An-Nisa 4:153–176

God’s prophet is a man amongst human beings. He appears before the people as a common man. That is why people fail to understand how they can take a common man to be a representative of God Almighty; how they can believe that this man—one from amongst themselves—is a person appointed by God Himself to speak on His behalf. So they demand that he show them his message being revealed by God, or heaven itself testifying to the truth of his message, otherwise they will not believe in it. But demands such as these show their utter insincerity. Because man’s trial demands that he believe in these things without seeing them; that he discover the inner realities. In such a situation, it makes no sense to believe after seeing. Even if God were to alter the system of nature to fulfil their demand by showing them the realities, that would be of no use because these realities would be shown to them only for a time and not permanently. So the human freedom which had led them to rebelliousness would continue, with the result that, at the time of the miracles, they would be awed into belief but afterwards they would continue to misuse their freedom as before. The history of the Israelites furnishes ample proof of this. The extraordinary situation thus referred to in the Quran, ‘We raised above them the Mount’ was created by God on Mount Tur to take a solemn covenant from the Jews. They were enjoined to enter their synagogue with humility and pray to God in all humbleness and submissiveness, and to ensure that their struggle for livelihood conformed strictly to the bounds set by God. But the Jews broke this entire covenant they had made with God. ‘Yet We pardoned even that and bestowed on Moses clear authority.’ This is the case with all the prophets. The prophet is like an ordinary human being but for his utterances; it is in his utterances that he gives clear arguments which adequately prove his status as God’s messenger. But the unjust man always manages to find an explanation of God’s signs by which he may refute them and then continue to lead a life of transgression far from God’s ways.

The Jews had Scriptures revealed to them in which they were asked to surrender to the will of God in this world, in return for which God would grant them Paradise in the next. They forgot the first part and came to regard the second part as their birthright. All kinds of rot set in among the Jewish community. Moreover, they were so greatly convinced of the notion that salvation was their birthright that they considered it unnecessary to acknowledge the new Prophet. They would say ironically, ‘Our hearts are sealed.’ This not only showed their inability to acknowledge the new Prophet, but also their conviction that, whatever their misconduct with the Prophet, their salvation was not going to be endangered.

Those who suffer from false convictions are emboldened to commit all kinds of crimes. They have no qualms about breaking the divine covenant to which they are bound by their belief in God. Despite clear arguments from God they are not willing to mend their ways. One who calls upon them to accept the truth exposes their ungodly ways, so they do not hesitate to perpetrate any kind of aggression against him. They will go even to the extent of false calumny against the dayee in order to dishonour him. The Jews went so far as to try to kill the Prophet Jesus and then boasted, ‘We have put to death the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary.’ However, whatever plots these people may hatch against the dayee, they can never succeed. God’s power and his immutable system of nature is always there to support His envoys. Despite all plots and all opposition, they receive every kind of divine succour until they have completed the divine mission. Those who opt for an antagonistic attitude to the call of the truth have their very capacity to accept the truth taken away by God, until one day they are brought as criminals before the divine court by the angels.

When a group opts for a self-styled religion instead of the divine religion, it decides upon certain self-styled signs to show its religious status. According to the temperament and circumstances of its members, it formulates new rules about what is lawful and what is unlawful, and by sedulously observing them, it shows that it adheres to religion more than others do. The religion of such people is based on excessive care for certain outward forms, as opposed to paying proper attention to the spirit of the religion’s rules. By fully observing the form they are completely satisfied that they have been following their religion to the letter. Such so-called adherents of religion are not afraid of deriving worldly benefits from the ways forbidden by God and they are not afraid of putting obstacles in the path of the divine caller. Such people will be bracketted with the patently irreligious, far from being grouped along with truly religious people. There were certain people among the Jews, like ‘Abdullah ibn Salam, who believed in the Prophet Muhammad and fully supported him. Those who are not caught up in human interpolations in their religion; who have discovered the original divine religion; who have risen above the mentality of prejudice, blind imitation of their community’s ways and opportunism, find no obstacle to their recognizing the truth and surrendering themselves to it. They can see the truth despite all kinds of mental blocks. These are the people who will be ushered into the Paradise God has prepared for them.

God created man, and then He created Paradise and Hell. Man was later settled on the earth. Here man has freedom to do as he wishes. But this freedom is not forever. It is temporary and meant for his trial. It is so that good and bad may be distinguished from one another. God is watching those who, despite being granted freedom, can adopt realistic attitudes, and surrender themselves to the will of God, and who are the people who misuse their freedom and prove themselves to be rebels. Both kinds of people have been mixed in this world. Both have equal opportunity to gain fully from the blessings of God. But, after the completion of the appointed time of trial, those groups will be separated from one another. The first group will be lodged in the Gardens of Paradise forever, while the second group will be consigned to Hell for all eternity. This plan devised by God for human existence put man in an extremely delicate situation, for the outcome of his brief stay in this world was going to appear in one of two extreme forms—either eternal comfort or eternal chastisement. That is why, besides other natural arrangements for divine guidance, God also arranged to send to mankind His messengers and His Scriptures, so that no one should remain unaware of the reality of life. No one may then attempt to excuse his misconduct on the plea that he was not informed of the divine plan of how human beings were expected to lead their lives. From start to finish, this divine plan necessitated all of the prophets bringing the same message and the same mission to mankind. For, when all human beings without exception are to be weighed in the divine scale, how could their ‘test papers’ be different from one another? The truth is that the message brought by all the prophets was one and the same and they communicated that same message to all human beings: that everyone is standing at a perilous watershed. On one side of it is Paradise and on the other is Hell. If one steps to one side, one will reach Paradise; if one steps to the other, one will fall into the gorge of Hell. All the prophets had this identical message.

However, according to the requirements of the age, different prophets received different kinds of succour from God. This is still how God functions, so that those of his servants who came forward to spread His message will likewise, according to their circumstances, receive special divine succour, in order that they may effectively continue to carry out their dawah responsibilities. At the time when the Prophet Muhammad was chosen as a Messenger by God, the Jews enjoyed the status of representatives of the divine religion. For their part, they had supposed themselves to be the chosen people, the sole custodians of divine religion. As such, they occupied all the religious positions of honour. Not wishing to acknowledge any other’s greatness save their own, they refused to believe that the Arab prophet had been sent by God to communicate His message to mankind. They thought that they had a monopoly over religion; that, if they did not testify to a person’s being a representative of God, he would lack all credibility. They had forgotten that this was God’s universe, its system tended by God’s obedient angels. Thus the real validation comes from God, and is supported by the entire system of the universe. Indeed, it is God, with His entire universe, who supports His messenger, rather than someone’s self-styled suppositions.

Those who respond negatively to the call of God by ignoring and rejecting it show quite clearly that they have strayed far from true submission to God. They say such things as are refuted by the entire universe, and take up a position against a plan which is supported by the Lord of the universe. Obviously, there is no greater foolishness than this. Such perverse behaviour leads them into denying and rejecting God rather than acknowledging Him and submitting to Him. Day by day they are removed further away from the truth, until they ultimately fall into the pit of eternal damnation. The denial of the call of God is the denial of oneself. The call of God is made in such clear terms that no one should find any difficulty in understanding it. Moreover, those who deny the call of God are, as it were, showing their audacity in the face of God Himself. Impudence and presumptuousness are the greatest crimes in the eyes of God. If man were to keep the windows of his heart open, the divine call would appear to him an exact answer to his own quest. He would feel that the truth which had been veiled in human interpretations had been brought to him in its pure and original form by the arrangement of God Himself, and that it was an expression of God’s own wisdom and knowledge rather than its being a matter of the personal ambition of a human being.

It is a human weakness to see any outstanding aspect in anything and then hold exaggerated views about it. This is exceeding the limits in determining its actual position. This is called excess. All forms of polytheism and personality cults are the result of committing this excess. Exaggeration in religion means according an inflated status to things and personalities associated with the religion in question. The Quran enjoins us to keep everything in its proper place and to refrain from according a higher status to things and people than they actually deserve. Everything should be seen as it is, without the viewer indulging in excesses of any sort: for instance, calling a servant of God—created without a father—the son of God; or regarding someone to whom God has granted special honour and status as an extraordinary, infallible being. Similarly, if God enjoins one to abstain from the luxuries and glitter of the world, then taking this injunction on simple living to the extreme of renouncing the world is yet another form of excess. Another form of excess is taking an injunction regarding some aspect of life and exaggerating it so greatly as to develop a full-fledged religious philosophy on its basis. All such forms in which a religious injunction or precept is elevated from its real position and accorded an excessively high status will bring about an exaggeration in religion.

God alone possesses all power. All human beings are His helpless servants. By scaling the heights of awareness, man discovers that God is all powerful and man is quite powerless. Prophets and angels have reached the highest stage of such awareness. That is why their realization of God’s greatness and powerfulness and of their own helplessness surpasses that of all others. The real test of man lies in his ability to acknowledge this. One who has realized his own helplessness has, in essence, found out how he relates to God. The aware person is one who has eyes: he will reach his destination successfully. The unaware person is one who is blind. He will wander around going astray until he falls into the pit of abomination.

When a divine call is made to human beings, it is so loud and clear that it amounts to wiping out darkness and illuminating life’s realities to the ultimate extent. It comes so well fortified with arguments that it is not possible to deny it. The deniers may ridicule it, but they cannot counter it with logic. When God makes the sun rise, light and darkness are separated from one another. This divine power is expressed in the call of truth also. After this divine call, truth and untruth are so clearly separated from one another that no one in his senses finds it difficult to understand. However, in order to see the sun, man has to open his eyes. Similarly, to receive guidance from the divine call, it is necessary to pay full attention to it. One who does not pay heed will remain deprived of it, even as the divine call is being made.

It is also necessary to hold on firmly to the truth. Because in this world of trial Satan is pursuing man and, by deceiving him in many ways, keeps turning him away from the Truth. If man does not resolve to support the truth by fighting Satan’s deceptions, then certainly Satan will be able to induce him to enter his fold. However, in this world of trial man is not left all alone. Those who wish to tread the divine path will receive divine guidance at every turn. By the help of God they will succeed in reaching their destination. When man gives all importance to the Truth alone, by the blessing of God this ability to persevere on the straight path of pure truth is engendered within him. He is thus saved from deviating to other paths that will lead him astray.

Giving the injunction regarding inheritance the Quran states, ‘God makes things clear to you so that you will not go astray.’ This shows that inheritance is not a simple matter. This is one of those areas in which disobeying the divine injunction will lead you astray from the straight and narrow path of guidance.