2. Al-Baqara

Cursing an individual is not permissible

From the words of the text :'and died while they were disbelievers', commentators al-Jassas, al-Qurtubi and some others have formulated the view that it is not permissible to curse an infidel about whom it is not certain that he is to die in a state of infidelity. Now that we have no way of finding out for sure that a person will die in a given state, we are bound to obey the ruling that it is not permissible to curse an infidel by name. That the Holy Prophet ﷺ has. Cursed some infidels by name is explained by the fact that their death in a state of infidelity was divinely revealed to him. As far as the infidels as a whole are concerned, including the tyrants and the unjust, it is technically correct, if cursed without any particularization.

From this we also find out that the act of cursing is so grave that it has been disallowed even if the target be an infidel about whom it is not certain that he is going to die as one. If so, how can this become permissible if the target is a Muslim or, even if it is directed at an animal? Common people in Muslim societies seem to neglect this aspect of standard Muslim behaviour, specially our Muslim sisters who are prone to use very hard language about those they do not like among the circle of their acquaintances. It should be clearly understood that the act of cursing becomes effective not only by using the word, 'curse' but all synonyms used are subject to the same ruling. The word 'La` nah لعنہ ' (curse) means: to remove away from the mercy of Allah Almighty'. Therefore, all damnatory swearing and cursing, whatever the shade, circumstance or language, falls under the purview of "la` nah" لعنہ or 'curse'.

Cursing an individual is not permissible

From the words of the text :'and died while they were disbelievers', commentators al-Jassas, al-Qurtubi and some others have formulated the view that it is not permissible to curse an infidel about whom it is not certain that he is to die in a state of infidelity. Now that we have no way of finding out for sure that a person will die in a given state, we are bound to obey the ruling that it is not permissible to curse an infidel by name. That the Holy Prophet ﷺ has. Cursed some infidels by name is explained by the fact that their death in a state of infidelity was divinely revealed to him. As far as the infidels as a whole are concerned, including the tyrants and the unjust, it is technically correct, if cursed without any particularization.

From this we also find out that the act of cursing is so grave that it has been disallowed even if the target be an infidel about whom it is not certain that he is going to die as one. If so, how can this become permissible if the target is a Muslim or, even if it is directed at an animal? Common people in Muslim societies seem to neglect this aspect of standard Muslim behaviour, specially our Muslim sisters who are prone to use very hard language about those they do not like among the circle of their acquaintances. It should be clearly understood that the act of cursing becomes effective not only by using the word, 'curse' but all synonyms used are subject to the same ruling. The word 'La` nah لعنہ ' (curse) means: to remove away from the mercy of Allah Almighty'. Therefore, all damnatory swearing and cursing, whatever the shade, circumstance or language, falls under the purview of "la` nah" لعنہ or 'curse'.

Now in Verse 164, there is a series of signs and proofs in support of the premise that Allah Almighty is really One. Stated simply, these can be grasped by the learned and the ignorant alike. How can one bypass the wonder of the creation of the heavens and the earth? Who can ignore the constant alternation of the night and the day? The message is simple and clear. Their origination and their perpetuity is the work of His perfect power alone and that there is absolutely no being other than Him who can take that credit.

Similarly, the movement of boats on the surface of waters, is a formidable indicator of Allah's power which gave water, a substance so liquid and fluid, the property of lifting on its back ships which carry tons and tons of weight all the way from the East to the West. Then, there is the movement of winds which Allah harnesses into the service of man, and in His wisdom, keeps changing their direction. These are great signs; they tell us that they were created and operated by a supreme being, the One who is All-Knowing, All-Aware, All-Wise. If the substance of water was not given a state in which the molecules move freely among themselves while remaining in one mass, a functional fluidity in other words, all this maritime activity would not be there. Even if this fluidity of sea-surface was there, help from winds was still needed in order to cover all those thousands of nautical miles across the seas of the world. The Holy Qur'an has summarized the subject by saying:

إِن يَشَأْ يُسْكِنِ الرِّ‌يحَ فَيَظْلَلْنَ رَ‌وَاكِدَ عَلَىٰ ظَهْرِ‌هِ

"If He wills, He can still the winds, then, ships shall remain standing on the back of the seas." (42:33)

The use of the expression بِمَا يَنفَعُ النَّاسَ :'with what benefits men' points out to the countless benefits that accrue to human beings when they mutually trade their goods through sea freighters. It is interesting to keep in mind the variations these benefits take from country to country and from age to age.

Then comes the marvel of water descending from the sky, drop by drop, released in a measure and manner that it hurts nothing. If it always came in the form of a flood, nothing would have survived, man or animal or things. Then, the raining of water is not all; it is the storage of water on earth that baffles the human ingenuity. Risking a simplicity, let us imagine if everyone was asked to store for personal use a quota of water for six month, how would everyone manage that? Even if such an impossible storage was somehow done, how could it be made to remain potable and hygienic all this time? Allah Almighty, in His infinite mercy, took care of this too. The Holy Qur'an says:

فَأَسْكَنَّاهُ فِي الْأَرْ‌ضِ ۖ وَإِنَّا عَلَىٰ ذَهَابٍ بِهِ لَقَادِرُ‌ونَ

'Then, We made water stay in the earth, although, We were capable of letting it flow away' (23:18)

But, nature did not allow this to happen. For the inhabitants of the earth, human and animal, water was stored in ponds and lakes openly. Then, the same water was lowered into the earth under the mountains and valleys in the form of an unsensed network of hidden pipelines of water accessible to everyone taking the trouble of digging …

In the verses that appeared earlier, there was a strong and positive view of Allah's Oneness. Now the present verse points out to the error made by those who associate others in the divinity of Allah and think that they are caretakers of their needs. Their attachment to them reaches the proportions of love that is due for Allah alone.

In direct contrast to this profile of the polytheists, there are the true believers who love Allah alone, and very staunchly too, for a poly-theist may turn away from his self-made god in the event of an impending loss, but a true believer reposes his total confidence in Allah, in gain and loss alike, retaining His love and pleasure as his lasting possession, never leaving his Creator whatever the odds against him be.

Now, returning back to the 'unjust', the Holy Qur'an makes a subtle suggestion that the opportunity to correct their position was there; they could have recognized through their frustrations with their gods that they were helpless and that real power rested with Allah. But, they missed the opportunity and must now learn the hard way. So, the stern warning.

Towards the end of the preceding verse it was said that the punishment of the Hereafter is severe. How severe it will be is now the subject of the present verse.

The severity of the punishment against which the polytheists have been warned will unfold itself when their leaders whom they followed will disown them as their votaries; and they both, the leaders and the led, will witness the punishment, and whatever bonds of leading and following may have existed between them would be snapped apart, very much like it happens in our mortal world when people share in the illegal but wriggle out when apprehended, so much so, that they would even go to the limit of refusing to recognize their accomplices!

When the so-called 'people' of their leaders will see this turnabout of theirs, they will fret and fume but will be unable to do anything about it except wishing that there be a return for them to the mortal world where they could, at least, square up with their greasy leaders - 'May be this time they come back to us seeking our allegiance which would be a perfect time to say no to them and to distance ourselves from them and to do to them what they did to us.'

But, what price are these dreams now? They are not going anywhere. They are stuck with 'their deeds which they see as remorse', and they all, the leaders and their followers, 'are not to come out from the Fire', since the punishment for shirk, the grave sin of associating partners with Allah, is to remain in the Fire for ever.

Towards the end of the preceding verse it was said that the punishment of the Hereafter is severe. How severe it will be is now the subject of the present verse.

The severity of the punishment against which the polytheists have been warned will unfold itself when their leaders whom they followed will disown them as their votaries; and they both, the leaders and the led, will witness the punishment, and whatever bonds of leading and following may have existed between them would be snapped apart, very much like it happens in our mortal world when people share in the illegal but wriggle out when apprehended, so much so, that they would even go to the limit of refusing to recognize their accomplices!

When the so-called 'people' of their leaders will see this turnabout of theirs, they will fret and fume but will be unable to do anything about it except wishing that there be a return for them to the mortal world where they could, at least, square up with their greasy leaders - 'May be this time they come back to us seeking our allegiance which would be a perfect time to say no to them and to distance ourselves from them and to do to them what they did to us.'

But, what price are these dreams now? They are not going anywhere. They are stuck with 'their deeds which they see as remorse', and they all, the leaders and their followers, 'are not to come out from the Fire', since the punishment for shirk, the grave sin of associating partners with Allah, is to remain in the Fire for ever.

The meaning of the words

The real meaning of the root word حلَّ (halla) in (halalan tayyiban:

حَلَاً طَیِّباً : permissible and good) is 'to open a knot'. In that sense, what has been made halal حلال means that a knot has been opened and the restriction has been removed. The blessed Companion Sahl ibn ` Abdullah ؓ has said: "Salvation depends on three things - eating halal حلال ، fulfilling (Divine) obligations and following the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ." The word طَیَّب (tayyib) means 'good' as inclusive of the clean and the pure and covers the twin aspects of being lawful, permissible or halal حلال and being naturally desirable.

The word حُطُوَات (khutuwat) is the plural form of خُطوہ (khutwah) which is the distance between the two feet when striding. Here the khutuwat of Shaytan means Satanic deeds.

Injunctions and Rulings

1. Polytheistic practices, such as releasing animals in the name of idols or dedicating them, whether big or small, to a saint or to anyone other than Allah has been declared unlawful in Verse 173 which follows. The present Verse (168) is not negating the unlawfulness of such an animal as wrongly conceived by some people. The objective of the verse is to stress that animals which Allah has made lawful should not be made unlawful by dedicating them to idols. Let them be what they are and use them for personal benefit. Why go about making things unlawful on your own which is a grave sin, and when it is dedicated to someone other than Allah it becomes impure and what is impure is unlawful.

2. If anyone dedicates an animal to anyone other than Allah out of ignorance or carelessness and wishes to make amends, he should resolve to retreat from his misdeed and repent on what he did, in which case, the meat of that animal will become lawful for him.

The word ‘su' in السُّوءِ وَالْفَحْشَاءِ means something which bothers somebody good and reasonable. The word fahsha covers what is immodest. Some commentators have said that su' here signifies sin as such, and fahsha' فَاحْشَا signifies major sins.

The expression إِنَّمَا يَأْمُرُ‌كُم (innama ya'murukum: he only orders you' ) means instigating a suggestion in the heart. The meaning can be seen more clearly in a hadith from the blessed Companion ` Abdullah ibn Masud ؓ who said that the Holy Prophet ﷺ has said: The son of Adam آدم is influenced by a suggestion from the Satan شیطان and a suggestion from the angel. The Satanic suggestion has the effect of bringing forth the expedient gains in evil deeds and thereby opening the avenues of negating the truth, while the angelic suggestion promises reward and success for good deeds and leaves the happy effect of a heart in peace at its attestation of the truth."

When these mushrik people were asked to follow the injunctions revealed by Allah through His Messenger, they refused to do so and insisted that they would rather follow the customary practice they had inherited from their fathers because, as they assumed, their models were divinely appointed to follow the way they adopted. Allah Almighty refutes this position of theirs by asking how could they go on following the ways of their fathers, under all conditions, to the exclusion of all other ways, even if their fathers did not understand much about the true faith, nor were they blessed with guidance given by their Lord?

In their lack of understanding, the verse says that the disbelievers resemble the scenario of a person shouting his call to an animal who hears nothing meaningful or significant except a bland cry. The disbelievers, in that state, do hear but not what is intended to correct them, so they are called 'deaf; and they are tight-lipped when it comes to accepting the truth, therefore, they are 'dumb'; and since they do not see their benefit or loss, they are 'blind'. Consequently, with their vital senses so dulled, they seem to understand nothing.

Comments on the nature of Taqlid:

No doubt, this verse (170) does censure the blind following of forefathers, but at the same time, it provides a rule and its attending conditions proving that following has its permissible aspect which has been indicated in لَا يَعْقِلُونَ (even though their forefathers used to understand nothing) and لَا يَهْتَدُونَ (nor had they been on the right path). It is from here that we find out that following the forefathers mentioned in the text of the Qur'an was censured because they lacked reason and guidance. 'Guidance' or the right path signifies injunctions revealed by Allah Almighty, openly and clearly, while ` aql عقل or reason stands for imperative guidance deduced by the great armed vision of Ijtihad اجتھاد from the recognized sources of Islamic Shari'ah.

Now we can see that following the model of those identified in the text cannot be permitted because they do not have a revealed set of laws from Allah, nor do they have the ability to deduce injunctions from the Word of Allah. There is a subtle hint here which we would do well to note. In case, we are satisfied that a certain ` alim عالِم has the perfect knowledge of the Qur'an and Sunnah and in the absence of a clear and direct instruction of the two sacred sources, he has the great expertise of a mujtahid مجتھد so that he can, by analogical deduction, arrive at rulings from the texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah - then. it is permissible to follow such mujtahid مجتھد alim عالِم . It does not mean that one has to obey 'his' injunctions and follow 'his person.' Instead, it means that one has to obey the injunctions of Allah alone to the total exclusion of others. But, since a direct and trustworthy knowledge of the injunctions of Allah (in all their ramifications) is not readily available to us due to our ignorance, we have to follow a mujtahid مجتھد alim عالِم in order to act in accordance with the injunctions of Allah Almighty.

From what has been said above, it becomes clear that those who hasten to …