Verse 93

3330

Commentary:

At different places the Quran has pointed to one of the most distinctive attributes of a living God, viz. that He speaks to His chosen servants and listens to and answers their prayers. It is a dead and defunct deity, fit to be thrown away, that has not the power to speak or listen to and accept the prayers of his votaries. God has revealed Himself throughout the ages to His Elect through His actions and spoken word. Even now He has not ceased to reveal Himself and will never cease to do so. While rebuking the Israelites for taking the calf as their deity the Quran exposes the absurdity of their position in the words: "Did they not see that it spoke not to them nor guided them" (7:149). Again in 20:90 Moses is described as bringing home to the Israelites their folly for adopting the calf as their god in the words: Could they not see this simple fact that it returned to them no answer, and had not the power to do them either harm or good. In vv. 21:64 & 66 and in the verse under comment Abraham advances the same argument in repudiation of idol-worship, viz. that the false gods cannot speak. From all these verses it becomes clear that God ceases to be a living God and forfeits all right to our worship and adoration if He ceases to speak to us and does not listen to and accept our prayers. Those who think that God has now given up revealing Himself to His servants are guilty of a colossal mistake. Islam’s greatest superiority over all other religions lies in the fact that it has produced in every age men to whom God has spoken. In our own time He spoke to Ahmad, the Promised Messiah.