BACKGROUND

The article discusses religious scholars’ attitudes towards God’s revealed word in the light of Ayah 75 to 82 of Surah Baqarah. Almighty Allah addresses the believers [the followers of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)] in these verses. In the verses before these, Allah addressed the Children of Israel, recalled their history, and reminded them of the commandments and duties that they didn’t fulfill. From verses 83 onwards, the address again shifts to the Children of Israel. This is a unique style of Quran throughout the text where Allah addresses the believers or gives his commentary and warning over an issue, in between narrating the previous nations’ events/stories. The purpose behind narrating incidents about the former nations is not merely to discuss their history but also to give lessons. Allah wants believers to learn from these nations’ wrongdoings and mistakes. He also wants believers never to refrain from repeating such actions themselves and abstaining from an evil attitude. Allah wants believers to reflect upon themselves to better themselves, earn the pleasure of their Lord, and get protected from His wrath, and be steadfast. 

QUALITIES OF A DA’EE

In this verse, Allah addresses believers who have a deep desire that all the non-believers accept the true faith and become Muslim. Allah states that certain people among disbelievers who, despite knowing the truth and understanding it, made changes in the divine revelations. Therefore, such people would never accept true guidance and join the right path because they knowingly rejected it. 

Lessons/indications from this Ayah:

All believers are inherently Da’ees. A believer has two responsibilities/obligations-

Personal: These are the obligations as an individual that includes rituals, worshiping Allah, and handling personal dealings.

Collective: For every individual, there is a responsibility as an Ummah to deliver the message of truth to humanity. A person who does it is a Da’ee. An indication of this is present in the Surah 3 ayah 110:

You are the best of the people evolved for mankind to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong…

The process of delivering the message by a Da’ee should never be mechanical. A Da’ee feels his responsibility deeply, and his heart aches to deliver Allah’s message to every individual. He feels a tug of fire and agony within his heart, which motivates him to fulfill this responsibility. He wants everyone to be on the path of Hidayah (divine guidance). Da’wah is always from the heart. A Da’ee, therefore, must have the following two characteristics-

Ikhlaas: Complete selflessness. A Da’ee doesn’t ask for any reward or favor from people in worldly affairs which concern career, position, power, or money. He doesn’t work to seek any refuge or protection from discrimination and communal hatred. He knows that all that he is doing is for the pleasure of his God. He seeks all the help, support, rewards, and favors only from Him. All the messengers of Allah desired only this and instructed their people to do the same.

Agony: As already discussed, a Da’ee has the agony to protect fellow humans from the fire of destruction. This agony is a part of normal human behavior that cannot bear to see others in pain. If someone sees a neighbor’s house burning, everyone will rush to the site and attempt to extinguish it. If an individual sees a child crossing a road while a vehicle is about to pass, he will try to save the child by intervening. We would never consider the caste, gender, faith, ideology of the person in such grim situations. However, it is also true that this nature often gets concealed behind the veil of human prejudice. Nevertheless, a Da’ee should have the agony and desire to protect fellow humans the eternal destruction and should have the greed to protect them from humiliation and punishment of the Akhirah.  

An example of a Da’ee that possesses such a character is Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who was the greatest of all Da’ees. In Ayah 6 of Surah 18, Allah addresses him and says, “then, perhaps you would kill yourself through grief over them, (O, Muhammad) if they do not believe, (and) out of sorrow”. Similarly, in Ayah 3 of Surah 26, Allah says.” Perhaps, [O Muhammad], you would kill yourself with grief that they will not be believers.”. This verse clearly shows that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had so much agony, pain, and heartfelt desire for the people’s welfare that Allah had to reveal the Ayah to console him. This Ayah doesn’t intend to mean that no efforts are required to deliver the message to such disbelievers. Instead, it highlights how Allah is consoling the Prophet because he was in great distress over the attitude of non-believers. At many places in the Quran, Allah has clearly said that your job is only to deliver the message, nothing more than that. You are not responsible for the belief of another once he has received guidance. A Da’ee must continue his work. However, he must not behave like a postman who mechanically comes, delivers the letter, and finishes his task. A Da’ee must know and understand the essence behind his job. As already discussed, Da’wah should be a person to person heartfelt interaction.

Summary of Ayah 75

In this Ayah, Allah indicates that a believer will have greed for the welfare of humanity. Still, Allah is also mentioning that at the same time, there could be certain people who know the truth very well (i.e., the so-called religious scholars) but still alter the holy books. So, it is not advisable to waste time and energy in mourning over such people. We should continue to work over them without grieving over their condition and focus on more receptive people who have a better chance of accepting the faith. 

Those changes/interpolations in God’s word may include adding something extra to the text or changing the order or its content. Despite knowing the truth, those who do these things misguide the entire community by their grave actions. So, it is as though Allah is saying (in the Ayah 75) that we should not worry about their faith as they are wicked people.

ATTITUDE OF THE SO CALLED RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS

In this part of the Ayah 76, it is told that when such wicked people (as mentioned above) meet believers, they proclaim themselves to be one of the believers. These people can either be Jews or Christians (who claim that they are believers as they have Godly revelations). These could also be people planted in the Muslim community by disbelievers (who deceive others by their false beliefs). These planted people are trained and taught to live among Muslims to misguide them. Such attempts have been carried out since the time of the Prophet to date.  Such people have tarnished the image of Islam and Muslims and have brought considerable damage to the community. It is genuinely challenging to recognize them. They could be disguised as a great personality or scholar or teacher.

In this part of Ayah 76, it is mentioned that whenever these wicked people meet their people in seclusion, they advise them not to reveal some matters to Muslims. What are these matters? They are verses that confirm Islam’s truth like prophecies about Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) present in the Bible and other scriptures. These verses highlight divine wisdom and are essentially Allah’s miracle that despite so much of interpolations in scriptures, these prophecies are still intact. They prevent their people from doing so because they believe that the Muslims might present these things as an argument before God in the day of judgment and that they may be held accountable by God for not obeying the final messenger. According to them, they are intelligent and clever. Do they wonder who are they fooling? Do they think their Lord does not know? Because of this devilish nature of them, believers were asked in the previous Ayah as to why they desire faith for such people? They are cunning people.

Ayah 77 suggests that these disbelievers are unaware that their Lord knows everything that they are conspiring. Indeed, Allah knows everything, whether it is revealed or concealed, and He will hold the wrongdoers accountable in the Hereafter.

THE ILLITERATE ONES AND THEIR BELIEF IN HEARSAY AND CONJECTURES

This Ayah (78) means that among those disbelievers, some illiterate individuals don’t have any knowledge and understanding of the holy book, and they only believe in the hearsay and conjectures prevalent in the society. These people are deliberately kept illiterate by the so-called scholars so that their belief will not be questioned, and their misdeeds might not get exposed, and what they used to hide might not get revealed.

It should be kept in mind that being illiterate doesn’t mean that they cannot read and write anything. It specifically means that these disbelievers are unable to comprehend the Holy Scriptures, howsoever qualified they may be. As Muslims, we should reflect upon this as there is a vast majority among us who, despite being educationally qualified, having all the worldly knowledge and wisdom, cannot read and understand the Quran. Those who know how to read yet don’t understand what they are reading, so, in the terminology of the Quran, they are illiterate (Quran clearly says “they know not” and not that “they cannot read”). 

This illiteracy generates a vicious circle, where their so-called wicked scholars teach them false deen. Still, these people, out of their ignorance and their faith in conjectures, end up understanding something altogether different. This loop ultimately distorts God’s real message, and false stories and beliefs become prevalent in society. Due to this phenomenon, prophets are raised to God’s status, and God is believed to be incarnated physically. People, because of their faith in tittle-tattle and assumptions, interpret things this way. They only have enormous and exaggerated respect for faith, but they lack the real understanding of it because they believe Dhan (hearsay).

In Quran 53:28, Allah says, “And they have thereof no knowledge. They follow not except Dhan (hearsay), and indeed, Dhan (hearsay) avails not against the truth at all”. Therefore, it is clear that these Dhan (assumptions and hearsay) cannot reach close to the Haq (truth). This concept applies to the beliefs of the Muslims as well. Let’s understand it with the example of Ahadith and the belief of people in them.

Dhan in hadiths and their status in Islam

There are many categories of Hadith, but for this discussion, we will only stay limited to a few. Let’s just discuss two of them- Da’eef and Sahih Hadith. The opposite of Sahih (the real) is wrong or false (not Da’eef). Whereas Da’eef hadith means that it could be true or false, thus it is a doubtful narration. Da’eef Ahadith is an example of Dhan. Therefore it cannot be equivalent to Haq as per Quran. 

Now let’s discuss if Sahih ahadith are free from Dhan or not. The Ahadith are based on a series of narrations. When they were compiled, the person who narrated them had told that he heard it from some second person and that person heard it from some other and so on. Some of the second narrators in the series were alive when the Ahadith were initially narrated, but most previous narrators had died. Who knows who heard from whom? The actual assignment includes many assumptions, speculation, and hearsay; thus, these Hadith also have Dhan. While we are discussing it, it should be kept in mind that we are not negating Hadith’s authority. We follow them ourselves, but all we want to convey is that since Hadith’s compilation involves a lot of Dhan, that’s why they cannot be equivalent to the ultimate Haq, i.e., the Qur’an. Anything in Ahadith that contradicts the Quran shall never be given preference over the Quran, and that Hadith shall be immediately rejected. Otherwise, our behavior would be similar to the Ahl-e-Kitab, who mingled Haq with Dhan.

It should be clear that every Muslim must obey what Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has commanded. But the Hadith compilations were not written by the Prophet himself, nor did he dictate them to people. Since these have Dhan involved in them; therefore, they cannot be the ultimate authority.

It is distinctly visible from Ayah 79 that Allah expresses his anger towards those who attribute their handiwork to almighty God for petty gains. Allah is telling this to believers to warn them that whosoever will do such an exercise (i.e., attribute their work to Allah and his prophets) will be equally cursed and punished.

There is another argument that some people bring that the Prophet’s word is equal to the word of God. They claim that the sayings of prophets are directly from God and are a form of Wahi where Allah’s messenger had changed the words of Wahi in his language (and they bring a Hadith in this support). The question they fail to answer is why the Prophet changed God’s word and instructed that in his language? Why this Wahi, when it is meant for the people, is not part of the Quran? What is the purpose of excluding it from the Quran?

We do not deny that the Almighty Allah may have given secret instructions to the Prophet that were specific to him and are not meant for the general public. It is possible that according to the requirement of the situation, Prophet used godly wisdom and principles to teach people its practical implementation in their daily lives (the record of which is Hadith). For example, the principle of Nawafils was taught to the Prophet as the extra prayers. He used to perform these prayers at his home. The number of Rakahs he offered during these prayers used to vary when observed by different people. Some people indulged in deciding what number of Rakah were offered formerly and what was offered later. The idea is to accept the latter and reject the former. They state that Allah gave different Wahi to the Prophet from which the latter is to be accepted, and the former is not. They fail to realize that these are the different options given to follow from, and one can choose any of them. So, this the attitude of the Ahl-e-Kitaab to attribute their work to God that the people are still following. The Gospels in the Bible were written by Luke, Mathew, Mark, and John. The Christians themselves agree to this, yet they claim the Bible to be the word of God.

Similarly, the Bhagwad Geeta is believed to be God’s word even though Ved Vyas authors it. In the present day Torah (which is also believed to be the word of God revealed to Moses), it is written at the end that Moses went to some mountain, where he died (nobody knows where the mount is to date). The language of the text indicates that this content is added after the age of Moses. If this is so, how could it be the word of God? The majority of people believe these scriptures to be God’s word because the scholars state so. These scholars earn benefits and money from such declarations. They are very well aware that if they follow God’s original word, all their chances of earning by deceiving people will vanish. The word of God (Quran) has those principles that prevent people from earning money at the cost of widespread deception and cheating. These scholars seem to earn this profit by their evil-doing is very little compared to the bounties of paradise, the enormous treasures and blessing of the eternal Akhirah which they are sacrificing. And in fact, they are actually in significant loss and have earned eternal torment of hellfire. All this is mentioned in the second part of Ayah 79. Those people are cursed who write fake verses claiming it is God’s word to profit from it.

WOULD BELIEVER BE NOT TOUCHED BY HELLFIRE?

In Ayah 80, Allah reminds the believers of a group of the Ahl-e-Kitaab, which includes some individuals from the Muslim Ummah. They think the hellfire cannot touch them as they are the believers or if somehow they end up in hell, it will be only there for some time. They will be forgiven by the intercession of Prophets/angels/Righteous people etc.

{Note: The followers of every Prophet [Noah, Moses. Jesus etc. (PBUT)] were Muslims, when they lost the spirit of Islam, they are referred to as Ahl-e-Kitaab. Thus, Ahl-e-Kitaab are Muslims who deviated from their correct path}

Allah has debunked their claim in the subsequent part of the same Ayah by asking them have they got such a promise from Allah. It is an indirect way of saying that their claim is false, unreliable, and based only on Dhan, written and compiled by humans. If such claims that these people made were valid, they should have been present in the Book of Allah.

Ayah 81 clarifies that those who did misdeeds and their sins encompassed them, they will indeed enter the fire and they will be there till eternity, and nobody can save them from it. This principle is the same for everyone, irrespective of their religion. Prophets, angels, and righteous people would never intercede for the one who transgressed the limits of Allah. It is Allah who, by his wish and divine will, would allow them to intercede (for whoever he wills) to raise the standards of them (Prophets, angels, and righteous people).

Similarly, those who believed and proved their belief by their right actions will enter their eternal abode- paradise. So, it is an individual’s actions that decide his or her final destination (hell/heaven), not someone’s intercession.