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 40, 41, and 42 of Surah Zukhruf:

“Can you, then, make the deaf hear or guide the blind and someone who is in manifest error?

“Either We shall take you away —for We will indeed take vengeance on them—

“Or We shall show you what We have promised them, for indeed We hold them in Our power.”

If you might recall, last Friday in our explanation of the previous Ayahs of this Surah regarding the expression of regret in vain by the disbelievers and sinners on the Day of Resurrection, we had said that one should be very careful with the company one keeps, otherwise evil will be the outcome both in this world and in afterlife. We had also said that a true believer always strives to enlighten the minds of his friends and family members, in order to firm up their faith and prevent the devils in manipulating them, since turning away from God is wronging our own self and ending up in the fires of hell in the Hereafter.

The Ayahs that we recited to you now mean to say that those who are unwilling to see and hear the truth in spite of having sound eyes and ears, they are in fact blind at heart. In other words, their inward eyes and ears are blind and deaf. Therefore, they will not be guided to the right path. Some people are plunged in sins to the extent that they even hate hearing the Name of God and the Prophet. They are upset when religious concepts are mentioned. Naturally, they themselves have closed the doors for their own return. Such intransigence against the truth will bring Divine wrath and they will not have any way to escape because God controls everything.

The next two Ayahs mean to say that disbelievers should not imagine that they will not be chastised so long as the Noble Prophet is alive, or there will be no punishment after him. This is a consolation to the Prophet of Islam saying that even if he is no more, God Almighty will certainly take vengeance on disbelievers.

These Ayahs teach us that:

1. Divine Words may solely affect the God-fearing who are alive at heart.
2. If there is no ground for accepting the truth, even the words of the purest persons will be fruitless.
3. If one allows the Satan to dominate, then the heart and the spirit will be deaf and blind towards truth.
4. The wrath of God is swift despite the long respite He has given the sinners and disbelievers.

Now let us listen to Ayahs 43 and 44 of Surah Zukhruf read:

“So hold fast to what has been revealed to you; indeed you are on the straight path.

“Indeed it is a reminder for you and for your people, and soon you will be questioned.”

The addressee here is Prophet Mohammad (blessings upon him and his progeny). These Ayahs mean to say that your path is straight without the least waywardness. So do not disturb your noble disposition by the disbelievers’ persistence in staying in error and the contemptuous words they say about you. In other words, the Prophet and the Muslims should firmly hold the Reminder, that is, the holy Qur’an and the dynamic teachings it contains. Thus, the denial of the mission of the Prophet by the disbelievers does not negate your truthfulness. So, continue your path strongly and resolutely and be sure that this is the right path.

One of the things that human beings generally neglect is the Divine Court on the Day of Judgment where everyone will be questioned and held accountable for what they have done during the transient life of the mortal world.

The points that we learn from these Ayahs are:

1. Adherence to the holy Qur’an and its dynamic teachings is the path that God has guaranteed as the only straight path.
2. The practice and behaviour of the Prophet explain to us the commandments of God Almighty.
3. The Heavenly Scripture is full of wisdom and felicity for the believers, who will be asked about what they did with its instructions.
4. Muslims will be questioned on the Day of Judgment about the Qur’an.

Now let us listen to Ayah 45 of Surah Zukhruf:

“Ask those of Our prophets We have sent before you: Did We set up any gods besides the All-Beneficent to be worshipped?

The pagan Arabs used to worship idols, and thus this Ayah instructs the Prophet of Islam to tell the idolaters that monotheism is a principle shared by all previously revealed religions which decisively rejected idolatry. This Ayah is a reference to all the prophets of the past who called on people to believe in monotheism and decisively condemned polytheism en masse. Thus the Prophet of Islam’s campaign against idolatry was not unprecedented, and he only revived the long standing message of his predecessors’.

From this Ayah we learn that:

1. The gist of the messages of all the prophets of God was monotheism.
2. The worship of anything or anybody beside God is outright blasphemy.
3. None of the prophets permitted the worship of idols or promoted polytheism.

RM/AS/SS