Al-Ma'idah 5:32–60

When one person kills another, he is the killer of not only one person but of all human beings, because he contravenes the law of respect for human life upon which the lives of all human beings depend. Similarly, when someone saves another from oppression, he is not the saviour of just one person but of all human beings, because he is protecting the principle of respect for life of all hman beings, which holds that nobody has the right to raise his hand to another. If one person attacks the honour, property or life of another, it means that abnormal conditions have developed in the society. It is necessary for Muslims to look at even one incident of this nature as if the life, property and honour of all people are in danger. In a society, the tradition of respect for each other’s life is formed as a result of a long history, and once this tradition is violated, it will be a very long time before it can be revived. Those who establish the tradition of violence in a society are the worst enemies of that society.

The greatest achievement for a man is his nearness to God. This nearness in its real and perfect shape will be his in the Hereafter. However, when a man’s righteous action brings him nearness to God, he experiences this in this world purely in the form of heavenly feeling. The way to attain this nearness is through becoming a true worshipper of God, and through struggling to make efforts for His cause.

The principle on which God has created the system of this world is that everybody should discharge his duty, and nobody should unnecessarily interfere in the sphere of others. All inanimate objects and animals follow this natural law. Human beings also have been given clear instructions to this effect through the prophets. But human beings who, unlike other creatures, have been given freedom for the time being, rebel, and in that way create a disturbance in the system of Nature. Such people are the worst criminals in the eyes of God. And those who declare war against God and His prophet are still worse criminals. Such people frequently indulge in acts of terrorism. This runs counter to God’s call to His subjects to refrain from creating disturbances. It also negates His invitation to them to lead their lives according to divine Nature. For such people there is a terrible punishment in this world and an all-consuming fire in the Hereafter.

The greatest achievement for a man is his nearness to God. This nearness in its real and perfect shape will be his in the Hereafter. However, when a man’s righteous action brings him nearness to God, he experiences this in this world purely in the form of heavenly feeling. The way to attain this nearness is through taqwa (fear of God) and jihad (struggle) i.e. becoming a worshipper or devotee of God through fear of God and struggling to make efforts for His cause. There are some moments in the life of a man when he finds himself in between Truth and untruth. In taking the direction of Truth, he has to surrender his ego and the structure of his worldly considerations seems to become insecure, while in adopting the way of untruth, his ego remains intact and his worldly considerations seem to be perfectly safe. In the former case, a man fears God and, overlooking all other considerations sticks to God; tolerating every difficulty and unpleasantness, he moves ahead towards God—these are the things which bless him with nearness to God. First hand experience of this nearness at that time takes the shape of aesthetic heavenly realization. On the contrary, the person who is not ready to adopt the path of fearing God and struggling to make efforts for the cause of God, drifts away from Him, and brings upon himself afflictions from which he can never get relief. The punitive system in Islam for social crimes has been formulated keeping in view two special aspects—one is punishment for a man’s crime and the other is the deterrent effect of that punishment. However, if a criminal is truly repentant after committing a crime, seeks God’s pardon and completely refrains from such misdemeanours in future, then it may be hoped that God will forgive him in the Hereafter. The matter of reward is entirely in the hands of God. There is no cause to fear, however, that despite an individual having reformed only later in his life, his earlier transgressions will not be pardoned. Nor is it true that there is some force, other than God’s will which, by recommendation or intervention, can change one’s destiny. Everything rests with God and He alone in His perfect wisdom and power decides the fate of everyone.

Within Madinah there were two kinds of people who opposed the Islamic mission—one the hypocrites and the other the Jews. The hypocrites, feeling that the real Islamic mission was harmful to their interests and purposes, merely put on a show of having adopted Islam. The Jews for their part, occupying as they did the thrones of the representatives of religion, felt that the Islamic mission was pulling them down from their elevated positions. Both these types of people considered the true Islamic mission to be their common enemy. Therefore, they joined hands in running a campaign against Islam. The more prominent of them, considering it beneath their dignity to attend meetings held by the Prophet Muhammad, stayed away from them, but their inferiors were set the task of hearing him and conveying the happenings to their leaders. These people used then to invest them with wrong meanings in order to defame him and his mission. Their arrogance had made them so brazen that they did not hesitate to take God’s message out of its proper context and draw from it inferences which suited their interests. Such are those who do not bow to God and His Prophet, their attitude being to accept only whatever suits their interests. This is the most disturbing trend for a man. Those who give preference to their vested interests and personal considerations over the Truth, who want to see themselves in high positions at any cost, who devise destructive plots to suppress the Truth — to the point of distorting God’s message to justify their action — develop a mentality which blocks their capacity to accept the Truth. They desert God, so God deserts them. Such people, being deprived of God’s guidance, remain enmeshed in falsehood, until they reach the world of the Fire. The servant of God, who has arisen with the message of God’s true religion, should not become discouraged by opposition. The activities of opponents are not actually against the missionary but against God, and can therefore never be successful. What God requires from missionary activity is that people should be made fully aware of the real facts. And this task is certainly fulfilled with God’s assistance.

The common form of bribe (suht) is that which is taken directly as such. For example, there were ancient religious scholars who used to give false decrees and opinions after taking bribes. However, there is another form of corruption in which there is no direct give-and-take transaction but it is the biggest and worst out of all the various forms of corruption. This is the distorting of the provisions of religion by opportunists to suit popular tastes so that they may have honour and glory conferred upon them by an admiring public, and receive contributions and offerings from all and sundry. Presenting religion in its pure form is always at the cost of unpopularity with the public. On the contrary, a version of religion which without materially disrupting people’s lives, confers the advantages of religion, is very popular and attracts large crowds. The purveyors of a ‘religion’ which does not oblige potential followers to give up or modify their world-oriented lives, and guarantees admission to paradise with the help of some trivial formalities, very soon become the favourites of the public. The same is true of those who present a ‘religion’ which gives sanctity to national and communal interests and all the accompanying frenzy of material activities; which gives a man the opportunity, under the banner of religion, to engage himself in glory-seeking activities.

The ancient Jewish leaders had become a centre of attraction for the people by dispensing this type of religion. They presented to the people the religion of their choice and the people responded with everything from monetary co-operation to the conferment of honours and glory. Given these circumstances, the raising of the voice of true religion by the Prophet Muhammad seemed intolerable to them, as this amounted to the demolition of the structure of their vested interests. They were so displeased with the Prophet that they were in no way interested in hearing anything good about him. On the contrary, if they heard any bad news about him, they took immense interest in it and spread it with their own additions. The condition of those who fall victim to such evil is that even if they are inclined to take a religious decision on any matter, they do so in the hopes that the outcome will be in line with their own desires. If not, they disassociate themselves from it, in spite of knowing full well that the real decision makers are God and His Prophet. They forget that their rejection of the matter in hand amounts to a denial of Faith and Islam itself.

The purpose of God’s Book coming to the world was to guide the people to the way of eternal welfare, and to bring them out of the darkness of desire-worship and into the light of Truth-worship. Those who are God-fearing consider the Book of God as a holy covenant between God and His subjects, and as such, they know that there cannot, on their behalf, be any increase in the benefits it confers or any lessening of the strictness of its ordinances. As it is in the nature of a trust with them, they carry out its instructions. God’s Book conveys His will with regard to His subjects. Its guidance must be followed in all matters and disputes must be settled in accordance with its instructions. Allowing worldly desires and self interest to reign supreme and only playing lip service to God’s book amounts to a rejection of God’s word. Self-styled Muslims who act in this way are sinners in God’s eyes. As rejecters of God’s supremacy and defaulters on their pledge to obey God, they are destroyers of Truth. Intentional violators of Islamic law, can lay no claim to God’s approval.

In connection with justice (and the relevant penal action) it is the requirement of the Islamic law that its rules should be enforced without any individual’s status being taken into account. However, sometimes a man’s violence is not the result of his mischievous intent, but occurs accidentally under the influence of emotional stress. Under such circumstances, if the victim of violence pardons the perpetrator of violence, that will be deemed an act of magnanimity towards the latter and will contribute to creating an atmosphere of broad-mindedness in society.

Here ‘the Book’ means the original and basic teachings of religion. This Book of God is a single entity and has been revealed to all the prophets with some changes in respect of language and the order of commandments. However, as regards the outward structure in which the realities of religion are presented, there are differences in the teachings of the various prophets. The reason is not that there are stages in the revelation of the religion which indicate the actual evolution of the religion itself, i.e. it is not that prior to this a less developed or imperfect religion was revealed and thereafter a more developed and entirely perfect religion was revealed. The truth is that with any considerable passage of time, the internal reality of religion is lost and public rituals and formal ceremonies assume the strength of the internal reality, eventually becoming ‘holy’. People begin to consider the repetition of such rituals, accompanied by external trappings, as real worship. That is why the external framework was changed from time to time, so that the mentality of considering this framework as the real substance of religion should be eradicated and so that nothing other than God should become the centre of one’s attention. According to the Quran, this came about simply for the purpose of putting people to the test. The reason for this strategy is the Divine Wisdom of putting mankind on trial and not the Divine Wisdom of the evolution of religion. An example of this is the change of qiblah. The Children of Israel were commanded to turn towards the ‘Holy House’ (Jerusalem) while saying their prayers. This command was only for the sake of being consistent about the direction. But thereafter they gradually developed the idea that prayer meant simply facing towards Jerusalem. Then the earlier commandment was changed and the Ka‘bah was made the qiblah. Now, some people adhered to the earlier tradition, while others followed God’s guidance. In this way, the change of qiblah made it clear as to who worshipped walls and doors and who were the genuine worshippers of God (see 2:143). Now there is no possibility of the occurrence of such a change, because the structure would have to be changed by a prophet and now no other prophet is going to be raised. However, as far as the real purpose is concerned, it is to remain as it is. Even now, before God, His true worshipper will be the one who, though following the structural formalities, will not give them the status of real purpose; who, freeing his mind from outward ceremonial, will say his prayers directly to God. This has to be achieved through rigorous mental discipline. The disputes existing in religion in the name of outward formalities have arisen because people’s negligence has made them ignorant of the true facts. If they were to become aware of the truth — as it will present itself in the Hereafter—all the disputes would come to an end right now.

The Quran and other Divine Scriptures are not separate books. They are the different editions of a single Book of God which has been named al-kitab here. All editions of the Book revealed by God were one and the same as regards content. However, the bearers of the previous scriptures could not in the later periods preserve them in their original form. Therefore, God revealed His Book (muhaymin) i.e. the Quran, the authentic expression of His will, — a touchstone which reveals which sections of the other scriptures have retained their original form and which have been changed.

The Jews had formulated a new self-made religion by mingling their own innovations with the true religion of God. Their self interests were linked with this self-devised religion. Therefore, they were not at all ready to give it up and adopt the pure religion introduced by the Prophet. Instead of bowing down before the Truth, they took to harassing the flag-bearer of Truth, so that he should kneel down before them, give up the true religion of God and accept the religion devised by them. Had it been the will of God, He could have tied the hands of these transgressors at the very first instance and they would not have succeeded in harassing him. But God allowed them some respite to put their evil plans into action. This was done so as to make it abundantly clear that these claimants of so-called righteousness were the worst type of irreligious people; being devotees not of God but of their own self-interests. This act of God, though it constituted a hard test for the missionary of Truth, was the only way a decision might be reached as to who deserved paradise and who deserved hell. It is the weakness of the human being that he wants to fulfill his desires. Being governed by God’s commandments is, therefore, not tolerable to him. He then goes so far as to use self-devised interpretations of the Divine religion to make it conform to his desires. Pure religion is acceptable only to those who do not view things in the light of their desires, preferring to make the moral choice of rising above them. The word of God is undoubtedly the truest word. But in this present world of trial, every Truth is hidden behind the curtain of doubt. It is the test of a man that he should be able to tear asunder this curtain, that he should be able to make the unseen observable to himself, so that he may be in possession of the Truth. One who is caught up in outward doubts is a failure and one who brushes aside the veil of apparent doubts and finds the Truth has achieved success.

In Arabia, in the early days of Islam, the Jews and Christians held a monopoly of the major economic resources of the country, and made efforts day and night to uproot the Muslims, who were as yet a newly emerging force. The people, deeply impressed by the centuries of history which reinforced the greatness of the Jews and the Christians, saw them as having such power that they could never be overthrown. The weaker members of the Muslim community did not, therefore, want to take part in Islamic efforts in such a way as to displease them, for if this struggle ended in defeat for the Muslims, they would have to face the vengeful retaliation of these powerful enemies. In order to protect themselves from future danger, they lived in a state of dual loyalty, which itself was not without its hazards. They lost sight of the fact that worshipping the Truth solely in unimportant matters would not stand them in good stead if, once faced with danger, they lent their support to upholders of falsehood: their fate would inevitably be no different from the fate of those they had co-operated with whenever they felt imperiled.

Every test in this world is a test of intention. What man has to do is to prove his intention by ignoring dangers; in that way he takes the first step on the path towards God. Then God’s help comes to him immediately thereafter. But one who does not provide proof of his intention and does not take the first step in the direction of God, is a transgressor in His eyes. Such individuals cannot then expect to be sent God’s unilateral help. Islamic life is a purposeful life and therefore it is a life of struggle. It is the mission of a believer to convey the religion of God to all God’s subjects, guiding the world to keep away from the path leading to hell and to tread the path leading to paradise.

In a person’s life, the most critical moment is when he has to make some sacrifice in order to stay resolutely on the path of Islam. If such occasions arise in human life, it is so that individuals may have the opportunity to make a clear avowal of their confirmation or rejection of Islam. God wants a man to prove his Islamism not only in danger-free conditions, but also when he is required to suppress his emotions or face danger to his life and property. Only on his success in this test does a man become entitled to be included by God among His faithful and loyal subjects. It is by providing proof of his Islamism on such occasions that a man’s previous deeds are validated. If he is unable to do so, he renders all his previous deeds valueless. Every test in this world is a test of intention. What man has to do to prove his intention is simply to ignore dangers; in that way he takes the first step on the path towards God. Then God’s help comes to him immediately thereafter. But one who does not provide proof of his intention and does not take the first step in the direction of God, is a transgressor in His eyes. Such individuals cannot then expect to be sent God’s unilateral help.

If after embracing the Faith, one does not fulfill the requirements of Faith, one has, in the eyes of God, turned away from religion. The truly faithful people are those whose entire beings are so pervaded by Faith that they develop a relation with God at the level of love. Fulfillment of Islamic objectives should be so dear to them that there should be nothing but sympathy and kindness in their hearts for their brothers in Islam. They should become so kind-hearted towards Muslims that their powers and talents should never be used against them. Islamic life is a purposeful life and is therefore a life of struggle. It is the mission of a Muslim to convey the religion of God to all God’s subjects, guiding the world to keep away from the path leading to hell and to tread the path leading to paradise. In the course of carrying out this task, one has naturally to face different types of difficulties and suffer ignominy. Ultimately, two groups are formed—one consisting of those whose hearts are set in this world and the other whose focus is the Hereafter. A regular tug-of-war starts between these two groups. The test of man is that in all moments of difficulty and strife, he proves to be one who places complete reliance on God and, without caring for anybody except God, continues his spiritual journey, until that Day arrives when he shall stand accountable before God. The attention of such people centres almost entirely on God. They are steadfast in observing salat (prayer); they offer zakat (prescribed alms), and their relations with others are based on mutual well-wishing. Their bowing down before God shows that in their worldly affairs there is no egoism or arrogance. They invariably adopt an attitude of humility and on all occasions do as God desires. When people of this type come together at any one place in considerable numbers, they are destined to become dominant in that region.

A man’s delicate, subtle feelings, such as modesty, broadmindedness, the desire for cleanliness, etc., which function as the watch-guards of God within him and prevent him from evil action, get smothered. The last stage of his downfall comes when his whole life is corroded by satanic ways. When a group reaches this stage, and is distanced from God’s grace to the furthest possible extent. Its own humanity becomes distorted and it becomes a curse to itself and to the rest of humanity. Having drifted so far away from the right path of nature, it starts living like the animals. What prevents a man from following the dictates of his desires is his moral fibre. But when obstinacy and enmity dominate him, his ability to think becomes suppressed and then there is nothing to combat the pressure of his desires. He may be a human being in appearance but, inside he is no better than an animal; a man with deep insight, just by looking at him, can tell what animal is hidden inside the human exterior.

When the call for true and pure religion goes out those who claim, on the basis of a self-made religion, to have a monopoly of devotion to God, develop such an extreme aversion to it that they lose all sense of rationality. They even ridicule things that are unanimously treated as sacred. This was how some people of Madinah behaved. They did not hesitate even to ridicule the adhan (the call to prayer). Any relation between Muslims and such insensate and frivolous people can be in connection only with missionary activity and can never be that of friendship. The result of such people’s lack of fear of God is that they consider pure Muslims to be criminals and, notwithstanding all of their own crimes, they blatantly hold, before God, that their dealings are absolutely fair. Such insensitivity blunts their conscience when it comes to distinguishing between Truth and falsehood and prevents their amending this state of affairs. In outward form, they may appear to be human beings but, with regard to their inner qualities, they are the worst animals. A man’s delicate, subtle feelings, such as modesty, broadmindedness, the desire for cleanliness, etc., which function as the watch-guards of God within him and prevent him from evil action, get smothered. The last stage of his downfall comes when his whole life is corroded by satanic ways. When a group reaches this stage, and is distanced from God’s grace to the furthest possible extent, its own nature becomes distorted and it becomes a curse to itself and to the rest of humanity. Having drifted so far away from the right path of nature, it starts living like the animals. What prevents a man from following the dictates of his desires is his moral fibre. But when obstinacy and enmity dominate him, his ability to think becomes suppressed and then there is nothing to combat the pressure of his desires. He may be a human being in appearance but, inside he is an animal; a man with deep insight, just by looking at him, can tell what animal is hidden inside the human exterior.