61. Surah As-Saff

1 This is a brief introduction to this discourse. For its explanation, see E.N.'s 1,2 of Surah AI-Hadid. The discourse has been opened with this introduction so that before hearing or reading what is going to follow, one may well understand that Allah is free from and far above this that the fimctioning of His Godhead should depend on someone s faith and another one's help and sacrifices. If He exhorts the believers to adopt sincerity in Faith and urges them to exert their utmost for the success and victory of the Truth, that is for the sake of their own good; otherwise the will of AIIah is accomplished by His own power and by His own design, whether somebody makes no effort at all towards its implementation, and whether the whole world joins together to frustrate and resist it stubbornly.

2 One meaning of this passage is general as is apparent from its words. It has a special meaning also, which becomes evident when this verse is read along with the verse that follows. The first meaning is that there should be complete agreement between a true Muslim's word and deed: he should carry into effect whatever he says, and when he has no intention of doing it, or has no power for it, he should not say it. To say one thing and do another is one of the most hideous characteristics of man, in the sight of Allah. The Holy Prophet (upon whom be Allah's peace) has explained that a person's being characterised by this quality is a sign that he is not a believer but a hypocrite. According to a .Hadith he said; "The hypocrite has three signs even if he offered the Prayer and observed the Fast, and professed to be a Muslim: That then he spoke he lied; when he made a promise, he broke it; and when he was entrusted with something, he proved dishonest. " (Bukhari, Muslim) . In another Hadith he said: "Four characteristics are such that the one who has all the four, is a hypocrite through and through, and the one who has one of these, has one characteristic of hypocrisy in him until he gives it up: that when he is entrusted with something, he proves dishonest; when he speaks, he lies; when he makes a promise, he breaks it; and when he quarrels he crosses all limits of morality and decency." (Bukhari, Muslim) . The jurists of Islam have almost unanimously held the view that if a person makes a pledge to AIlah (e.g.. vows to do some thing) , or enters an agreement with others, or promised somebody to do something, it is obligatory for him to fulfil it, unless the thing he has promised is by itself sinful. If it is sinful, he should not observe or carry out the agreement or promise, but should expiate its violation as mentioned in Surah AI-Ma'idah: 89 above. (AI-Jassas and Ibn al'Arabi, Ahkam al-Qur-an an) . This much for the general meaning of these verses. As for their special meaning, it becomes obvious when these are read along with the verse that follows. The object is to reprove those people who talked much and made tall promises to fight and lay down their lives in the cause of Islam, but when the time came of their test and trial, they fled the battlefield. The people of weak faith have been taken to task for this weakness at several places in the Qur'an. For instance, in Surah An-Nisa': 77, it has been said: "Have you also marked those to whom if was said, 'Withhold your hands (a while from war) and establish the salat and pay the zakat. Now that they have been commanded to fight, some of them fear the people as they should fear Allah, or even more than that. They say: 'Our Lord, why have You prescribed fighting for us? Why have You not given us further respite?" And in Surah Muhammad: 20: "Those who have believed, were saying, 'Why is not a Surah sent down (to enjoin fighting) ?' But when a decisive Surah was sent down in which fighting had been mentioned, you saw those in whose hearts was a disease, looking towards you like the one under the shadow of death.' On the occasion of the Battle of Uhud in particular, the weaknesses to which allusions have been made continuously from verse 121 to verse 171 of Surah Al-'Imran became all the more conspicuous and visible. The commentators while explaining the background of the revelation of these verses have mentioned the different forms of the weaknesses to which exception has been taken here. Ibn 'Abbas says that before the fighting was proscribed, there were some people among the Muslims who said: "Would that we could know the act that is most lovable in the sight of Allah, so that we would perform the same." But when they were told that it was fighting in the cause of AIIah, it became most difficult for them to carry out their promise. Muqatil bin Hayyan has stated that in the Battle of Uhud these very people were put to the test, and they abandoned the Holy Prophet (upon whom be Allah's peace) and fled Ibn Zaid says that many of the people made the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) believe that they would go out with him to fact the enemy whenever it was so required, but whcn the time of the test came their promises proved false. Qatadah and Dahhak say that if some people did take pan in the battle, they accomplished nothing. but on their return from the battlefield they boasted and bragged, saying. "We put up a brave fight and we achieved such and such a victory." It is such people who have been rebuked by Allah in these verses.

3 First, it shows that only those believers are blessed with Allah's good pleasure and approval, who are prepared to fight in His way, disregarding every kind of danger. Secondly, that Allah likes an army which has three characteristics: (1) It fights in Allah's way with full understanding, and does not fight for a cause disapproved by Allah; (2) it is not indisciplincd, but is well-organized and well-arrayed for battle; and (3) it offers stiff resistance to the enemy as though it were "a solid cemented structure" . Then, this last quality is by itself highly meaningful. No army can stand in the battle array like a "solid structure unless it has the following characteristics. (1) Complete agreement in the faith and the objective, which should smite soldiers and officers in a well-knit body. (2) Confidence in one another sincerity, which cannot be created unless everybody is genuinely sincere in his aim and free from impure motives; otherwise the severe test of war will not allow anyone's insincerity to remain hidden, and whcn confidence is lost, the members of the army start suspecting instead of trusting one another. (3) A high standard of morality without which neither can the officers and soldiers of the army have love and respect for each other, nor can they remain immune foam mutual clashes and conflicts. (4) Love of the common objective and a firm resolve to achieve it, which should inspire, the whole army with an invincible spirit of gallantry, devotion and self sacrifice, so that it may actually face the enemy like a solid cemented structure in the battle field. Such were the foundations on which a powerful military organization was raised under the leadership of the Holy Prophet upon whom be Allah's peace and blessings) . Mighty power of the day clashed with it and were annihilatcd; no power of the world then could dare face it for centuries.

4 At several places in the Qur'iin details have been given of how the Israelites in spite of acknowledging the Prophet Moses as a Prophet of God and their own benefactor maligned him and proved disloyal to him. For this see AIBaqarah: 51,55,60, 67-71 An-Nisa': 153; AI-Ma'idah: 20-26; AI-A'raf: 138-141; 148-151; Ta Ha: 86-98. In the Bible too, the Jewish history written by hte Jews themselves is replete with such events; for instance, sec Exodus, 5: 20-21, 14: 11- 12, 16: 2-3, 17: 3-4; Numbers, 11: 1-15, 14: 1-10, ch.l6, 20: 1-5. Here, allusion to these events is meant to warn the Muslims that they should not adopt the same attitude towards their Prophet as the Israelites had adopted towards their Prophet: otherwise they would meet the same fate as was met by the Israelites. 5 That is, it is not Allah's way to force the people to follow the right way of guidance if they are bent upon following the crooked ways of sin and disobedience. From this it automatically follows that the deviation of a person or nation is not initiated by AIIah but by the person or the nation itself. But the law of AIIah is that He provides means of deviation only for the one who chooses deviation, so that be may go astray into whatever alleys he may like. AIIah has granted man the freedom of choice. Now it is for every man and for every group of men to decide whether he or it wants to obey their Lord, or not, and whether he or it chooses the right way for it or one of the crooked ways. There is no compulsion from Allah in this choice. If somebody chooses the way of obedience and guidance, AIIah does not push him forcibly towards deviation and disobedience; and if somebody is resolved to follow disobedience instead of the way of righteousness, it is not Allah's way to make him adopt the way of obedience and guidance forcibly. But this also is the truth that the person who chooses a particular way for himself, cannot follow it practically unless AIIah provides for him the ways and means and creates for him the conditions which are necessary for following it. This is Allah's grace and favour" without which no one's efforts can be meaningful and productive. Now, if a person is not at aII interested in seeking Allah's grace for righteousness, but seeks His grace for adopting evil, he is given the same. And when he receives the grace for doing evil. he becomes temperamentally perverse accordingly and the course of his action and effort goes on becoming crooked until at last the capability to do and accept good in him is gradually lost and destroyed. This is what is meant by, when they adopted perverseness, Allah caused their hearts to become perverse." In this state it is against the law of Allah that the one who wants to adopt deviation, and is actively and earnestly engaged in seeking it, and is expending aII one's thought and energy to move futher and further on towards it, should be forcibly turned towards guidance, for such an action would negate the object of the test and .trial, for which man has been granted the freedom of choice in the world. For if a man adopts righteousness through such guidance, there is no reason why he should be entitled to any reward whatever. Rather in such a case, the one who was not guided forcibly and was left in deviation on that account, should not be subjected to any punishment, for the responsibility for his deviation would lie on Allah, and at the time of his accountability in the Hereafter, he could present the argument: '`When there existed the rule of granting guidance forcibly in the world, why was I deprived of that favour?" This is the meaning of the words: "Allah does not guide the transgressors." That is, Allah dces not grant the favour of adopting the way of obedience to those, who have chosen the way of sin and disobedience for themselves of their own free will.