ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ

30:44; 106:4.

Commentary:

One of the major causes of the opposition of Meccans to the Holy Prophet was that they believed that if idol worship disappeared from Arabia, Mecca (or the Ka‘bah) being the repository of all their well-known idols will lose its importance and consequently they will also lose the prestige and influence they had enjoyed in Arabia as the custodians of the Ka‘bah. The present verse disabuses their minds of this false notion and purports to say that being the centre of a world movement and of the last message for all mankind, Mecca, far from losing its importance, will, on the contrary, immeasurably add to its prestige and will continue to be respected and revered till the end of time.

6:15; 39:12-13.

Commentary:

Not only were all the energies of the Holy Prophet devoted to God, but he believed in no other deity, and his eyes were shut to every thing but his Lord and Maker to Whom alone he submitted. The Holy Prophet was indeed the First Muslim.

9:112.

Commentary:

This verse embodies a most effective repudiation of the charge that Christian missionaries and publicists are in the habit of levelling at Islam, viz. that it accords a lower status to women. The Quran has repeatedly said that Muslim women stand on the same level with Muslim men, and that they can attain to all those spiritual heights to which men can attain. Besides, Islam confers on women all the political and social rights which men enjoy. Only their spheres of activities being different, their duties are different. It is this difference in duties of both the sexes that has been mistakenly, or perhaps deliberately, misunderstood by hostile critics of Islam as implying a lower status for women.

The ten outstanding attributes of Muslim men and women mentioned in this verse have been appropriately described in an ascending order.

The first stage of the spiritual development of a believer is that of اسلام which in this verse has been used in the sense of intellectual acceptance of truth. The next stage is that of ایمان which implies the giving of peace and safety to others and testifying to the Divinely-revealed Teaching. At the stage of اسلام a Muslim accepts truth because reason and common sense demand of him this acceptance, while at the stage of ایمان he combines emotions and feelings with reason, and becomes intellectually and emotionally a true believer. The third stage of spiritual development is that of قنوت which signifies total obedience to God’s commandments. At this stage the spiritual wayfarer finds himself irresistibly attracted towards his Creator, and his submission to Divine commandments proceeds from his love for the Supreme Being. The next stage in the spiritual journey is reached when a believer becomes صادق which means that he identifies himself completely with truth, and faces trials and temptations with complete equanimity. His faith becomes pure and free from all dross of hypocrisy and love of worldly things. The fifth stage is that of صبر; when identification with truth becomes a permanent feature of a believer’s character. The stage of خشوع is a still higher stage in spiritual progress. It indicates an attitude of humility which the believer develops after he has gained complete victory over trials and tribulations consequent upon the growing consciousness of his own weakness and that of the perfection and completeness of the Divine Being. The next stage is that of متصدق. At this stage the believer becomes conscious that he is not to live for himself alone but should share God-given blessings with other fellow beings. At the stage of صائم which is the next high spiritual stage the believer learns to sacrifice his own legitimate needs and comforts for the benefit of others and at the ninth stage of حافظین فروجھم he scrupulously guards all the avenues through which sin can find access to his mind. At the tenth stage i.e. الذا کرین الله, which is the last stage and which forms the climax of spiritual growth and development, the believer is so completely engrossed in God as to have become lost in His remembrance.

6:91; 11:30.

Commentary:

It is a common objection against the Prophets of God that they seek to gain ascendency over men by raising the standard of revolt against the existing order of things with a view to establishing a new order under their own leadership. It is this baseless charge that is refuted in this verse. God’s Prophets never seek self-aggrandizement. On the contrary, they choose the path of suffering and service. They pass their days in hardship and privation. Their life is a model of rigid discipline willingly undergone. Had their activities been prompted by a desire to gain power and dominion over men, they would not have subjected themselves to a hard and disciplined life, a life of prayer, fasting and renunciation. They do demand obedience of others, but they themselves are always the first to forego their desires and their ambitions in the service of their Lord and of humanity. It is not the desire for power but the passion for service and self-abnegation that has mastery of them. This is not an empty assertion, unsubstantiated by the established facts of history; for though the Prophet Noah, in whose mouth are put the words, I have not asked of you any reward, did not get the opportunity to subjugate his enemies, yet the Holy Prophet of Islam who was, like Noah, a Prophet of God, did show by actual practice that God’s Prophets desire no reward for their service in the form of riches or dominion. The fact is too well-known to need a reference that when Mecca lay prostrate at the Prophet’s feet, he forgave his most inveterate enemies with a magnanimity unparalleled in the history of the world. He demanded no fine and asked for no indemnity from the defeated Meccans or their allies. The only words he uttered were: "Go, you are a free and forgiven people."

7:139; 20:78.

20:79; 26:61; 44:25.

Commentary:

The verse throws interesting light on an important political question. Islam enjoins Muslims to obey their rulers. If, however, the latter deny to them religious freedom and resort to compulsion in matters of faith, Muslims are enjoined to migrate from their country rather than offer resistance to the established authority. But what should they do if the authorities do not even permit them to migrate and force them to remain in the country and suffer persecution? The verse under comment supplies an answer to this question by saying that Pharaoh pursued the Israelites "wrongfully and aggressively," which means that in preventing the Israelites from migrating Pharaoh was doing a thing to which he had absolutely no right. Thus if rulers prevent an oppressed subject people from peacefully leaving a country, the latter would be justified in resisting and opposing them by all legitimate means and in that case defiance of the authority will not be held as a breach of the law or an act of rebellion. Just as nobody is allowed to defy and break the law of the land in which he lives, similarly no Government has a right to compel any person to live under it while denying him freedom of religion and conscience.

The words, He in Whom the children of Israel believe, spoken by Pharaoh at the time of his drowning, show the utterly abject state of his mind at that time. If he had said that he believed in the God of Moses, he might be considered to have had some sense of dignity left in him because, having been brought up in the royal household and being the leader of his people, Moses was entitled to respect even from worldly considerations; but to say that he believed in Him in Whom the children of Israel believed—the very children of Israel whom it was his pride to trample under foot—bespeaks the great depth of abasement to which the proud Pharaoh had fallen.

9:41.

2:136; 16:124.

2:144; 16:90.

Important Words:

جاھدوا (strive) is derived from جھد. They say جھد فی الامر i.e. he did his utmost, took extraordinary pains, he employed himself vigorously in prosecuting the affair. جھد دابته means, he fatigued the beast or burdened the beast beyond its power. جاھد means, he exerted his utmost power in contending with an object of his disapprobation. جاھد العدو means, he fought with the enemy imposing upon himself distress or exerting his utmost power or ability to repel him. جھاد orمجاھدة are infinitives from جاھد (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The word جھاد has been used in two senses in the Quran with a slight change, viz. جھاد فی سبیل اللّٰه i.e. striving hard in the cause of Allah, used in several verses of the Quran and جھاد فی اللّٰه, literally meaning striving hard in Allah, as used in the present verse and in 29:70. As it appears from the latter two verses جھاد فی اللّٰه signifies striving hard to win the pleasure and nearness of God while جھاد فی سبیل اللّٰه signifies the waging of war against the enemies of truth. Thus جھاد فی اللّٰه seems to possess a higher spiritual significance than جھاد فی سبیل اللّٰه.

Jihad is of three kinds: (a) jihad against one’s baser self, i.e. against one’s evil desires and propensities or jihad against Satan and (b) jihad against the enemies of truth which includes fighting in self-defence. These two kinds of jihad may be termed as جھاد فی اللّٰه and the third kind of jihad may be called جھاد فی سبیل اللّٰه. The Holy Prophet has termed the first two kinds of jihad as جھاد اکبر (the greater jihad) and the third kind of jihad as جھاد اصغر (the smaller jihad). Once when he was returning from fighting he is reported to have said: رجعتم من الجھاد الاصغر الی الجھاد الاکبر i.e. you have returned from the smaller jihad (fighting against the enemies of Islam) to the greater jihad (waging war against one’s baser self) (Khatib). According to Imam Raghib, the words جاھدوا فی اللّٰه حق جھادہ include all the three forms of jihad. The words جاھدوا فی اللّٰه may also include the propagation of Islam, as the words, "and He has laid no hardship upon you in religion," indicate. See also 2:219.

The words, "He has chosen you and has laid no hardship upon you in religion," show that while on the one hand it has been laid down as a sacred duty upon Muslims to preach their religion, on the other they signify that Islam is a simple, practical and practicable religion and there is nothing in its commandments which it is not easily possible for man to carry out. To this practicality and practicability of the Islamic ordinances pointed references have also been made in vv. 2:287 & 54:18. The words also show that the Law or Shari‘ah has not been revealed to impose a burden upon man as the Christians say but, on the contrary, to lighten his burdens and to break the chains and fetters with which he has shackled himself and to uplift him morally and spiritually.

The words, "He named you Muslims before," refer to the following prophecy of the Bible:

And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name… And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen, and the Lord God shall slay thee; and He shall call His servants by another name (Isaiah 62:2 & 65:15).

The allusion in the words "And in this Book" is to Abraham’s prayer quoted in the Quran, viz. "Our Lord make us Muslims (submissive) to Thee and make our offspring a people submissive to Thee" (2:129). It is very significant that though in its essence the religion of all the Prophets of God was Islam, it was reserved for the religion of the Holy Prophet Muhammad to receive this proper name from God. As the religions preached and practised by the former prophets were only an undeveloped and imperfect form of Islam they did not receive a proper name and were known after their own names.

But as Islam, the eternal faith, received its fullest development and completest consummation at the hands of the Holy Prophet, his religion was given this proper name. This is one of the many superiorities which the Holy Prophetpossesses over other Prophets of God.

The words "He named you Muslims" possess another significance. The word 'Muslim' being from the root 'Islam' which means 'peace'; a true Muslim is one who is at peace with God and man and is also at peace with himself. The Holy Prophet has given an apt definition of a Muslim in the following well-known hadith

المسلم من سلم المسلمون من یدہ و لسانه

i.e. a true Muslim is one from whose hands and tongue other Muslims are safe (Bukhari). It is indeed strange that a religion, whose very name means 'peace' and whose followers are enjoined to preach and practise peace, should have been stigmatized by hostile and ignorant critics as having brought fire and sword into the world, and should have been maligned as being indebted for its expansion and propagation to the swords and spears of its votaries! Nothing could be farther from truth.

Commentary:

There could be no better avocation for a person than to call men to God and to conform his own conduct to the teachings he preaches to others and to submit entirely to God’s will. This is the quintessence of the teaching of Islam.

6:152; 19:33; 29:9.

27:20.

Important Words:

أشد (full maturity) is derived from شد. They say شد الشیء i.e. he made the thing hard, firm, compact, strong, or he bound it fast. أشد (ashudd) means, physical and intellectual and also spiritual maturity as gives evidence of rectitude of conduct or course of life; firmness or soundness of judgement produced by experience. (Lane).

Commentary:

The word seems to have been used in the sense of spiritual maturity in the present verse and in 12:23; and in the sense of intellectual and physical maturity in 6:153 and 18:83. Generally, Divine Messengers are invested with their divine mission at the age of forty. The belief that Jesus was made a Prophet at the age of 33 seems to be an historical anachronism, as recent research into Christian history has proved his birth to have taken place about six years earlier than generally understood (Enc. Brit. under "Chronicle").

أوزعنی (grant me the power) is derived from وزع. They say وزع فلاناً او بفلان i.e. he hindered or led or drove forth such a one and restrained him; he urged or incited such a one. أوزع اللّٰه فلانا means, God inspired or granted such a one the power to do a thing. See also 27:18.

In verse 13 above a brief reference has been made to محسنین (doers of good). The present verse enjoins a believer to do good (احسان) to all his fellow beings, irrespective of caste, colour or clime, starting, however, with his parents, the mother having secured a special mention, as also in 31:15 because "she bears him with pain, and brings him forth with pain".

In 31:15, it was stated that the weaning of a child takes two years, but in the verse under comment the combined period of pregnancy and suckling is given as thirty months which leaves six months as the period of gestation, and that seems to be the period during which a pregnant woman feels the burden of pregnancy, the fourth month being the time when she begins to have such a feeling.

Commentary:

The house referred to in the verse was that of Lot minus his wife, who chose to side with her disbelieving relatives and refused to go with Lot.

32:19; 38:29; 45:22.