Al-Hashr 59:15–18

Commentary

كَمَثَلِ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِ‌يبًا (...like those who were before them in near past ....59:15) This refers to the case of Banu Nadir, and Mujahid (رح) says that the phrase الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ قَرِ‌يبًا "those who were before them in near past " refers to the Quraish of Makkah who sustained an ignominious defeat at Badr. According to Sayyidna ` Abdullah Ibn ` Abbas ؓ it refers to Banu Qainuqa', a Jewish tribe, who were punished for their mischief and machinations after Badr. Banu Nadir were banished after the battles of Badr and 'Uhud, and Banu Qainuqa' had been banished after Badr. At Badr seventy thousand pagan Arabs were killed, and the survivors returned home disgracefully. Since pagans of Makkah and Banu qainuqa', both of them faced a deterrent punishment after Badr, both can be the purport of the words, who were before them in the past, and of: ذَاقُوا وَبَالَ أَمْرِ‌هِمْ...tasted the evil consequence of their conduct...[ 59:15] "

The Expulsion of Banu Qainuqa'

As stated earlier, when the Holy Prophet migrated from Makkah and settled in Madinah, he concluded a peace treaty with the Jewish tribes of Madinah, and of its neighbourhood. One of its conditions stipulated that they would not fight the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the Muslims, or assist their enemies. Banu Qainuqa' was a party to this peace agreement and was the first one to break the pledged word, within a few months. On the occasion of the battle of Badr, they connived with the Quraish of Makkah, and some incidents of their connivance came out in the open. On that occasion, the following verse was revealed وَإِمَّا تَخَافَنَّ مِن قَوْمٍ خِيَانَةً فَانبِذْ إِلَيْهِمْ عَلَىٰ سَوَاءٍ (And if you apprehend a breach from a people, then, throw [ the treaty ] towards them being right forward...[ 8:58] ". Banu Qainuqa`, through their treachery, had already broken the treaty. Therefore, The Holy Prophet ﷺ declared war against them and the banner of jihad was given in the hands of Sayyidna Hamzah ؓ and appointing Sayyidna Abu Lubabah ؓ his deputy in the city of Madinah, the Holy Prophet ﷺ himself joined the fighting force. Having seeing the Muslim army, the Jews shut themselves up in the fortress. The Holy Prophet ﷺ laid a siege to it for fifteen days, and the Jews had no choice but to surrender. Eventually, Allah cast terror into their hearts and they realized that fighting would not pay off. So, they opened the gate of the fortress and expressed their willingness to abide by the decision of the Holy Prophet ﷺ .

The Holy Prophet's ﷺ decision was to have the Jewish men executed. But ` Abdullah Ibn 'Ubayy, the hypocrite, intervened and pleaded to the Holy Prophet ﷺ to pardon them. In the end, it was decided that they should leave the area and go into exile and their belongings would be the spoils falling to the lot of the Muslims. Accordingly, they left Madinah and proceeded to settle in an area called Adhra` at in Syria. In compliance with the law of spoils, one-fifth was retained for Bait-ul-mal [ public treasury ] and the rest of the spoils was disbursed among the fighters. After the battle of Badr, this was the first one-fifth of the booties that was retained for the public treasury. This incident took place on Monday, 15th Shawwal, in the 2nd year of Hijrah - twenty months after the migration.

كَمَثَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِذْ قَالَ لِلْإِنسَانِ اكْفُرْ‌ (The example [ of the hypocrites ] is like the Shaitan when he says to a human being, "Become a disbeliever" then once he disbelieves, he says, "I disown you; I fear Allah, the Lord of the worlds."....59:16) This is another example of the hypocrites who made false promises of solidarity and support to the Banu Nadir, and provoked the latter to fight against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ . But when the Muslims besieged them, not a single hypocrite came forward to assist. The Qur'an here uses a simile to illustrate the similarity between a hypocrite and the Shaitan. The Shaitan incited man to disbelieve and promised him the world, but when he was seriously involved in disbelief, he said that he has nothing to do with him. Only Allah knows how many such episodes the devil must have been involved in, textually, however, we find one such episode narrated in the Qur'an in Surah Anfal, verse [ 48]:

وَإِذْ زَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ وَقَالَ لَا غَالِبَ لَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَإِنِّي جَارٌ‌ لَّكُمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَرَ‌اءَتِ الْفِئَتَانِ نَكَصَ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ وَقَالَ إِنِّي بَرِ‌يءٌ مِّنكُمْ إِنِّي أَرَ‌ىٰ مَا لَا تَرَ‌وْنَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ ۚ وَاللَّهُ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ

"And when the Shaitan beautified their deeds for them and said, 'None of the people is to overpower you today, and I am a protector for you.' But, when the two groups saw each other, he turned back on his heels and said, 'I have nothing to do with you. I am seeing what you do not see. I am scared of Allah, and Allah is severe in punishment.'

This incident occurred on the occasion of the battle of Badr when the Shaitan misled the pagan Quraish, urged them to wage a war against Muslims, and then he withdrew, and left them in the lurch when they were in the middle of a pitched-battle. It is not clear how the Shaitan did all this, whether he cast suggestions into their minds or whether he came to them in human shape and spoke to them face to face. A full explanation is available in Volume [ 4] of Ma’ ariful Qur’ an, pages 242-247.

If the verse refers to this incident, in which the Shaitan provokes man to disbelieve and when he does that, he washes his hands of them, it does not seem that the Shaitan asked them to commit kufr, because they were already kafirs. He asked them to be firm in opposing the Messenger ﷺ . The answer is all too obvious, in that it is all the same whether he asked them to commit kufr, or bids them to remain firm in their kufr or fight the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ، because it is also tantamount to kufr.

Tafsir Mazhari, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir and others have cited several incidents where monks and devotees were deceived into kufr. For example, one of the Israeli monks devoted himself to Allah in his synagogue, and fasted consecutively and broke his fast only once in ten days. In this way, he spent seventy years of his life. The accursed Shaitan pursued him. He sent after him the most cunning devil in the shape of a monk, a devotee of God. He went up to him and exerted himself in the worship of God and thus built up confidence in the genuine monk. Eventually, the impostor succeeded in teaching the monk a few of the prayers that are efficacious in curing the sickly people. Then the former exerted his influence on many people to fall sick, and gave them the monk's address. When the latter recited the prayers, the devil would remove his influence and thus they would feel cured. He kept up this process for a long period of time, until one day he performed his exertion on the beautiful daughter of an Israeli leader. He sent her also to the monk. He succeeded in getting her into his synagogue and gradually he succeeded in getting him to commit fornication with the girl who, as a result, fell pregnant. He suggested that the girl be killed to save face. After the killing, the devil himself went around telling the story of the killing and put up the people against the monk. They, in their fury, demolished the synagogue and decided to kill him and crucify him. Then the Shaitan went back to the monk and said to him that there is no way out to save his life. 'Of course', he said to him, 'there is one way of saving your life, in that you prostrate to me and I will save your life.' The monk had already committed all the sins. The way to commit kufr was paved. So, he prostrated. At that juncture, the Shaitan said to him plainly, 'You were not falling into my trap. I adopted all these guiles for you to commit kufr. I cannot assist you in any way.' This story is recounted fully in Tafsir Mazhari and Qurtubi. Allah, the Pure and Exalted, knows best!

Commentary

The Command to Taqwa and to prepare for the Day of Resurrection

The earlier parts of Surah Al-Hashr has described different events relating to the Jews, the pagans and the hypocrites and their punishments in this world and in the next. Now the concluding part of the Surah makes the believers conscious of their duty towards Allah and advises them to perform the righteous deeds regularly.

The first verse in this set reads يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَلْتَنظُرْ‌ نَفْسٌ مَّا قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ those who believe, fear Allah, and everybody must consider what he [ or she ] has sent ahead for tomorrow 59:18) In an eloquent style, the verse enjoins upon the believers to take care of the Hereafter and commands them to prepare for it. Here a few points need to be considered:

First: In this verse, the Hereafter is described as ghad [ tomorrow ], which means the 'day after today'. This points to two things. First of all, it means that the entire period of this world, compared to the Hereafter, is very short. That is, this entire world, in relation to the Hereafter, is like one day. In fact, in terms of pure calculation, this comparison too is difficult to imagine, because the Hereafter is eternal which will exist without an end. The age of human world is said to be a few thousand years old. If this is calculated with the creation of the heaven and the earth, it will extend to a few million years, which in any case will be a limited period. This is no comparison to an unlimited or infinite period of time. Some Traditions state' اَلدُّنیَا یَومُ وَ لَنَا فِیہِ صَومُ (The entire world is a day and on that day we fast.) Whether we calculate from human creation or from the creation of the heaven and the earth, it does not matter, because neither of these factors is important for a human individual. In fact, every individual's world is made up of the days and years of his age. Every person should be able to realize how short a period that is in relation to the eternity of the Hereafter.

Second of all, this verse shows that the Day of Resurrection is as certain as the arrival of tomorrow after today which is a stark reality, and no one doubts it. Likewise the Hereafter is beyond any reasonable doubt.

Thirdly, the Day of Resurrection will happen very shortly. Just as tomorrow is not very far away from today, it is thought to be very near, likewise, the Day of Resurrection will happen very soon after this world. The first phase of the Hour is when an individual dies, his Hour is already established as stated in a Tradition: مَن مَّاتَ فَقَد قَامَت قِیَامَتُہ "He who dies, his Day of Judgment has been established" because the signs of the next world start from the grave and examples of reward and punishment come forward. The world of grave or the world of barzakh is like a waiting room in this world which accommodates all types of people, ranging from the first class to the third class. The waiting room of the criminals is the prison house. A person should be able to determine his position and status in the waiting room. Therefore, every person's Judgment Day starts with his death. Man's death has been made such a puzzling phenomenon that not even the greatest philosopher or scientist can with any degree of certainty determine the exact time of its occurrence. In fact, every coming moment is fraught with the danger that one may not live to see it, especially in this time and age when it is moving at the pace of lightning and heart-failure is the order of the day. The second phase of the Hour is when the entire world, the heaven and earth and everything else, will perish, though this might take place after hundreds of thousands of years, it is very close in relation to the eternity of the Hereafter.

In short, this verse by describing qiyamah [ Doomsday ] as ghad [ tomorrow ] made man conscious of the fact that the Doomsday is not very far off; it is very close like tomorrow. It is also possible that it might come even before tomorrow.

The second point put by this verse for consideration is that the arrival of Doomsday being certain and also near, everyone is invited to think what he has prepared for the Day of Resurrection. This shows that his original abode is the Hereafter. His residence in this world is like a wayfarer. It is necessary to send something from here for the eternal abode. The main purpose of man's residence is to live here, acquire and accumulate things and send them forward to the eternal abode of the Hereafter. It is quite obvious that no material wealth or property can be taken with from this world. There is only one way of transferring wealth [ gold, silver, money and so on ] from one country to another, that is to deposit it into the bank from where the currency of another country is obtained. In exactly the same manner, wealth is spent in the way of Allah and the sacred laws of Allah are implemented and deposited in the Divinely celestial bank, where the currency of reward is recorded in the celestial Account-Book. When a believer reaches the eternal abode, it is handed over to him without claim or demand.

The phrase مَّا قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ 'what he (or she) has sent ahead' carries the general sense of the good, as well as, the bad deeds. He who sends forth good deeds will obtain the currency of reward in the Hereafter; and he who sends forth evil deeds will be indicted in the Hereafter. The command of "...fear Allah...[ 18] " has been repeated. It could be for emphasis, or the first of such command is for man to fulfill the obligatory and imperative duties, and the repetition of the command is to abstain from sins. The second explanation is given by Maulana Ashraf Thanawi (رح) .

Also, it is possible that the first command to fear Allah is to send forth good deeds for the Hereafter by acting upon imperatives set by Allah, and the second command to fear is to ensure that what is being sent is not fake or counterfeit. Fake or counterfeit deeds, in relation to the Hereafter, would imply the deeds done seem to be genuinely righteous deeds, but they lack sincerity of purpose and the good pleasure of Allah. What was done ostentatiously or for ulterior motive or an ostensible action that seems like an act of worship, but having no base in religion, it is tantamount to innovation (Bid'ah). Thus the second command to fear Allah implies that for the Hereafter it is not sufficient to merely accumulate ostensible actions, but to send forth genuine deeds performed with sincerity according to the rules set in religion. Spurious actions will not be acceptable there.