7. Al-A'raaf

Some Arab tribes used to perform their circumambulation of the Ka‘bah completely bare-bodied, thinking that it brought them nearer to God. Similarly, during the pre-Islamic period (the days of ignorance) they used to abstain from certain things such as goat’s milk or meat, while starting out on Hajj, imagining that they were performing great and righteous deeds. This type of misguided action has been indulged in by people of every period. Such individuals do not include the requirements of religion in their everyday life; only on certain occasions, by paying special heed to certain irrelevant, pointless actions, they make a great show of conducting themselves according to the religion of God, and contend that by attending to trivialities, they are fulfilling God’s will to the maximum extent. God wants man to abstain from being a spendthrift; that is, he should not transgress the limits laid down by God. He should not hold permitted things as forbidden and vice versa. He should eschew shameful acts. He should abstain from whatever is evidently evil in the light of common sense. He should shun all excesses. Whenever Truth appears before him, he should accede to it, ignoring all else. He should fully cleanse himself of polytheism (ascribing partners to God). With no one should he have the sublime relationship, which is the actual right of the one and only God. It should not happen that he adopts the path of his choice and then attributes it to God without any reason; he should consistently remain a subject of God; as such he should not adopt any ways which are not proper for him as a servant of God. In the Hereafter, God’s bounties will be received as a reward; as such they will be given only to those subjects of God whom God decides to send to Paradise. Unlike these divine rewards, the bounties that are received in the world are available only for a limited period for the purposes of human trial. So one receives a share in them only in terms of his ‘test paper.’ The way to fulfill the requirements of this test is not to keep away from the worldly provisions that God has provided him for this purpose, but to use them within the limits specified for them. Man should respond to the blessing of God with gratitude and not by renunciation or a display of bravado.

Some Arab tribes used to perform their circumambulation of the Ka‘bah completely bare-bodied, thinking that it brought them nearer to God. Similarly, during the pre-Islamic period (the days of ignorance) they used to abstain from certain things such as goat’s milk or meat, while starting out on Hajj, imagining that they were performing great and righteous deeds. This type of misguided action has been indulged in by people of every period. Such individuals do not include the requirements of religion in their everyday life; only on certain occasions, by paying special heed to certain irrelevant, pointless actions, they make a great show of conducting themselves according to the religion of God, and contend that by attending to trivialities, they are fulfilling God’s will to the maximum extent. God wants man to abstain from being a spendthrift; that is, he should not transgress the limits laid down by God. He should not hold permitted things as forbidden and vice versa. He should eschew shameful acts. He should abstain from whatever is evidently evil in the light of common sense. He should shun all excesses. Whenever Truth appears before him, he should accede to it, ignoring all else. He should fully cleanse himself of polytheism (ascribing partners to God). With no one should he have the sublime relationship, which is the actual right of the one and only God. It should not happen that he adopts the path of his choice and then attributes it to God without any reason; he should consistently remain a subject of God; as such he should not adopt any ways which are not proper for him as a servant of God. In the Hereafter, God’s bounties will be received as a reward; as such they will be given only to those subjects of God whom God decides to send to Paradise. Unlike these divine rewards, the bounties that are received in the world are available only for a limited period for the purposes of human trial. So one receives a share in them only in terms of his ‘test paper.’ The way to fulfill the requirements of this test is not to keep away from the worldly provisions that God has provided him for this purpose, but to use them within the limits specified for them. Man should respond to the blessing of God with gratitude and not by renunciation or a display of bravado.

Some Arab tribes used to perform their circumambulation of the Ka‘bah completely bare-bodied, thinking that it brought them nearer to God. Similarly, during the pre-Islamic period (the days of ignorance) they used to abstain from certain things such as goat’s milk or meat, while starting out on Hajj, imagining that they were performing great and righteous deeds. This type of misguided action has been indulged in by people of every period. Such individuals do not include the requirements of religion in their everyday life; only on certain occasions, by paying special heed to certain irrelevant, pointless actions, they make a great show of conducting themselves according to the religion of God, and contend that by attending to trivialities, they are fulfilling God’s will to the maximum extent. God wants man to abstain from being a spendthrift; that is, he should not transgress the limits laid down by God. He should not hold permitted things as forbidden and vice versa. He should eschew shameful acts. He should abstain from whatever is evidently evil in the light of common sense. He should shun all excesses. Whenever Truth appears before him, he should accede to it, ignoring all else. He should fully cleanse himself of polytheism (ascribing partners to God). With no one should he have the sublime relationship, which is the actual right of the one and only God. It should not happen that he adopts the path of his choice and then attributes it to God without any reason; he should consistently remain a subject of God; as such he should not adopt any ways which are not proper for him as a servant of God. In the Hereafter, God’s bounties will be received as a reward; as such they will be given only to those subjects of God whom God decides to send to Paradise. Unlike these divine rewards, the bounties that are received in the world are available only for a limited period for the purposes of human trial. So one receives a share in them only in terms of his ‘test paper.’ The way to fulfill the requirements of this test is not to keep away from the worldly provisions that God has provided him for this purpose, but to use them within the limits specified for them. Man should respond to the blessing of God with gratitude and not by renunciation or a display of bravado.

According to the creation plan one has the opportunity to perform well or badly in the present world till the period of one’s trial is over. But as far as a community or a nation is concerned, there is no such limit for the enforcement of God’s decision. This decision is taken on the basis of that community’s response after the truth has been introduced to it. The community whose period is over, is sometimes destroyed by the inflicting of an extraordinary retributive punishment and sometimes it is punished by being displaced from its position of honour and supremacy. The decision about Heaven or Hell as the final destination for a man is taken on the basis of his response after the truth has appeared before him, supported by arguments whose rationality is testified to by his intellect. This means conveying the message in the full sense. Even after that, if a man refuses to accept the Truth, he does so out of egotism. His desire to maintain his superiority prevents him from lowering himself in comparison to the Truth. For such a man, before God, there is no fate except Hell.

According to the creation plan one has the opportunity to perform well or badly in the present world till the period of one’s trial is over. But as far as a community or a nation is concerned, there is no such limit for the enforcement of God’s decision. This decision is taken on the basis of that community’s response after the truth has been introduced to it. The community whose period is over, is sometimes destroyed by the inflicting of an extraordinary retributive punishment and sometimes it is punished by being displaced from its position of honour and supremacy. The decision about Heaven or Hell as the final destination for a man is taken on the basis of his response after the truth has appeared before him, supported by arguments whose rationality is testified to by his intellect. This means conveying the message in the full sense. Even after that, if a man refuses to accept the Truth, he does so out of egotism. His desire to maintain his superiority prevents him from lowering himself in comparison to the Truth. For such a man, before God, there is no fate except Hell.

Whenever a man rejects the truth, he does so imagining that he has something to back him up. He may rely on wealth and power, or on respect and popularity. He may feel confident that all his personal matters are in such good order that rejection of the Truth will not harm him in any way. He may take pride in having the intelligence to find eloquent expressions with which to present his own ideas, as if they came directly from God. But these are all great misapprehensions. He has erroneously regarded as supports—on which he could depend for salvation—the things actually meant for his trial. But on Doomsday, when all these false props desert him, it will not be difficult for him to understand that he was actually rejecting the Truth merely due to ignorance, though he kept quoting ‘principles’ to justify his rejection.

In this verse ‘community’(ummah) means those leaders who misguide and ‘fellow community’ (ukht) means the misguided general public. In the Hereafter when the wrong-thinking leaders and their misguided followers from the general public are cast into Hell, this will present a great lesson-giving scene. In the world they posed as each other’s well-wishers and as being ready to make sacrifices for each other. Such leaders used to respect each and every wish of the general public and the general public made heroes of their leaders. But, when they are trapped in the fire of Hell, all the artificial veils will drop from their eyes. Then everybody will be seen in his true colours. The followers will say to their leaders, ‘May you be accursed! How terrible was your leadership which showed us false spectacles and thereafter thrust us into such horrible affliction!’ In reply to this, the leaders will say, ‘You wanted a religion to your liking and finding such a religion with us, you rushed towards us. Otherwise, during that very period there were such servants of God as were calling you towards the path of real success. You heard their call, but did not pay attention to them.’ The leaders will tell their followers, ‘You are in no way better than us. We established leadership in pursuance of our desires, and you followed us for the sake of your desires. So, in point of fact, both of us are in the same position. So, here you will be liable to receive the same punishment as has been laid down for us in accordance with our deeds.’ The followers will tell God that the leaders had misled them and as such the latter should be given double the punishment that they received. The reply will be that the leaders were already being given double punishment but that they did not know it. The fact is that in Hell whatever punishment is given to anybody will be felt to be so severe that he will think that nobody else is in such terrible agony. Everyone will feel himself the worst afflicted. In the world self-interested leaders and self-interested followers are inter-linked in strong bonds of friendship. Each group expresses fine opinions about the other, and each finds words for the good of the other. But, in the Hereafter the one group will hate the other. Each will try to push the other towards the direst of fates.

In this verse ‘community’(ummah) means those leaders who misguide and ‘fellow community’ (ukht) means the misguided general public. In the Hereafter when the wrong-thinking leaders and their misguided followers from the general public are cast into Hell, this will present a great lesson-giving scene. In the world they posed as each other’s well-wishers and as being ready to make sacrifices for each other. Such leaders used to respect each and every wish of the general public and the general public made heroes of their leaders. But, when they are trapped in the fire of Hell, all the artificial veils will drop from their eyes. Then everybody will be seen in his true colours. The followers will say to their leaders, ‘May you be accursed! How terrible was your leadership which showed us false spectacles and thereafter thrust us into such horrible affliction!’ In reply to this, the leaders will say, ‘You wanted a religion to your liking and finding such a religion with us, you rushed towards us. Otherwise, during that very period there were such servants of God as were calling you towards the path of real success. You heard their call, but did not pay attention to them.’ The leaders will tell their followers, ‘You are in no way better than us. We established leadership in pursuance of our desires, and you followed us for the sake of your desires. So, in point of fact, both of us are in the same position. So, here you will be liable to receive the same punishment as has been laid down for us in accordance with our deeds.’ The followers will tell God that the leaders had misled them and as such the latter should be given double the punishment that they received. The reply will be that the leaders were already being given double punishment but that they did not know it. The fact is that in Hell whatever punishment is given to anybody will be felt to be so severe that he will think that nobody else is in such terrible agony. Everyone will feel himself the worst afflicted. In the world self-interested leaders and self-interested followers are inter-linked in strong bonds of friendship. Each group expresses fine opinions about the other, and each finds words for the good of the other. But, in the Hereafter the one group will hate the other. Each will try to push the other towards the direst of fates.

Why is it that when God’s missionaries give the call to Truth, the egotism of their addressees prevents them from accepting their call? The reason for this is that the call-givers’ sole strength is argument, while the addressee has the support of material glories. The call-giver stands on the basis of argument, while the addressees stand on a tangible material basis. The force of argument is both intangible and invisible. This difference fosters egotism, causing people to consider the call-giver lower in status than themselves and giving them a ‘reason’ to ignore him. The admission of such people to the mercy of God is as impossible as the passing of a camel through the eye of a needle. They ignore God, so God ignores them. God gave them glimpses of Himself through the call-giver; He appeared before them in the form of arguments; but they attached no importance to these signs and refused to bow down before them. How can such people have a share in God’s bounty?