Everything in the heavens and in the earth belongs only to God, God knows everything hidden and manifest, The Muslim Prayer.

Al-Baqarah Verses 284 - 286

لِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ ۗ وَإِنْ تُبْدُوا مَا فِي أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ يُحَاسِبْكُمْ بِهِ اللَّهُ ۖ فَيَغْفِرُ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيُعَذِّبُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

“God’s is whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth; and whether ye manifest what is in your selves or conceal it, God will call you to account for it; and then will He forgive whomsoever He willeth and will punish whomsoever He willeth and Verily God is powerful over all things” (2:284).

آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۚ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْ رُسُلِهِ ۚ وَقَالُوا سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا ۖ غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ

“The1Prophet believeth in what hath come down unto him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers; all believe in God, and in His Angels and in His Books and in His apostles; (they say) “We make no difference2between His apostles;” and they say, “We have heard and obeyed3(and we implore4) Thy forgiveness, O’ Our Lord! and unto Thee is our march” (2:285).

لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِنْ نَسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ ۖ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا ۚ أَنْتَ مَوْلَانَا فَانْصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ

“Imposeth not God, any soul but to its (individual)5ability; for it shall be (the good) what he hath acquired and against it (shall be) (the evil) he hath wrought; O’ Our Lord ! hold us not responsible if we6forget or make a mistake; O’ Our Lord! lay not on us a burden7as thou didst lay on those before us and lay not on us that which we have not the strength (to bear): pardon us; and forgive us, and have mercy on us; Thou art our Lord8, so help us then against the unbeliever people!” (2:286).

Commentary

Verse 284

The heavens and the earth mentioned in this verse may be taken in the higher sense of the realms of spirit and matter i.e. God’s are the realms concrete as well as abstract, the seen and the unseen.

Evil thoughts and evil inclinations are as much punishable without their expression as when they express themselves in speech and action, for God knows equally the hidden as well as the manifest.

لَا يَتَّخِذِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ الْكَافِرِينَ أَوْلِيَاءَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ۖ وَمَنْ يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ فَلَيْسَ مِنَ اللَّهِ فِي شَيْءٍ إِلَّا أَنْ تَتَّقُوا مِنْهُمْ تُقَاةً ۗ وَيُحَذِّرُكُمُ اللَّهُ نَفْسَهُ ۗ وَإِلَى اللَّهِ الْمَصِيرُ

“Say [O’ Apostle Muhammad!] Whether ye hide what is in your hearts or manifest it, God knoweth it, and He knoweth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and God hath power over all things” (3:28).

The Holy Imam Ali says:

“By what is in the hearts, doth God requits the servants”

“He forgiveth whomsoever He willeth and punisheth whosoever He willeth” The sovereignty over the kingdom is God’s. He alone knows best who deserves mercy and who should be rightfully punished. The verse can mean to say that His reward or punishment which will go to whosoever seeketh by his merits and demerits9.

وَيُكَفِّرُ عَنْكُمْ مِنْ سَيِّئَاتِكُمْ

“It will remove from you some of your sins” (2:271)

Who can know for certain as to the persons whom God grants this His grace of wiping out the sins. It all depends upon the independent approval and disapproval. Hence it is God’s will that ultimately works, but never without equity, as even the mercy goes only to those who deserve it by their personal merits.

The passage states the doubtless fact that God will take account of man’s intentions and the inner motives of the actions, whether expressed or hidden. Hence it is purely indicative, it leaves no room for its being abrogated.

In this passage and in many other passages wherein the reward and the punishment or the other actions of God have been assigned to the will and the pleasure of God, some would think that this supports the doctrine of the arbitrary action of God, whereas it shows only that His action follows His will, but it is silent with regard to His will, whether His will is based upon any other consideration or not. This is to be proved by taking His other attributes into consideration, of which justice, wisdom, grace, love and mere) are of great importance in the shaping of His will, in other words His will is based on these attributes, and He never contradicts His attributes, and no attribute contradicts the other. The result is that His will follows His Wisdom. (A.P.)

Verse 285

This verse contains the clearest evidence of Islam being the universal faith, the faith which enjoins belief in all the angels, all the holy scriptures and all the apostles of God - without any distinction in their holiness and their truthfulness as the messengers from God10.

There is no religion in the world which can ever be compared to the universality of Islam and its acknowledging of the truth and divinity, irrespective of the agency through which it manifested.

Verse 286

Note the spirit of humility and supplications forwarded through Islamic prayer and the ultimate end sought by the supplicant, is the triumph of the truth against falsehood, or of godliness against Satan, and the faith against infidelity.

‘Os’at’ literally means extent not ability. It means more than capacity i.e., ability with ease. However, it refutes the doctrine of the Determinists ‘Jabriah’ that God may order man beyond his ability. If it is taken in the second sense, it would mean that not only God does not order beyond the capacity, but He even does not order man to do what is difficult for him, which would be in agreement with 22:78 and the saying of the Holy Prophet:

“I have brought you a very easy religion with lots of facilities”

‘Wala tahmil alaina’ i.e. Burden us not with such duties as the hard injunctions regarding the too extreme or the ideal cleanliness for man and woman, the validity of the voluntary celibacy and the prohibitory orders on ‘Sabt’ etc.

For ‘Isri’ i.e., undertaking11, ‘Kasb’ i.e., an act or action, the result or the ‘consequence of an act or action, and its derivation, has been used in many places in the Qur’an mostly as the consequences of our action and sometimes measuring the notion itself done by a person. There is no justification whatsoever for the ‘Jabriah’ the Determinist School to differentiate between God, the Act and the ‘kasb’ the earning, by considering the former as done by God and attributing the latter to man. Whoever be held as the agent, the one should be the agent for the other, the separation of the agency of action from the agency of the consequence, is the effort on the part of the Determinist which they themselves are unable to explain as the Christians with regard to the doctrine of Trinity. (A.P.)

• 1. Note the universality of the religion Islam - Faith in all the apostles of God and the holy Scriptures preached only by Islam and no other creed in the world. Refer to Verse . 3:84.
• 2. In their being equally truthful - Not partial to anyone of them.
• 3. Thy Commandments.
• 4. Ask For.
• 5. Capacity Everyone charged to the individual capacity.
• 6. Neglect.
• 7. A Hard.
• 8. Maula.
• 9. The concluding words of Verse 271.
• 10. This should be read with Verse 2:253 and 17:55 (A.P.).
• 11. See also 7:157.