««Continuation of tafseer from the holy book»»suratul bakara {the cow} from ayah no 71.to no 80. Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim. 71 [57] (Remember that) We caused the cloud to overshadow you and provided you with72 manna and salva73 for your food, saying, Eat of the clean and pure things We have bestowed upon you (In spite of this, your forefathers violated Our commands:) however, they did not harm Us but harmed only themselves. [58-59] Then call to mind the time when We said, Go into the town74 before you and eat to your hearts content therein, wherefrom you will, but enter the gate bowing down with humility, repeating hittatun;75 We will forgive your sins and increase the reward of the righteous. But the transgressors perverted the words said to them entirely into a different thing. So We sent down upon the transgressors a severe torment from the sky : that was the punishment for the disobedience they were showing. [60] Remember that when Moses prayed for water for his people, We answered, Strike the rock with your staff : whereupon twelve springs gushed forth from it;76 the people of every clan came to know their drinking place. (Then they were enjoined:) Eat and drink of what Allah has provided and do not spread disorder on the earth. [61] Remember: You grumbled: O Moses, we cannot endure one and the same sort of food. Pray your Lord to bring for us the products of the earth green herbs, vegetables, corn, garlic, onions, pulses and the like. Moses replied: What! would you exchange that which is meaner for that which is nobler?77 Well, go and live in a town and you will get there what you demand. By and by, they became so degraded that disgrace and humiliation, misery and wretchedness were stamped upon them and they incurred Allahs wrath. That was because they began to reject the Revelations of Allah78 and kill His Messengers without any just cause;79 that was the consequence of their disobedience and their persistent transgression against the Law. [62] Rest assured that whosoever from among the Muslims or the Jews or the Christians or the Sabaeans believes in Allah and the Last Day, and performs good deeds, he will have his reward with his Lord and he will have no cause for fear and grief.80 [63-64] Call to mind the .time when We raised above you the Tur and made a covenant with you, 71When Moses went up to Mount Tur for forty days and forty nights, he was also told to bring with him seventy of the chiefs of Israel. Then Allah bestowed upon him the Book and Criterion and gave him the stone tablets with Instructions and Commandments inscribed on them for the guidance of the people, and he presented these to the chiefs. The Quran says that at that time some wicked people from among them began to say: How can we believe, on a mere statement of yours, that Allah has had a talk with you? At this Allah became angry with them and punished them. But the Bible says, And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. (Exodus, 24: 1011). Strange though it may appear, the same Bible also tells us that Moses said, I beseech thee, skew me thy glory. And He said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me, and live. (For further details please see Exodus, 33:18-23). 72That is, We sheltered you with clouds when you entered the Sinai Peninsula and had no place of shelter from the heat of the sun. One should remember that the Israelites had emigrated in large numbers from Egypt and had no place in the Sinai Peninsula to hide their heads, not to speak of houses and tents. Had Allah not kept the sky cloudy for a long time, they would have perished by the scorching heat of the desert sun. 73Manna and salva were the natural relief provisions supplied by Allah to feed the Israelites in the wilderness. Manna fell on the ground like dew-drops and salva flew in thousands like quails. There was such a plenty of these provisions that a whole nation lived on them for forty years and was never confronted with starvation or famine. In modern times even a well developed and resourceful country fords it extremely difficult to make adequate food arrangements for a few hundred thousand emigrants if they happen to enter it suddenly and unexpectedly. (For details refer to Exodus, 16; Numbers, 11:7-9, 31-32; Joshua, 5:12). 74The identity of the town has not so far been determined. As this incident took place when the Israelites were still wandering in the Sinai Peninsula, most probably it was situated somewhere there. But it is also possible that it might have been Shittim which was situated on the eastern bank of the Jordan, opposite to Jericho. According to the Bible, the Israelites conquered this city during the last years of Moses and committed debaucheries. Consequently, Allah inflicted a terrible punishment on them in the form of an epidemic which killed twenty-four thousand of them. (Numbers, 25: 1-9). 75They were told not to enter the town like cruel and ruthless tyrants but to go in meekly and with humility like God-fearing people, just as the Prophet Muhammad (Allahs peace be upon him) did at the conquest of Makkah. Hittatun can have two meanings: You should enter the town, (1) begging Allahs forgiveness for sins, and (2) granting general amnesty and refraining from plundering and murdering the inhabitants. 76That rock can still be seen in the Sinai Peninsula with the twelve holes of the springs. Twelve springs were caused to flow for the Israelites in order to avoid water disputes among their twelve clans. 77It does not mean: You are asking, instead of manna and salva which you get gratis, things for which you will have to till and cultivate the land. But it means: You are neglecting that grand purpose the purification of your hearts and the preparation for the leadership of the world for which you are being made to travel in the desert: instead of this, you are after the gratification of your taste and palate and cannot forego those things even for some time. (For comparison, see Numbers, 11: 4-9). 78They rejected the Revelations in different ways: (a) They refused to accept anything as revealed, if it went against their own ideas or desires; (b) they brazen-facedly violated the clear injunctions of Allah, knowing full well that they were discarding His Commandments; and (c) they distorted and twisted the meaning of Revelations in order to suit their desires and lusts. 79The history of the Israelites abounds in instances of the persecution of their own Prophets. We cite here a few from the Bible: (1) After the death of the Prophet Solomon, the kingdom of the Israelites was split into two states the kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria. As the two were often at war with each other, the things came to such a pass that the kingdom of Judah asked for help from the Aramaic kingdom of Damascus against their own brethren. At this the Prophet Hanani by Gods command severely rebuked Asa king of Judah for relying on the king of Syria instead of relying on the Eternal your God. But Asa instead of heeding the warning sent the Prophet of God to the prison house. (2 Chronicles, 16: 1-10). (2) When the Prophet Elijah rebuked the Israelites for serving and worshipping Baal, and asked them to serve and worship One God alone, they became his mortal enemies. King Ahab of Samaria threatened to kill him because his idolatrous wife incited him against the Prophet Elijah. In terror he ran for his life to the mountains in the Sinai Peninsula. During the period of affliction, he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even 1 only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. (1 Kings, 19: 1-10). (3) King Ahab sent another Prophet, Micaiah, to prison for speaking out the truth. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the kings son; and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. (1 Kings, 22: 26-27). (4) When the people of Judah began to worship idols openly and to do what was evil in the sight of Allah, the Prophet Zecharia raised his voice against these evils, saying: Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. (2 Chronicles, 24: 20-21) (5) When the Israelite state of Samaria was destroyed by the Assyrians, and the Jewish state at Jerusalem was threatened with imminent danger, the Prophet Jeremiah began to bewail and warn his people of their degeneration and its evil consequences. He lamented and cried, Mend your ways otherwise you will meet with a far worse doom than Samaria. In answer to this the Jews cursed him, beat him and imprisoned him. They accused him of treachery against the nation and shouted, You are deserting to the Chaldeans. He was arrested and flogged and confined in the dungeon cells. Then they put him into an underground cistern, lowering him down with ropes so that he should sink in the mud and die on the spot from starvation. (For details please refer to Jeremiah, I5: 10, 18: 20-23; 20:1-18 and Chapters 36 to 40.) (6) About the Prophet Amos, it is written that when he rebuked the Israelite state of Samaria for its evil and immoral doings and warned them of their evil are doing. These are the people who have preferred the worldly life to the life in the Hereafter. Therefore their torment shall not be lightened nor shall help be given to them (from any quarter). consequences, he was served with the notice:O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah and prophesy there. (Amos, 7: 10-13). (7) When John the Baptist raised his voice against the immoralities which were being openly practised in the court of Herod, king of Judah, he was arrested and bound in prison. Then at the request of Herodias, his wife, who had a grudge against him, he sent one of the guards to bring his head. The man went and beheaded him in the prison and brought, his head on a dish to be presented to her. Thus, the Prophet of God was killed without any cause. (ark, 6: 17-29.) (8) The last victim of the evil designs of the high priests and the elders of the jews was Jesus Christ, who took them to task for their sins and hypocrisies and advised them to lead a righteous life. For thiscrime of his, they plotted against him: bought Judas, one of his twelve disciples, and sent a large mob with swords and cudgels to seize him and take him away to the house of the high priest. After binding him, they led him off, and handed him over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. They tried to procure false evidence against him in order to have him put to death. They had become so hardhearted that they asked Pilate to release Barabbas, a murderer, as a boon at the festival but to crucify him . In this verse, the Quran briefly refers to this most shameful chapter of the history of the Israelites and declares that they fully deserved the curses and condemnation of Allah. They chose their worst offenders against law and morality and made them their chiefs and leaders, and sent their most pious and righteous men to the gaol or the gallows. 80The context in which this verse occurs shows that the Quran is not laying down here the details of the creed and righteous deeds, which one should believe and practise in order to earn salvation. These things have been described in their proper places. Here, the object is to refute the self- delusion of the Jews that salvation was their sole monopoly. They were suffering from the delusion that they had some special relationship with God; therefore whoever belonged to their race, would go straight to Heaven, irrespective of his creed and deeds, and all other people were born to become fuel of Hell. To remove this misunderstanding of theirs Allah declares that salvation does not depend upon ones connection with any group but on ones right beliefs and good deeds. Whoever goes before Allah with these provisions will find his reward with Him, for Allahs judgement will be based on ones real worth and not on the census registers.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:26:38 +0000
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