" (Raghib). Since it is God who has instituted all laws of nature – which, in their aggregate, are called sunnat Allah ("the way of God") – this "sealing" is attributed to Him: but it is obviously a consequence of man's free choice and not an act of "predestination". Similarly, the suffering which, in the life to come, is in store for those who during their life in this world have wilfully remained deaf and blind to the truth, is a natural consequence of their free choice – just as happiness in the life to come is the natural consequence of man's endeavour to attain to righteousness and inner illumination. It is in this sense that the Qur'anic references to God's "reward" and "punishment" must be understood.

 

 

Notes on Surah 74

4 Since this is the earliest Qur'anic occurrence of the expression kafir (the above surah having been preceded only by the first five verses of surah 96), its use here – and, by implication, in the whole of the Qur'an – is obviously determined by the meaning which it had in the speech of the Arabs before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad: in other words, the term kafir cannot be simply equated, as many Muslim theologians of post-classical times and practically all Western translators of the Qur'an have done, with "unbeliever" or "infidel" in the specific, restricted sense of one who rejects the system of doctrine and law promulgated in the Qur'an and amplified by the teachings of the Prophet – but must have a wider, more general meaning. This meaning is easily grasped when we bear in mind that the root verb of the participial noun kafir (and of the infinitive noun kufr) is kafara, "he [or "it"] covered [a thing]": thus, in 57:20 the tiller of the soil is called (without any pejorative implication) kafir, "one who covers", i.e., the sown seed with earth, just as the night is spoken of as having "covered" (kafara) the earth with darkness. In their abstract sense, both the verb and the nouns derived from it have a connotation of "concealing" something that exists or "denying" something that is true. Hence, in the usage of the Qur'an – with the exception of the one instance (in 57:20) where this participial noun signifies a "tiller of the soil" – a kafir is "one who denies [or "refuses to acknowledge"] the truth" in the widest, spiritual sense of this latter term: that is, irrespective of whether it relates to a cognition of the supreme truth – namely, the existence of God – or to a doctrine or ordinance enunciated in the divine writ, or to a self-evident moral proposition, or to an acknowledgment of, and therefore gratitude for, favours received. (Regarding the expression alladhina kafaru, implying conscious intent, see surah 2, note 6.)

 

5 Or: "...whom I alone have created". The above sentence can be understood in either of these two senses, depending on whether one relates the expression "alone" (wahid) to God – thus stressing His uniqueness as Creator – or to this particular object of His creation, man, who begins and ends his life in a state of utter loneliness (cf. 6:94 and 19:80 and 95). In either case, our attention is drawn to the fact of man's inescapable dependence on God. Beyond that, the phrase in question carries a further meaning, namely, "Leave it to Me alone to decide what to do with him who forgets that I am his Creator and Sustainer" – thus forbidding any human punishment of "those who deny the truth".

 

Knowledge (innate)

Surah 29

29:49 Nay, but this [divine writ] consists of messages clear to the hearts of all who are gifted with [innate] knowledge (48) – and none could knowingly reject Our messages unless it be such as would do wrong [to themselves].

 

 

Confer 41:3.

 

 

Surah 30

30:21 And among His wonders is this: He creates for you mates out of your own kind, so that you might incline towards them, and He engenders love and tenderness between you: in this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who think! (30:22) And among his wonders is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your tongues and colours: for in this, behold, there are messages indeed for all who are possessed of [innate] knowledge!

 

Note on Surah 29

48 Lit., "self-evident (bayyinat) in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge" – the term 'ilm having here the connotation of intuitive, spiritual perception.

Life – not always easy

 

Surah 90

(90:4) Verily, We have created man into [a life of] pain, toil and trial. (3)

 

 

 

Surah 93

93:1 CONSIDER the bright morning hours, (93:2) and the night when it grows still and dark. (1) (93:3) Thy Sustainer has not forsaken thee, nor does He scorn thee: (2) (93:4) for, indeed, the life to come will be better for thee than this earlier part [of thy life]!

 

Note on Surah 90

3 The term kabad, comprising the concepts of "pain", "distress", "hardship", "toil", "trial"', etc., can be rendered only by a compound expression like the one above.

 

 

Notes on Surah 93

1 The expression "bright morning hours" apparently symbolizes the few and widely-spaced periods of happiness in human life, as contrasted with the much greater length of "the night when it grows still and dark", i.e., the extended periods of sorrow or suffering that, as a rule, overshadow man's existence in this world (cf. 90:4). The further implication is that, as sure as morning follows night, God's mercy is bound to lighten every suffering, either in this world or in the life to come – for God has "willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy" (6:12 and 54).

 

2 Sc., "as the thoughtless might conclude in view of the suffering that He has willed thee to bear".

 

Life – rejoice in the life of this world

13:26 GOD GRANTS abundant sustenance, or gives it in scant measure, unto whomever He wills; and they [who are given abundance] rejoice in the life of this world – even though, as compared with the life to come, the life of this world is nought but a fleeting pleasure.

 

 

Life renewed

 

28:85 VERILY, [O believer,] He who has laid down this Qur'an in plain terms, making it binding on thee, (95) will assuredly bring thee back [from death] to a life renewed. (96)

 

95 According to Mujahid (as quoted by Tabari), the phrase farada 'alayka is almost synonymous with a'taka, "He gave [it] to thee". This, however, elucidates only one part of the above complex expression, which, I believe, has here a meaning similar to that of faradnaha ("We laid it down in plain terms") occurring in the first verse of surah 24 (An-Nur) and explained in the corresponding note 1. In the present context, the particle 'alayka ("upon thee"), with its pronominal suffix, gives to the above clause the additional meaning of a moral obligation on the part of the recipient of the Qur'anic message to conform his or her way of life to its teachings; hence my compound rendering of the phrase.

 

96 The term ma'ad denotes, literally, "a place [or "a state"] to which one returns", and, tropically, one's "ultimate destination" or "ultimate condition"; in the present context, it is obviously synonymous with "life in the hereafter". This is how most of the classical authorities interpret the above phrase. But on the vague assumption that this passage is addressed exclusively to the Prophet, some commentators incline to the view that the noun has here a specific, purely physical connotation – "a place of return" – allegedly referring to God's promise to His Apostle (given during or after the latter's exodus from Mecca to Medina) that one day he would return victoriously to the city of his birth. To my mind, however, the passage has a much deeper meaning, unconnected with any place or specific point in history: it is addressed to every believer, and promises not only a continuation of life after bodily death but also a spiritual rebirth, in this world, to anyone who opens his heart to the message of the Qur'an and comes to regard it as binding on himself.

 

Light (versus darkness) – faith and reason

17:12 And We have established the night and the day as two symbols; and thereupon We have effaced the symbol of night and set up [in its place] the light-giving symbol of day, (14) so that […]

 

14 I.e., the message of the Qur'an, which is meant to lead man out of spiritual ignorance and error into the light of faith and reason.

Lying, bent on

 

39:3 [...] God does not grace with His guidance anyone who is bent on lying [to himself (3) and is] stubbornly ingrate!

 

3 Cf. 6:22-24 and the corresponding notes.

Man – taught by God

 

(96:3) Read – for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One (96:4) who has taught [man] the use of the pen (96:5) taught man what he did not know! (3)

 

96:6 Nay, verily, man becomes grossly overweening (96:7) whenever he believes himself to be self-sufficient: (96:8) for, behold, unto thy Sustainer all must return. (4)

 

3 "The pen" is used here as a symbol for the art of writing or, more specifically, for all knowledge recorded by means of writing: and this explains the symbolic summons "Read!" at the beginning of verses 1 and 3. Man's unique ability to transmit, by means of written records, his thoughts, experiences and insights from individual to individual, from generation to generation, and from one cultural environment to another endows all human knowledge with a cumulative character; and since, thanks to this God-given ability, every human being partakes, in one way or another, in mankind's continuous accumulation of knowledge, man is spoken of as being "taught by God" things which the single individual does not – and, indeed, cannot – know by himself. (This double stress on man's utter dependence on God, who creates him as a biological entity and implants in him the will and the ability to acquire knowledge, receives its final accent, as it were, in the next three verses.) Furthermore, God's "teaching" man signifies also the act of His revealing, through the prophets, spiritual truths and moral standards which cannot be unequivocally established through human experience and reasoning alone: and, thus, it circumscribes the phenomenon of divine revelation as such.

 

4 Lit., "is the return (ar-ruj'a)". This noun has here a twofold implication: "everyone will inescapably be brought before God for judgment", as well as "everything that exists goes back to God as its source". In ultimate analysis, the statement expressed in verses 6-8 rejects as absurd the arrogant idea that man could ever be self-sufficient and, hence, "master of his own fate"; furthermore, it implies that all moral concepts – that is, all discrimination between good and evil, or right and wrong – are indissolubly linked with the concept of man's responsibility to a Supreme Power: in other words, without such a feeling of responsibility – whether conscious or subconscious – the concept of "morality" as such loses all its meaning.

 

Man’s heart – a house of worship

 

(52:2) Consider [God's] revelation, inscribed (52:3) on wide-open scrolls. (2) (52:4) Consider the long-enduring house [of worship]! (3) (52:5) Consider the vault [of heaven] raised high! (52:6) Consider the surf-swollen sea! (4)

 

2 I.e., always open to man's understanding (Razi).

 

3 This is a metonym for the fact that ever since the dawn of human consciousness men have persistently – although often but dimly – realized the existence of God and have tried, spurred on by the continuous, direct revelation granted to His prophets, to come closer to Him through worship. Hence, Baydawi regards the expression al-bayt al-ma'mur as a metaphor for the heart of the believer.

 

4 I.e., "Consider the immensity and wonderful configuration of the visible universe as an evidence of a conscious Creator."

 

Man’s intellectual and emotional evolution

 

2:213 ALL MANKIND were once one single community; [then they began to differ –] whereupon God raised up the prophets as heralds of glad tidings and as warners, and through them bestowed revelation from on high, setting forth the truth, so that it might decide between people with regard to all on which they had come to hold divergent views. (197) Yet none other than the selfsame people who had been granted this [revelation] began, out of mutual jealousy, to disagree about its meaning after all evidence of the truth had come unto them. But God guided the believers unto the truth about which, by His leave, they had disagreed: for God guides onto a straight way him that wills [to be guided]. (198)

 

197 By using the expression ummah wahidah ("one single community") to describe the original state of mankind, the Qur'an does not propound, as might appear at first glance, the idea of a mythical "golden age" obtaining at the dawn of man's history. What is alluded to in this verse is no more than the relative homogeneity of instinctive perceptions and inclinations characteristic of man's primitive mentality and the primitive social order in which he lived in those early days. Since that homogeneity was based on a lack of intellectual and emotional differentiation rather than on a conscious agreement among the members of human society, it was bound to disintegrate in the measure of man's subsequent development. As his thought-life became more and more complex, his emotional capacity and his individual needs, too, became more differentiated, conflicts of views and interests came to the fore, and mankind ceased to be "one single community" as regards their outlook on life and their moral valuations: and it was at this stage that divine guidance became necessary. (It is to be borne in mind that the term al-kitab refers here – as in many other places in the Qur'an – not to any particular scripture but to divine revelation as such.) This interpretation of the above Qur'anic passage is supported by the fact that the famous Companion 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud used to read it thus: "All mankind were once one single community, and then they began to differ (fakhtalafu) – whereupon God raised up ...... etc. Although the word fakhtalafu interpolated here by Ibn Mas'ud does not appear in the generally-accepted text of the Qur'an, almost all of the authorities are of the opinion that it is implied in the context.

 

198 Or: "God guides whomever He wills onto a straight way." As is made clear in the second part of verse 253 of this surah, man's proneness to intellectual dissension is not an accident of history but an integral, God-willed aspect of human nature as such: and it is this natural circumstance to which the words "by His leave" allude. For an explanation of the phrase "out of mutual jealousy", see 23:53 and the corresponding note 30.

 

Men of God

 

3:79 [...] but rather [did he exhort them], "Become men of God (62) by spreading the knowledge of the divine writ, and by your own deep study [thereof]."

 

62 According to Sibawayh (as quoted by Razi), a rabbani is "one who devotes himself exclusively to the endeavour to know the Sustainer (ar-rabb) and to obey Him": a connotation fairly close to the English expression "a man of God".

Message tremendous

 

38:65 SAY [O Muhammad]: "I am only a warner; and there is no deity whatever save God, the One, who holds absolute sway over all that exists, (38:66) the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, the Almighty, the All-Forgiving!" 38:67 Say: "This is a message tremendous: (38:68) [how can] you turn away from it?"

 

(38:69) [Say, O Muhammad:] "No knowledge would I have had of [what passed among] the host on high when they argued [against the creation of man]; (52) (38:70) had it not been revealed unto me [by God] – to no other end than that I might convey [unto you] a plain warning." (53)

 

52 For the allegorical contention of the angels ("the host on high") against the creation of man, see 2:30 ff. and the corresponding notes 22-24. The allegory of man's creation, of God's command to the angels to "prostrate themselves" before the new creature, and of Iblis' refusal to do so appears in the Qur'an six times (2:30-34, 7:11 ff., 15:28-44, 17:6l-65, 18:50, and 38:69-85), each time with an accent on a different aspect of this allegory. In the present instance (which is undoubtedly the earliest in the chronology of revelation) it is connected with the statement, in 2:31, that God "imparted unto Adam the names of all things", i.e., endowed man with the faculty of conceptual thinking (see note 23 on 2:31) and, thus, with the ability to discern between what is true and what false. Since he possesses this faculty, man has no excuse for not realizing God's existence and oneness – the "message tremendous" – referred to in the preceding passage.

 

53 Lit., "otherwise than that I be (illa annama ana) a plain warner" – i.e., of the prospect of spiritual self-destruction inherent in a wilful disregard of the fact of God's existence and oneness, which is the core of all religious cognition and, hence, of all true prophethood.

 

Migrating unto God – forsaking the domain of evil

 

2:218 Verily, they who have attained to faith, and they who have forsaken the domain of evil (203) and are striving hard in God's cause – these it is who may look forward to God's grace: for God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

 

 

Confer:

·         4:97 and its note 124, which says that “the spiritual exodus from the domain of evil to that of righteousness continues to be a fundamental demand of Islam”.

·         4:100 and its note 126, which speaks of “'a lonely road' – a metaphor of that heartbreaking loneliness which almost always accompanies the first steps of one who sets forth on his 'exodus from evil unto God'”.

·         3:195, 8:74-75, 9:20, 9:100, 9:117, 16:110, 24:22, 29:26, 59:8, 60:10.

 

203 The expression alladhina hajaru (lit., "those who have forsaken their homelands") denotes, primarily, the early Meccan Muslims who migrated at the Prophet's bidding to Medina – which was then called Yathrib – in order to be able to live in freedom and in accordance with the dictates of Islam. After the conquest of Mecca by the Muslims in the year 8 H., this exodus (hijrah) from Mecca to Medina ceased to be a religious obligation. Ever since the earliest days of Islam, however, the term hijrah has had a spiritual connotation as well – namely, a "forsaking of the domain of evil" and turning towards God: and since this spiritual connotation applies both to the historical muhajirun ("emigrants") of early Islam and to all believers of later times who forsake all that is sinful and "migrate unto God", I am using this expression frequently.

 

Mocking that which you cannot (or are unwilling to) understand

 

(45:27) For, God's is the dominion over the heavens and the earth; and on the Day when the Last Hour dawns – on that Day will be lost all who [in their lifetime] tried to reduce to nothing [whatever they could not understand]. (29)

 

[…]

 

45:33 And [on that Day,] the evil of their doings will become obvious to them, and they will be overwhelmed by the very thing which they were wont to deride. (30)

 

45:34 And [the word] will be spoken: "Today We shall be oblivious of you as you were oblivious of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]; and so your goal is the fire, and you shall have none to succour you: (45:35) this, because you made God's messages the target of your mockery, having allowed the life of this world to beguile you!" (31)

 

 

29 I.e., whatever they could not "prove" by direct observation or calculation. For the above rendering of al-mubtilun, see surah 29, note 47.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 Lit., "and that which they were wont to deride will have enfolded them".

 

 

 

 

 

31 Lit., "since the life of this world has beguiled you": implying that this self-abandonment to worldly pursuits was the cause of their scornful disregard of God's messages.

Native tongues – crucial for each human being’s understanding of God’s message

 

19:96 VERILY, those who attain to faith and do righteous deeds will the Most Gracious endow with love: (80) (19:97) and only to this end have We made this [divine writ] easy to understand, in thine own tongue, [O Prophet,] (81) so that thou might convey thereby a glad tiding to the God-conscious, and warn thereby those who are given to [futile] contention: (19:98) for, how many a generation (82) have We destroyed before their time – [and] canst thou perceive any one of them [now], or hear any whisper of them?

 

 

Confer 44:58.

 

80 I.e., bestow on them His love and endow them with the capability to love His creation, as well as cause them to be loved by their fellow-men. As is shown in the next verse, this gift of love is inherent in the guidance offered to man through divine revelation.

 

81 Since man is incapable of understanding the "word" of God as such, it has always been revealed to him in his own, human tongue (cf. 14:4 – "never have We sent forth any apostle otherwise than [with a message] in his own people's tongue"), and has always been expounded in concepts accessible to the human mind: hence the reference to the Prophet's revelations as "brought down upon thy heart" (2:97), or "[divine inspiration] has alighted with it upon thy heart" (26:193-194).

 

82 I.e., civilization – a meaning which the term qarn has also in the identical phrase in verse 74.

 

New heaven, new earth

 

Surah 14

(14:48) [His promise will be fulfilled] on the Day when the earth shall be changed into another earth, as shall be the heavens (63) and when [all men] shall appear before God, the One who holds absolute sway over all that exists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 39

39:69 And the earth will shine bright with her Sustainer's light. (69)

 

Note on Surah 14

63 This is an allusion to the total, cataclysmic change, on the Last Day, of all natural phenomena, and thus of the universe as known to man (cf. 20:105-107 and the corresponding note 90). Since that change will be beyond anything that man has ever experienced or what the human mind can conceive, all the Qur'anic descriptions – in the next two verses as well as in many other places – of what is to happen on that Last Day are, of necessity, expressed in allegorical terms: and this applies also to all descriptions of man's condition, good or bad, in, the life to come. (Cf. note 37 above, relating to the term "parable" often used in the Qur'an.)

 

 

Note on Surah 39

69 I.e., with a clear revelation of His will. See also 14:48, where it is stated that on Resurrection Day "the earth shall be changed into another earth, as shall be the heavens". A further allusion to this transformation (and not annihilation) of the universe is found in 20:105-107.

 

Objects of worship must never be anything else but God and God alone (not even His Temple)

 

22:26 For, when we assigned unto Abraham the site of this Temple, (34) [We said unto him:] "Do not ascribe divinity to aught beside Me!" (35) – and: "Purify My Temple for those who will walk around it, (36) and those who will stand before it [in meditation], and those who will bow down and prostrate themselves [in prayer]."

34 I.e., the Ka'bah: see note 102 on 2:125.

 

35 In view of the oft-repeated Qur'anic statement that Abraham was beyond all temptation to ascribe divinity to anything but God, it seems to me that the above injunction has a specific import, namely, "Do not allow this Temple to become an object of worship, but make it clear that it is holy only by virtue of its being the first temple ever dedicated to the worship of the One God" (cf. 3:96). Apart from that, it refers to "those who are bent on denying the truth" spoken of at the beginning of the preceding verse.

 

36 See surah 2, note 104.

 

Path of God

 

22:25 BEHOLD, as for those who are bent on denying the truth and bar [others] from the path of God (31) and from the Inviolable House of Worship which We have set up for all people alike – [both] those who dwell there and those who come from abroad – and all who seek to profane it (32) by [deliberate] evildoing: [all] such shall We cause to taste grievous suffering [in the life to come.]

 

31 This connects with the allusion, in the preceding verse, to "the way that leads to the One unto whom all praise is due".

 

32 Lit., "who aim therein at a deviation from the right course (ilhad)" – a term which circumscribes every perversion of religious tenets.

Peace

10:25 AND [know that] God invites [man] unto the abode of peace, and guides him that wills [to be guided] onto a straight way.

 

 

Confer 24:46.

 

 

People (each people is cared for and dealt with by God)

 

30;47 And indeed, [O Muhammad, even] before thee did We send forth apostles – each one unto his own people (43) – and they brought them all evidence of the truth: and then, [by causing the believers to triumph,] We inflicted Our retribution upon those who [deliberately] did evil: for We had willed it upon Ourselves to succour the believers.

 

43 Lit., "did We send apostles to their [own] people": see note 96 on 10:74.

Preachers, some responsibilities of theirs

 

26:214 And warn (whomever thou canst reach, beginning with] thy kinsfolk, (93) (26:215) and spread the wings of thy tenderness over all of the believers who may follow thee; (94) (26:216) but if they disobey thee, say, "I am free of responsibility for aught that you may do!" – (26:217) and place thy trust in the Almighty, the Dispenser of Grace, (26:218) who sees thee when thou standest [alone], (95) (26:219) and [sees] thy behaviour among those who prostrate themselves [before Him]: (96) (26:220) for, verily, He alone is all-hearing, all-knowing!

93 A believer is morally obliged to preach the truth to all whom he can reach, but obviously he must begin with those who are nearest to him, and especially those who recognize his authority.

 

94 For an explanation of the metaphorical expression "lower thy wing" rendered by me as "spread the wings of thy tenderness" see 17:24 and the corresponding note 28. The phrase "all of the believers who follow thee" shows that (contrary to the assumption of most of the commentators) the above passage is not addressed to the Prophet – since all who believe in him are, by definition, his followers, and vice versa – but to everyone who chooses to be guided by the Qur'an, and who is herewith called upon to extend his loving kindness and care to all believers who may "follow" him, i.e., who may regard him as spiritually or intellectually superior or more experienced. This interpretation also explains verse 213 above: for whereas the exhortation contained in that verse is meaningful with regard to all who may listen to or read the Qur'an, it would be meaningless with reference to its Prophet, for whom the principle of God's oneness and uniqueness was the unquestionable beginning and end of all truth.

 

95 According to Mujahid (as quoted by Tabari), this means "wherever thou mayest be". Other commentators take it to mean "when thou standest up for prayer", but this seems to be too narrow an interpretation.

 

96 I.e., among the believers. as contrasted with those who "disobey thee" (see verse 216 above).

 

Power on earth

 

24:55 God has promised those of you who have attained to faith and do righteous deeds that, of a certainty, He will cause them to accede to power on earth, (71) even as He caused [some of] those who lived before them to accede to it; and that, of a certainty, He will firmly establish for' them the religion which He has been pleased to bestow on them; (72) and that, of a certainty, He will cause their erstwhile state of fear to be replaced by a sense of security (73) – [seeing that] they worship Me [alone], not ascribing divine powers to aught beside Me. (74) But all who, after [having understood] this, choose to deny the truth – it is they, they who are truly iniquitous!

 

24:56 Hence, [O believers,] be constant in prayer, and render the purifying dues, (75) and pay heed unto the Apostle, so that you might be graced with God's mercy.

 

 

See also: Nations, rise and fall of.

 

71 Lit., "cause them to be successors on earth" – i.e., enable them to achieve, in their turn, power and security and, thus, the capability to satisfy their worldly needs. This Qur'anic reference to God's "promise" contains an oblique allusion to the God-willed natural law which invariably makes the rise and fall of nations dependent on their moral qualities.

 

72 Cf. 5:3 – "I have willed that self-surrender unto Me (al-islam) shall be your religion". Its "firm establishment" (tamkin) relates to the strengthening of the believers' faith as well as to the growth of its moral influence in the world.

 

73 Lit., "exchange for them, after their fear [or "danger"], security". It is to be noted that the term amn signifies not merely outward, physical security but also – and, indeed, originally – "freedom from fear" (Taj al-'Arus). Hence, the above clause implies not only a promise of communal security after an initial period of weakness and danger (which, as history tells us, overshadows the beginnings of every genuine religious movement), but also the promise of an individual sense of inner security – that absence of all fear of the Unknown which characterizes a true believer. (See next note.)

 

74 I.e., the believer's freedom from fear is a direct outcome of his intellectual and emotional refusal to attribute to anyone or anything but God the power to shape his destiny.

 

75 The specific mention of the "purifying dues" (az-zakah) in this context is meant to stress the element of unselfishness as an integral aspect of true faith. According to Zamakhshari, the above verse connects with, and concludes, verse 54.

 

Purpose, firmness of

 

20:115 AND, INDEED, long ago did We impose Our commandment on Adam; (102) but he forgot it, and We found no firmness of purpose in him.

102 The relevant divine commandment – or, rather, warning – is spelled out in verse 117. The present passage connects with the statement in verse 99, "Thus do We relate unto thee some of the stories of what happened in the past", and is meant to show that negligence of spiritual truths is one of the recurrent characteristics of the human race (Razi), which is symbolized here – as in many other places in the Qur'an – by Adam.

 

Queen of Sheba

 

27:41 [And] he continued: "Alter her throne so that she may not know it as hers: let us see whether she allows herself to be guided [to the truth] or remains one of those who will not be guided." (36) (27:42) And so, as soon as she arrived, she was asked: "Is thy throne like this?" She answered: "It is as though it were the same!" (37)

 

[And Solomon said to his nobles: "She has arrived at the truth without any help from us, (38)] although it is we who have been given [divine] knowledge before her, and have [long ago] surrendered ourselves unto God! (27:43) [And she has recognized the truth] although that which she has been wont to worship instead of God (39) had kept her away [from the right path]: for, behold, she is descended of people who deny the truth!" (40)

 

[After a while] she was told: "Enter this court!" – but when she saw it, she thought that it was a fathomless expanse of water, and she bared her legs. (41) Said he: "Behold, it is [but] a court smoothly paved with glass!" (42) Cried she: "O my Sustainer! I have been sinning against myself [by worshipping aught but Thee]: but (now) I have surrendered myself, with Solomon, unto the Sustainer of all the worlds!"

36 I.e., whether she remains satisfied with perceiving only the outward appearance of things and happenings, or endeavours to fathom their spiritual reality. Seeing that the people of Sheba were, until then, motivated by love of luxury and worldly power, Solomon intends to show the Queen her "throne", or the image of her dominion, as it could be if it were inspired by faith in God and, hence, by a consciousness of moral responsibility.

 

37 Sc., "and yet not quite the same": thus, she expresses doubt – and doubt is the first step in all spiritual progress. She realizes that the "altered throne" is outwardly the same as that which she has left behind; but she perceives intuitively that it is imbued with a spiritual quality which the other did not possess, and which she cannot yet quite understand.

 

38 Thus Tabari, Zamakhshari and Ibn Kathir, on whose interpretation of this passage my rendering and the above interpolation are based.

 

39 An allusion to her and her people's worship of celestial bodies (cf. verses 24-25 and the corresponding notes 20 and 21).

 

40 Lit., "she was [sc., "born"] of people ...", etc. – thus stressing the role of the idolatrous tradition in which she had grown up, and which in the past had made it difficult for her to find the right path. Considering this cultural background, Solomon points out, her awakening at the very moment of her leaving her ancestral environment must be deemed most remarkable and praiseworthy.

 

41 I.e., in order to wade into it, or perhaps to swim through it, thus braving the seemingly fathomless deep: possibly a symbolic indication of the fear which a human being may feel when his own search after truth forces him to abandon the warm, soothing security of his erstwhile social and mental environment, and to venture into the – as yet – unknown realm of the spirit.

 

42 I.e., not a dangerous, bottomless deep, as it appeared at first glance, but, rather, the firm, glass-clear light of truth: and with her perception of the ever-existing difference between appearance and reality, the Queen of Sheba comes to the end of her spiritual journey.

 

Reality, hidden

Surah 2

2:2-3 HIS DIVINE WRIT – let there be no doubt about it is [meant to be] a guidance for all the God-conscious (2) who believe in [the existence of] that which is beyond the reach of human

perception, (3) …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 11

11:123 And God alone comprehends the hidden reality of the heavens and the earth: for, all that exists goes back to Him [as its source].

 

 

Surah 27

27:65 Say: "None in the heavens or on earth knows the hidden reality [of anything that exists: none knows it] save God." (63)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 35

35:38 VERILY, God knows the hidden reality of the heavens and the earth: [and,] behold, He has full knowledge of what is in the hearts [of men].

 

 

Confer 49:18.

 

Notes on Surah 2

2 The conventional translation of muttaqi as "God-fearing" does not adequately render the positive content of this expression – namely, the awareness of His all-presence and the desire to mould one's existence in the light of this awareness;

 

3 Al-ghayb (commonly, and erroneously, translated as "the Unseen") is used in the Qur'an to denote all those sectors or phases of reality which lie beyond the range of human perception and cannot, therefore, be proved or disproved by scientific observation or even adequately comprised within the accepted categories of speculative thought: as, for instance, the existence of God and of a definite purpose underlying the universe, life after death, the real nature of time, the existence of spiritual forces and their interaction, and so forth. Only a person who is convinced that the ultimate reality comprises far more than our observable environment can attain to belief in God and, thus, to a belief that life has meaning and purpose. By pointing out that it is "a guidance for those who believe in the existence of that which is beyond human perception", the Qur'an says, in effect, that it will – of necessity – remain a closed book to all whose minds cannot accept this fundamental premise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 27

63 In this context, the term al-ghayb – rendered by me here as "the hidden reality" – apparently relates to the "how" of God's Being, the ultimate reality underlying the observable aspects of the universe, and the meaning and purpose inherent in its creation. My repetition, within brackets, of the words "none knows it", i.e., save God, is necessitated by the fact that He is infinite, unlimited as to space, and cannot, therefore, be included among the beings "in the heavens or on earth", who have all been created by Him.

 

Reason, all that runs counter to

16:90 BEHOLD, God enjoins justice, and the doing of good, and generosity towards [one's] fellowmen;  and He forbids all that is shameful and all that runs counter to reason (109), as well as envy; [and] He exhorts you [repeatedly] so that you might bear [all this] in mind.

 

 

Confer 24:21.

109 The term al-munkar (rendered by me in other places as "that which is wrong") has here its original meaning of "that which the mind [or the moral sense] rejects", respectively "ought to reject". Zamakhshari is more specific, and explains this term as signifying in the above context "that which [men's] intellects disown" or "declare to be untrue" (ma tunkiruhu al-'uqul): in other words, all that runs counter to reason and good sense (which, obviously, must not be confused with that which is beyond man's comprehension). This eminently convincing explanation relates not merely to intellectually unacceptable propositions (in the abstract sense of the term) but also to grossly unreasonable and, therefore, reprehensible actions or attitudes and is, thus, fully in tune with the rational approach of the Qur'an to questions of ethics as well as with its insistence on reasonableness and moderation in man's behaviour. Hence my rendering – of al-munkar, in this and in similar instances, as "all that runs counter to reason".

 

Reason, conscious insight accessible to

 

See Truth-seekers.

 

Reasonable compliance

 

24:53 Now [as for those half-hearted ones,] they do swear by God with their most solemn oaths that if thou [O Apostle] shouldst ever bid them to do so, they would most certainly go forth [and sacrifice themselves]. (69) Say: "Swear not! Reasonable compliance [with God's message is all that is required of you]. (70) Verily, God is aware of all that you do!"

 

 

Shakir: Swear not; reasonable obedience (is desired); surely Allah is aware of what you do.

 

Arberry: Say: 'Do not swear; honourable obedience is sufficient. Surely God is aware of the things you do.'

 

 

See also:

·         Religious law – should be natural, simple, and liberal in its straightforwardness.

·         Religious practice – should avoid excess commandments and prohibitions.

 

69 This is an allusion to the ephemeral, self-deceiving enthusiasms of the half-hearted and their supposed readiness for "self-sacrifice", contrasting with their obvious reluctance to live up to the message of the Qur'an in their day-to-day concerns.

 

70 This elliptic phrase alludes to the principle – repeatedly stressed in the Qur'an – that God does not burden man with more than he can easily bear.

 

Religious law – should be natural, simple, and liberal in its straightforwardness

 

2:71 [Moses] answered: "Behold, He says it is to be a cow not broken-in to plough the earth or to water the crops, free of fault, without markings of any other colour." Said they: "At last thou hast brought out the truth!" – and thereupon they sacrificed her, although they had almost left it undone. (55)

 

 

See also:

·         Reasonable compliance.

·         Religious practice – should avoid excess commandments and prohibitions.

55 i.e., their obstinate desire to obtain closer and closer definitions of the simple commandment revealed to them through Moses had made it almost impossible for them to fulfil it. In his commentary on this passage; Tabari quotes the following remark of Ibn 'Abbas: "If [in the first instance] they had sacrificed any cow chosen by themselves, they would have fulfilled their duty; but they made it complicated for themselves, and so God made it complicated for them." A similar view has been expressed, in the same context, by Zamakhshari. It would appear that the moral of this story points to an important problem of all (and, therefore, also of Islamic) religious jurisprudence: namely, the inadvisability of trying to elicit additional details in respect of any religious law that had originally been given in general terms – for, the more numerous and multiform such details become, the more complicated and rigid becomes the law. This point has been acutely grasped by Rashid Rida, who says in his commentary on the above Qur'anic passage (see Manar I, 345 f.): "Its lesson is that one should not pursue one's [legal] inquiries in such a way as to make laws more complicated ... This was how the early generations [of Muslims] visualized the problem. They did not make things complicated for themselves – and so, for them, the religious law (din) was natural, simple and liberal in its straightforwardness. But those who came later added to it [certain other] injunctions which they had deduced by means of their own reasoning (ijtihad); and they multiplied those [additional] injunctions to such an extent that the religious law became a heavy burden on the community." For the sociological reason why the genuine ordinances of Islamic Law – that is, those which have been prima facie laid down as such in the Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet – are almost always devoid of details, I would refer the reader to my book State and Government in Islam (pp. 11 ff. and passim). The importance of this problem, illustrated in the above story of the cow – and correctly grasped by the Prophet's Companions – explains why this surah has been entitled "The Cow". (See also 5 : 101 and the corresponding notes 120-123.)

 

Religious practice – should avoid excess commandments and prohibitions

 

2:168 O MANKIND! Partake of what is lawful and good on earth, and follow not Satan's footsteps: for, verily, he is your open foe, (2:169) and bids you only to do evil, and to commit deeds of abomination, and to attribute unto God something of which you have no knowledge. (137)

 

2:170 But when they are told, "Follow what God has bestowed from on high," some answer, "Nay, we shall follow [only] that which we found our forefathers believing in and doing." Why, even if their forefathers did not use their reason at all, and were devoid of all guidance?

 

 

See also:

·         Reasonable compliance.

·         Religious law – should be natural, simple, and liberal in its straightforwardness.

 

 

 

137 This refers to an arbitrary attribution to God of commandments or prohibitions in excess of what has been clearly ordained by Him (Zamakhshari). Some of the commentators (e.g., Muhammad 'Abduh in Manar 11, 89 f.) include within this expression the innumerable supposedly "legal" injunctions which, without being clearly warranted by the wording of the Qur'an or an authentic Tradition, have been obtained by individual Muslim scholars through subjective methods of deduction and then put forward as "God's ordinances". The connection between this passage and the preceding ones is obvious. In verses 165-167 the Qur'an speaks of those "who choose to believe in beings that supposedly rival God": and this implies also a false attribution, to those beings, of a right to issue quasi-religious ordinances of their own, as well as an attribution of religious validity to customs sanctioned by nothing but ancient usage (see next verse).

 

Remembering God

 

20:14 Verily, I – I alone – am God; there is no deity save Me. Hence, worship Me alone, and be constant in prayer, so as to remember Me! (10)

 

(20:124) But as for him who shall turn away from remembering Me – his shall be a life of narrow scope; (109) and on the Day of Resurrection We shall raise him up blind.

 

 

See also: Heart – deafness and blindness of.

 

 

10 Thus, conscious remembrance of God and of His oneness and uniqueness is declared to be the innermost purpose, as well as the intellectual justification of all true prayer.

 

109 I.e., sterile and spiritually narrow, without any real meaning or purpose: and this, as is indicated in the subsequent clause, will be a source of their suffering in the hereafter.

 

Repentance, importance of

 

Surah 24

24:31 ... And [always], O you believers – all of you – turn unto God in repentance, so that you might attain to a happy state! (41)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 38

38:24 And [suddenly] David understood that We had tried him: (24) and so he asked his Sustainer to forgive him his sin, and fell down in prostration, and turned unto Him in repentance.

 

[…]

 

(38:35) [Solomon] prayed: "O my Sustainer! Forgive me my sins, and bestow upon me the gift of a kingdom which may not suit anyone after me: (33) verily, Thou alone art a giver of gifts!"

 

 

Surah 3

(3:133) And vie with one another to attain to your Sustainer's forgiveness and to a paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, which has been readied for the God-conscious (3:134) who spend [in His way] in time of plenty and in time of hardship, and hold in check their anger, and pardon their fellow-men because God loves the doers of good; (3:135) and who, when they have committed a shameful deed or have [otherwise] sinned against themselves, remember God and pray that their sins be forgiven  – for who but God could forgive sins? – and do not knowingly persist in doing whatever [wrong] they may have done.

 

3:136 These it is who shall have as their reward forgiveness from their Sustainer, and gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide: and how excellent a reward for those who labour!

 

 

See also: David – psalmist and a prophet of God.

 

 

Note on Surah 24

41 The implication of this general call to repentance is that since "man has been created weak" (4:28), no one is ever free of faults and temptations so much so that even the Prophet used to say, "Verily, I turn unto Him in repentance a hundred times every day" (Ibn Hanbal, Bukhari and Bayhaqi, all of them on the authority of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar).

 

 

Notes on Surah 38

24 Sc., "and that he had failed" (in the matter of Bath-Sheba).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

33 I.e., a spiritual kingdom, which could not be inherited by anyone and, hence, would not be exposed to envy or worldly intrigue.

 

 

Requiting evil – may, too, become an evil

 

42:40 But [remember that an attempt at] requiting evil may, too, become an evil: (40) hence, whoever pardons [his foe] and makes peace, his reward rests with God – for, verily, He does not love evildoers. (41) (42:41) Yet indeed, as for any who defend themselves after having been wronged – no blame whatever attaches to them: (42:42) blame attaches but to those who oppress [other] people and behave outrageously on earth, offending against all right: for them there is grievous suffering in store!

 

42:43 But withal, if one is patient in adversity and forgives – this, behold, is indeed something to set one's heart upon! (42)

 

40 Lit., "is [or "may be"] an evil like it". In other words, successful struggle against tyranny (which latter is the meaning of the noun baghy in the last sentence of the preceding verse) often tends to degenerate into a similarly tyrannical attitude towards the erstwhile oppressors, Hence, most of the classical commentators (e.g., Baghawi, Zamakhshari, Razi, Baydawi) stress the absolute prohibition of "going beyond what is right" (i'tida') when defending oneself against tyranny and oppression. (Cf. the passage relating to fighting against "those who wage war again you" in 2:190 ff.)

 

41 I.e., in this context, such as succumb to the temptation of indulging in undue acts of revenge against their former oppressors.

 

42 Cf. 41:34-35, as well as note 44 on 13:22.

Resurrection, logical necessity of

 

27:65 […] And neither can they [who are living] perceive when they shall be raised from the dead: (27:66) nay, their knowledge of the life to come stops short of the truth: (64) nay, they are [often] in doubt as to its reality: nay, they are blind to it. (65)

 

27:67 And so, they who are bent on denying the truth are saying: "What! After we have become dust – we and our forefathers – shall we [all], forsooth, be brought forth [from the dead]? (27:68) Indeed, we were promised this – we and our forefathers – in the past as well; it is nothing but fables of ancient times!"

 

27:69 Say: "Go all over the earth and behold what happened in the end to those [who were thus] lost in sin (27:70) But do not grieve over them, and neither be distressed by the false arguments which they devise [against God's messages]. (67)

64 I.e., they cannot truly visualize the hereafter because its reality is beyond anything that man may experience in this world: and this, it cannot be stressed often enough, is an indirect explanation of the reason why all Qur'anic references to the conditions, good or bad, of man's life after death are of necessity expressed in purely allegorical terms.

 

65 I.e., blind to its logical necessity within God's plan of creation. For, it is only on the premise of a life after death that the concept of man's moral responsibility and, hence, of God's ultimate judgment can have any meaning; and if there is no moral responsibility, there can be no question of a preceding moral choice; and if the absence of choice is taken for granted, all differentiation between right and wrong becomes utterly meaningless as well.

 

66 I.e., those who denied the reality of a life after death and, hence, of man's ultimate responsibility for his conscious doings. As pointed out in the preceding note, the unavoidable consequence of this denial is the loss of all sense of right and wrong: and this, in its turn, leads to spiritual and social chaos, and so to the downfall of communities and civilizations.

 

67 Lit., "by their scheming". For the Qur'anic use of the term makr in the sense of "devising false arguments [against something]", see 10:21 and the corresponding note 33.

 

Resurrection, parable of

 

Surah 7

7:55 Call unto your Sustainer humbly, and in the secrecy of your hearts. Verily, He loves not those who transgress the bounds of what is right: (7:56) hence, do not spread corruption on earth after it has been so well ordered. And call unto Him with fear and longing: verily, God's grace is ever near unto the doers of good!

 

7:57 And He it is who sends forth the winds as a glad tiding of His coming grace – so that, when they have brought heavy clouds, We may drive them towards dead land and cause thereby water to descend; and by this means do We cause all manner of fruit to come forth. Even thus shall We cause the dead to come forth: [and this] you ought to keep in mind. (44) (7:58) As for the good land, its vegetation comes forth [in abundance] by its Sustainer's leave, whereas from the bad it comes forth but poorly. Thus do We give many facets to Our messages for [the benefit of] people who are grateful!

 

 

Surah 27

(27:63) Nay – who is it that guides you in the midst of the deep darkness of land and sea, (58) and sends forth the winds as a glad tiding of His coming grace? (59)

 

Note on Surah 7

44 This is the key-sentence of the parable set forth in verses 57-58: by the exercise of the same life-giving power by which God causes plants to grow, He will resurrect the dead at the end of time. The next sentence continues the parable by likening those whose hearts are open to the voice of truth to fertile earth, and those who are bent on denying it, to barren earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 27

58 I.e., metonymically, through all the seemingly insoluble complexities of human life.

 

59 See 7:57 and the corresponding note 44.

Revelation, refusal to accept

15:14 Yet even had We opened to them a gateway to heaven and they had ascended, on and on, up to it, (15:15) they would surely have said, "It is only our eyes that are spellbound! Nay, we have been bewitched!" (14)

14 Lit., "we are people bewitched". Cf. 6:7, as well as the last paragraph of 10:2 and the corresponding note 5. The confusing of revealed truths with illusory "enchantment" or "sorcery" is often pointed out in the Qur'an as characteristic of the attitude of people who a priori refuse to accept the idea of revelation and, thus, of prophethood. The above two verses, implying that not even a direct insight into the wonders of heaven could convince "those who are bent on denying the truth", are a prelude to the subsequent passage, which once again draws our attention to the wonders of nature as an evidence of God's creative activity.

 

Revelation, step by step

16:101 And now that We replace one message by another – since God is fully aware of what He bestows from on high, step by step

 

 

Confer 17:105-106.

 

 

See also: Gradually finding one’s way to the truth.

 

I.e., the gradualness of revelation (implied in the verbal form yunazzil) corresponds to God's plan, according to which He has gradually unfolded His will to man, substituting one dispensation for another in the measure of mankind's intellectual and social development, bringing it to its culmination in the message of the Qur'an.

 

Revelations and prophesies – true if and only if they come from God

 

34:6 NOW THEY who are endowed with [innate] knowledge are well aware that whatever has been bestowed upon thee from on high by thy Sustainer is indeed the truth, and that it guides onto the way that leads to the Almighty, the One to whom all praise is due!

 

 

Revelation – the ultimate source of light

 

22:8 And yet, among men there is many a one that argues about God without having any knowledge [of Him], without any guidance, and without any light-giving revelation – (22:9) scornfully turning aside [from the truth] so as to lead [others] astray from the path of God.

 

 

Revelation – the standard by which to discern the true from the false

 

21:48 AND, INDEED, We vouchsafed unto Moses and Aaron [Our revelation as] the standard by which to discern the true from the false, (57) and as a [guiding] light and a reminder for the God-conscious (21:49) who stand in awe of their Sustainer although He is beyond the reach of human perception, (58) and who tremble at the thought of the Last Hour. 21:50 And [like those earlier revelations,] this one, too, is a blessed reminder which We have bestowed from on high: will you, then, disavow it?

57 See note 38 on 2:53. The reference to the revelation bestowed on the earlier prophets as "the standard by which to discern the true from the false" (al-furqan) has here a twofold implication: firstly, it alludes to the Qur'anic doctrine – explained in note 5 on 2:4 – of the historical continuity in all divine revelation, and, secondly, it stresses the fact that revelation – and revelation alone – provides an absolute criterion of all moral valuation. Since the Mosaic dispensation as such was binding on the children of Israel alone and remained valid only within a particular historical and cultural context, the term al-furqan relates here not to the Mosaic Law as such, but to the fundamental ethical truths contained in the Torah and common to all divine revelations.

 

58 For an explanation of the above rendering of the expression bi'l-ghayb, see note 3 on 2:3.

 

OJA: Asad states above “that revelation – and revelation alone – provides an absolute criterion of all moral valuation”. I find this a bit puzzling, but perhaps Asad’s point is simply that revelation is the ultimate source here, and that revelation plus reason must be used (confer his many statements that Islam is a religion for people who think and use their reason).

 

Righteousness and faith

Surah 11

11:84 He said: "O my people! Worship God [alone]: you have no deity other than Him; and do not give short measure and weight [in any of your dealings with men]. (117) …”

 

 

Surah 23

(23:102) And they whose weight [of righteousness] is heavy in the balance – it is they, they who will have attained to a happy state; (23:103) whereas they whose weight is light in the balance – it is they who will have squandered their own selves, [destined] to abide in hell: ...

 

 

Surah 55

55:7 And the skies has He raised high, and has devised [for all things] a measure, (3) (55:8) so that you [too, O men,] might never transgress the measure [of what is right]: (55:9) weigh, therefore, [your deed] with equity, and cut not the measure short!

 

 

Surah 83

83: 1 WOE UNTO THOSE who give short measure: (2) those who, when they are to receive their due from [other] people, demand that it be given in full (3) but when they have to measure or weigh whatever they owe to others, give less than what is due! (1)

 

Note on Surah 11

117 Thus, belief in the One God and justice in all dealings between man and man (see surah 6, note 150) are here placed together as the twin postulates of all righteousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 55

3 The noun mizan, usually denoting a "balance", has here the more general connotation of "measure" or "measuring" by any means whatsoever (Zamakhshari), in both the concrete and abstract senses of the word. (Cf. also the parabolic use of the term mizan in 42:17 and 57:25.)

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 83

1 This passage (verses 1-3) does not, of course, refer only to commercial dealings but touches upon every aspect of social relations, both practical and moral, applying to every individual's rights and obligations no less than to his physical possessions.

 

OJA: Surah 83 is called Al-Mutaffifin, which means Those Who Give Short Measure.

 

Salvation (and light)

5:16-17 Now there has come unto you from God a light, a clear divine writ, through which God shows unto all that seek His goodly acceptance the paths leading to salvation.

 

 

Salvation (God responding to those who seek Him)

11:61 Ask Him, therefore, to forgive you your sins, and then turn towards Him in repentance – for, verily, my Sustainer is ever-near, responding [to the call of whoever calls unto Him]!

 

 

Salvation (for the God-conscious)

 

(19:72) And once again: (56) We shall save [from hell] those who have been conscious of Us; but We shall leave in it the evildoers, on their knees. (57)

56 For this particular rendering of thumma, see surah 6, note 31.

 

57 I.e., utterly humbled and crushed by their belated realization of God's judgment and of the ethical truths which they had arrogantly neglected in life.

 

Sectarianism

 

Surah 30

30:31 [Turn, then, away from all that is false,] turning unto Him [alone]; and remain conscious of Him, and be constant in prayer, and be not among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, (30:32) [or] among those who have broken the unity of their faith and have become sects, each group delighting in but what they themselves hold [by way of tenets]. (29)

 

 

From Surah 21

21:92 VERILY, [O you who believe in Me,] this community of yours is one single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all: worship, then, Me [alone]! (89) (21:93) But men have torn their unity wide asunder, (90) [forgetting that] unto Us they all are bound to return.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Surah 23

23:51 O YOU APOSTLES! Partake of the good things of life, (27) and do righteous deeds: verily, I have full knowledge of all that you do. (23:52) And, verily, this community of yours is one single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all: remain, then, conscious of Me! (28) 23:53 But they [who claim to follow you] have torn their unity wide asunder, (29) piece by piece, each group delighting in [but] what they themselves possess [by way of tenets]. (30) (23:54) But leave them alone, lost in their ignorance, until a [future] time. (31)

Note on Surah 30

29 See 6:159, 21:92-93 and 23:52-53, as well as the corresponding notes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 21

89 After calling to mind, in verses 48-91, some of the earlier prophets, all of whom stressed the oneness and uniqueness of God, the discourse returns to that principle of oneness as it ought to be reflected in the unity of all who believe in Him. (See 23:51 ff.)

 

90 This is the meaning of the idiomatic phrase, taqatta'u amrahum baynahum. As Zamakhshari points out, the sudden turn of the discourse from the second person plural to the third person is indicative of God's severe disapproval – His "turning away", as it were, from those who are or were guilty of breaking the believers' unity. (See also 23:53 and the corresponding note 30.)

 

 

Notes on Surah 23

27 This rhetorical apostrophe to all of God's apostles is meant to stress their humanness and mortality, and thus to refute the argument of the unbelievers that God could not have chosen "a mortal like ourselves" to be His message-bearer: an argument which overlooks the fact that only human beings who themselves "partake of the good things of life" are able to understand the needs and motives of their fellow-men and, thus, to guide them in their spiritual and social concerns.

 

28 As in 21:92, the above verse is addressed to all who truly believe in God, whatever their historical denomination. By the preceding reference to all of God's apostles the Qur'an clearly implies that all of them were inspired by, and preached, the same fundamental truths, notwithstanding all the differences in the ritual or the specific laws which they propounded in accordance with the exigencies of the time and the social development of their followers. (See notes 66-68 on the second paragraph of 5:48.)

 

29 Cf. 21:93.

 

30 Lit.; "in what they have [themselves]". In the first instance, this verse refers to the various religious groups as such: that is to say, to the followers of one or another of the earlier revelations who, in the course of time, consolidated themselves within different "denominations", each of them jealously guarding its own set of tenets, dogmas and rituals and intensely intolerant of all other ways of worship (manasik, see 22:67). In the second instance, however, the above condemnation applies to the breach of unity within each of the established religious groups; and since it applies to the followers of all the prophets, it includes the latter-day followers of Muhammad as well, and thus constitutes a prediction and condemnation of the doctrinal disunity prevailing in the world of Islam in our times – cf. the well-authenticated saying of the Prophet quoted by Ibn Hanbal, Abu Da'ud, Tirmidhi and Darimi: "The Jews have been split up into seventy-one sects, the Christians into seventy-two sects, whereas my community will be split up into seventy-three sects." (It should be remembered that in classical Arabic usage the number seventy" often stands for "many" – just as "seven" stands for "several" or "various" – and does not necessarily denote an actual figure; hence, what the Prophet meant to say was that the sects and divisions among the Muslims of later days would become many, and even more numerous than those among the Jews and the Christians.)

 

31 I.e., until they themselves realize their error. This sentence is evidently addressed to the last of the apostles, Muhammad, and thus to all who truly follow him.

 

Self-deception

 

45:6 These messages of God do We convey unto thee, setting forth the truth. In what other tiding, if not in God's messages, (5) will they, then, believe? (45:7) Woe unto every sinful self-deceiver (6) (45:8) who hears God's messages when they are conveyed to him, and yet, as though he had not heard them, persists in his haughty disdain!

 

Hence, announce unto him grievous suffering – (45:9) for when he does become aware of any of Our messages, he makes them a target of his mockery!

 

For all such there is shameful suffering in store. (45:10) Hell is ahead of them; and all that they may have gained [in this world] shall be of no avail whatever to them, and neither shall any of those things which, instead of God, they have come to regard as their protectors: (7) for, awesome suffering awaits them.

 

45:11 [To pay heed to God's signs and messages:] this is [the meaning of] guidance; on the other hand, (8) for those who are bent on denying the truth of their Sustainer's messages there is grievous suffering in store as an outcome of [their] vileness. (9)

 

See also:

·         Doubts, toying with.

·         Follow not the crowd.

·         God – always warning man (and thus calling every one of us unto Himself).

·         Inner certainty.

 

 

5 Lit., "in what tiding after God and His messages".

 

6 The term affak, which literally signifies a "liar" – and, particularly, a "habitual liar" – has here the connotation of "one who lies to himself" because he is ma'fuk, i.e., 'perverted in his intellect and judgment" (Jawhari).

 

7 I.e., anything to which they may attribute a quasi-divine influence on their lives, whether it be false deities or false values, e.g., wealth, power, social status, etc.

 

8 Lit., "and" or "but".

 

9 For an explanation of this rendering of the phrase min rijzin, see note 4 on 34:5.

 

 

Self-destruction

 

27:82 Now, [as for the deaf and blind of heart –] when the word [of truth] stands revealed against them, (73) We shall bring forth unto them out of the earth a creature which will tell them that mankind had no real faith in Our messages. (74)

 

27:83 And on that Day We shall gather from within every community a host of those who gave the lie to Our messages; and they will be grouped [according to the gravity of their sins] (27:84) until such a time as they shall come [to be judged. And] He will say: "Did you give the lie to My messages even though you failed to encompass them with [your] knowledge? (75) Or what was it that [you thought] you were doing?" (27:85) And the word [of truth] will stand revealed against them in the face of (76) all the wrong which they had committed, and they will not [be able to] utter a single word [of excuse]: (27:86) for, were they not aware that it is We who had made the night for them, so that they might rest therein, and the day, to make [them] see? (77) In this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who will believe!

 

 

See also: Heart, deafness and blindness of.

 

73 Lit., "comes to pass against them" – i.e., when the truth becomes obvious to them against all their expectations, and thus confounds them utterly: an allusion to the approach of the Last Hour, Resurrection and God's Judgment, all of which they were wont to regard as "fables of ancient times" (cf. verses 67-68 above). Alternatively, the phrase idha waqa'a al-qawi 'alayhim may be understood as "when the sentence [of doom] is passed on them", i.e., at the approach of the Last Hour, when it will be too late for repentance.

 

74 The "creature brought forth out of the earth" is apparently an allegory of man's "earthly" outlook on life – in other words, the soul-destroying materialism characteristic of the time preceding the Last Hour. This "creature" parabolically "tells" men that their submergence in exclusively materialistic values – and, hence, their approaching self-destruction – is an outcome of their lack of belief in God. (See also 7:175-176 and the corresponding note 141.)

 

75 I.e., without having understood them or made any attempt to understand them (Zamakhshari).

 

76 Or: "the sentence [of doom] will have been passed on them in recompense of ...", etc. (see note 73 above).

 

77 In the present context (as in 10:67 or 40:61) the reference to "night" and "day" has a symbolic significance: namely, man's God-given ability to gain insight through conscious reasoning ("the day that makes them see") as well as through the intuition that comes from a restful surrender to the voice of one's own heart ("the night made for rest") – both of which tell us that the existence of God is a logical necessity, and that a rejection of His messages is a sin against ourselves.

 

Self-loathing

 

40:10 [But,] behold, as for those who are bent on denying the truth – [on that same Day] a voice will call out unto them: (6) "Indeed, greater than your [present] loathing of yourselves (7) was God's loathing of you [at the time] when you were called unto faith but went on denying the truth!" (8)

 

6 Lit., "they will be called" or "summoned".

 

7 I.e., "on realizing, belatedly, your past sinfulness".

 

8 Since it is impossible to attribute to God a purely human emotion, "God's loathing" of those sinners is obviously a metonym for His rejection of them (Razi), similar to the metonymic use of the expression "God's wrath (ghadab)" in the sense of His condemnation (see first sentence of note 4 on 1:7).

 

Self-surrender (unto God)

Surah 3

3:19-20 Behold, the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him; […]

And if they surrender themselves unto Him, they are on the right path; but if they turn away – behold, thy duty is no more than to deliver the message: for God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His creatures.

 

 

Surah 36

36:15 [The others] answered: "You are nothing but mortal men like ourselves; moreover, the Most Gracious has never bestowed aught [of revelation] from on high. You do nothing but lie!" (11)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 36

11 Cf. 6:91 "no true understanding of God have they when they say, 'Never has God revealed anything unto man.'" See also 34:31 and the corresponding note 38. Both these passages, as well as the one above, allude to people who like to think of themselves as "believing" in God without, however, allowing their "belief" to interfere in the practical concerns of their lives: and this they justify by conceding to religion no more than a vaguely emotional role, and by refusing to admit the fact of objective revelation for the concept of revelation invariably implies a promulgation, by God, of absolute moral values and, thus, a demand for one's self-surrender to them.

 

Servants of God shall inherit the earth

 

21:105 AND, INDEED, after having exhorted [man], (100) We laid it down in all the books of divine wisdom that My righteous servants shall inherit the earth: (101) (21:106) herein, behold, there is a message for people who [truly] worship God.

100 Lit., "after the reminder (adh-dhikr)". For the deeper implications of the Qur'anic term dhikr, see note 13 on verse 10 of this surah.

 

101 Zabar (lit., "scripture" or "book") is a generic term denoting any "book of wisdom": hence, any and all of the divine scriptures revealed by God to the prophets [Tabari]. The statement that "My righteous servants shall inherit the earth" is obviously an echo of the promise, "You are bound to rise high if you are [truly] believers" (3:139) – the implication being that it is only through faith in God and righteous behaviour on earth that man can reach the heights envisaged for him by his Creator's grace.

 

Shirk, deliberate

 

22:17 … and those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught but God, …

 

 

Shirk, ideological (and its consequences)

 

50:24 [Whereupon God will command:] "Cast, cast (17) into hell every [such] stubborn enemy of the truth, (50:25) [every] withholder of good [and] sinful aggressor [and] fomentor of distrust [between man and man – everyone] (50:26) who has set up another deity beside God: (18) cast him, then, cast him into suffering severe!"

 

[…]

 

50:36 AND HOW MANY a generation have We destroyed before those [who now deny the truth] (25) – people of greater might than theirs:   but [when Our chastisement befell them,] they became wanderers on the face of the earth, seeking no more than a place of refuge. (26)

 

50:37 In this, behold, there is indeed a reminder for everyone whose heart is wide-awake (27) – that is, [everyone who] lends ear with a conscious mind (28) – (50:38) and [who knows that] We have indeed created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six aeons, and [that] no weariness could ever touch Us. (29)

 

17 In this instance, as well as in verse 26, the imperative "cast" has the dual form (alqiya). As many classical philologists (and almost all of the commentators) point out, – this is linguistically permissible for the sake of special stress, and is equivalent to an emphatic repetition of the imperative in question. Alternatively, the dual form may be taken as indicative of an actual duality thus addressed: namely, the two manifestations within man's psyche alluded to in verse 17 and described in verse 21 as sa'iq and shahid (see note 14 above), both of which, in their interaction, are responsible for his spiritual downfall and, hence, for his suffering in the life to come.

 

18 This relates not merely to the veneration of real or imaginary beings or forces to which one ascribes divine qualities, but also to the "worship" of false values and immoral concepts to which people often adhere with an almost religious fervour.

 

[…]

 

25 This connects with verses 12-14 above. It should be borne in mind that in ancient Arabic usage the term qarn – here rendered as "generation" – often denotes "a period of time succeeding another": hence, a "century", or "people of one and the same period" and, finally, a "civilization" in the historical sense of this word, That this last significance is intended here becomes evident from the sequence.

 

26 Lit., "they wandered searching (naqqabu) in the lands: Is there any place of refuge?" – implying that after the destruction of their civilization they could do no more than strive for bare survival.

 

27 Thus Zamakhshari; literally, the phrase reads, "who has a heart".

 

28 Lit., "or lends ear and is withal a witness (wa-huwa shahid)", which latter phrase Zamakhshari explains as meaning "is present with his intellect", i.e., with a conscious mind. (Cf. the same use of the term shahid in verse 21.) The conjunctive particle "or" (aw) which precedes the above clause does not signify an alternative but has – as is often the case in Qur'anic usage – an explanatory function, similar to phrases like "that is" or "in other words", followed by an amplification of what was said before.

 

29 The whole of this passage (verses 36-38) stresses God's omnipotence, which can be perceived by "anyone whose heart is wide-awake". The above reference to God's having created the universe in six aeons' is the oldest in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation. In this connection it is to be noted that in ancient Arabic usage the term yawm does not always denote the twenty-four hours of the earthly "day", but is also applied to any period of time, however long or short. In the cosmic sense in which it is used here and elsewhere in the Qur'an, the plural ayyam is best rendered as "aeons". The mention of the impossibility of God's ever being "wearied" by the process of creation connects the present passage with verse 15 of this surah and, thus, alludes to God's power to resurrect the dead.

 

Shirk (idol worship)

Surah 14

14:35 [Said Abraham:] Make this land secure (49), and preserve me and my children from ever worshipping idols (50)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 36

36:74 But [nay,] they take to worshipping deities other than God, (43)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 37

(37:86) Do you want [to bow down before] a lie – [before] deities other than God?

 

Sahih International: Is it falsehood [as] gods other than Allah you desire?

 

 

See also:

·         False imagery.

·         Borderline of faith.

·         Falsehood, evil, shirk.

 

Notes on Surah 14

49 I.e., the land in which the Kabah is situated (see surah 2, note 102) and, more specifically,

Mecca.

 

50 The term "idols" (asnam, sing. sanam) does not apply exclusively to actual, concrete representations of false "deities": for shirk – that is, an attribution of divine powers or qualities to anyone or anything beside God – may consist also, as Razi points out, in a worshipful devotion to all manner of "causative agencies and outward means to an end" – an obvious allusion to wealth, power, luck, people's favour or disfavour, and so forth – "whereas genuine faith in the oneness and uniqueness of God (at-tawhid al-maha) consists in divesting oneself of all inner attachment to [such] causative agencies and in being convinced that there exists no real directing power apart from God".

 

 

Note on Surah 36

43 Or: "other deities beside God" – alluding, in either case, to objects of worship consciously conceived as such – i.e., idols, imaginary deities, deified persons, saints, etc. – as well as to abstract concepts like power, wealth or "luck", which may not be consciously "worshipped" but are nevertheless often revered in an almost idolatrous fashion. The verb ittakhadhu (lit., "they took [or "have taken"] for themselves"), used in the Qur'an in this and in similar contexts, is particularly suited for the wide range of meanings alluded to inasmuch as it bears the connotation of adopting something – whether it be concrete or abstract – for one's own use or adoration.

 

 

Shirk (implicit)

16:99-100 Behold, [Satan] has no power over those who have attained to faith and in their Sustainer place their trust: he has power only over those who are willing to follow him, and who [thus] ascribe to him a share in God's divinity.

 

I.e., inasmuch as they pay an almost worshipful reverence to such blandishments as wealth, power, social position, etc.

Sincerity – in faith and in search for the truth

16:106-107 As for anyone who denies God after having once attained to faith – and this, to be sure, does not apply to one who does it under duress, the while his heart remains true to his faith, but [only, to] him who willingly opens up his heart to a denial of the truth: – upon all such [falls] God's condemnation, and tremendous suffering awaits them: (16:107) all this, because they hold this world's life in greater esteem than the life to come, and because God does not bestow His guidance upon people who deny the truth.

 

 

Sinning against oneself

 

Surah 34

34:19 (19) But now they would say, "Long has our Sustainer made the distance between our journey-stages!" (27) for they had sinned against themselves. And in the end We caused them to become [one of those] tales [of things long past], and scattered them in countless fragments. (28) Herein, behold, there are messages indeed for all who are wholly patient in adversity and deeply grateful [to God].

 

 

See also: Heart, disease of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 22

22:53 [And He allows doubts to arise] so that He might cause whatever aspersion Satan may cast [against His prophets] to become a trial for all in whose hearts is disease (68) and all whose hearts are hardened: for, verily, all who are [thus] sinning [against themselves] (69) are most deeply in the wrong.

 

 

Surah 35

35:32 And so, We have bestowed this divine writ as a heritage unto such of Our servants as We chose: and among them are some who sin against themselves; and some who keep half-way [between right and wrong]; (22) and some who, by God's leave, are foremost in deeds of goodness: [and] this, indeed, is. a merit most high!

 

 

Notes on Surah 34

27 In its generally-accepted spelling – based on the reading adopted by most of the early scholars of Medina and Kufah – the above phrase reads in the vocative rabbana and the imperative ba'id ("Our Sustainer! Make long the distances ...", etc.), which, however, cannot be convincingly explained. On the other hand, Tabari, Baghawi and Zamakhshari mention, on the authority of some of the earliest Qur'an-commentators, another legitimate reading of the relevant words, namely, rabbuna (in the nominative) and ba'ada (in the indicative), which gives the meaning adopted by me: "Long has our Sustainer made the distances ...", etc. To my mind, this reading is much more appropriate since (as pointed out by Zamakhshari) it expresses the belated regrets and the sorrow of the people of Sheba at the devastation of their country, the exodus of large groups of the population, and the resultant abandonment of many towns and villages on the great caravan routes.

 

28 An allusion to the mass-migration of South-Arabian tribes in all directions – particularly towards central and northern Arabia – subsequent to the destruction of the Dam of Ma'rib.

 

 

Notes on Surah 22

68 See 2:10 and the corresponding note.

 

69 Lit., "all [such] evildoers".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 35

22 See 7:46 and the corresponding note 37.

Spiritual life

 

Surah 42

42:52 And thus, too, (54) [O Muhammad,] have We revealed unto thee a life-giving message, (55) [coming] at Our behest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 67

(67:30) Say [unto those who deny the truth]: "What do you think? If of a sudden all your water were to vanish underground, who [but God] could provide you with water from [new] unsullied springs?" (22)

 

Notes on Surah 42

54 I.e., in all the three ways mentioned in the preceding verse.

 

55 The term ruh (lit., "spirit" or "soul") has in the Qur'an often the meaning of "divine inspiration" (see surah 16, note 2). In the present context, it evidently denotes the contents of the divine inspiration bestowed on the Prophet Muhammad, i.e., the Qur'an (Tabari, Zamakhshari, Razi, Ibn Kathir), which is meant to lead man to a more intensive spiritual life: hence my above rendering.

 

 

Note on Surah 67

22 Apart from a further reminder of God's providential power (thus continuing the argument touched upon in verses 19-21), the above verse has a parabolic significance as well. Just as water is an indispensable element of all organic life, so is a constant flow of moral consciousness an indispensable prerequisite of all spiritual life and stability: and who but God could enable man to regain that consciousness after all the older ethical stimuli have dried up and "vanished underground"?

 

Spiritual rebirth

 

See Life renewed.

 

Superstition, freeing man from

12:37-38 "Behold, I have left behind me the ways of people who do not believe in God,38 and who persistently refuse to acknowledge the truth of the life to come; (12:38) and I follow the creed of my forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is not conceivable that we should [be allowed to] ascribe divinity to aught beside God: this is [an outcome] of God's bounty unto us and unto all mankind (39) – but most people are ungrateful.

 

39 Since God is almighty and self-sufficient, it is not for His sake that man is warned not to ascribe divine qualities to aught beside Him: the absolute condemnation of this sin is solely designed to benefit man by freeing him from all superstition, and thus enhancing his dignity as a conscious, rational being.

Think

16:69 In all [of the just mentioned wonders of nature], behold, there is a message indeed for people who think!

 

 

Throne of God’s almightiness – being conscious of

 

Surah 7

7:54 VERILY, your Sustainer is God, who has created the heavens and the earth in six aeons, and is established on the throne of His almightiness. (43) He covers the day with the night in swift pursuit, with the sun and the moon and the stars subservient to His command: oh, verily, His is all creation and all command. Hallowed is God, the Sustainer of all the worlds!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 40

40:7 THEY WHO BEAR [within themselves the knowledge of] the throne of [God's] almightiness, as well as all who are near it, (4) extol their Sustainer's limitless glory and praise, and have faith in Him, and ask forgiveness for all [others] who have attained to faith: "O our Sustainer! Thou embracest all things within [Thy] grace and knowledge: forgive, then, their sins unto those who repent and follow Thy path, and preserve them from suffering through the blazing fire!

 

Note on Surah 7

43 The conjunctive particle thumma which precedes this clause does not always denote order in time ("then" or "thereupon"). In cases where it is used to link parallel statements it has often the function of the simple conjunction wa ("and") – as, for instance, in 2:29 ("and has applied His design...", etc.) As regards the term 'arsh (lit., "throne" or "seat of power"), all Muslim commentators, classical and modern, are unanimously of the opinion that its metaphorical use in the Qur'an is meant to express God's absolute sway over all His creation. It is noteworthy that in all the seven instances where God is spoken of in the Qur'an as "established on the throne of His almightiness" (7:54, 10:3, 13:2, 20:5, 25:59, 32:4 and 57:4), this expression is connected with a declaration of His having created the universe. – The word yawm, commonly translated as "day" – but rendered above as "aeon" – is used in Arabic to denote any period, whether extremely long ("aeon") or extremely short ("moment"): its application to an earthly "day" of twenty-four hours is only one of its many connotations. (Cf. in this respect note 26 above, where the meaning of sa'ah – lit., "hour" – is explained.)

 

 

Note on Surah 40

4 Lit, "around it": cf. Zamakhshari's explanation of the expression hawlaha occurring in 27:8 in the sense of "near it". In his commentary on the verse which we are now considering, Baydawi states explicitly that the "bearing" of God's throne of almightiness (al-'arsh – see note 43 on 7:54) must be understood in a metaphorical sense: "Their carrying it and surrounding it [or "being near it"] is a metaphor of their being mindful of it and acting in accordance therewith (majaz 'an hifzihim wa tadbirihim lahu), or a metonym (kinayah) for their closeness to the Lord of the Throne, their dignity in His sight, and their being instrumental in the realization of His will." My rendering of the above verse reflects Baydawi's interpretation. – As regards the beings which are said to be close to the throne of God's almightiness, most of the classical commentators – obviously basing their view on the symbolic image of "the angels surrounding the throne of [God's] almightiness" on the Day of Judgment (39: 75) – think in this instance, too, exclusively of angels. But whereas it cannot be denied that the present verse refers also to angels, it does not follow that it refers exclusively to them. In its abstract connotation, the verb hamala frequently signifies "he bore [or "took upon himself"] the responsibility [for something]": and so it is evident that it applies here not only to angels but also to all human beings who are conscious of the tremendous implications of the concept of God's almightiness, and hence feel morally responsible for translating this consciousness into the reality of their own and their fellow-beings' lives.

 

Tribal partisanship

 

28:15 And [one day] he entered the city at a time when [most of] its people were [resting in their houses,] unaware of what was going on [in the streets]; (13) and there he encountered two men fighting with one another – one of his own people, (14) and the other of his enemies. And the one who belonged to his own people cried out to him for help against him who was of his enemies – whereupon Moses struck him down with his fist, and [thus] brought about his end. [But then] he said [to himself]: "This is of Satan's doing! Verily, he is an open foe, leading [man] astray!" (15)

13 Lit., "at a time of its people's unawareness".

 

14 I.e., of the Hebrews.

 

15 Regarding the reference to "Satan's doing", see first half of note 16 on 15:17. In the present instance, verses 16-17 seem to indicate that it was the Israelite, and not the Egyptian, who had been in the wrong (cf. next note). Apparently, Moses had come to the assistance of the Israelite out of an instinctive sense of racial kinship without regard to the rights and wrongs of the case; but immediately afterwards he realized that he had committed a grave sin not only by killing, however inadvertently, an innocent person, but also by basing his action on a mere tribal – or, as we would describe it today, racial or national – prejudice. Evidently, this is the purport of the above Qur'anic segment of the story of Moses. Its moral has been stressed and explained by the Prophet on many occasions: cf. his famous saying, "He is not of us who proclaims the cause of tribal partisanship ('asabiyyah); and he is not of us who fights in the cause of tribal partisanship; and he is not of us who dies in the cause of tribal partisanship" (Abu Da'ud, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Mut'im). When he was asked to explain the meaning of "tribal partisanship", the Prophet answered, "It means helping thine own people in an unjust cause" (ibid., on the authority of Wathilah ibn al-Asqa').

 

True believers – people who seek the truth, prefer the truth, love the truth

 

Surah 24

24:46 INDEED. from on high have We bestowed messages clearly showing the truth; but God guides onto a straight way [only] him that wills [to be guided]. (64) (24:47) For, [many are] they [who] say, "We believe in God and in the Apostle, and we pay heed!" – but then, some of them turn away after this [assertion]: and these are by no means [true] believers. (24:48) And [so it is that] whenever they are summoned unto God and His Apostle in order that [the divine writ] might judge between them, (65) lo! some of them turn away; (24:49) but if the truth happens to be to their liking, they are quite willing to accept it! (66)

 

24:50 Is there disease in their hearts? Or have they begun to doubt [that this is a divine writ]? Or do they fear that God and His Apostle might deal unjustly with them? (67) Nay, it is [but] they, they who are doing wrong [to themselves]! (24:51) The only response of believers, whenever they are summoned unto God and His Apostle in order that [the divine writ] might judge between them, can be no other than, (68) "We have heard, and we pay heed!" – and it is  they, they who shall attain to a happy state: (24:52) for, they who pay heed unto God and His Apostle, and stand in awe of God and are conscious of Him,  it is they, they who shall triumph [in the end]!

 

 

Shakir (24:49): And if the truth be on their side, they come to him quickly, obedient.

 

Arberry (24:49): but if they are in the right, they will come to him submissively.

 

 

Surah 25

25:72 And [know that true servants of God are only] those who never bear witness to what is false, (54) and [who], whenever they pass by [people engaged in] frivolity, pass on with dignity; (25:73) and who, whenever they are reminded of their Sustainer's messages, do not throw themselves upon them [as if] deaf and blind; (55) (25:74) and who pray: "O our Sustainer! Grant that our spouses and our offspring be a joy to our eyes,56 and cause us to be foremost among those who are conscious of Thee!"

 

 

 

Muhammad Sarwar: those who do not testify falsely and when they come across something impious, pass it by nobly, who, when reminded of the revelations of their Lord, do not try to ignore them as though deaf and blind. Rather, they try to understand and think about them.

 

Mohsin Khan: And those who do not witness falsehood, and if they pass by some evil play or evil talk, they pass by it with dignity. And those who, when they are reminded of the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) of their Lord, fall not deaf and blind thereat.

 

Arberry: And those who bear not false witness and, when they pass by idle talk, pass by with dignity; who, when they are reminded of the signs of their Lord, fall not down thereat deaf and blind;

 

 

See also:

·         True piety.

·         True servants.

 

Notes on Surah 24

64 Or: "God guides whomever He wills onto a straight way". The rendering adopted by me in this instance seems preferable in view of the preceding, intensive stress on the evidence, forthcoming from all nature, of God's creative, planning activity and the appeal to "all who have eyes to see" to let themselves be guided by this overwhelming evidence.

 

65 I.e., in order that the divine writ – which is implied in the preceding expression "God and His Apostle" might determine their ethical values and, consequently, their social behaviour.

 

66 Lit., "if the truth happens to be with them, they come to it willingly": cf. 4:60-6l and the corresponding notes, especially note 80.

 

67 I.e., by depriving them of what they choose to regard as "legitimate" liberties and enjoyments, or by supposedly preventing them from "keeping up with the times". As in verses 47 and 48 (as well as in verse 51 below) the expression "God and His Apostle" is here a synonym for the divine writ revealed to the Apostle.

 

68 Lit., "The only saying of the believers is that they say" – i.e., without any mental reservation. The term qawl (lit., "saying") has here the sense of a genuine spiritual "response" in contrast to the mere lip-service alluded to in verse 47 above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 25

54 Implying that neither do they themselves ever bear false witness (i.e., in the widest sense of this expression, tell any lie), nor do they knowingly take part in anything that is based on falsehood (Razi).

 

55 Explaining this verse, Zamakhshari remarks that whereas the average run of people approach the divine writ with a mere outward show of eagerness, "throwing themselves upon it" for the sake of appearances but, in reality, not making the least attempt to understand the message as such and, hence, remaining deaf and blind to its contents – the truly God-conscious are deeply desirous of understanding it, and therefore "listen to it with wide-awake ears and look into it with seeing eyes".

 

56 I.e., by living a righteous life.

 

True faith

 

49:13 [...] Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.

 

[...]

 

49:16 Say: "Do you, perchance, [want to] inform God of [the nature of] your faith (20) – although God knows all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth? Indeed, God has full knowledge of everything!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20 Like the preceding passage, this, too, is addressed in the first instance to certain contemporaries of the Prophet, but its meaning extends to all people, at all times, who think that their mere profession of faith and outward adherence to its formalities makes them "believers".

 

From Asad’s introduction to Surah 49: The concluding passage (verses 14 ff.) points out the difference between true faith and a mere outward observance of religious formalities.

 

True piety (including care for refugees)

2:177 True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west – but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day; and the angels, and revelation, and the prophets; and spends his substance – however much he himself may cherish it – upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer (145), and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage; and is constant in prayer, and renders the purifying dues; and [truly pious are] they who keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they, they who are conscious of God.

 

 

See also:

·         True believers.

·         True servants.

·         Kin (and others in need).

 

145 The expression ibn as-sabil (lit., "son of the road") denotes any person who is far from his home, and especially one who, because of this circumstance, does not have sufficient means of livelihood at his disposal (cf. Lane IV, 1302). In its wider sense it describes a person who, for any reason whatsoever, is unable to return home either temporarily or permanently: for instance, a political exile or refugee.

 

Veils of the heart

 

17:46 for, over their hearts We have laid veils which prevent them from grasping [The Qur’an’s] purport, and into their ears, deafness.

 

 

Confer 18:57.

 

 

See also:

·         Universes extol God’s limitless glory and praise.

·         Heaven and earth extol the limitless glory of God.

 

 

 

Willingness to listen (to God’s message through His creation)

16:65 AND GOD sends down water from the skies, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless: (74) in this, behold, there is a message indeed for people who [are willing to] listen.

 

74 As so often in the Qur'an, a reference to the spiritual life engendered by divine revelation is followed here by a reference to the miracle of organic life as another indication of God's creative activity.

Willingness to listen (to revelation from God)

(16:9) And [because He is your Creator,] it rests with God alone to show you the right path: (7)

7 Lit., "upon God rests the [showing of the] goal of the path" – i.e., the establishing of the goals of ethics and morality implied in the concept of the "right path". In further analysis of this phrase, the expression "it rests upon God" ('ala 'llah) is similar in intent to the statement in 6:12 and 54 that He "has willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy": in other words, God invariably shows the right path to everyone who is willing to follow it.

 

Wisdom (hidden from man)

13:13 And yet, they stubbornly argue about God, notwithstanding [all evidence] that He alone has the power to contrive whatever His unfathomable wisdom wills! (29)

 

29 According to Raghib, the expression shadrd al-mihdi (which occurs in the Qur'an only in this one place) signifies "powerful in contriving, in a manner hidden from man, that wherein wisdom lies"; hence my rendering.

Wishful thinking

 

Surah 57

57:14 They [who will remain without] will call out to those [within], "Were we not with you?" – [to which] the others will answer: "So it was! But you allowed yourselves to succumb to temptation, (16) and you were hesitant [in your faith (17)], and you were doubtful [of resurrection]; and your wishful thinking beguiled you until God's command came to pass: (18) for, [indeed, your own] deceptive thoughts about God deluded you! (19)

 

 

Surah 31

31:33 O MEN! Be conscious of your Sustainer, and stand in awe of the Day on which no parent will be of any avail to his child, nor a child will in the least avail his parent! Verily, God's promise [of resurrection] is true indeed: let not, then, the life of this world delude you, and let not [your own] deceptive thoughts about God delude you! (30)

 

 

Confer 4:123.

 

Notes on Surah 57

16 Sc., "by the prospect of worldly gains" or "by fear for your personal safety" – both of which characterize the half-hearted as well as the hypocrites.

 

17 Thus Ibn Zayd (quoted by Tabari), explaining the verb tarabbastum.

 

18 I.e., "until your death".

 

19 See note 30 on the last sentence of 31:33.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 31

30 For instance, the self-deluding expectation, while deliberately committing a sin, that God will forgive it (Sa'id ibn Jubayr, as quoted by Tabari, Baghawi, Zamakhshari). According to Tabari, the term gharur denotes "anything that deludes" (ma gharra) a person in the moral sense, whether it be Satan, or another human being, or an abstract concept, or (as in 57:14) "wishful thinking".

 

7. The true, the good, and the beautiful

God is the ultimate source of all truth. It follows from this that He must also be the ultimate source of all that is good and all that is beautiful (since anything false is in general ugly and no good). We should therefore strive to have the qualities of truth, goodness, and beauty becoming ever more prevalent in our lives.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Abraham – a man of truth, a prophet

 

19:41 Behold, [Abraham] was a man of truth, [already] a prophet

 

Shakir: surely he was a truthful man, a prophet.

 

Arberry: surely he was a true man, a Prophet.

 

Pickthall: Lo! he was a saint, a prophet.

 

Sahih International: Indeed, he was a man of truth and a prophet.

 

 

 

All that is most upright

17:9 VERILY, this Qur'an shows the way to all that is most upright, (10) and gives the believers who do good deeds the glad tiding that theirs will be a great reward;

 

10 I.e., conformable to ethical rectitude and beneficial to man's individual and social life.

 

Beauty and righteousness

 

7:26 O CHILDREN of Adam! Indeed, We have bestowed upon you from on high [the knowledge of making] garments to cover your nakedness, and as a thing of beauty: (17) but the garment of God-consciousness is the best of all.

 

 

Sahih International: ... and as adornment. But the clothing of righteousness – that is best.

 

Muhammad Sarwar: ... and for beauty, but the robe of piety is the best.

 

17 Lit., "as plumage" – a metaphorical expression derived from the beauty of birds' plumage.

 

Beauty, goodness, truth

15:16-18 AND, INDEED, We have set up in the heavens great constellations, and endowed them with beauty for all to behold; (15:17) and We have made them secure against every satanic force accursed (16) – (15:18) so that anyone who seeks to learn [the unknowable] by stealth is pursued by a flame clear to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 18

18:28: … he had always followed [only] his own desires, abandoning all that is good and true.

 

 

Hadith

Muhammad: God is beautiful and He loves beauty (al-Mu’jam al-Awsaṭ 6902).

 

16 The term shaytan ("satan") – derived from the verb shatana ("he was [or "became"] remote") – often denotes in the Qur'an a force or influence remote from, and opposed to, all that is true and good (Taj al-'Arus, Raghib): thus, for instance, in 2:14 it is used to describe the evil impulses (shayatin) within the hearts of "those who are bent on denying the truth". In its widest, abstract sense it denotes every "satanic force", i.e., every impulsion directed towards ends which are contrary to valid ethical postulates. In the present context, the phrase "every satanic force accursed (rajim)" – like the phrase "every rebellious (marid) satanic force" in a similar context in 37:7 – apparently refers to endeavours, strongly condemned in Islam, to divine the future by means of astrological speculations: hence the preceding reference to the skies and the stars. The statement that God has made the heavens "secure" against such satanic forces obviously implies that He has made it impossible for the latter to obtain, through astrology or what is popularly described as "occult sciences", any real knowledge of "that which is beyond the reach of human perception" (al-ghayb).

 

Day of Distinction [between the true and the false]

 

77:7 BEHOLD, all that you are told to expect (4) will surely come to pass. (77:8) Thus, [it will come to pass] when the stars are effaced, (77:9) and when the sky is rent asunder, (77:10) and when the mountains are scattered like dust, (77:11) and when all the apostles are called together at a time appointed. ... (5)

 

77:12 For what day has the term [of all this] been set? (77:13) For the Day of Distinction [between the true and the false]! (6) (77:14) And what could make thee conceive what that Day of Distinction will be? (77:15) Woe on that Day unto those who give the lie to the truth! (77:16) Did We not destroy [so many of] those [sinners] of olden days?

 

77:17 And We shall let them be followed by those of later times: (7) (77:18) [for] thus do We deal with such as are lost in sin. (77:19) Woe on that Day unto those who give the lie to the truth! (*)

 

 

(*) The phrase “Woe on that Day unto those who give the lie to the truth!” is repeated ten times in Surah 77.

 

 

Confer 44:40.

 

4 Lit., "that which you are promised", i.e., resurrection.

 

5 Sc., to bear witness for or against those to whom they conveyed God's message (cf. 4:41-42, 5:109, 7:6 or 39:69).

 

6 This is chronologically the earliest occurrence of the expression yawm al-fasl, which invariably relates to the Day of Resurrection (cf. 37:21, 44:40, 78:17, as well as verse 38 of the present surah): an allusion to the oft-repeated Qur'anic statement that on resurrection man will gain a perfect, unfailing insight into himself and the innermost motivation of his past attitudes and doings (cf. 69:1 and the corresponding note 1).

 

7 The use of the conjunction thumma – which in this case has been rendered as "And" – implies that suffering in the hereafter is bound to befall the sinners "of later times" (al-akhirun) even if God, in His unfathomable wisdom, wills to spare them in this world.

 

 

Denying truth – denying God

Surah 29

29:52 Say [unto those who will not believe]: "God is witness enough between me and you! He knows all that is in the heavens and on earth; and they who are bent on believing in what is false and vain, and thus on denying God – it is they, they who shall be the losers!"

 

 

Surah 16

16:63 [those who were bent on denying the truth have always refused to listen to Our messages

because] Satan has made all their own doings seem goodly to them

 

 

Delusion and deception

 

See Wishful thinking.

 

Discerning the true from the false

 

3:3 Step by step has He bestowed upon thee from on high this divine writ, (2) setting forth the truth which confirms whatever there still remains [of earlier revelations]: (3) for it is He who has bestowed from on high the Torah and the Gospel (3:4) aforetime, as a guidance unto mankind, and it is He who has bestowed [upon man] the standard by which to discern the true from the false. (4)

 

 

See also: Human reason.

 

 

2 The gradualness of the Qur'anic revelation is stressed here by means of the grammatical form nazzala.

 

3 See Earlier revelations (confirmed by The Qur’an).

 

4 It is to be borne in mind that the Gospel frequently mentioned in the Qur'an is not identical with what is known today as the Four Gospels, but refers to an original, since lost, revelation bestowed upon Jesus and known to his contemporaries under its Greek name of Evangelion ("Good Tiding"), on which the Arabicized form Injil is based. It was probably the source from which the Synoptic Gospels derived much of their material and some of the teachings attributed to Jesus. The fact of its having been lost and forgotten is alluded to in the Qur'an in 5:14. – Regarding my rendering of al-furqan as "the standard by which to discern the true from the false", see also note 38 on the identical phrase occurring in 2:53.

 

Half-truths

6:112 AND THUS it is that against every prophet We have set up as enemies the evil forces from among humans as well as from among invisible beings that whisper unto one another glittering half-truths meant to delude the mind. (98)

98 Lit., "embellished speech" or "varnished falsehood" (Lane III, 1223 – oy way of delusion" – i.e., half-truths which entice man by their deceptive attractiveness and cause him to overlook all real spiritual values (see also 25:30-31). – regarding my rendering of jinn as "invisible beings", see note 86 above and Appendix III. The term shayatin (lit., "satans"), on the other hand, is often used in the Qur'an in the sense of evil forces inherent in man as well as in the spiritual world (cf. 2:14, and the corresponding note). According to several well-authenticated Traditions, quoted by Tabari, the Prophet was asked, "Are there satans from among men?" – and he replied, "Yes, and they are more evil than the satans from among the invisible beings (al-jinn)." Thus, the meaning of the above verse is that every prophet has had to contend against the spiritual – and often physical-enmity of the evil ones who, for whatever reason, refuse to listen to the voice of truth and try to lead others astray.

 

Promises – to be kept

 

19:54 Behold, [Ishmael] was always true to his promise, and was an apostle [of God], a prophet, ...

 

 

True guidance

 

3:73 Say: "Behold, all [true] guidance is God's guidance, consisting in one's being granted [revelation] such as you have been granted." (55)

55 This refers to the Jews and the Christians, who are not prepared to accept the Qur'anic message on the ground that it conflicts with parts of their own scriptures.

 

From note 12 on 29:14: ... the Qur'an merely stresses the fact that the duration of a prophet's mission has nothing to do with its success or failure, since "all true guidance is God's guidance" (3:73) – and, as we are so often told in the Qur'an, "God guides [only] him that wills [to be guided]".

 

Truth

10:81 Verily, God does not further the works of spreaders of corruption – (10:82) whereas by His words God proves the truth to be true, (103) however hateful this may be to those who are lost in sin!

 

 

Confer 8:7-8, 10:81, 86:13-14.

 

 

See also:

·         Kafir.

·         Laws of nature – God’s way – sunnat Allah.

 

 

103 By "God's words" is meant here His creative will, manifested in the laws of nature instituted by Him as well as in the revelations granted by Him to His prophets (Manar XI, 468). A similar phrase occurs also in 8:7 and 42:24.

 

From Asad’s introduction to Surah 29: The title has been derived from the parable of "the spider's house" in verse 41, a symbol of false beliefs and false values, which in the long run are bound to be blown away by the winds of truth.

 

Truth – denying it will lead to multiple evils

 

 

Surah 16

Excerpts from 16:84-89:

 

[…] they who were bent on denying the truth

 

[…] they who were bent on evildoing

 

[…] they who were wont to ascribe divinity to beings other than God

 

[…] Behold, you have indeed been lying [to yourselves]!" (104)

 

[…] their false imagery

 

[…] all the corruption that they wrought for one Day We shall raise up within every community a witness against them from among themselves. (105)

 

 

Surah 35

35:42 As it is, they [who are averse to the truth often] swear by God with their most solemn oaths [...]

 

 

Surah 74

74:16 Nay, verily, it is against Our messages that he knowingly, stubbornly sets himself (7) (74:17) [and so] I shall constrain him to endure a painful uphill climb! (8)

 

 

See also: Heart, disease of.

 

Notes on Surah 16

104 Cf. 6:23-24 and the corresponding notes 16 and 17.

 

105 is merely referring to footnote 100, which reads as follows: An allusion to the Day of Judgment, when the prophets whom God has called forth within every community – or, in the wider sense of the term ummah, within every civilization or cultural period – will symbolically bear witness to the fact that they had delivered God's message to their people and explained to them the meaning of right and wrong, thus depriving them of any subsequent excuse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 74

7 Lit., "he is wont (kana) to set himself". The noun anid, derived from the verb anada, denotes "one who opposes or rejects something that is true, knowing it to be true" (Lisan al-'Arab). The element of human contrariness and stubbornness is implied in the use of the auxiliary verb kana, which indicates here a permanently recurring phenomenon despite its past-tense formulation. I am, therefore of the opinion that verses 18-25, although ostensibly formulated in the past tense, must also be rendered in the present tense.

 

8 In combination with the verb urhiquhu ("I shall constrain him to endure"') the term sa'ud (lit., "ascent" or "climb"') has the tropical connotation of something extremely difficult, painful or distressing. In the above context, it is an allusion to the loss of all instinctive innocence – and, hence, to the individual and social suffering – which unavoidably follows upon man's wilful neglect of moral and spiritual truths ("God's messages") in this world, and bars his spiritual development in the life to come.

 

Truth and justice

 

40:20 And God will judge in accordance with truth and justice, whereas those [beings] whom they invoke beside Him (15) cannot judge at all: for, verily, God alone is all-hearing, all-seeing.

 

 

Yusuf Ali: And Allah will judge with (justice and) Truth: but those whom (men) invoke besides Him, will not (be in a position) to judge at all. Verily it is Allah (alone) Who hears and sees (all things).

 

 

Arberry: God shall decide justly, and those they call on, apart from Him, shall not decide by any means. surely God is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.

 

15 I.e., saints, whether real or imaginary, or angels. (The pronoun alladhina is used only with reference to sentient beings endowed with reason.)

 

Truth – belongs to God alone

 

(28:75) [...] And so they will come to understand that all truth is God's [alone]; (82)

 

Yusuf Ali: ... the Truth is in Allah (alone)

 

 

See also: Truth, ultimate.

 

82 I.e., that He is the Ultimate Reality, and that whatever is or could be is an outcome of His will alone.

 

Truth, given to denying

16:83 They [who turn away from it] are fully aware of God's blessings, but none the less they refuse to acknowledge them [as such], since most of them are given to denying the truth.

I.e., although they are aware of the many blessings which man enjoys, they refuse to attribute them to God's creative activity, thus implicitly denying the truth of His existence. My rendering of al-kafirun as "[such as] are given to denying the truth" is conditioned by the definite article al which, in the above construction, is meant to stress the quality of deliberate intent.

 

Truth – inner truth of creation

Surah 6

6:73 And He it is who has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with [an inner] truth" (64) – and whenever He says, "Be," His word comes true; and His will be the dominion on the Day when the trumpet [of resurrection] is blown. He knows all that is beyond the reach of a created being's perception, as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature's senses or mind: (65) for He alone is truly wise, all-aware.

 

 

Surah 10

10:5 He it is who has made the sun a [source of] radiant light and the moon a light [reflected], and has determined for it phases so that you might know how to compute the years and to measure [time]. None of this has God created without [an inner] truth. (11)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 29

(29:43) And so We propound these parables unto man: but none can grasp their innermost meaning save those who [of Us] are aware, (38) (29:44) [and hence are certain that] God has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with [an inner] truth: (39) for, behold, in this [very creation] there is a message indeed for all who believe [in Him].

 

 

Confer 3:190-191, 14:19, 15:85, 16:3, 29:44, 30:8, 39:5, 44:38-39, 45:22, 46:3, 64:3.

 

Notes on Surah 6

64 See surah 10, note 11.

 

65 The term ash-shahadah (lit., "that which is [or "can be"] witnessed") is used in this and similar contexts as the exact antithesis of al-ghayb ("that which is beyond the reach of a created being's perception"). Thus, it circumscribes those aspects of reality which can be sensually or conceptually grasped by a created being.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 10

11 Lit., "God has not created this otherwise than in accordance with truth" – i.e., to fulfil a definite purpose in consonance with His planning wisdom (Zamakhshari, Baghawi, Razi): implying that everything in the universe – whether existent or potential, concrete or abstract – is meaningful, and nothing is "accidental". Cf. 3:191 – "O our Sustainer! Thou has not created [aught of] this without meaning and purpose (batilan)"; and 38:27 – "We have not created heaven and earth and all that is between them without meaning and purpose, as is the surmise (zann) of those who are bent on denying the truth".

 

 

Notes on Surah 29

38 Inasmuch as awareness of the existence of God is here postulated as a prerequisite of a full understanding of the Qur'anic parables (and, by implication, allegories as well), the above verse should be read side by side with the statement that the Qur'an is meant to be "a guidance for all the God-conscious, who believe in [the existence of] a reality which is beyond the reach of human perception" (see 2:2-3 and the corresponding note 3).

 

39 I.e., endowed with meaning and purpose: see surah 10, note 11. In other words, belief in the existence of a meaning and a purpose underlying the creation of the universe is a logical corollary of one's belief in God.

Truth, men and women of

 

Surah 21

21:38 But they [who reject My messages are wont to] ask, "When is that promise [of God's judgment] to be fulfilled? [Answer this, O you who believe in it,] if you are men of truth!"

 

 

Sahih International: […] if you should be truthful?

 

Pickthall: […] if ye are truthful?

 

Arberry: […] if you speak truly?

 

 

Confer 34:29, where the phrase “men of truth” Is also used (albeit in a rhetorical and ironic sense); quoted under Arrogance and false pride (archetypes of evil).

 

 

Surah 19

19:56 AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Idris. Behold, he was a man of truth, a prophet, …

 

 

Surah 33
33:35 VERILY, for all men and women who have surrendered themselves unto God, and all believing men and believing women, and all truly devout men and truly devout women, and all men and women who are true to their word, [...] and all men and women who remember God unceasingly: for [all of] them has God readied forgiveness of sins and a mighty reward.

 

[…]

 

33:70 O you who have attained to faith! Remain conscious of God and [always] speak with a will to bring out [only] what is just and true (86) – (33:71) [whereupon] He will cause your deeds to be virtuous and will forgive you your sins. And [know that] whoever pays heed unto God and His Apostle has already attained to a mighty triumph.

 

 

Surah 3

3:195 And thus does their Sustainer answer their prayer: "I shall not lose sight of the labour of any of you who labours [in My way], be it man or woman: each of you is an issue of the other. (150) [...]"

 

 

See also: Promises – to be kept.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on 33:70

86 The expression qawl sadid signifies. literally, "a saying that hits the mark", i.e., is truthful, relevant and to the point. In the only other instance where this expression is used in the Qur'an (at the end of 4:9) it may be appropriately rendered as "speaking in a just manner"; in the present instance, however it obviously relates to speaking of others in a manner devoid of all hidden meanings, insinuations and frivolous suspicions, aiming at no more and no less than the truth.

 

 

Note on Surah 3

150 I.e., "you all are members of one and the same human race, and therefore equal to one another".

 

Truth – flows from our Sustainer (and is pursued by those who have attained to faith)

 

47:3 This, because they who are bent on denying the truth pursue falsehood, whereas they who have attained to faith pursue [but] the truth [that flows] from their Sustainer.

 

Truth-seekers

14:11 […] and [so] it is in God that all believers must place their trust. (14)

14 I.e., it is to the contents of the divine message propounded to them that all seekers after truth must turn for illumination (see 7:75 and 13:43, as well as the corresponding notes). The Qur'an dwells in many places (e.g., in 6:109-111 or 13:31) on the futility – moral as well as intellectual – of the demand that the divine origin of a prophetic message should be proved by tangible, extraneous means: for, a morally valid and intellectually justifiable conviction of the intrinsic truth of such a message can be gained only through "conscious insight accessible to reason" (12:108).

 

Truth, ultimate

 

20:114 [Know,] then, [that] God is sublimely exalted. the Ultimate Sovereign, the Ultimate Truth: (99)

 

 

Confer 10:32, 13:14, 22:6, 22:62, 23:116, 24:25, 31:30, 78:39.

 

 

See also: Truth (belongs to God alone).

 

99 Whenever the noun al-haqq is used as a designation of God, it signifies "the Truth" in the absolute, intrinsic sense, eternally and immutably existing beyond the ephemeral, changing phenomena of His creation: hence, "the Ultimate Truth". God's attribute of al-malik, on the other hand, denotes His absolute sway over all that exists and can, therefore, be suitably rendered as "the Ultimate Sovereign".

 

Truth, ultimate (beyond the reach of human perception)

 

87:6 WE SHALL teach thee, and thou wilt not forget [aught of what thou art taught], (87:7) save what God may will [thee to forget] (4) – for, verily, He [alone] knows all that is open to [man's] perception as well as all that is hidden [from it] (5) – : (87:8) and [thus] shall We make easy for thee the path towards [ultimate] ease. (6)

 

4 The classical commentators assume that the above words are addressed specifically to the Prophet, and that, therefore, they relate to his being taught the Qur'an and being promised that he would not forget anything thereof, "save what God may will [thee to forget]". This last clause has ever since given much trouble to the commentators, inasmuch as it is not very plausible that He who has revealed the Qur'an to the Prophet should cause him to forget anything of it. Hence, many unconvincing explanations have been advanced from very early times down to our own days, the least convincing being that last refuge of every perplexed Qur'an-commentator, the "doctrine of abrogation" (refuted in my note 87 on 2:106). However, the supposed difficulty of interpretation disappears as soon as we allow ourselves to realize that the above passage, though ostensibly addressed to the Prophet, is directed at man in general, and that it is closely related to an earlier Qur'anic revelation – namely, the first five verses of surah 96 ("The Germ-Cell") and, in particular, verses 3-5, which speak of God's having "taught man what he did not know". In note 3 on those verses I have expressed the opinion that they allude to mankind's cumulative acquisition of empirical and rational knowledge, handed down from generation to generation and from one civilization to another: and it is to this very phenomenon that the present passage, too, refers. We are told here that God, who has formed man in accordance with what he is meant to be and has promised to guide him, will enable him to acquire (and thus, as it were, "impart" to him) elements of knowledge which mankind will accumulate, record and collectively "remember" – except what God may cause man to "forget" (in another word, to abandon) as having become redundant by virtue of his new experiences and his acquisition of wider, more differentiated elements of knowledge, empirical as well as deductive or speculative, including more advanced, empirically acquired skills. However, the very next sentence makes it clear that all knowledge arrived at through our observation of the external world and through speculation, though necessary and most valuable, is definitely limited in scope and does not, therefore, in itself suffice to give us an insight into ultimate truths.

 

5 I.e., all that is intrinsically beyond the reach of human perception (al-ghayb): the implication being that, since human knowledge must forever remain imperfect, man cannot really find his way through life without the aid of divine revelation.

 

6 I.e., towards an ease of the mind and peace of the spirit.

 

 

8. Falsehood and related evils

Pursuing or promoting falsehood is the epitome of blasphemy. If committed knowingly, such practices represent archetypes of evil, and amount to shirk.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Arrogance and false pride (archetypes of evil)

Surah 14

(14:21) And all [mankind] will appear before God [on the Day of Judgment]; and then the weak (28) will say unto those who had gloried in their arrogance: "Behold, We were but your followers: can you, then, relieve us of something of God's chastisement?"

 

 

Surah 34

34:28 NOW [as for thee, O Muhammad,] We have not sent thee otherwise than to mankind at large, to be a herald of glad tidings and a warner; but most people do not understand [this], (34:29) and so they ask, "When is this promise [of resurrection and judgment] to be fulfilled? [Answer this, O you who believe in it,] if you are men of truth!" (36)

 

34:30 Say: "There has been appointed for you a Day which you can neither delay nor advance by a single moment." (37) (34:31) And [yet,] those who are bent on denying the truth do say, "We shall never believe in this Qur'an, and neither in whatever there still remains of earlier revelations!" (38) But if thou couldst only see [how it will be on Judgment Day,] when these evildoers shall be made to stand before their Sustainer, hurling reproaches back and forth at one another! Those [of them] who had been weak [on earth] will say unto those who had gloried in their arrogance: (39) "Had it not been for you, we would certainly have been believers!"

 

34:32 [And] those who were wont to glory in their arrogance will say unto those who had been weak: "Why – did we keep you [forcibly] from following the right path after it had become obvious to you? (40) Nay, it was but you [yourselves] who were guilty!" 34:33 But those who had been weak will say unto those who had gloried in their arrogance: "Nay, [what kept us away was your] devising of false arguments, night and day, (41) [against God's messages as you did] when you persuaded us to blaspheme against God and to claim that there are powers that could rival Him" (42)

 

 

See also: Blasphemy (preferred by many).

 

 

Surah 28

28:39 Thus arrogantly, without the least good sense, (38) did he (Pharaoh) and his hosts behave on earth – just as if they thought that they would never have to appear before Us [for judgment]! (39) (28:40) And so We seized him and his hosts and cast them into the sea: and behold what happened in the end to those evildoers: (28:41) [We destroyed them,] and We set them up as archetypes [of evil] that show the way to the fire [of hell]; (40)

 

 

Confer 31:7.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 38

38:1 CONSIDER (2) this Qur'an, endowed with all that one ought to remember! (3) 38:2 But nay – they who are bent on denying the truth are lost in [false] pride, and [hence] deeply in the wrong. (4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[…]

 

38:71 [For,] lo (54) thy Sustainer said unto the angels: "Behold, I am about to create a human being out of clay; (55) (38:72) and when I have formed him fully and breathed into him of My spirit, fall you down before him in prostration!" (56) (38:73) Thereupon the angels prostrated themselves, all of them together, (38:74) save Iblis: he gloried in his arrogance, and [thus] became one of those who deny the truth. (57) 38:75 Said He: "O Iblis! What has kept thee from prostrating thyself before that [being] which I have created with My hands? (58) Art thou too proud [to bow down before another created being], or art thou of those who think [only] of themselves as high?" (59)

 

[…]

 

38:86 SAY [O Prophet]: "No reward whatever do I ask of you for this [message]; and I am not one of those who claim to be what they are not." (63)

 

 

Confer 40:74-76.

 

Note on Surah 14

28 I.e., those who had sinned out of moral weakness and self-indulgence, relying on the supposedly superior wisdom of the so-called "leaders of thought", who are described in the sequence as having "gloried in their arrogance" (astakbaru) inasmuch as they refused to pay heed to God's messages (Tabari, on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas).

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 34

36 The Qur'anic answer to this ironic question is found in 7:187.

 

37 For my rendering of sa'ah (lit., "hour") as "a single moment", see surah 7, note 26.

 

38 For the rendering of ma bayna yadayhi, in relation to the Qur'an, as "whatever there still remains of earlier revelations", see surah 3, note 3. As is evident from the preceding and subsequent verses, the rejection by "those who are bent on denying the truth" of all revelation is motivated by their refusal to believe in resurrection and God's judgment, and, hence, to admit the validity of absolute moral standards as postulated by every higher religion.

 

39 I.e., as the "intellectual leaders" of their community.

 

40 Lit., "did we keep you away from guidance after it had come to you?"

 

41 I.e., always. The term makr (lit., "a scheme" or "scheming") has here the connotation of "devising false arguments" against something that is true: in this case, as is shown in the first paragraph of verse 31 above, against God's messages (cf. a similar use of this term in 10:21 and 35:43; see also 86: 15).

 

42 Lit., "[that we should] give God compeers (andad)". For an explanation of this phrase and my rendering of it, see surah 2, note 13.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 28

38 Lit., "without [any] truth" or "justification" (bi-ghayr al-haqq).

 

39 Lit., "and they thought that they would not be brought back to Us". There is no doubt that the ancient Egyptians did believe in a life after death, and that this belief included the concept of a divine judgment as well. Since, however, the particular Pharaoh whom Moses confronted is said to  have behaved with an arrogance opposed to all good sense, the Qur'an – by implication – likens his attitude to that of a person who does not believe in resurrection and in man's ultimate responsibility before God: hence my rendering of the conjunctive particle wa at the beginning of the above clause as "just as if".

 

40 Lit., "archetypes (a'immah) inviting to the fire". This is the pivotal sentence of the above fragment of the story of Moses. Just as verses 15-16 are meant to draw our attention to the sin of tribal or racial prejudice (see note 15), the present reference to Pharaoh as an "archetype [of evil]" points to the fact that false pride (takabbur) and arrogance (istikbar) are truly "satanic" attitudes of mind, repeatedly exemplified in the Qur'an by Iblis's symbolic "revolt" against God (for the meaning of which see note 26 on 2:34 and note 31 on 15:41). Inasmuch as they are intrinsically evil, these "satanic" impulses lead to evil actions and, consequently, to a weakening or even a total destruction of man's spiritual potential: which, in its turn, is bound to cause suffering in the hereafter.

 

 

Notes on Surah 38

3 Or: "endowed with eminence" (Zamakhshari), since the term dhikr (ht., "reminder" or "remembrance") has also the connotation of "that which is remembered"' i.e., "renown", "fame" and, tropically, "eminence". As regards the rendering preferred by me, see 21:10, where the phrase fihi dhikrukum (relating, as above, to the Qur'an) has been translated as "wherein is found all that you ought to bear in mind", i.e., in order to attain to dignity and happiness.

 

4 I.e., they refuse to acknowledge the fact of divine revelation because such an acknowledgment would imply an admission of man's responsibility to God – and this their false pride, manifested in their arrogant belief in man's "self-sufficiency", does not allow them to do. The same idea is expressed in 16:22 and, in a more general way, in 2:206. Cf. also 96:6-7.

 

[…]

 

54 For this rendering of idh, see surah 2, note 21.

 

55 See note 24 on 15:26.

 

56 See 15:29 and the corresponding note 26.

 

57 See note 26 on 2:34 and note 31 on 15:41.

 

58 Cf. the metaphorical phrase "the things which Our hands have wrought" in 36:71, explained in the corresponding note 42. In the present instance, the stress lies on the God-willed superiority of man's intellect – which, like everything else in the universe, is God's "handiwork" – over the rest of creation (see note 25 on 2:34).

 

59 This "question" is, of course, only rhetorical, since God is omniscient. The phrase interpolated by me ("to bow down before another created being") reflects Zamakhshari's interpretation of this passage.

 

[…]

 

63 The expression mutakallif denotes, primarily, "a person who takes too much upon himself", be it in action or in feeling; hence, a person who pretends to be more than he really is, or to feel what he does not really feel. In this instance, it indicates the Prophet's disclaimer of any "supernatural" status.

 

Blasphemy (preferred by many)

 

17:89 However, most men are unwilling to accept anything but blasphemy (105)

 

 

See also:

·         Arrogance and false pride (archetypes of evil).

·         Exalting oneself against God.

 

 

105 I.e., they are unwilling to accept any idea which runs counter to their own, blasphemous inclinations.

 

 

 

Blasphemy (resulting in individual and social collapse)

16:26 Those who lived before them did, too, devise many a blasphemy (19) – whereupon God visited with destruction all that they had ever built, [striking] at its very foundations, so that the roof fell in upon them from above (21) and suffering befell them without their having perceived whence it came.

 

19 Lit., "schemed" (makara): i.e., they blasphemed by describing the divine revelations as "fables of ancient times" and by refusing to admit the truth of God's existence or of His oneness and uniqueness.

 

Note 21: 21 This is obviously a metaphor (Razi) describing the utter collapse of all endeavours – both individual and social – rooted in godlessness and false pride.

 

Disease of the heart

2:10 In their hearts is disease, and so God lets their disease increase

From Asad’s introduction to Surah 9, on page 287: … the problem of “those in whose hearts is disease” and who cannot attain to faith because they are bent on denying the truth” whenever it conflicts with their preconceived notions and their personal likes and dislikes: the perennial problem of people whom no spiritual message can convince because they do not want to grasp the truth (9:127), and who thereby “deceive none but themselves, and perceive it not” (2:9).

 

Empty (ill, idle, meaningless, dirty, false, evil, vain) talk

 

Surah 78

(78:35) No empty talk will they hear in that [paradise], nor any lie.

 

 

Surah 19

19:62 No empty talk will they hear there [i.e., in paradise, with gardens of perpetual bliss which the Most Gracious has promised unto His servants, in a realm which is beyond the reach of human perception] – nothing but [tidings of] inner soundness and peace;

 

 

Sahih International: They will not hear therein any ill speech

 

Pickthall: They hear therein no idle talk

 

Shakir: They shall not hear therein any vain discourse

 

Muhammad Sarwar: They will not hear therein any meaningless words

 

Mohsin Khan: They shall not hear therein (in Paradise) any Laghw (dirty, false, evil, vain talk)

 

 

Confer 52:23, 56:25, 88:11.

 

 

 

 

Exalting oneself against God

 

Surah 44

(44:19) "And exalt not yourselves against God: for, verily, I come unto you with a manifest authority [from Him]; (44:20) and, behold, it is with my Sustainer – and your Sustainer – that I seek refuge against all your endeavours to revile me. (11) (44:21) And if you do not believe me, [at least] stand away from me!"

 

 

Surah 27

27:13 But when Our light-giving messages came unto them, they said, "This is clearly [but] spellbinding deception!" (14) (27:14) – and in their wickedness and self-exaltation they rejected them, although their minds were convinced of their truth: and behold what happened in the end to those spreaders of corruption!

 

27:15 AND, INDEED, We granted [true] knowledge (15) unto David and Solomon [as well]; and both were wont to say: "All praise is due to God, who has [thus] favoured us above many of His believing servants!"

 

[…]

 

(27:25) [for they have come to believe] that they ought not to adore God (20)

 

[…]

 

(27:31) [God says:] Exalt not yourselves against Me, but come unto Me in willing surrender! (23)

 

See also: Blasphemy (preferred by many).

Note on Surah 44

11 Lit., "lest you throw stones at me". It is to be noted that the verb rajama is used in the physical sense of "throwing stones" as well as, metaphorically, in the sense of "throwing aspersions or reviling".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 27

14 See note 99 on 10:76. The people referred to as "they" are Pharaoh and his nobles.

 

15 I.e., spiritual insight.

 

[…]

 

20 I.e., their own immoral impulses (which is the meaning of ash-shaytan in this context) had persuaded them that they should not submit to the idea of man's responsibility to a Supreme Being who, by definition, is "beyond the reach of human perception", but should worship certain perceivable natural phenomena instead.

 

[…]

 

23 My interpolation, at the beginning of this verse, of the words "God says" is based on the fact that, within the context of the above legend, the information brought by the hoopoe is the very first link between the kingdoms of Sheba and of Solomon. In the absence of any previous contact, hostile or otherwise, there would have been no point whatever in Solomon's telling the people of Sheba that they should not "exalt themselves" against or above himself. On the other hand, the narrative of the hoopoe makes it clear that the Sabaeans did "exalt themselves" against God by worshipping the sun and by being convinced "that they ought not to worship God" (verses 24-25 above). Hence, Solomon, being a prophet, is justified in calling upon them, in the name of God, to abandon this blasphemy and to surrender themselves to Him. (Cf. the almost identical phrase, "Exalt not yourselves against God", in 44:19.)

 

False imagery

14:46 And [this retribution will befall all evildoers because] they devise that false imagery of theirs" (61) – and all their false imagery is within God's knowledge. [And never can the blasphemers prevail against the truth – not] even if their false imagery were so [well-devised and so powerful] that mountains could be moved thereby.

 

 

See also: Shirk (idol worship).

 

(61) Lit., "they devised their devising", i.e., their blasphemous belief in the existence of other "divine powers" side by side with God: this is the interpretation given by Tabari towards the end of his long commentary on this verse. For my rendering of the term makr, in this context, as "false imagery", see surah 13, note 62.

 

Falsehood, evil, shirk

 

(51:50) And so, [O Muhammad, say unto them:] "Flee I unto God [from all that is false and evil]! Verily, I am a plain warner to you from Him! (51:51) And do not ascribe divinity to aught (35) side by side with God: verily, I am a plain warner to you from Him!"

 

 

See also: Shirk (idol worship).

 

35 Lit., "do not set up any other deity".

 

Falsehood, pursuance of

 

47:3 This, because they who are bent on denying the truth pursue falsehood, whereas they who have attained to faith pursue [but] the truth [that flows] from their Sustainer.

 

 

Falsehood – should be shunned; and all falsehood will sooner or later be crushed by the truth

 

Surah 8

8:18 [...] God renders vain the artful schemes of those who deny the truth.

 

[…]

 

8:30 [...] – for God is above all schemers.

 

 

Surah 22

22:30 ... and shun every word that is untrue, (22:31) [inclining] towards God, [and] turning away from all that is false, (46)

 

 

Sahih International: ... So avoid the uncleanliness of idols and avoid false statement,

 

Pickthall: ... So shun the filth of idols, and shun lying speech,

 

Yusuf Ali: ... but shun the abomination of idols, and shun the word that is false,

 

Shakir: ... therefore avoid the uncleanness of the idols and avoid false words,

 

Muhammad Sarwar: ... Stay away from wickedness, idols, and false words.

 

Mohsin Khan: ... So shun the abomination (worshipping) of idol, and shun lying speech (false statements)

 

Arberry: ... And eschew the abomination of idols, and eschew the speaking of falsehood,

 

 

See also: Heart, disease of.

 

 

Surah 21

21:18 Nay, but [by the very act of creation] We hurl the truth against falsehood, and it crushes the latter: and lo! it withers away.

 

 

Sahih International: Rather, We dash the truth upon falsehood, and it destroys it, and thereupon it departs.

 

Pickthall: Nay, but We hurl the true against the false, and it doth break its head and lo! it vanisheth.

 

Yusuf Ali: Nay, We hurl the Truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish!

 

Shakir: Nay! We cast the truth against the falsehood, so that it breaks its head, and lo! it vanishes;

 

Muhammad Sarwar: We bring forward the Truth to crush and destroy falsehood; it is doomed to be banished.

 

Arberry: Nay, but We hurl the truth against falsehood and it prevails over it, and behold, falsehood vanishes away.

 

 

Confer 35:10 and the corresponding note 7.

 

 

 

Surah 30

30:30 AND SO, set thy face (25) steadfastly towards the [one ever-true] faith, turning away from all that is false, (26) in accordance with the natural disposition which God has instilled into man: (27) [for,] not to allow any change to corrupt what God has thus created (28) – this is the [purpose of the one] ever-true faith; but most people know it not. 30:31 [Turn, then, away from all that is false,] turning unto Him [alone]; and remain conscious of Him, and be constant in prayer, and be not among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, (30:32) [or] among those who have broken the unity of their faith and have become sects, each group delighting in but what they themselves hold [by way of tenets]. (29)

 

[…]

 

(30:43) Set, then, thy face steadfastly towards the one ever-true faith, (41) ere there come from God a Day [of reckoning – the Day] which cannot be averted. On that Day all will be sundered: (30:44) he who has denied the truth will have to bear [the burden of] his denial, whereas all who did what is right and just will have made goodly provision for themselves, (30:45) so that He might reward, out of His bounty, those who have attained to faith and done righteous deeds. Verily, He does not love those who refuse to acknowledge the truth

 

 

Surah 34

34:49 Say: "The truth has now come [to light, and falsehood is bound to wither away (60)]: for, falsehood cannot bring forth anything new, nor can it bring back [what has passed away]." (61) (34:50) Say: "Were I to go astray, I would but go astray [due to my own self, and] to the hurt of myself; (62) but if I am on the right path, it is but by virtue of what my Sustainer reveals unto me: for, verily, He is all-hearing, ever-near!"

 

 

Surah 42

42:24 [...] for God blots out all falsehood, and by His words proves the truth to be true. (30)

 

 

Confer 8:7-8, 10:81, 86:13-14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 22

46 For an explanation of the term hunafa' (sing. hanif), see note 110 on 2:135 (found in this compendium under keyword Hanif).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 30

25 I.e., "surrender thy whole being"; the term "face" is often used metonymically in the sense of one's "whole being".

 

26 For this rendering of hanif, see note 110 on 2:135 (found in this compendium under keyword Hanif).

 

27 In the interest of space, this note can be found in this compendium under Wisdom – some essential prerequisites.

 

28 Lit., "no change shall there be [or "shall be made"] in God's creation (khalq)", i.e., in the natural disposition referred to above (Zamakhshari). In this context, the term tabdil ("change") obviously comprises the concept of "corruption".

 

29 See 6:159, 21:92-93 and 23:52-53, as well as the corresponding notes.

 

 

 

 

[…]

 

41 See verse 30 above, as well as the corresponding notes; also 3:19 – "the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 34

60 Cf. 17:81 (quoted under Falsehood – versus true and sincere manners).

 

61 I.e., in contrast to the creativeness inherent in every true idea, falsehood – being in itself an illusion – cannot really create anything or revive any values that may have been alive in the past.

 

62 According to Zamakhshari, the idea expressed by the interpolated words "due to my own self" is implied in the above, inasmuch as "everything that goes against [the spiritual interests of] oneself is caused by oneself". (See note 4 on 14:4.)

 

 

Note on Surah 42

30 See note 103 on 10:82.

Falsehood – versus true and sincere manners

 

17:80 And say [in thy prayer]: "O my Sustainer! Cause me to enter [upon whatever I may do] in a manner true and sincere, and cause me to leave [it] in a manner true and sincere, and grant me, out of Thy grace, sustaining strength!"  17:81 And say: "The truth has now come [to light], and falsehood has withered away: for, behold, all falsehood is bound to wither away!"

 

 

Pride – should be shunned

 

7:206 Behold, those who are near unto thy Sustainer (168) are never too proud to worship Him; and they extol His limitless glory, and prostrate themselves before Him [alone].

 

 

Confer 21:19, 23:2, 57:16.

 

168 Lit., "those who are with thy Sustainer": a metaphorical description of utter God-consciousness.

Suppressing testimony from God

 

2:140 [...] And who could be more wicked than he who suppresses a testimony given to him by God? (115)

 

 

Alternative renderings of this part of 2:140

 

Pickthall: And who is more unjust than he who hideth a testimony which he hath received from Allah?

 

Sarwar: Who is more unjust than one who refuses to testify to the truth that God has given to him?

 

Yusuf Ali: Ah! who is more unjust than those who conceal the testimony they have from Allah?

 

 

Confer: 2:174 – 177.

 

 

See also: Heart, disease of.

 

 

 

115 A reference to the Biblical prediction of the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (see note 33 on verse 42 of this surah), which effectively contradicts the Judaeo-Christian claim that all true prophets, after the Patriarchs, belonged to the children of Israel.

 

OJA: The seriousness of suppressing testimony that has been given us from God is not limited to the specific circumstances described in footnote 115 above.

 

As Asad himself repeatedly stresses, Quranic injunctions have general and timeless import. See, e.g., his footnotes 8 and 169 to Surah 2 (for the context of these footnotes see here and here, respectively):

 

8 [...] However, as is always the case with Quranic allusions to contemporary or historical events, the above and the following verses have a general, timeless import inasmuch as they refer to all people who are prone to deceive themselves in order to evade a spiritual commitment.

 

169 [...] However – as is always the case with historical references in the Qur'an – the above injunction has a general import, and is valid for all times and circumstances.

 

Truth, enjoin upon one another the keeping to

 

103:1 CONSIDER the flight of time! (1) (103:2) Verily, man is bound to lose himself (103:3) unless he be of those (2) who attain to faith, and do good works, and enjoin upon one another the keeping to truth, and enjoin upon one another patience in adversity.

 

1 The term asr denotes "time" that is measurable, consisting of a succession of periods (in distinction from dahr, which signifies "unlimited time", without beginning or end: i.e., "time absolute"). Hence, asr bears the connotation of the passing or the flight of time – time which can never be recaptured.

 

2 Lit., "man is indeed in [a state of] loss, except those. . .", etc

 

Truth-deniers want others to deny the truth

 

60:2 If they could but overcome you, they would [still] remain your foes, and would stretch forth their hands and tongues against you with evil intent: for they desire that you [too] should deny the truth.

 

 

Victory over those who are bent on denying the truth

 

2:89 And whenever there came unto them a [new] revelation from God, confirming the truth already in their possession – and [bear in mind that] aforetime they used to pray for victory over those who were bent on denying the truth: – whenever there came unto them something which they recognized [as the truth], they would deny it. And God's rejection is the due of all who deny the truth.

 

2:90 Vile is that [false pride] for which they have sold their own selves by denying the truth of what God has bestowed from on high, out of envy that God should bestow aught of His favour upon whomsoever He wills of His servants: (75) and thus have they earned the burden of God's condemnation, over and over. And for those who deny the truth there is shameful suffering in store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

75 i.e., out of envy that God should bestow revelation upon anyone but a descendant of Israel – in this particular instance, upon the Arabian Prophet, Muhammad.

 

9. Brotherhood of believers

Everyone who submits to God is your brother or sister.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Believers are but brethren

 

49:10 All believers are but brethren. (11) Hence, [whenever they are at odds,] make peace between your two brethren, and remain conscious of God, so that you might be graced with His mercy.

 

11 The plural noun ikhwah ("brethren" or "brotherhood") has here, of course, a purely ideological connotation, comprising men and women alike; the same applies to the subsequent mention of "your two brethren".

Brotherhood of all true believers (whatever their outward designation)

 

The entire Surah 21, but in particular the verses quoted below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 21

21:92 VERILY, [O you who believe in Me,] this community of yours is one single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all: worship, then, Me [alone]! (89) (21:93} But men have torn their unity wide asunder, (90) [forgetting that] unto Us they all are bound to return.

From Asad’s foreword to this surah:

 

THE MAIN theme of this surah – which according to the 'Itqan belongs to the last group of the Meccan revelations – is the stress on the oneness, uniqueness and transcendence of God and on the fact that this truth has always been the core of all prophetic revelation, …

 

The repeated allusions to some of the prophets of old, all of whom preached the same fundamental truth, provide the title of this surah. The stories of those prophets are meant to illustrate the continuity and intrinsic unity of all divine revelation and of man's religious experience: hence, addressing all who believe in Him. God says, "Verily, this community of yours is one single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all" (verse 92), thus postulating the brotherhood of all true believers, whatever their outward designation, as a logical corollary of their belief in Him – the belief that "your God is the One and Only God" (verse 108).

 

 

Footnotes on Surah 21

89 After calling to mind, in verses 48-91, some of the earlier prophets, all of whom stressed the oneness and uniqueness of God, the discourse returns to that principle of oneness as it ought to be reflected in the unity of all who believe in Him. (See 23:51 ff.)

 

90 This is the meaning of the idiomatic phrase, taqatta'u amrahum baynahum. As Zamakhshari points out, the sudden turn of the discourse from the second person plural to the third person is indicative of God's severe disapproval – His "turning away", as it were, from those who are or were guilty of breaking the believers' unity. (See also 23:53 and the corresponding note 30.)

 

Brotherhood of Islam

8:75 And as for those who henceforth come to believe, and who forsake the domain of evil and strive hard [in God's cause] together with you – these [too] shall belong to you; (85) and they who are [thus] closely related have the highest claim on one another in [accordance with] God's decree.

 

(85) I.e., they, too, shall belong to the brotherhood of Islam, in which the faith held in common supplies the decisive bond between believer and believer.

Unity of all who bear witness to the truth

 

(5:83) For, when [Christian priests and monks that are not given to arrogance (see 5:82)] come to understand what has been bestowed from on high upon this Apostle, thou canst see their eyes overflow with tears, because they recognize something of its truth; (98) [and] they say: "O our Sustainer! We do believe; make us one, then, with all who bear witness to the truth. (5:84) And how could we fail to believe in God and in whatever truth has come unto us, when we so fervently desire that our Sustainer count us among the righteous?"

 

See also: Shirk – and those who have not yet received [full] evidence of the truth.

 

98 Regarding this rendering of the phrase mimma 'arafu min al-haqq, see Zamakhshari and Razi; also Manar VII, 12. As for my translation of the expression idha sami'u as "when they come to understand", it is to be noted that beyond its primary significance of "he heard", the verb sami'a has often the meaning of "he understood" or "came to understand" (cf. Lane IV, 1427).

 

10. Christianity and other faiths based on earlier revelations

This section contains verses that describe our relationship to others who believe in God and submit to Him.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Christianity and other faiths based on earlier revelations

 

22:16 And thus have We bestowed from on high this [divine writ in the shape of clear messages: for [thus it is] that God guides him who wills [to be guided]. (17) (22:17) Verily, as for those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], and those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Sabians, (18) and the Christians, and the Magians, (19) [on the one hand,] and those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught but God, [on the other,] (20) verily, God will decide between them on Resurrection Day: for, behold, God is witness unto everything.

 

 

Confer 24:46, 28:56.

 

 

See also:

·         God’s guidance.

·         Shirk, deliberate.

17 Or: "God guides aright whomever He wills". For an explanation of the rendering adopted by me, see note 4 on 14:4 (found under Guidance in this compilation).

 

18 See surah 2, note 49.

 

19 Al-majus: the followers of Zoroaster or Zarathustra (Zardusht), the Iranian prophet who lived about the middle of the last millenium B.C. and whose teachings are laid down in the Zend-Avesta. They are represented today by the Gabrs of Iran and, more prominently, by the Parsis of India and Pakistan. Their religion, though dualistic in philosophy, is based on belief in God as the Creator of the universe.

 

20 The Christians and the Magians (Zoroastrians) are included in the first category, for although they do ascribe divine qualities to other beings beside God, they regard those beings, fundamentally, as no more than manifestations – or incarnations – of the One God, thus persuading themselves that they are worshipping Him alone; whereas "those who are bent on ascribing divinity to beings other than God" (alladhina ashraku) by obvious implication reject the principle of His oneness and uniqueness.

 

Earlier revelations (confirmed by the Qur’an)

 

Surah 3

3:3 Step by step has He bestowed upon thee from on high this divine writ, (2) setting forth the truth which confirms whatever there still remains [of earlier revelations]: (3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 5

5:48 And unto thee [O Prophet] have We vouchsafed this divine writ, setting forth the truth, confirming the truth of whatever there still remains of earlier revelations and determining what is true therein. (64) Judge, then, between the followers of earlier revelation in accordance with what God has bestowed from on high, (65) and do not follow their errant views, forsaking the truth that has come unto thee.

 

Unto every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way of life. (66) And if God had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community: but [He willed it otherwise] in order to test you by means of what He has vouchsafed unto, you. (67) Vie, then, with one another in doing good works! Unto God you all must return; and then He will make you truly understand all that on which you were wont to differ. (68)

Notes on Surah 3

2 The gradualness of the Qur'anic revelation is stressed here by means of the grammatical form nazzala.

 

3 Most of the commentators are of the opinion that ma bayna yadayhi – lit., "that which is between its hands" – denotes here "the revelations which came before it", i.e., before the Qur'an. This interpretation is not, however, entirely convincing. Although there is not the least doubt that in this context the pronominal ma refers to earlier revelations, and particularly the Bible (as is evident from the parallel use of the above expression in other Qur'anic passages), the idiomatic phrase ma bayna yadayhi does not, in itself, mean "that which came before it" – i.e., in time – but, rather (as pointed out by me in surah 2, note 247), "that which lies open before it". Since, however, the pronoun "it" relates here to the Qur'an, the metaphorical expression "between its hands" or "before it" cannot possibly refer to "knowledge" (as it does in 2:255), but must obviously refer to an objective reality with which the Qur'an is "confronted": that is, something that was coexistent in time with the revelation of the Qur'an. Now this, taken together (a) with the fact – frequently stressed in the Qur'an and since established by objective scholarship – that in the course of the millennia the Bible has been subjected to considerable and often arbitrary alteration, and (b) with the fact that many of the laws enunciated in the Qur'an differ from the laws of the Bible, brings us forcibly to the conclusion that the "confirmation" of the latter by the Qur'an can refer only to the basic truths still discernible in the Bible, and not to its time-bound legislation or to its present text – in other words, a confirmation of whatever was extant of its basic teachings at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an: and it is this that the phrase ma bayna yadayhi expresses in this context as well as in 5:46 and 48 or in 61:6 (where it refers to Jesus' confirming the truth of "whatever there still remained [i.e., in his lifetime] of the Torah").

 

 

Notes on Surah 5

64 The participle muhaymin is derived from the quadriliteral verb haymana, "he watched [over a thing]" or "controlled [it]", and is used here to describe the Qur'an as the determinant factor in deciding what is genuine and what is false in the earlier scriptures (see Manar VI, 410 ff.).

 

65 Lit., "judge, then, between them ...", etc. This apparently applies not merely to judicial cases but also to opinions as to what is right or wrong in the ethical sense (see note 55 above). As is evident from the mention of the "followers of the Gospel" in the preceding verse, and of the Torah in the earlier passages, the people spoken of here are both the Jews and the Christians.

 

66 The expression "every one of you" denotes the various communities of which mankind is composed. The term shir'ah (or shari’ah) signifies, literally, "the way to a watering-place" (from which men and animals derive the element indispensable to their life), and is used in the Qur'an to denote a system of law necessary for a community's social and spiritual welfare. The term minhaj, on the other hand, denotes an "open road", usually in an abstract sense: that is, "a way of life". The terms shir'ah and minhaj are more restricted in their meaning than the term din, which comprises not merely the laws relating to a particular religion but also the basic, unchanging spiritual truths which, according to the Qur'an, have been preached by every one of God's apostles, while the particular body of laws (shir'ah or shari'ah) promulgated through them, and the way of life (minhaj) recommended by them, varied in accordance with the exigencies of the time and of each community's cultural development. This "unity in divers ty" is frequently stressed in the Qur'an (e.g., in the first sentence of 2:148, in 21:92-93, or in 23:52 ff.). Because of the universal applicability and textual incorruptibility of its teachings – as well as of the fact that the Prophet Muhammad is "the seal of all prophets", i.e., the last of them (see 33:40) – the Qur'an represents the culminating point of all revelation and offers the final, perfect way to spiritual fulfilment. This uniqueness of the Qur'anic message does not, however, preclude all adherents of earlier faiths from attaining to God's grace: for – as the Qur'an so often points out – those among them who believe uncompromisingly in the One God and the Day of Judgment (i.e., in individual moral responsibility) and live righteously "need have no fear, and neither shall they grieve".

 

67 I.e., "in order to test, by means of the various religious laws imposed on you, your willingness to surrender yourselves to God and to obey Him" (Zamakhshari, Razi), "and thus to enable you to grow, spiritually and socially, in accordance with the God-willed law of evolution" (Manar VI, 418 f.).

 

68 Lit., "inform you of that wherein you used to differ" (cf. surah 2, note 94). Thus, the Qur'an impresses upon all who believe in God – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – that the differences in their religious practices should make them "vie with one another in doing good works" rather than lose themselves in mutual hostility.

 

Earlier revelations (do not knowingly suppress)

 

2:42 And do not overlay the truth with falsehood, and do not knowingly suppress the truth; (33)

 

 

Confer 2:146-147, and its note 122; as well as 34:31, and its note 38.

 

33 By "overlaying the truth with falsehood" is meant the corrupting of the Biblical text, of which the Qur'an frequently accuses the Jews (and which has since been established by objective textual criticism), while the "suppression of the truth" refers to their disregard or deliberately false interpretation of the words of Moses in the Biblical passage, "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" (Deuteronomy xviii, 15), and the words attributed to God Himself, "I will raise them up a prophet from among thy brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth" (Deuteronomy xviii, 18). The "brethren" of the children of Israel are obviously the Arabs, and particularly the musta'ribah ("Arabianized") group among them, which traces its descent to Ishmael and Abraham: and since it is to this group that the Arabian Prophet's own tribe, the Quraysh, belonged, the above Biblical passages must be taken as referring to his advent.

 

Earlier revelations (followers thereof need not fear)

 

Surah 2

2:62 VERILY, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Christians, and the Sabians (49) – all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds – shall have their reward with their Sustainer; and no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve. (50)

 

 

Confer 2:38, 2:112, 5:69, 6:48, 7:35, 10:62, 20:112, 43:68, 46:13-14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 3

3:113 [But] they are not all alike: among the followers of earlier revelation there are upright people, (85) who recite God's messages throughout the night, and prostrate themselves [before Him]. (3:114) They believe in God and the Last Day, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and vie with one another in doing good works: and these are among the righteous. (3:115) And whatever good they do, they shall never be denied the reward thereof: for, God has full knowledge of those who are conscious of Him.

 

 

Notes on Surah 2

49 The Sabians seem to have been a monotheistic religious group intermediate between Judaism and Christianity. Their name (probably derived from the Aramaic verb tsebha', "he immersed himself [in water]") would indicate that they were followers of John the Baptist – in which case they could be identified with the Mandaeans, a community which to this day is to be found in Iraq. They are not to be confused with the so-called "Sabians of Harran", a gnostic sect which still existed in the early centuries of Islam, and which may have deliberately adopted the name of the true Sabians in order to obtain the advantages accorded by the Muslims to the followers of every monotheistic faith.

 

50 The above passage – which recurs in the Qur'an several times – lays down a fundamental doctrine of Islam. With a breadth of vision unparalleled in any other religious faith, the idea of "salvation" is here made conditional upon three elements only: belief in God, belief in the Day of Judgment, and righteous action in life. The statement of this doctrine at this juncture – that is, in the midst of an appeal to the children of Israel – is warranted by the false Jewish belief that their descent from Abraham entitles them to be regarded as "God's chosen people".

 

 

Note on Surah 3

85 Lit., "an upright community": a reference to those among the followers of the Bible who are truly believers (cf. the last sentence of verse 110 above (found under Evil and that which is wrong – should be forbidden)) and observe the "bond with God and with men" (verse 112).

 

Earlier revelations (followers thereof will believe in the Qur’an)

 

(28:52) As for those unto whom We have vouchsafed revelation aforetime – they [are bound to] believe in this one [as well]; (52) (28:53) and whenever it is [clearly] conveyed unto them, they [are bound to] profess, "We have come to believe in it, for, behold, it is the truth from our Sustainer – and, verily, even before this have we surrendered ourselves unto Him!" 28:54 These it is that shall receive a twofold reward for having been patient in adversity, and having repelled evil with good, (53) and having spent on others out of what We provided for them as sustenance, (28:55) and, whenever they heard frivolous talk, (54) having turned away from it and said: "Unto us shall be accounted our deeds, and unto you, your deeds Peace be upon you – [but] we do not seek out such as are ignorant [of the meaning of right and wrong]."

 

52 This is both a statement of historical fact – alluding to conversions of Jews and Christians in Muhammad's lifetime – and a prophecy. It must, however, be understood that, in the above context, God's "vouchsafing" revelation implies a conscious, sincere acceptance of its teachings by those to whom it has been conveyed: for it is this sincerity that has enabled them – or will enable them – to realize that the Qur'an preaches the same ethical truths as those forthcoming from earlier revelations. (Cf. 26:196-197 and the corresponding notes 83-85.)

 

53 See note 44 on the identical phrase in 13:22. In the present context, the reference to "patience in adversity" and "repelling evil with good" evidently relates to the loss of erstwhile communal links, social ostracism, and all manner of physical or moral persecution which is so often the lot of persons who accept religious tenets different from those of their own community.

 

54 This obviously refers to attempts, based on prejudice, at deriding the spiritual re-orientation of the person concerned.

Earlier revelations, relationship to (“God will gather you all unto Himself”)

 

Surah 2

2:146 They unto whom We have vouchsafed revelation aforetime know it as they know their own children: but, behold, some of them knowingly suppress the truth – (2:147) the truth from thy Sustainer! (122) Be not, then, among the doubters: (2:148) for, every community faces a direction of its own, of which He is the focal point. (123) Vie, therefore, with one another in doing good works. Wherever you may be, God will gather you all unto Himself: for, verily, God has the power to will anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 42

42:15 Because of this, then, (19) summon [all mankind], and pursue the right course, as thou hast been bidden [by God]; and do not follow their likes and dislikes, but say: "I believe in whatever revelation God has bestowed from on high; and I am bidden to bring about equity in your mutual views. (20) God is our Sustainer as well as your Sustainer. To us shall be accounted our deeds, and to you, your deeds. Let there be no contention between us and you: God will bring us all together – for with Him is all journeys' end."

 

 

Surah 57

57:25 Indeed, [even aforetime] did We send forth Our apostles with all evidence of [this] truth; and through them (41) We bestowed revelation from on high, and [thus gave you] a balance [wherewith to weigh right and wrong], so that men might behave with equity; and We bestowed [upon you] from on high [the ability to make use of] iron, in which there is awesome power as well as [a source of] benefits for man: (42) and [all this was given to you] so that God might mark out those who would stand up for him and His Apostle, (43) even though He [Himself] is beyond the reach of human perception. (44) Verily, God is powerful, almighty!

 

 

Notes on Surah 2

122 This refers, in the first instance, to the fact that the Ka'bah was Abraham's qiblah, as well as to the Biblical prophecies relating to Ishmael as the progenitor of a "great nation" (Genesis xxi, 13 and 18) from whom a prophet "like unto Moses" would one day arise: for it was through Ishamel's descendant, the Arabian Prophet, that the commandment relating to the qiblah was revealed. (Regarding the still more explicit predictions of the future advent of the Prophet Muhammad, forthcoming from the canonical Gospels, see 61:6 and the corresponding note.)

 

123 Lit., "everyone has a direction ...", etc. Almost all of the classical commentators, from the Companions of the Prophet downwards, interpret this as a reference to the various religious communities and their different modes of "turning towards God" in worship. Ibn Kathir, in his commentary on this verse, stresses its inner resemblance to the phrase occurring in 5:48: "unto every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way of life". [...]

 

 

Notes on Surah 42

19 I.e., because of this breach of the original unity of men's faith in the One God.

 

20 Lit., "between you" – i.e., "to induce you to be more tolerant of one another": evidently an allusion to the bitterness which stands in the way of an understanding between the various sects and schools of thought in all revealed religions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 57

41 Lit., "with them".

 

42 Side by side with enabling man to discriminate between right and wrong (which is the innermost purpose of all divine revelation), God has endowed him with the ability to convert to his use the natural resources of his earthly environment. An outstanding symbol of this ability is man's skill, unique among all animated beings, in making tools; and the primary material for all tool-making – and, indeed, for all human technology – is iron: the one metal which is found abundantly on earth, and which can be utilized for beneficial as well as destructive ends. The "awesome power" (ba's shadid) inherent in iron manifests itself not merely in the manufacture of weapons of war but also, more subtly, in man's every-growing tendency to foster the development of an increasingly complicated technology which places the machine in the foreground of all human existence and which, by its inherent – almost irresistible – dynamism, gradually estranges man from all inner connection with nature. This process of growing mechanization, so evident in our modern life, jeopardizes the very structure of human society and, thus, contributes to a gradual dissolution of all moral and spiritual perceptions epitomized in the concept of "divine guidance". It is to warn man of this danger that the Qur'an stresses – symbolically and metonymically – the potential evil (ba's) of "iron" if it is put to wrong use: in other words, the danger of man's allowing his technological ingenuity to run wild and thus to overwhelm his spiritual consciousness and, ultimately, to destroy all possibility of individual and social happiness.

 

43 Lit., "those who succour Him and His Apostle", i.e., those who stand up for the cause of God and His Apostle. The meaning is that only they who put God's spiritual and material gifts to right use can be described as "true believers".

 

44 See note 3 on 2:3.

 

Earlier revelations (in agreement with the Qur’an)

 

26:192 NOW, BEHOLD, this [divine writ] has indeed been bestowed from on high by the Sustainer of all the worlds: (81) (26:193) trustworthy divine inspiration has alighted with it from on high (26:194) upon thy heart, [O Muhammad] so that thou mayest be among those who preach (26:195) in the clear Arabic tongue. (82) 26:196 And, verily, [the essence of] this [revelation] is indeed found in the ancient books of divine wisdom [as well]. (83)

81 According to almost all the classical commentators, the expression ar-ruh al-amin (lit., "the faithful [or "trustworthy"] spirit") is a designation of Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation, who, by virtue of his purely spiritual, functional nature, is incapable of sinning and cannot, therefore, be other than utterly faithful to the trust reposed in him by God (cf. 16:50). On the other hand, since the term ruh is often used in the Qur'an in the sense of "divine inspiration" (see surah 2, note 71, and surah 16, note 2), it may have this latter meaning in the above context as well, especially in view of the statement that it had "alighted from on high upon the heart" of the Prophet.

 

82 See 14:4 – "never have We sent forth any apostle otherwise than [with a message] in his own people's tongue" – and the corresponding note 3. That the message of the Qur'an is, nevertheless, universal has been stressed in many of its verses (e.g., in 7:158 or 25:1). The other prophets mentioned in the Qur'an who "preached in the Arabic tongue" were Ishmael, Hud, Salih and Shu'ayb, all of them Arabians. in addition, if we bear in mind that Hebrew and Aramaic are but ancient Arabic dialects, all the Hebrew prophets may be included among "those who preached in the Arabic tongue".

 

83 Lit., "in the scriptures (zubur, sing. zabur) of the ancients" (see surah 21, note 101). This interpretation of the above verse – advanced among others by Zamakhshari and Baydawi (and, according to the former, attributed to Imam Abu Hanifah as well) – is in full consonance with the oft-repeated Qur'anic doctrine that the basic teachings revealed to Muhammad are in their purport (ma'ani) identical with those preached by the earlier prophets. Another, more popular interpretation is, "... this [Qur'an] has been mentioned [or "foretold"] in the earlier scriptures" (see in this connection note 33 on 2:42 and – with particular reference to a prediction made by Jesus – note 6 on 61:6).

 

Earlier scriptures revealing the same fundamental truths as the Qur’an

 

20:133 NOW THEY [who are blind to the truth] are wont to say, "If [Muhammad] would but produce for us a miracle from his Sustainer! (119) [But] has there not come unto them a clear evidence [of the truth of this divine writ] in what is [to be found] in the earlier scriptures? (120)

119 I.e., in proof of his prophetic mission: cf. 6:109 and, many other instances in which the deniers of the truth are spoken of as making their belief in the Qur'anic message dependent on tangible "miracles".

 

120 I.e., "Does not the Qur'an express the same fundamental truths as were expressed in the revelations granted to the earlier prophets?" Beyond this, the above rhetorical question contains an allusion to the predictions of the advent of Muhammad to be found in the earlier scriptures, e.g., in Deuteronomy xviii, 15 and 18 (discussed in my note 33 on 2:42) or in John xiv, 16, xv, 26 and xvi, 7, where Jesus speaks of the "Comforter" who is to come after him. (Regarding this latter prediction, see my note on 61:6.)

 

Revealed religions – common ground

 

Surah 20 – Ta Ha.

From Asad’s introduction to Surah 20: The main theme of Ta Ha is the guidance which God offers man through His prophets, and the fact that the fundamental truths inherent in all revealed religions are identical:

 

 

Confer note 68 on Surah 5

68 Lit., "inform you of that wherein you used to differ" (cf. surah 2, note 94). Thus, the Qur'an impresses upon all who believe in God – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – that the differences in their religious practices should make them "vie with one another in doing good works" rather than lose themselves in mutual hostility.

 

Same God

29:46 And do not argue with the followers of earlier revelation otherwise than in a most kindly manner – unless it be such of them as are bent on evildoing (42) – and say: "We believe in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, as well as that which has been bestowed upon you: for our God and your God is one and the same, and it is unto Him that We [all] surrender ourselves."

 

 

See also: Kindly manners towards non-Muslims.

 

42 Sc., "and are therefore not accessible to friendly argument": the implication being that in such cases all disputes should a priori be avoided. As regards religious discussions in general, see note 149 on 16:125 (found in this compendium under Kindness, wisdom, patience).

 

 

 

Shirk – and those who have not yet received [full] evidence of the truth

Surah 5

5:82 Thou wilt surely find that, of all people, the most hostile to those who believe [in this divine writ] are the Jews as well as those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught beside God; and thou wilt surely find that, of all people, (96) they who say, "Behold, we are Christians," come closest to feeling affection for those who believe [in this divine writ]: this is so because there are priests and monks among them, and because these are not given to arrogance. (97) (5:83) For, when they come to understand what has been bestowed from on high upon this Apostle, thou canst see their eyes overflow with tears, because they recognize something of its truth;98 [and] they say: "O our Sustainer! We do believe; make us one, then, with all who bear witness to the truth. (5:84) And how could we fail to believe in God and in whatever truth has come unto us, when we so fervently desire that our Sustainer count us among the righteous?"

 

 

See also: Unity of all who bear witness to the truth.

 

 

Surah 98

98:1 IT IS NOT [conceivable] that such as are bent on denying the truth – [be they] from among the followers of earlier revelation or from among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God (1) – should ever be abandoned [by Him] ere there comes unto them the [full] evidence of the truth: (98:2) an apostle from God, conveying [unto them] revelations blest with purity, (98:3) wherein there are ordinances of ever-true soundness and clarity. (2)

 

Notes on Surah 5

96 Lit., "of them".

 

97 I.e., they do not believe, as do the Jews, that revelation is God's exclusive gift to the children of Israel; and their "priests and monks" teach them that humility is the essence of all true faith. – It is noteworthy that the Qur'an does not in this context include the Christians among "those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught beside God" (alladhina ashraku – the element of intent being expressed in the use of the past tense, similar to alladhina kafaru, alladhina zalamu, etc.): for although, by their deification of Jesus, they are guilty of the sin of shirk ("the ascribing of divinity to anyone or anything beside God"), the Christians do not consciously worship a plurality of deities inasmuch as, theoretically, their theology postulates belief in the One God, who is conceived as manifesting Himself in a trinity of aspects, or "persons", of whom Jesus is supposed to be one. However repugnant this doctrine may be to the teachings of the Qur'an, their shirk is not based on conscious intent, but rather flows from their "overstepping the bounds of truth" in their veneration of Jesus (see 4:171, 5:77). Cf. in this context Razi's remarks mentioned in note 16 on 6:23.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 98

1 I.e., idol-worshippers or animists (in the anthropological sense of this word) who have never had any revealed scripture to fall back upon.

 

2 This aggregate connotation is inherent in the adjective qayyimah as used here (Razi). – The above passage has caused some difficulties to the classical commentators on account of the participle munfakkin occurring in the first verse. It is generally assumed that this participle, in combination with the phrase lam yakun at the beginning of the verse, denotes "they did not [or "could not"] give up" or "separate themselves from" – i.e., supposedly, from their erroneous beliefs – "until there came to them the evidence of the truth" in the person of the Prophet Muhammad and in the revelation of the Qur'an: implying that after the evidence came, they did give up those false beliefs. This assumption is, however, deficient on two counts: firstly, it is well-known that not all of the erring ones from among the ahl al-kitab and the mushrikin accepted the message of the Qur'an when it was conveyed to them; and, secondly, the ahl al-kitab are spoken of in verse 4 as having "broken their unity [of faith]" – i.e., offended against the fundamental principles of that faith – after "the evidence of the truth" had come to them. This apparent contradiction has been convincingly resolved by no less an authority than Ibn Taymiyyah (see Tafsir Sitt Suwar, pp. 391 ff.); and it is his interpretation that I have followed in my rendering of the above three verses. According to Ibn Taymiyyah, the pivotal phrase lam yakun munfakkin does not denote "they did not give up" or "separate themselves from", but, rather, "they are not abandoned" – i.e., condemned by God – unless and until they have been shown the right way by a God-sent prophet, and thereupon have consciously refused to follow it: and this is in accord with repeated statements in the Qur'an to the effect that God does not take anyone to task for wrong beliefs and wrong actions unless the true meaning of right and wrong has previously been made clear to him (cf. 6:131-132 and the second paragraph of 17:15, as well as the corresponding notes). Hence, the above reference to "the evidence of the truth" does not relate only to the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad but to all the earlier prophets and revelations as well (cf. 42:13 and the corresponding notes 12-14) – just as the "ordinances of ever-true soundness and clarity" (spelled out in verse 5 below) are common to all God-inspired messages, of which the Qur'an is the final, most perfect expression.

 

Torah and Gospel

 

3:3 Step by step has He bestowed upon thee from on high this divine writ, (2) setting forth the truth which confirms whatever there still remains [of earlier revelations]: (3) for it is He who has bestowed from on high the Torah and the Gospel (3:4) aforetime, as a guidance unto mankind, […]

 

 

Confer 5:46.

 

2 The gradualness of the Qur'anic revelation is stressed here by means of the grammatical form nazzala.

 

3 See Earlier revelations (confirmed by The Qur’an).

Unity of all revealed religions

 

20:9 AND HAS the story of Moses ever come within thy ken? (6).

6 [The mentioning of the story of Moses] at this stage is connected with the reference to revelation at the beginning of this surah (verses 2-4) and, generally, with the Qur'anic doctrine of the basic ideological unity of all revealed religions.

 

 

11. The doctrine of the Trinity

Christian theology is monotheistic in that it professes belief in one God and one God only. However, Christian theologians also claim that God is three persons: God the Father, God the Son (i.e., Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit; together known as the Triune Godhead. In other words, Christians do not believe in three gods, but rather in a single God who is three.

Carefully note that even though this is a violation of Islamic doctrine, the Qur’an makes it clear that Muslims and Christians (as well as Jews and other followers of earlier revelations) believe in the same God.

Nevertheless, this is a major point of disagreement between Islamic and Christian theology, as the Qur’an explicitly and repeatedly denies the Doctrine of the Trinity.

Even so, the Qur’an makes a distinction between on the one hand those who are bent on ascribing divinity to anything or anyone but God (or who do so because they rebelliously disregard God’s signs in nature or through revelation), and on the other hand those who implicitly or inadvertently do so (see the Quranic verses below).

Muslims will therefore do well in avoiding a judgemental attitude towards Christians. Judgement belongs to no one but God, since He alone, as we proclaim in al-Fatihah, is Lord of the Day of Judgment (Qur’an 1:4).

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs

 

4:171 O FOLLOWERS of the Gospel! Do not overstep the bounds [of truth] in your religious beliefs, (180) and do not say of God anything but the truth. The Christ Jesus, son of Mary, was but God's Apostle – [the fulfilment of] His promise which He had conveyed unto Mary – and a soul created by Him. (181) Believe, then, in God and His apostles, and do not say, "[God is] a trinity". Desist [from this assertion] for your own good. God is but One God; utterly remote is He, in His glory, from having a son: unto Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God.

 

180 I.e., by raising Jesus to the rank of divinity. Since here the Christians are addressed specifically, I render the term kitab as "Gospel".

 

181 Lit., "His word which He conveyed unto Mary and a soul from Him". According to Tabari, the "word" (kalimah) was "the announcement (risalah) which God bade the angels to convey to Mary, and God's glad tiding to her" (a reference to 3:45) – which justifies the rendering of kalimatuhu as "[the fulfilment of] His promise". (See also note on 3:39.) As regards the expression, "a soul from Him" or "created by Him", it is to be noted that among the various meanings which the word ruh bears in the Qur'an (e.g., "inspiration" in 2:87 and 2:253), it is also used in its primary significance of "breath of life", "soul", or "spirit": thus, for instance, in 32:9, where the ever-recurring evolution of the human embryo is spoken of: "and then He forms him [i.e., man] and breathes into him of His spirit" – that is, endows him with a conscious soul which represents God's supreme gift to man and is, therefore, described as "a breath of His spirit". In the verse under discussion, which stresses the purely human nature of Jesus and refutes the belief in his divinity, the Qur'an points out that Jesus, like all other human beings, was "a soul created by Him".

 

Going astray (by inventing rules, regulations, and doctrines beyond God’s revelation – at the risk of, e.g., lapsing into empty formalism)

 

57:26 And, indeed, [to the same end (45)] We sent forth Noah and Abraham [as Our message-bearers], and established prophethood and revelation among their descendants; and some of them were on the right way, but many were iniquitous.

 

57:27 And thereupon We caused [other of] Our apostles to follow in their footsteps; and [in the course of time] We caused them to be followed by Jesus, the son of Mary, upon whom We bestowed the Gospel; (46) and in the hearts of those who [truly] followed him We engendered compassion and mercy. But as for monastic asceticism (47) – We did not enjoin it upon them: they invented it themselves out of a desire for God's goodly acceptance. (48) But then, they did not [always] observe it as it ought to have been observed: (49) and so We granted their recompense unto such of them as had [truly] attained to faith, whereas many of them became iniquitous. (50)

 

 

Confer 9:19 and its footnote 29, which mentions “the immense superiority of real self-surrender to God over mere ritual”.

 

 

See also: Empty formalism.

 

45 I.e., to give man a balance wherewith to weigh right and wrong, and so to enable him to behave with equity (see preceding verse).

 

46 See surah 3, note 4.

 

47 The term rahbaniyyah combines the concepts of monastic life with an exaggerated asceticism, often amounting to a denial of any value in the life of this world – an attitude characteristic of early Christianity but disapproved of in Islam (cf. 2:143 – "We have willed you to be a community of the middle way" – and the corresponding note 118).

 

48 Or: "they invented it themselves, [for] We did not enjoin it upon them: [We enjoined upon them] only the seeking of God's goodly acceptance". Both these interpretations are equally legitimate, and are accepted as such by most of the classical commentators. The rendering adopted by me corresponds to the interpretation given by Sa'id ibn Jubayr and Qatadah (both of them cited by Tabari and Ibn Kathir).

 

49 I.e., not all of them observed it in the right spirit (Tabari, Zamakhshari, Iba Kathir), inasmuch as in the course of time many of them – or, rather, many of those who came after the early ascetics (Tabari) – corrupted their devotions by accepting the ideas of Trinity and of God's incarnation in Jesus, and by lapsing into empty formalism (Razi).

 

50 Sc., "and were deprived of Our grace".

 

Jesus (and all believers) – strengthened by God with holy inspiration

 

Surah 2

2:87 For, indeed, We vouchsafed unto Moses the divine writ and caused apostle after apostle to follow him; (70) and We vouchsafed unto Jesus, the son of Mary, all evidence of the truth, and strengthened him with holy inspiration. (71)

 

 

Confer 2:253

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 58

58:22 [...] [As for the true believers,] it is they in whose hearts He has inscribed faith, and whom He has

strengthened with inspiration from Himself, (30) and whom [in time] He will admit into gardens

through which running waters flow, therein to abide.

 

Notes on Surah 2

70 Lit., "We caused him to be followed, after his time, by [all] the other apostles": a stress upon the continuous succession of prophets among the Jews (see Tabari, Zamakhshari, Razi, Ibn Kathir), which fact deprives them of any excuse of ignorance.

 

71 This rendering of ruh al-qudus (lit., "the spirit of holiness") is based on the recurring use in the Qur'an of the term ruh in the sense of "divine inspiration". It is also recorded that the Prophet invoked the blessing of the ruh al-qudus on his Companion, the poet Hassan ibn Thabit (Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Da'ud and Tirmidhi): just as the Qur'an (58: 22) speaks of all believers as being "strengthened by inspiration (ruh) from Him".

 

 

Notes on Surah 58

30 For my rendering of ruh as "inspiration" or, occasionally, as "divine inspiration", see note 2 on 16:2 (found in this compendium under Divine inspiration). As pointed out by Zamakhshari, the pronominal suffix in minhu may relate either to God – as in my rendering – or to the believers' faith, in which latter case the phrase could be rendered as "strengthened with inspiration [flowing] therefrom".

 

Shirk based on confusion

 

6:23 Whereupon, in their utter confusion, they will only [be able to] say: "By God, our Sustainer, we did not [mean to] ascribe divinity to aught beside Him!" (16)

 

16 This refers to beliefs which undoubtedly imply shirk ("the ascribing of divinity or divine qualities to beings or forces other than God") in the objective sense of this concept, but which the person concerned does not subjectively visualize as denying God's oneness (Razi): for instance, the mystical dogma of, the "Trinity" which, in the Christian view, does not conflict with the principle of God's oneness inasmuch as it is supposed to express a "threefold aspect" of the One Deity, or the attribution of divine or semi-divine qualities to saints as supposed "mediators" between man and God, and so forth. All such beliefs are, of course, emphatically rejected by the Qur'an.

 

Shirk without conscious intent

 

5:82 Thou wilt surely find that, of all people, the most hostile to those who believe [in this divine writ] are the Jews as well as those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught beside God; and thou wilt surely find that, of all people, (96) they who say, "Behold, we are Christians," come closest to feeling affection for those who believe [in this divine writ]: this is so because there are priests and monks among them, and because these are not given to arrogance. (97) (5:83) For, when they come to understand what has been bestowed from on high upon this Apostle, thou canst see their eyes overflow with tears, because they recognize something of its truth; (98) [and] they say: "O our Sustainer! We do believe; make us one, then, with all who bear witness to the truth.

 

96 Lit., "of them".

 

97 I.e., they do not believe, as do the Jews, that revelation is God's exclusive gift to the children of Israel; and their "priests and monks" teach them that humility is the essence of all true faith. – It is noteworthy that the Qur'an does not in this context include the Christians among "those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught beside God" (alladhina ashraku – the element of intent being expressed in the use of the past tense, similar to alladhina kafaru, alladhina zalamu, etc.): for although, by their deification of Jesus, they are guilty of the sin of shirk ("the ascribing of divinity to anyone or anything beside God"), the Christians do not consciously worship a plurality of deities inasmuch as, theoretically, their theology postulates belief in the One God, who is conceived as manifesting Himself in a trinity of aspects, or "persons", of whom Jesus is supposed to be one. However repugnant this doctrine may be to the teachings of the Qur'an, their shirk is not based on conscious intent, but rather flows from their "overstepping the bounds of truth" in their veneration of Jesus (see 4:171, 5:77). Cf. in this context Razi's remarks mentioned in note 16 on 6:23.

 

98 Regarding this rendering of the phrase mimma 'arafu min al-haqq, see Zamakhshari and Razi; also Manar VII, 12. As for my translation of the expression idha sami'u as "when they come to understand", it is to be noted that beyond its primary significance of "he heard", the verb sami'a has often the meaning of "he understood" or "came to understand" (cf. Lane IV, 1427).

 

 

12. Relationship to non-Muslims

The Qur’an gives us advise as to how we should relate to non-Muslims.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Friendship

Surah 60

60:8 As for such [of the unbelievers] as do not fight against you on account of [your] faith, and neither drive you forth from your homelands, God does not forbid you to show them kindness and to behave towards them with full equity: (9) for, verily, God loves those who act equitably.

 

60:9 God only forbids you to turn in friendship towards such as fight against you because of [your] faith, and drive you forth from your homelands, or aid [others] in driving you forth: and as for those [from among you] who turn towards them in friendship; it is they, they who are truly wrongdoers!

 

 

Surah 3

3:118 O YOU who have attained to faith! Do not take for your bosom-friends people who are not of your kind. (87) They spare no effort to corrupt you; they would love to see you in distress. (88) Vehement hatred has already come into the open from out of their mouths, but what their hearts conceal is yet worse. We have indeed made the signs [thereof] clear unto you, if you would but use your reason.

 

Note on Surah 60

9 The expression "God does not forbid you'" implies in this context a positive exhortation (Zamakhshari). See also note 29 on 58:22 (included below).

 

 

Note 29 on 58:22

29 The operative phrase of this passage is contained in the words, "anyone who contends against (man hadda) God and His Apostle": i.e., anyone who is engaged in active hostility against God's message and the person or the teachings of His Apostle. As regards relations with non-believers who are not actively hostile to Islam, the Qur'an explicitly permits and implicitly ordains in many places (e.g., in 60:8-9) kindness and friendliness towards them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 3

87 Lit., "from among others than yourselves". Some of the commentators incline to the view that this expression comprises all non-Muslims: but this view obviously conflicts with 60:8-9 (see above), where the believers are expressly allowed to form friendships with such of the non-believers as are not hostile to them and to their faith. Moreover, the sequence makes it clear that by "those who are not of your kind" are meant only people whose enmity to Islam and its followers has become apparent from their behaviour and their utterances (Tabari). The rendering adopted by me, "people who are not of your kind", implies that their outlook on life is so fundamentally opposed to that of the Muslims that genuine friendship is entirely out of the question.

 

88 Lit., "they love that which causes you distress".

 

Kindness, wisdom, patience

16:125 CALL THOU [all mankind] unto thy Sustainer's path with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with them in the most kindly manner (149) for, behold, thy Sustainer knows best as to who strays from His path, and best knows He as to who are the right-guided. (16:126) Hence, if you have to respond to an attack [in argument], respond only to the extent of the attack levelled against you (150); but to bear yourselves with patience is indeed far better for [you, since God is with] those who are patient in adversity.

16:127 Endure, then, with patience [all that they who deny the truth may say] – always remembering that it is none but God who gives thee the strength to endure adversity (151) – and do not grieve over them, and neither be distressed by the false arguments which they devise: (152) (16:128) for, verily, God is with those who are conscious of Him and are doers of good withal!

 

 

Confer 17:53, 29:46

 

 

See also: Same God.

 

 

149 Cf. 29:46 – "And do not argue with the followers of earlier revelation otherwise than in the most kindly manner". This stress on kindness and tact and, hence, on the use of reason alone in all religious discussions with adherents of other creeds is fully in tune with the basic, categorical injunction, "There shall be no coercion in matters of faith" (2:256).

 

150 Lit., "retaliate [or "respond"] with the like of what you have been afflicted with": thus,

the believers are admonished to observe self-restraint while arguing with people of another persuasion, and never to offend against decency and intellectual equity. Although retaliation in argument is permissible if one's integrity is impeached by an opponent, the sequence makes it clear that it is morally preferable to renounce it altogether and to bear the unjust attack with patience.

 

151 Lit., "and thy patience in adversity (sabr) is due to [or. "ream with"] none but God" – i.e., it must never be allowed to become a source of spiritual arrogance and false self-righteousness.

 

152 Lit., "all that they are scheming", i.e., by inventing false and irrelevant arguments against God's messages.

 

Kindly manners towards non-Muslims

17:53 AND TELL My servants that they should speak in the most kindly manner [unto those who do not share their beliefs]: (60) verily, Satan is always ready to stir up discord between men (61) – for, verily, Satan is man's open foe!

 

 

See also: Same God.

 

60 Cf. 16:125 (and the corresponding note 149) as well as 29:46.

 

61 Lit., "Satan stirs up discord between them".

 

 

Revile not the beliefs of others

 

6:107 Yet if God had so willed, they would not have ascribed divinity to aught beside Him; (91) hence, We have not made thee their keeper, and neither art thou responsible for their conduct. (6:108) But do not revile those [beings] whom they invoke instead of God, (92) lest they revile God out of spite, and in ignorance: for, goodly indeed have We made their own doings appear unto every community (93) In time, [however,] unto their Sustainer they must return: and then He will make them [truly] understand all that they were doing.

 

91 I.e., no mortal has it in his power to cause another person to believe unless God graces that person with His guidance.

 

92 This prohibition of reviling anything that other people hold sacred – even in contravention of the principle of God's oneness – is expressed in the plural and is, therefore, addressed to all believers. Thus, while Muslims are expected to argue against the false beliefs of others, they are not allowed to abuse the objects of those beliefs and to hurt thereby the feelings of their erring fellow-men.

 

93 Lit., "thus goodly have We made...", etc., implying that it is in the nature of man to regard the beliefs which have been implanted in him from childhood, and which he now shares with his social environment, as the only true and possible ones – with the result that a polemic against those beliefs often tends to provoke a hostile psychological reaction.

 

Tolerance

 

42:15 Because of this, then, (19) summon [all mankind], and pursue the right course, as thou hast been bidden [by God]; and do not follow their likes and dislikes, but say: "I believe in whatever revelation God has bestowed from on high; and I am bidden to bring about equity in your mutual views. (20) God is our Sustainer as well as your Sustainer. To us shall be accounted our deeds, and to you, your deeds. Let there be no contention between us and you: God will bring us all together – for with Him is all journeys' end."

 

 

Confer 5:18.

 

19 I.e., because of this breach of the original unity of men's faith in the One God.

 

20 Lit., "between you" – i.e., "to induce you to be more tolerant of one another": evidently an allusion to the bitterness which stands in the way of an understanding between the various sects and schools of thought in all revealed religions.

 

 

Confer note 13 on Surah 9

13 […] a model of the self-restraint and the tolerance expected of true believers with regard to such of the unbelievers as are not openly hostile to them.

True servants

 

(25:63) For, [true] servants of the Most Gracious are [only] they who walk gently on earth, and who, whenever the foolish address them, (50) reply with [words of] peace;

 

 

Sahih International: And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace,

 

Pickthall: The (faithful) slaves of the Beneficent are they who walk upon the earth modestly, and when the foolish ones address them answer: Peace;

 

Yusuf Ali: And the servants of (Allah) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, "Peace!";

 

Shakir: And the servants of the Beneficent Allah are they who walk on the earth in humbleness, and when the ignorant address them, they say: Peace.

 

Muhammad Sarwar: (Among) the servants of the Beneficent God are those who walk gently on the earth and when addressed by the ignorant ones, their only response is, "Peace be with you."

 

Mohsin Khan: And the slaves of the Most Beneficent (Allah) are those who walk on the earth in humility and sedateness, and when the foolish address them (with bad words) they reply back with mild words of gentleness.

 

 

See also:

·         True believers.

·         True piety.

 

50 Sc., "with the aim to ridicule them or to argue against their beliefs".

 

 

 

13. Communities

The Qur’an is not only concerned with individuals, but also with communities.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Becoming brethren – and a community [of people] who invite unto all that is good

 

3:103 And hold fast, all together, unto the bond with God, and do not draw apart from one another. And remember the blessings which God has bestowed upon you: how, when you were enemies, He brought your hearts together, so that through His blessing you became brethren; and [how, when] you were on the brink of a fiery abyss. (79) He saved you from it. In this way God makes clear His messages unto you, so that you might find guidance, (3:104) and that there might grow out of you a community [of people] who invite unto all that is good, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong: and it is they, they who shall attain to a happy state!

 

79 Lit., "a pit of fire"   a metaphor of the sufferings which are the inescapable consequence of spiritual ignorance. The reminder of their one-time mutual enmity is an allusion to man's lot on earth (cf. 2:36 and 7:24), from which only God's guidance can save him (see 2:37-38).

Communities

Surah 6

6:129 And in this manner do We cause evildoers to seduce one another (115) by means of their [evil] doings. (6:130) [And thus will God continue:] "O you who have lived in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and [like-minded] humans! Have there not come unto you apostles from among yourselves, who conveyed unto you My messages and warned you of the coming of this your Day [of Judgment]?" They will answer: "We do bear witness against ourselves!" – for the life of this world had beguiled them: and so they will bear witness against themselves that they had been denying the truth. 6:131 And so it is that thy Sustainer would never destroy a community (116) for its wrongdoing so long as its people are still unaware [of the meaning of right and wrong]: (6:132) for all shall be judged according to their [conscious] deeds (117) – and thy Sustainer is not unaware of what they do.

 

11:117 For, never would thy Sustainer destroy a community (148) for wrong [beliefs alone] so long as its people behave righteously [towards one another]. (149)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 28

28:58 And how many a community that [once] exulted in its wanton wealth and ease of life have We destroyed, so that those dwelling-places of theirs – all but a few have never been dwelt-in after them: for it is indeed We alone who shall remain when all else will have passed away! (59) (28:59) Yet, withal, thy Sustainer would never destroy a community without having [first] raised in its midst an apostle who would convey unto them Our messages; (60) and never would We destroy a community unless its people are wont to do wrong [to one another]. (61)

Notes on Surah 6

115 Lit., "to be close to one another", or "get hold of one another". The expression "in this manner" (kadhalika), which introduces the above sentence, is an obvious allusion to the manner in which the evil ones "whisper unto one another glittering half-truths meant to "delude the mind" (verse 112 of this surah).

 

116 Lit., "communities". The term qaryah (lit., "town", "village" or "land") denotes also the people of a town or land – in short, a "community" – and it is in this sense that this term is mostly, though not always, used in the Qur'an.

 

117 Lit., "all shall have grades out of what they did", i.e., consciously – since God does not take people to task for any wrong they may have committed unless it was done in conscious contravention of a moral law already made clear to them by the prophets.

 

148 See surah 6, note 116 (above).

 

149 This passage connects with the concluding clause of the preceding verse, "and lost themselves in sinning". According to most of the classical commentators, the term zulm (lit., "wrong" or "evildoing") is in this context synonymous with "wrong beliefs" amounting to a denial of the truths revealed by God through His prophets, a refusal to acknowledge His existence, or the ascribing of divine powers or qualities to anyone or anything beside Him. Explaining the above verse in this sense, Razi says: "God's chastisement does not afflict any people merely on account of their holding beliefs amounting to shirk and kufr, but afflicts them only if they persistently commit evil in their mutual dealings, and deliberately hurt [other human beings] and act tyrannically [towards them]. Hence, those who are learned in Islamic Law (al-fuqaha') hold that men's obligations towards God rest on the principle of [His] forgiveness and liberality, whereas the rights of man are of a stringent nature and must always be strictly observed" – the obvious reason being that God is almighty and needs no defender, whereas man is weak and needs protection. (Cf. the last sentence of 28:59 and the corresponding note 61.)

 

 

Notes on Surah 28

59 Lit., "We are indeed (kunna) the inheritors". For an explanation of my rendering of this phrase, see note 22 on 15:23. The above passage stresses the insignificance and brittleness of all worldly "advantages" as compared with the imperishable good of divine guidance.

 

60 Sc., "and thus make them aware of the meaning of right and wrong": cf. 6:130-132 and the corresponding notes 116 and 117.

 

61 Cf. in this connection 11:117 and note 149. All the three passages referred to in this as well as the preceding note (i.e., 6:130-132, 11:117 and 28:59) are interdependent and must, therefore, be read side by side. The present passage connects with verse 58 above and its reference to "wanton wealth and ease of life", for the sake of which people so often wrong one another.

 

Communities shall be judged according to their [conscious] deeds

Surah 6

6:131 And so it is that thy Sustainer would never destroy a community (116) for its wrongdoing so long as its people are still unaware [of the meaning of right and wrong]: (6:132) for all shall be judged according to their [conscious] deeds (117) – and thy Sustainer is not unaware of what they do.

 

(6:133) And thy Sustainer alone is self-sufficient, limitless in His grace. If He so wills, He may put an end to you and thereafter cause whom He wills to succeed you – even as He has brought you into being out of other people's seed.

 

 

Confer Surah 17

17:58: And [bear in mind:] there is no community which We will not destroy before the Day of Resurrection, (69) or chastise [even earlier, if it proves sinful,] with suffering severe: all this is laid down in Our decree. (70)

 

               

Notes on Surah 6

116 Lit., "communities". The term qaryah (lit., "town", "village" or "land") denotes also the people of a town or land – in short, a "community" – and it is in this sense that this term is mostly, though not always, used in the Qur'an.

 

117 Lit., "all shall have grades out of what they did", i.e., consciously – since God does not take people to task for any wrong they may have committed unless it was done in conscious contravention of a moral law already made clear to them by the prophets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 17

(69) I.e., since everything in this world is ephemeral and bound to perish, man ought to be conscious of the life to come.

 

(70) Lit., "in the decree" – i.e., in accordance with the immutable laws which God has laid down for His creation.

 

Communities that are in a better position

 

19:73 AS IT IS, whenever Our messages are conveyed to them in all their clarity, those who are bent on denying the truth are wont to say unto those who have attained to faith: "Which of the two kinds of man (58) is in a stronger position and superior as a community?" (59)

58 Lit., "two groups" or "parties": an allusion to two kinds or types of human society characterized by their fundamentally different approach to problems of faith and morality. (See next note.)

 

59 Lit., "better in assembly". This parabolic "saying" of the unbelievers implies, in the garb of a rhetorical question, a superficially plausible but intrinsically fallacious argument in favour of a society which refuses to submit to any absolute moral imperatives and is determined to obey the dictates of expediency alone. In such a social order, material success and power are usually seen as consequences of a more or less conscious rejection of all metaphysical considerations – and, in particular, of all that is comprised in the concept of God – willed standards of morality – on the assumption that they are but an obstacle in the path of man's free, unlimited "development". It goes without saying that this attitude (which has reached its epitome in the modern statement that "religion is opium for the people") is diametrically opposed to the demand, voiced by every higher religion, that man's social life, if it is to be a truly "good" life, must be subordinated to definite ethical principles and restraints. By their very nature, these restraints inhibit the unprincipled power-drive which dominates the more materialistic societies and enables them to achieve – without regard to the damage done to others and, spiritually, to themselves – outward comforts and positions of strength in the shortest possible time: but precisely because they do act as a brake on man's selfishness and power-hunger, it is these moral considerations and restraints – and they alone – that can free a community from the interminable, self-destructive inner tensions and frustrations to which materialistic societies are subject, and thus bring about a more enduring, because more organic, state of social well-being. This, in short, is the elliptically implied answer of the Qur'an to a rhetorical question placed in the mouths of "those who are bent on denying the truth".

 

Communities that go extinct

Surah 3

3:137 [MANY] WAYS of life have passed away before your time. (98) Go, then, about the earth and behold what happened in the end to those who gave the lie to the truth: (3:138) this [should be] a clear lesson unto all men, and a guidance and an admonition unto the God-conscious.

 

 

 

 

Surah 6

(6:44) Then, when they had forgotten all that they had been told to take to heart, We threw open to them the gates of all [good] things, (33) until – even as they were rejoicing in what they had been granted – We suddenly took them to task: and lo! they were broken in spirit; (34) (6:45) and [in the end,] the last remnant of those folk who had been bent on evildoing was wiped out. (35) For all praise is due to God, the Sustainer of all the worlds.

 

[…]

 

6:65 Say: "It is He alone who has the power to let loose upon you suffering from above you or from beneath your feet, (55) or to confound you with mutual discord and let you taste the fear of one another." (56)

 

 

Confer 6:9-11.

 

 

Surah 7

7:96 Yet if the people of those communities had but attained to faith and been conscious of Us, We would indeed have opened up for them blessings out of heaven and earth: but they gave the lie to the truth – and so We took them to task through what they [themselves] had been doing." (77)

 

[...]

 

(7:99) Can they, then, ever feel secure from God's deep devising? But none feels secure from God's deep devising save people who are [already] lost. (79)

 

[…]

 

(7:182) But as for those who are bent on giving the lie to Our messages – We shall bring them low, step by step, without their perceiving how it came about: (148) (7:183) for, behold, though I may give them rein for a while. My subtle scheme is exceedingly firm!

 

[...]

 

7:185 Have they, then, never considered [God's] mighty dominion over the heavens and the earth, and all the things that God has created, and [asked themselves] whether, perchance, the end of their own term might already have drawn nigh? In what other tiding, then, will they, after this, believe? (151)

 

(7:186) For those whom God lets go astray, there is no guide; and He shall leave them in their overweening arrogance, blindly stumbling to and fro. (152)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 11

11:100 THIS ACCOUNT (131) of the [fate of those ancient] communities – some of them still remaining, and some [extinct like] a field mown-down – We convey unto thee [as a lesson for mankind]: (132) (11:101) for, no wrong did We do to them, but it was they who wronged themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 13

13:11 Verily, God does not change men's condition unless they change their inner selves; (26)

 

 

Confer 8:53.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 16

16:112 AND GOD propounds [to you] a parable: [Imagine] a town which was [once] secure and at ease, with its sustenance coming to it abundantly from all quarters, and which thereupon blasphemously refused to show gratitude for God's blessings: and therefore God caused it to taste the all-embracing misery (137) of hunger and fear in result of all [the evil] that its people had so persistently wrought. (138)

 

16:113 And indeed, there had come unto them an apostle from among themselves – but they gave him the lie; and therefore suffering overwhelmed them while they were thus doing wrong [to themselves].

 

 

 

Surah 21

21:10 [O MEN!] We have now bestowed upon you from on high a divine writ containing all that you ought to bear in mind: (13) will you not, then, use your reason? 21:11 For, how many a community that persisted in evildoing have We dashed into fragments, and raised another people in its stead! (14)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 64

64:5 HAVE THE STORIES of those who, in earlier times, refused to acknowledge the truth never yet come within your ken? [They denied it –] and so they had to taste the evil outcome of their own doings, (4) with [more] grievous suffering awaiting them [in the life to come].

 

Notes on Surah 3

98 The word sunnah (of which sunan is the plural) denotes a "way of life" or "conduct" (hence its application, in Islamic terminology, to the way of life of the Prophet as an example for his followers). In the above passage, the term sunan refers to the "conditions (ahwal) characteristic of past centuries" (Razi), in which, despite all the continuous changes, an ever-recurring pattern can be discerned: a typically Qur'anic reference to the possibility, and necessity, of learning from man's past experiences.

 

 

Notes on Surah 6

33 I.e., to test them by happiness after the test by misery.

 

34 The verb ablasa signifies "he despaired of all hope" or "became broken in spirit". (For the linguistic connection of this word with the name of Iblis, the Fallen Angel, see surah 7, note 10.)

 

35 Lit., "cut off". The above passage illustrates a phenomenon well known in history: namely, the inevitable social and moral disintegration of communities which have lost sight of spiritual truths.

 

 

 

[…]

 

55 Le., from any direction or by any means whatsoever.

 

56 Or: "the violence of one against another" – inner disintegration, fear, violence and tyranny being the inevitable consequences of a society's departure from spiritual truths.

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 7

77 Thus the discourse returns to its starting-point at the beginning of this surah (verses 4-5): namely, that the destruction which is bound to overtake any community (the proper significance of the term qaryah in this context) which lives in opposition to the eternal moral verities amounts, in the last resort, to self-annihilation: for this is the real meaning of God's "taking them to task through what (bi-ma) they themselves were doing".

 

[...]

 

79 I.e., morally lost and, therefore, destined to perish. The term makr Allah ("God's deep devising") denotes here His unfathomable planning, which is alluded to elsewhere in the Qur'an by the expression sunnat Allah ("God's [unchangeable] way" – cf., in particular, 33:62, 35:43 and 48:23).

 

[…]

 

148 Lit., "without their knowing whence [it comes]". For an explanation of the term kayd ("subtle scheme") occurring in the next verse, see note 25 on 68:45, where this term appears for the first time in Qur'anic revelation.

 

[...]

 

151 Apart from a reminder of man's utter dependence on God, the implication of the above passage is this: Since everything in the observable or intellectually conceivable universe is obviously caused, it must have had a beginning and, therefore, must also have an end. Furthermore, since the universe is not eternal in the sense of having had no beginning, and since it cannot possibly have evolved "by itself" out of nothing, and since "nothingness" is a concept devoid of all reality, we are forced to predicate the existence of a Primary Cause which is beyond the limits of our experience and, hence, beyond the categories of our thought – that is, the existence of God: and this is the meaning of the "tiding" to which this verse refers.

 

152 As in verse 178 above – and in many other places in the Qur'an – the expression "he whom God lets [or "causes to"] go astray" indicates the natural law instituted by God (sunnat Allah), whereby a wilful neglect of one's inborn, cognitive faculties unavoidably results in the, loss of all ethical orientation: that is, not an act of "predestination" but a result of one's own choice. See also surah 2, note 7, and surah 14, note 4.

 

 

Notes on Surah 11

131 Lit., "This of the accounts" (a construction identical with that employed in 3:44, 11:49 and 12:102), alluding to the fact that only certain aspects of the relevant stories, and not the complete stories as such, are presented here (cf. verse 120 below): the purpose being, as always in the Qur'an, the illustration of an ethical principle or principles, and of men's varying reactions to the guidance which God offers them directly through His prophets and indirectly through the observable phenomena of His creation. (See in this connection the second part of note 73 on verse 49 of this surah.)

 

132 See preceding note.

 

 

Notes on Surah 13

26 Lit., "that which is in themselves". This statement has both a positive and a negative connotation: i.e., God does not withdraw His blessings from men unless their inner selves become depraved (cf. 8:53), just as He does not bestow His blessings upon wilful sinners until they change their inner disposition and become worthy of His grace. In its wider sense, this is an illustration of the divine law of cause and effect (sunnat Allah) which dominates the lives of both individuals and communities, and makes the rise and fall of civilizations dependent on people's moral qualities and the changes in "their inner selves".

 

 

Notes on Surah 16

137 Lit., "the garment" (libas) – idiomatically used in classical Arabic to describe the utmost degree of misfortune which "envelops man like a garment" (Taj al-'Arus, with specific reference to the above verse).

 

138 This parable is meant to show that deliberate ingratitude for the manifold blessings which God bestows upon man – in other words, a deliberate refusal to submit to His guidance – is bound, in

the long run and in the context of aggregate social life, to have disastrous consequences not only in the hereafter but in this world as well, inasmuch as no society may expect to live in security and ease unless it conforms to the ethical and social standards inherent in the concept of man's "bond with God" (as explained in surah 2, note 19).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 21

13 The term dhikr, which primarily denotes a "reminder" or a "remembrance", or, as Raghib defines it, the "presence [of something] in the mind", has also the meaning of "that by which one is remembered", i.e., with praise – in other words, "renown" or "fame" – and, tropically, "honour", "eminence" or "dignity". Hence, the above phrase contains, apart from the concept of a "reminder", an indirect allusion to the dignity and happiness to which man may attain by following the spiritual and social precepts laid down in the Qur'an. By rendering the expression dhikrukum as "all that you ought to bear in mind", I have tried to bring out all these meanings.

 

14 Lit., "after it".

 

 

Note on Surah 64

4 This is an allusion to the disasters and the suffering which, as history shows, inevitably befall a community or nation bent on rejecting the basic ethical truths and, thus, all standards of morality.

Corruption and oppression – believers should act as allies against such evils by promoting truth

 

8:73 With all this, [remember that] those who are bent on denying the truth are allies of one another; (82) and unless you act likewise [among yourselves], oppression will reign on earth, and great corruption.

82 The fact of their being bent on denying the truth of the divine message constitutes, as it were, a common denominator between them, and precludes the possibility of their ever being real friends to the believers. This refers; of course, to relations between communities, and not necessarily between individuals: hence my rendering of the term awliya', in this context, as "allies".

 

Corruption, do not spread

 

Surah 2

2:11 And when they are told, "Do not spread corruption on earth," they answer, "We are but improving things!" (2:12) Oh, verily, it is they, they who are spreading corruption – but they perceive it not! (9)

 

 

Confer 2:60, 2:204-206, 4:62, 7:55-56.

 

 

Surah 28

28:76 When [they perceived his (Qarun's) arrogance,] his people said unto him: "Exult not [in thy wealth], for, verily, God does not love those who exult [in things vain]! 28:77 Seek instead, by means of what God has granted thee, [the good of] the life to come, (86) without forgetting, withal, thine own [rightful] share in this world; (87) and do good [unto others] as God has done good unto thee; and seek not to spread corruption on earth: for, verily, God does not love the spreaders of corruption!"

28:78 Answered he: "This [wealth] has been given to me only by virtue of the knowledge that is in me!" (88) Did he not know that God had destroyed [the arrogant of] many a generation that preceded him – people who were greater than he in power, and richer in what they had amassed? But such as are lost in sin may not be asked about their sins .... (89)

 

 

Yusuf Ali (28:77) … and seek not (occasions for) mischief in the land: for Allah loves not those who do mischief.

 

Shakir: (28:77) … and do not seek to make mischief in the land, surely Allah does not love the mischief-makers.

 

Muhammad Sarwar (28:77): … Do not commit evil in the land for God does not love the evil-doers.

 

Mohsin Khan (28:77): … and seek not mischief in the land. Verily, Allah likes not the Mufsidun (those who commit great crimes and sins, oppressors, tyrants, mischief-makers, corrupts).

 

 

See also: Evil and that which is wrong – should be forbidden.

 

Note on Surah 2

9 It would seem that this is an allusion to people who oppose any "intrusion" of religious considerations into the realm of practical affairs, and thus – often unwittingly, thinking that they are "but improving things" – contribute to the moral and social confusion referred to in the subsequent verse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 28

86 I.e., by spending in charity and on good causes.

 

87 Lit., "and do not forget ..., etc.: a call to generosity and, at the same time, to moderation (cf. 2:143 – "We have willed you to be a community of the middle way").

 

88 I.e., "as a result of my own experience, shrewdness and ability" (cf. 39:49 and the corresponding note 55).

 

89 Obviously implying that "such as are lost in sin" (al-mujrimun) are, as a rule, blind to their own failings and, therefore, not responsive to admonition.

 

 

Doom passed on a community

17:16 […] and [if] they [continue to] act sinfully, the sentence [of

doom] passed on the community takes effect, and We break it to smithereens.

 

 

Essentials – for communities and civilizations (as well as for individuals)

 

16:36 And indeed, within every community (33) have We raised up an apostle [entrusted with this message]: "Worship God, and shun the powers of evil!" (34)

 

 

 

See also: Self-surrender.

 

33: Or "at every period", since the term ummah has this significance as well. In its wider sense, it may also be taken here to denote "civilization", thus comprising a human groupment as well as a period of time.

 

34: For this rendering of the term at-taghat, see surah 2, note 250. It is to be borne in mind that, in Qur'anic terminology, "worship of God" invariably implies the concept of man's sense of responsibility before Him: hence, the above commandment comprises, in the most concise formulation imaginable, the sum-total of all ethical injunctions and prohibitions, and is the basis and source of all morality as well as the one unchanging message inherent in every true religion.

 

Ethics and power, relationship between

13:41 Have, then, they [who deny the truth] never yet seen how We visit the earth [with Our punishment], gradually depriving it of all that is best thereon? (80)

80 (partial) […] Thus, in its widest sense, the phrase "gradually depriving it of all that is best in it" may be taken to relate not merely to physical and social catastrophes but also to the loss of all ethical values – and, thus, to the loss of all worldly power – which "those who are bent on denying the truth" are bound to suffer in the end.

 

Evil and that which is wrong – must be forbidden

 

3:103 And hold fast, all together, unto the bond with God, and do not draw apart from one another. And remember the blessings which God has bestowed upon you: how, when you were enemies, He brought your hearts together, so that through His blessing you became brethren; and [how, when] you were on the brink of a fiery abyss. (79) He saved you from it. In this way God makes clear His messages unto you, so that you might find guidance, (3:104) and that there might grow out of you a community [of people] who invite unto all that is good, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong: and it is they, they who shall attain to a happy state!

 

[…]

 

3:110 YOU ARE indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for [the good of] mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God.

 

[…]

 

3:113 [But] they are not all alike: among the followers of earlier revelation there are upright people, (85) who recite God's messages throughout the night, and prostrate themselves [before Him]. (3:114) They believe in God and the Last Day, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and vie with one another in doing good works: and these are among the righteous. (3:115) And whatever good they do, they shall never be denied the reward thereof: for, God has full knowledge of those who are conscious of Him.

 

 

Confer 9:71, 9:112, 22:41, 31:17.

 

 

See also: Corruption, do not spread.

 

 

79 Lit., "a pit of fire"   a metaphor of the sufferings which are the inescapable consequence of spiritual ignorance. The reminder of their one-time mutual enmity is an allusion to man's lot on earth (cf. 2:36 and 7:24), from which only God's guidance can save him (see 2:37-38).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

85 Lit., "an upright community": a reference to those among the followers of the Bible who are truly believers (cf. the last sentence of verse 110 above) and observe the "bond with God and with men" (verse 112).

 

 

Greed and materialism

 

102:1 YOU ARE OBSESSED by greed for more and more (102:2) until you go down to your graves. (1) (102:3) Nay, in time you will come to understand! (102:4) And once again: (2) Nay, in time you will come to understand! (102:5) Nay, if you could but understand [it] with an understanding [born] of certainty, (102:6) you would indeed, most surely, behold the blazing fire [of hell]! (3) (102:7) In the end you will indeed, most surely, behold it with the eye of certainty:4 (102:8) and on that Day you will most surely be called to account for [what you did with] the boon of life!

 

1 The term takathur bears the connotation of "greedily striving for an increase", i.e., in benefits, be they tangible or intangible, real or illusory. In the above context it denotes man's obsessive striving for more and more comforts, more material goods, greater power over his fellow-men or over nature, and unceasing technological progress. A passionate pursuit of such endeavours, to the exclusion of everything else, bars man from all spiritual insight and, hence, from the acceptance of any restrictions and inhibitions based on purely moral values – with the result that not only individuals but whole societies gradually lose all inner stability and, thus, all chance of happiness.

 

2 See surah 6, note 31.

 

3 Sc., "in which you find yourselves now" – i.e., the "hell on earth" brought about by a fundamentally wrong mode of life: an allusion to the gradual destruction of man's natural environment, as well as to the frustration, unhappiness and confusion which an overriding, unrestrained pursuit of "economic growth" is bound to bring – and has, indeed, brought in our time – upon a mankind that is about to lose the remnants of all spiritual religious orientation.

 

4 I.e., in the hereafter, through a direct, unequivocal insight into the real nature of one's past doings, and into the inescapability of the suffering which man brings upon himself by a wrong, wasteful use of the boon of life (an-naim).

 

 

Writes Asad in his introduction to Surah 102 (which has been rendered here in its entirety (eight verses)): THIS early Meccan surah is one of the most powerful, prophetic passages of the Qur'an, illuminating man's unbounded greed in general, and, more particularly, the tendencies which have come to dominate all human societies in our technological age.

 

Kin (and others in need)

Surah 17

17:26 And give his due to the near of kin, as well as to the needy and the wayfarer, but do not squander [thy substance] senselessly.

 

 

Surah 30

30:38 Hence, give his due to the near of kin, as well as to the needy and the wayfarer;

 

 

See also:

·         True piety.

·         Just dealings between men.

 

 

Kinship – do not violate the ties of

 

47:22 [Ask them:] "Would you, perchance, after having turned away [from God's commandment, prefer to revert to your old ways, and] spread corruption on earth, and [once again] cut asunder your ties of kinship? (28)

 

(47:23) It is such as these whom God rejects, and whom He makes deaf [to the voice of truth], and whose eyes He blinds [to its sight]! (29) (47:24) Will they not, then, ponder over this Qur'an? – or are there locks upon their hearts?

 

47:25 VERILY, those who turn their backs [on this message] after guidance has been vouchsafed to them, [do it because] Satan has embellished their fancies and filled them with false hopes: [...]

 

 

Confer 4:35-36.

 

 

Alternative renderings of 47:22

 

Sarwar: If you ignore the commands of God would you then also spread evil in the land and sever the ties of kinship?

 

Shakir: But if you held command, you were sure to make mischief in the land and cut off the ties of kinship!

 

Yusuf Ali: Then, is it to be expected of you, if ye were put in authority, that ye will do mischief in the land, and break your ties of kith and kin?

 

Omar: (Hypocrites!) it is more likely that if you are given authority and power, you will create disorder in the land and violate your ties of kinship.

 

 

28 The above interpolations are in tune with the explanation of this passage advanced by almost all of the classical commentators, who regard this rhetorical "question" as an allusion to the chaotic conditions of pre-Islamic Arabia, its senseless internecine wars, and the moral darkness from which Islam had freed its followers. Nevertheless, this verse has, like the whole of the passage of which it forms a part, a timeless import as well.

 

29 Cf. the reference to God's "sealing" the hearts of stubborn wrongdoers in 2:7.

 

 

Kinship as well as spiritual relationships – both give rise to obligations that should be honoured

 

Surah 8

8:75 And as for those who henceforth come to believe, (84) and who forsake the domain of evil and strive hard [in God's cause] together with you – these [too] shall belong to you; (85) and they who are [thus] closely related have the highest claim on one another in [accordance with] God's decree. (86)

 

 

Shakir: And (as for) those who believed afterwards and fled and struggled hard along with you, they are of you; and the possessors of relationships are nearer to each other in the ordinance of Allah;

 

Arberry: And those who have believed afterwards and emigrated, and struggled with you – they belong to you; but those related by blood are nearer to one another in the Book of God;

 

Sherali: And those who believe after this and leave their homes and strive for the cause of Allah along with you – these are of you; and as to blood relations, they are nearer one to another in the Book of Allah.

 

Maulana: And those who believed afterwards and fled and struggled hard along with you, they are of you. And the relatives are nearer one to another in ordinance of Allah.

 

Ahmed: Those who accepted the faith and left their homes and fought by your side, are your brothers; yet those who are related by blood are closer to one another according to the decree of God.

 

Aziz: Those who accept faith later and leave their homes and strive strenuously with you, these are of you. But blood relations are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah (also called the Eternal Decree, the Preserved Tablet or it can be called the Universal Plan or Blue Print).

 

Daryabadi: And those who believed after wards and emigrated and strive hard along with you: these also are of you; and the kindred by blood are nearer unto one another in Allah´s decree;

 

Haque: And those who afterwards believed and migrated and fought along with you – they too are from among you; and family members (blood relations) are nearer to one another in the Book of Allah;

 

 

Surah 9

9:8 How [else could it be]? (14) – since, if they [who are hostile to you] were to overcome you, they would not respect any tie [with you,] nor any obligation to protect [you]. (15)

 

 

Confer 16:90, 33:6.

 

Notes on Surah 8

84 Although the expression alladhina amanu (lit., "those who have come to believe") is in the past tense, the words min ba'd ("afterwards" or "henceforth") indicate a future time in relation to the time at which this verse was revealed: hence, the whole sentence beginning with alladhina amanu must be understood as referring to the future (Manar X, 134 f.; see also Razi's commentary on this verse).

 

85 I.e., they, too, shall belong to the brotherhood of Islam, in which the faith held in common supplies the decisive bond between believer and believer.

 

86 The classical commentators are of the opinion that this last clause refers to actual family relations, as distinct from the spiritual brotherhood based on a community of faith. According to these commentators, the above sentence abolished the custom which was prevalent among the early Muslims, whereby the ansar ("the helpers" – i.e., the newly-converted Muslims of Medina) concluded, individually, symbolic ties of brotherhood with the muhajirin ("the emigrants" from Mecca), who, almost without exception, arrived at Medina in a state of complete destitution: ties of brotherhood, that is, which entitled every muhajir to a share in the property of his "brother" from among the ansar, and, in the event of the tatter's death, to a share in the inheritance left by him. The above verse is said to have prohibited such arrangements by stipulating that only actual close relations should henceforth have a claim to inheritance. To my mind, however, this interpretation is not convincing. Although the expression ulu 'l-arham is derived from the noun rahm (also spelt rihm and rahim), which literally signifies "womb", one should not forget that it is tropically used in the sense of "kinship", "relationship" or "close relationship" in general (i.e., not merely blood-relationship). Thus, "in the classical language, ulu 'l-arham means any relations: and in law, any relations that have no portion [of the inheritances termed fara'id]" (Lane III, 1056, citing, among other authorities, the Taj al-'Arus). In the present instance, the reference to "close relations" comes at the end of a passage which centres on the injunction that the believers must be "the friends and protectors (awliya') of one another", and that all later believers shall, similarly, be regarded as members of the Islamic brotherhood. If the reference to "close relations" were meant to be taken in its literal sense and conceived as alluding to laws of inheritance, it would be quite out of tune with the rest of the passage, which stresses the bonds of faith among true believers, as well as the moral obligations arising from these bonds.

 

In my opinion, therefore, the above verse has no bearing on laws of inheritance, but is meant to summarize, as it were, the lesson of the preceding verses: All true believers, of all times, form one single community in the deepest sense of this word; and all who are thus closely related in spirit have the highest claim on one another in accordance with God's decree that "all believers are brethren" (49:10).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 9

14 This connects with the opening clause of the preceding verse, and relates to the hostile among "those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God".

 

15 The term ill signifies any tie that arises from a compact or from blood-relationship, and which imposes on both parties the obligation to protect each other (cf. Lane 1, 75); the latter implication is expressed in the word dhimmah, which literally denotes a "covenant of protection".

 

Just dealings between men

Surah 26

26:181 "[Always] give full measure, and be not among those who [unjustly] cause loss [to others]; (26:182) and [in all your dealings] weigh with a true balance, (26:183) and do not deprive people of what is rightfully theirs; (75) and do not act wickedly on earth by spreading corruption, (26:184) but be conscious of Him who has created you just as [He created] those countless generations of old!" (76)

 

 

Surah 7

7:85 AND UNTO [the people of] Madyan [We sent] their brother Shu'ayb. (67) He said: "O my people! Worship God alone: you have no deity other than Him. Clear evidence of the truth has now come unto you from your Sustainer. Give, therefore, full measure and weight [in all your dealings], and do not deprive people of what is rightfully theirs; (68) and do not spread corruption on earth after it has been so well ordered: [all] this is for your own good, if you would but believe. (7:86) And do not lie in ambush by every road [that leads to the truth (69)], threatening and trying to turn away from God's path all who believe in Him, and trying to make it appear crooked. And remember [the time] when you were few, and, [how] He made you many: and behold what happened in the end to the spreaders of corruption!

 

 

Surah 6

6:152 And [in all your dealings] give full measure and weight, (150) with equity: [however,] We do not burden any human being with more than he is well able to bear; (151) and when you voice an opinion, be just, even though it be [against] one near of kin. (152)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 55

55:7 And the skies has He raised high, and has devised [for all things] a measure,3 (55:8) so that you [too, O men,] might never transgress the measure [of what is right]: (55:9) weigh, therefore, [your deed] with equity, and cut not the measure short!

 

 

 

See also: Kin (and others in need).

 

Notes on Surah 26

75 Cf. surah 7, note 68 (included below).

 

76 An allusion to the ephemeral character of man's life on earth and by implication to God's judgment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 7:

67 Shu'ayb is said to be identical with Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, also called in the Bible Reu-el (Exodus ii, 18), meaning "Faithful to God". The region of Madyan – the Midian of the Bible – extended from the present-day Gulf of Aqabah westwards deep into the Sinai Peninsula and to the mountains of Moab east of the Dead Sea; its inhabitants were Arabs of the Amorite group of tribes.

 

68 Lit., "do not diminish to people their things" – an expression which applies to physical possessions as well as to moral and social rights. Regarding my interpolation of "in all your dealings", see surah 6, note 150 (included below).

 

69 Thus Zamakhshari and Razi, stressing the metaphorical meaning of the above phrase. Cf. a similar expression, attributed to Satan, in verse 16 of this surah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 6

150 This refers metonymically to all dealings between men and not only to commercial transactions: hence my interpolation of "in all your dealings".

 

151 The meaning is that God does not expect man to behave with "mathematical" equity – which, in view of the many intangible factors involved, is rarely attainable in human dealings – but expects him to do his best towards achieving this ideal.

 

152 According to Razi, the phrase "when you voice an opinion" (lit., "when you speak") applies to expressing an opinion on any subject, whether it concerns one personally or not; but the subsequent reference to one's "near of kin" makes it probable that the above injunction relates, in particular, to the giving of evidence in cases under dispute.

 

 

Note on Surah 55

3 The noun mizan, usually denoting a "balance", has here the more general connotation of "measure" or "measuring" by any means whatsoever (Zamakhshari), in both the concrete and abstract senses of the word. (Cf. also the parabolic use of the term mizan in 42:17 and 57:25.)

 

 

Confer Leviticus 19 (King James 2000):

11 You shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12 And you shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 13 You shall not defraud your neighbor, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with you all night until the morning. 14 You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the LORD. 15 You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: you shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people: neither shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. 17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. 18 You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. 19 You shall keep my statutes.

 

Majority opinion, fallacy of

 

54:43 ARE, THEN, those of you who [now] deny the truth (23) better than those others – or have you, perchance, [been promised] immunity in the [ancient] books of [divine] wisdom? (24)

 

54:44 Or do they say, "We are a group united, [and therefore] bound to prevail"? (25)

 

23 Lit., "your deniers of the truth".

 

24 See surah 21, note 101.

 

25 The reasoning which underlies this thought may be summed up thus: "We who reject these so-called divine revelations represent a very large body of opinion; and because our views are held by so many, they are obviously right and, therefore, bound to triumph in the end." In other words, the people characterized as "deniers of the truth" draw their assurance from the mere fact of their being representative of the "majority opinion" – a self-delusion based on a purely materialistic outlook on life.

 

Middle way, community of

 

Surah 2

2:143 And thus have We willed you to be a community of the middle way, (118) ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 25:

25:67 and who, whenever they spend on others, (51) are neither wasteful nor niggardly but [remember that] there is always a just mean between those [two extremes];

 

Note on Surah 2

118 Lit., "middlemost community" – i.e., a community that keeps an equitable balance between extremes and is realistic in its appreciation of man's nature and possibilities, rejecting both licentiousness and exaggerated asceticism. In tune with its oft-repeated call to moderation in every aspect of life, the Qur'an exhorts the believers not to place too great an emphasis on the physical and material aspects of their lives, but postulates, at the same time, that man's urges and desires relating to this "life of the flesh" are God-willed and, therefore, legitimate. On further analysis, the expression "a community of the middle way" might be said to summarize, as it were, the Islamic attitude towards the problem of man's existence as such: a denial of the view that there is an inherent conflict between the spirit and the flesh, and a bold affirmation of the natural, God-willed unity in this twofold aspect of human life. This balanced attitude, peculiar to Islam, flows directly from the concept of God's oneness and, hence, of the unity of purpose underlying all His creation: and thus, the mention of the "community of the middle way" at this place is a fitting introduction to the theme of the Ka'bah, a symbol of God's oneness.

 

 

Note on Surah 25

51 In the Qur'an, the verb anfaqa (and the corresponding noun nafaqah) has usually this connotation.

Modesty and decency of dress for both sexes

 

24:30 TELL the believing men to lower their gaze and to be mindful of their chastity: (36) this will be most conducive to their purity – [and,] verily, God is aware of all that they do. (24:31) And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and to be mindful of their chastity, and not to display their charms [in public] beyond what may [decently] be apparent thereof; (37) hence, let them draw their head-coverings over their bosoms. (38)

36 Lit., "to restrain [something] of their gaze and to guard their private parts". The latter expression may be understood both in the literal sense of "covering one's private parts" – i.e., modesty in dress – as well as in the metonymical sense of "restraining one's sexual urges", i.e., restricting them to what is lawful, namely, marital intercourse (cf. 23:5-6). The rendering adopted by me in this instance allows for both interpretations. The "lowering of one's gaze", too, relates both to physical and to emotional modesty (Razi).

 

37 My interpolation of the word "decently" reflects the interpretation of the phrase illa ma zahara minha by several of the earliest Islamic scholars, and particularly by Al-Qiffal (quoted by Razi), as "that which a human being may openly show in accordance with prevailing custom (al-'adah al-jariyah)". Although the traditional exponents of Islamic Law have for centuries been inclined to restrict the definition of "what may [decently] be apparent" to a woman's face, hands and feet – and sometimes even less than that – we may safely assume that the meaning of illa ma zahara minha is much wider, and that the deliberate vagueness of this phrase is meant to allow for all the time-bound changes that are necessary for man's moral and social growth. The pivotal clause in the above injunction is the demand, addressed in identical terms to men as well as to women, to "lower their gaze and be mindful of their chastity": and this determines the extent of what, at any given time, may legitimately – i.e., in consonance with the Qur'anic principles of social morality – be considered "decent" or "indecent" in a person's outward appearance.

 

38 The noun khimar (of which khumur is the plural) denotes the head-covering customarily used by Arabian women before and after the advent of Islam. According to most of the classical commentators, it was worn in pre-Islamic times more or less as an ornament and was let down loosely over the wearer's back; and since, in accordance with the fashion prevalent at the time, the upper part of a woman's tunic had a wide opening in the front, her breasts were left bare. Hence, the injunction to cover the bosom by means of a khimar (a term so familiar to the contemporaries of the Prophet) does not necessarily relate to the use of a khimar as such but is, rather, meant to make it clear that a woman's breasts are not included in the concept of "what may decently be apparent" of her body and should not, therefore, be displayed.

 

Nations, rise and fall of

 

47:38 Behold, [O believers,] [...] and if you turn away [from God], He will cause other people to take your place, and they will not be the likes of you!

 

 

See also: Power on earth.

 

 

Parents, be grateful to

 

31:14 "And [God says:] 'We have enjoined upon man goodness towards his parents: his mother bore him by bearing strain upon strain, and his utter dependence on her lasted two years: (14) [hence, O man,] be grateful towards Me and towards thy parents, [and remember that] with Me is all journeys' end. (15)

 

14 Lit., "his weaning is [or "takes place"] within two years". According to some philologists, the term fisal circumscribes the entire period of conception, gestation, birth and earliest infancy (Taj al-'Arus): in brief, the period of a child's utter dependence on its mother.

 

15 Thus, gratitude towards parents, who were instrumental in one's coming to life, is here stipulated as a concomitant to man's gratitude towards God, who is the ultimate cause and source of his existence (cf. 17:23-24).

 

Promoting peace between men

 

2:224 AND DO NOT allow your oaths in the name of God to become an obstacle to virtue and God-consciousness and the promotion of peace between men: (212) for God is all-hearing, all-knowing.

 

212 Lit., "do not make God, because of your oaths...", etc. As can be seen from verse 226, this injunction refers primarily to oaths relating to divorce but is, nevertheless, general in its import. Thus, there are several authentic Traditions to the effect that the Prophet Muhammad said: "If anyone takes a solemn oath [that he would do or refrain from doing such-and-such a thing], and thereupon realizes that something else would be a more righteous course, then let him do that which is more righteous, and let him break his oath and then atone for it" (Bukhari and Muslim; and other variants of the same Tradition in other compilations). As regards the method of atonement, see 5:89.

 

Religion – has a legitimate function in the shaping of social life

 

96:9 HAST THOU ever considered him who tries to prevent (96:10) a servant [of God] from praying? (5) (96:11) Hast thou considered whether he is on the right way, (12) or is concerned with God-consciousness? (6)

 

96:13 Hast thou considered whether he may [not] be giving the lie to the truth and turning his back [upon it]? (7) (96:14) Does he, then, not know that God sees [all]?

 

5 Lit., "who forbids a servant [of God] when he prays", implying an attempt at preventing. Since this seems to refer to praying in public, most of the classical commentators see in this passage (which was revealed at least a year later than the first five verses) an allusion to Abu Jahl, the Prophet's bitterest opponent in Mecca, who persistently tried to prevent Muhammad and his followers from praying before the Kabah. However, there is no doubt that the purport of the above passage goes far beyond any historical incident or situation inasmuch as it applies to all attempts, at all times, to deny to religion (symbolized in the term "praying") its legitimate function in the shaping of social life – attempts made either in the conviction that religion is every individual's "private affair" and, therefore, must not be allowed to "intrude" into the realm of social considerations, or, alternatively, in the pursuit of the illusion that man is above any need of metaphysical guidance.

 

6 Lit., "or enjoins God-consciousness (taqwa)" – i.e., whether his aim is to deepen his fellow-men's God-consciousness by insisting that religion is a purely personal matter: the obvious implication being that this is not his aim, and that he is not on the right way in thinking and acting as he does. – Throughout this work, the term taqwa – of which the present is the earliest instance in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation – has been rendered as "God-consciousness", with the same meaning attaching to the verbal forms from which this noun is derived. (See also surah 2, note 2.)

 

7 Sc., "because in his arrogance he cannot face it".

 

Wealth and children can lead astray

 

71:21 [And] Noah continued: "O my Sustainer! Behold, they have opposed me [throughout], for they follow people whose wealth and children lead them increasingly into ruin, (13)

 

13 Lit., "and have followed him whose wealth and children do not increase him in aught but loss": i.e., people whose propensity and power only enhance their false pride and arrogance, and thus lead them to spiritual ruin. Beyond this, we have here a subtle allusion to the fact that an exclusive devotion to material prosperity must of necessity, in the long run, destroy all moral values and, thus, the very fabric of society.

 

 

14. God’s creation

We are God’s vicegerents on earth, and should thus strive to be wise stewards of His creation; trying to understand it (through scientific research), realizing that all of it glorifies God, and taking care to use it in a sustainable way only.

The relationship between the Qur’an and God’s creation is an important one. Writes Ahmad Muhammad al-Tayyib (Grand Imam of al-Azhar since 2010) in his essay The Quran as Source of Islamic Law (The Study Quran, page 1712): “This outlook in fact reveals the internal harmony between the Quran and the cosmos, showing them to be two faces of the same reality: the Quran is an audible cosmos (kawn masmu) to be heard, and the cosmos is a visible Quran (Qur’an mar’i) to be contemplated. The two complement and correspond to each other.”

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Big bang

21:30 ARE, THEN, they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were [once] one single entity, which We then parted asunder? (38)

 

 

See also:

·         Water, creation out of.

·         Expanding universe.

38 It is, as a rule, futile to make an explanation of the Qur'an dependent on "scientific findings" which may appear true today, but may equally well be disproved tomorrow by new findings. Nevertheless, the above unmistakable reference to the unitary origin of the universe – metonymically described in the Qur'an as "the heavens and the earth" – strikingly anticipates the view of almost all modern astrophysicists that this universe has originated as one entity from one single element, namely; hydrogen, which became subsequently consolidated through gravity and then separated into individual nebulae, galaxies and solar systems, with further individual parts progressively breaking away to form new entities in the shape of stars, planets and the latter’s satellites. (Regarding the Qur'anic reference to the phenomenon described by the term "expanding universe", see 51:47 and the corresponding note 31.)

 

Corrupting God’s creation

 

(4:118) "Verily, of Thy servants I [i.e., Satan] shall most certainly take my due share, (4:119) and shall lead them astray, and fill them with vain desires; and I shall command them – and they will cut off the ears of cattle [in idolatrous sacrifice]; and I shall command them – and they will corrupt God's creation!" (141)

 

But all who take Satan rather than God for their master do indeed, most clearly, lose all: (4:120) he holds out promises to them, and fills them with vain desires: yet whatever Satan promises them is but meant to delude the mind. (142)

 

[…]

 

4:132 And unto God belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth; and none is as worthy of trust as God. (4:133) If He so wills, He can cause you, O mankind, to disappear, and bring forth other beings [in your stead]: for God has indeed the power to do this.

 

[…]

 

4:142 Behold, the hypocrites seek to deceive God – the while it is He who causes them to be deceived [by themselves]. (158)

 

 

Confer 4:135-146.

 

141 [...] The allusion to Satan's inducing man to "corrupt [lit., "change"] God's creation" has a meaning to which sufficient attention is but seldom paid: Since this creation, and the manner in which it manifests itself, is an expression of God's planning will, any attempt at changing its intrinsic nature amounts to corruption. – For the wider meaning of the term shaytan ("Satan" or "satanic force"), see the first half of the note on 15:17.

 

142 The term ghurur signifies anything by which the mind is beguiled or deceived – for instance, utter self-abandonment to earthly joys, or the absurd belief that there is no limit to man's aims and achievements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

158 Some of the commentators (e.g., Razi) interpret the phrase huwa khadi uhum (lit., "He is their deceiver") as "He will requite them for their deception". However, the rendering adopted by me seems to be more in tune with 2:9, where the same type of hypocrisy is spoken of: "They would deceive God and those who have attained to faith – the while they deceive none but themselves, and are not aware of it." See also Manar,V, 469 f., where both these interpretations are considered to be mutually complementary.

 

Creation – glorifies God

 

Surah 17

(17:44) The seven heavens (52) extol His limitless glory, and the earth, and all that they contain; and there is not a single thing but extols His limitless glory and praise: but you [O men] fail to grasp the manner of their glorifying Him! (53) Verily, He is forbearing, much-forgiving!

 

 

Surah 57

57:1 ALL THAT IS in the heavens and on earth extols God's limitless glory: for He alone is almighty, truly wise!

 

Notes on Surah 17

52 For an explanation of this expression, see surah 2, note 20.

 

53 I.e., although everything in creation bears witness to the existence of a conscious Creative Will, man is only too often blind and deaf to this overwhelming evidence of God's ever-present almightiness.

Creation – man’s limited knowledge of

 

34:9 Are they, then, not aware of how little of the sky and the earth lies open before them, and how much is hidden from them? (6) – [or that,] if We so willed, We could cause the earth to swallow them, (7) or cause fragments of the sky to fall down upon them? (8) In all this, behold, there is a message indeed for every servant [of God] who is wont to turn unto Him [in repentance]. (9)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Lit., "... not aware of what of the sky and the earth is between their hands, and what is behind them": an idiomatic phrase explained in surah 2, note 247. In the present context – as well as in 2:255 – the above phrase stresses the insignificance of the knowledge attained to by man, or accessible to him; hence, so the argument goes, how can anyone be so presumptuous as to deny the reality of resurrection and life after death, seeing that it is a phenomenon beyond man's experience, while, on the other hand, everything within the universe points to God's unlimited creative power"

 

7 I.e., in an earthquake.

 

8 This allusion to unpredictable geological and cosmic occurrences – earthquakes, the fall of meteors and meteorites, cosmic rays, and so forth – reinforces the statement about "how little of the sky and the earth ties open before them, and how much is hidden from them", and contrasts man's insignificance with God's omniscience and almightiness.

 

9 See last sentence of 24:31 and the corresponding note 41 (found in this compendium under Repentance – importance of).

 

Creation – message from and purpose of

 

Surah 21

21:16 AND [know that] We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in mere idle play: (18) (21:17) [for,] had We willed to indulge in a pastime, We would indeed have produced it from within Ourselves – if such had been Our will at all! (19)

 

21:18 Nay, but [by the very act of creation] We hurl the truth against falsehood, (20) and it crushes the latter: and lo! it withers away. (21) But woe unto you for all your [attempts at] defining [God] (22) – (21:19) for, unto Him belong all [beings] that are in the heavens and on earth; and those that are with Him (23) are never too proud to worship Him and never grow weary [thereof]: (21:20) they extol His limitless glory by night and by day, never flagging [therein].

 

 

 

Confer 3:190-191, 24:42, 29:19, 38:27, 44:38-39.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 2

2:258 [...] Said Abraham: "Verily, God causes the sun to rise in the east; cause it, then, to rise in the west!" Thereupon he who was bent on denying the truth remained dumbfounded: for God does not guide people who [deliberately] do wrong. (251)

 

Notes on Surah 21

18 Lit playing or "playfully", i.e., without meaning and purpose: see note 11 on 10:5.

 

19 Lit. "if We had [ever] willed to do so": meaning that, had God ever willed to "indulge in a pastime (which being almighty and self-sufficient, He has no need to do), He could have found it within His Own Self, without any necessity to create a universe which would embody His hypothetical and logically inconceivable – will to "please Himself", and would thus represent a projection, as it were, of His Own Being. In the elliptic manner of the Qur'an, the above passage amounts to a statement of God's transcendence.

 

20 I.e., the truth of God's transcendence against the false idea of His existential immanence in, or co-existence with, the created universe.

 

21 The obvious fact that everything in the created universe is finite and perishable effectively refutes the claim that it could be a "projection" of the Creator, who is infinite and eternal.

 

22 Lit., "for all that you attribute [to God] by way of description" or "of definition" (cf: the last sentence of 6:100 and the corresponding note 88) – implying that the idea of God's "immanence" in His creation is equivalent to an attempt to define His Being.

 

23 According to the classical commentators, this refers to the angels; but it is possible to understand the expression "those who are with Him" in a wider sense, comprising not only the angels but also all human beings who are truly God-conscious and wholly dedicated to Him. In either case, their "being with Him" is a metaphorical indication of their spiritual eminence and place of honour in God's sight, and does not bear any spatial connotation of "nearness" (Zamakhshari and Razi): obviously so, because God is limitless in space as well as in time. (See also 40:7 and the corresponding note 4.)

 

 

Notes on Surah 2

251 According to Muhammad 'Abduh, the wrong (zulm) referred to here consists in "one's deliberately turning away from the light [of guidance] provided by God" (Manar III, 47).

Creation of celestial bodies

 

41:11 And He [it is who] applied His design to the skies, which were [yet but] smoke; (12) and He [it is who] said to them and to the earth, "Come [into being], both of you, willingly or unwillingly!" – to which both responded, "We do come in obedience."

 

 

Yusuf Ali: ... "Come ye together, willingly or unwillingly." They said: "We do come (together), in willing obedience."

 

Muhammad Sarwar: ... "Take your shape either willingly or by force" They said, "We willingly obey".

 

12 I.e., a gas – evidently hydrogen gas, which physicists regard as the primal element from which all material particles of the universe have evolved and still evolve. For the meaning of the term sama ("sky" or "skies" or "heaven") in its cosmic connotation, see note 20 on 2:29.

 

Environment, man’s destruction of

 

30:41 [Since they have become oblivious of God,] corruption has appeared on land and in the sea as an outcome of what men's hands have wrought: and so He will let them taste (38) [the evil of] some of their doings, so that they might return [to the right path]. (39)

 

30:42 Say: "Go all over the earth, and behold what happened in the end to those [sinners] who lived before [you]: most of them were wont to ascribe divine qualities to things or beings other than God." (40) (30:43) Set, then, thy face steadfastly towards the one ever-true faith, (41) ere there come from God a Day [of reckoning – the Day] which cannot be averted.

 

38 The prefix Ii in li-yudhiqahum does not indicate here a purport or intent ("so that" or "in order that"), but is a lam al-'aqibah, i.e., a prefix expressing a factual consequence (best rendered as "thereupon" or "and so").

 

39 Thus, the growing corruption and destruction of our natural environment, so awesomely – if as yet only partially – demonstrated in our time, is here predicted as "an outcome of what men's hands have wrought", i.e., of that self-destructive – because utterly materialistic – inventiveness and frenzied activity which now threatens mankind with previously unimaginable ecological disasters: an unbridled pollution of land, air and water through industrial and urban waste, a progressive poisoning of plant and marine life, all manner of genetic malformations in men's own bodies through an ever-widening use of drugs and seemingly "beneficial" chemicals, and the gradual extinction of many animal species essential to human well-being. To all this may be added the rapid deterioration and decomposition of man's social life, the all-round increase in sexual perversion, crime and violence, with, perhaps, nuclear annihilation as the ultimate stage: all of which is, in the last resort, an outcome of man's oblivion of God and, hence, of all absolute moral values, and their supersession by the belief that material "progress" is the only thing that matters.

 

40 I.e., they worshipped material comfort and power, and thus lost sight of all spiritual values and, in the end, destroyed themselves.

 

41 See verse 30 above (found in this compendium under Falsehood – should be shunned), as well as the corresponding notes; also 3:19 – "the only [true] religion in the sight of God is [man's] self-surrender unto Him".

 

Expanding universe

51:47 AND IT IS We who have built the universe (30) with [Our creative] power; and, verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it. (31)

 

30 Lit., "the sky" or "the heaven", which in the Qur'an often has the connotation of "universe" or, in the plural ("the heavens"), of "cosmic systems".

 

31 See note 38 on the first part of 21:30. The phrase inna la-musi'un clearly foreshadows the modern notion of the "expanding universe" – that is, the fact that the cosmos, though finite in extent, is continuously expanding in space.

 

Female ants

 

27:19 Thereupon [Solomon] smiled joyously at her [i.e., the ant’s] words […]

 

 

Worth noting: “Wingless ants are all females. All male ants have wings. All worker ants are females. All ants that don't have wings are definitely females. This was only known recently.” But the Qur’an got this right 1400 years ago. Copied from:

http://www.miracles-of-quran.com/ants.htm

 

 

 

God's mighty dominion over the heavens and the earth

7:185 Have they, then, never considered [God's] mighty dominion over the heavens and the earth, and all the things that God has created, and [asked themselves] whether, perchance, the end of their own term might already have drawn nigh? In what other tiding, then, will they, after this, believe? (151)

 

151 Apart from a reminder of man's utter dependence on God, the implication of the above passage is this: Since everything in the observable or intellectually conceivable universe is obviously caused, it must have had a beginning and, therefore, must also have an end. Furthermore, since the universe is not eternal in the sense of having had no beginning, and since it cannot possibly have evolved "by itself" out of nothing, and since "nothingness" is a concept devoid of all reality, we are forced to predicate the existence of a Primary Cause which is beyond the limits of our experience and, hence, beyond the categories of our thought – that is, the existence of God: and this is the meaning of the "tiding" to which this verse refers.

 

Heaven and earth extol the limitless glory of God

62:1 ALL THAT IS in the heavens and all that is on earth extols the limitless glory of God, the Sovereign Supreme, the Holy, the Almighty, the Wise!

 

 

Confer 24:42, 57:1.

 

 

See also: Universes extol God’s limitless glory and praise.

 

 

 

Keys [to the mysteries] of the heavens and the earth

 

(39:63) His are the keys [to the mysteries] of the heavens and the earth: and they who are bent on denying the truth of God's messages – it is they, they, who are the losers!

 

 

Laws of nature – God’s way – sunnat Allah

 

(6:38) although there is no beast that walks on earth and no bird that flies on its two wings which is not [God's] creature (30) like yourselves: no single thing have We neglected in Our decree.

 

 

Confer 6:109 (note 94), 10:77 (note 100), 25:46 (note 38), 33:4 (note 2), 81:19 (note 5).

 

 

See also:

·         Kafir.

·         Truth.

30 Lit., "but they are [God's] creatures (umam)". The word ummah (of which umam is the plural) primarily denotes a group of living beings having certain characteristics or circumstances in common. Thus, it is often synonymous with "community", "people", "nation", "genus", "generation", and so forth. Inasmuch as every such grouping is characterized by the basic fact that its constituents (whether human or animal) are endowed with life, the term ummah sometimes signifies "[God's] creatures" (Lisan al-'Arab', with particular reference to this very Qur'an-verse; also Lane 1, 90). Thus, the meaning of the above passage is this: Man can detect God's "signs" or "miracles" in all the life-phenomena that surround him, and should, therefore, try to observe them with a view to better understanding "God's way" (sunnat Allah) – which is the Qur'anic term for what we call "laws of nature".

 

Life exists (and has its amazing properties) because it has been created by the One who is the Ultimate Truth

 

22:5 O MEN! If you are in doubt as to the [truth of] resurrection, [remember that,] verily, We have created [every one of] you out of dust, then out of a drop of sperm, then out of a germ-cell, then out of an embryonic lump complete [in itself] and yet incomplete, (4) so that We might make [your origin] clear unto you. And whatever We will [to be born] We cause to rest in the [mothers'] wombs for a term set [by Us], and then We bring you forth as infants and [allow you to live] so that [some of] you might attain to maturity: for among you are such as are caused to die [in childhood], just as many a one of you is reduced in old age to a most abject state, ceasing to know anything of what he once knew so well. (5) And [if, O man, thou art still in doubt as to resurrection, consider this:] thou canst see the earth dry and lifeless – and [suddenly,] when We send down waters upon it, it stirs and swells and puts forth every kind of lovely plant!

22:6 All this [happens] because God alone is the Ultimate Truth, (6) and because He alone brings the dead to life, and because He has the power to will anything.

 

4 This rendering conforms with the interpretation of the phrase mukhallaqah wa-ghayr mukhallaqah by Ibn 'Abbas and Qatadah (the latter quoted by Tabari and the former by Baghawi), alluding to the various stages of embryonic development. In addition, Tabari explains the expression ghayr mukhallaqah as denoting the stage at which the embryonic lump (mudghah) has as yet no individual life – or, in his words, "when no soul has as yet been breathed into it" (la yunfakh fiha ar-ruh). – As regards the expression "created out of dust", it is meant to indicate man's lowly biological origin and his affinity with other "earthy" substances; see in this connection the second half of note 47 on 3:59, and note 4 on 23:12.

 

5 See note 79 on 16:70.

 

6 See surah 20, note 99 (found under Truth, ultimate in this compilation).

Life – on earth and elsewhere

 

42:29 And among His signs is the [very] creation of the heavens and the earth, and of all the living creatures which He has caused to multiply throughout them: (33) and [since He has created them,] He has [also] the power to gather them [unto Himself] whenever He wills.

 

 

Sahih International: And of his signs is the creation of the heavens and earth and what He has dispersed throughout them of creatures.

 

Mohsin Khan: And among His Ayat (proofs, evidences, lessons, signs, etc.) is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and whatever moving (living) creatures He has dispersed in them both.

 

Arberry: And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and earth and the crawling things He has scattered abroad in them;

 

 

33 Lit., "in both". In the Qur'an, the expression "the heavens and the earth" invariably denotes the universe in its entirety.

 

Life – the miracle of earthly life is a sign of the life to come

 

30:50 Behold, then, [O man,] these signs of God's grace – how He gives life to the earth after it had been lifeless! Verily, this Selfsame [God] is indeed the One that can bring the dead back to life: for He has the power to will anything!

 

 

Moon, reflecting light from the sun

10:5 He it is who has made the sun a [source of] radiant light and the moon a light [reflected], (10) and has determined for it phases so that you might know how to compute the years and to measure [time]. None of this has God created without [an inner] truth.

 

 

See also: Truth – inner truth of creation.

10 The nouns diya' and nur are often interchangeable, inasmuch as both denote "light"; but many philologists are of the opinion that the term diya' (or daw') has a more intensive connotation, and is used to describe "a light which subsists by itself, as that of the sun and fire" – that is, a source of light – while nur signifies "a light that subsists by some other thing" (Lane V, 1809, on the authority of Taj al-'Arus): in other words, light due to an extraneous source or – as in the case of the moon – reflected light.

 

 

Opposites, blessing of

 

36:36 Limitless in His glory is He who has created opposites in whatever the earth produces, and in men's own selves, and in that of which [as yet] they have no knowledge. (18)

 

 

See also: Male and female.

 

 

18 Lit., "who has created all the pairs out of whatever the earth produces, and out of themselves, and out of that of which they have no knowledge": a reference to the polarity evident in all creation, both animate and inanimate, which expresses itself in the existence of antithetic and yet complementary forces, like the sexuality in human beings, animals and plants, light and darkness, heat and cold, positive and negative magnetism and electricity, the positive and negative charges (protons and electrons) in the structure of the atom, and so forth. (It is to be borne in mind that the noun zawj denotes both "a pair" and "one of a pair", as explained in note 7 on 13:3.) The mention of "that of which they have no knowledge" evidently relates to things or phenomena not yet understood by man but potentially within the range of his comprehension: hence my interpolation, between brackets, of the words "as yet".

 

Orbits in space

 

36:37 And [of Our sway over all that exists] they have a sign in the night: We withdraw from it the [light of] day – and lo! they are in darkness. (36:38) And [they have a sign in] the sun: it runs in an orbit of its own (19) – [and] that is laid down by the will of the Almighty, the All-Knowing; (36:39) and [in] the moon, for which We have determined phases [which it must traverse] till it becomes like an old date-stalk, dried-up and curved: (20) (36:40) [and] neither may the sun overtake the moon, nor can the night usurp the time of day, (21) since all of them float through space [in accordance with Our laws].

 

19 In the generally-accepted reading, this phrase is spelled li-mustaqarrin laha, which may be rendered as above or, more conventionally, as "to its point of rest", i.e., the time (or point) of the daily sunset (Razi). However, 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud is reliably reported to have read these words as la mustaqarra laha (Zamakhshari), which gives us the meaning of "it runs [on its course] without having any rest", i.e., unceasingly.

 

20 This is, in a condensed form, the meaning of the noun 'urjan – the raceme of the date-palm, which, when old and dry, becomes slender and curves like a crescent (cf. Lane V, 1997).

 

21 Lit., "nor does the night outrun [or "outstrip"] the day".

Prostration of all things in God’s creation

 

Surah 22

22:18 ART THOU NOT aware that before God prostrate themselves all [things and beings] that are in the heavens and all that are on earth (21) – the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and the beasts?

 

 

Surah 13

13:15 And before God, they prostrate themselves, willingly or unwillingly, all [things and beings] that are in the heavens and on earth, (33) as do their shadows in the mornings and the evenings. (34) (13:16) Say: "Who is the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth?" Say: "[It is] God."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 16

16:48 HAVE, THEN, they [who deny the truth] never considered any of the things that God has created (54) – [how] their shadows turn right and left, prostrating themselves before God and utterly submissive [to His will]? (55) 16:49 For, before God prostrates itself all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth – every beast that moves, and the angels: (56) [even] these do not bear themselves with false pride: (16:50) they fear their Sustainer high above them, and do whatever they are bidden to do. (57)

Note on Surah 22

21 For the meaning of this "prostration", see 13:15 and 16:48-49, and the corresponding notes. My rendering of the relative pronoun man, in this context, as "all [things and beings] that ..." is explained in note 33 on 13:15.

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 13

33 The expression yasjud ("prostrates himself" or "prostrate themselves") is a metonym for complete submission to His will (Zamakhshari), that is, to the natural laws decreed by Him with regard to everything that exists. According to most of the classical commentators, those who submit to God willingly (i.e., consciously) are the angels and the believers, whereas the deniers of the truth, who are "not willing" to submit to Him, are nevertheless, without being conscious of it, subject to His will. However, in view of the subsequent reference to "shadows" it is logical to assume that the relative pronoun man relates in this context not merely to conscious beings but also to all other physical objects, whether animate or inanimate – i.e., to "all things and beings that are in the heavens and on earth". (See also 16:48-49 and 22:18.)

 

34 I.e., the varying lengths of the shadow projected by any material object depend on the position of the sun in relation to the earth; and since the earth's rotation around the sun is – as everything else in the universe – an outcome of God's creative will, the greater length of a shadow in the morning and evening and its contraction towards noon visibly expresses the shadow's subjection to Him.

 

 

Notes on Surah 16

54 In view of the separate mention, in the next verse, of animals and angels, the "things" referred to here apparently denote inanimate objects and perhaps also living organisms like plants.

 

55 Lit., "and they are utterly lowly" or "submissive". The "prostration" referred to in this and the next verse is obviously a symbolism expressing the intrinsic subjection of all created beings and things to God's will. See also 13:15 and the corresponding notes 33 and 34.

 

56 I.e., the lowest as well as the highest. The term dabbah denotes any sentient, corporeal being capable of spontaneous movement, and is contrasted here with the non-corporeal, spiritual beings designated as "angels" (Razi).

 

57 I.e., they must, by virtue of their nature, obey the impulses implanted in them by God and are, therefore, incapable of what is described as "sinning". Man, however, is fundamentally different in this respect. In contrast with the natural sinlessness of "every beast that moves, and the angels", man is endowed with free will in the moral sense of this term: he can choose between right and wrong and therefore he can, and often does, sin. But even while he sins he is subject to the universal law of cause and effect instituted by God and referred to in the Qur'an as sunnat Allah ("God's way"): hence the Qur'anic statement that "before God prostrate themselves, willingly or unwillingly, all [things and beings] that are in the heavens and on earth" (13:15).

 

Reality of all creation

 

23:71 But if the truth (41) were in accord with their own likes and dislikes, the heavens and the earth would surely have fallen into ruin, and all that lives in them [would long ago have perished]! (42)

 

41 I.e., the reality of all creation.

 

42 I.e., if the universe – and, especially, human life had been as devoid of meaning and purpose as they imagine, nothing could have endured, and everything would have long since perished in chaos.

 

Universe, false belief in the eternity of

 

34:3 And yet, they who are bent on denying the truth assert, "Never will the Last Hour come upon us!" (2)

 

2 This assertion of the godless has a twofold meaning: (1) "The universe is without beginning and without end; it can only change, but can never cease to exist" – which amounts to a denial of the fact that God alone is eternal; and (2) "There is no resurrection and divine judgment as symbolized by the Last Hour" – which amounts to a denial of life after death and, hence of all significance and purpose attaching to human life as such.

 

Universes extol God’s limitless glory and praise

17:44 The seven heavens extol His limitless glory, and the earth, and all that they contain; and there is not a single thing but extols His limitless glory and praise: but you [O men] fail to grasp the manner of their glorifying Him! (53)

 

 

Confer 24:42.

 

 

See also:

·         Veils of the heart.

·         Heaven and earth extol the limitless glory of God.

 

53 I.e., although everything in creation bears witness to the existence of a conscious Creative Will, man is only too often blind and deaf to this overwhelming evidence of God's ever-present almightiness.

 

 

Water, creation out of

21:30 ARE, THEN, they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were [once] one single entity, which We then parted asunder? (*) – and [that] We made out of water every living thing? Will they not, then, [begin to] believe? (39)

 

(*) See keyword Big Bang in this compendium.

 

 

Confer 24:45, 25:54.

39 The statement that God "made out of water every living thing" expresses most concisely a truth that is nowadays universally accepted by science. It has a threefold meaning: (1) Water – and, specifically, the sea – was the environment within which the prototype of all living matter originated; (2) among all the innumerable – existing or conceivable – liquids, only water has the peculiar properties necessary for the emergence and development of life; and (3) the protoplasm, which is the physical basis of every living cell – whether in plants or in animals – and represents the only form of matter in which the phenomena of life are manifested, consists overwhelmingly of water and is, thus, utterly dependent on it. Read together with the preceding statement, which alludes to the unitary origin of the physical universe, the emergence of life from and within an equally unitary element points to the existence of a unitary plan underlying all creation and; hence, to the existence and oneness of the Creator. This accent on the oneness of God and the' unity of His creation is taken up again in verse 92 below.

 

 

 

15. Man

Homo sapiens has a special place in God’s creation – at least in (this corner of) this universe.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Creation of man

Surah 7

(7:11) Yea, indeed, We have created you, and then formed you; (9)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 40

40:57 Greater indeed than the creation of man is the creation of the heavens and the earth: (41) yet most men do not understand [what this implies].

 

 

Surah 15

15:26-29 AND, INDEED, We have created man out of sounding clay, out of dark slime transmuted (24) – (15:27) whereas the invisible beings We had created, [long] before that, out of the fire of scorching winds. (25) (15:28) And lo! Thy Sustainer said unto the angels: "Behold, I am about to create mortal man out of sounding clay, out of dark slime transmuted; (15:29) and when I have formed him fully and breathed into him of My spirit, fall down before him in prostration!"(26)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 6

6:2 He it is who has created you out of clay,

 

 

Surah 23

23:12 NOW, INDEED, We create man out of the essence of clay,

 

 

Surah 29

(29:20) Say: "Go all over the earth and behold how [wondrously] He has created [man] in the first instance: (15) and thus, too, will God bring into being your second life – for, verily, God has the power to will anything!

 

 

Surah 32

32:7 Thus, He begins the creation of man out of clay; (32:8) then He causes him to be begotten out of the essence of a humble fluid;

 

 

Surah 38

38:71 [For,] lo, thy Sustainer said unto the angels: "Behold, I am about to create a human being out of clay; (38:72) and when I have formed him fully and breathed into him of My spirit, fall you down before him in prostration!"

 

 

See also:

·         Origin of man.

·         God’s spirit – breathed into man.

 

 

Note on Surah 7

9 The sequence of these two statements – "We have created you [i.e., "brought you into being as living organisms"] and then formed you" [or "given you your shape", i.e., as human beings]- is meant to bring out the fact of man's gradual development, in the individual sense, from the embryonic stage to full-fledged existence, as well as of the evolution of the human race as such.

 

 

Note on Surah 40

41 I.e., of the universe as a whole. By stressing the fact that man is only a small, insignificant part of the universe, the Qur'an points out the absurdity of the man-centred world-view alluded to in the preceding verse.

 

 

Notes on Surah 15

24 There are many references in the Qur'an to man's having been "created out of clay (tin)" or "out of dust (turab)", both these terms signifying man's lowly biological origins as well as the fact that his body is composed of various organic and inorganic substances existing – in other combinations or in their elementary forms – on or in the earth. The term salsal, occurring in three verses of this surah as well as in 55:14, adds a further dimension to this concept. According to most of the philological authorities, it denotes "dried clay that emits a sound" (i.e., when it is struck); and since it is used in the Qur'an exclusively with reference to the creation of man, it seems to contain an allusion to the power of articulate speech which distinguishes man from all other animal species, as well as to the brittleness of his existence (cf. the expression "like pottery" in 55:14). As the construction of the sentence shows, this salsal is stated to have evolved (Razi) out of hama' – which, according to some authorities, is the plural of ham'ah, signifying "dark, fetid mud" or "dark slime" – while the participial adjective masnun which qualifies this noun denotes, as Razi points out, both "altered" (i.e., in its composition) and "brought into shape": hence my rendering of this expression as "transmuted", which to some extent combines both of the above meanings. To my mind, we have here a description of the primeval biological environment out of which the "sounding clay" – the matrix, as it were – of man's physical body has evolved in accordance with God's plan of creation.

 

25 Cf. 55:15 – "out of the confusing flame of fire (marij min nar)": i.e., of non-corporeal elements. The noun al-jann, rendered by me as "the invisible beings", is in reality a singular, denoting here the kind of these particular beings or forces, similar to the use of the singular noun "man" (alinsan) which describes the collective entity "mankind". The etymology of the word jann (the plural of which is jinn) has been briefly touched upon in note 86 on 6:100; a more detailed discussion of its meaning is found in Appendix III.

 

26 Cf. 2:30-34 and the corresponding notes, as well as 7:11-18. The allegorical character of all the passages bearing on the creation of man and on God's command to the angels to prostrate themselves before him is brought out clearly in God's saying, "I am about to create mortal man ... ; and when I have formed him fully...", etc.: for it is obvious that, in reality, no lapse of time is required for God's completing His creation – since, "when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, 'Be' – and it is" (cf. 2:117, 3:47 and 59, 6:73, 16:40, 19: 35, 36:82 and 40: 68). God's "breathing of His spirit" into man is obviously a metaphor for His endowing him with life and consciousness: that is, with a soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 29
15 Cf., for example, 23:12-14, which alludes to man's coming into existence out of most primitive elements, and gradually evolving into a highly complex being endowed not only with a physical body but also with a mind, with feelings, and instincts.

 

Evil dispositions (in humans)

14:22 And when everything will have been decided, Satan will say: "Behold, God promised you something that was bound to come true! I, too, held out [all manner of] promises to you – but I deceived you. Yet I had no power at all over you: I but called you – and you responded unto me. Hence, blame not me, but blame yourselves. (31)

 

31 In his commentary on this passage, Razi remarks: "This verse shows that the real Satan (ashshaytan al-asli) is [man's own] complex of desires (an-nafs): for, Satan makes it clear [in the above] that it was only by means of insinuations '(waswasah) that he was able to reach [the sinner's soul]; and had it not been for an already-existing [evil] disposition due to lusts, anger, superstition or fanciful ideas, these [satanic] insinuations would have had no effect whatsoever."

 

Human beings (all in need of God’s grace)

 

 

35:45 Now if God were to take men [at once] to task for whatever [wrong] they commit [on earth], He would not leave a single living creature upon its surface. However, He grants them respite for a term set [by Him]: (35) but when their term comes to an end-then, verily, [they come to know that] God sees all that is in [the hearts of] His servants.

 

35 Or: "known [to Him alone]" – i.e., the end of their lives on earth.

Human dignity

 

17:70 NOW, INDEED, We have conferred dignity on the children of Adam, (83)

83 I.e., by bestowing upon them the faculty of conceptual thinking (cf. 2:31 and the corresponding note 23), which makes them superior in this respect to all other animate beings, and even to the angels. By stressing here this unique distinction of man, the present passage connects with, and continues the theme of, verse 61 above.

 

Human diversity

Surah 30

30:22 And among his wonders is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your tongues and colours: for in this, behold, there are messages indeed for all who are possessed of [innate] knowledge!

 

 

Surah 28

28:15 And [one day] he entered the city at a time when [most of] its people were [resting in their houses,] unaware of what was going on [in the streets];13 and there he encountered two men fighting with one another – one of his own people, (14) and the other of his enemies. And the one who belonged to his own people cried out to him for help against him who was of his enemies – whereupon Moses struck him down with his fist, and [thus] brought about his end. [But then] he said [to himself]: "This is of Satan's doing! Verily, he is an open foe, leading [man] astray!" (15)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 49

49:13 O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, (15) and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. (16) Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.

 

 

Confer 16:13, 35:28.

 

 

Sarwar: People, We have created you all male and female and have made you nations and tribes so that you would recognize each other.

 

Omar: O mankind! We have created you out of a male and a female, and We have made you tribes and sub-tribes that you may recognise (and do good to) one another.

 

Ahmed: O men, We created you from a male and female, and formed you into nations and tribes that you may recognise each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 28

13 Lit., "at a time of its people's unawareness".

 

14 I.e., of the Hebrews.

 

15 Regarding the reference to "Satan's doing", see first half of note 16 on 15:17. In the present instance, verses 16-17 seem to indicate that it was the Israelite, and not the Egyptian, who had been in the wrong (cf. next note). Apparently, Moses had come to the assistance of the Israelite out of an instinctive sense of racial kinship without regard to the rights and wrongs of the case; but immediately afterwards he realized that he had committed a grave sin not only by killing, however inadvertently, an innocent person, but also by basing his action on a mere tribal – or, as we would describe it today, racial or national – prejudice. Evidently, this is the purport of the above Qur'anic segment of the story of Moses. Its moral has been stressed and explained by the Prophet on many occasions: cf. his famous saying, "He is not of us who proclaims the cause of tribal partisanship ('asabiyyah); and he is not of us who fights in the cause of tribal partisanship; and he is not of us who dies in the cause of tribal partisanship" (Abu Da'ud, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Mut'im). When he was asked to explain the meaning of "tribal partisanship", the Prophet answered, "It means helping thine own people in an unjust cause" (ibid., on the authority of Wathilah ibn al-Asqa').

 

 

Notes on Surah 49

15 I,e., "We have created every one of you out of a father and a mother" (Zamakhsharl, Razi, Baydawi) – implying that this equality of biological origin is reflected in the equality of the human dignity common to all.

 

16 I.e., know that all belong to one human family, without any inherent superiority of one over another (Zamakhshari). This connects with the exhortation, in the preceding two verses, to respect and safeguard each other's dignity. In other words, men's evolution into "nations and tribes" is meant to foster rather than to diminish their mutual desire to understand and appreciate the essential human oneness underlying their outward differentiations; and, correspondingly, all racial, national or tribal prejudice ('asabiyyah) is condemned – implicitly in the Qur'an, and most explicitly by the Prophet (see second half of note 15 on 28:15). in addition, speaking of people's boasting of their national or tribal past, the Prophet said: "Behold, God has removed from you the arrogance of pagan ignorance (jahiliyyah) with its boast of ancestral glories. Man is but a God-conscious believer or an unfortunate sinner. All people are children of Adam, and Adam was created out of dust." (Fragment of a hadith quoted by Tirmidhi and Abu Da'ud, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah.)

 

 

Human insight and perception, limitation of

 

Surah 2

2:2 HIS DIVINE WRIT – let there be no doubt about it is [meant to be] a guidance for all the God-conscious (2) (2:3) who believe in [the existence of] that which is beyond the reach of human perception, (3) [...]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 68

(68:47) Or [do they think] that the hidden reality [of all that exists] is within their grasp, so that [in time] they can write it down? (26)

 

Notes on Surah 2

2 The conventional translation of muttaqi as "God-fearing" does not adequately render the positive content of this expression – namely, the awareness of His all-presence and the desire to mould one's existence in the light of this awareness; while the interpretation adopted by some translators, "one who guards himself against evil" or "one who is careful of his duty", does not give more than one particular aspect of the concept of God-consciousness.

 

3 Al-ghayb (commonly, and erroneously, translated as "the Unseen") is used in the Qur'an to denote all those sectors or phases of reality which lie beyond the range of human perception and cannot, therefore, be proved or disproved by scientific observation or even adequately comprised within the accepted categories of speculative thought: as, for instance, the existence of God and of a definite purpose underlying the universe, life after death, the real nature of time, the existence of spiritual forces and their interaction, and so forth. Only a person who is convinced that the ultimate reality comprises far more than our observable environment can attain to belief in God and, thus, to a belief that life has meaning and purpose. By pointing out that it is "a guidance for those who believe in the existence of that which is beyond human perception", the Qur'an says, in effect, that it will – of necessity – remain a closed book to all whose minds cannot accept this fundamental premise.

 

 

Note on Surah 68

26 Sc., "and that, therefore, they need not listen to divine revelation." For the real significance of the term al-ghayb – of which the above is undoubtedly the earliest instance in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation – see surah 2, note 3. Its use in the above context is meant to elucidate and further develop the idea already touched upon in 96:6 – "man becomes grossly overweening whenever he believes himself to be self-sufficient". More particularly, the present passage points to the fallacy of the arrogant belief that the solution of all the mysteries of the universe is "just around the corner" and that man-centred science – epitomized in the reference to its being "written down" – can and will teach its adepts how to "conquer nature" and to attain to what they regard as the good life.

 

Human nature – realism of the Qur’an

 

Surah 7

7:199 MAKE due allowance for man's nature, (162) and enjoin the doing of what is right; and leave alone all those who choose to remain ignorant." (163)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 47

(47:36) The life of this world is but a play and a passing delight: but if you believe [in God] and are conscious of Him, He will grant you your deserts.

 

And withal, He does not demand of you (to sacrifice in His cause all of) your possessions: (41) (47:37) [for,] if He were to demand of you all of them, and urge you, (42) you would niggardly cling [to them], and so He would [but] bring out your moral failings. (43)

 

Notes on Surah 7

162 Lit., "accept what is easily forthcoming [from man's nature]". According to Zamakhshari, khudh al-afw means: "Accept what comes easily to thee [or "what is willingly accorded to thee"] of the doings and the nature of men, and make things easy [for them], without causing them undue hardship (kulfah); and do not demand of them efforts that may be too difficult for them." This interpretation – which has been adopted by many other classical commentators as well – is based on the identical explanation of the phrase khudh al-afw by 'Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr and his brother 'Urwah (Bukhari), as well as by 'A'ishah and, in the next generation, by Hisham ibn 'Urwah and Mujahid (see Tabari, Baghawi and Ibn Kathir). Thus, in accordance with the Qur'anic statements that "man has been created weak" (4:28) and that "God does not burden any human being with more than he is well able to bear" (2:286. 6:152, 7:42, 23:62), the believer is admonished to make due allowance for human nature and not to be too harsh with those who err. This admonition is the more remarkable as it follows immediately upon a discourse on the most unforgivable of all sins – the ascribing of divine powers or qualities to anyone or anything but God.'

 

163 Lit., "the ignorant ones" – i.e., those who wilfully remain deaf to moral truths and not those who are simply unaware of them.

 

 

Notes on Surah 47

41 Although the life of this world is "but a play and a passing delight", God does not want to deprive the believers of its rightful enjoyment: and so He expects them to sacrifice only a small part of their possessions in His cause. This passage evidently foreshadows the imposition of the obligatory annual tax called zakah ("the purifying dues"), amounting to about 2.5 percent of a Muslim's income and property, as pointed out by most of the classical commentators in connection with the above verse (hence my interpolation). The proceeds of this tax are to be utilized in what the Qur'an describes as "the cause [lit., "way"] of God", i.e., for the defence and propagation of the Faith and the welfare of the community; and its spiritual purpose is the "purification" of a Muslim's possessions from the blemish of greed and selfishness. (It is to be noted that the payment of zakah was made obligatory at the very beginning of the Medina period, that is, at approximately the same time as the revelation of the present surah.)

 

42 Sc., "to divest yourselves of all your possessions".

 

43 For my rendering of adghan as "moral failings", see note 37. In the present context, this term has more or less the same meaning as the term fujur in 91 8. The implication is that since man has been created weak" (4:28), the imposition of too great a burden on the believers would be self-defeating inasmuch as it might result not in an increase of faith but, rather, in its diminution. This passage illustrates the supreme realism of the Qur'an, which takes into account human nature as it is, with all its God-willed complexity and its inner contradictions, and does not, therefore, postulate a priori an impossible ideal as a norm of human behaviour, (Cf. 91:8, which speaks of man's personality as "imbued with moral failings as well as consciousness of God" – a phrase which is explained in the corresponding note 6.)

 

Human nature, selfishness, weakness and inconstancy of

 

Sura 4

4:128 [...] and selfishness is ever-present in human souls.

 

 

Surah 42

42:48 BUT IF they turn away [from thee, O Prophet, know that] We have not sent thee to be their keeper: thou art not bound to do more than deliver the message [entrusted to thee].

 

And, behold, [such as turn away from Our messages are but impelled by the weakness and inconstancy of human nature: (48) thus,] when We give man a taste of Our grace, he is prone to exult in it; (49) but if misfortune befalls [any of] them in result of what their own hands have sent forth, then, behold, man shows how bereft he is of all gratitude! (50)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 42

48 This interpolation – necessary for a proper understanding of the context – is based on Razi's convincing explanation of how this passage connects with the preceding one. Man is, as a rule, absorbed in a pursuit of material goods and comforts, the achievement of which he identifies with "happiness"; hence, he pays but scant attention to spiritual aims and values, and the more so if he is called upon to abandon his selfish pursuits in favour of the – to him as yet hypothetical – life in the hereafter.

 

49 I.e., when God bestows on him a measure of material benefits, man tends to exult in this "success" as such, attributing it exclusively to his own ability and cleverness (cf. the first sentence of 41:50).

 

50 I.e., instead of remembering his past happiness with gratitude, he calls the very existence of God in question, arguing that if God did really exist, He "could not possibly have permitted" so much misfortune and unhappiness to prevail in the world: a fallacious argument inasmuch as it does not take the reality of the hereafter into account and is, moreover, based on a concept of God in terms of purely human feelings and expectations.

 

Human reason

Surah 8

8:29 O you who have attained to faith! If you remain conscious of God. He will endow you with a standard by which to discern the true from the false, (29) and will efface your bad deeds, and will forgive you your sins: for God is limitless in His great bounty.

 

 

Surah 2

2:53 And [remember the time] when We vouchsafed unto Moses the divine writ – and [thus] a standard by which to discern the true from the false (38) – so that you might be guided aright;

 

 

Confer 40:67.

 

 

See also: Discerning the true from the false.

 

 

Note on Surah 8

29 I.e., the faculty of moral valuation (Manar IX, 648). See also surah 2, note 38.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 2

38 Muhammad 'Abduh amplifies the above interpretation of al-furqan (adopted by Tabari, Zamakhshari and other great commentators) by maintaining that it applies also to "human reason, which enables us to distinguish the true from the false" (Manar 111, 160), apparently basing this wider interpretation on 8:41, where the battle of Badr is described as yawm al-furqan ("the day on which the true was distinguished from the false"). While the term furqan is often used in the Qur'an to describe one or another of the revealed scriptures, and particularly the Qur'an itself, it has undoubtedly also the connotation pointed out by 'Abduh: for instance, in 8:29, where it clearly refers to the faculty of moral valuation which distinguishes every human being who is truly conscious of God.

 

Male and female

 

Surah 92

92:1 CONSIDER the night as it veils [the earth] in darkness, (92:2) and the day as it rises bright! (92:3) Consider the creation of the male and the female! (1)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 43

(43:12) And He it is who has created all opposites. (10)

 

 

Confer 3:36 and its note 25.

 

 

See also: Opposites, blessing of.

 

 

Note on Surah 92

1 Lit., "Consider that which has created [or "creates"] the male and the female", i.e., the elements which are responsible for the differentiation between male and female. This, together with the symbolism of night and day, darkness and light, is an allusion – similar to the first ten verses of the preceding surah – to the polarity evident in all nature and, hence, to the dichotomy (spoken of in the next verse) which characterizes man's aims and motives.

 

 

Note on Surah 43

10 Lit., "all pairs". Some commentators regard the term azwaj as synonymous in this context with "kinds" (Baghawi, Zamakhsharl, Baydawi, Ibn Kathir): i.e., they take the above phrase to mean no more than that God created all kinds of things, beings and phenomena. Others (e.g., Tabari) see in it a reference to the polarity evident in all creation. Ibn 'Abbas (as quoted by Razi) says that it denotes the concept of opposites in general, like "sweet and sour, or white and black, or male and female"; to which Razi adds that everything in creation has its complement, "like high and low, right and left, front and back, past and future, being and attribute", etc., whereas God – and He alone – is unique, without anything that could be termed "opposite" or "similar" or "complementary". Hence, the above sentence is an echo of the statement that "there is nothing that could be compared with Him" (112:4).

 

Nafs – the human self

 

Surah 91

(91:7) Consider the human self, (4) and how it is formed in accordance with what it is meant to be, (5) (91:8) and how it is imbued with moral failings as well as with consciousness of God! (6)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 50

50:16 NOW, VERILY, it is We who have created man, and We know what his innermost self whispers within him: for We are closer to him than his neck-vein. (50:17) [And so,] whenever the two demands [of his nature] come face to face, contending from the right and from the left, (11) (50:18) not even a word can he utter but there is a watcher with him, ever-present. (12)

 

 

See also:

·         Bond with God.

·         Covenant; insight; true faith.

Notes on Surah 91

4 As in so many other instances, the term nafs, which has a very wide range of meanings (see first sentence of note 1 on 4:1 (found in this compendium under Origin of man), denotes here the human self or personality as a whole: that is, a being composed of a physical body and that inexplicable life-essence loosely described as "soul".

 

5 Lit., "and that which has made [or "formed"] it (sawwaha) in accordance with. . .", etc. For this particular connotation of the verb sawwa, see note 1 on 87:2, which represents the oldest Qur'anic instance of its use in the above sense. The reference to man and that which constitutes the "human personality", as well as the implied allusion to the extremely complex phenomenon of a life-entity in which bodily needs and urges, emotions and intellectual activities are so closely intertwined as to be indissoluble, follows organically upon a call to consider the inexplicable grandeur of the universe – so far as it is perceptible and comprehensible to man – as a compelling evidence of God's creative power.

 

6 Lit., "and [consider] that which has inspired it with its immoral doings (fujuraha) and its God-consciousness (taqwaha)" – i.e., the fact that man is equally liable to rise to great spiritual heights as to fall into utter immorality is an essential characteristic of human nature as such. In its deepest sense, man's ability to act wrongly is a concomitant to his ability to act rightly: in other words, it is this inherent polarity of tendencies which gives to every "right" choice a value and, thus, endows man with moral free will (cf. in this connection note 16 on 7:24-25).

 

 

Notes on Surah 50

11 The first part of the above sentence – i.e., the phrase yatalaqqa al--mutalaqqiyan – may be understood in either of two senses: "the two that are meant to receive do receive", or "the two that aim at meeting each other do meet". The classical commentators adopt, as a rule, the first sense and, consequently, interpret the passage thus: .... the two angels that are charged with recording man's doings – do record them, sitting on his right and on his left". In my opinion, however, the second of the two possible meanings ("the two that aim at meeting each other") corresponds better with the preceding verse, which speaks of what man's innermost self (nafs) – "whispers within him", i.e., voices his subconscious desires. Thus, "the two that aim at meeting" are, I believe, the two demands of, or, more properly, the two fundamental motive forces within man's nature: his primal, instinctive urges and desires, both sensual and non-sensual (all of them comprised in the modern psychological term "libido"), on the one side, and his reason, both intuitive and reflective, on the other. The "sitting (qa'id) on the right and on the left" is, to my mind, a metaphor for the conflicting nature of these dual forces which strive for predominance within every human being: hence, my rendering of qa'id as "contending". This interpretation is, moreover, strongly supported by the reference, in verse 21, to man's appearing on Judgment Day with "that which drives and that which bears witness" – a phrase which undoubtedly alludes to man's instinctive urges as well as his conscious reason (see note 14 below).

 

12 I.e., his conscience, the "uttering of a word" is conceptually connected with the "whispering" within man's psyche spoken of in the preceding verse.

 

Origin of man

 

Surah 4

4:1 O MANKIND! Be conscious of your Sustainer, who has created you out of one living entity, and out of it created its mate, and out of the two spread abroad a multitude of men and women. (1) And remain conscious of God, in whose name you demand [your rights] from one another, and of these ties of kinship. Verily, God is ever watchful over you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 7

7:189 IT IS HE who has created you [all] out of one living entity, and out of it brought into being its mate, so that man might incline [with love] towards woman. (155)

 

 

Surah 22

22:5 O MEN! If you are in doubt as to the [truth of] resurrection, [remember that,] verily, We have created [every one of] you out of dust, then out of a drop of sperm, then out of a germ-cell, then out of an embryonic lump complete [in itself] and yet incomplete, (4) so that We might make [your origin] clear unto you.

 

 

 

See also:

·         Creation of man.

·         God’s spirit – breathed into man.

 

Note on Surah 4

1 Out of the many meanings attributable to the term nafs – soul, spirit, mind, animate being, living entity, human being, person, self (in the sense of a personal identity), humankind, life-essence, vital principle, and so forth – most of the classical commentators choose "human being", and assume that it refers here to Adam. Muhammad 'Abduh, however, rejects this interpretation (Manar IV, 323 ff.) and gives, instead, his preference to "humankind" inasmuch as this term stresses the common origin and brotherhood of the human race (which, undoubtedly, is the purport of the above verse), without, at the same time, unwarrantably tying it to the Biblical account of the creation of Adam and Eve. My rendering of nafs, in this context, as "living entity" follows the same reasoning – As regards the expression zawjaha ("its mate"), it is to be noted that, with reference to animate beings, the term zawj ("a pair", "one of a pair" or "a mate") applies to the male as well as to the female component of a pair or couple; hence, with reference to human beings, it signifies a woman's mate (husband) as well as a man's mate (wife). Abu Muslim – as quoted by Razi – interprets the phrase "He created out of it (minha) its mate" as meaning "He created its mate [i.e., its sexual counterpart] out of its own kind (min jinsiha)", thus supporting the view of Muhammad 'Abduh referred to above. The literal translation of minha as "out of it" clearly alludes, in conformity with the text, to the biological fact that both sexes have originated from "one living entity".

 

 

Note on Surah 7

155 Lit., "so that he might incline towards her". For an explanation of the terms "one living entity" and "its mate", see 4:1 (above), and the corresponding note.

 

 

 

 

Note on Surah 22

4 This rendering conforms with the interpretation of the phrase mukhallaqah wa-ghayr mukhallaqah by Ibn 'Abbas and Qatadah (the latter quoted by Tabari and the former by Baghawi), alluding to the various stages of embryonic development. In addition, Tabari explains the expression ghayr mukhallaqah as denoting the stage at which the embryonic lump (mudghah) has as yet no individual life – or, in his words, "when no soul has as yet been breathed into it" (la yunfakh fiha ar-ruh). – As regards the expression "created out of dust", it is meant to indicate man's lowly biological origin and his affinity with other "earthy" substances; see in this connection the second half of note 47 on 3:59, and note 4 on 23:12.

 

 

16. Prophets

Some people are used by God in special ways.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Abraham – a prophet of God

 

Surah 3

(3:67) Abraham was neither a "Jew" nor a "Christian", but was one who turned away from all that is false, having surrendered himself unto God; and he was not of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him.

 

 

Surah 6

(6:75) And thus We gave Abraham [his first] insight into [God's] mighty dominion over the heavens and the earth – and [this] to the end that he might become one of those who are inwardly sure.

 

 

See also:

·         Hanif (inclining towards truth and that which is right).

·         Abraham – a man of truth, a prophet.

·         Insight and inner assurance.

·         Intellectual insight.

·         Intellectual quality and progressive realization.

 

 

David – psalmist and a prophet of God

 

 

Surah 4

4:163 BEHOLD, We have inspired thee [O Prophet] just as We inspired Noah and all the prophets after him [...] and as We vouchsafed unto David a book of divine wisdom; (178)

 

 

Surah 34

34:10 AND [thus], indeed, did We grace David with Our favour: (10) "O you mountains! Sing with him the praise of God! And [likewise] you birds!" (11) And We softened all sharpness in him, (12) (34:11) [and inspired him thus:] "Do good deeds lavishly, without stint, and give deep thought to their steady flow." (13) And [thus should you all, O believers,] do righteous deeds: for, verily, I see all that you do!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 21

21:79 And We caused (72) the mountains to join David in extolling Our limitless glory, and likewise the birds: (73) for We are able to do [all things].

 

 

See also: Repentance, importance of.

 

Note on Surah 4

178 I.e., the Psalms (see surah 21, verse 105).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 34

10 Lit., "did We bestow upon David a favour from Ourselves". This connects with the elliptic reference to repentance in the preceding verse: David is singled out for special mention in view of the allusion, in surah 38, to his having suddenly become aware that he had committed a sin, whereupon "he asked his Sustainer to forgive him his sin ... and turned unto Him in repentance" (38:24).

 

11 Cf. 21:79 and the corresponding note 73 (quoted below).

 

12 Lit., "for him". The term hadid denotes, primarily, something that is "sharp" in both the concrete and abstract senses of the word: for the latter sense, cf. the Qur'anic phrase "sharp (hadid) is thy sight today" (50:22), or the many idiomatic expressions like rajul hadid, "a man of sharp intellect", hadid an-nazar; "one who looks boldly [at others]", ra'ihah hadidah, "a sharp odour", etc. (Lisan al-'Arab). As a noun with a definite article (al-hadid), it signifies "all that is sharp", or "sharpness", as well as "iron". God's having "softened all sharpness" in David is evidently an allusion to his exalted sense of beauty (expressed in the poetry of his Psalms) as well as to his goodness and humility. – An alternative rendering of the above phrase would be: "We caused iron to become soft for him", which might be an allusion to his outstanding abilities as poet, warrior and ruler.

 

13 The adjective sabigh (fem. sabighan) signifies anything that is "ample", "abundant" and "complete" (in the sense of being perfect). In its plural form sabighat it assumes the function of the noun which it is meant to qualify, and denotes, literally, "things [or "deeds"] ample and complete" or "perfect" – i.e., good deeds done abundantly and without stint: cf. the only other Qur'anic instance of the same stem in 31:20 – "[God] has lavished (asbagha) upon you His blessings". The noun sard, on the other hand, denotes something "carried on consecutively", or something the parts (or stages) whereof are "following one another steadily", i.e., are continued or repeated.

 

 

Notes on Surah 21

72 Lit., "We compelled".

 

73 A reference to the Psalms of David, which call upon all nature to extol the glory of God – similar to the Qur'anic verses, "The seven heavens extol His limitless glory, and the earth, and all that they contain" (17:44), or "All that is in the heavens and on earth extols God's limitless glory" (57:1).

 

Jesus – a word from God

 

3:39 Thereupon, as [Zachariah] stood praying in the sanctuary, the angels called out unto him: "God sends thee the glad tiding of [the birth of] John, who shall confirm the truth of a word from God, (28) and [shall be] outstanding among men, and utterly chaste, and a prophet from among the righteous."

 

28 In view of the fact that the expression kalimah is often used in the Qur'an to denote an announcement from God, or a statement of His will, or His promise (e.g., 4:171, 6:34 and 115, 10:64, 18:27, and so forth), we must conclude that in the above passage, too, the "word from God" which would be confirmed by the birth of John (described in the Gospels as "John the Baptist") refers to a divine promise given through revelation: and this, indeed, is the interpretation adopted by the famous philologist Abu 'Ubaydah Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna, who lived in the second century H. and devoted most of his labours to the study of rare expressions in the Arabic language; his identification, in the context under discussion, of kalimah with kitab ("revelation" or "divine writ") has been quoted by Razi in his commentary on this verse and is, moreover, agreeable with a similar announcement conveyed to Mary regarding the birth of Jesus (see verse 45 of this surah (found in this compendium under Jesus – the Christ, son of Mary)).

 

Jesus Christ, son of Mary

 

3:45 Lo! The angels said: "O Mary! Behold, God sends thee the glad tiding, through a word from Him, [of a son] who shall become known as the Christ (32) Jesus, son of Mary, of great honour in this world and in the life to come, and [shall be] of those who are drawn near unto God. (3:46) And he shall speak unto men in his cradle, (33) and as a grown man, and shall be of the righteous."

 

32 Lit., "whose name shall be 'the Anointed' (al-masih)". The designation al-masih is the Arabicized form of the Aramaic meshiha which, in turn, is derived from the Hebrew mahsiah, "the anointed" – a term frequently applied in the Bible to the Hebrew kings, whose accession to power used to be consecrated by a touch with holy oil taken from the Temple. This anointment appears to have been so important a rite among the Hebrews that the term "the anointed" became in the course of time more or less synonymous with "king". Its application to Jesus may have been due to the widespread conviction among his contemporaries (references to which are found in several places in the Synoptic Gospels) that he was descended in direct – and obviously legitimate – line from the royal House of David. (It is to be noted that this could not have related to his mother's side, because Mary belonged to the priestly class descending from Aaron, and thus to the tribe of Levi, while David descended from the tribe of Judah.) Whatever may have been the historical circumstances, it is evident that the honorific "the Anointed" was applied to Jesus in his own lifetime. In the Greek version of the Gospels – which is undoubtedly based on a now-lost Aramaic original – this designation is correctly translated as Christos (a noun derived from the Greek verb chriein, "to anoint"): and since it is in this form – "the Christ" – that the designation al-masih has achieved currency in all Western languages, I am using it throughout in my translation.

 

33 A metaphorical allusion to the prophetic wisdom which was to inspire Jesus from a very early age. As regards the expression min al-muqarrabin ("of those who are drawn near", i.e., unto God), see 56:11, where the most excellent among the inmates of paradise are thus described.

 

Jesus’ message

 

3:47 Said [Mary]: "O my Sustainer! How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me?"

 

[The angel] answered: "Thus it is: God creates what He wills: (34) when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, 'Be' – and it is. (3:48) And he will impart unto thy son (35) revelation, and wisdom, and the Torah, and the Gospel, (3:49) and [will make him] an apostle unto the children of Israel." (36)

 

"I HAVE COME unto you with a message from your Sustainer. I shall create for you out of clay, as it were, the shape of [your] destiny, and then breathe into it, so that it might become [your] destiny by God's leave; (37) and I shall heal the blind and the leper, and bring the dead back to life by God's leave; (38) and I shall let you know what you may eat and what you should store up in your houses. (39) Behold, in all this there is indeed a message for you, if you are [truly] believers.

 

3:50 "And [I have come] to confirm the truth of whatever there still remains (40) of the Torah, and to make lawful unto you some of the things which [aforetime] were forbidden to you. And I have come unto you with a message from your Sustainer; remain, then, conscious of God, and pay heed unto me.

 

3:51 "Verily, God is my Sustainer as well as your Sustainer; so worship Him [alone]: this is a straight way."

 

34 See 19:16-22 and the corresponding notes. In the context of the story of Mary in Al-'Imran, the announcement made to her, as well as the parallel one to Zachariah (verses 39-40 above), is meant to stress God's unlimited power of creation – specifically, in both cases, His power to create the circumstances in which His will is to manifest itself – and thus to bring about any event, however unexpected or even improbable it might seem at the time of the announcement.

 

35 Lit., "to him".

 

36 The passage which follows here – up to the end of verse 51 – may be understood in either of two ways: as part of the announcement made to Mary (implying that he would thus speak in the future) or, alternatively, as a statement of what, at a later time, he actually did say to the children of Israel. In view of the narrative form adopted in verses 52 ff., the second of these two alternatives seems preferable.

 

37 Lit., "[something] like the shape of a bird (tayr); and then I shall breathe into it, so that it might [or "whereupon it will"] become a bird...". The noun tayr is a plural of ta'ir ("flying creature" or "bird"), or an infinitive noun ("flying") derived from the verb tara ("he flew"). In pre-Islamic usage, as well as in the Qur'an, the words ta'ir and tayr often denote "fortune" or "destiny", whether good or evil (as, for instance, in 7:131, 27:47 or 36:19, and still more clearly in 17:13). Many instances of this idiomatic use of tayr and ta'ir are given in all the authoritative Arabic dictionaries; see also Lane V, 1904 f. Thus, in the parabolic manner so beloved by him, Jesus intimated to the children of Israel that out of the humble clay of their lives he would fashion for them the vision of a soaring destiny, and that this vision, brought to life by his God-given inspiration, would become their real destiny by God's leave and by the strength of their faith (as pointed out at the end of this verse).

 

38 It is probable that the "raising of the dead" by Jesus is a metaphorical description of his giving new life to people who were spiritually dead; cf. 6:122 – "Is then he who was dead [in spirit], and whom We thereupon gave life, and for whom We set up a light whereby he can see his way among men – [is then he] like unto one [who is lost] in darkness deep, out of which he cannot emerge?" If this interpretation is – as I believe – correct, then the "healing of the blind and the leper" has a similar significance: namely, an inner regeneration of people who were spiritually diseased and blind to the truth.

 

39 I.e., "what good things you may partake of in the life of this world, and what good deeds you should lay up as a treasure for the life to come".

 

40 Lit., "whatever there is between my hands": for an explanation, see note 3 on verse 3 of this surah.

 

Jesus –Messiah (i.e., Christ, the Anointed)

 

3:45 Lo! The angels said: "O Mary! Behold, God sends thee the glad tiding, through a word from Him, [of a son] who shall become known as the Christ (32) Jesus, son of Mary, of great honour in this world and in the life to come, and [shall be] of those who are drawn near unto God. (3:46) And he shall speak unto men in his cradle, (33) and as a grown man, and shall be of the righteous."

 

32 Lit., "whose name shall be 'the Anointed' (al-masih)". The designation al-masih is the Arabicized form of the Aramaic meshiha which, in turn, is derived from the Hebrew mahsiah, "the anointed" – a term frequently applied in the Bible to the Hebrew kings, whose accession to power used to be consecrated by a touch with holy oil taken from the Temple. This anointment appears to have been so important a rite among the Hebrews that the term "the anointed" became in the course of time more or less synonymous with "king". Its application to Jesus may have been due to the widespread conviction among his contemporaries (references to which are found in several places in the Synoptic Gospels) that he was descended in direct – and obviously legitimate – line from the royal House of David. (It is to be noted that this could not have related to his mother's side, because Mary belonged to the priestly class descending from Aaron, and thus to the tribe of Levi, while David descended from the tribe of Judah.) Whatever may have been the historical circumstances, it is evident that the honorific "the Anointed" was applied to Jesus in his own lifetime. In the Greek version of the Gospels – which is undoubtedly based on a now-lost Aramaic original – this designation is correctly translated as Christos (a noun derived from the Greek verb chriein, "to anoint"): and since it is in this form – "the Christ" – that the designation al-masih has achieved currency in all Western languages, I am using it throughout in my translation.

 

33 A metaphorical allusion to the prophetic wisdom which was to inspire Jesus from a very early age. As regards the expression min al-muqarrabin ("of those who are drawn near", i.e., unto God), see 56:11, where the most excellent among the inmates of paradise are thus described.

 

Moses – a prophet of God

 

20:25 Said [Moses]: "O my Sustainer! Open up my heart [to Thy light]"

 

[…]

 

20:36 Said He: "Thou art granted all that thou hast asked for, O Moses! (20:37) And, indeed, We bestowed Our favour upon thee at a time long since past.”

 

[…]

 

20:39 "And [thus early] I spread Mine Own love over thee – and [this] in order that thou might be formed under Mine eye.” (22)

 

22 I.e., "under My protection and in accordance with the destiny which I have decreed for thee": possibly a reference to Moses' upbringing within the cultural environment of the royal palace and his subsequent acquisition of the ancient wisdom of Egypt – circumstances which were to qualify him for his future leadership and the special mission that God had in view for him.

 

Muhammad – a prophet of God

 

Surah 6

(6:50) Say [O Prophet]: "I do not say unto you, 'God's treasures are with me,'; nor [do I say], 'I know the things that are beyond the reach of human perception'; nor do I say unto you, 'Behold, I am an angel': I but follow what is revealed to me. (38)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 7

7:188 Say [O Prophet]: "It is not within my power to bring benefit to, or avert harm from, myself, except as God may please. And if I knew that which is beyond the reach of human perception, abundant good fortune – would surely have fallen to my lot, and no evil would ever have touched me. I am nothing but a warner, and a herald of glad tidings unto people who will believe." (154)

 

Note on Surah 6

38 This denial on the part of the Prophet of any claim to supernatural powers refers, primarily, to the demand of the unbelievers (mentioned in verse 37) that he should prove his prophetic mission by causing a "miraculous sign" to be bestowed on him. Beyond this specific reference, however, the above passage is meant to prevent any deification of the Prophet and to make it clear that he – like all other prophets before him – was but a mortal human being, a servant whom God had chosen to convey His message to mankind. See also 7:188.

 

 

Note on Surah 7

154 See 6:50, as well as the corresponding note. The repeated insistence in the Qur'an on the humanness of the Prophet is in tune with the doctrine that no created being has or could have any share, however small, in any of the Creator's qualities or powers. In logical continuation of this argument, the next passage (verses 189-198) stresses the uniqueness and exclusiveness of God's creative powers.

 

Prophet Muhammad, foretold by Jesus

 

61:6 And [this happened, too,] when Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O children of Israel! Behold, I am an apostle of God unto you, [sent] to confirm the truth of whatever there still remains (5) of the Torah, and to give [you] the glad tiding of an apostle who shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." (6) But when he [whose coming Jesus had foretold] came unto them (7) with all evidence of the truth, they said: "This [alleged message of his] is [nothing but] spellbinding eloquence!" (8)

5 Lit., "whatever there is between my hands" – a phrase explained in surah 3, note 3.

 

6 This prediction is supported by several references in the Gospel of St. John to the Parakletos (usually rendered as "Comforter") who was to come after Jesus. This designation is almost certainly a corruption of Periklytos ("the Much-Praised"), an exact Greek translation of the Aramaic term or name Mawhamana. (It is to be borne in mind that Aramaic was the language used in Palestine at the time of, and for some centuries after, Jesus, and was thus undoubtedly the language in which the original – now lost – texts of the Gospels were composed.) In view of the phonetic closeness of Periklytos and Parakletos it is easy to understand how the translator – or, more probably, a later scribe – confused these two expressions. It is significant that both the Aramaic Mawhamana and the Greek Periklytos have the same meaning as the two names of the Last Prophet, Muhammad and Ahmad, both of which are derived from the verb hamida ("he praised") and the noun hamd ("praise"). An even more unequivocal prediction of the advent of the Prophet Muhammad – mentioned by name, in its Arabic form – is said to be forthcoming from the so-called Gospel of St. Barnabas, which, though now regarded as apocryphal, was accepted as authentic and was read in the churches until the year 496 of the Christian era, when it was banned as "heretical" by a decree of Pope Gelasius. However, since the original text of that Gospel is not available (having come down to us only in an Italian translation dating from the late sixteenth century), its authenticity cannot be established with certainty.

 

7 I.e., to the later followers of the Bible.

 

8 Alluding to the Qur'an (see 74:24-25 and the corresponding note 12).

 

Prophet Muhammad, foretold in the Bible

 

7:157 those who shall follow the [last] Apostle, the unlettered Prophet whom they shall find described in the Torah that is with them, and [later on] in the Gospel: (124)

124 The interpolation of the words "later on" before the reference to the Gospel is necessitated by the fact that the whole of this passage is addressed to Moses and the children of Israel, that is, long before the Gospel (in the Qur'anic sense of this term – cf. surah 3, note 4) was revealed to Jesus. The stories of some of the earlier prophets given in this surah – beginning with the story of Noah and ending with that of Moses and the children of Israel – constitute a kind of introduction to this command to follow the "unlettered Prophet", Muhammad. The stress on his having been "unlettered" (ummi), i.e., unable to read and write, serves to bring out the fact that all his knowledge of the earlier prophets and of the messages transmitted by them was due to divine inspiration alone, and not to a familiarity with the Bible as such. For the Old Testament predictions of the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (especially in Deuteronomy xviii, 15 and 18), see surah 2, note 33; for the New Testament prophecies to the same effect, see 61:6 and the corresponding note 6.

 

 

17. Paradise and hell

Although the Qur’an indicates that hell will be of limited duration (at least for some of those who go there), aiming for paradise appears to be a wiser option.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Hell and paradise

 

Surah 27

27:89 Whoever shall come [before Him] with a good deed will gain [further] good therefrom; (79) and they will be secure from the terror of that Day. (27:90) But they who shall come with evil deeds (80) – their faces will be thrust into the fire, [and they will be asked:] "Is this aught but a just requital (81) for what you were doing [in life]?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Confer

29:54 [...] hell is bound to encompass all who deny the truth – (29:55) [...] whereupon He shall say: "Taste [now the fruit of] your own doings!"

 

 

Surah 37

37:61 For the like of this, then, let them labour, those who labour [in God's way]! (37:62) Is such [a paradise] the better welcome – or the [hellish] tree of deadly fruit? (22) (37:63) Verily, We have caused it to be a trial for evildoers: (23) (37:64) for, behold, it is a tree that grows in the very heart of the blazing fire [of hell], (37:65) its fruit [as repulsive] as satans' heads; (24) (37:66) and they [who are lost in evil] are indeed bound to eat thereof, and to fill their bellies therewith. (37:67) And, behold, above all this they will be confounded with burning despair. (25)

 

 

Confer 29:23.

Note on Surah 27

79 Lit., "good shall be his from it", i.e., in consequence or in result of it (Ibn 'Abbas, Al-Hasan, Qatadah, Ibn Jurayj, all of them quoted by Tabari) – thus stressing the Qur'anic doctrine that what is metaphorically described as "rewards" and "punishments" in the life to come are but the natural consequences, good or bad, of man's attitudes and doings in this world. On a different level, the above phrase may also be understood thus: "Whoever shall come with a good deed will gain something better than [or "through”] it" – an allusion to the 'fact that whereas the deed itself may be transitory, its merit is enduring (Zamakhshari).

 

80 I.e., those who did only evil, or whose evil deeds greatly outweigh their good deeds (Ibn Kathir).

 

81 Lit., "Are you requited for anything else than ...", etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on Surah 37

22 According to the lexicographers, the noun zaqqam (which occurs, apart from the present instance, in 44:43 and in 56:52 as well) denotes any "deadly food"; hence, the expression shajarat azzaqqum, a symbol of hell, may be appropriately rendered as "the tree of deadly fruit" (undoubtedly identical with "the tree cursed in this Qur'an", mentioned in 17:60), symbolizing the fact that the otherworldly sufferings which the Qur'an describes as "hell" are but the fruit – i.e., organic consequence – of one's evil deeds done on earth.

 

23 It cannot be often enough repeated that all Qur'anic references to hell and paradise – and, for that matter, all descriptions of men's conditions in the hereafter – are, of necessity, highly allegorical (see Appendix I) and therefore liable to be grossly misunderstood if one takes them in their literal sense or, conversely, interprets them in an arbitrary manner (cf. 3:7 and the corresponding notes 5, 7 and 8): and this, to my mind, explains why the symbol of the "tree of deadly fruit" – one of the metonyms for the suffering of the sinners in the hereafter – has become "a trial (fitnah) for evildoers" (or "for men" in 17:60). See in this connection 74:31, which is the earliest Qur'anic instance of this concept of "trial".

 

24 According to Zamakhshari, "this purely verbal metaphor (isti'arah lafziyyah) is meant to express the ultimate in repulsiveness and ugliness ... inasmuch as Satan is considered to be the epitome of all that is evil".

 

25 Lit., "and upon it, behold, they will have an admixture [or "confusion"] of hamim". (For my rendering of the last term as "burning despair", see surah 6, note 62.)

 

Hell – anyone who goes there will be a prisoner of his or her own device

 

22:8 And yet, among men there is many a one that argues about God without having any knowledge [of Him], without any guidance, and without any light-giving revelation – (22:9) scornfully turning aside [from the truth] so as to lead [others] astray from the path of God. Disgrace [of the spirit] is in store for him in this world; (7) and on the Day of Resurrection We shall make him taste suffering through fire; (22:10) [and he shall be told:] "This is an outcome of what thine own hands have wrought – for, never does God do the least wrong to His creatures!"

 

7 Since many unrighteous people apparently "prosper" in this world, it is clear that the disgrace of which the above verse speaks is of a moral nature – namely, a gradual coarsening of all moral perceptions and, thus, a degradation of the spirit.

Hell – of limited duration

 

Surah 6

6:128 [...] [But] He will say: "The fire shall be your abode, therein to abide – unless God wills it otherwise." (114) Verily, thy Sustainer is wise, all-knowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 40

40:11 [Whereupon] they will exclaim: "O our Sustainer! Twice hast Thou caused us to die, just as twice Thou hast brought us to life! (9) But now that we have acknowledged our sins, is there any way out [of this second death]?" (40:12) [And they will be told:] "This [has befallen you] because, whenever the One God was invoked, you denied this truth; whereas, when divinity was ascribed to aught beside Him, you believed [in it]! But all judgment rests with God, the Exalted, the Great!" (10)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 57

57:13 [...] And thereupon a wall will be raised between them [and the believers], with a gate in it: within it will be grace and mercy, and against the outside thereof, suffering. (15)

 

 

 

Surah 78

78:21 [On that Day,] verily, hell will lie in wait [for those who deny the truth] (78:22) a goal for all who are wont to transgress the bounds of what is right! (78:23) In it shall they remain for a long time. (12) (78:24) Neither coolness shall they taste therein nor any [thirst-quenching] drink (78:25) only burning despair and ice-cold darkness: (13) (78:26) a meet requital [for their sins]!

 

Note on Surah 6

114 I.e., unless He graces them with His mercy (see verse 12 of this surah, and the corresponding note). Some of the great Muslim theologians conclude from the above and from the similar phrase occurring in 11:107 (as well as from several well-authenticated sayings of the Prophet) that – contrary to the bliss of paradise, which will be of unlimited duration – the suffering of the sinners in the life to come will be limited by God's mercy. (See in this connection the hadith quoted in note 10 on 40:12.)

 

 

Notes on Surah 40

9 I.e., "Thou hast brought us to life on earth, and then hast caused us to die; thereupon Thou hast resurrected us, and now hast condemned us to spiritual death in consequence of our wilful spiritual blindness on earth."

 

10 An answer to the sinners' question at the end of the preceding verse may be found in the following extremely well-authenticated, parabolic saying of the Prophet: "[On the Day of Judgment,] those who deserve paradise will enter paradise, and those who deserve the fire, the fire. Thereupon God, the Sublimely Exalted, will say, 'Take out [of the fire] everyone in whose heart there was as much of faith [or, in some versions, "as much of good"] as a grain of mustard seed!' And so they will be taken out of it, already blackened, and will be thrown into the River of Life; and then they will come to life [lit., 'sprout'] as a herb sprouts by the side of a stream: and didst thou not see how it comes out, yellow and budding?" (Bukhari, on the authority of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, in Kitab al-Iman and Kitab Bad' al-Khalq; also Muslim, Nasa'i and Ibn Hanbal.) The characterization as "yellow and budding" – i.e., tender and of light colour – indicates the freshness of new life in the pardoned sinner. This, of course, has nothing to do with the sinner’s futile – because meaningless – request on Judgment Day to be given a "second chance" on earth (Cf. 6:27-28 or 32:12). See also last but one sentence of 6:128 and the corresponding note 114.

 

 

Note on Surah 57

15 The stress on there being a gate in the wall separating true believers and hypocrites (or the weak of faith) points to the possibility of the latters' redemption: cf. the famous hadith quoted in note 10 on 40:12. Mujahid (as quoted by Tabari) identifies the "wall" spoken of here with the "barrier" (hijab) mentioned in 7:46.

 

 

Notes on Surah 78

12 I.e., not forever, since the term huqb or hiqbah (of which ahqab is the plural) denotes no more than "a period of time" or "a long time" (Jawhari) – according to some authorities, "eighty years", according to others, "a year" or simply "years" (Asas, Qamus, Lisan al-Arab, etc.). But however one defines this term, it is obvious that it signifies a limited period of time, and not eternity: and this is in tune with many indications in the Qur'an to the effect that the suffering described as "hell" is not eternal (see note 114 on the last paragraph of 6:128), as well as with several authentic sayings of the Prophet (e.g., the one quoted in note 10 on 40:12).

 

13 For my rendering of hamim as "burning despair", see surah 6, note 62. The meaning of ghassaq is explained in note 47 on 38:57-58.

 

 

 

Appendix A – Prologue by Gai Eaton

The Message of The Qur'an was first published in Gibraltar in 1980. The 2003 edition (published by The Book Foundation, Bristol, England), some eleven years after Asad’s death, contains a prologue by Gai Eaton. Unlike Asad’s original text, Eaton’s prologue appears not to be available online. Thus, only excerpts from the latter is included here.

Quote (italics in original):

It is axiomatic from the Islamic perspective that the Qur’an cannot be translated, because the form of God’s revelation, that is the Arabic itself, is not merely incidental to its meaning, but essential to it. The Arabic of the Qur’an does not, however, limit the Qur’an to one “literal” interpretation, but by virtue of the power of its vocabulary allows for a depth of meaning that would be lost in any translation. A rendering into another language, therefore, is not and never can be the Qur’an as such, but merely an interpretation of it.

There are a number of reasons for this, not least the nature of the Arabic language in which almost every word is derived from a root of three (rarely four) consonants. This root has a great number of branches but its basic meaning penetrates all of them although the derivatives may often appear to have quite different and even contrary meanings. There is a subtle inter-relationship between all of them so that each individual word has resonances which enrich it for the Arabic speaker as though, when one string is plucked, many others vibrate in unison. These are lost beyond recovery in translation and can only be recovered by the inclusion of extensive notes. […]

[…]

Western (Christian or post-Christian) incomprehension of the Qur’an has been exacerbated by attempts to compare it with the Bible. The two scriptures are of a totally different nature and comparisons are therefore fruitless. The Qur’an, as we have seen, is a single revelation which descended upon Muhammad, either instantly or over a very brief period, transforming the hearts of a large sector of humanity and creating a worldwide civilisation. The Bible, on the other hand, is a collection of writings relating to very different levels of inspiration. The Gospels themselves do not, as Muslims see the matter, have the character of direct revelation which is accorded to the Qur’an. They are comparable to the hadith literature which records the reported sayings of Muhammad, both spiritual and practical, and here is a key to the very notion of revelation in the two religions. For Christians the divine Word became incarnate in the person of Jesus whereas, for Islam, the Word became “inlibrate”; it entered the world as a Book or, to be more precise, as a Recitation recorded in a script which some have compared with the physical body of Jesus. It follows therefore that the Westerner, including the new “convert” to Islam, has to put aside preconceived notions in approaching the Qur’an (particularly if he or she was raised on the Bible) and set foot in an unfamiliar landscape.

The Book is indeed comparable to a landscape. For the Muslim there are in truth two divine revelations. There is the Qur’an and there is the Book of Nature replete with “signs”, which point back to the source of all life and being. The Arabic term for “signs”, ayat, is the same as the term used for the Qur’anic verses. The revealed text is a tissue of “signs”, and they are equally present everywhere in creation; in the forests, the mountains, the ocean, the lakes and the rivers, as also in the wind, in the rain which descends upon us, in the storms which refresh the earth, in the lightning flash and in the sun and the moon. Nature implicitly obeys the commands of its Creator. Man alone has the freedom to wander away in blind disobedience. Whether we understand them or not these precious “signs” are reminders for those prepared to be reminded and cure for the blindness which afflicts the “deniers”.

The messages contained in the two complementary books are clothed in beauty. Muhammad is reported to have said in one of his divinely inspired statements that “God is beautiful and He loves beauty”. It might be said that beauty was the presiding principle of traditional Islamic civilisation at its height, starting with the beauty of the Qur’an itself. The Qur’an’s beauty is not intrinsic to itself, but becomes a mode of aesthetic expression through the arts of calligraphy and recitation. In Arabic the word for “beautiful” is the same as the word for “good” and this is clearly of the greatest significance. A good character is by its very nature a beautiful character, a good action has its own beauty, and this is true also of the human environment – the mosque, the city, the home – which cannot be described as good unless it is also beautiful. The ugliness of the modern Western environment, now spreading throughout the world, afflicts the soul of the Muslim even when he or she is unaware of its pernicious influence and, in effect, makes it more difficult to be good and to remember the divine Presence which is perceptible in all that is beautiful but concealed in ugliness.

This brings us back to the impossibility of translating the Qur’an. In “The Koran Interpreted” Arthur Arberry, a noted Arabist, attempted at least to reproduce the rhythms of the original in English but with little success. The structure of the two languages is too different for this to be possible and there is always the danger that those who aim to honour the original by adopting poetic language in their “translation” will fall short of conveying the meaning in so far as it can be conveyed without extensive notes. This is where Muhammad Asad triumphs. The title of his rendition is “The Meaning [sic] of the Qur’an” and that is precisely what it offers. Moreover his explanatory notes are, to a large extent, based on the great commentaries written by some of the wisest Islamic scholars over the centuries. These commentaries are inaccessible to those who do not have Arabic, and even Arabic speakers have difficulty with them, but they are essential for a full understanding of the text. A “translation” without explanatory notes is inevitably open to misunderstanding or misuse. […]

Asad has been criticised for occasionally employing terms which differ from those in common use when translating a key word in the text, but he always has a note to explain his reasons. […]

When powerful emotions come into play, as they are bound to do in the religious sphere, disputes are likely to arise and, with so much at stake, these may be bitter, but Asad’s critics must be asked if they could do any better. So far no one has succeeded – or come closer to succeeding – in conveying the meaning of the Qur’an to readers who do not have access to the Arabic text, that is to say the Qur’an as such, or to the classical commentaries. If one had to find terms to define the principal virtue of this great work we might say that it combines good sense with meticulous precision. There exists no more useful guide to the Qur’an in the English language and, after a period of many years during which it was difficult to obtain, this new edition at last makes it readily accessible at the very time when its value is becoming widely and deservedly appreciated.

Unquote.

The prologue continues by providing biographical information about Asad, and is signed by Hasan Gai Eaton, London, Spring 2003.

 

Appendix B – Foreword by Muhammad Asad

To the best of my ability, Asad’s foreword is rendered exactly as in the printed edition of The Message of The Qur'an, except that the footnotes (for technical reasons) are placed at the very end of the foreword’s text.

Quote:

F o r e w o r d

READ in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created – created man
out of a germ-cell!
Read – for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One who has taught
[man] the use of the pen – taught man what he did not know
.

With these opening verses of the ninety-sixth surah – with an allusion to man's humble biological origin as well as to his consciousness and intellect – began, early in the seventh century of the Christian era, the revelation of the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad, destined to continue during the twenty-three years of his ministry and to end, shortly before his death, with verse 281 of the second surah:

And be conscious of the Day on which you shall be brought back unto God, whereupon every human being shall be repaid in full for what he has earned, and none shall be wronged.

Between these first and last verses (the first and the last in the chronological order of their revelation) (1) unfolds a book which, more than any other single phenomenon known to us, has fundamentally affected the religious, social and political history of the world. No other sacred scripture has ever had a similarly immediate impact upon the lives of the people who first heard its message and, through them and the generations that followed them, on the entire course of civilization. It shook Arabia, and made a nation out of its perennially warring tribes; within a few decades, it spread its world-view far beyond the confines of Arabia and produced the first ideological society known to man; through its insistence on consciousness and knowledge, it engendered among its followers a spirit of intellectual curiosity and independent inquiry, ultimately resulting in that splendid era of learning and scientific research which distinguished the world of Islam at the height of its cultural vigour; and the culture thus fostered by the Qur'an penetrated in countless ways and by-ways into the mind of medieval Europe and gave rise to that revival of Western culture which we call the Renaissance, and thus became in the course of time largely responsible for the birth of what is described as the "age of science": the age in which we are now living.

All this was, in the final analysis, brought about by the message of the Qur'an: and it was brought about through the medium of the people whom it inspired and to whom it supplied a basis for all their ethical valuations and a direction for all their worldly endeavours: for, never has any book – not excluding the Bible – been read by so many with a comparable intensity and veneration; and never has any other book supplied to so many, and over so long a span of time, a similarly comprehensive answer to the question, "How shall I behave in order to achieve the good life in this world and happiness in the life to come?" However often individual Muslims may have misread this answer, and however far many of them may have departed from the spirit of its message, the fact remains that to all who believed and believe in it, the Qur'an represents the ultimate manifestation of God's grace to man, the ultimate wisdom, and the ultimate beauty of expression: in short, the true Word of God.

This attitude of the Muslims towards the Qur'an perplexes, as a rule, the Westerner who approaches it through one or another of the many existing translations. Where the believer, reading the Qur'an in Arabic, sees beauty, the non-Muslim reader often claims to discern "crudeness"; the coherence of the Qur'anic world-view and its relevance to the human condition escape him altogether and assume the guise of what, in Europe's and America's orientalist literature, is frequently described as "incoherent rambling"; (2) and passages which, to a Muslim, are expressive of sublime wisdom, often sound "flat" and "uninspiring" to the Western ear. And yet, not even the most unfriendly critics of the Qur'an have ever denied that it did, in fact, provide the supreme source of inspiration – in both the religious and cultural senses of this word – to innumerable millions of people who, in their aggregate, have made an outstanding contribution to man's knowledge, civilization and social achievement. How can this paradox be explained?

It cannot be explained by the too-facile argument, so readily accepted by many modern Muslims, that the Qur'an has been "deliberately misrepresented" by its Western translators. For, although it cannot be denied that among the existing translations in almost all of the major European languages there is many a one that has been inspired by malicious prejudice and – especially in earlier times – by misguided "missionary" zeal, there is hardly any doubt that some of the more recent translations are the work of earnest scholars who, without being actuated by any conscious bias, have honestly endeavoured to render the meaning of the Arabic original into this or that European language; and, in addition, there exist a number of modern translations by Muslims who, by virtue of their being Muslims, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be supposed to have "misrepresented" what, to them, was a sacred revelation. Still, none of these translations – whether done by Muslims or by non-Muslims – has so far brought the Qur'an nearer to the hearts or minds of people raised in a different religious and psychological climate and revealed something, however little, of its real depth and wisdom. To some extent this may be due to the conscious and unconscious prejudice against Islam which has pervaded Western cultural notions ever since the time of the Crusades – an intangible heritage of thought and feeling which has left its mark on the attitude towards all things Islamic on the part not only of the Western "man in the street" but also, in a more subtle manner, on the part of scholars bent on objective research. But even this psychological factor does not sufficiently explain the complete lack of appreciation of the Qur'an in the Western world, and this in spite of its undeniable and ever-increasing interest in all that concerns the world of Islam.

It is more than probable that one of the main reasons for this lack of appreciation is to be found in that aspect of the Qur'an which differentiates it fundamentally from all other sacred scriptures: its stress on reason as a valid way to faith as well as its insistence on the inseparability of the spiritual and the physical (and, therefore, also social) spheres of human existence: the inseparability of man's daily actions and behaviour, however "mundane", from his spiritual life and destiny. This absence of any division of reality into "physical" and "spiritual" compartments makes it difficult for people brought up in the orbit of other religions, with their accent on the "supernatural" element allegedly inherent in every true religious experience, to appreciate the predominantly rational approach of the Qur'an to all religious questions. Consequently, its constant interweaving of spiritual teachings with practical legislation perplexes the Western reader, who has become accustomed to identifying "religious experience" with a thrill of numinous awe before things hidden and beyond all intellectual comprehension, and is suddenly confronted with the claim of the Qur'an to being a guidance not only towards the spiritual good of the hereafter but also towards the good life – spiritual, physical and social – attainable in this world. In short, the Westerner cannot readily accept the Qur'anic thesis that all life, being God-given, is a unity, and that problems of the flesh and of the mind, of sex and economics, of individual righteousness and social equity are intimately connected with the hopes which man may legitimately entertain with regard to his life after death. This, in my opinion, is one of the reasons for the negative, uncomprehending attitude of most Westerners towards the Qur'an and its teachings. But still another – and perhaps even more decisive – reason may be found in the fact that the Qur'an itself has never yet been presented in any European language in a manner which would make it truly comprehensible.

When we look at the long list of translations – beginning with the Latin works of the high Middle Ages and continuing up to the present in almost every European tongue – we find one common denominator between their authors, whether Muslims or non-Muslims: all of them were – or are – people who acquired their knowledge of Arabic through academic study alone: that is, from books. None of them, however great his scholarship, has ever been familiar with the Arabic language as a person is familiar with his own, having absorbed the nuances of its idiom and its phraseology with an active, associative response within himself, and hearing it with an ear spontaneously attuned to the intent underlying the acoustic symbolism of its words and sentences. For, the words and sentences of a language – any language – are but symbols for meanings conventionally, and subconsciously, agreed upon by those who express their perception of reality by means of that particular tongue. Unless the translator is able to reproduce within himself the conceptual symbolism of the language in question – that is, unless he hears it "sing" in his ear in all its naturalness and immediacy – his translation will convey no more than the outer shell of the literary matter to which his work is devoted, and will miss, to a higher or lesser degree, the inner meaning of the original: and the greater the depth of the original, the farther must such a translation deviate from its spirit.

No doubt, some of the translators of the Qur'an whose works are accessible to the Western public can be described as outstanding scholars in the sense of having mastered the Arabic grammar and achieved a considerable knowledge of Arabic literature; but this mastery of grammar and this acquaintance with literature cannot by itself, in the case of a translation from Arabic (and especially the Arabic of the Qur'an), render the translator independent of that intangible communion with the spirit of the language which can be achieved only by living with and in it.

Arabic is a Semitic tongue: in fact, it is the only Semitic tongue which has remained uninterruptedly alive for thousands of years; and it is the only living language which has remained entirely unchanged for the last fourteen centuries. These two factors are extremely relevant to the problem which we are considering. Since every language is a framework of symbols expressing its people's particular sense of life-values and their particular way of conveying their perception of reality, it is obvious that the language of the Arabs – a Semitic language which has remained unchanged for so many centuries – must differ widely from anything to which the Western mind is accustomed. The difference of the Arabic idiom from any European idiom is not merely a matter of its syntactic cast and the mode in which it conveys ideas; nor is it exclusively due to the well-known, extreme flexibility of the Arabic grammar arising from its peculiar system of verbal "roots" and the numerous stem-forms which can be derived from these roots; nor even to the extraordinary richness of the Arabic vocabulary: it is a difference of spirit and life-sense. And since the Arabic of the Qur'an is a language which attained to its full maturity in the Arabia of fourteen centuries ago, it follows that in order to grasp its spirit correctly, one must be able to feel and hear this language as the Arabs felt and heard it at the time when the Qur'an was being revealed, and to understand the meaning which they gave to the linguistic symbols in which it is expressed.

We Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the Word of God, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through the medium of a human language. It was the language of the Arabian Peninsula: the language of a people endowed with that peculiar quick-wittedness which the desert and its feel of wide, timeless expanses bestows upon its children: the language of people whose mental images, flowing without effort from association to association, succeed one another in rapid progression and often vault elliptically over intermediate – as it were, "self-understood" – sequences of thought towards the idea which they aim, conceive or express. This ellipticism (called ijaz by the Arab philologists) is an integral characteristic of the Arabic idiom and, therefore, of the language of the Qur'an – so much so that it is impossible to understand its method and inner purport without being able to reproduce within oneself, instinctively, something of the same quality of elliptical, associative thought. Now this ability comes to the educated Arab almost automatically, by a process of mental osmosis, from his early childhood: for, when he learns to speak his tongue properly, he subconsciously acquires the mould of thought within which it has evolved and, thus, imperceptibly grows into the conceptual environment from which the Arabic language derives its peculiar form and mode of expression. Not so, however, the non-Arab who becomes acquainted with Arabic only at a mature age, in result of a conscious effort, that is, through study: for, what he acquires is but a ready-made, outward structure devoid of that intangible quality of ellipticism which gives to the Arabic idiom its inner life and reality.

This does not, however, mean that a non-Arab can never understand Arabic in its true spirit: it means no more and no less than that he cannot really master it through academic study alone, but needs, in addition to philological learning, an instinctive "feel" of the language. Now it so happens that such a "feel" cannot be achieved by merely living among the modern Arabs of the cities. Although many of them, especially the educated ones, may have subconsciously absorbed the spirit of their language, they can only rarely communicate it to an outsider – for the simple reason that, however high their linguistic education, their daily speech has become, in the course of centuries, largely corrupted and estranged from pristine Arabic. Thus, in order to obtain the requisite "feel" of the Arabic language, a non-Arab must have lived in long and intimate association with people whose daily speech mirrors the genuine spirit of their language, and whose mental processes are similar to those of the Arabs who lived at the time when the Arabic tongue received its final colouring and inner form. In our day, such people are only the bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula, and particularly those of Central and Eastern Arabia. For, notwithstanding the many dialectical peculiarities in which their speech may differ from the classical Arabic of the Qur'an, it has remained – so far – very close to the idiom of the Prophet's time and has preserved all its intrinsic characteristics. (3) In other words, familiarity with the bedouin speech of Central and Eastern Arabia – in addition, of course, to academic knowledge of classical Arabic – is the only way for a non-Arab of our time to achieve an intimate understanding of the diction of the Qur'an. And because none of the scholars who have previously translated the Qur'an into European languages has ever fulfilled this prerequisite, their translations have remained but distant, and faulty, echoes of its meaning and spirit.

THE WORK which I am now placing before the public is based on a lifetime of study and of many years spent in Arabia. It is an attempt – perhaps the first attempt – at a really idiomatic, explanatory rendition of the Qur'anic message into a European language.

None the less, I do not claim to have "translated" the Qur'an in the sense in which, say, Plato or Shakespeare can be translated. Unlike any other book, its meaning and its linguistic presentation form one unbreakable whole. The position of individual words in a sentence; the rhythm and sound of its phrases and their syntactic construction, the manner in which a metaphor flows almost imperceptibly into a pragmatic statement, the use of acoustic stress not merely in the service of rhetoric but as a means of alluding to unspoken but clearly implied ideas: all this makes the Qur'an, in the last resort, unique and untranslatable – a fact that has been pointed out by many earlier translators and by all Arab scholars. But although it is impossible to "reproduce" the Qur'an as such in any other language, it is none the less possible to render its message comprehensible to people who, like most Westerners, do not know Arabic at all or – as is the case with most of the educated non-Arab Muslims – not well enough to find their way through it unaided.

To this end, the translator must be guided throughout by the linguistic usage prevalent at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an, and must always bear in mind that some of its expressions – especially such as relate to abstract concepts – have in the course of time undergone a subtle change in the popular mind and should not, therefore, be translated in accordance with the sense given to them by post-classical usage. As has been pointed out by that great Islamic scholar, Muhammad 'Abduh, (4) even some of the renowned, otherwise linguistically reliable Qur'an – commentators have occasionally erred in this respect; and their errors, magnified by the inadequacy of modern translators, have led to many a distortion, and sometimes to a total incomprehensibility, of individual Qur'anic passages in their European renditions.

Another (and no less important) point which the translator must take fully into account is the ijaz of the Qur'an: that inimitable ellipticism which often deliberately omits intermediate thought-clauses in order to express the final stage of an idea as pithily and concisely as is possible within the limitations of a human language. This method of ijaz is, as I have explained, a peculiar, integral aspect of the Arabic language, and has reached its utmost perfection in the Qur'an. In order to render its meaning into a language which does not function in a similarly elliptical manner, the thought-links which are missing – that is, deliberately omitted – in the original must be supplied by the translator in the form of frequent interpolations between brackets; for, unless this is done, the Arabic phrase concerned loses all its life in the translation and often becomes a meaningless jumble.

Furthermore, one must beware of rendering, in each and every case, the religious terms used in the Qur'an in the sense which they have acquired after Islam had become "institutionalized" into a definite set of laws, tenets and practices. However legitimate this "institutionalization" may be in the context of Islamic religious history, it is obvious that the Qur'an cannot be correctly understood if we read it merely in the light of later ideological developments, losing sight of its original purport and the meaning which it had – and was intended to have – for the people who first heard it from the lips of the Prophet himself. For instance, when his contemporaries heard the words islam and muslim, they understood them as denoting man's "self-surrender to God" and "one who surrenders himself to God", without limiting these terms to any specific community or denomination – e.g., in 3:67, where Abraham is spoken of as having "surrendered himself unto God" (kana musliman), or in 3:52, where the disciples of Jesus say, "Bear thou witness that we have surrendered ourselves unto God (bi-anna muslimun)". In Arabic, this original meaning has remained unimpaired, and no Arab scholar has ever become oblivious of the wide connotation of these terms. Not so, however, the non-Arab of our day, believer and non-believer alike: to him, islam and muslim usually bear a restricted, historically circumscribed significance, and apply exclusively to the followers of the Prophet Muhammad. Similarly, the terms kufr ("denial of the truth") and kafir ("one who denies the truth") have become, in the conventional translations of the Qur'an, unwarrantably simplified into "unbelief" and "unbeliever" or "infidel", respectively, and have thus been deprived of the wide spiritual meaning which the Qur'an gives to these terms; Another example is to be found in the conventional rendering of the word kitab, when applied to the Qur'an, as "book": for, when the Qur'an was being revealed (and we must not forget that this process took twenty-three years), those who listened to its recitation did not conceive of it as a "book" – since it was compiled into one only some decades after the Prophet's death but rather, in view of the derivation of the noun kitab from the verb kataba ("he wrote" or, tropically, "he ordained”), as a "divine writ" or a "revelation". The same holds true with regard to the Qur'anic use of this term in its connotation of earlier revealed scriptures: for the Qur'an often stresses the fact that those earlier instances of divine writ have largely been corrupted in the course of time, and that the extant holy "books" do not really represent the original revelations. Consequently, the translation of ahl al-kitab as "people of the book" is not very meaningful; in my opinion, the term should be rendered as "followers of earlier revelation".

In short, if it is to be truly comprehensible in another language, the message of the Qur'an must be rendered in such a way as to reproduce, as closely as possible, the sense which it had for the people who were as yet unburdened by the conceptual images of later Islamic developments: and this has been the overriding principle which has guided me throughout my work.

With the exception of two terms, I have endeavoured to circumscribe every Qur'anic concept in appropriate English expressions – an endeavour which has sometimes necessitated the use of whole sentences to convey the meaning of a single Arabic word. The two exceptions from this rule are the terms al-qur'an and surah, since neither of the two has ever been used in Arabic to denote anything but the title of this particular divine writ and each of its sections or "chapters", respectively: with the result that it would have been of no benefit whatsoever to the reader to be presented with "translations" of these two terms. (5)

Apart from these linguistic considerations, I have tried to observe consistently two fundamental rules of interpretation.

Firstly, the Qur'an must not be viewed as a compilation of individual injunctions and exhortations but as one integral whole: that is, as an exposition of an ethical doctrine in which every verse and sentence has an intimate bearing on other verses and sentences, all of them clarifying and amplifying one another. Consequently, its real meaning can be grasped only if we correlate every one of its statements with what has been stated elsewhere in its pages, and try to explain its ideas by means of frequent cross-references, always subordinating the particular to the general and the incidental to the intrinsic. Whenever this rule is faithfully followed, we realize that the Qur'an is – in the words of Muhammad 'Abduh – "its own best commentary".

Secondly, no part of the Qur'an should be viewed from a purely historical point of view: that is to say, all its references to historical circumstances and events – both at the time of the Prophet and in earlier times – must be regarded as illustrations of the human condition and not as ends in themselves. Hence, the consideration of the historical occasion on which a particular verse was revealed – a pursuit so dear, and legitimately so, to the hearts of the classical commentators – must never be allowed to obscure the underlying purport of that verse and its inner relevance to the ethical teaching which the Qur'an, taken as a whole, propounds.

In order to bring out, to the best of my ability, the many facets of the Qur'anic message, I have found it necessary to add to my translation a considerable number of explanatory notes. Certain observations relating to the symbolism of the Qur'an as well as to its eschatology are separately dealt with in Appendix I at the end of this work. In both the notes and the appendices I have tried no more than to elucidate the message of the Qur'an and have, to this end, drawn amply on the works of the great Arab philologists and of the classical commentators. If, on occasion, I have found myself constrained to differ from the interpretations offered by the latter, let the reader remember that the very uniqueness of the Qur'an consists in the fact that the more our worldly knowledge and historical experience increase, the more meanings, hitherto unsuspected, reveal themselves in its pages.

The great thinkers of our past understood this problem fully well. In their commentaries, they approached the Qur'an with their reason: that is to say, they tried to explain the purport of each Qur'anic statement in the light of their superb knowledge of the Arabic language and of the Prophet's teachings – forthcoming from his sunnah – as well as by the store of general knowledge available to them and by the historical and cultural experiences which had shaped human society until their time. Hence, it was only natural that the way in which one commentator understood a particular Qur'anic statement or expression differed occasionally – and sometimes very incisively – from the meaning attributed to it by this or that of his predecessors. In other words, they often contradicted one another in their interpretations: but they did this without any animosity, being fully aware of the element of relativity inherent in all human reasoning, and of each other's integrity. And they were fully aware, too, of the Prophet's profound saying, "The differences of opinion (ikhtilaf) among the learned men of my community are [an outcome of] divine grace (rahmah)" – which clearly implies that such differences of opinion are the basis of all progress in human thinking and, therefore, a most potent factor in man's acquisition of knowledge.

But although none of the truly original, classical Qur'an-commentators ever made any claim to "finality" concerning his own interpretations, it cannot be often enough stressed that without the work of those incomparably great scholars of past centuries, no modern translation of the Qur'an – my own included – could ever be undertaken with any hope of success; and so, even where I differ from their interpretations, I am immeasurably indebted to their learning for the impetus it has given to my own search after truth.

                                                                                              *

AS REGARDS the style of my translation, I have consciously avoided using unnecessary archaisms, which would only tend to obscure the meaning of the Qur'an to the contemporary reader. On the other hand, I did not see any necessity of rendering the Qur'anic phrases into a deliberately "modern" idiom, which would conflict with the spirit of the Arabic original and jar upon any ear attuned to the solemnity inherent in the concept of revelation. With all this, however, I make no claim to having reproduced anything of the indescribable rhythm and rhetoric of the Qur'an. No one who has truly experienced its majestic beauty could ever be presumptuous enough to make such a claim or even to embark upon such an attempt.

And I am fully aware that my rendering does not and could not really "do justice" to the Qur'an and the layers upon layers of its meaning: for,

if all the sea were ink for my Sustainer's words, the sea would
indeed be exhausted ere my Sustainer's words are exhausted
.
(Qur'an 18:109).

 

Muhammad Asad

Unquote.

 

Asad’s footnotes to his foreword:

1.       It is to be borne in mind that, in its final compilation, the Qur'an is arranged in accordance with the inner requirements of its message as a whole, and not in the chronological order in which the individual surahs or passages were revealed.

2.       Thus, for instance, Western critics of the Qur'an frequently point to the allegedly "incoherent" references to God – often in one and the same phrase – as "He", "God", "We" or "I", with the corresponding changes of the pronoun from "His" to "Ours" or "My", or from "Him" to "Us" or "Me". They seem to be unaware of the fact that these changes are not accidental, and not even what one might describe as "poetic licence", but are obviously deliberate, a linguistic device meant to stress the idea that God is not a "person" and cannot, therefore, be really circumscribed by the pronouns applicable to finite beings.

3.       It is to be noted that under the impact of modern economic circumstances, which have radically changed the time-honoured way of life of the bedouin and brought them, by means of school education and the radio, into direct contact with the Levantine culture of the cities, the purity of their language is rapidly disappearing and may soon cease to be a living guide to students of the Arabic tongue.

4.       The reader will find in my explanatory notes frequent references to views held by Muhammad 'Abduh (1849-1905). His importance in the context of the modern world of Islam can never be sufficiently stressed. It may be stated without exaggeration that every single trend in contemporary Islamic thought can be traced back to the influence, direct or indirect, of this most outstanding of all modern Islamic thinkers. The Qur'an-commentary planned and begun by him was interrupted by his death in 1905; it was continued (but unfortunately also left incomplete) by his pupil Rashid Rida under the title Tafsir al-Manar, and has been extensively used by me. See also Rashid Rida, Ta'rikh al-Ustadh al-Imam ash-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh (Cairo l350-1367 H.), the most authoritative biography of 'Abduh hitherto published, as well as C. C. Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt (London 1933).

5.       Etymologically, the word al-qur'an is derived from the verb qara'a ("he read" or "recited"), and is to be understood as "the reading [par excellence]", while the noun surah might be rendered as "a step [leading to another step]" and – tropically – as "eminence in degree" (cf. Lane IV, 1465). It should be noted, however, that when the noun qur'an appears without the definite article al, it usually has its primary meaning of "recitation" or "discourse", and may be rendered accordingly.

 

Appendix C – Asad on symbolism and allegory in the Qur'an

The following text appears as Appendix I in the printed version of The Message of The Qur’an.

WHEN studying the Qur'an, one frequently encounters what may be described as "key-phrases" that is to say, statements which provide a clear, concise indication of the idea underlying a particular passage or passages: for instance, the many references to the creation of man "out of dust" and "out of a drop of sperm", pointing to the lowly biological origin of the human species; or the statement in the ninety-ninth surah (Az-Zalzalah) that on Resurrection Day "he who shall have done an atom's weight of good, shall behold it; and he who shall have done an atom's weight of evil, shall behold it" – indicating the ineluctable afterlife consequences of, and the responsibility for, all that man consciously does in this world; or the divine declaration (in 38:27), "We have not created heaven and earth and all that is between them without meaning and purpose (batilan), as is the surmise of those who are bent on denying the truth."

Instances of such Qur'anic key-phrases can be quoted almost ad infinitum, and in many varying formulations. But there is one fundamental statement in the Qur'an which occurs only once, and which may be qualified as "the key-phrase of all its key-phrases": the statement in verse 7 of Al Imran to the effect that the Qur'an "contains messages that are clear in and by themselves (ayat muhkamat) as well as others that are allegorical (mutoshabihat)". It Is this verse which represents, in an absolute sense, a key to the understanding of the Qur'anic message and makes the whole of it accessible to "people who think" (Li-qawmin yatafakkarun).

In my notes on the above-mentioned verse of Al-'Imran I have tried to elucidate the meaning of the expression ayat muhkamat as well as the general purport of what is termed mutashabih ("allegorical" or "symbolic"). Without a proper grasp of what is implied by this latter term, much of the Qur'an is liable to be – and, in fact, has often been – grossly misunderstood both by believers and by such as refuse to believe in its divinely-inspired origin. However, an appreciation of what is meant by "allegory" or "symbolism" in the context of the Qur'an is, by itself, not enough to make one fully understand its world-view: in order to achieve this we must relate the Qur'anic use of these terms to a concept touched upon almost at the very beginning of the divine writ – namely, the existence of "a realm which is beyond the reach of human perception" (al-ghayb). It is this concept that constitutes the basic premise for an understanding of the call of the Qur'an, and, indeed, of the principle of religion – every religion – as such: for all truly religious cognition arises from and is based on the fact that only a small segment of reality is open to man's perception and imagination, and that by far the larger part of it escapes his comprehension altogether.

However, side by side with this clear-cut metaphysical concept we have a not less clear-cut finding of a psychological nature: namely, the finding that the human mind (in which term we comprise conscious thinking, imagination, dream-life, intuition, memory, etc.) can operate only on the basis of perceptions previously experienced by that very mind either in their entirety or in some of their constituent elements: that is to say, it cannot visualize, or form an idea of, something that lies entirely outside the realm of previously realized experiences. Hence, whenever we arrive at a seemingly "new" mental image or idea, we find, on closer examination, that even if it is new as a composite entity, it is not really new as regards its component elements, for these are invariably derived from previous – and sometimes quite disparate – mental experiences which are now but brought together in a new combination or series of new combinations.

Now as soon as we realize that the human mind cannot operate otherwise than on the basis of previous experiences – that is to say, on the basis of apperceptions{conscious perception} and cognitions already recorded in that mind – we are faced by a weighty question: Since the metaphysical ideas of religion relate, by virtue of their nature, to a realm beyond the reach of human perception or experience – how can they be successfully conveyed to us? How can we be expected to grasp ideas which have no counterpart, not even a fractional one, in any of the apperceptions which we have arrived at empirically?

The answer is self-evident: By means of loan-images derived from our actual – physical or mental – experiences; or, as Zamakhshari phrases it in his commentary on 13:35, 'through a parabolic illustration, by means of something which we know from our experience, of something that is beyond the reach of our perception" (tamihilan li-ma ghaba 'anna bi-ma nushahid). And this is the innermost purport of the term and concept of al-mutashabihat as used in the Qur'an.

Thus, the Qur'an tells us clearly that many of its passages and expressions must be understood in an allegorical sense for the simple reason that, being intended for human understanding, they could not have been conveyed to us in any other way. It follows, therefore, that if we were to take every Qur'anic passage, statement or expression in its outward, literal sense and disregard the possibility of its being an allegory, a metaphor or a parable, we would be offending against the very spirit of the divine writ.

Consider, for instance, some of the Qur'anic references to God's Being – a Being indefinable, infinite in time and space, and utterly beyond any creature's comprehension. Far from being able to imagine Him, we can only realize what He is not: namely, not limited in either time or space, not definable in terms of comparison, and not to be comprised within any category of human thought. Hence only very generalized metaphors can convey to us, though most inadequately, the idea of His existence and activity.

And so, when the Qur'an speaks of Him as being "in the heavens" or "established on His throne (al-'arsh)", we cannot possibly take these phrases in their literal senses, since then they would imply, however vaguely, that God is limited in space: and since such a limitation would contradict the concept of an Infinite Being, we know immediately, without the least doubt, that the "heavens" and the "throne" and God's being "established" on it are but linguistic vehicles meant to convey an idea which is outside all human experience, namely, the idea of God's almightiness and absolute sway over all that exists. Similarly, whenever He is described as "all-seeing", "all-hearing" or "all-aware", we know that these descriptions have nothing to do with the phenomena of physical seeing or hearing but simply circumscribe, in terms understandable to man, the fact of God's eternal Presence in all that is or happens. And since "no human vision can encompass Him" (Qur'an 6:103), man is not expected to realize His existence otherwise than through observing the effects of His unceasing activity within and upon the universe created by Him.

But whereas our belief in God's existence does not – and, indeed, could not – depend on our grasping the unfathomable "how" of His Being, the same is not the case with problems connected with man's own existence, and, in particular, with the idea of a life in the hereafter: for, man's psyche is so constituted that it cannot accept any proposition relating to himself without being given a clear exposition of its purport.

The Qur'an tells us that man's life in this world is but the first stage – a very short stage – of a life that continues beyond the hiatus called "death"; and the same Qur'an stresses again and again the principle of man's moral responsibility for all his conscious actions and his behaviour, and of the continuation of this responsibility, in the shape of inescapable consequences, good or bad, in a person's life in the hereafter. But how could man be made to understand the nature of these consequences and, thus, of the quality of the life that awaits him? – for, obviously, inasmuch as man's resurrection will be the result of what the Qur'an describes as "a new act of creation", the life that will follow upon it must be entirely different from anything that man can and does experience in this world.

This being so, it is not enough for man to be told. "If you behave righteously in this world, you will attain to happiness in the life to come", or, alternatively, "If you do wrong in this world, you will suffer for it in the hereafter". Such statements would be far too general and abstract to appeal to man's imagination and, thus, to influence his behaviour. What is needed is a more direct appeal to the intellect, resulting in a kind of "visualization" of the consequences of one's conscious acts and omissions: and such an appeal can be effectively produced by means of metaphors, allegories and parables, each of them stressing, on the one hand, the absolute dissimilarity of all that man will experience after resurrection from whatever he did or could experience in this world; and, on the other hand, establishing means of comparison between these two categories of experience.

Thus, explaining the reference to the bliss of paradise in 32:17, the Prophet indicated the essential difference between man's life in this world and in the hereafter in these words: "God says, 'I have readied for My righteous servants what no eye has ever seen, and no ear has ever heard, and no heart of man has ever conceived" (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi). On the other hand, in 2:25 the Qur'an speaks thus of the blessed in paradise: "Whenever they are granted fruits therefrom as their appointed sustenance, they will say, 'It is this that in days of yore was granted to us as our sustenance' – for they shall be given something which will recall that [past]": and so we have the image of gardens through which running waters flow, blissful shade, spouses of indescribable beauty, and many other delights infinitely varied and unending, and yet somehow comparable to what may be conceived of as most delightful in this world.

However, this possibility of an intellectual comparison between the two stages of human existence is to a large extent limited by the fact that all our thinking and imagining is indissolubly connected with the concepts of finite time and finite space: in other words, we cannot imagine infinity in either time or space – and therefore cannot imagine a state of existence independent of time and space – or, as the Qur'an phrases it with reference to a state of happiness in afterlife, "a paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth" (3:133): which expression is the Qur'anic synonym for the entire created universe. On the other hand, we know that every Qur'anic statement is directed to man's reason and must, therefore, be comprehensible either in its literal sense (as in the case of the ayat muhkamat) or allegorically (as in the ayat mutashabihat); and since, owing to the constitution of the human mind, neither infinity nor eternity are comprehensible to us, it follows that the reference to the infinite "vastness" of paradise cannot relate to anything but the intensity of sensation which it will offer to the blest.

By obvious analogy, the principle of a "comparison through allegory" applied in the Qur'an to all references to paradise – i.e., a state of unimaginable happiness in afterlife – must be extended to all descriptions of otherworldly suffering – i.e., hell – in respect of its utter dissimilarity from all earthly experiences as well as its unmeasurable intensity. In both cases the descriptive method of the Qur'an is the same. We are told, as it were: "Imagine the most joyous sensations, bodily as well as emotional, accessible to man: indescribable beauty, love physical and spiritual, consciousness of fulfilment, perfect peace and harmony; and imagine these sensations intensified beyond anything imaginable in this world – and at the same time entirely different from anything imaginable: and you have an inkling, however vague, of what is meant by 'paradise'." And, on the other hand: "Imagine the greatest suffering, bodily as well as spiritual, which man may experience: burning by fire, utter loneliness and bitter desolation, the torment of unceasing frustration, a condition of neither living nor dying; and imagine this pain, this darkness and this despair intensified beyond anything imaginable in this world – and at the same time entirely different from anything imaginable: and you will know, however vaguely, what is meant by 'hell'."

Side by side with these allegories relating to man's life after death we find in the Qur'an many symbolical expressions referring to the evidence of God's activity. Owing to the limitations of human language – which, in their turn, arise from the inborn limitations of the human mind – this activity can only be circumscribed and never really described. Just as it is impossible for us to imagine or define God's Being, so the true nature of His creativeness – and, therefore, of His plan of creation – must remain beyond our grasp. But since the Qur'an aims at conveying to us an ethical teaching based, precisely, on the concept of God's purposeful creativeness, the latter must be, as it were, "translated" into categories of thought accessible to man. Hence the use of expressions which at first sight have an almost anthropomorphic hue, for instance, God's "wrath" (ghadab) or "condemnation"; His "pleasure" at good deeds or "love" for His creatures; or His being "oblivious" of a sinner who was oblivious of Him; or "asking" a wrongdoer on Resurrection Day about his wrongdoing; and so forth. All such verbal "translations" of God's activity into human terminology are unavoidable as long as we are expected to conform to ethical principles revealed to us by means of a human language; but there can be no greater mistake than to think that these "translations" could ever enable us to define the Undefinable.

And, as the Qur'an makes it clear in the seventh verse of Al Imran, only "those whose hearts are given to swerving from the truth go after that part of the divine writ which has been expressed in allegory, seeking out [what is bound to create] confusion, and seeking [to arrive at] its final meaning [in an arbitrary manner: but none save God knows its final meaning."

 

Appendix D – The classical commentators

In his footnotes, Asad often makes reference to some of the classical commentators of the Qur’an, in particular (in decreasing order of frequency in this compendium):

·         Zamakhshari

·         Razi

·         Tabari

·         Baydawi

·         Ibn Kathir

·         Baghawi

·         Ibn 'Abbas.

 

Appendix E – Challenging or controversial verses

Certain Quranic verses are favourites of fundamentalists of assorted hues. This holds true whether we speak of Islamic, Christian, or some kind of secular fundamentalists. Islamic fundamentalists love these verses because they appear to justify certain things they do or aspire to do. The anti-Islamic fundamentalists – whether religiously or ideologically motivated – love the very same verses because to their mind they “prove” that the Qur’an is a source of corruption and evil, and that Islam therefore can be dismissed as reprehensible, stupid, backwards, and so on and so forth.

What these people apparently fail to consider, is that the Qur’an over and over again encourage us to be reasonable, find wise middle ways, be truthful, and in particular to use our minds. For example: “45:13 And He has made subservient to you, [as a gift] from Himself, all that is in the heavens and on earth: (11) in this, behold, there are messages indeed for people who think!” (Asad’s footnote 11: I.e., by endowing man, alone among all living beings, with a creative mind and, thus, with the ability to make conscious use of the nature that surrounds him and is within him.)

I am sick and tired of islamophobes quoting the below Quranic verses, pretending to know what they are talking about (I have, admittedly, been there myself). The fact that they might be able to point to fundamentalist Muslims who agree with them, does not make it much better. Simply put, the Qur’an is not meant to be interpreted by people who refuse to think. Says the Qur’an about itself:

20:114 […] do not approach the Qur'an in haste, ere it has been revealed unto thee in full, but [always] say: "O my Sustainer, cause me to grow in knowledge!"

Comments Asad in his footnote to this verse (excerpt): “Hence, if one is really intent on understanding the Qur'anic message, one must beware of a "hasty approach" – that is to say, of drawing hasty conclusions from isolated verses or sentences taken out of their context – but should, rather, allow the whole of the Qur'an to be revealed to one's mind before attempting to interpret single aspects of its message.”

For additional details on how – and how not – to approach the Qur’an, please refer to this compendium’s entries Knowledge – always to be sought after and Qur’an – to be read in its entirety, as well as Qur’an – its messages should be pondered in humble realization that their understanding requires insight.

In his book Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad (a.k.a. professor Timothy Winter) repeatedly and emphatically warns against Islamic fundamentalism; see in particular Chapter 5, The Venomous Bid’a of Tanfir.

In his book The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists, Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl explains the difference between reasonable and fundamentalist interpretations of the Qur’an.

In addition, Scandinavian readers may consult my Norwegian book Fundamentalistiske favntak – om islamofobi, islamisme og andre typer religiøs eller sekulær fundamentalisme, for a discussion of the fallacies and dangers of religious as well as secular fundamentalism.

Admittedly, there are serious problems within the House of Islam; in Muslim majority countries as well as among diasporas in the West. For a candid assessment of the situation, including the need for “renovation”, please see Letter from the Editor – Why "Renovatio"?,  by Hamza Yusuf, president of Zaytuna College, and editor of its journal Renovatio.

These problems must be addressed at several levels (theologically, philosophically, politically, and more), but deliberate polarisation will not be helpful.

Having said so, I hasten to add that reasoned and well-informed critique of both Muslims and Islam is of course perfectly ok. Such criticism should actually – for obvious reasons – be welcomed. This holds true whether it comes from Christians, atheists, or others.

However, if you want to criticise Islam (and you understand English), then you have not done your homework unless you have studied The Message of The Qur’an.

The world would be a better place if we could all try to be reasonable, if we continually searched for the truth, and always made an honest effort to understand those who hold religious, ideological, or political views different from our own. Jonathan Haidt (an American researcher specialising in moral psychology) has an excellent discussion of these issues in his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.

Below is a table containing Asad’s translation of some of the most controversial and challenging verses in the Qur’an, along with his explanatory footnotes. For a broader and a more thorough discussion of these verses, I recommend Apostate: from Christianity to Islam in times of secularisation and terror (in particular chapters 7, 8, 9), by Joram van Klaveren, former member of parliament in the Netherlands for Geert Wilders’ (anti-Islamic) Party for Freedom.

 

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

Apes and swine

 

Surah 7

7:165 And thereupon, when those [sinners] had forgotten all that they had been told to take to heart, We saved those who had tried to prevent the doing of evil, (132) and overwhelmed those who had been bent on evildoing with dreadful suffering for all their iniquity; (7:166) and then, when they disdainfully persisted in doing what they had been forbidden to do, We said unto them: "Be as apes despicable!" (133)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 5

5:60 Say: "Shall I tell you who, in the sight of God, deserves a yet worse retribution than these? They whom God has rejected and whom He has condemned, and whom He has turned into apes and swine because they worshipped the powers of evil: (77) these are yet worse in station, and farther astray from the right path [than the mockers]. (78)

 

 

Confer 2:65.

 

 

Notes on Surah 7

132 Lit., "who were forbidding the evil".

 

133 According to Zamakhshari and Razi, the expression "We said unto them" is here synonymous with "We decreed with' regard to them" – God's "saying" being in this case a metonym for a manifestation of His will. As for the substance of God's decree, "Be as apes despicable", the famous tabi'i Mujahid explain it thus: "[Only] their hearts were transformed, that is, they were not [really] transformed into apes: this is but a metaphor (mathal) coined by God with regard to them, similar to the metaphor of 'the ass carrying books' [62:5]" (Tabari, in his commentary on 2:65; also Manar I, 343; VI, 448; and IX, 379). A similar explanation is given by Raghib. It should be borne in mind that the expression "like an ape" is often used in classical Arabic to describe a person who is unable to restrain his gross appetites or passions.

 

 

Notes on Surah 5

77 Contrary to many of the commentators who take this reference to "apes and swine" in a literal sense, the famous tabi'i Mujahid explains it as a metaphorical description (mathal) of the moral degradation which such sinners undergo: they become wildly unpredictable like apes, and as abandoned to the pursuit of lusts as swine (Manar VI, 448). This interpretation has also been quoted by Tabari in his commentary on 2:65. – As regards the expression "powers of evil" (at-taghut), see surah 2, note 250.

 

78 As is evident from the following verses, the sinners who are even worse than the mockers are the hypocrites, and particularly those among them who claim to be followers of the Bible: for the obvious reason that, having been enlightened through revelation, they have no excuse for their behaviour. Although in verse 64 the Jews are specifically mentioned, the reference to the Gospel in verse 66 makes it clear that the Christians, too, cannot be exempted from this blame.

 

Beating one’s wife

 

 

4:34 [...] And as for those women whose ill-will (44) you have reason to fear, admonish them [first]; then leave them alone in bed; then beat them; (45) and if thereupon they pay you heed, do not seek to harm them. Behold, God is indeed most high, great!

 

44 The term nushuz (lit., "rebellion" – here rendered as "ill-will") comprises every kind of deliberate bad behaviour of a wife towards her husband or of a husband towards his wife, including what is nowadays described as "mental cruelty"; with reference to the husband, it also denotes "ill-treatment", in the physical sense, of his wife (cf. verse 128 of this surah). In this context, a wife's "ill-will" implies a deliberate, persistent breach of her marital obligations.

 

45 It is evident from many authentic Traditions that the Prophet himself intensely detested the idea of beating one's wife, and said on more than one occasion, "Could any of you beat his wife as he would beat a slave, and then lie with her in the evening?" (Bukhari and Muslim). According to another Tradition, he forbade the beating of any woman with the words, "Never beat God's handmaidens" (Abu Da'ud, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ibn Hibban and Hakim, on the authority of Iyas ibn 'Abd Allah; Ibn Hibban, on the authority of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas; and Bayhaqi, on the authority of Umm Kulthum). When the above Qur'an-verse authorizing the beating of a refractory wife was revealed, the Prophet is reported to have said: "I wanted one thing, but God has willed another thing – and what God has willed must be best" (see Manar V, 74). With all this, he stipulated in his sermon on the occasion of the Farewell Pilgrimage, shortly before his death, that beating should be resorted to only if the wife "has become guilty, in an obvious manner, of immoral conduct", and that it should be done "in such a way as not to cause pain (ghayr mubarrih)"; authentic Traditions to this effect are found in Muslim, Tirmidhi, Abu Da'ud, Nasa'i and Ibn Majah. On the basis of these Traditions, all the authorities stress that this "beating", if resorted to at all, should be more or less symbolic – "with a toothbrush, or some such thing" (Tabari, quoting the views of scholars of the earliest times), or even "with a folded handkerchief" (Razi); and some of the greatest Muslim scholars (e.g., Ash-Shafi'i) are of the opinion that it is just barely permissible, and should preferably be avoided: and they justify this opinion by the Prophet's personal feelings with regard to this problem.

 

Casting terror into the hearts of those who are bent on denying

the truth

 

(8:12) Lo! Thy Sustainer inspired the angels [to convey this His message to the believers]: "I am with you!" (13) [And He commanded the angels:] "And give firmness unto those who have attained to faith [with these words from Me]: (14) 'I shall cast terror into the hearts of those who are bent on denying the truth; strike, then, their necks, [O believers,] and strike off every one of their finger-tips!" (15)

 

13 The phrase "I am with you" is addressed (through the angels) to the believers – "for, the purport of these words was the removal of fear, since it was the Muslims, and not the angels, who feared the deniers of the truth" (Razi).

 

14 The following is, again, addressed to the believers (Razi). Verse 10 of this surah makes it clear that the aid of the angels was purely spiritual in nature; and there is no evidence anywhere in the Qur'an that they did, or were meant to, participate in the battle in a physical sense. In his commentary on the above verse, Razi stresses this point repeatedly; among modern commentators, Rashid Rida emphatically rejects the legendary notion that angels actually fought in this or any other of the Prophet's battles (see Manar IX, 612 ff.). It is mainly on the basis of Razi's interpretation of this passage that I have interpolated, in several places, explanatory clauses between brackets.

 

15. I.e., "destroy them utterly".

 

Sexual desires – should be controlled

 

23:1 TRULY, to a happy state shall attain the believers: (23:2) those who humble themselves in their prayer, (23:3) and who turn away from all that is frivolous, (23:4) and who are intent on inner purity; (1) (23:5) and who are mindful of their chastity, (2) (23:6) [not giving way to their desires] with any but their spouses – that is, those whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock]: (3) – for then, behold, they are free of all blame, (23:7) whereas such as seek to go beyond that [limit] are truly transgressors; (23:8) and who are faithful to their trusts and to their pledges, (23:9) and who guard their prayers [from all worldly intent].

 

1 Lit., "working for" or "active in behalf of [inner] purity", which is the meaning of zakah in this context (Zamakhshari; the same interpretation has been advanced by Abu Muslim).

 

2 Lit., "who guard their private parts"

 

3 Lit., "or those whom their right hands possess" (aw ma malakat aymanuhum). Most of the commentators assume unquestioningly that this relates to female slaves, and that the particle aw ("or") denotes a permissible alternative. This conventional interpretation is, in my opinion, inadmissible inasmuch as it is based on the assumption that sexual intercourse with one's female slave is permitted without marriage: an assumption which is contradicted by the Qur'an itself (see 4:3, 24, 25 and 24:32, with the corresponding notes). Nor is this the only objection to the above-mentioned interpretation. Since the Qur'an applies the term "believers" to men and women alike, and since the term azwaj ("spouses"), too, denotes both the male and the female partners in marriage, there is no reason for attributing to the phrase ma malakat aymanuhum the meaning of "their female slaves"; and since, on the other hand, it is out of the question that female and male slaves could have been referred to here, it is obvious that this phrase does not relate to slaves at all, but has the same meaning as in 4:24 – namely, "those whom they rightfully possess through wedlock" (see note 26 on 4:24) – with the significant difference that in the present context this expression relates to both husbands and wives, who "rightfully possess" one another by virtue of marriage. On the basis of this interpretation, the particle aw which precedes this clause does not denote an alternative ("or") but is, rather, in the nature of an explanatory amplification, more or less analogous to the phrase "in other words" or "that is", thus giving to the whole sentence the meaning, "... save with their spouses – that is, those whom they rightfully possess [through wedlock] ...", etc. (Cf. a similar construction 25:62 – "for him who has the will to take thought – that is [lit., "or"], has the will to be grateful".)

 

Slay those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God wherever you may come upon them

 

9:4 But excepted shall be (4) – from among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God – [people] with whom you [O believers] have made a covenant and who thereafter have in no wise failed to fulfil their obligations towards you, and neither have aided anyone against you: observe, then, your covenant with them until the end of the term agreed with them. (5) Verily, God loves those who are conscious of Him. (9:5) And so, when the sacred months are over, (6) slay those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God wherever you may come upon them, (7) and take them captive, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every conceivable place! (8) Yet if they repent, and take to prayer, and render the purifying dues, let them go their way: for, behold, God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace. (9)

 

4 I.e., from the cancellation, explained in note 2 above, of the treaties which they have concluded with the believers.

 

5 Lit., "until their term".

 

6 According to a pre-Islamic custom prevalent in Arabia, the months of Muharram, Rajab, Dhu'l – Qa'dah and Dhu'l-Hijjah were considered "sacred" in the sense that all tribal warfare had to cease during those months. It was with a view to preserving these periods of truce and thus to promoting peace among the frequently warring tribes that the Qur'an did not revoke, but rather confirmed, this ancient custom. See also 2:194 and 217.

 

7 Read in conjunction with the two preceding verses, as well as with 2:190-194, the above verse relates to warfare already in progress with people who have become guilty of a breach of treaty obligations and of aggression.

 

8 I.e., "do everything that may be necessary and advisable in warfare". The term marsad denotes "any place from which it is possible to perceive the enemy and to observe his movements" (Manar X, 199).

 

9 As I have pointed out on more than one occasion, every verse of the Qur'an must be read and interpreted against the background of the Qur'an as a whole. The above verse, which speaks of a possible conversion to Islam on the part of "those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God" with whom the believers are at war, must, therefore, be considered in conjunction with several fundamental Qur'anic ordinances. One of them, "There shall be no coercion in matters of faith" (2:256), lays down categorically that any attempt at a forcible conversion of unbelievers is prohibited – which precludes the possibility of the Muslims' demanding or expecting that a defeated enemy should embrace Islam as the price of immunity. Secondly, the Qur'an ordains, "Fight in God's cause against those who wage war against you; but do not commit aggression, for, verily, God does not love aggressors" (2:190); and, "if they do not let you be, and do not offer you peace, and do not stay their hands, seize them and slay them whenever you come upon them: and it is against these that We have clearly empowered you [to make war]" (4:91). Thus, war is permissible only in self-defence (see surah 2, notes 167 and 168), with the further proviso that "if they desist – behold, God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace" (2:192), and "if they desist, then all hostility shall cease" (2:193). Now the enemy's conversion to Islam – expressed in the words, "if they repent, and take to prayer [lit., "establish prayer"] and render the purifying dues (zakah)" – is no more than one, and by no means the only, way of their "desisting from hostility"; and the reference to it in verses 5 and 11 of this surah certainly does not imply an alternative of "conversion or death", as some unfriendly critics of Islam choose to assume. Verses 4 and 6 give a further elucidation of the attitude which the believers are enjoined to adopt towards such of the unbelievers as are not hostile to them. (In this connection, see also 60:8-9).

 

Slay those who wage war against you

 

Surah 2

2:190 AND FIGHT in God's cause against those who wage war against you, but do not commit aggression – for, verily, God does not love aggressors. (167) (2:191) And slay them wherever you may come upon them, and drive them away from wherever they drove you away – for oppression is even worse than killing. (168) And fight not against them near the Inviolable House of Worship unless they fight against you there first; (169) but if they fight against you, slay them: such shall be the recompense of those who deny the truth.

 

2:192 But if they desist – behold, God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

 

2:193 Hence, fight against them until there is no more oppression and all worship is devoted to God alone; (170) but if they desist, then all hostility shall cease, save against those who [wilfully] do wrong.

 

2:194 Fight during the sacred months if you are attacked: (171) for a violation of sanctity is [subject to the law of] just retribution. Thus, if anyone commits aggression against you, attack him just as he has attacked you – but remain conscious of God, and know that God is with those who are conscious of Him. (172)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surah 8

8:38 Tell those who are bent on denying the truth that if they desist, (37) all that is past shall be forgiven them; but if they revert [to their wrongdoing], let them remember what happened to the like of them in times gone by. (38) (8:39) And fight against them until there is no more oppression and all worship is devoted to God alone. (39)

 

Notes on Surah 2

167 This and the following verses lay down unequivocally that only self-defence (in the widest sense of the word) makes war permissible for Muslims. Most of the commentators agree in that the expression la ta'tadu signifies, in this context, "do not commit aggression"; while by al-mu'tadin "those who commit aggression" are meant. The defensive character of a fight "in God's cause" – that is, in the cause of the ethical principles ordained by God – is, moreover, self-evident in the reference to "those who wage war against you", and has been still further clarified in 22:39 – "permission [to fight] is given to those against whom war is being wrongfully waged" – which, according to all available Traditions, constitutes the earliest (and therefore fundamental) Qur'anic reference to the question of jihad, or holy war (see Tabari and Ibn Kathir in their commentaries on 22:39). That this early, fundamental principle of self-defence as the only possible justification of war has been maintained throughout the Qur'an is evident from 60:8, as well as from the concluding sentence of 4:91, both of which belong to a later period than the above verse.

 

168 In view of the preceding ordinance, the injunction "slay them wherever you may come upon them" is valid only within the context of hostilities already in progress (Razi), on the understanding that "those who wage war against you" are the aggressors or oppressors (a war of liberation being a war "in God's cause"). The translation, in this context, of fitnah as "oppression" is justified by the application of this term to any affliction which may cause man to go astray and to lose his faith in spiritual values (cf. Lisan al-'Arab).

 

169 This reference to warfare in the vicinity of Mecca is due to the fact that at the time of the revelation of this verse the Holy City was still in the possession of the pagan Quraysh, who were hostile to the Muslims. However – as is always the case with historical references in the Qur'an – the above injunction has a general import, and is valid for all times and circumstances.

 

170 Lit., "and religion belongs to God [alone]" – i.e., until God can be worshipped without fear of persecution, and none is compelled to bow down in awe before another human being. (See also 22:40.) The term din is in this context more suitably translated as "worship" inasmuch as it comprises here both the doctrinal and the moral aspects of religion: that is to say, man's faith as well as the obligations arising from that faith.

 

 

171 This is a free rendering of the phrase "the sacred month for the sacred month", which is interpreted by all commentators in the sense given above. The "sacred months" during which, according to ancient Arab custom, all fighting was deemed utterly wrong, were the first, seventh, eleventh and twelfth months of the lunar calendar.

 

172 Thus, although the believers are enjoined to fight back whenever they are attacked, the concluding words of the above verse make it clear that they must, when fighting, abstain from all atrocities, including the killing of non-combatants.

 

 

Notes on Surah 8

37 I.e., from their endeavour to turn others away from the path of God and from waging war against the believers.

 

38 Lit., "the example (sunnah) of the people of old times has already come to pass": an allusion to the disasters that have overtaken, and are bound to overtake, those who persistently deny moral truths.

 

39 I.e., until man is free to worship God. Cf. the identical phrase in 2:193 (see just above here in this compendium), and the corresponding note. Both these passages stress self-defence – in the widest sense of this word – as the only justification of war.

 

 

Appendix F – Tolerance of ambiguity

Not only does Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad (professor Timothy Winter) in his book Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe warn against fundamentalism (see Appendix E above), he also emphasises Islam’s traditional tolerance of ambiguity. For example, in Chapter 9, Seeking Knowledge: the multiple horizons of British Islamic studentship, he writes (pages 219-220):

Quote:

Still more evidence is supplied in the 2011 monograph by Thomas Bauer entitled The Culture of Ambiguity, which is becoming something of a classic in the field. Bauer documents the refined and intellectually-curious culture of the premodern fuqaha’, who inhabited what he terms an ‘ambiguity-tolerant’ religious space in which legal and theological options were multiple and exegetes frowned upon zealotry and exclusivist closure. […] The shift from an ‘ambiguity-tolerant’ Islam to an ‘ambiguity-intolerant’ alternative synchronised with the advent of modernity, as defensive Muslims sought to combat anomie and scientific challenges with a simplified and unified truth. He dates the transformation to the last century and a half, although he acknowledges that classical Islamic understandings still prevail among the remaining traditional scholars; indeed, such an acknowledgement almost describes a tautology.

Unquote.

It is not clear to me exactly how ‘ambiguity-tolerant’ Asad is; sometimes he strikes me as insisting quite strongly on a particular interpretation of a verse, while on many other occasions he supplies a footnote pointing out an alternative interpretation. Here’s a randomly selected example:

15:24 And well do We know [the hearts and deeds, of all human beings – both] those who lived before you and those who will come after you; (23)

His footnote:

23 Or: "those of you who hasten forward [towards Us], and those who lag behind". Both these interpretations are considered equally legitimate by the early commentators.

So at least Asad cannot simply be labelled ‘ambiguity-intolerant’.

 

Appendix G – The crucifixion of Jesus Christ

Muslim scholars disagree on this topic. My understanding is that Asad represents what has been the majority position through the centuries, but at least two alternative views exist, see below. Thus, this is an area where we all do well in observing the principle of tolerance of ambiguity (see Appendix F above).

Keywords

Qur’an quote

Notes and comments

They did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him

 

(4:156) and for their [OJA: i.e., the Jews’] refusal to acknowledge the truth, and the awesome calumny which they utter against Mary, (170) (4:157) and their boast, "Behold, we have slain the Christ Jesus, son of Mary, [who claimed to be] an apostle of God!" However, they did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him, but it only seemed to them [as if it had been] so; (171)

 

170 The calumny referred to is the popular Jewish assertion that Jesus was an illegitimate child.

 

171 Thus, the Qur'an categorically denies the story of the crucifixion of Jesus. There exist, among Muslims, many fanciful legends telling us that at the last moment God substituted for Jesus a person closely resembling him (according to some accounts, that person was Judas), who was subsequently crucified in his place. However, none of these legends finds the slightest support in the Qur'an or in authentic Traditions, and the stories produced in this connection by the classical commentators must be summarily rejected. They represent no more than confused attempts at "harmonizing" the Qur'anic statement that Jesus was not crucified with the graphic description, in the Gospels, of his crucifixion. The story of the crucifixion as such has been succinctly explained in the Qur'anic phrase wa-lakin shubbiha lahum, which I render as "but it only appeared to them as if it had been so" – implying that in the course of time, long after the time of Jesus, a legend had somehow grown up (possibly under the then-powerful influence of Mithraistic beliefs) to the effect that he had died on the cross in order to atone for the "original sin" with which mankind is allegedly burdened; and this legend became so firmly established among the latter-day followers of Jesus that even his enemies, the Jews, began to believe it – albeit in a derogatory sense (for crucifixion was, in those times, a heinous form of death-penalty reserved for the lowest of criminals). This, to my mind, is the only satisfactory explanation of the phrase wa-lakin shubbiha lahum, the more so as the expression shubbiha li is idiomatically synonymous with khuyyila li, "[a thing] became a fancied image to me", i.e., "in my mind" – in other words, "[it] seemed to me" (see Qamus, art. khayala, as well as Lane II, 833, and IV, 1500).

 

 

Alternative view #1: Jesus was indeed crucified, but not by the Jews

In 4:157 we read: “they did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him”. From the context it is clear that the word “they” in this verse refers to the Jews. Thus, this verse can be read as a statement to the effect that it was not the Jews that crucified Jesus (but rather it was the Romans who did that).

This view is held, e.g., by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad (a.k.a. professor Timothy Winter). For an elaboration of Murad’s views on this, see the section Was Jesus crucified? (pages 108 – 113) in Joram van Klaveren’s book Apostate: from Christianity to Islam in times of secularisation and terror.

Writes The Study Quran in its note on 4:157 (page 262): “Although the Quran addresses and criticizes the Christian belief in the Trinity (4:171; 5:73) and the divinity of Jesus (5:17, 72, 116; 9:31), this is the only passage that addresses the belief in Christ’s crucifixion and death. It does not come in the context of a critique of Christian belief, however, but rather as part of a lengthy passage criticizing historical incidents of Jewish unfaithfulness to their covenant. It is important to note that here the critique is not aimed directly at the belief in Christ’s crucifixion and death, but rather at the Jews’ claim to have killed him. Their claim, seen as their way of mocking and dismissing Jesus’ prophethood (Zamakhshari), is understood in the context of the Quranic assertion that the Israelites or Jews rejected some of the prophets that had been sent to them (in v. 155 and elsewhere).” For the record, the remainder of this note in The Study Quran (pages 262 – 263) contains material that support the view held by Asad (see above).

 

Alternative view #2: Jesus was not crucified in the full sense of that term

Shaykh Imran Nazar Hosein promotes the view that even though the Romans did indeed nail Jesus to a cross, God prevented them from fully taking his life. Writes he in his article Lessons from the Birth of Mary's Son:

Quote:

Finally, the Qur’an depicted the scene of the crucifixion where people were convinced of his death since they saw him crucified before their very eyes. His enemies then boasted, “We have surely killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah.”

There was sarcasm in that boastful claim since they had rejected his claim to be the Messiah and a Prophet. But the Qur’an went on to describe a ‘reality’ that was quite different from that which ‘appeared’ to them.

The Qur’an declared “they did not kill him”, “they did not crucify him”, “Allah took (his soul)”, “Allah made it appear that he had died”, and finally, that “Allah raised him unto Himself”:

That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah”; but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not. Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise. (Qur’an, al-Nisa, 4:157-8)

Most Muslim scholars today interpret the above event as one in which Allah substituted someone else for Jesus and that person was crucified. I differ, and instead interpret the verses as follows: Allah took his soul while he was nailed on the wooden cross. His blessed body was then taken down, prepared for burial, and sealed in a cave with Roman guards posted outside the cave. Allah Most High then returned his soul to his body while it was concealed in the cave. The body (the soul now with it) was then transformed from the spatiotemporal dimension of existence to a transcendental form and was then raised into the Samawat (i.e., the seven strata of space and time that exist between this world and Allah’s ‘arsh). Hence although Jesus was nailed on the cross, and had blood on his hands, he never experienced that death which the Qur’an calls maut (i.e., when the soul is taken and not returned). And since the Qur’an declares that every soul must taste maut (death), the implication is that Jesus must one day return and die like all others. When he does return to the world people will see the blood still fresh on his hands. [Readers should kindly see my book entitled 'Jerusalem in the Qur'an' for further information and analysis on this subject.] 

Unquote.

Islamic scholar Shabir Ally holds a related view (italics in original): “In effect, Ally admits that Jesus was put on the cross, but that he did not die on the cross, and therefore the koranic and biblical accounts are, to some degree, in harmony. He goes on to support his contention, saying: ‘There is a subtext, which points to the fact that Jesus could not be verified to have died on the cross. He may very well have been taken down while still alive.’ “

 

Appendix H – Some reflections on Asad’s footnotes

As stated in the introduction to this compendium: Asad was one of the most influential European Muslims of the 20th century. His translation of the Qur’an into English, The Message of The Qur'an, is among his most notable works. (By and large copied from Wikipedia; emphasis added.)

Simply put, Asad must have been quite a genius. As Wikipedia informs us: By age 13, he had acquired a passing fluency in Hebrew and Aramaic, on top of his native German and Polish languages. By his mid-twenties, he could read and write in English, French, Persian and Arabic (ibid).

Any fair-minded reader of The Message of The Qur’an cannot but be impressed by the breadth and depth of his scholarship.

Unfortunately, his tremendous erudition sometimes causes him to come across as somewhat arrogant, e.g., in the way he dismisses scholars with whom he disagrees on this or that point of translation or exegesis.

More specifically, Asad has a tendency to use strong words like “undoubtedly”, “obvious(ly)”, “clear(ly)”, “certain(ly)”, etc., when in some cases more modest words would have seemed more appropriate.

Consider the following example (and note the phrase “almost certainly” highlighted in the second sentence of footnote 6):

Prophet Muhammad, foretold by Jesus

 

61:6 And [this happened, too,] when Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O children of Israel! Behold, I am an apostle of God unto you, [sent] to confirm the truth of whatever there still remains (5) of the Torah, and to give [you] the glad tiding of an apostle who shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." (6) But when he [whose coming Jesus had foretold] came unto them (7) with all evidence of the truth, they said: "This [alleged message of his] is [nothing but] spellbinding eloquence!" (8)

5 Lit., "whatever there is between my hands" – a phrase explained in surah 3, note 3.

 

6 This prediction is supported by several references in the Gospel of St. John to the Parakletos (usually rendered as "Comforter") who was to come after Jesus. This designation is almost certainly a corruption of Periklytos ("the Much-Praised"), an exact Greek translation of the Aramaic term or name Mawhamana. (It is to be borne in mind that Aramaic was the language used in Palestine at the time of, and for some centuries after, Jesus, and was thus undoubtedly the language in which the original – now lost – texts of the Gospels were composed.) In view of the phonetic closeness of Periklytos and Parakletos it is easy to understand how the translator – or, more probably, a later scribe – confused these two expressions. It is significant that both the Aramaic Mawhamana and the Greek Periklytos have the same meaning as the two names of the Last Prophet, Muhammad and Ahmad, both of which are derived from the verb hamida ("he praised") and the noun hamd ("praise"). An even more unequivocal prediction of the advent of the Prophet Muhammad – mentioned by name, in its Arabic form – is said to be forthcoming from the so-called Gospel of St. Barnabas, which, though now regarded as apocryphal, was accepted as authentic and was read in the churches until the year 496 of the Christian era, when it was banned as "heretical" by a decree of Pope Gelasius. However, since the original text of that Gospel is not available (having come down to us only in an Italian translation dating from the late sixteenth century), its authenticity cannot be established with certainty.

 

7 I.e., to the later followers of the Bible.

 

8 Alluding to the Qur'an (see 74:24-25 and the corresponding note 12).

 

 

It may perhaps be the case that Parakletos ("Comforter") is a corruption of Periklytos ("the Much-Praised"), so I guess we should consider this a viable hypothesis. But I fail to see that Asad is warranted in claiming that it is “almost certainly” so.

My conclusion is that readers should use their own judgment whenever strong words like “undoubtedly”, “obvious(ly)”, “clear(ly)”, “certain(ly)”, etc. are encountered in Asad’s writings. Such words will sometimes be warranted, but – according to my judgment – not always.

 

Appendix I – Some personal reflections

I grew up in a Christian environment, surrounded by loving and warm-hearted people of good will and the best of intentions. For the spiritual inheritance these people gave me, I will forever be grateful. However, around the age of 40, I found myself in an increasingly deep crisis of faith; there were just too many aspects of my Evangelical (in earlier years more or less fundamentalistic) faith that no longer made sense to me.

In particular, I began to harbour ever stronger doubts about the doctrine of the Trinity. During the early 2000s, I seriously considered becoming an atheist. However, after having read several books by some of the most well-known atheists (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, Hitchens) I concluded that even though they are exceptionally gifted authors (I admire Dawkins in particular; “the atheist who writes like an angel”), at the end of the day their arguments just left me feeling empty, cold, and utterly unconvinced.

At the same time, I was becoming increasingly concerned about Islam’s growing presence in Norway and other Western countries. Although I was never quite as islamophobic as Joram van Klaveren (former member of parliament in the Netherlands for Geert Wilders’ (anti-Islamic) Party for Freedom; now a Muslim), nor a member of any anti-Islam organisation, I wrote many opinion pieces in Norwegian newspapers, warning about the dangers of continued Muslim immigration.

This, however, caused me to get in contact with several Muslims, and in 2004/2005 it began to dawn on me that – unless I were to jeopardise my intellectual integrity – I would have to re-examine most of what I thought I knew about Islam and Muslims.

Many obstacles, in many different areas, had to be overcome during the following years of my Islamic quest, not the least of which was becoming convinced that the Qur’an is indeed a revelation from God. Although I gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by many Muslims who have helped me during this quest, none have been more important when it comes to my understanding and appreciation of the Qur’an than Muhammad Asad and his monumental work The Message of The Qur’an.

We are all fallible human beings in need of God’s grace, Asad included. His translation of the Qur’an is obviously (pun intended) not perfect – and neither are any other translations of the Qur’an.

Carefully note, therefore, that I am not trying to convince you that The Message of The Qur’an is the one and only English translation worth studying. On the contrary, I encourage studying and comparing multiple translations, in order to get a better understanding of the nuances of meaning found in the Arabic original (and there are several excellent websites on the Internet that will help you do just that).

What I am saying is that Asad’s translation has been of particular importance to me.

As I was studying The Message of The Qur’an, I was taking more and more notes with pencil and paper. After a while, I started entering material of particular interest into a computer document. At first this was only meant for personal use, but later it seemed to me that this document might be of use to others as well. In about a year’s time, it has grown into the present compendium.

I realise that Asad is controversial, and that some Muslim scholars are somewhat critical of The Message of The Qur’an. Even so, it is still widely recognized as one of the English translations worth consulting, and is included, e.g., on tanzil.net.

Roaming the Internet, I came upon the 500 pages PhD thesis A Critical Study of Muhammad Asad’s The Message of The Qur’an (of which I have read only the abstract). In 2005 this thesis was submitted by Abdul Majid Khan to the Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, India.

As the title indicates, Khan is critical of (certain aspects of) Asad’s translation of the Qur’an. This, however, does not prevent Khan from writing the following in the introductory paragraphs of his thesis abstract:

Muhammad Asad’s The Message of The Qur’an ranks as one of the major works in 20th century exegetical literature, notwithstanding some serious drawback in its methodological stances and exegetical inferences. No future serious enterprise in Qur’anic exegesis in English is possible without taking full cognizance of Asad’s work.

Asad represents a unique phenomenon. Among the outstanding reverts to Islam in 20th century, he occupies a significant position.

Writes Wikipedia about The Message of The Qur’an (emphasis added):

Gai Eaton, a leading British Muslim thinker, after noting the limitations of Asad's rationalist approach, described Asad's translation as "the most helpful and instructive version of the Qur'an that we have in English. This remarkable man has done what he set out to do, and it may be doubted whether his achievement will ever be surpassed."

Writes Wikipedia about Asad (emphasis added):

In the West, Asad rose to prominence as a writer with his best-selling autobiography, The Road to Mecca. Later, after seventeen years of scholarly research, he published his magnum opus: The Message of the Qur'an – an English translation and commentary of the Quran. The book, along with the translations of Pickthall and Yusuf Ali, is regarded as one of the most influential translations of the modern era. An ardent proponent of Ijtihad and rationality in interpreting religious texts, he dedicated his works "to People who Think". In 2008, the entrance square to the UN Office in Vienna was named Muhammad Asad Platz in commemoration of his work as a "religious bridge-builder". Asad has been described by his biographers as "Europe's gift to Islam" and "a Mediator between Islam and the West".

My hope is that this compendium will be useful for others, in particular people who think.

 

Ole Jørgen Anfindsen
Oslo, Norway, October 2020

 

Appendix J – Further reading

If you wish to learn more about Islam and how Muslims think, here are some examples of good books, as well as a couple of interesting video conversations:

·         Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur'an.

·         Gai Eaton, Islam and the Destiny of Man.

·         Gai Eaton, Remembering God: Reflections on Islam.

·         Khaled Abou El Fadl, The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists.

·         Muhammad Abdel Haleem, Understanding the Qur'an: Themes and Style.

·         Joram van Klaveren, Apostate: from Christianity to Islam in times of secularisation and terror.

·         Abdal Hakim Murad (a.k.a. Timothy Winter), Commentary on the Eleventh Contentions.

·         Abdal Hakim Murad (a.k.a. Timothy Winter), Travelling Home: Essays on Islam in Europe.

·         Seyyed Hossein Nasr et al, The Study Quran.

·         Hamza Yusuf & Roger Scruton, What Conservatism Really Means (52 minutes video).

·         Hamza Yusuf & Roger Scruton, Sacred Truths in a Profane World (32 minutes video).

Readers may also want to consult A Common Word Between Us and You (an open letter from Muslims to Christians), originally signed by 138 Muslim scholars, and since then by many more. As of October 2020, A Common Word has been endorsed by 281 Christian leaders.

 

Appendix K – About this document

Version 1.0 of this compendium was released on 2020.10.30.

Version 1.1 (released on 2020.11.11) contains minor corrections, as well as additional material.

Version 1.2 (released on 2020.11.16) contains minor corrections, as well as a new Chapter 1 with Al-Fatihah.

Version 1.3 (released on 2020.12.06) contains minor corrections, as well as additional material.

Version 1.4 (released on 2020.12.11) contains minor corrections, as well as additional material.

Version 1.5 (released on 2020.12.22) contains minor corrections, as well as additional material.

Version 1.6 (released on 2021.01.13) contains additional material.

Version 1.7 (released on 2021.01.27) contains minor corrections, as well as additional material.

Version 1.8 (released on 2021.02.27) contains minor corrections, as well as additional material.

Version 1.9 (released on 2021.03.22) contains minor corrections, as well as additional material.

My apologies for the formatting of this document (as it appears in web browsers) not being quite the way it should be. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there is an easy fix, but please get in touch with me if you know how to align verses with their accompanying footnotes in a proper way throughout the tables above (email: ole at HonestThinking dot org).

 

All of Asad’s texts used in this compendium have been downloaded from Islamic Bulletin.

This compendium is available from: honestthinking.org/en/Islam/

Home page: HonestThinking.org