6. Surah Al-An'aam

Commentary As pointed out earlier, a major portion of Surah Al-An'am is devoted to addressing the disbelievers of Makkah and answering questions asked by them. They were told that the straight path to Allah was following the Qur'an and the Holy Prophet ﷺ . Before him, during the time of past prophets, salvation depended on following their books and code of laws. The same thing is true today. Today, salvation lies in following nothing but the Shari` ah brought by him. So, they were asked to become reasonable, take the straight path and avoid exchanging it with paths of error right and left. If they did that, they were warned, these ways of error will throw them far away from the way of Allah. The first (159) of the two verses carries a general address included wherein are the disbelievers of Arabia, the Jews and Christians and Muslims, all of them. Addressing them, stated there is the sad end of those who turn away from the straight path of Allah - and the instruction given to the Holy Prophet ﷺ is that he should have nothing to do with those who take to the ways of error. Then, out of these, there are those ways of error which take one in a direction totally opposite to what the straight path is, such as the ways of the disbelievers, polytheists and the people of the Book. Then, there are other ways too, which do not, though, take one all the way in the opposite direction, but misguide them any way by pulling them away from the straight path and putting them on ways to the right and left. These are ways of 'doubts' and 'innovations' in the true and settled faith (Shubhat and Bid'at). They too lead one astray. So, it was said: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ فَرَّ‌قُوا دِينَهُمْ وَكَانُوا شِيَعًا لَّسْتَ مِنْهُمْ فِي شَيْءٍ ۚ إِنَّمَا أَمْرُ‌هُمْ إِلَى اللَّـهِ ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ ﴿159﴾ (Surely, those who have made divisions in their religion and turned into factions, you have nothing to do with them. Their case rests with Allah alone; then He will tell them what they have been doing). In this verse, made clear first was that the Messenger of Allah was free of any responsibility concerning those who land themselves into the ways of error. The noble Prophet, may the blessings of Allah, and peace be upon him, had nothing to do with them. Then, they were given the notice of warning that their case was, sufficient to say, in the hands of Allah Ta` ala, and it was He who would punish them on the day of Qiyamah. As for ` having made divisions in religion and turning into factions' mentioned in the verse is concerned, it refers to the practice of not following the basic principles of established religion, rather electing to follow personal whims and desires, or become willing victims of Satanic instigations and deceptions, as an outcome of which, one would add something new to it, or leave some of that which is already there. Stern Warnings against Making Additions in Established Religion According to Tafsir Mazhari, included here are the peoples of the past communities as well, those who had abandoned their basic religion and had added to it things on their own - and with them, there are the deviators and innovators (the partisans of Bid'ah) of this Ummah too, who keep adding baseless things, on their own, into the Din of Islam. About this, the Holy Prophet ﷺ has said: ` My Ummah will face the same conditions faced by the Bani Isra'il. The kind of evil practices in which they got involved will also affect the people of my Ummah. The Bani Isra'il had split into seventy two sects. My Ummah will break up into seventy three sects - all of them will go to Hell, except one. The Sahabah asked about the group which would be so blessed with salvation. He said: مَا اَنَا عَلَیہِ اَصحَابِی (ma ana 'alaihi wa ashabi : That on which am I and my Companions) ' - that is, the collective body of people which follows my way and the way of my Sababah will be blessed with salvation. (This narration from Sayyidna ibn ` Umar ؓ عنہما has been reported by Tirmidhi and Abu Daud) Al-Tabarani has reported on sound authority from Sayyidna Faruq al-A'zam ؓ ، that he told Sayyidnah ` A'ishah ؓ that the sects mentioned in this verse are the people of Bid'ah (innovators in established religion) who, following their whims and desires, invent new ways in religion. The same view has been reported from Sayyidna Abu Hurairah ؓ with sound authority. Therefore, the Holy Prophet ﷺ has emphatically prohibited the invention and introduction of new methods in religion on one's own. Based on a narration from Sayyidna Al-` Irbad ibn Sariyah, Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi رحمۃ اللہ علیہم and others have reported that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: ` Those who live after me will see many differences. Therefore, (I order you that) you should, abiding by my Sunnah (way) and the Sunnah of my rightly-guided successors (Khulafa' ar-Rashidin) strictly, keep doing what you do while adhering to nothing but these, avoid the temptation of falling for new methods because everything introduced anew into the religion is Bid'ah, and every Bid'ah is error and straying.' In another Hadith, he said: ` One who stood separated from the Jama` ah, even to the measure of a span between the extended thumb and the little finger, he has taken out the band of allegiance to Islam from around his neck. (Abu Dawud and Ahmad) According to Tafsir Mazhari, ` Jama` ah' in this Hadith means ` the Jama` ah of Sahabah,' that is, the collective body or group of the noble Companions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ . The reason is that Allah Ta` ala sent our master, Muhammad al-Mustafa ﷺ as His Rasul, and gave him the Qur'an, and blessed him with another (kind of) Wahy (revelation) - which is called the Hadith or Sunnah. Then, there are many difficult or brief or ambiguous verses in the Qur'an. For their Tafsir or explanation, Allah Ta` ala promised that He shall have these clarified through His Rasul. The statement: ثُمَّ إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا بَيَانَهُ ﴿19﴾ ' (After that, to make it clear to you is on Us - 75:19) means exactly this. So, the Holy Prophet ﷺ explained the difficulties and ambiguities of the Qur'an and groomed his direct disciples, that is, the Sababah into the many modes of his Sunnah through his word and deed. Therefore, the conduct of the Sahabah as a major collective entity (placed by Divine design into a trail-blazing role as mirrors of their blessed master) is in itself the statement and the explanation of the Divinely-ordained Shari'ah of Islam. Therefore, it is the good fortune of a Muslim that he or she should follow the Kitab of Allah and the Sunnah of the Rasul of Allah - and whenever one faces a doubt in the meaning of an 'Ayah of the Qur'an or the sense of a Hadith, one should go by the meaning and sense preferred by the noble Sahabah. Unfortunately, as a result of people ignoring this sacrosanct rule of conduct, Islam had to see the emergence of different sects which would set aside the proven conduct and explanations of the Sahabah and take the liberty of saying what they wished and declare it to be the very meaning of the Qur'an and Sunnah. These are the ways of error the Holy Qur'an has repeatedly warned against and the Holy Prophet ﷺ has emphatically prohibited it throughout his blessed life, at times, even castigated those acting against this rule with la'nah. Sayyidah ` A'ishah As-Siddiqah ؓ reports that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said that on six persons he casts his la'nah, and may the la'nah of Allah be upon them: (1) The person who has added something to the Book of Allah from his side (that is, whether added some words, or carried the meaning to such excessive limits as is contrary to the Tafsir of the Sahabah), (2) the person who has denied the Divinely-ordained destiny, (3) the person who hoists himself into a position of authority over the Muslim Ummah by force (or deceit) so that he would honour the person disgraced by Allah, and disgrace the person given honour by Allah, (4) the person who took as Halal what Allah had made Haram, that is, indulged in killing at the sacred precincts of the Harm in Makkah, or, hunted there, (5) the person who dishonoured my family and children, and (6) the person who abandoned my Sunnah.

Said in the second (160) verse is: مَن جَاءَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُ عَشْرُ‌ أَمْثَالِهَا ۖ وَمَن جَاءَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ فَلَا يُجْزَىٰ إِلَّا مِثْلَهَا وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ ﴿160﴾ (Whoever comes with a good deed, receives ten times as much, and whoever comes with an evil deed, he will not be recompensed by anything but its equal, and they shall not be wronged). Stated in the previous verse (159) was that the punishment for the evil deeds of those who turn away from the straight path rested with Allah alone. In the present verse, the generous procedure of reward and punishment in the Hereafter has been described by saying that a person who does one good deed will get ten times more in return - and a person who commits one sin, the return for him will be equal to that of one sin. As reported in the Sahih of Al-Bukhari and Muslim and in Nasa'i and the Musnad of Ahmad, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: Most Exalted and Very Merciful is your Rabb. A person who intends to do a good deed has one good recorded in his Book of Deeds - even if he does not get around to do it. Following that, when he gets to do that good deed, ten good deeds are recorded in his Book of Deeds. And if a person intends to do a sin, then stays back and does not do it, still a good is recorded for him - and if he were to actually commit a sin, still what he gets registered in his name is one sin, or that too is erased. With this showering of grace and mercy in the presence of Allah, who can apprehend total destruction? Unless, of course, there be that rare person who is determined to be destroyed. (Ibn Kathir) In a Hadith Qudsi narrated by Sayyidna Abu Dharr ؓ it is said: ` A person who does one good deed gets the reward of ten, even more - and a person who commits one sin will get its punishment equal to one sin only, or I shall forgive even that. And a person who comes to Me with sins which would fill the whole earth, and still seeks forgiveness, I shall treat him with matching forgiveness. And a person who comes closer towards Me to the measure of one hand finger-span, I step one hand-span towards him. And a person who steps one hand-span toward Me, I come towards him by the measure of one Ba' (the stretch of both hands). And the person who comes walking towards Me, towards him I come running.' From these Hadith narrations, we can see that the increase of ten times for one good deed as mentioned in this verse is actually a description of its base limit - and Allah Ta` ala, in His mercy and generosity, may give even more than that, and shall give, as proved by other narrations which place it upto the level of seventy times or seven hundred times. In the words of the verse, it is noteworthy that the expression used جَاءَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ (` comes with a good deed' ) and not: عَمِلَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ (does a good deed). According to Tafsir Al-Bahr Al-Muhit, this indicates that such reward or punishment will not be awarded just on having done something good or bad. Instead of that, the condition is that to deserve reward or punishment, a good or bad deed must survive as such until the time of death. The outcome is that a person who has done a good deed, but it gets destroyed because of the misfortune of some sin, then, he no longer remains deserving of reward against this deed. An example of it is, God forbid, that of Shirk and Kufr which, in fact, destroy all good deeds. In addition to that there are many other sins which make some good deeds turn false and ineffectual - as it appears in the Holy Qur'an: لَا تُبْطِلُوا صَدَقَاتِكُم بِالْمَنِّ وَالْأَذَىٰ (do not nullify your charities by boasting about favour, and teasing -2:264). This tells us that the good deed of charity (sadaqah) gets nullified and wasted by boasting about the favour done or by causing hurt through teasing and underrating the recipient. Similarly, it appears in Hadith that sitting in the Masjid and talking about worldly things eats up good deeds as fire eats up the wood. This tells us that good deeds, such as, Nafl, Tasbih and Dhikr, go to waste by indulging in mundane conversation. Similar is the case of evil deeds which, if repented from, become the cause of the sin being erased from the Book of Deeds - it does not keep sticking to a person until the time of death. Therefore, not said in the verse was something like: ` does any deed, good or bad, for which there will be punishment or reward.' Instead, what was said, in effect, was: Whoever brings to Us a good deed will get a reward ten times as much and whoever brings to Us an evil deed, then, it will be only one deed he will be punished for. The point is that this act of bringing to Allah Ta` ala can become possible only when this deed remains intact and unharmed right through the end. The crucial thing is that it survives, that nothing happens in between which will cause the good deed to be spoiled or wasted - and of course, the method is to keep repenting and seeking the forgiveness of Allah Ta` ala from falling into any evil deed. At the end of the verse, it was said: وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ (and they shall not be wronged). It means that this is no human court. This is the Highest of the high. No probability of any injustice to anyone exists there, nor can there be a decrease in the return for someone's good deed, nor is there any possibility of an increase in the punishment for someone's evil deed.

Commentary These are the last five verses of Surah Al-An'am. It will be recalled from previous verses how people had altered the true religion through a process of excess and deficiency, making many more out of it, and had themselves split into factions and groups. In contrast, the first three of the present verses present an authentic profile of the true religion describing its fundamental principles, and some important subsidiaries and details. The first two verses carry the principle while the third mentions their subsidiaries - and in both, the address is to the Holy Prophet ﷺ where he has been asked to convey the message to these people.

In the first verse it has been said: قُلْ إِنَّنِي هَدَانِي رَ‌بِّي إِلَىٰ صِرَ‌اطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ (As for me, my Lord has guided me to a straight path). The hint given here is that he has not taken this path prompted like them by their own ideas or under the weight of ancestral customs. Instead of that, this is a way to which he has been directed by his Lord. Then, by using the word: رَبّ (Rabb, the essential nurturer, benefactor and carer under all conditions, unfortunately not expressed through any equivalent in English), it was indicated that it is the very dictate of His beneficence that He guides to the right path. Those who look for guidance will have guidance from Him. In the second verse (162), it was said: دِينًا قِيَمًا مِّلَّةَ إِبْرَ‌اهِيمَ حَنِيفًا ۚ وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِ‌كِينَ (the straight religion, the faith of Ibrahim, the upright; and he was not of those who associate partners with Allah). Here, the word: قِیَم (qiyam) is a verbal noun in the sense of: قِیَام (qiyam) meaning what stands established on strong and secure foundation. In other words, this religion is fortified. It stands on God-sent basics. This is no compendium of someone's personal ideas. Then, it is not some strange new religion either lending itself to doubting eyebrows. This has been the religion of all past prophets, may peace be upon them all. That the name of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) has been particularly mentioned here is because all religions in the world admit his greatness and religious patriarchy. Among the groups of the time, the Jews, the Christians and the disbelievers of Arabia - no matter how different from each other they may be - they were still unanimous in paying homage to the great spiritual station of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) . And this spiritual-station of leadership has been given to him by Allah Ta` ala as a special reward: إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا (I am going to make you an Imam for the people - 2:124). Then, every sect from them tried to prove that they were staunch adherents of the religion of Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) and were part of his Community. To remove their misgiving, it was said that Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) had the distinction of always abstaining from bowing before anyone other than Allah and he had a distaste for all kinds of Shirk which led people to associate partners in His pristine Divinity. This conduct was the greatest achievement of his life. In sharp contrast to him, here you are all soaked in Shirk. Everyone took someone as partners with Allah - the Jews did that with Sayyidna ` Uzayr ؓ the Christians with Sayyidna ` Isa (علیہ السلام) . and the disbelievers of Arabia were so liberal that they took thousands of rocks to be partners in the Divinity of Allah. In this state of affairs, no one had the right to claim that they were adhering to the ideal of the spiritual community of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) - except Muslims. They shun Shirk and Kufr. In the third verse (163), it was said: قُلْ إِنَّ صَلَاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلَّـهِ رَ‌بِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ﴿162﴾ (Say, "My prayer, my offering, my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds). The word:' نُسُكِ (nusuk) in this verse means sacrifice. Everything one does in Hajj is also called: Nusuk. So, the rites of Hajj are known as مَنں اسِک Manasik, the plural of Nusuk. Then, this word is also used for ` Ibadah or worship of Allah in the absolute sense. Therefore, Nasik is used in the sense of ` Abid (one who worships Allah). At this place, any of the meanings given above can be applied. Tafsirs to that effect have been reported from commentators among the Sahabah and Tabi` In. But, ` Ibadah or offering of acts of worship devoted to Allah, taken in the absolute sense, appears to be the more appropriate meaning at this place. In that case, the meaning of the verse would be: ` My prayer, my offerings in ` Ibadah, my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.' Out of the subsidiaries of deeds, the first to be mentioned here was Salah because that is the moving spirit of all good deeds and is, of course, the pillar of the religion. Mentioned briefly after that were all deeds and acts of worship. Then, rising to a wider level, everything done or faced in a lifetime was pointed to. The last to be mentioned was death. After having identified all these, it was admitted that they are only for Allah who is the Lord of all the worlds and who has no associate or partner in His Divinity. And this is the outcome of perfect faith and perfect sincerity. This leads one to think, care and keep in sight, in all states of life and in everything one does, that: ` my Rabb, and the Rabb of the whole wide world is One Rabb. I am His servant. I am in His sight - all the time. Let not my heart, my mind, my eyes, my ears, my tongue, and hands, and feet, nor my pen or step, move in any direction against His pleasure.' This is a simple meditation (Muraqabah) of the highest order, something which, if one trains himself to keep present in one's heart and mind, then, there is no doubt that he or she will become a human being in the real sense. Things like sin and disobedience and crimes will be scared to come anywhere even close to a person that strong. In Tafsir Ad-Durr Al-Manthur, under the commentary on this verse, it has been reported that the well-known Sahabi, Sayyidna Abu Musa Al-Ash` ari ؓ used to say: "I honestly wish that every Muslim would keep reciting this verse time and again, almost making it the constant formula of his or her life." In this verse, the statement - that the prayers and the rest of acts of worship are for Allah - very obviously means that these should be free from any Shirk or hypocrisy or any other worldly interest. As for life and death being for Allah, it could also mean : ` When my very life and death are in His control, then, what I do in my physical and spiritual life (a` mal and 'ibadat), has to be for Him alone.' And it could also mean: ` Whatever deeds are tied with life are for Allah alone - such as, Salah, Sawm, rights and duties involved in dealings with people etc. Then, deeds which relate to death - such as, a will (wasiyyah) and the concept of an ideal life one longs for - then, they too are for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds, and subordinate to what He has commanded.' After that it was said: وَبِذَٰلِكَ أُمِرْ‌تُ وَأَنَا أَوَّلُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ (And this I have been commanded and I am the first one to submit). It means that ` in this Ummah, I am the first Muslim' - because the first Muslim (one who submits) in every Ummah is the Nabiyy (prophet) or Rasul (Messenger) himself to whom the Shari'ah (religious code of guidance) is revealed through Wahy (revelation). There could be a hint in the expression ` first Muslim,' towards the saying that the first to be created was the blessed Nur (light) of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، after which the heavens and the earth and the rest of creation came into existence - as it appears in a Hadith with the words: اَوَّل مَا خَلَقَ اللہُ تعالیٰ نُورِی (Ruh a1-Ma` ani).

One's Burden of Sin Cannot Be Borne By Another The disbelievers of Makkah al-Mukarramah, with Walid ibn Mughirah among them, used to say to the Holy Prophet ﷺ and to the Muslims in general that they should return to their faith and they will bear the burden of all their sins. This has been answered in the fourth verse (164). It was said: قُلْ أَغَيْرَ‌ اللَّـهِ أَبْغِي رَ‌بًّا وَهُوَ رَ‌بُّ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ Here, the address is to the Holy Prophet ﷺ . He is being asked to tell them: ` Do you want me that I too, like yourself, seek and find some other Rabb, other than Allah, when He is the Lord of everything?. This is error and straying which you should not expect me to accept. As for your saying that you will bear the burden of our sins, this is absurd in itself. A sin committed by a person will be written in that person's record of deeds, and it will be he or she who will deserve its punishment. How can that sin be transferred to your account just by your saying so? And if the idea is that the sins will go in our account and in our Book of Deeds, but the punishment to be given against these will be borne by you, then, that idea is not valid either.' The next sentence in the verse rejects it. It was said: وَلَا تَزِرُ‌ وَازِرَ‌ةٌ وِزْرَ‌ أُخْرَ‌ىٰ that is, (on the day of Qiyamah) no bearer of burden (of sin) shall bear the burden of another). As for the disbelievers, this verse does answer their absurd saying in its own way. But, it also tells Muslims at large about the rule that they too should not take the matters of Qiyamah on the analogy of their ways in the mortal world where one person commits a crime and succeeds in putting it on someone else - especially when the other per-son is willing to accept it. But, in the great Court of Allah, there is no room for it. There, the other person can never be caught for the sin committed by someone else. It is based on the authority of this verse that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said that the child born out of wedlock will not be affected by the sin of his or her parents. (This Hadith has been reported by Hakim from Sayyidah ` A'ishah ؓ عنہا based on sound authority). When Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ ، saw someone crying at the Janazah of a deceased person, he said that the crying of the living causes punishment to the deceased. Ibn Abi Mulaykah says that, when he reported this saying to Sayyidah ` A'ishah ؓ she said: You are reporting the saying of a person who never lies, nor can there be any doubt in his integrity. But, there are occasions when one does not hear right. In this matter, the decisive verdict of the Qur'an is sufficient for you: وَلَا تَزِرُ‌ وَازِرَ‌ةٌ وِزْرَ‌ أُخْرَ‌ىٰ , that is, the sin of one person cannot be applied to another. So, how can the crying of a living person cause punishment to descend on a dead person just for no reason? (Ad-burr A1 Manthur) At the conclusion of the verse, it was said that, finally they have to go to their Lord after all where they will find out the ultimate verdict on all their differences - which means that they would be better off keeping their verbal confrontation in check and devoting more to the end of things.

In the fifth (164) verse, Surah Al-An` am reaches its end at a comprehensive note of advice. It brings the past history of peoples and their times into focus and invites attention to a projection towards the future by saying: وَهُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَكُمْ خَلَائِفَ الْأَرْ‌ضِ وَرَ‌فَعَ بَعْضَكُمْ فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ دَرَ‌جَاتٍ (And it is He who made you vice-regents of the earth and raised some of you in ranks over some others). Here, the word: خَلَائِفَ (khala'if) is the plural form of khalifah which means vice-regent or deputy. The sense of the verse is: It is Allah Ta` ala who has let you inhabit places occupied by peoples before you. There is no home, no land which you call your private property today, and believe to be so, which was not, only yesterday, under the ownership of other human beings like you. Allah Ta` ala has, by re-moving them, made you sit in their place. Then, worth keeping in mind all the time is the fact of life that everyone among you too is not alike. One is poor, the other is rich. One is low, the other is high. And equally obvious is the fact that, had being rich or being low been within one's control, who would have chosen to remain poor and low? This distance among steps and this difference in ranks is knocking at your doors to tell you that this power, control and choice is in the hands of some other Being who can make anyone poor, if He so wills; make anyone rich, if He so wills; give honour to whom He wills and let whoever He wills be low. Towards the end of the verse, it was said: لِّيَبْلُوَكُمْ فِي مَا آتَاكُمْ (so that He may test you in what He has given you). It means: By making you take the place of others, and by making you owners of their wealth and property, and then, by keeping you at different steps in terms of honour and wealth, the very aim is to make you open your eyes to this framework of trial which seeks to determine your reaction to this phenomena that blessings which once belonged to past peoples have now been entrusted in your hands. To be seen is what it would be that of gratitude and obedience, or that of ingratitude and disobedience? At the conclusion of the fifth and the last (165) verse, the end of both these stances was made clear by saying: إِنَّ رَ‌بَّكَ سَرِ‌يعُ الْعِقَابِ وَإِنَّهُ لَغَفُورٌ‌ رَّ‌حِيمٌ (Surely, your Lord is swift in punishing - and surely He is Most-Forgiving, Very-Merciful). In other words, it means: Your Lord is going to send His punishment on the disobedient soon - and for the obedient, He is Forgiving and Merciful. Surah Al-An'-am began with Hamd (the praise of Allah) and concluded on Maghfirah (the seeking of forgiveness from Allah). May Allah Ta` ala bless all of us with the Taufiq (ability bestowed by Allah) of Hamd, and honour us with Maghfirah from Him. It appears in Hadith that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: Surah Al-An` am, the whole of it, was revealed at one time. Such was the majesty of its revelation that seventy thousand angels followed behind it reciting Tasbih (glorifying Allah). Therefore, Sayyidna Faruq al-A` zam ؓ said: Surah Al-An'-am is one of the highly merited Surahs of the Holy Qur'an. In some narrations, it has been reported from Sayyidna ` Ali ؓ that Allah Ta` ala would become the healer of the sick person over whom this Surah is recited. وَآخِرُ دَعوَانَا اَنِ الحمدُ للہِ رَبِّ العٰلَمِینَ