Аль-Анам 6:127–132

In the second verse (127), it was said: لَهُمْ دَارُ‌ السَّلَامِ عِندَ رَ‌بِّهِمْ (For them there is the Abode of Peace with their Lord). It means that the people who have been mentioned above, people who see and hear the Qur'anic words of advice with an open mind and who, as an inevitable result, accept the advice and guidance, then, it is for them that there is that reward of Darus-Salam, present and preserved, waiting. Here, the word: دَارُ‌ (dar) means home or abode and: سَلَامِ (salam) means peace and security from all calamities, catastrophies and hardships. Therefore, Darus-Salam can be the description of a home where none of these, or sorrow or pain of any kind, can find entry. And that, as obvious, could only be Paradise.

And Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ said: Salam is the name of Allah Jalla Sha'nuhu. And the Dar of As-Salam means the ` Dar' (home, house or abode) of Allah. It is evident that the abode of Allah is a place of peace. Therefore, the meaning essentially remains the same, that is, a home where total and all-inclusive peace reigns. By calling Jannah (Paradise) Darus-Salam, the indication given is that Jannah alone is the place where one sheds off all pain, anxiety and distaste, and enjoys total bliss, something never acquired by the highest of the high in this mortal world, nor even by the greatest of the great prophets or messengers - because this state of life in the mortal world is not the proper locale of perfect and eternal peace and pleasure.

It has been stated in this verse that, for those who have the good fortune of accepting the advice, there is Darus-Salam' with their Lord. Now, the expression - ` with their Lord' - could also mean that this Darus-Salam' cannot be cashed instantly here in the mortal world, rather, they will get it when they go to their Lord on the Day of Qiyamah. And it could also mean that the promise of Darus-Salam' cannot be false. The most gracious Rabb is its guarantor. It lies safe with Him. Then, right here, there is yet another indication towards the fact that no one can ever imagine the blessings of this ` Darus-Salam' within the limitations of this frame of existence. Only the Rabb, with whom lies this treasure, knows it.

Moreover, in the light of the second meaning given above, the actual getting of this ` Darus-Salam' does not seem to hinge upon the coming of Qiyamah (The Last Day) and 'Akhirah (Hereafter). In fact, it is also possible that the most gracious Rabb would make anyone He wills its fortunate recipient within the life of this world - whether by making them totally immune to and protected against all calamities and hardships, as has been the case is some examples of past prophets and men of Allah, or, by making the blessings of the 'Akhirah appear before their eyes with a touch of the real, their very eyes were attuned to the real thing in a manner that it helped them perceive the pains of the transitory world as something insignificant and not worthy of much notice. For such people, even stockpiles of suffering are reduced to a blade of grass.

That the forthcoming rewards to be received as against the hard-ships of the mortal world would make them welcome these hardships as something delectable is not a proposition too far out. Think of the eternal blessings of the 'Akhirah. They are certainly great as they can be. Then, think of the fleeting comforts of this mortal world. Their very thought thrills. Man slaves for them, yet takes his slavery with a smile and a sigh of relief. Man sacrifices the bliss of his freedom and exchanges it with worldly comforts through recommendations and bribes, goes for the hard labour of job or work which cuts through his sleep and rest, even does it with zest and enthusiasm, and then, is happy and grateful about it - because he sees before his eyes the pas-sage of thirty one days of the month which will bring to him the taste and pleasure of the salary he has earned. That pleasure makes every bitterness of this slavery in work tasteful and pleasing. According to one of the possible explanations (Tafsir) of the Qur'anic verse: وَلِمَن خَافَ مقامَ رَبِّہِ جَنَّتٰن those who fear Allah Ta` ala shall have two Paradises, the one in the 'Akhirah and the other in the mortal world. To begin with, Paradise in the world means that one finds the help of Allah with him in everything he does. What he does seems to be becoming easy for him - and, even if he has to face a passing phase of difficulty, extra-effort, or even failure, that appears welcome to him in anticipation of the lasting blessings of the 'Akhirah, something which turns even this painful experience into a state of comfort.

To sum up, it can be said that the reference in this verse, of Darus-Salam' for good people being with their Rabb, is a promise which is certain and determined for the Akhirah, and it is also possible that they may be given a taste of the Darus-Salam' in this world as well.

At the conclusion of the verse (127), it was said: وَهُوَ وَلِيُّهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ; (and He is their Guardian by virtue of what they used to do). It means that, because of their good deeds, Allah Ta` ala becomes their guardian, care-taker and helper. Everything hard they face becomes easy on them.

Mentioned in the third verse (128) is a dialogue before a gathering of Jinns and human beings on the plains of the Resurrection (Al-Hashr). Allah Ta` ala will address the satans among Jinns telling them about their excessive role in misleading human beings. What would they say in reply has not been mentioned by the Qur'an. As obvious, there was not much they could do but to confess the truth before the All-Knowing and the All-Aware. But, in not mentioning their confession, the hint given is that they will be so confounded with the question that they would not know how to make an answer. (Ruh al-Ma'ani)

After that, the text turns to the satans among human beings, that is, those who followed the instigations of satans during their life of the world, went astray themselves, and kept becoming the cause of others going astray. It is from them that an answer submitted in the court of the Judge of all judges has been mentioned - though, the initial question was not asked of the satans of human beings, but in an implied manner, they too were the addressees, because they too had done the same job of making people go astray as was the job of the satans of the Jinn. Thus, their reply was based on their being the implied addressees. But, it seems obvious that the human-like satans too are liable to be questioned which, though, is not mentioned here explicitly. However, it does find mention in a verse of Surah Ya’ Sin, which is: أَلَمْ أَعْهَدْ إِلَيْكُمْ يَا بَنِي آدَمَ أَن لَّا تَعْبُدُوا الشَّيْطَانَ that is, had I not taken a pledge from you, 0 children of Adam (through messengers), that you shall not obey the Shay-tan? - 36:60).

From this we know that human satans too will be subjected to the question on this occasion and they would, in reply, confess that, surely, they committed that crime and that they listened to the satans, and they would also confess that, surely, the two of them benefitted from each other through their friendship and cooperation. The human satans learned from them the ways of securing gratification from worldly enjoyments and, on occasions, called on them for help in one or the other way, as is the practice in idol-worshipping Hindus and, for that matter, even among ignorant Muslims, who would practice methods through which the help of satans and jinns can be harnessed in some tasks. As for the satans among Jinns, their gain was that they found a pliable people to listen to them because of which they succeeded in making human beings follow their dictates, so much so that they forgot all about death and the Hereafter. That was when they confessed that they had forsaken the thought of death and the Hereafter because of the instigation of satans, and now they see it in front of them.

Thereupon, Allah Ta ala will say: النَّارُ‌ مَثْوَاكُمْ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا إِلَّا مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ ۗ إِنَّ رَ‌بَّكَ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌ("The Fire is your abode where you shall remain forever, except what Allah wills [ that is, wills to take someone out of it ]. Surely, your Lord is All-Wise, All-Knowing" ). But, as in the definitive statements of the Qur'an (Nusus), it stands proved that even Allah Ta` ala would not so will, therefore, it is for ever that they shall have to be in it.

Commentary

Lexically, the word: (nuwalli) appearing in the first (129) of the three verses cited above can be translated either in the sense of joining up and bringing closer, or in the sense of setting on or imposing on. Narrations reported from leading authorities in Tafsir among the Sahabah and Tabi` in also carry the explanation of this word as based on these two meanings.

The Basis of Human Groupings after Resurrection

Early authorities Said ibn Jubayr and Qatadah and others have taken the first sense and, according to them, the verse means that, on the day of Qiyamah before Allah Ta` ala, the collective formations - that is, groupings and party alignments of people - will not be on racial or national or colour and language basis, instead of which, these groupings shall be on the basis of deeds and morals. A Muslim obedient to Allah Ta` ala, wherever he may be, shall be together with Muslims; and the disobedient disbeliever, wherever he may be, shall be together with disbelievers - whether their race, heredity, country, language, colour and social living may be way different.

Then, even among Muslims, those good in deeds shall be with the righteous while the evil doers will be grouped up with evil doers and sinners. This is the sense of what has been said in Surah At-Takwir: وَإِذَا النُّفُوسُ زُوِّجَتْ that is, when people shall be grouped (like with like) the sense of which is that the people gathered before Allah Ta` la on the plains of Resurrection shall split in different groupings in terms of their deeds and morals.

In his Tafsir of this verse, Sayyidna Faruq al-A'zam ؓ has said: ` The doers of one kind of deeds, good or bad, shall be grouped together. The good will go with the good to Jannah and the evil will be led with the evil to Jahannam.' To authenticate his explanation, Sayyidna Faruq al-A'zam ؓ cited proof from the verse: احْشُرُ‌وا الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا وَأَزْوَاجَهُمْ of the Holy Qur'an (37:22) which deals with the same subject by saying that, on the day of Qiyamah, the command will go forth: 'Gather those who have been unjust, and their cohorts, (and take them to Jahannam).

The gist of the explanation of this verse is that Allah Ta` ala will, by merging some of the unjust with some others, will make them one group, irrespective of how far apart they may be from each other in terms of their race and homeland.

In addition to what has been stated above, it has also been clarified in another verse that, on the fateful day of Resurrection, the temporal grouping based on race, country, colour, language and other unifiers will break up root and branch: وَيَوْمَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَفَرَّ‌قُونَ ﴿14﴾. It means: When the Hour (of Qiyamah) is established, those united shall stand separated - 30:14).

Deeds and Morals affect Collective Matters even in this World

As for the severance of existing relations and affiliations, that is something which will come before everyone fully and clearly after all, but a minor sampling of this can be found everywhere in this mortal world as well. It goes without saying that a good person is temperamentally tuned to virtues and virtuous people. He is attached to them individually or collectively. This becomes his passport to ever-new avenues of good deeds which go on to make his determination firm. The same holds for doers of evil deeds. They too relate to their kind; to them they are attached and with them they keep company. And this negative company keeps contributing to their evil deeds and evil morals, as a result of which, avenues of good and prospects of better con-duct keep closing on him before his own eyes. This is his cash punishment for his evil deeds which he gets right here in this world.

So, in a nutshell, we can say that there is a reward or punishment of good or bad deeds which will come in the 'Akhirah and there is a reward or punishment which comes within the life of this world in a way that a good person is blessed with colleagues who are equally good and honest and whose contribution to whatever is undertaken makes them rise and prosper together. In contrast, there is the person with evil deeds and evil intention who gets what he deserves. The colleagues he gets and the help and assistance he employs are no different than him.

What is left of his misfortune, the evil group around him takes care of that when it pushes him into a far deeper abyss.

As mentioned earlier, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: When Allah Ta` ala is pleased with a ruler, He gives him good ministers and good staff who make his government well-managed and progress-prone - and when Allah Ta` ala is displeased with someone, he gets colleagues who are bad and so are the officials he must deal with. As a result, even if he wishes to do something good, he cannot get it done.

An oppressor is punished at the hands of another oppressor

The sense of the verse given above is in terms of its translation ac-cording to the first meaning mentioned earlier. As for the second meaning mentioned alongside, reported from Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas, Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Sayyidna ibn Zayd, Malik ibn Dinar and others ؓ is a Tafsir according to which, ` Allah Ta` ala sets some unjust people (Zalim) over other unjust people and thus has one Zalim (oppressor) punished at the hands of another Zalim.'

This approach to meaning is also correct and sound in its place, and is in accord with other statements of the Qur'an and Hadith. The Holy Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said in a Hadith: کَمَا تَکُونُوںَ کَذٰلِکَ یُؤمَّرُعَلَکم that is, as you shall be, so shall be the rulers set on you. If you are unjust and evil, your rulers will also be unjust and evil. And if you are good in your deeds and characters, Allah Ta` ala will make good, kind and just people your rulers.

Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ says: When Allah Ta` ala wishes well for a people, He appoints the best rulers and officials for them - and when He wishes otherwise for a people, He sets the worst rulers and officials over them. (Tafsir Al-Bahr AI-Muhit)

According to Ruh al-Ma'ani, it is on the authority of this verse that Muslim jurists prove that: When people of a country, turn away from Allah Ta` ala and become involved in deeds of injustice and oppression, Allah Ta` ala sets oppressive rulers and officials over them and lets them be punished at their hands.

Based on a narration by Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn Masud ؓ Ibn Kathir has reported a decisive statement of the Holy Prophet ﷺ that is, whoever helps a Zalim (oppressor) in his Zulm, (injustice) then Allah Ta` ala sets that very Zalim on him to torment him, and it is at his hands that he gets his punishment.

Mentioned in the second verse (130), is a question which will be asked of the Jinn and human beings on the plains of Resurrection.

They will be asked to show the reason why they chose to disbelieve and disobey Allah Ta` ala. They were told that they could not deny that Divinely ordained messengers from among them did reach them, messengers who recited to them the verses of Allah and warned them of that day of reckoning. In the reply to this question, mentioned there is their confession that the messengers did come, they did tell them the truth, and that they were involved with disbelief and disobedience. But, no reason for this wrongdoing was given from their side. Instead, Allah Ta` ala has Himself given its reason by saying: وَگَرَّتھُمُ الحَیاۃُ الدُنیُا (And the worldly life had deceived them). It means that the charms of their transitory life had put them on the wrong track. They thought that it was everything, which was really nothing, and that made them heedless to their end.

There is something noteworthy here. There are other verses in the Qur'an which say that the disbelievers will deny their Kufr and Shirk when asked to explain it on the day of Resurrection and before their Lord, they would lie by saying: وَاللَّهِ رَ‌بِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِ‌كِي that is, ` we swear by Allah, our Lord, we were no mushriks (of those who ascribe partners to Him).' Now, this verse tells us that they would be ashamed of their Kufr and Shirk and will confess their error. On the outside, this seems to be contradictory. But, there are further explanations in other verses of the Qur'an that they would initially deny when asked, but, when Allah Ta` ala - in His perfect power - would make them speechless, witnesses will come from different parts of their own body. Then, Allah will give them their speech back and they will tell everything about their misdeed openly and clearly. Then, the Jinn and human beings will find out that all parts of their body were really the private eyes of the created system which finally produced the true evidence on every-thing about them. Then, left with no choice to deny, they will confess.

Are there messengers of Allah among the Jinn too?

Something else to be considered here is that, in this verse, Allah Ta` ala has addressed both Jinnkind and mankind and asked them about messengers (rusul) coming to them, messengers of Allah who were from among them. This shows that messengers have been sent to the Jinnkind from among their own kind - as is the case with human-kind among whom the messengers were sent from among them, that is, they were human beings.

On this question, the ` Ulama' of Tafsir and Hadith differ. Some say that Rasul (messenger) and Nabiyy (prophet) have always been human. There has been no Ras O appointed directly from among the Jinnkind. Instead, what has happened is that there have been Jinns charged with the mission of getting reports of the message of truth conveyed by human prophets and messengers and take it to their kind. They were really, in that way, couriers and message-bearers of a Rasul. Therefore, they too are called rasul or carrier of a message, within the literal sense of the word in Arabic. The proof of the position taken by these respected scholars comes from the verses of the Qur'an where sayings of the Jinn that they conveyed the Qur'an or the saying of the prophet to their kind have been mentioned, for example: وَلَّوْا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِم مُّنذِرِ‌ينَ and they returned to their people to warn them - 46:29), and in the verse of Surah Al-Jinn: فَقَالُوا إِنَّا سَمِعْنَا قُرْ‌آنًا عَجَبًا ﴿1﴾ يَهْدِي إِلَى الرُّ‌شْدِ فَآمَنَّا بِهِ they said: Indeed, we have heard a wonderful Qur'an that leads to rectitude, so in it we believe - 72:1).

But, there is a group of ` Ulama' who, given the outward meaning of this verse, also believe that, before the appearance of the Last among Prophets (علیہم السلام) ، each of the two species had their messengers from among them. To human beings came messengers who were human beings, and to the different classes of the Jinn, messengers were sent from among their kind only. It is the distinction of the Last among Prophets ﷺ that he was sent as the only Rasul for all human beings and the Jinn of the whole world - and that too was not limited for one given time - in fact, all human beings and the Jinn born right up to the Last Day of Qiyamah shall be his community and he alone shall be the Rasul and Nabiyy for them.

Related Notes on Hindu Autars

Leading scholars of Tafsir, Kalabi and Mujahid hold that the Au-tars of Hindus are generally from the Jinns. Qadi Thana'ullah of Panipat, in his Tafsir Mazhari, has followed this view. According to him, it proves that, before Sayyidna Adam (علیہ السلام) the messengers of the Jinn used to be from their kind only. Then, it is proved that the Jinn inhabited the earth thousands of years before human beings - and since they too are obligated to observe the percepts of the injunctions of the Shari'ah like human beings, it is necessary on the basis of reason and revelation that they too should have prophets and messengers among them in order to convey the commandments of Allah Ta` ala.

Qadi Thana'ullah Panipati has said that the Hindus of India claim the history of their Vedas as thousands of years old. According to them their religious deities they called Autar date back to the same early time. It is not far out to say that they may be these very prophets and messengers of the Jinnkind, and may be the instructions brought by them were put together in the form of some book. The images and idols of اوتار Autars of Hindus placed in temples have particular patterns. Some are represented with several faces, others with many hands and feet, while still others would have other features such as a trunk like that of an elephant. They are very different from common human shapes. That the Jinn could transform themselves into such shapes is not beyond the range of probability. Therefore, saying that their Autar might be the prophets, messengers or their deputies who came to serve the Jinnkind - and their book itself be the collection of their instructions - is not so far out either. Then, gradually, as there were alterations in other books, alterations were made here too and what was left of it was idolatry and Shirk.

However, even if that original book and the authentic instructions left by those messengers were present, they would have stood abrogated after the appearance of the Holy Prophet LI and the universal application of his prophethood. And that it would have become impossible to act in accordance with it after its having been deformed and altered is something evident by itself.

The third verse (131) tells us that sending prophets and messengers among human beings and the Jinn is based on the dictate of justice and mercy of Allah Ta` ala for He does not send punishment over a people unless they have been awakened through His blessed messengers and provided with the light of guidance.

The sense of the fourth verse (132) is fairly clear. It says that with Allah there are ranks for classes of people among human beings and the Jinn. These ranks have been assigned in terms of their deeds. When rewarded or punished, the measure used shall be that of their deeds.