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In the Shade of the Qur'an - Surah # 87
In the Shade of the Qur'an - Surah # 87
Syed Qutb
Sura 87
The Most High
al Al'a
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent,
the Merciful.
Praise the name of your Lord, the Most High, Who creates and proportions
well, Who
determines and guides, Who brings forth the pasturage, then
turns it into withered grass. We shall teach you to
read and you shall
not forget save what Allah wills. He knows what is manifest and what is
kept hidden.
And We shall smooth your way to perfect ease. Give warning,
therefore, if warning is of use. He who fears Allah
will heed it, but
the most wretched will turn aside from it, He shall be c cast into the
greatest fire,
in which he shall neither die nor live. Prosperous is he
who purifies himself and glorifies the name of his Lord
and prays. Yet
you prefer this present life, while the life to come is better and longer
lasting. All
this is surely written in earlier scriptures; The scriptures
of Abraham and Moses.
In the Shade of the Qur'an
Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal has transmitted on the authority of Ali, the
Prophet's
cousin and companion, that the Prophet used to love this
surah. The famous traditionalist, Muslim, has also transmitted
that
the Prophet used to read this surah and surah 86, "The Enveloper", in
the prayers of Islamic festivals
and in Friday prayers. If one of
the festivals fell on a Friday, the Prophet would be sure to read
these
two surahs in the prayers.
The Prophet is right to love this surah as it turns the whole universe
into a temple whose four corners echo the praises and glorification of
his Lord, the Most High.
Praise the name of your Lord, the Most High, Who creates and
proportions well, Who determines and guides,
Who brings forth
the pasturage, then turns it into withered grass.
The rhythm of the surah, characterised by the long vowels with which each
of its verses ends, imparts a feeling
of the praises echoed every where
in the universe. The Prophet is also right to love this surah as it brings
him good news. As Allah charges him with the double task of conveying His
message and warning people, He promises
him:
We shall teach you to read and you shall not forget, save what
Allah wills. Be knows what is manifest and what is kept hidden.
And We shall smooth your way to perfect
ease. Therefore, give
warning, if warning is of we.
So Allah takes
upon Himself the responsibility of making His Messenger not
forget anything of the Qur'an. He also promises that
his path will be
smoothed in all his affairs, whether they are personal or concern his
message. This
is certainly a great favour. Again, the Prophet is right
to love this surah as it includes the basic ingredients
of the Islamic
concept of life and existence: the unity of Allah, the Creator; the
reality of Divine
revelation; and the reality of reward and punishment
in the life to come. The surah also affirms that these basic
principles
have well-established roots in the earlier Divine messages.
All this
is surely written in earlier scriptures; the scriptures of
Abraham and Moses.
All this is in addition to the impression it imparts of the easy nature
of the Islamic ideology, the
Messenger who conveys it, and the nation it
builds.
Praise the name of your Lord,
the Most High, Who creates and proportions
well, Who determines and guides, Who brings forth the, pasturage,
then
turns it into withered grass.
The surah opens with an order
to praise the Lord, which means to glorify
Him, recognise His supremacy and infallibility in everything,
and
remember His Divine attributes. It is much more than verbal repetition
of the phrase "Subhan
Allah", or "Praise be to Allah" . It is a genuine
feeling of the sublimity of these attributes.
As the surah inspires one with the splendour of a life based on constant
appreciation of the Divine
attributes, it creates within one a feeling
which is very real and very difficult to describe at the same time.
The two immediately presented attributes are Lordship and Highness. The
"Lord" or the Arabic equivalent "Rabb"
is the one Who tends and nurtures.
The denotations of this attribute fit in very well with the general
atmosphere of the surah, its glad tidings and easy rhythm. The "Highness"
attribute prompts one to look up to endless
horizons. Having a genuinely
vivid feeling of this attribute is indeed the essential purpose of praising
Allah and glorifying Him.
The surah opens with an order addressed by Allah to the Prophet in the
first instance: "Praise the name of your Lord, the Most High." The order
is given with an air of friendliness and
compassion almost beyond
description.
Whenever the Prophet read this surah he used to fulfill this
order
promptly by stopping after the first verse to say: "All praise be to my
Lord, the Most High".
Thus, he would receive the order, carry it out
promptly and read on. When this surah was revealed the Prophet told
the Muslims to fulfill the Divine order as they prostrate themselves in
their daily prayers. Similarly he told them
to carry out the other
order of 'Praise the name of your Lord, the Most Great, as they bow in
their
prayers. These praises, warm with life, have been included in the
prayers as a direct response to a direct order,
or more precisely to
a direct permission. For Allah's permission to His servants to praise
Him is one
of the favours He has bestowed on them. It is a permission
to them to be in contact with Him in a manner, given
their limited
abilities, they can appreciate. He, out of His grace, has permitted
them to do this so that
they may know Him and His attributes as best
they can.
Praise the name of your Lord, the
Most High, Who creates and proportions
well, Who determines and guides.
Everything Allah has created is well proportioned and perfected. Every
creature is assigned its own role and given
guidance so that it may know
its role and play it. It is told the purpose of its creation, given what
it needs for sustenance and guided to it. This is clearly visible in every
thing around us, big or small, important
or trivial. (For everything is
well perfected and guided to fulfill the purpose of its creation as it
can be fulfilled best.) All things are also collectively perfected so
that they may fulfil their collective role.
The single atom is well balanced between its electrons and protons, to
the same degree as the solar system, its
sun, planets and satellites! are
well balanced. Each of the two knows the way it is assigned to travel and
fulfills its role. The single living cell is also perfect and well
equipped to do everything it is asked to do,
in the same measure as the
most advanced and complex species. This perfect balance, in the individual
and the collective sense, is easily noticeable in every one of numerous
kinds of creation that fill the gap between
the single atom and the solar
system or between the single cell and the most advanced living creature.
This basic fact, evidenced by everything in the universe, is well
recognised by the human heart as it contemplates
what is in the universe.
This sort of inspiration and recognition is within the reach of every man
in
every age, regardless of his standard of education. All that is
required for it is an open mind which contemplates
and responds. Increased
knowledge then endorses and emphasizes with individual examples what
inspiration
has already proven with the first glance. The results of
study and research endorse, within their limited scope,
this basic truth
which applies to everything in the universe.
The American scientist, A Cressy Morrison,
Head of the Science Academy
in New York, says in his book "Man Does Not Stand Alone":
Birds have the homing instinct. The robin that nested at your door
may go south in the autumn, but
will come back to his old nest the
next spring. In September, flocks of many of our birds fly
south,
often over a thousand miles of open sea, but they do not lose their
way. The homing pigeon, confused by new sounds on a long journey in
a closed box, circles for
a moment then heads almost unerringly for
home. The bee finds its hive while the wind waving
the grasses and
trees blots out every visible guide to its whereabouts. This homing
sense is slightly developed in man, but he supplements his meagre
equipment with instruments
of navigation.
We need this instinct and our brain provides the answer. The tiny
insects must have microscopic eyes, how perfect we do not know, and
the hawks, the eagle and
the condor must have telescopic vision. Here
again man surpasses them with his mechanical instruments.
With his
telescope he can see a nebula so faint that it requires two million
times his vision, and with the electron microscope he can see hither
to invisible bacteria and, so
to speak the little bugs that bite
them.
If you let old Dobbin alone
he will keep to the road in the blackest
night. He can see, dimly perhaps, but he notes the
difference in
temperature of the road and the sides with eyes that are slightly
affected by the infra-red rays of the road. The owl can see the nice
warm mouse as he runs in
the cooler grass in the blackest night. We
turn night into day by creating radiation in
that short octave we
call light.
The honey-bee workers make chambers of
different sizes in the comb
used for breeding. Small chambers are constructed for the workers,
larger ones for the drones, and special chambers for the prospective
queens.
The queen bee lays unfertilized eggs in the cells designed for
males, but lays fertilized eggs in the
proper chambers for the female
workers and the possible queens. The workers, who are the modified
females, having long since anticipated the coming of the new
generation,
are also prepared to furnish food for the young bees by
chewing and predigesting honey
and pollen. They discontinue the
process of chewing, including the predigesting, at a certain
stage
of the development of the males and females, and feed only honey and
pollen. The females so treated become the workers.
For the females in the queen chambers the
diet of chewed and
predigested food is continued. These specially treated females develop
into queen bees, which alone produce fertile eggs. This process of
reproduction
involves special chambers, special eggs, and the marvelous
effect of a change of diet. This means
anticipation, discretion, and
the application of a discovery of the effect of diet.
These changes apply particularly to a community life and seem necessary
to its existence. The
knowledge and skills required must have been
evolved after the beginnings of this community life,
and are not
necessarily inherent in the structure or the survival of the honey
bee as such. The bee, therefore, seems to have out stripped man in
knowledge of the effects of diet
under certain conditions.
The dog with an inquiring nose can sense the animal that has passed.
No instrument of human invention has added to our inferior sense of
smell,
and we hardly know where to begin to investigate its extension.
Yet even our sense of smell is
so highly developed that it can detect
ultra-microscopic particles.
How do we know that we all get the same reaction from any single odour?
The fact is that we do not. Taste also gives a very different sensation
to each of us. How strange
that these differences in perception are
hereditary.
All animals hear
sounds, many of which are outside our range of
vibration, with an acuteness that far surpasses our
limited sense of
hearing. Man by his devices can now hear a fly walking miles away as
though it was on his eardrums, and with like instruments record the
impact of a cosmic ray.
One of the water spiders fashions a balloon-shaped nest of cobweb
filaments and attaches it to
some object under water. Then she
ingeniously entangles an air bubble in the hairs of her under
body,
carries it into the water, and releases it under the nest. This
performance is repeated until the nest is inflated, when she proceeds
to bring forth and raise
her young safe from attack by air. Here we
have a synthesis of the web, engineering, construction,
and
aeronautics. Chance perhaps, but that still leaves the spider
unexplained.
The young salmon spends years at sea, then comes back to his own river,
and, what is more, he travels up the side of the river into which flows
the tributary in which
he was born. The laws of the States on one side
of the dividing stream may be strict and the
other side not, but these
laws affect only the fish which may be said to belong to each side.
What brings them back so definitely?
If a salmon
going up a river is transferred to another tributary he
will at once realize he is not in the
right tributary and will fight
his way down to the main stream and then turn up against the
current
to finish his destiny. There is, however, a much more difficult reverse
problem to solve in the case of the eel. These amazing creatures
migrate at maturity from all
the ponds and rivers everywhere, those
from Europe across thousands of miles of ocean, all go
to the abysmal
deeps south of Bermuda. There they breed and die.
The
little ones, with no apparent means of knowing anything except
that they are in a wilderness
of water, start back and find their way
to the shore from which their parents came and
thence to every river,
lake and little pond, so that each body of water is always populated
with eels. They have braved the mighty currents, storms and tides, and
have conquered the beating
waves on every shore. They can now grow and
when they are mature, they will, by some mysterious
law, go back
through it all to complete the cycle.
Where does the
directing impulse originate? No American eel has ever
been caught in European waters and no European
eel has ever been caught
in American waters. Nature has also delayed the maturity of the
European
eel by a year or more to make up for its much greater journey. Do atoms
and molecules when combined in an eel have a sense of direction and
willpower to exercise it?
A female moth placed in your attic by the open window will send out
some subtle signal. Over
an unbelievable area, the male moths of the
same species will catch the message and respond in
spite of your
attempts to produce laboratory odours to disconcert them. Has the
little creature a broadcasting station, and has the male moth a mental
radio set beside his antennae?
Does she shake the ether and does he
catch the vibration? The cricket rubs its legs or
wings together, and
on a still night can be heard half a mile away. It shakes six hundred
tons of air and calls its mate. Miss Moth, working in a different
realm of physics and, in apparent
silence, calls quite as effectively.
Before the radio was discovered, scientists decided it was
odour that
attracted the male moth. It was a miracle either way, because the odour
would have to travel in all directions, with or without the wind. The
male moth would have to
be able to detect a molecule and sense the
direction from whence it came. By a vast mechanism,
we are developing
the same ability to communicate, and the day will come when a young man
may call his loved one from a distance and without mechanical medium
and
she will answer. No lock or bars will stop them. Our telephone and
radio are instrumental
wonders and give us means of almost instant
communication, but we are tied to a wire and a place.
The moth is
still ahead of us, and we can only envy her until our brain evolves
an individual radio Then, in a sense, we will have telepathy.
Vegetation makes subtle use
of involuntary agents to carry on its
existence - insects to carry pollen from flower to flower
and the
winds and everything that flies or walks to distribute seed. At last,
vegetation has trapped masterful man. He has improved nature, and she
generously rewards him.
But he has multiplied so prodigiously that he
is now chained to the plough. He must sow,
reap, and store; breed and
cross-breed; prune and graft. Should he neglect these tasks starvation
would be his lot, civilization would crumble, and earth return to her
pristine state.
Many animals are like a lobster, which, having lost a claw, will by
some restimulation of the cells and the reactivation of the genes
discover that a part of the
body is missing and restore it. When the
work is complete, the cells stop work, for in some way
they know it
is quitting time. A fresh-water polyp divided into halves can reform
itself out of one of these halves. Cut off an angle worm's head and he
will soon create a new
one. We can stimulate healing but when will our
surgeons, if ever, know how to stimulate
the cells to produce a new
arm, flesh, bones, nails, and activating nerves?
An extraordinary fact throws some light on this mystery of recreation.
If cells in the early stages
of development are separated each has
the ability to create a complete animal. Therefore,
if the original
cell divides into two and they are separated, two individuals will be
developed. This may account for identical twins but it means much
more - each cell at first is
in detail potentially a complete
individual. There can be no doubt then, that you are you in every
cell
and fibre.
An acorn falls to the ground - its tough brown shell holds
it safe.
It rolls into some earthy crevice. In the spring the germ awakes, the
shell burns food is provided by the egg like kernel in which the genes
were hidden. They send
roots into the earth, and behold a sprout, a
sapling, and in years a tree. The germ with
its genes has multiplied
by trillions and made the trunk, bark and every leaf and acorn
identical with that of the oak which gave it birth. For hundreds of
years in each of the
countless acorns is preserved the exact
arrangement of atoms that produced the first oak tree
millions of
years ago.
The author says in another chapter of his book:
Every cell that is produced in any living creature must adapt itself
to be part of the flesh,
to sacrifice itself as a part of the skin,
which will soon be worn off. It must deposit the
enamel of teeth,
produce the transparent liquid in an eye, or become a nose or an ear.
Each cell must then adapt itself in shape and every other
characteristic necessary to fulfil
its function. It is hard to think
of a cell as right-handed or left handed, but one becomes
part of a
right ear, the other becomes part of the left ear. Some crystals that
are chemically identical turn the rays of light to the left, others to
the right. There
seems to be such a tendency in the cells. In the exact
place where they belong, they become a
part of the right ear or the
left ear and your two ears are opposite each other on your head, and
not as in the case of a cricket, on your elbows. Their curves are
opposite, and when complete,
they are so much alike you cannot tell
them apart. Hundreds of thousands of cells seem impelled to
do the
right thing at the right time in the right place.
Elsewhere in his book Mr Morrison
says:
In the melee of creation many creatures have come to exhibit a high
degree of certain forms of instinct, intelligence, or what not. The
wasp catches the grasshopper,
digs a hole in the earth, stings the
grasshopper in exactly the right place so that he
becomes unconscious
but lives as a form of preserved meat. The wasp lays her eggs exactly
in the right place, perhaps not knowing that when they hatch, her
children can eat without
killing the insect on which they feed, which
would be fatal to them. The wasp must have done
all this right the
first and every time, or there would be no wasps of this species.
Science cannot explain this mystery, and yet it cannot be attributed
to chance. The wasp
covers a hole in the earth, departs cheerfully,
and dies. Neither she nor her ancestors have
reasoned out the process,
nor does she know what happens to her offspring. She doesn't even
know that she has worked and lived her life for the preservation of
the race.
In the same book we also read:
In some species, the workers bring in little seeds to feed the other
ants through the winter. The ants establish what is known as the
grinding
room, in which those which have developed gigantic jaws
especially built for grinding, prepare
the food for the colony. This
is their sole occupation. When the autumn comes and the seeds
are
all ground, 'the greatest good for the greatest number' requires that
the food supply be conserved and as there will be plenty of grinders
in the new generation, the
soldier ants kill off the grinders,
satisfying their entomological conscience by believing
perhaps that
the grinders had had reward enough in having had first chance at the
food while they ground.
Certain ants, by means of instinct or reasoning (choose which you
prefer), cultivate mushrooms for food in what may be called mushroom
gardens,
and capture certain caterpillars and aphids (plant lice).
These creatures are the ants' cows
and goats, from which they take
certain exudations of a honeylike nature for food. Ants capture
and
keep slaves. Some ants, when they make their nests, cut the leaves to
size, and while certain workers hold the edges in place, use their
babies, which in the larval
stage are capable of spinning silk, as
shuttles to sew them together. The poor baby may be bereft
of the
opportunity of making a cocoon for himself, but he has served his
community.
How do the inanimate atoms and molecules of matter composing
an ant set these complicated processes
in motion? There must be
Intelligence somewhere.
True, there must be a Creator
Who guides these and other creatures, big
and small. He is the One " Who creates and proportions well Who determines
and guides ". The examples we have quoted above are but few of the large
number of remarkable aspects
science has recorded in the worlds of plants,
nsects, birds and animals. But all these aspects reflect only
a part of the
import of the two verses: "Who creates and proportions well, Who
determines and
guides. " For our knowledge covers only a scanty part of
what is in the visible universe, beyond which extends
a whole world of
which we know nothing apart from the few hints Allah has chosen to drop
to us, as befits
our limited abilities.
Having fired such a great volley of praises to Allah to resound in even
the remotest corners of the universe, the surah complements that with an
inspiring touch from the realm of plants:
Who brings forth the pasturage,
then turns it into withered grass." The "pasturage", as used here, refers
to all plants. Every plant is suitable for one sort of species or another.
The term then has a much wider sense
than the familiar pastures where
cattle feed. Allah has created this planet and provided on it enough food
to nourish every single living creature which walks, flies or hides itself
underground.
The pasturage
is green when it first shoots forth, but it withers away and
blackens. It may be used for feeding when green, after
it blackens and
withers, or in between. Thus, it is useful in every condition, and it
serves a purpose
according to the elaborate planning of the One Who
creates, proportions, determines and guides.
The reference here to the life of plants carries also an implicit
connotation that all plants are reaped and harvested.
Similarly, every
living being will come to its appointed end. This connotation fits in
well with the
reference to the two worlds of man: "Yet you prefer this
present life, while the life to come is better and more
lasting." This
life is a pasture which comes to its end when it withers away and blackens,
while the
life to come is the one which lasts.
As the beginning of the surah opens up this limitless horizon, it provides
a framework for the fundamental facts tackled in this surah to be related
to the whole universe. The
framework is remarkably suitable, it is
perfectly harmonious with the atmosphere of the surah, its rhythm and its
shades of meaning.
The surah then gives the Prophet, and the Muslim nation in general, a very
welcome tiding:
We shall reach you to read and you shall not forget save what Allah
wills. He knows what is manifest and what is kept hidden. A And We
shall smooth your way to perfect
ease. Give warning therefore if
warning is of use.
The glad tiding
starts with sparing the Prophet the trouble of memorising
the Qur'an. All he needs to do is to read as he is taught
and Allah will
ensure that he will never forget any part of it.
We shall teach you to read and you shall not forget.
So keen to keep the Qur'an in
his memory, the Prophet used to repeat it
after Jibril, the angel, had come down with it to him. He felt that it
was
part of his responsibility to keep it registered in his memory. But Allah
decided that He would
look after this task. The tiding is also a happy one
for the Islamic nation since it is a reassurance that the
faith the Prophet
preaches is authentic. It is from Allah and He looks after it. This is part
of Allah's
grace. It shows how weighty the question of purity of faith is
in His scales.
Every time the Qur'an
states a definite promise or a constant law, it
follows it with a statement implying that the Divine will is free
of all
limitations and restrictions, even those based on a promise from Allah or
a law of His. For His
will is absolute beyond any such promise or law.
Here, the surah emphasizes this principle after the promise made
to the
Prophet that he will never forget anything of the Qur'an:
Save what Allah wills.
The two are complementary in the sense that the promise is within
the
Divine will. So we look forward to Allah's fulfilment of what He has
willed to promise.
He knows what is manifest and what is kept hidden.
This is stated here by way of giving a reason for all that has passed:
teaching
to read, freedom from forgetfulness and the exception made to
that. Everything is decided according to the wisdom
of the One Who knows
the secret and the manifest. He views everything from all angles and makes
His
decisions on the basis of His unfailing knowledge.
Then follows another tiding, happy and all-embracing:
And We shall smooth your way to perfect
ease.
This is a glad tiding for the Prophet personally and for the Islamic
nation
at large. It is furthermore a statement of the nature of Islam,
its role in human life and in the universe. This
verse, which is rendered
in Arabic in no more than two words, states one of the most fundamental
principles
of faith and existence. It provides a link between the nature
of the Prophet, the nature of Islam and that of the
whole universe. It is
a universe created by Allah with ease; it follows its appointed way with
ease
and draws nearer its final objective with ease. Thus it is an
inspiration lighting limitless horizons.
If Allah smooths a certain person's path, he finds ease in everything in
his life. For he will move along his way
to Allah with the universe which
is characterised by its harmony of construction, movement and direction.
Hence he does not clash with those who digress, for these are of no
importance, compared with the vast universe.
Ease will pervade his whole
life. It will be evident in his hand, tongue, movement, work, concepts,
way of thinking and conducting all affairs and tackling all matters; ease
with himself and with others as well.
His wife, Aisha, reports that whenever faced with a choice, the Prophet
would always choose the easier of the two
alternatives. She also reports:
Whenever the Prophet was alone with his family at home,
he was the
easiest of men, always smiling and laughing.
Al-Bukhari
has also transmitted,
A maid servant would take the Prophet by the hand and lead him wherever
she wished.
His guidance in matters of clothes, food, household furniture
and other
matters of day to day life points to a preference for what is easy. Imam
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah
speaks in his book "Zaad Al-Ma'ad ' of the
Prophet's guidance in matters of dress: "He had a turban which he gave
to Ali as a gift, but he used to wear it over a cap. But he also wore
either the turban or the cap separately.
When he wore the turban, how
ever, he used to leave the end part of it hanging between his shoulders.
This has been transmitted by Muslim in his book of authentic traditions,
on the authority of Omar ibn Hareeth,
who said, 'I saw the Prophet
speaking on the platform of the mosque, wearing a black turban with its
end hanging between his shoulders'. Muslim has also transmitted on the
authority of Jabir ibn Abdullah that the
Prophet was wearing a black
turban when he entered Makka, but nothing is mentioned here about his
leaving
its end part hanging. This signifies that the Prophet did not
always leave the tail of his turban hanging between
his shoulders. It
is also said that the Prophet entered Makka wearing his battle dress,
with a helmet
on his head, which suggests that he used to wear what
suited the occasion."
Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah
says in another chapter of his book: "The best
method, it is true, is that followed by the Prophet and which he
encouraged his companions to adopt. His guidance regarding dress is,
in short, that he used to wear
whatever was available, whether woollen
or cotton or other types of material. He used Yemeni gowns and had a
green gown. He also used different types of dress such as overcoat,
long dress, shirts, trousers, top gown, sandals
and shoes. He left the
end of his turban hanging between his shoulders on occasions, and did
not on
other occasions."
On the Prophet's guidance regarding food, the author says: "The Prophet
never refused
what was available at home, nor did he ever go out of his
way to get what was not. He would eat whatever was served
of good food
and he never slighted any sort of food whatsoever. If he did not like
something he would
simply not eat it but would not forbid it. An example
of his attitude is the case of dhabb, which he used not to
eat but he did
not forbid others eating it. On the contrary, he watched others eating it
at his own
table. He liked sweets and honey, used to eat dates, fresh and
preserved; drank milk, pure and mixed, added water
to ice and honey and
drank dates drink. He also ate khazeerah which is a thick soup made of
milk and
flour. He ate cucumber with fresh dates butter, dates with
bread, bread with vinegar, dried meat, a dish called
dabba (which was
one of his favourite dishes), boiled meat, rice and meat cooked with
fat, cheese, bread
with oil, water melon with fresh dates, and he used
to like dates cooked with butter. In short, he never refused
good food,
nor did he go to any trouble to get it. His guidance was to eat what was
available. If he
did not have anything to eat he would simply go hungry
etc.'
The author also speaks of the Prophet's
guidance concerning sleep and
wakefulness: "He used to sleep sometimes on a mattress, sometimes on a
simple animal skin. Occasionally he would sleep on a rough mat, or on
the cold earth with nothing under him, or
on a bed, perhaps a plain bed
and perhaps covered with a black bedspread." The Prophet's traditions
urging the adoption of an easy, gentle and tolerant attitude in all
matters, especially those which concern religious
duties are numerous.
From among these we may quote: "This religion is of an easy nature. Any
one who
pulls hard against it shall be the loser." (Transmitted by Al
Bukhari). "Do not be hard on yourselves lest it should
be made hard for
you. A former nation chose to be hard and it was made harder for them."
(Transmitted
by Abu Dawood). "A rider driving hard neither reaches his
destination nor keeps his transport." (Transmitted by
Al-Bukhari). "Make
it easy, not difficult, for others." (Transmitted by Al-Bukhari and
Muslim). Concerning
social dealings, the Prophet says: "May Allah have
mercy on any person who is tolerant when he buys, sells and asks
for
his rights." (Transmitted by Al-Bukhari). "A believer is gentle and
friendly" (Transmitted by Al-Baihaqi).
"A believer gets on well with
others and is easy to get on well with." (Transmitted by Al-Daraqutni).
"The type of man Allah dislikes most is the quarrelsome one who does not
budge " (Transmitted by Al-Bukhari and
Muslim). One of the highly
significant features of his character is that he hated hardness even
in names
and physical features. This shows how Allah has moulded his
nature and smoothed even his temperament. Saeed ibn
Al-Mussayyib reports
that the Prophet asked his father what was his name (Al-Mussayyib was his
nickname).
He answered "Hazn" (which means rough and difficult). The
Prophet said, "No you are Sahl (plain and easy).' The
man said, "I will
never change a name given to me by my father". Saeed comments, "As a
result, we have
always had a trace of hardness in our characters."
(Transmitted by Al-Bukhari). "Ibn Umar reports that the Prophet
changed
the name of a woman from 'Aassiyah (disobedient) to Jameelah (pretty)."
(Transmitted by Muslim).
He also said, "It is part of kindness to receive
your brother with a smiling face." (Transmitted by Al-Tirmithi).
Thus we
realise how refined and gentle the Prophet was to dislike even names and
features which smacked
of roughness and to try to substitute for them
what related to gentility and tolerance. The life story of the Prophet
is composed of pages of gentility, ease, tolerance and understanding in
all affairs. Let us quote here
an incident which reveals his method of
dealing with people of difficult temperament: "Once a bedouin came to
the Prophet asking something. The Prophet granted his request then said,
'Have I treated you well?' The bedouin
said, 'No, and you have not been
kind either!' The Muslims with the Prophet felt very angry and wanted to
punish the man. The Prophet, however, motioned them to leave him alone.
He then went into his house, sent for
the man and gave him something over
and above his original request. He then asked him, 'Have I treated you
well?' The man said, 'Yes, indeed. May Allah reward you well for you are
a good kinsman and a good tribesman'.
The Prophet then said to him, 'When
you said what you said you made my companions feel angry with you. If you
like to tell them what you have just told me so that they would have
nothing against you.' The man said, 'I will'.
The following day he came
and the Prophet said, 'This bedouin said yesterday what you have heard.
We
gave him more and he claims now that he is satisfied. Is that so?' The
bedouin said, 'Yes indeed! May Allah reward
you well, for you are a good
kinsman and a good tribesman.' The Prophet then said to his companions,
'My affair with this bedouin is similar to that of a man who had a she
camel which ran loose. Other people rushed
to try to catch her but they
managed only to make her run wild. The owner then appealed to them to let
him alone with his she-camel as he was gentler to her and knew her
temperament. The owner then went towards her,
having picked something
to feed her with. He approached her gently until she responded and sat
down.
He then saddled her and mounted her back. Had I left you alone when
the man said what he said, you would probably
have killed him and he would
have gone to Hell."
So gentle, simple and compassionate was
the Prophet's attitude towards
any person of rough nature. Examples of this attitude abound in the
records
of his life. These examples are practical manifestations of how
his path had been smoothed for him to achieve perfect
ease in every
aspect of life. He had been given a tolerant, understanding nature so
that he might carry
out his mission as Allah's messenger to mankind. In
this way his nature and the nature of Islam, the message he
carried and
conveyed, are alike. He was able, with Allah's grace, to fulfil the great
task with which
he had been entrusted. For when his path was smoothed,
the heavy burden of his mission became an enjoyable sport.
The Qur'an describes Muhammad, Allah's Messenger, as a source of mercy
to humanity, who has come to relieve people
of the burdens imposed on
them by reason of their being too hard against themselves
We have sent you forth only as a mercy to mankind. (21:107) Those
who follows the Messenger, the Prophet
who can neither read nor write,
whom they shall find described in the Torah and the Gospel. He will
enjoin upon them what is right, and forbid them what is evil. He will
make all good things lawful to
them and prohibit all that is foul. He
will relieve them of their burdens and of the shackles that
weigh upon
them. (7:157)
The Qur'an also describes the message the
Prophet has delivered in
statements of like import:
We have made the Qur'an easy
for warning: but will any take
heed? (54:22) He has laid on you no hardships in the observance
of your religion. (22:78) Allah does not wish to burden you,
He seeks only to purify you. (5:6) Allah
does not charge a soul
with more than its capacity. (2:286)
The message
of Islam is made easy for people to follow since it takes
into consideration the limitations of human abilities.
It imposes no
burdens which are too heavy. This easy nature of the religion of Islam
is readily identifiable
in its spirit as well as in its commandments:
Follow the upright nature Allah has endowed
mankind with. (30:30)
When we look carefully through this religion we find that care has been
taken
to make it easy for men to follow, without overstraining themselves.
It takes into consideration the different
situations man finds himself in,
and the conditions he faces in different environments. The faith itself
is based on concepts which are easy to grasp: a single god; none like Him;
He has created everything, He has guided
everything to realise the purpose
of its existence, He has also sent messengers to remind people of their
role in life and to call them back to their Lord Who has created them.
All obligations imposed by this faith fit
in perfectly together; there
are no conflicts, no contradictions. People have to fulfil these
obligations
according to their abilities: there need be no overstraining,
no heavy burdens: "If I give you an order, fulfill!
it as much as you
can; but leave off what I forbid you." Prohibition may be also relaxed
"save under
compulsion of necessity." (6:119) These basic principles
provide the limits within which the Islamic commandments
and principles
operate.
Hence the Messenger and the message have this basic feature, easy nature,
in common. So does the nation of Islam, the easy message, build: it is a
middle nation, merciful, the
recipient of Divine mercy easy natured and
enjoys a life which is perfectly harmonious with the; wider existence
in
the universe.
The universe itself with its perfect harmony provides a true picture of
how Allah's creation moves easily and smoothly, without clash or crash.
Millions of millions of stars
move in their orbits in the great space
Allah has provided, each with its own gravity, yet none moves out of
step and none crashes against another. There are millions of millions of
living creatures, each moving through
life to its appointed aim, near or
distant, according to a perfect plan. Each is given the abilities which
make its aim easy to achieve. Millions of millions of movements, events
and conditions come together then go their
separate ways; yet they are
much the same as the sounds of the different instruments in an orchestra:
so different but combine to give together a beautiful tune.
In short, perfect harmony exists between the nature
of the universe, the
message, the Messenger and the Islamic nation. They are all the creation
of Allah,
the One, the Most Wise.
Give warning, therefore,
if warning is of use.
Allah has taught him to read and not forget, smoothed his way to perfect
ease
so that he may be able to discharge his great task, namely, to warn.
For this he has been the subject of careful
preparation. Hence, he is
asked to warn whenever he has a chance to address people and to convey
to
them Allah's message. "If warning is of use". Warning is always useful.
There will always be, in every land and
every generation, those who will
listen to the reminders and warnings and will benefit by them, no matter
how corrupt their society is and how hardened their people are.
If we ponder a little over the verses in this
surah and their sequence,
we realise the greatness of the message entrusted to the Prophet. To convey
it, and to give the warnings he is asked to give he needs special
equipment: a smooth way to perfect ease in everything,
to be taught to
read and Allah's preservation of the message intact. Once the Prophet
has conveyed his
message, his task is fulfilled. Everyone is left to
choose his way, Their destinies differ according to their choice
of the
ways they follow:
He who fears Allah will heed it, but the most wretched
will turn
aside from it. He shall be cast into the greatest fire, in which he
neither dies nor lives. Prosperous is he who purifies himself and
glorifies the name of his Lord and
prays.
The Prophet is told here that his warnings will benefit him, Who fears
Allah and fears His punishment. Any intelligent man will feel a shudder
in his soul as soon as he learns
that there is a Creator who proportions
well, determines and guides. For he realises that such a Creator must
hold every man responsible for his actions, good or evil, and will reward
him accordingly. Hence he fears and heeds
the warnings when he is warned
"But the most wretched will turn aside from it." If a man does not listen
to the warning given, then he is absolutely "the most wretched" He lives
in a void, uninspired by the facts surrounding
him, turning a deaf ear
and a senseless mind to the evidence they give.
Such a person lives
in constant worry, striving hard to attain the paltry
pleasures of this world. Hence he is the most wretched in
this life. But
he is also the most wretched in the hereafter as he suffers there endless
torment: "He
shall be cast into the greatest fire, in which he shall
neither die nor live." The greatest fire is that of Hell.
It is indeed
the greatest of all fires in intensity, duration and size. He who suffers
it finds it endless.
He neither dies to rest from its torment, nor does
he live in it a life of rest and security. It is a never-ending
agony
which makes the sufferer yearn for death as his greatest hope. At the
other end we find prosperity
accompanied with self purification and
heeding of the warnings: "Prosperous is he who purifies himself and
glorifies the name of his Lord and prays. " Purification is used here
in the widest sense of the word: purification
from everything filthy or
sinful. The person who seeks to purify himself, glorifies his Lord, feels
His power and majesty in his inmost soul and prays, (whether taken in its
general sense or its special Islamic
sense) will definitely be
"prosperous", as Allah states here. He will be prosperous here in this
life
as he enjoys his relationship with Allah and the perfect bliss that
results from his glorification of Allah. He
will also be prosperous in
the hereafter as he escapes Hell and is rewarded with perfect happiness
in
Paradise. How different the two destinies are.
Having sketched the two different ends of the most wretched and
the
godfearing, the surah points out to the addressees the real reason for
their great wretchedness,
the failure which drives them headlong into
the greatest fire: "Yet you prefer this present life while the life
to
come is better and longer lasting". This short sighted preference for
the present life is the real
reason for every misery which befalls man.
It is indeed the cause of man's taking no heed of the warnings given
to
him. The Qur'an calls the present life "dunia" which connotes both
contemptuousness and ease of access.
The life to come is better in kind
and duration. Only the foolish who are deprived of sound Judgement would,
in the circumstances, prefer the present life to the next.
In conclusion, the surah points out that the message
of Islam is not new,
its roots go back far deep in time. "All this is surely written in earlier
scriptures,
the scriptures of A Abraham and Moses." The basics of the
grand faith contained in this surah are the same old
basic facts outlined
in the ancient scriptures of Abraham and Moses.
The truth is one and
the faith is one. This results from the fact that
their origin is one, Allah, Whose will it was to send messengers
to
mankind. The messengers deliver basically the same message, the same
simple truth. Details of the
messages may differ according to local or
temporal needs, but the basics are the same. They have one origin: Allah,
the Most High, Who creates, proportions well, determines and guides.
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