أَسْلَمَ

4:126.

See 2:63.

Important Words:

بلی (nay) is used for تصدیق (confirmation) and generally follows a question. It must be followed by a clause in the affirmative, whether the question which it follows is in the negative or affirmative. Thus in English it may either be rendered as yes or nay, as the case may be, but not as no (Aqrab & Lane).

اسلم (submits) is derived from سلم which means, he was or became safe and secure, or he escaped. سلم من العیب والآفة means, he became safe or free from defect and evil. اسلم which is both transitive and intransitive means: (1) he embraced Islam; (2) he resigned or submitted himself; (3) he paid in advance. اسلم وجھه لله means, he submitted or resigned himself wholly to God, or he devoted his entire attention to God, or he resigned himself to God (Lane & Aqrab).

وجھه (himself). وجه means: (1) face; (2) the part of a thing visible to the sight of a looker on; (3) the thing itself; (4) direction; (5) object and motive; (6) deed or action to which a man directs his attention; (7) the desired way; (8) favour or countenance as in فعل ذالك لوجه الله i.e. he did it to obtain the favour or countenance of God (Aqrab).

محسن (doer of good) is derived from حسن meaning, he or it became good or beautiful. احسن الیه means, he did good to, or bestowed a favour on him. احسن الشیء means, he rendered the thing good or beautiful. احسان means, the doing of good; act of goodness; sincerity. الحسنی (feminine of الاحسن) means: (1) success or victory; (2) best thing; (3) the view or vision of God; to see God (Aqrab & Lane).

Commentary:

The verse is important and explains a fundamental truth. In refutation of the claims of Jews and Christians to the monopoly of salvation, the Quran mentions the fundamental principle that for salvation it is not of any avail to be a Christian or a Jew, but that it lies in اسلام which signifies absolute surrender to God’s will and unqualified compliance with His word. He who secures this secures salvation; mere profession of a faith is not enough. The word محسن (the doer of good deeds), as also hinted under Important Words above, has been explained by the Holy Prophet as follows:

ان تعبد الله كانك تراہ فان لم تكن تراہ فانه یراك

i.e. "you may become a محسن only if you pray to or worship God in such a spirit of reality and certitude that you feel that you are seeing Him (and that God also is seeing you); or (with a lower degree of certitude) that you at least feel that God is seeing you." محسن also means, one who does good to God’s creatures. Thus according to Islam, salvation lies, (1) in اسلام or absolute submission to the will of God; and (2) in true worship of God offered with a perfect degree of certitude; and (3) in doing good to one’s fellow beings.

It is a distinctive feature of Islam that it makes its followers realize the presence of God and continued contact with Him a reality, and thus enables them to establish a true and permanent connection with Him even in this life. This is really the beginning of salvation. The Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement has explained this verse in the following beautiful words:

"The verse alludes to the three important stages of perfect goodness, i.e. (1) فنا (self-annihilation); (2) بقا (regeneration); and (3) لقا (union with God). The words اسلم وجھه لله (submits himself completely to Allah) teach that all our powers and organs and whatever belongs to us should be surrendered to God and devoted to His service. This state is known فناء or death which a true Muslim must bring on himself…The second clause وھومحسن (and is the doer of good) alludes to the state of بقا or regeneration, for when a man is quickened by the love of God and all his movements become subservient to His will, his self dying entirely within him, he is, as it were, granted a new life which may be called بقا or regeneration. He lives for God, and through Him he lives for his fellow beings…The concluding words, (he) shall have his reward with His Lord. No fear shall come upon such, neither shall they grieve, describe the third or the final stage—the stage of لقا or union with God. It is the highest stage of knowledge, certainty, trust and love. The reward of one’s sincerity and devotion is not obscure or doubtful. It is certain, visible, and, as it were, tangible. In this stage man is so sure of the existence of God that he may be said to be actually seeing Him. No fear of the future darkens his faith. The dead past is buried and the living present has no sorrow for him. Every spiritual bliss is present. Such a state is termed لقا or union with God" (A’inah).

Commentary:

As in the physical world man must submit to the laws of nature, whether he wills it or not and he knows by experience that such submission is useful for him, it is only reasonable that in spiritual matters also, wherein he has been granted a certain amount of freedom, he should obey the laws and commands of Allah and thus win His pleasure to his own eventual benefit.

2:132.

Important Words:

خلیل (special friend) is derived from خل. They say خل الشیء i.e. he bored a hole into the thing. خل فی دعائه means, he was particular in his prayer. خلیل means, a special and particular friend whose love penetrates your inner parts (Aqrab & Lane). See also 2:255.

Commentary:

This verse gives the essence of Islam which signifies submission to the Will of God and the devotion of one’s faculties and powers to His service (see also note on 2:113). Abraham has been held out to the People of the Book who revere him as a patriarch and to the Arabs who were proud of being descended from him, as an example who embodied in his person the essence of Islam by his full submission to the Will of God; and both these people are herein told that it is only the true observance of the teachings of Islam that can make one like Abraham—beloved of God and His special friend.

There is a hadith in which the Holy Prophet is reported to have said: "If I had taken anyone from among men as my خلیل (special friend whose love penetrates one’s heart), I would have certainly taken Abu Bakr as such. But such friendship is permissible with God alone Who is my خلیل" (Bukhari, ch. on Fada’il of the Holy Companions).

12:102; 14:11; 35:2; 39:47.

20:133; 51:58-59.

6:164; 39:13.

Important Words:

فاطر (Maker) is derived from فطر. They say فطره i.e. he clove or split or rent it; he created it or brought it into existence; or he originated it. فطر العجین means, he made the dough into bread without leavening it. افطر means, he broke the fast. انفطر and تفطر mean, it became cleft or split or rent. الفطرة means, the natural constitution with which a child is created. فاطر when used about God, means the Originator or the Creator or the Maker (Taj).

Commentary:

The question in the first part of the verse implies that, as God alone is the Maker of the heavens and the earth and as it is He alone Who feeds all without being fed by anybody, therefore there is none worthy of being taken as protector but He. None else is worthy of being worshipped as God.

The words, Who feeds, refute the Godhead of those lifeless objects which men have taken for gods. They admittedly feed none, but God feeds all; hence these objects are not worthy of being taken as God.

The words, is not fed, negate the Godhead of those living beings who have been deified by men. They stand in need of food, but God needs no food; hence they cannot be gods.

Commentary:

The Quran and the Bible disagree as to which of his two sons—Ishmael and Isaac—Abraham, in pursuance of God’s command, offered for sacrifice. The Quran says that it was Ishmael, but according to the Bible, it was Isaac. The Bible, speaking of the sacrifice says "And He said, 'Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac and get there into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I tell thee of'" (Gen. 22:2). The Quran, on the other hand, declares clearly and unequivocally, in the verse under comment, that it was Ishmael who was offered for sacrifice. The Bible, however, contradicts itself in this respect. According to it, Abraham was commanded to offer his only son for sacrifice, but Isaac was at no time his only son. Ishmael was born to Abraham when he was 86 years old while Isaac was born to him when he had reached the very advanced age of 99. Thus for 13 years Ishmael was Abraham’s only son, and, being also his first born, was doubly dear to him. It stands to reason, therefore, that Abraham must have been required by God to offer for sacrifice his nearest and dearest thing which was his only and first born son who was Ishmael.

Some evangelists have vainly tried to show that, "Ishmael being of the handmaid, was born after the flesh while Isaac being born of the free woman was by promise" (Galatians, 4:22, 23). Apart from the fact that Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, belonged to the royal family of Egypt and was no handmaid, Ishmael has repeatedly been mentioned in the Bible as Abraham’s son, exactly as Isaac has been mentioned as his son (Gen. 16:16; 17:23, 25). Moreover, analogous promises were made to Abraham in regard to the future greatness of Ishmael as were made to him about Isaac. The Bible says: "And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation" (Gen. 17:20). "And the angel of the Lord said unto her (Hagar) "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude." (Gen. 16:10, 11). So apart from the substitution in the Bible of Isaac for Ishmael which seems to be deliberate, and of Moriah for Marwah, an hillock which lies in the vicinity of Mecca near which Abraham, in fulfilment of his vision, referred to in the preceding verse, left Ishmael with his mother Hagar while yet a child, there is nothing in the Bible to lend the slightest support to the view that Abraham offered Isaac for sacrifice and not Ishmael.

Furthermore, the fact that whereas no trace is to be found in the religious ceremonies of Jews and Christians of the supposed sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, the Muslims, spiritual descendants of Ishmael, commemorate with great fervour his intended sacrifice, by slaughtering every year rams and goats all over the world on the tenth day of Dhul-Hijjah. This universal sacrifice of rams and goats by Muslims on a specific day in commemoration of Abraham’s preparedness to slaughter Ishmael, establishes beyond dispute or doubt that it was Ishmael whom Abraham offered for sacrifice and not Isaac. In a sense Abraham had already fulfilled his vision by leaving Ishmael while yet a child with his mother, Hagar, in the bleak and barren valley of Mecca where at that time there was to be found no sign of life, nor even a blade of grass or a drop of water. That brave act, in fact, had symbolised the sacrifice of Ishmael.