Al-Anfal 8:49–54

The Anatomy of Shaitanic Deception and Personal Defence

There are some elements of guidance we receive from what has been mentioned in this verse:

(1) That the 'Shaitan' is man's enemy who employs all sorts of tricks, guises and stratagems to bring loss to him. There are occasions when he would simply inject a scruple in the heart and harass his victim and there are times when he would deceive man by appearing before him.

(2) That Allah Ta` ala has given him the ability to appear before man in various guises. There is a well-known book of Hanaf'i jurisprudence called آکام المرجان فی أحکام الجان : 'Akam al-Marjan fi Ahkam al-Jann where it has been proved in detail. Therefore, authorities among mystic scholars who are recognized as masters in illumination کَشف (kashf) and eye-witness شُہُود (shuhud) have warned people that it is dangerous to start following a person simply by seeing him or hearing him say something without taking the trouble of finding out his antecedents and circumstantial conditions. There could be couched Shaitanic inputs even in what is known as illumination کَشف (kashf) and inspiration اِلھام (ilham). So, the ideal method of remaining safe against Shaitanic deceptions is to follow Divine Revelation faithfully.

Success Comes By Actually Being on the Straight Path and Not By Simply Having Sincere Intentions

(3) That the most frequent reason why people get involved in disbelief, polytheism or other impermissible doings is no other but that the Shaitan, by making their evil deeds appear handsome, desirable and beneficial, turns their hearts away from truth, as it is, and its consequences, as they would be. Once so brain-washed, they would start taking their false as the epitome of truth and their loss as the ultimate gain, so much so that, very much like the votaries of truth, they would be all set to lay down even their lives for the sake of their false notions. It was for this reason that the army and the chiefs of Quraysh, when they were departing from the Baytullah بَیتُ اللہ ، had already supplicated before it by saying: اللھم انصر اھدی الطایٔفتین (0 Allah, help the better-guided group between the two of us) (See pages 183-184). Such was the level of their unawareness that they simply walked into the snare of the Shaitan and started taking themselves to be the ones better-guided and truth-oriented and, unbelievably enough, they would go to the outer limits of sacrificing their lives and possessions in support of their false stand - and that too with all 'sincerity' at their command!

From here we find out that bland sincerity is never sufficient unless the direction of deeds is correct.

In the verse which follows (49), mentioned there is a common saying of the hypocrites of Madinah and the polytheists of Makkah. It was almost in a strain of combined sympathy and contempt that it was said about Muslims: غَرَّ‌ هَٰؤُلَاءِ دِينُهُمْ (The belief of these people has deluded them). It means that those handful of Muslims had come all the way to the battlefield of Badr to challenge an army so powerful and well-equipped as if those poor people have been deluded by their faith which seems to have thrown them into the jaws of death. Responding to them, Allah Ta` ala said: وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمٌ (And whoever places his trust in Allah, then, Allah is Mighty, Wise). The sense of the statement is that one who places his total trust in Allah never runs into disgrace because Allah is all-dominating and when it comes to wisdom, there is no plan or intelligence or insight into the future which can hold before it. In other words, those who know no more than what is material would only place their trust in nothing but the material. How would they know the secret power which lies in the treasures of the One who has created everything material. This power accompanies those who believe in Allah Ta` ala and place their total trust in Him.

Even in our day, there are those religiously observing and innocent-looking Muslims who would become ready targets for those who claim to have advanced rationally and intellectually and who would benignly dismiss them as old-timers who might as well be left alone. But, should such people be armed with perfect faith and trust in Allah, no harm can touch them - even if intended and tried.

Commentary

Mentioned in the first two of the verses cited above is the punishment of disbelievers at the time of their death and the warnings given to them by the angels. Here, addressing the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، it has been said that had he seen the condition of the disbelievers at that time when the angels of Allah were beating their faces and backs as they extracted their souls and telling them to have a taste of the punishment of burning in the Fire, then, he would have seen some-thing awesome.

Some of the leading Commentators have declared this statement to be about the particular disbelievers from among the Quraysh who had come out to confront Muslims at the site of Badr where Allah Ta` ala had sent an army of angels to help Muslims. Thus, the meaning comes to be that the Quraysh chiefs who were killed in the battle of Badr were killed at the hands of the angels who were hitting them from the front on their faces and from the rear on their backs and were killing them in this manner while giving them the dark tidings of the punishment of Hell in the Hereafter.

Then, there are other Commentators who have kept the sense of this verse general in view of the generality of the words used in it. According to them, the verse means: When a disbeliever dies, the angel of death beats his face and back while taking out his soul. In some narrations, it appears that they have lashes of fire and maces of iron in their hands which they use to strike at the disbeliever condemned to death. But, as this punishment is not related to this world of elements, rather, is related to the universe of the grave which is known as Barzakh بَرزَخ (the post-death---pre-ressurrection state), therefore, this punishment is not generally seen optically.

Therefore, the modality used to address the Holy Prophet ﷺ was: 'And only if you were to see,' you would have seen a scene full of sobering lessons. This tells us that, after death, punishment is given to disbelievers while they are in the state of Barzakh, but that phenomenon is related to the universe of the Unseen کلام الغیب (` clam al-ghayb), therefore, it is not seen usually. The punishment of the grave finds mention in several other verses of the Holy Qur'an as well, while Hadith narrations on this subject just abound.

Addressing the disbelievers in the second verse (51), it was said that the punishment of this world and that of the Hereafter was nothing but what they had earned with their own hands. Since things done usually take their shape through the work of hands, therefore, mention was made of hands. The sense is that the punishment coming to them was a direct outcome of their own deeds. And as for Allah Ta` ala, He was not the kind of authority who would bring injustice upon His servants and go about subjecting someone to punishment just for no reason.

The third verse (52) tells us that the punishment of Allah visiting these criminals is not something totally unprecedented. In fact, it is nothing but the customary practice of Allah that He would give reason and understanding to His servants so that they could act as guided. Then, all around them, they have countless things they can think about and go on to know Allah Ta` ala and recognize His great power, and then do not stoop to the level of taking the weak ones from among His creation as His partners, associates or equals and, after that, He sends His Books and Messengers for additional warning. When the Messengers of Allah come, they leave no stone unturned in making people understand the message. They even go to the outer limits of demonstrating the manifestations of the inalienable subduing power of Allah Ta` ala in the form of miracles. Now, if a person or a people were to close their eyes to all these things, give no ear to any of these Divine warnings, then, for such people, there is the inevitable practice of Allah Ta` ala: That they are visited by punishment in this world too, and that they are subjected to the everlasting punishment of the Hereafter as well. It was said: كَدَأْبِ آلِ فِرْ‌عَوْنَ ۙ وَالَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ' (Their way is) like the way of the people of Pharaoh and of those before them - 52.' The Arabic word: دَأْبِ (da'b) used in the text means habit or way. Thus, the sense is that the world already knows the customary practice of Allah Ta` ala vis-a-vis the haughty and the contumacious like Pharaoh and his people and has seen its manifestation when Pharaoh was made to drown in the sea with all his power and people, and similar was the fate of those before him, the people of ` Ad and Thamud, who were hit by many kinds of punishment which eliminated them totally. Then, it was said: كَفَرُ‌وا (52) which means when these people belied the verses and signs of Allah Ta` ala, He seized them with His punishment because of their sins. After that, the verse ends with the statement: إِنَّ اللَّهَ (52) which gives the reason why it happened the way it did - that Allah Ta` ala is Strong. No one claiming any kind of strength and valour can, on that basis alone, get away from His punishment. And then, certainly very severe is the punishment which comes from Allah Ta` ala Himself.

Stated in the fourth verse (53) there is a standing rule which spells out the condition under which Allah Ta` ala allows a people to continue enjoying blessings bestowed by Him. It was said: بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ لَمْ يَكُ مُغَيِّرً‌ا نِّعْمَةً أَنْعَمَهَا عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُ‌وا مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ (because Allah is not to change a favour He has conferred on a people unless they change their own selves - 53).

The first thing worth pondering about at this place is that Allah Ta` ala has not set forth any rule as to the bestowal of blessing and favour, nor has He put any restriction and condition for it, nor has He made it to be dependent on some good deed - because, had this been so, then, the foremost favour bestowed on us is our very existence. Placed in this marvelous menagerie of the power of Allah are thousands and thousands of additional blessings which, it is all too obvious, were conferred on us at a time when we did not exist nor any of our deed did.

If blessings and favours from Allah Ta` ala were to wait for good deeds from His servants, our being itself would have not materialized.

The blessing and the mercy of Allah Ta` ala is there all by itself as an outcome of His being the Lord of all the worlds and the One who is All-Merciful and Very-Merciful. However, what has been described in this verse is a rule which governs the continuity of this favour and mercy. According to this rule, when Allah Ta` a1a favours a people with His blessing, He does not take it back until such time that the people themselves bring about changes in their conditions of living and ways of doing things and thus become the very agency which invites the punishment of Allah.

The change of conditions referred to here means a shift or change from good deeds to bad deeds and from good 'states of being to bad states of being, or that a person who, at the time of the coming of blessings, was involved in certain sins and evils, then, once he had re-ceived those blessings, he stoops lower and gets involved in deeds far more evil.

It becomes evident from the details given above that peoples mentioned in previous verses, that is, the Quraysh disbelievers and the people of Pharaoh, have their relevance to the present verse on the grounds that these people were not all that good in their states of living even at the time the blessings came. They were still the polytheists and disbelievers they were. But, after having been blessed with favours, these people became far more dauntless in their evil deeds and acts of wickedness.

The people of Pharaoh started inflicting all sorts of injustices against the Bani Isra'il. Then they rose in hostility against Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) which was a grave addition to their past crimes. Through these doings, they brought changes in their living conditions which led them to more evils and when this happened, Allah Ta` ala too brought a change in His blessing by changing it into retribution and punishment. Similarly, the Quraysh of Makkah were though involved in polytheism and other evil practices, yet they did have a few good deeds to their credit, such as, regard for kinship, hospitality, service of Hajj pil-grims, respect for Baytullah etc. Allah Ta` ala showered on them many material and spiritual blessings. On the material plane, great impetus was given to their trading activities. In a country where no trading caravan belonging to anyone could pass through safely, their trade caravans would go to Syria in the north and Yemen in the south and return in safety and with success - something mentioned by the Qur'an in Surah al-Quraysh (106) under: رِ‌حْلَةَ الشِّتَاءِ وَالصَّيْفِ (they used to make alternate trading visits in winter and summer -106:2).

Then, on the spiritual plane in terms of their religion, they were blessed with a favour so great as was never conferred upon any of the past peoples - that the foremost among prophets, the last of the line, sallallahu ` alaihi wa sallam, was destined to rise among them, and Qur'an, the last, the comprehensive Book of Allah Ta` ala was sent to them through him.

But, these people, rather than correct themselves through gratitude and appreciation for these blessings of Allah Ta` ala, went on to make a mess of their moral condition, making it far worse than it al-ready was. They stopped treating their near relations well and started inflicting savage injustices against their own brothers and nephews who chose to embrace Islam. Rather than keep to their tradition of hospitality, pledges were written and promulgated that a total boycott of such Muslims be made, even to the limit of holding back the supply of food and water to them. Instead of providing essential services for Hajj pilgrims which they once considered to be their duty, they started preventing Muslims from entering the Haram. These were the standing conditions on the ground which brought about a change in the disbelievers of Quraysh - as a result of which came the counter-change from Allah Ta` ala. He transformed His favours and blessings into retribution and punishment, thus making them have a taste of disgrace in the mortal world too, and then, it was through the noble person sent as mercy for all the worlds that they invited their own destruction.

As based on trustworthy books of history, it has been said in Tafsir Mazhari that Kilab ibn Murrah, who is the grandfather of the third grandfather of the Holy Prophet ﷺ genealogically, was a staunch adherent of the faith of Sayyidna Ibrahim and Ismail (علیہما السلام) right from the beginning, and he retained the role of leadership in this faith, generations after generation. It was during the period of Qusayy ibn Kilab that idol-worship started as a practice among people. Before him, Ka'b ibn Lu'aiyy was their religious leader. He used to deliver a sermon before everyone on the day of Jumu'ah which was called ` Arubah in their dialect and tell his audience that the last among prophets I ﷺ would rise from among their progeny. Everyone will be bound to follow him. Whoever fails to have faith in him, no deed of his shall be acceptable with Allah. Well-known are his poetic compositions about the coming of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، as part of pagan poetry. Then, Qusayy ibn Kilab used to make arrangements of food and water for all Hajj pilgrims, so much so, that these things continued to be within the family of the Holy Prophet ﷺ until his blessed period. Given this historical perspective, it could also be said that the change which affected the mass behaviour of the Quraysh may as well mean that they had forsaken the faith of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) and taken to idol-worship.

However, a return to the subject of the verse tells us that there are occasions when Allah Ta` ala would bestow His favour also on people who do not seem to be deserving of it in view of their deeds. But, should they start, after having received that favour, committing ex-cesses and indulging in evil deeds more frequently, rather than turn the direction of their deeds towards correction and betterment, then, this favour is taken away from them and they become deserving of Divine punishment.

At the end of the verse, it was said: وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ (and that Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing - 53). It means that Allah Ta` ala is the one who hears everything they say and knows everything they do, there-fore, there is no probability of some error or misunderstanding in the decision He finally takes.

Commentary

The words used in the first of the verses cited above are almost the same as have appeared a verse earlier in: كَدَأْبِ آلِ فِرْ‌عَوْنَ ۙ وَالَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِ رَ‌بِّهِمْ فَأَهْلَكْنَاهُم بِذُنُوبِهِمْ ' (Their way is) like the way of the people of Pharaoh and of those before them - 52.' But, the purpose behind these two statements differs in both. The purpose in the first verse (52) was to state that the disbelief of those people became the cause of their punishment while, in the present verse (54), the purpose is to state that, according to the common law of Allah Ta` ala - when the blessings of Allah Ta` ala descend upon a people and they fail to recognize their worth and value and refuse to bow down before Him - then, His blessings are transformed into misfortunes and punishments. When the people of Pharaoh and the peoples before them failed to appreciate the blessings of Allah Ta` ala as due, blessings were taken away from them and they were seized 'by punishment instead. Apart from this difference in purpose, changes have also been introduced in words used at some places which serve to release particular hints in the text. For example, in the first verse (52), the words used were: كَفَرُ‌وا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ (They disbelieved the signs of Allah) while here, the words used are: بِآيَاتِ رَ‌بِّهِمْ the signs of their Lord - 54). Thus, by mentioning the attribute: رَبّ (Rabb: Lord) instead of the name, 'Allah,' hint was given that these people were terribly unjust and insensate against truth, people who would just go ahead and start belying the signs of the very Being who was their Rabb رَبّ (sustainer, nourisher, cherisher) under whose blessings they all, from their dawn of existence to their present condition, have been brought up.

In addition to that, in the first verse (52), said there was: فَأَخَذَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِذُنُوبِهِمْ (so, Allah seized them for their sins) while what has been said here is: فَأَهْلَكْنَاهُم بِذُنُوبِهِمْ (so, We destroyed them for their sins - 54). This explains the brevity in the first statement because, in the first verse, mentioned there was their being seized in punishment which could take different forms. May be, they are overtaken by misfortunes with-in their lifetime on this earth, or that their very existence in eliminated outright. In the present verse (54), by saying: أَهْلَكْنَاهُم (We destroyed them), it was made clear that the punishment all those peoples deserved was the punishment of death, therefore, they were destroyed. The destruction of every set of such people took different forms. Since the Pharaoh from among them claimed godhood and his people attested to his claim, therefore, he was mentioned particularly: وَأَغْرَ‌قْنَا آلَ فِرْ‌عَوْنَ (and drowned the people of Pharaoh - 54). As for the forms in which destruction came upon other peoples, it has not been described here. However, details pertaining to these too have appeared in other verses where it has been said that some of them were overrun by an earthquake, some others were made to sink into the earth, or transformed into animals, or seized by wind storms - and finally, came the punishment for the disbelievers of Makkah at the hands of Muslims in the battle of Badr.