Salaam and welcome to another episode of our weekly series titled “Path towards Enlightenment” which is an endeavour to make you and us familiar with an easy and fluent explanation of God’s Final Scripture to all mankind, the holy Qur’an, which was revealed to the Last and Greatest of all Messengers, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny)

We start from where we left you last week, and here are Ayahs 26, 27, & 28 of Surah Zukhruf:

“(Remember) When Abraham said to his sire (i.e. his paternal uncle Azar) and his people, ‘I repudiate what you worship;”

“Except for Him Who originated me; indeed He will guide me.”

“And he made it (i.e. monotheism) a lasting word among his posterity so that they may come back [to the right path].”

If you remember, last Friday in our explanation of the previous Ayahs of Surah Zukhruf we said that among the ways of promoting Islam is to compare its dynamic teachings with those of other religions on the basis of logic and rationality. We also said that denial of facts and realities by the polytheists who blindly stick to the deviated ways of their forefathers, results in obstinacy and eventually deprives them of the power to discern between right and wrong, which will eventually bring Divine wrath upon them after long periods of relief and manifest signs that God the All-Merciful has granted to the disbelievers and sinners in order to make them mend their erroneous beliefs and ways.

The Ayahs that we recited to you now pertain to Prophet Abraham and were revealed by God Almighty in order to jolt the conscience of the pagan Arabs of the days of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). These Ayahs mean to tell the Arabs that if you consider Abraham as your Patriarch and claim to follow your forefathers, why don’t you follow the monotheistic creed of Abraham the iconoclast, who had told his polytheist uncle and guardian Azar, that it was wrong to worship idols?

Since Abraham was respected by everyone and it was regarded as an honour to be among his descendants, the disbelievers and polytheists are reminded that he was the one who tore asunder the veils of blind imitation. Thus, if the Arabs are truthful, they ought to tread the footsteps of their ancestor Abraham instead of blindly imitating the idolaters who had deviated from the monotheist creed. It is interesting to note that in Mesopotamia when the young Abraham had criticized his uncle and the other idolaters for their false beliefs they had resorted to the similar groundless claim of following their ancestors. Abraham, however, refuted their baseless claim by pointing out that He worships none other than the One and Only Creator Who will guide him like He had guided the prophets and monotheists of the past.

As is clear by Ayah 28, Abraham not only adhered to the principle of Towheed or the indivisible Oneness of God and campaigned against all forms of idolatry and deviation, but he also spared no efforts to make the Word of God, that is, monotheism, supreme and everlasting among his descendants, so that those who had been misled by Satan could eventually return to the right path.

From these Ayahs we learn the following points:

1. True faith is based on logic and rationality, and not on ethnic customs or tribal traditions.
2. Idol-worship was never the belief of the early prehistoric people and was invented by evil elements of the remote past in order to distract the monotheists from the pristine teachings of Adam, the father of the human race and the other prophets who had followed him.
3. Intellect tells us that our Loving Creator has not left us in the dark, but has sent a series of prophets to guide us on the right path.
4. It is incumbent upon believers to bequeath to their descendants the straight and unwavering path that leads towards the bliss of paradise and is thus free of deviated beliefs.

Now listen to Ayahs 29 and 30 of the same Surah:

“Rather I provided for these (i.e. the disbelievers) and their fathers (bounties) until there came to them the truth and a manifest Prophet.”

“But when the truth came to them, they said: ‘This is magic, and we indeed disbelieve in it.’”

God makes both believers and disbelievers enjoy His bounties and gives respite to all people. Ayah 29 means to say that as part of Divine bounties the pagan Arabs of Mecca and their forefathers were bestowed worldly possessions and pleasures, until came to them to make things clear, the ultimate Truth, i.e., the holy Qur’an, and the Last and Greatest Messenger of God, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Not only God Almighty made them think of the falsity of polytheism and idolatry through use of their intellect and conscience to revert to monotheism, but He also gave them respite to benefit from Divine guidance by turning to the Prophet of Islam and the heavenly scripture entrusted to him, that is, the holy Qur’an, which contains manifest truth.

In other words, the advent of Islam was indeed an awakening for many Arabs who after initial opposition realized that the sordid practice of idol-worship was an innovation, while what the Prophet preaches is return to the original monotheist teachings of the great progenitor Abraham.

Ayah 30 points to the initial opposition of the Arabs as well as the Israelites to the Prophet of Islam, and their calling the Words of Truth of the holy Qur’an as magic, since they had deviated from the original monotheistic message of Prophet Abraham. Had these deviated persons persisted in such disbelief, they would have been afflicted with Divine wrath, since God does not punish the wayward until the Words of truth have become fully manifest.

From these Ayahs we learn that:

1. The Revelations of God are manifest truth that negates and invalidates the manmade laws even if the majority of people follow these innovations.
2. Islam revived the monotheistic teachings of Abraham from which the Arabs and the Israelites had long deviated.
3. Wealth and power are not signs of truthfulness; rather these are the means of testing the faith of the people.
4. It is lack of understanding that makes people heap wild accusations against the sources of truth, but when truth is understood the argument is sealed.

Now let us listen to Ayahs 31 and 32 of the same Surah:

“And they said, ‘Why was not this Qur’ān sent down to some great man from the two cities (i.e. Mecca and Medina)?”

“Is it they who dispense the mercy of your Lord? It is We who have dispensed among them their livelihood in the present life, and raised some of them above others in rank, so that some may take others into service, and your Lord’s mercy is better than what they amass.”

These Ayahs point to some of the inappropriate expectations of the disbelievers who regarded worldly possessions, tribal power, and reputations, as the standards of dignity. They surmised that if God was to appoint a Prophet from amongst them, He would have chosen some influential figure of Mecca, Ta’ef or Yathreb (i.e. Medina), rather than a person who had been orphaned as an infant and possessed no wealth of his own. They thought that a Prophet ought to be like a tribal chief, possessing wealth, enjoying social status, and wielding political power, to subjugate everybody. They failed to understand that God entrusts His message to the one whose heart brims with piety, awareness, justice, courage, truthfulness, determination, and familiarity with the afflictions of the deprived and the oppressed people. In other words, the required values for a Prophet of God do not include beautiful attires, luxurious palaces, and adornments of all kinds.

Ayah 32 is a harsh critique of such inappropriate and superstitious thoughts and admonishes disbelievers by saying that prophethood is not something in the hands of the people to grant it to whoever they wish. Anyone cannot be granted the prophethood nor can the heavenly scripture be revealed to anyone. It is God Almighty Who portions out his Divine Mercy between them. Furthermore, the differences between people in terms of wealth and substance may never account for their spiritual ranks, or in other words, worldly possessions and social ranks are of no value against Divine Mercy and closeness to Him. As a matter of fact, even worldly matters are also based on Divine discretion, and had all people enjoyed the same faculties, opportunities, standards of life, and social status, the principle of cooperation and division of labour would lose balance and society disintegrate. God has created humans with differences so that everyone serves others in a specific way.

These Ayahs teach us the following points:

1. Those of weak of faith or devoid of faith consider wealth, power and reputation as the signs of greatness, whereas it is piety and spirituality which are of value in the Sight of God.
2. Both material and spiritual bounties are part of Divine mercy for the people, who are obliged to follow the Prophets raised by God, and have no power to select them.
3. The health and survival of the society depends on cooperation among various individuals and groups, possessing different characteristics and abilities.
4. The Mercy of God is better than all the worldly wealth and power.

RM/AS/SS