Al Mizan an Exegesis of the Quran (volume Seven)

Volume 7: Surah Ale-imran, Verses 190-199

Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men of understanding (190). Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and lying on their sides and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord! Thou hast not created this in vain! Glory be to Thee; save us then from the chastisement of the Fire (191). Our Lord! surely whomsoever Thou makest enter the Fire, him Thou hast indeed brought to disgrace, and there shall be no helpers for the unjust (192). Our Lord! surely we heard a crier calling to the faith, saying: 'Believe in your Lord '; so we did believe; Our Lord! forgive us therefore our faults, and cover our evil deeds and make us die with the righteous (193).

Our Lord! and grant us what Thou hast promised us by Thy messengers and disgrace us not on the Day of Resurrection; surely Thou cost not break the promise" (194). So their Lord accepted their prayer: "That I will not waste the work of a worker among you, whether male or female, the one of you being from the other; they, therefore, who emigrated, and were turned out of their homes, and were persecuted in My way, and fought, and were slain, I will most certainly cover their evil deeds, and I will most certainly make them enter gardens beneath which rivers flow"; a reward from Allah, and with Allah is yet better reward (195). Let it not deceive you that those who disbelieve go to and from in the cities (fearlessly) (196). A brief enjoyment! then their abode is hell, and evil is the resting-place (197). But as to those who fear (the wrath of) their Lord, they shall have gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding in them; and entertainment from their Lord, and that which is with Allah is best for the righteous (198). And most surely of the followers of the Book there are those who believe in Allah and (in) that which has been revealed to you and (in) that which has been revealed to them, humbling themselves before Allah; they do not sell the signs of Allah for a small price; these it is that have their reward with their Lord; surely Allah is quick in reckoning (199).

COMMENTARY

The verses give the resume of the conditions of the believers; the polytheists and the People of the Book as represented in this chapter. They explain the characteristics of the righteous believers that they always remember Allah and reflect on His signs; they seek Allah's protection from His chastisement and beseech for His forgiveness and the Garden; and that Allah has accepted their prayers and will surely give them what they have asked for. This is the general condition of the believers. As for the unbelievers, although they fearlessly roam the earth, but it is a brief enjoyment; and soon they will abide in the Hell-fire. One should not compare the believers with them. The only exception is of those People of the Book who have left their evil ways to follow the truth - they are with the believers.

QUR'AN: Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day there are signs for men of understanding:

Most probably, the word, "creation", here has a comprehensive connotation, denoting as to how these things came into being, what are their characteristics, properties and other concomitants like movement and stillness, changes and variations. In that case, the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day would encompass all the great phenomena of creation. Its explanation has been given in the chapter of The Cowl; so has also the meaning of the "men of understanding"

QUR'AN: Those who remember Allah standing and sitting and lying on their sides and reflect on the creation of the. heavens and the earth:

That is, they remember Allah in every condition - whether they are standing, sitting or lying down. We have earlier explained the meaning of "remembrance" and "reflection". The gist of the two verses is as follows:

Observation of the signs of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day has made them remember Allah continuously and at all times; they never forget Him in any situation. Also that observation has led them to reflection and meditation on the creation of the heavens and the earth; through it they remember that Allah will surely raise them again for awarding the recompense; therefore, they ask from Allah His mercy and beseech Him to fulfill His promise.

QUR'AN: "Our Lord! Thou hast not created this in vain! . .:

The demonstrative pronoun used here is "hadha" (this) which is singular and masculine, although the things referred to are plural and feminine. It is because the speakers are not concerned with particular names or distinct identification of each and every item; they look at the whole as a single creation.

It is the same style that has been used in 6:78, where Ibrahim (a.s.) is quoted as saying: Then when he saw the sun rising, he said: "This is my Lord; this is greater!" (In this verse, where Allah describes the rising and setting of the sun, the feminine words have been used — as is normally done. But Ibrahim is reported to use masculine pronouns and words for it. Ibrahim did so) because at that time he was completely unaware of its name or its characteristics—except that it was a "thing", (and "thing" in Arabic is masculine).

"al-Batil " (untrue, futile, vain) is that which has no purpose, no aim. Allah says: then as for the scum, it passes away as a worthless thing; and as for that which profits the people it remains in the earth (13:17). That is why when they realized that the creation was not in vain, they understood that Allah would surely gather the people for recompense; and that at that time Allah would mete out to the unjust people a disgraceful punishment, i.e., the Hell. They also knew that there was none who could ward off the underlying principle of chastisement; otherwise, the creation would be in vain. It is the connotation of their prayer:

"save us then from the chastisement of the Fire: Our Lord! surely whosoever Thou makest to enter the Fire, him Thou hast indeed brought to disgrace; and there shall be no helpers for the unjust".

QUR'AN: "Our Lord! surely we heard a crier calling to the faith, saying:

'Believe in your Lord '. . . ": The crier or caller refers to the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.). The clause, "saying: Believe", describes the cry or call; "an " (translated here as, saying) is explicative. They affirm before Allah that they have believed in the crier, i.e., the Messenger. He has brought to them news of many things from Allah; some of which he has warned them against, e.g., sins, faults, death in infidelity and transgression; and some others he has exhorted them to do or seek, e.g., forgiveness, mercy, details of the Garden (which Allah has promised his believing and righteous servants).

Therefore, they pray to their Lord to forgive them, to cover their faults, and to make them die with His righteous servants. Also, they ask Him to fulfill His promise to them — the Garden and the mercy —which the messengers have guaranteed to them by Allah's permission. Thus they said: "forgive us therefore our faults..."; 'ala rusulika (translated here as, by Thy messengers) literally means, 'on Thy messengers'; i.e., the promise which Thou didst give to Thy messengers, and they guaranteed it to us on Thy behalf; "and disgrace us not", i.e., by not fulfilling the promise; it is because of this implication that the verse ends on, "surely Thou cost not break the promise".

These verses clearly show that those believers acquired the belief in Allah and the hereafter and believed that Allah had been sending His messengers - they got these beliefs by reflecting on the signs of Allah. As for the details of that which the Prophet had brought, they learned them by believing in the Prophet. They, thus, follow the nature in that which may be known by reflecting on the nature and creation; and in other matters they accept and obey what they are told by the Prophet.

QUR'AN: So their Lord accepted their prayer. . .:

Using the word, 'Lord', and relating it to them ("their Lord") points to the quickening intensity of the divine mercy. Also the unrestricted sentence, "I will not waste the work of a worker among you ", points to this reality. There is no discrimination between one work and the other, nor between one worker and another.

The next sentence (that branches out from the above), i.e., "they, therefore, who emigrated, and were turned out of their homes, and were persecuted in My way, and fought, and were slain . . . ", aims at describing some good deeds for the description of their reward. The conjunctive ("and") have been used for enumeration only, not for combination; otherwise the described reward would be reserved for only those Emigrants who were martyred and combined all these attributes.

Even then, the verse mentions only those virtues and deeds which this chapter exhorts the believers to acquire and do, which it puts utmost emphasis on, i.e., giving preference to religion over one's home town or country, patiently bearing the troubles in the way of Allah and fighting in the cause of religion.

Apparently, emigration encompasses all types of fleeing, be it from polytheism, or family, or home. This may be inferred from three factors:

1. The word used, "emigrated", is unrestricted and unqualified; 2) it is followed by the phrase, "and were turned out of their homes", which denotes a particular type of emigration and it shows that the former refers to all types of "going out"; and 3) it is followed later by the clause,

"I will most certainly cover their evil deeds"; in the Qur'anic language the word, as-sayyi 'at (evils; evil deeds) is apparently used for small and minor sins; it means that they have already fled from major sins earlier through abstaining or repenting from them. All this shows that the emigration or fleeing mentioned here is more comprehensive. (Try to understand it.)

QUR'AN: "Let it not deceive you. . . in the cities (fearlessly):

It purports to remove a possible misunderstanding. The meaning: This is the condition and reward of the righteous believers. But as for the unbelievers, you should not be deceived by their affluence and opulence, their luxurious life and abundant riches (the pronoun, being singular, addresses the Prophet, but the talk is actually meant for the ears of the other people); after all, it is but a brief enjoyment which has no permanence.

QUR'AN: But as to those who fear (the wrath of) Allah. . . is best for the righteous:

"an-Nuzul" (food, drink and other things served to a guest; here it has been translated as "entertainment"). The phrase, "those who fear (the wrath of) Allah", refers to the righteous, as may be understood from the last clause of the verse. It supports what we have written above that the verse, "Let it not deceive you... the resting place", aim at removing an unspoken but possible misunderstanding.

QUR'AN: And most surely of the followers of the Book. . . quick in reckoning:

It means that they, like other believers, will get the better reward. It purports to affirm that the next life's happiness is not reserved to any particular nation or tribe - so that the People of the Book would be debarred from it even if they believed. Rather, it depends on believing in Allah and His messengers. Therefore if they accept true belief, they will become eligible to the hereafter's reward like other believers.

This verse praises these People of the Book in a special manner. It removes from them all those evil traits for which the preceding verses had been condemning other Jews and Christians - differentiating between the messengers of Allah, hiding what they had made a covenant with Allah to make known, and selling Allah's signs and communications for a small price.