Al-Baqarah Section 10: The Covenant With The Children Of Isra’il And Their Pledge
The covenant with the children of Isra’il and their pledge to serve none but God, to do good to parents, to the kindted to the orphans and to speak kindly with all men, to be steadfast in prayer, and pay the poor rate, Isra’ilites backsliding from their solemn pledge, The return for their breaking the covenant.
Al-Baqarah Verses 83 - 86
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ لَا تَعْبُدُونَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ وَبِالْوَالِدَيْنِ إِحْسَانًا وَذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَالْيَتَامَىٰ وَالْمَسَاكِينِ وَقُولُوا لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ ثُمَّ تَوَلَّيْتُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِنْكُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ مُعْرِضُونَ
“And remember, when we made a covenant with the children of Isra’il (saying), “Ye shall not worship but God; and (shall do) good to parents and kindred and to the orphans and the needy and speak kindly to men and establish the prayer and pay the poor rate;” Then ye turn back save a few of you and (still) ye backslide” (2:83).
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَاقَكُمْ لَا تَسْفِكُونَ دِمَاءَكُمْ وَلَا تُخْرِجُونَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِكُمْ ثُمَّ أَقْرَرْتُمْ وَأَنْتُمْ تَشْهَدُونَ
“And remember, We made a Covenant with you, “Shed not your blood, nor turn your selves out of your dwellings;” And then (this) ye (solemnly) ratified while ye (yourselves) were witness (thereto)” (2:84).
ثُمَّ أَنْتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ تَقْتُلُونَ أَنْفُسَكُمْ وَتُخْرِجُونَ فَرِيقًا مِنْكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ تَظَاهَرُونَ عَلَيْهِمْ بِالْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَإِنْ يَأْتُوكُمْ أُسَارَىٰ تُفَادُوهُمْ وَهُوَ مُحَرَّمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ إِخْرَاجُهُمْ أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ فَمَا جَزَاءُ مَنْ يَفْعَلُ ذَٰلِكَ مِنْكُمْ إِلَّا خِزْيٌ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰ أَشَدِّ الْعَذَابِ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ
“Yet after this ye are those who slay your selves and banish a party of you from their homes backing each other up against them by sin and transgression; and if they came to you as captives ye would ransom them, while their very banishment (by you) itself was Unlawful Do ye then believe in a part of the Book and reject ye the other? Then what shall be the return for those who do so save disgrace in the life of this world and on the Day of Judgment they shall be returned to the most grievous punishment; And God is not heedless of what ye do” (2:85).
أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا بِالْآخِرَةِ فَلَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ الْعَذَابُ وَلَا هُمْ يُنْصَرُونَ
“These are they who have bought the present life (of this world in exchange) for the life hereafter; so their punishment shall not be lightened nor shall they be helped” (2:86).
Commentary
Verse 83
Every commandment given by God to man is nothing, but the covenant made with the people. This meaning is made clear ‘And he declared unto you His covenant which he commanded you to perform ‘Deuteronomy. 4/13.
Wherever a people transgressed the limits of the commandments issued to them, they have been reminded by the succeeding apostles of God. The Pentateuch is full of such covenants.
‘La Ta’ budoona illa Allah’ - refers to the commandments man had through the ancient prophets from God abstaining the people from worshipping anybody else other than the One and the Only True God.
“Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me” Exod. 20/3.
“And ye shall serve the Lord your God” Exod. 23/25.
The first and the foremost demand from God had always been for man’s worshipping none but the One and the Only True God - the worship to be pure and exclusively for Him and for none else.
وَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ
Wad voohu Mukhtiseena Lahuddin’
“Call on Him, being sincere unto Him in obedience” (7:29).
Sincerity genuine and perfect demanded of a believer in the One and the Only True God, does not at all tolerate the believer yielding himself in any regard to anybody else other than the One True God, or to any other object, for any profit or benefit for it will mean the individual’s surrender to his self which is nothing but surrender to Satan which means worshipping him.
أَلَمْ أَعْهَدْ إِلَيْكُمْ يَا بَنِي آدَمَ أَنْ لَا تَعْبُدُوا الشَّيْطَانَ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُبِينٌ
“Did I not covenant with you O’ children of Adam! that ye should not serve (worship) the Satan (Devil) Verily he is your open enemy” (36:60).
A believer is ordained in Islam, to recite the opening chapter i.e. the ‘Surah Al-Fatiha(repeatedly) in every prayer offered by him, in which the believer is to declare that he worships none but the One and the Only True God and seeks help from none but Him.
إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ
“Iyyaka na’budu wa iyyaka nastayeen”
“Thee (alone) worship we and of Thee (only) we seek help” (1:5).
Doing good to parents is a very wide term unlike merely respecting them1. Doing good to parents covers the field of dealing with them as a whole. It is reported that goodness to parents enjoined by Islam wants the issues not to give their parents even the trouble of their seeking anything which they need but to see that every need of theirs is already provided. Never to raise the voice above their voice. While walking never to go in advance of them. Never to look at them with any displeased sight. If they beat, in return to it must be said in prayers to God ‘O’ God Pardon them and be merciful unto them.’ And if they act in any way painful, even then no sigh of displeasure should be drawn out. The commandment has a very wide implication. The duty imposed upon the issues towards their parents, must be taken in the widest and the fullest sense.
And similarly, the word parents must also be given the meaning not applicable only to the physical world but to the spiritual world as well. If we take the meaning of the word parent in its widest and the fullest sense then the meaning gets extended to include the spiritual parents, teachers etc. and reaches the ultimate source of guidance, the Holy Prophet, and the Holy Imams the divinely chosen and commissioned successors in his holy office. The Holy Prophet had declared: ‘I and Ali are the fathers of this nation (the Muslims).’
Kindred Acting upon this commandment every man or a woman can be the most loved and the most popular member of his or her family and the life will be the most enjoyable. Deuteronomy 14/28 - 39.
At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithes of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates.
And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest. Deuteronomy. 14/28 and 29.
This one verse of the Holy Qur’an, if studied properly and judged dispassionately suffices to illustrate as what is meant by the religion Islam and what is the kind of life to which Islam invites its believers to live. And if the members of the human family act upon this one commandment how peaceful, pleasant and enjoyable will be the life on earth.
Verse 84
Some commentators base their statement upon the authority of Ibn - Hisham’s ‘Siratun Nabi’ and the comments of Amir Ali in his famous book ‘The Spirit of Islam’ - take this verse as referring to the covenant which the newly born Muslim community in Madina, made with the Jews of the township and around it. Compare this verse to.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man - servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.
Exodus 20/13 and 17
To illustrate the spirit of the treaty the Holy Prophet made with the Jews of Madina and its surroundings one of the commentators gives the following passages from the treaty:
I quote a few clauses to give the reader an insight into the spirit of this treaty: “Whosoever is rebellious, or seeketh to spread enmity and sedition, the hand of every man shall be against him, even if he be a son. Whosoever of the Jews followeth us shall have aid and succour; they shall not be injured, nor shall any enemy be aided against them. The Jewish clans in alliance with the several tribes of Madina are one people with the believers. The Jews will profess their religion, the Muslims theirs. As with the Jews, so with their adherents. No one shall go forth to war excepting with the permission of Muhammad, but this shall not hinder any from seeking lawful revenge. The Jews shall be responsible for their expenditure, the Muslims for theirs, but if attacked each shall come to the assistance of the other. Madina shall be sacred and inviolable for all that join this Treaty, controversies and disputes shall be referred to for the decision of God and His Prophet. None shall join the men of Mecca or their allies, for verily the engaging parties are bound together against every one that shall threaten Madina. War and peace shall be made in common”
An intelligent reading of this Verse demands a dispassionate and a reasoning reflection upon the wide or the fuller application of the ordinance issued under this Covenant, which is binding upon the Muslims, as to what they did with the very holy family of the Holy Prophet and how those who conducted the heartless tyrannies against the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt and enacted the Tragedy of Karbala, will stand convicted under this ordinance, in the Judgment of the Lord.
Of the Covenant mentioned here that they should not shed the blood of their fellow men and they should not drive away their own people out of their habitations, to which command they did acknowledge and did witness and subsequently went against it and violated it, the best example in the Muslim folds, of the Jewish attitude towards the Covenant is presented in the Tragedy of Karbala regarding which the fourth Holy Imam Ali Ibn Al- Husayn ‘As-Sajjad’ says that had the Holy Prophet ordered his followers to harm or hurt or torture the members of his family (the Ahl Al-Bayt) they could not have been able to do worse than what they did to us in spite of his sayings and the injunctions of the Holy Qur’an to adhere to the Covenant of God and to follow the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt.
They professed to be Muslims and yet drove away the members of the family of the Holy Prophet from place to place and enacted the greatest and the most heart - rending Tragedy the earth ever had on it, in the Heartless and the Wholesale massacre of the old and the young of the holy ones of them and taking their holy ladies as captives to the courts of the Tyrants. The miseries inflicted on the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt are so heartrending that no human being can hear them resisting shedding tears on the innocent holy souls. When the severed heads of the martyrs and the captives, the holy ladies, and innocent children, were presented into the court of the tyrant Yazid who claimed to be the Khalif, the chief of the captive ladies the Holy Lady Zaynab daughter of Ali Ibn Abu Talib, boldly rebuked the tyrant on the throne, of his tyranny reminding him of his violating the Covenant. She said:
‘O’ Yazid! What thinkest thou the Holy Prophet would say if he seeth us in this condition today? Thinkest thou ‘O’ Yazid! that by killing our men and capturing us and reducing us to this state, thou hast won and we have lost? Then verily thou hast mistaken. Our cause has been established by God and no power on earth can ever do it any harm. This temporal power which thou assumest is to be counted but only for a very few days and then thou shalt feel sorry for thy tyranny but it shall be in vain. The divine kingdom is with us and shall remain with us for ever. All that thou doth possess is nothing but a passing show and nothing divine in it. Verily, Satan holds power on the earth more than all the tyrants together but in the eyes of God he is the cursed and the derided one. It looks that sins have encompassed thy heart and severed all the links of faith and made thee bold to utter the proud words against the Truth. Here the Holy Lady quoted the verses of the Holy Qur’an2“ (A.P.)
Verse 85
Some commentators who hold this verse as referring exclusively to the Jews of Madina and around it, to explain their point of view say:
“The Jewish tribes Bani Quraiza and Bani Nazeer living side by side at Madina made an alliance with Aus and Khazraj the two rival tribes of Madina respectively and when the latter fought against each other their allies took part in fighting and thus, one Jewish tribe slaughtered and imprisoned the other and laid waste their habitations; but afterwards collected subscriptions for the release of Jewish prisoners, giving reason for this that their law commanded them to redeem the prisoners and they fought for the honour of their allies”. The reference, it is said, is to this inconsistent action on their part.
Verse 86
Let us reflect about the fate of those who forgot the hereafter and gave themselves up to earning their personal gains and the vain glory of this world and resorted even to usurping the rights of the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt inflicting heartless tyrannies and tortures upon them which when related even today will move even the non-Muslim world to tears.
