To spend in charity, Unity of God, None can ever comprehend God’s knowledge whereas His knowledge comprehends everything, there shall be no compulsion in religion as the truth has been made clearly manifest against falsehood, Belief in God leads to light and the disbelief in Him leads the disbeliever to darkness, Punishment to the disbelievers.

Al-Baqarah Verses 254 – 257

يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا أَنفِقوا مِمّا رَزَقناكُم مِن قَبلِ أَن يَأتِيَ يَومٌ لا بَيعٌ فيهِ وَلا خُلَّةٌ وَلا شَفاعَةٌ ۗ وَالكافِرونَ هُمُ الظّالِمونَ

“O’ ye who believe! Spend (in alms) out of what We have provided you with before the day cometh wherein there shall be no bargaining, nor friendship, nor intercession; and those who disbelieve they are the unjust” (2:254).

اللَّهُ لا إِلٰهَ إِلّا هُوَ الحَيُّ القَيّومُ ۚ لا تَأخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلا نَومٌ ۚ لَهُ ما فِي السَّماواتِ وَما فِي الأَرضِ ۗ مَن ذَا الَّذي يَشفَعُ عِندَهُ إِلّا بِإِذنِهِ ۚ يَعلَمُ ما بَينَ أَيديهِم وَما خَلفَهُم ۖ وَلا يُحيطونَ بِشَيءٍ مِن عِلمِهِ إِلّا بِما شاءَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُرسِيُّهُ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضَ ۖ وَلا يَئودُهُ حِفظُهُما ۚ وَهُوَ العَلِيُّ العَظيمُ

“God! There is no God but He, the (Ever) Living the self-subsistent. Slumber seizeth Him not nor sleep; His it is whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth; Who is he that can intercede with Him but with His permission; He knoweth what is before them and what is behind them, while they cannot comprehend anything out of His Knowledge save that which He willeth, His Throne extendeth over the heavens and the earth, and the preservation of them both, tireth Him not, And He is the Most High and the Most Great” (2:255).

لا إِكراهَ فِي الدّينِ ۖ قَد تَبَيَّنَ الرُّشدُ مِنَ الغَيِّ ۚ فَمَن يَكفُر بِالطّاغوتِ وَيُؤمِن بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ استَمسَكَ بِالعُروَةِ الوُثقىٰ لَا انفِصامَ لَها ۗ وَاللَّهُ سَميعٌ عَليمٌ

“No compulsion be in religion; Indeed, truth has been made manifest distinct from error; therefore he who disbelieveth the rebels (false deities) and believeth in God, hath indeed laid hold on the strongest handle no break is for it; and verily God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing” (2:256).

اللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الَّذينَ آمَنوا يُخرِجُهُم مِنَ الظُّلُماتِ إِلَى النّورِ ۖ وَالَّذينَ كَفَروا أَولِياؤُهُمُ الطّاغوتُ يُخرِجونَهُم مِنَ النّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُماتِ ۗ أُولٰئِكَ أَصحابُ النّارِ ۖ هُم فيها خالِدونَ

“God is the Guardian of those who believe; He taketh them out of darkness into light; and those who disbelieve, the rebels are their guardians they take them out from light into darkness; They are the companions of the (Hell) fire, therein shall they abide” (2:257).

Commentary

Verse 254

Spending in charity too has been declared as spending in the way of God. It is a great incentive to be as much charitable as one can afford to do. The Holy Qur’an has repeatedly exhorted the believers i.e. the Muslims, to spend out of what they have been provided with. It is noteworthy that Islam is the first to regulate charity, fixing its rates universally applicable to the rich as well as the poor. While encouraging the people to be charitable, Islam does not use any harsh words of compulsion but only exhorts appealing to the good sense and the sanity of the individual’s conscience. Thus, with all the compulsory laws to abide with, the regard for individual liberty of thought and action has always been kept in view.

The words ‘Of what We have provided you with’, indicate that the responsibility to be charitable as demanded in the exhortations, is not confined only to the rich but it is applicable to one and all, to the extent of the individual means.

‘Before the day cometh in which there is no’ - These words make the matter plain that whatever good one wants to do for himself or for the others, one has to do in this life before death. This life is the sowing season and from death onwards starts the reaping of whatsoever was cultivated in this life.

People laboured under the false belief that they could earn salvation only through the barter of their wrongs by the goodness of their ancestors or through the intercession of their religious heads or by the charities of their prosperity. Some thought that Jesus’ blood has been bartered for the sins of the sinners among his followers. This verse is a clear warning against any such false belief which had made the people idle and encouraged them to live a wicked life, depending upon their imaginations about the intercession as stated above.

The same meaning has been given in Verse 2:48 and Verse 2:123 with a little change in the wording. (A.P.)

The life here is social wherein each one should contribute out of what God has given him towards the welfare of the others, so that he also may be benefited by the others, so long as the link is duly maintained. Every individual should act as a cell in the organism of the universe and if he fails to function properly, he will neither be benefited by his own actions nor by the deeds of the others.

The emphatic terming of the disbelievers as the unjust ones, implies that injustice is the ultimate wrong to which all other wrongs are reduced, and secondly the attitude of revolt against the Absolute One, is the greatest injustice1.

Verse 255

This verse is called ‘Ayatul Kursi’ the verse of the Seat or The Throne of the All-Pervading, All-Comprehensive Power, Authority and the Knowledge of God. In this one verse, is given in nutshell, of all that we mortals can ever know about God.

‘Allahu La ilaha illa Huw’ - God, there is no god but He.

The verse begins with the word: ‘Allahu’ with which we mortals, His creatures with the native limitations of our knowledge and the strength of the intellect with which we have been endowed, can conceivably address Him with. The very word ‘Allah’ meaning God, suggests our inability to name the Infinite Existence. Ali Ibn Talib, the first Holy Imam has very beautifully exposed the inability to have any conception about God in the famous prayer ‘Du’a al-Mashlool.’

‘O’ He, O’ He, the He, O’ the one whom none knoweth what is He, Where is He, How is He, save He alone knoweth Himself’

As regards naming God, none could do it till now, nor can anyone ever do it at all. Every name given to Him by any philosopher relates only to some attribute of His, and none till now could coin a personal name relating to Him directly, for it is not at all possible to conceive about Him without His attributes. Hence the Shi’a school or the Islam Original, holds it as a cardinal doctrine of the faith, not to think of any of His attributes as separate from His Existence but as the Existence itself. The best name which can possibly be used to address Him, is ‘Allah’ (i.e. God). This name comprehends all the divine attributes of His perfect existence.

The first and the foremost doctrine of the faith Islam, is not merely the denial of the existence of all false gods but also to believe in the absolute Unity of God without any complexity of any kind whatsoever in any sense in His Self-Existent Essential Being. Complexity be that of any kind suggests an inter-dependence among its various components and consequently the ‘whole’ depending upon the completeness of the complexity.

The other apostles of God preceding the Holy Prophet, who appeared in the different parts of the world, in different times, preached nothing but the Unity of God, but that was merely to believe in the oneness against the many imaginary false gods. The details of the perfect Unity which has now been disclosed through the Holy Prophet, could not have been profitably preached to the people before him, in whom the faculties of intellect had not yet then developed, to duly conceive the higher or the subtle thoughts about the existence of the All-divine Universal Self-Existing Self i.e. God. Even Jesus though the most recent of the apostles of God, preceding the Holy Prophet, could not give out the whole truth and had to helplessly conclude his ministry without declaring everything about it, for Jesus himself said before his departure:

“I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now.’’

“Howbeit, when he the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you unto all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come”2

Every apostle of God preached only the Unity of God but just as much as his people in the age could easily conceive. A few quotations from the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible, will suffice to give the reader that it was the Unity and not Trinity, which was preached by all the apostles of God, preceding the Holy Prophet, and even Jesus who is imagined as one of the components of the Trinity of the Christian faith, had himself preached nothing but the Unity of God:

Old Testament:

“And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the house of bondage”

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me”

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waler under the earth”3

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one LORD”4

“Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God”5

“Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my call; I am the first, I also am the last”6

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God”7

“I am the LORD: that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images”8

“I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me”9

“I am the Lord, there is none else”10

“Tell ye, and bring them near; let them take council together: who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else besides me, a just God, and a Saviour there is none beside me, I am God there is none else”11

“For I am God, there is none else, I am God, and there is none like me”12

New Testament:

“As concerning therefore, the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idol, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him”13

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

“One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”14

Apostle after apostle from God came and gradually awakened man, improved the human intellect and fitted it to be profited by the higher and subtler facts about the Creator Lord of the Universe. Ultimately through the Last of His Apostles, Muhammad, was fulfilled the divine promise of giving man the blessings of the brightest light from the Lord to enlighten the human mind with knowledge and the divinity to the maximum extent the human heart and mind can bear. We have been informed that there can be only three kinds of existence: -

1. The Wajib ul-Wujood: The Self-Existent Existence - The Primeal Cause - The existence of God to have created the Universe for there can never be any effect without a cause i.e. the creation without a creator.

2. The Mumkin ul-Wujood: The Possible Existence i.e. of a creature like the objects in the Creation, which may be created and brought into existence and also may not be created if the Creator does not will it.

3. The Mumtane ul-Wujood: The Impossible Existence, like there being more than one God, for there cannot be two equals in the absolute meaning or sense of equality or oneness. If any two are equals in the meaning of absolute equality there can be no meaning in their being two, separated from each other. They must necessarily, naturally and unavoidably be one. If they be two there must be some dividing factor which makes the two as two and also maintains their two separate entities, in which case the dividing factor will be the First kind of existence i.e. the ‘Wajib ul-Wujood.’ Therefore, such an existence is beyond possibility.

Now we are concerned here with the first kind of existence i.e. the ‘Wajib ul-Wujood’ i.e. God - Who must essentially be Self-Existent. A self-existent Being must be Omnipotent to be and to maintain its existence for ever. And such a Self-Existent and Omnipotent being can never exist without the knowledge of the existence and the power. Thus, we have to necessarily’ believe in the Essential Self-Existence or the Life, Essential Self-Existent Strength or the Power, or Authority and the essential Self-Contained Knowledge of the Essential Absolute One, i.e., all His attributes are His Self, itself, inseparable from Him, never separable from any point of view, in any meaning or sense imaginable. His attributes are essentially His Self, as the meaning is inseparable from a word or as equi-angularity is inseparable from an equilateral triangle, else they would be affecting the perfection of the absoluteness of His Unity. The limitation of knowledge or the conception of the finite beings can never conceive about anything without any reference to any of its attributes. Hence, we have to call the attributes of God with their variant names given by our conceivable imagination just because without doing so we cannot even imagine of His Absolute Existence to name it. The truth is that He can never be conceived by any imagination without all His attributes together as an unavoidable necessity even for imagination of His Being.

Thus, all the attributes of God are essentially One Absolute Whole. His one attribute is in no way separable from the other. If there be the least difference or variation with any factors separating each other it would necessarily suggest complexity’ in the absolute nature of unity and it would negate the absolute independence of the Omnipotent One. His life means His Power or Authority and His authority means His knowledge and so on. No single attribute of His can ever be imagined isolated from the others. But we are helplessly bound by the verbal terms without which we can never conceive about the Being at all. Hence, we have to, as a necessary sin, name His attributes differently for our own limited conception, in our attempts to imagine about Him.

The sum total or the ultimate verdict of all our arguments is that God is a Transcendental Reality, Unknowable, Unimaginable, even to approach any worthy conception about His attributes. He is an Infinite Being which can never at all be conceived by our finite consciousness. Yet every one of us certainly knows His Being for we come from Him. Our knowledge about Him marks the limits of our own conception of the Absolutely Inconceivable Reality.

‘Al-Hai’ - The Ever-Living - The Self-Existing - The Absolute All-Mighty, - All-Conscious, - All-Knowing, Existence.15

‘Quyyum’ - Self-Subsistent - Absolutely independent of all others subsisted by Him, and for Him - also the Sustainer without whose hold and attention nothing can be sustained.

‘Qayyoom’ is the exaggerative form of the agencial adjective ‘Qaayam’ i.e. the standing one. The exaggerated form of this means, the one who stands by himself and all others by him. This attribute presents both the nature of the Absolute in Himself and His relation to the creatures and their relation to Him. It shows that He is to the creatures like the source of the light is to the rays or the mind to the concepts and not like the relation of the engineer to any building. And Ali Ibn Abi Talib puts it in this way: ‘Kullu shayyin Qaaimun bihi’ i.e., Everything stands by Him. This attribute explains many other attributes of the Absolute, given in the Qur’an - He is the First and the Last, the Apparent and the Hidden, His Being with everything but not to be counted with anything.16

It must be remembered that every verbal expression of His attributes, His relation to His creatures must be understood with large qualifications in their meaning, for we can express our own conception in human terms. We must always be careful not to be led away by the finite implications. Thus, His being active does not at all mean his putting forth energy as we human beings do, to cause any action. Indeed, even when thus diverted of all their correct implications, we must remember that the notion however pure and perfect to our human intellect, is but a shadow of the reality which really transcends all our power of comprehension.

‘Slumber overtaketh Him not’ - meaning He is not subject to any change whatsoever - He is ever vigilant - or the True or the Perfect Vigilance itself.

‘His is whatsoever is in the heavens or the earth.’ Nothing could ever be His own in completeness or perfection of the term, propriety if he were merely a fashioner of things out of the matter eternally existing and not created by Him. If the matter and God are believed to be two independent eternals, such a faith can never be more than an unreasonable imagination for neither of the two can be independent, for they will be interdependent upon each other, upon their individual utility for neither of the two can ever be known to exist. God to prove this existence will need the matter to work out his creative plan and the matter will be idle without God to use it. Besides there must be some dividing factor to maintain the two different individualities and that cause must be superior in strength, will and existence, and that will be the controlling factor, and that one supreme, will be God real.

‘Manzallazi’ - These words indicate that God with all His Might and Power is Merciful, and it is there for the sinner, but one and all shall not be entitled to intercede on His behalf. It means that intercession is allowed with God but only those who are authorized or those who have earned the title to it by their own unique virtues and distinguished services to the Lord. Only such distinguished ones only, will be able to intercede on behalf of others and none else. This qualification prescribed for intercession proves that those who intercede must themselves be totally free from sins, big or small, simple, or serious, not to need intercession for themselves, for a sinner asking for the pardon for the other sinners, while he himself has to face the judgment against his own self, will be nothing short of foolishness and will be ridiculous.

Similar verses about intercession being allowed only to the particular ones, are there - 20:109 and 19:87. It also proves that there must exist such beings of unique purity and excellence otherwise the provision made for the intercession to be only by those permitted by God’s permission, without any such beings qualified to be permitted, will be meaningless. We come across in the Holy Qur’an with the verse 33:33.

إِنَّما يُريدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذهِبَ عَنكُمُ الرِّجسَ أَهلَ البَيتِ وَيُطَهِّرَكُم تَطهيرًا

“God only willeth to keep away from you (every) uncleanness, O’ people of the House and to purify you (a thorough) purifying” (33:33).

The above verse clearly indicates that none but the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’ who have been thoroughly- purified by God Himself, shall be entitled to intercede for the sinners, for they the ‘Holy Ahl Al-Bayt’ as the divinely purified ones, are naturally sinless, and they only need no intercession at all.

Intercession is nothing but reconciling justice with mercy. Man has been kept hopeful of the divine mercy for the All-Merciful Lord Himself has declared through the Qur’an: ‘Sabaqat Rahamati ala ghazabi’ i.e. My mercy excels My wrath. If studied properly, justice is nothing but an aspect of mercy, for through justice alone one is kept on the right path to get his due, and none is deprived of his rights.

Acceptance of an intercessor is an active setting of an extraordinarily high value to the special attachment of the intercessor to God by the strongest ties of love. It is the original design of the All-Mighty, All-Merciful that His mercy shall always excel His justice, and to enact this design, the excuse of intercession has been made the causative factor. Of all the deluding factors, Love has been made the strongest force against which everything else loses its worth and value.

‘Ya’lamu ma baina’ - meaning God’s Omniscience - Man must know- that he can never hide anything from God.

‘Wala Yuheetuna’ - None can ever comprehend God’s knowledge save what He pleases. His knowledge is absolute and infinite. He is the Knowing One before the Origin of knowledge and causality. None can have any access to God’s knowledge, save what He Himself pleases to reveal of His own independent will.

‘Man Zallazi-Yashfaho’ - Presenting all beings as non-entities before Him, discords the possibility of any one and every one’s intercession except with His permission. This exception indicates the possibility of the intercession by those who would be authorised by Him to do it,17 i.e. Those who witness the truth are the authorised ones to intercede. (A.P.)

‘Wasea Kursiyuhas’ - His seat or authority extends over the heavens and the earth.

The word ‘kursi’ has been variously interpreted by different commentators. It literally means chair, like ‘Arsh’ used in the other places of the Holy Qur’an which means throne. It is clearly evident that the word ‘Kursi’ has been used here metaphorically, meaning actually the divine attributes of knowledge and the Mighty Power of the Supreme Authority of God, in relation to His creation. His ‘relationship’ with His creation in time and space is absolutely unaffected by the ordinary sense or meaning or relativity. His seat here means his perfect sway, complete hold, and absolute authority over everything, concrete or abstract, of His creation. Limitations can never approach this absolute infinity of His existence, for Existence is only His, and everything else is given existence by Him at His free will. In expressions such as ‘He is here, there and everywhere’ we manifest our own limitation of conception and inability of adequate expression of the absolute infinity through our finite vehicle of our limited verbal energy. Otherwise, His infinite existence can never be conceived through any sense or meaning of time or space, which are themselves His creation. Thus ‘Kursi’ here means His knowledge, Might, Power and Authority and nothing connected with matter of any kind.

‘Ya’lamu ma baina’ - This clearly indicates that the knowledge of the creatures; however sublime and the excellent one may be in the hierarchy of existence, is only limited to the amount as God wills it. Hence there are always facts unknown to the finite beings which are known only to the Infinite. This does not mean that whatever be imperceivable by the ordinary human means of understanding, is unknown to the divinely gifted ones. (A.P.)

‘Kursi’ - The first and the immediate being in the order of creation wherein God’s authority manifests itself comprehensively, has been termed as ‘Kursi’ or the Seat in relation to the further creation, and ‘Arsh’ in relation to God’s hold over it. ‘Kursi’ includes all the heavens and the earth. (A.P.)

In the interpretation of the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’, ‘kursi’ or ‘Arsh’ means God’s Knowledge, Might and Authority over the creation, for there is nothing whatsoever in the heavens and in the earth but it is God’s creation and a manifest sign of His Existence; Knowledge, Wisdom, Might, Power, Authority. So the creation as a whole is the ‘kursi or the ‘Arsh’ or the Throne of God from which manifest all His divine attributes of Know ledge, Wisdom, Might and Glory, radiating through the creation.

‘Wala Yaoduhu’ - Though all things, the creation as a whole is sustained by Him and but for Him nothing could ever exist or continue to exist, it never in the least has the remotest analogy of any exhaustion of energy to cause fatigue or tiresomeness in His absolute existence, which is always there and will also remain so, as it already was. No change in any sense or in any meaning whatsoever can ever be conceivable about His absolute existence.

‘Wa Huwa al-Aliyyu al-Azeem’ - He is the Most High and the Great in the light of His matchless divine attributes briefly given above.

‘Wa Huwa al-Aliyyu al-Azeem’ - This passage is presented by the commentators of all schools on the authority of the Holy Prophet as one of the most outstanding passages of the Holy Book, dealing with the Unity of God, His prime attributes, positive and negative and His relation to His creatures, the position of man in the order of creation, the spontaneous turn of the heart towards Him, man’s means of salvation, the ultimate end of the opposite ways of the right and the wrong.

In order that the greatness of the ‘Seat’ thus represented here, should not occupy the mind of any one with awe, this adverbial clause has been used meaning that this greatness is nothing, while He alone is the Sublime and the Great. (A.P.)

Verse 256

This passage is clearly indicative and not imperative. It states a psychological fact that ‘Deen’ i.e. religion or the submissive attitude of mind and heart towards any object held as sacred, cannot be obtained by force or compulsion but by spontaneous conviction with a clear view of what is really sacred from what is otherwise. Therefore, there is no room for considering the passage having been abrogated by any other passage dealing with ‘Jehad’. The passage also asserts that after the clear view of the right and wrong, man is required to deny or reject all the rebellious entities and believe in God alone. (A.P.)

This verse answers to the false and the blasphemous charge that the Holy Prophet Muhammad offered Islam to the people at the point of the sword. Firstly, such a charge will most miserably betray the ignorance of the accusing antagonist, for when and where could the Holy Prophet have used a sword or any physical weapon to start his mission. On the other hand, sword was in the hands of his enemies and Islam was given a start facing the sword and under the worst inhuman, brutal and torturous persecution at the hands of the pagans, the heathenic jews and the idolatrous Christians. Such a charge is historically proved against Christianity which started its march trampling under its merciless feet, the corpses of the poor and helpless Jewish men, women and innocent children including even their innocent babes. Christianity as the religion of the Church established in the name of Jesus by the pagan king Constantine of Rome, got itself baptized with blood of the hundreds of thousands of Jewish victims18.

Let any sincere seeker of truth about Islam refer to what the great celebrated Christian scholar Sir Edward Dennison Ross, has to helplessly confess about the spread of Islam:

“For many centuries the acquaintance which the majority of Europeans possessed of Muhammadanism was based almost entirely on distorted reports of fanatical Christians which led to the dissemination of a multitude of gross calumnies. What was good in Muhammadanism was entirely ignored, and what was not good, in the eyes of Europe, was exaggerated or misinterpreted.

It must not, however, he forgotten that the central doctrine preached by Muhammad to his contemporaries in Arabia, who worshipped the Stars; to the Persians, who acknowledged Ormuz and Ahriman; the Indians, who worshipped idols; and the Turks, who had no particular worship, was the unity of God, and that the simplicity of his creed was probably a more potent factor in the spread of Islam than the sword of the Ghazis.19

And now after knowing the unreserved opinion of one of the learned non-Muslims - let the reader hear what one of the worst enemies of Islam in the modern days, William Muir has to helplessly divulge the whisper of his heart:

“It is strongly corroborative of Muhammad’s sincerity that the earliest converts to Islam were not only of upright character, but his own bosom-friends (the Holy ‘Ahl Al-Bayt’) and people of his viz (Salman, Buzar, Miqdad and others) household; intimately acquainted with his private life, could not fail otherwise to have detected those discrepancies which ever more or less exist between the professions of the hypocritical deceiver abroad and his actions at home”

This verse clearly lays down or prescribes the law or the leading principle for the Muslims to follow in the wars which might be forced upon them. There is another Verse:

ادعُ إِلىٰ سَبيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالحِكمَةِ وَالمَوعِظَةِ الحَسَنَةِ ۖ وَجادِلهُم بِالَّتي هِيَ أَحسَنُ ۚ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبيلِهِ ۖ وَهُوَ أَعلَمُ بِالمُهتَدينَ

“Call (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad) unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and discuss with them in the best manner; verily thy Lord best knoweth those who go astray from His path and He knoweth best those guided aright” (16:125).

The object before the Muslims should always be peace, and mutual understanding by love, through the best possible behaviour. The Holy Prophet concerned with the presentation of Islam (i.e. the conveyance of the Message) needed no compulsion in religion, for the truth has been revealed against falsehood, and ultimately the following Verse was revealed:

إِنّا هَدَيناهُ السَّبيلَ إِمّا شاكِرًا وَإِمّا كَفورًا

“Verily, We have shown him (man) the (right) way; let him accept (it) or reject it” (76:3).

‘Faman Yakfur bittaghoot’ - ‘Taghoot’ i.e. the One inordinate or rebellious, or he who errs, straying away from the path of righteousness like Satan. The one-word Satan or Devil carries most of the meaning of all the interpretations, the word Devil here would mean the Devil with ail the devilish agencies busy misleading people. Hence it means ‘whosoever rejects the Devil and believes in God.’ The one factor here which needs to be essentially noted, is that the first and the foremost step prescribed towards the genuine belief in God is the rejection of the Devil. This means in other words ‘Tabarra’ or the hatred of evil and the wicked ones, being the first, or the foremost requisite before one adopts ‘Tawalla’ i.e. the love of God and godliness. A man has to first clean the plate of his heart, of all disturbing impressions of falsehood and then expose it for the correct reflection or the impressions of truth on it, when only Truth will make a proper or the desired impression of it, otherwise the impression of truth over the other existing impressions of falsehood, will be disfigured and create confusion and chaos in the mind, instead of enlightening or desirably beautifying it.20

The word ‘Wali’ originally means nearness or contact between two objects without anything else in between them. Thus, it has been used for two brothers, two close neighbours, close friends, close helpers. A slave being close to his master by his hold in him is called ‘Wali’. Anyone who exercises authority over someone else is ‘Wali’ or ‘Waali’ a guardian, a ruler is called ‘Wali’. Here it means that God is the nearest authority over the faithful, and the rebellious entities are the exercising authorities on the minds and the hearts of the unbelievers pushing them into the eternal hell. It is clearly indicated that faith consists of two fundamental factors:

1. The negation of what is against the Legislative Will of God i.e. ‘Tabarra.’

2. Believing in God and in whatever He likes and commands ‘Tawalla.’

Ba badaan bad baash O ba nekaan neko - To the wicked be averse and to the virtuous be good.

Jaa-e-Gol gol baash O jaa-e-Khaar khaar- - In the place of flowers, be with them as a flower and where there are thorns be away. (A.P.)

‘Faqadis Tamsaka’ - The strong cord or rope or cable for which there is no breakage at all. According to Saafi, it is reported from the 6^th Holy Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq, that the handle, the rope or the cord means, faith in God, and the 5^th Holy Imam Muhammad al-Baqir has said that it is love of or the attachment to the Holy Ahl Al-Bayt for a lover of these godly ones is always correctly attached to God and remains ever in genuine godliness. And the Holy Prophet has declared, let him (a faithful) hold himself Fastly attached to Ali for with the attachment to Ali, none can get lost and detached from Ali, none can be safe. Ali is the perfect model or the true ideal of faith in God, as the Divinely Commissioned Successor to the Holy Prophet, and the correct practice of the faith, is perfectly integrated in the personality of Ali and his issues who succeeded him as the Holy Imams. Hence ‘Tawallah’ i.e. the love of God and godliness is one of the articles of the practice (Furo al-deen) of the faith, Islam Original (i.e. Shi’ism).

Verse 257

‘Noor’ i.e. light means the light of the faith or the correct knowledge or the conviction about God.21

‘Zulumaat’ i.e. Darkness means the darkness of the disbelief in God or the ignorance or the uncertainty about God.

• 1. Refer to 31:13. (A.P.)
• 2. John 16/12, 13.
• 3. Exodus 20/1-5.
• 4. Duet. 6/4.
• 5. Isa. 44/6.
• 6. Isa. 48/12.
• 7. Ps. 90/2.
• 8. Isa. 42/8.
• 9. Isa. 45/5.
• 10. Isa. 45/18.
• 11. Isa. 45/21, 22.
• 12. Isa. 46/9.
• 13. 1 Corin. 8/4 and 6.
• 14. Ephesians 4/5 and 6.
• 15. See 3:2, 40:65, 20:111.
• 16. See 57:3, 53:4, 58:7 read with 5:73. (A.P.)
• 17. See 43:86.
• 18. For details see the enactment of the Edict of Milan.
• 19. Vide introduction to the Translation of Qur’an by Sell
• 20. See also 5:6.
• 21. See 24:35.