read

Ibrahim (Abraham) Section 1 – Qur’an Revealed To Lead Mankind To Light

  • Qur’an revealed to take out mankind from Darkness and to lead them to Light

  • Those who prefer this world to the Hereafter are astray

  • Apostles of God were sent to preach the truth in the languages of the people to whom they were sent

  • The ministry of Moses and his guidance to the Children of Israel referred to

Ibrahim (Abraham) Verses 1 – 6

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the name of God the Beneficent the Merciful

الر كِتَابٌ أَنْزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ لِتُخْرِجَ النَّاسَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَمِيدِ

Alif, Lam, Ra, (A. L. R.) A Book (the Qur’an) (We) sent it down unto thee (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad) that thou mayest lead out men from the darkness into the light, by their Lord’s permission, unto the way of the Mighty, the (Most) Praised (One), (14:1)

اللَّهِ الَّذِي لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَوَيْلٌ لِلْكَافِرِينَ مِنْ عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ

(Of) God (it is) unto whom belongeth whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth; and woe unto the dis believers for a severe torment, (14:2)

الَّذِينَ يَسْتَحِبُّونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا عَلَى الْآخِرَةِ وَيَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَيَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا أُولَٰئِكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ بَعِيدٍ

Those who love the life of this world more than the here after, and hinder (others) from the path of God and seek it to be crooked; these are in error far away (from the right path). (14:3)

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلَّا بِلِسَانِ قَوْمِهِ لِيُبَيِّنَ لَهُمْ فَيُضِلُّ اللَّهُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَهْدِي مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

And We sent not any apostle but with the language1of the people that he might clearly explain (Our commandments) unto them; then God leaveth to stray whom He willeth and guideth He whom He willeth, and He is the Mighty the Wise. (14:4)2

وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا مُوسَىٰ بِآيَاتِنَا أَنْ أَخْرِجْ قَوْمَكَ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ وَذَكِّرْهُمْ بِأَيَّامِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ

And indeed sent We Moses with Our signs3saying: “Lead Thou out thy people from the darkness into the light and remind them of the days4of God; Verily in this are signs for the patient, grateful (one).” (14:5)

وَإِذْ قَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِ اذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ أَنْجَاكُمْ مِنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ وَيُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ وَفِي ذَٰلِكُمْ بَلَاءٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ

And when said Moses unto his people; “Remember ye God’s favour unto you when He delivered you from Pharaoh’s people who afflicted you with dreadful torment, who5were slaying your sons and sparing your women; and in this was a great trial from your Lord.” (14:6)

Commentary

Verse 1

Alif Lam Ra (A. L. R.)6

‘Anzalnahu-ilaik’, i.e., We have sent it unto thee - indicates that the Holy Qur’an came down from the High in a Complete Book form7 and was not edited or compiled here on earth by anyone.

The object of the revelation of the Book is given to be, to take out mankind from the darkness of ignorance and false belief into the correct knowledge about the truth about God, the Creator Lord of the Universe and the relation of the creation to Him. The guidance is meant for mankind as a whole and not to any one community or nation8.

‘Zulumat’ the plural of ‘Zulmat’, i.e., darkness, is used to mean the intensity or the various kinds of ignorance or false beliefs.

Verse 3

Let the reader reflect under the light of this Verse on the conduct of the people about their behaviour against the Holy Ahl al-Bayt immediately as the Holy Prophet departed from this world, and also about the faith with regard to their unwarranted adulteration of the doctrines of the faith and fanciful innovations in its practice.

Verse 4

An Apostle of God being sent to preach the message in any particular language can never mean to restrict his mission to the people speaking that language. The worst affected spot is always chosen to start the campaign against the situation and along with the action at that spot, all the other affected areas are served. Besides any single apostle of God can never naturally be expected to know all the languages of the world. Only the language of the place or the people with which the mission is started, could naturally and practically be used. It will be nothing short of a miserable betrayal of one’s lack of common sense, if it is said that since the Holy Prophet was sent with a Scripture, the Holy Qur’an in Arabic, his mission was only for the Arabic speaking people.

Even granting such a wrong contention, Islam will logically be imposed upon the Christian world as a whole for the fountain-head or the birth-place of Christ and Christianity was not Rome or any other place in the world, but Jerusalem, which also comes within the Arabic speaking area and original and Jesus was sent to the Israelites with Evangel in the Hebrew language. What a paradoxical treatment of the question it is, that when Jesus clearly declares that ‘he was not sent hut unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’ (Math. 15/24).

He is taken as a universal teacher of the world as a whole and in spite of his open, clear and definite command to his disciples ‘to restrict or confine their mission only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel anil not to go to even immediate neighbours the Gentiles or to the Samaritans, who were there at the very place (Math. 10/5), the Christian message is made a universal call to all the distant nations all over the world, whereas the Holy Prophet is definitely declared to have been sent to mankind as a whole without any limitation of any time or space.9 and Islam having been declared as a universal religion for the human race as a whole,10 it is blindly said that the mission of the Holy Prophet and Islam were meant only for the Arabic speaking people of the age.

This verse asserts that every prophet was sent to preach in the language of the people of the age and not that the mission was ever restricted to that people only. The object was to see that the people who first received the message might know it fully and properly so that they might carry the torch of the guidance to the others of the human race in the surroundings. All that is needed to understand the Holy Qur’an is to do it with a clean mind free from prejudices sincerely to know the contents with reference to their correct context. And to understand the Holy Qur’an correctly it is essential to study it under the guidance of those with whom it was left, i.e., the Holy Ahl al-Bayt, for the Holy Prophet has openly declared that the Book of God and his Ahl al-Bayt will never be separated from each other which clearly means that the correct meaning of the Holy Qur’an would always be found with the Ahl al-Bayt, and the Ahl al-Bayt would always be attached to the correct interpretation of the Final Word of God. Besides this, the Muslim World as a whole knows the universally accepted fact, that the Holy Prophet declared: ‘I am the City of knowledge and Ali is its Gate,’ which means that all the knowledge which the Holy Prophet possessed could be had only from his Vicegerent Ali Ibn Abi Talib as the chief of the Ahl al-Bayt, next only to him.

It need necessarily mean only the different languages but that every prophet should speak in such a language understandable to the people to whom he has been sent. His language being neither above their standard nor below. And this is the condition required in the rhetoric that the speaker should always talk in accordance with the standard of his audience. Now a person who has been sent to mankind as a whole for all times in all places, should adopt such a language which should be rhetorically perfect to suit the universal audience of various standards and Qur’an is a miracle in its super rhetorical standard. (A.P.).

Verse 5

‘Ayyam’, i.e., the days - here means the days of relief from the calamities, i.e., the blessings or the favours or the bounties of God. This meaning is made clear by the succeeding verse.

God’s days refer to period or part of time, wherein a new development takes place in the course of evolution, hence it includes the ordinary day of twenty-four hours. The six periods in which the process of the creation of the heavens and the earth took place, the period of the geological changes, the rise and the fall of the nation, any celestial or terrestrial changes, the intermediary stages in the Life Hereafter and the Day of the Final Resurrection. Refer to verses 70:4, 32:5 & 22:47, all, the mention in the subsequent verses are ‘Ayyamillah’. (A.P.).

  • SHARES
  • 52 views