Welcome to our weekly program "Path towards Enlightenment" in which we present you a fluent and easy-to-understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Quran. We start from where we left you last Friday and here is ayah 31 of Surah Saba:

 “The disbelievers say, ‘We will never believe in this Qurʾān, nor in what was [revealed] before it.’ But if you were to see when the wrongdoers are made to stop before their Lord casting the blame on one another; those who were abased will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Had it not been for you, we would surely have been faithful.”

This ayah points out that the disbelievers, blinded by their enmity and obstinacy towards truth, say they neither believe in the holy Qur’an as the Revealed Words of God, nor do they believe in the heavenly scriptures that the One and Only Creator had revealed in the past to other prophets. As a matter of fact, they have decided not to accept the truth, like a person who pretends to sleep and whenever is asked to wake up will not open his eyes.

Other than pagans and idolaters who do not believe in the Revealed Words of God, the People of the Book, such as the Jews and Christians, may also be included in this ayah, in view of their assumption of having understood the truth, while it is clear that they ignore the letter and spirit of their own scriptures and the prophecies mentioned therein regarding the advent of the Last and Greatest Messenger of God with the universal truth of Islam.  

In continuation, the ayah means to say that these disbelievers -- whether pagans or People of the Book – who had refused to heed the voice of truth while alive, will on the Day of Resurrection accuse their elders for having distorted the message and misled them; saying that if not for your deceit we would have believed and thus escaped the punishment of hell. Nothing, however, shall be of any avail to them on that day.

From this ayah we learn that:

1. Obstinacy towards truth results in deviation from the straight and unwavering path of righteousness.
2. The message of all heavenly scriptures is the same, that is, monotheism, divine justice, prophethood and resurrection on the day of judgement – realities which the infidels and disbelievers abhor.
3. On the Day of Resurrection, only true belief while alive will be the factor of salvation, as the dawning of realities on that day will be of no avail for persons who had died in the state of disbelief and denial of truth.

Now we listen to ayahs 32 and 33 of Surah Saba:

“Those who were arrogant will say to those who were abased, ‘Did we keep you from guidance after it had come to you? No, you were guilty [yourselves].”

“Those who were abased will say to those who were arrogant, ‘Rather [it was your] night and day plotting, when you prompted us to forswear Allah and to set up equals to Him.’ They will hide their remorse when they sight the punishment, and We will put iron collars around the necks of the faithless. Shall they be requited except for what they used to do?”

These ayahs point to the mutual reproaches and accusations between the misleaders and the misled, but none of them is uttering the truth. The terms ‘abased’ and ‘arrogant’ occur several times in the holy Qur’an. The abased are those who blindly follow others without using their God-given intellect and the power to differentiate between truth and falsehood, or right and wrong. The arrogant are those who in view of their power and wealth exploit others and keep the weaker sections of the society under their control. The arrogant, not always use force, but through guile, deceit and propaganda – whether cultural, economic or political – they mislead unsuspecting masses in order to keep them away from the truth, especially belief in Islam and the heavenly scriptures. The arrogant exploiters use the bait of paltry monetary benefits and sensual pleasures, to make others follow them; but when the ignorant take the bait and are enmeshed in deviation, including disbelief and polytheism, they become responsible for their own doom, for failing to used their ears, eyes, and the intellect to differentiate between truth and falsehood.

In continuation, ayah 33 refers to the intense horror of the disbelievers and sinners, whether the exploiters or the exploited, on the Day of Resurrection on seeing divine punishment and the chains and shackles on their necks. Yes, these iron collars, chains and shackles, are the very deeds and behaviour of the pagans and evil-doers in which they used to indulge while alive. In the transient world, they were captives of their low desires, money, power, position, carnal attitudes, and undue fears, and thus in the Hereafter these deeds and actions of their will become incarnate, and appear on their necks, hands and feet in the form of iron collars, chains and shackles.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. No mutual reproach of blame will save either the misleaders or the misled from divine punishment on the Day of Resurrection, which means sins cannot be justified on the pretext of circumstances or social conditions.
2. Those who do not believe in prophets and heavenly scriptures, will face the dire consequences of their denial of truth on Judgement Day.
3. The exploiters use power, wealth, and propaganda, to mislead and dominate others, but there is no escape for them from divine punishment.
4. The deviant and the corrupt promote vices in society and hate the idea of God-oriented reformers since they never want society to proceed on the right path.

AS/ME