تِلكَ الرُّسُلُ فَضَّلنا بَعضَهُم عَلىٰ بَعضٍ ۘ مِنهُم مَن كَلَّمَ اللَّهُ ۖ وَرَفَعَ بَعضَهُم دَرَجاتٍ ۚ وَآتَينا عيسَى ابنَ مَريَمَ البَيِّناتِ وَأَيَّدناهُ بِروحِ القُدُسِ ۗ وَلَو شاءَ اللَّهُ مَا اقتَتَلَ الَّذينَ مِن بَعدِهِم مِن بَعدِ ما جاءَتهُمُ البَيِّناتُ وَلٰكِنِ اختَلَفوا فَمِنهُم مَن آمَنَ وَمِنهُم مَن كَفَرَ ۚ وَلَو شاءَ اللَّهُ مَا اقتَتَلوا وَلٰكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفعَلُ ما يُريدُ

“These apostles, We have exalted some of them above the others; of them are some unto whom God hath spoken and some He hath raised in degrees; and we gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear evidence and aided him with the Holy Ghost; and hath God so willed, those who came after them had not have fought among themselves after the clear evidences had come unto them. But they differed; and of them there were some who believed and some who disbelieved; and hath God so willed they would not have fought among themselves: but God doeth whatever He willeth” (2:253).

Commentary

Verse 253

The divinely designed plan of some apostles excelling the others in excellence, indicates that though all apostles of God are equally truthful and holy, yet their personal excellence is graded. The particular mention of Moses and Jesus is evidently to show that these two apostles of God have some distinguished positions as the reformers. Moses had the privilege to be addressed directly by God and Jesus had the distinguished benefit of being aided by the Holy Spirit (Ruhul Qudus). Notwithstanding their exclusive distinctions these two prophets of God had to sing the praise of the Holy Prophet, as his forerunners. Both these apostles of God had to give to their followers in particular, and the people in general the glad tidings about the advent of the Holy Prophet Muhammad identifying him with different titles. Moses referred to the Holy Prophet as “Prophet like unto him to”1. God addressing Moses says: -

“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I command him”

“And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him”2.

A similar prophecy goes before: -

“For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, and him and his sons for ever”3

In this verse there is the mention of the Holy Prophet and his sons referring to the twelve Holy Imams, all of them will be from his seed.

This prophecy has again been referred to in Acts 3/22-25.

“For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you”

“And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people”

“Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days”

“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth he blessed”4

Jesus had foretold about the advent of the Holy Prophet in the following words: -

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that, he may abide with you for ever”

“Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it secth him not, neither knoweth him: hut ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”5

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me”6

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; hut if I depart I will send him unto you”

“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sins, and of righteousness, and of judgment”

“Of sin, because they believe not on me”

“Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more”

“Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged”

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

“How be it when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come”7

The prophecies by the two most eminent of the Israelite prophets Moses and Jesus and the numerous verses of the Holy Qur’an bear testimony to the immeasurable greatness of the exclusive excellence of the Holy Prophet, over the other apostles of God. The Holy Prophet has been repeatedly spoken of as the one endowed with all the qualities of greatness and excellence in the highest degree, which to the other prophets were given in parts or in a lesser degree. In short, in the Holy Prophet Muhammad, divinity manifests to the maximum degree it can possibly do in any mortal on earth. His personality divinely designed with the essential unique perfection in all aspects necessary for a medium or means, for divinity to radiate or to reflect through it, into other beings. He was created thus by the Almighty as a ‘Mercy unto the worlds.’

وَما أَرسَلناكَ إِلّا رَحمَةً لِلعالَمينَ

“We have not sent thee (O’ Muhammad) but as Mercy unto the worlds” (21:107).

Since the other apostles were endowed with these qualities in a lesser degree they were sent for a particular people in a particular place - Jesus openly declared:

“And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive”

“And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?”

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things”

“The baptism of John, whence, was it? from heaven, or of men?” and they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, from heaven; he will say Why did ye not then believe him”

“But if we shall say, of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet”

Not only did Jesus declare his advent being only and exclusively for the lost sheep of the House of Israel, he also warned his disciples whom he sent to preach his message, not to go to any others but only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel: -

“These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not;”

“But go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”8

The Holy Prophet Muhammad was endowed with all the qualities necessary to manifest the glory of the divinity of the Lord in the highest, and was sent, not for any particular people but to mankind as a whole for all times9.

While the Holy Prophet is the greatest and the best of all the apostles of God, of his followers a distinguished group is called by God as the best of the people10.

As regards God’s speaking - God Himself has said - in the Holy Qur’an:

وَما كانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَن يُكَلِّمَهُ اللَّهُ إِلّا وَحيًا أَو مِن وَراءِ حِجابٍ أَو يُرسِلَ رَسولًا فَيوحِيَ بِإِذنِهِ ما يَشاءُ ۚ إِنَّهُ عَلِيٌّ حَكيمٌ

“It is not for man, God should speak to him except by inspiration or through a veil or send a messenger (angel) who might reveal by His permission what He liketh. He is the Highest, the All-Knowing” (42:51).

The veil can be anything which can be caused to produce sound as a radio-box does in the modern days.

The passage means that God sent the huge number of his apostles, and at the end of them was sent the greatest and the best one of them, the Holy Prophet, to guide mankind against their being led astray by their declared enemy, Satan. But the design of guidance was never to force it upon any individual or community, nor is it to affect any obstruction against anyone who, in spite of the clear guidance from his Lord, likes drifting towards error, for such a design would never have any moral value whatsoever. There is no undertaking by God to those who avail of the guidance, to forcibly keep them on the right-way if they themselves do not care for it and endeavour to maintain themselves on it. The followers of the various prophets and those of even the Last Apostle of God, in spite of the doubtless guidance they had, no sooner the heavenly guides left them, gave way to Satan, and fell into schisms and quarrelled among themselves. God could have prevented this straying of the people if He had only willed it. And equally so, God could have guided mankind without any means of any prophet at all for He can always give effect to whatsoever He might will. But the will of the Lord is to give man the freedom to act, using the native endowments of the various faculties in him and thus allow him to work out his own desired future of earning the reward or the punishment for his merits or demerits, by his own voluntary will and personal efforts.

At the same time the All-Knowing All-Merciful Providence kept ready the door of guidance wide open to those who earnestly seek it, with a declared promise in His Final Word to man, the Holy Qur’an:

وَالَّذينَ جاهَدوا فينا لَنَهدِيَنَّهُم سُبُلَنا

“To those who strive in Us, certainly do We show them Our ways” (29:69).

It is in the fulfilment of this promise that the institution of the divine guidance ‘Imamat’ has been instituted by the All-Merciful Lord to immediately follow the conclusion of the apostleship ‘Risalat, through His own commissioned, infallible ones the Holy ‘Imams’ - The first of whom is Ali and the last or the Twelfth one is Muhammad al-Mehdi, the living Imam of the age.

It is for this exigency that man has been mercifully’ instructed by God to be ever seeking His help in the daily prayer - in his maintaining himself on the Right Path vide the concluding verses of the First Sura (Sura al-Fatiha) without reciting which no prayer is complete.

After having shown the right way, everyone is left to act independently at his own will11.

Presenting the prophets as the leading figures in conducting the struggle for the right and wrong and that all of them have been working for one and the same cause as pointed out here, that the existence individual differences among them, had been only in their respective rank and degree appropriate to the needs of the respective stages of the intellectual development of man that each one of them served. They differed accordingly in the way and the manner of receiving the inspiration from God, and also in the nature and the limitation of their mission. But the highest rank, degree and the state, for the divine mission is the last and the final one. Whoever is commissioned for the greatest task would naturally and essentially be the most superior in all aspects, so that none could match with him in the hierarchy of the arc of ascent. He would naturally be the topmost and the foremost in the absolute submission to the Universal Will.

‘Roohul-Quds’ or the Holy Spirit. The prophets of God were inspired in various manners12. Moses was honoured with a particular form of inspiration presented in the Qur’an as the divine speech. Jesus was given the distinction of being aided by the Holy Spirit (i.e. the Arch-angel Gabriel). Abraham received the inspiration in ‘Shuhood’ i.e. visions i.e. dreams or in the wake. The Holy Prophet had all the distinctive ways of receiving the inspiration and the revelation. See for:

• Vision in sleep - 8:43 and 17:60.

• In the wake - 17:1.

• The Holy Spirit - 26:192-195, 42:52, 16:102, 53:1-16.

• Direct instruction - 55:1-3.

Presenting the prophets as inspired persons sent to preach one and the same truth, this passage terms the differences and the fight among the followers of the prophets, after receiving sufficient proof of the truth, as the outcome of the belief ‘Iman’ and disbelief ‘Kufr.’ This roots out the apologetic attempt on the part of some theologians to justify the dissensions and the conflicts between the various religions or the various sects of each religion, or the various groups of the followers of one and the same prophet, as the outcome of ‘Ijtihad’ or discretion. Qur’an here and in many other places expressively asserts that such differences among the people of the scriptures, is the outcome of the revolting and the rebellious attitude against the clearly pronounced will and the explicit order of God13.

Regarding the agency of the divine will in human action in the term of action and the re-action, the responsibility for the wrong deeds, is man’s and not God’s.

• 1. For the text of the prophecy given through Moses. see Deuteronomy 18/18,19.
• 2. Deut. 18/18, 19.
• 3. Deut. 18/5.
• 4. Acts. 3/22-25.
• 5. John 14/16 and 17.
• 6. John 15/26.
• 7. John 16/7-13.
• 8. Math. 10/5, 6.
• 9. Vide 34:28.
• 10. See Note to 3:109.
• 11. Vide76:3, 17:7 17:15, 2:48, 6:165, 35:18, 39:7, 29:6, 45:17, 41:46. (A.P.)
• 12. Vide 42:51.
• 13. See 3:18, 42:13, 42:14.