3. ALLAH IS TALKING TO US THROUGH THE
QUR’ᾹN (3)
Prophet
Ibrāhīm (Abraham) a.s. and his son Ismā‘īl (Ishmael) prayed to Allah
after building the Ka‘bah in Makkah to send to the people of this area a
messenger to guide them. They prayed:
رَبَّنَا وَابْعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ
وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ (البقرة:129)
Our Lord! And send amongst them a Messenger of their
own, who shall recite to them Your Verses and instruct them
in the Book (this Qur’an) and wisdom, and purify them.
Verily, You are the Almighty, the All-Wise (Q. 2:129)
The term ḥikmah (wisdom) in this verse means:
full knowledge of Islamic laws and jurisprudence or the Sunnah of the Prophet s.a.w.
About 25 centuries later this prayer was accepted with
the advent of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. Allah said:
لَقَدْ جَاءَكُمْ رَسُولٌ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ
حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُمْ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ
رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ فَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُلْ حَسْبِيَ
اللَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ
وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ (التوبة:128-129)
وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ (التوبة:128-129)
Verily, there has come to you a Messenger
(Muhammad
s.a.w.) from amongst
yourselves. It grieves him that you should
receive any injury or difficulty. He
(Muhammad) is eager for
you; for the believers he is full of pity,
kind and merciful. But if
they turn away, say
(O Muhammad), “Allah is sufficient for
me.
None has the right to be worshiped but He, in
Him I put my
trust and He is the
Lord of the Mighty Throne (Q. 9:128-129)
The explanation of these two verses is as
follows:
“It
grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty” means that it grieves him whatever would cause hardship to his people, that
they might go to hell for their infidelity. “He (Muhammad s.a.w.) is eager for
you “means that he is anxious that his people would receive guidance, believe
and eventually enter Heaven. To believers among them he was ra’ῡf (merciful,
compassionate; kind, benevolent; gracious) and raḥīm (merciful,
compassionate). These two attributes of the Prophet s.a.w., ra’ῡf and
raḥīm share those of Allah, as in the following verse:
... إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِالنَّاسِ
لَرَؤُفٌ رَحِيمٌ [الحج: 65)
…
Verily, Allah is, for mankind, Full of Kindness,
Most Merciful (Q.
22:65)
These are the last two verses of sῡrat al-Tawbah.
The first verse is addressing the Arabs as he was the descendent of Prophet
Isma’il a.s., according to the vast majority of Qur’an commentators,
whereas according to al-Zajjāj, it is addressing the whole mankind. In the
second verse Allah is addressing the Prophet to say, “But if they turn away,
say (O Muhammad), Allah is sufficient for me…” indicating the existence of iltifāt
(sudden transition). At first Allah
talked to people in general, the human kind or particularly the Arabs in the
time of the Prophet, to show how he was so concern with them, how eager he was
to guide them. However, not all of them would follow him. To this, Allah told
him to be patient and to put his trust in Him.
If Allah talked to the Prophet in the Qur’an, how
could we say that He also talked to us?
As Muslims the Prophet is our model. As a human being he had faced many
problems in his life, especially in delivering the message of Islam. As a
prophet, a family man (a husband, a father), a leader of the community, a
teacher, a judge, a general in the army, a persecuted person, a ruler, etc. he
constantly received revelation from Allah to guide him. We might have similar
problems with his. Then the revelation to solve them would also be applicable
to ours, as if Allah is talking to us. Whatever our profession is, there is
always guidance from Allah which He had given to the Prophet dealing with it,
as if Allah is guiding us directly.
Muslim scholars are not prophets, but the
Prophet s.a.w. said that they were inheritors of prophets. He said:
... إِنَّ الْعُلَمَاءَ
وَرَثَةُ الْأَنْبِيَاءِ، إِنَّ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ لَمْ يُوَرِّثُوا دِينَارًا وَلَا دِرْهَمًا،
إِنَّمَا
وَرَّثُوا الْعِلْمَ، فَمَنْ
أَخَذَهُ أَخَذَ بِحَظٍّ وَافِرٍ(رواه أبو داؤد والترمذي وابن ماجة)
… Verily, the ‘ulamā’ are the
inheritors of prophets; verily
prophets did not bequeath dinars, nor dirhams,
but they
bequeathed knowledge, and whoever takes it, he
will have abundant fortune.
(Reported
by Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah)
These ‘ulamā’ (Muslim scholars) are to
give advice to people based on the knowledge they inherit from the Prophet.
They are the people who know the spirit of Islamic injunction and prohibition.
They are the people who know which verses of the Qur’an to be used as medicine
to cure our spiritual sickness, for example, not to use verses dealing with war
when we are in peace, and vice versa.
B. Allah talked to people in general addressing them as يَا أَيُّهاَ
النَاس (“O
people”). These verses were mostly revealed in Makkah, before the Prophet’s
migration to Madinah in 6122 CE. He talked to them directly starting with “O
People” (Q. 2:21,168; 4:170, 174; 10:23, 57; 22:1, 5, 73; 31:33; 35:3, 5, 15;
49:1),[1] or
indirectly, starting with قُلْ يَا أَيُّهاَ النَاس (“Say: O people”, Q.
7:158; 10:104,108; 22:49). They are in chapters called Makkan sῡrahs.
Out of 114 sῡrahs in the Qur’an there are 85 of them.
Some characteristics of
the Makkan sῡrahs are as follows:
(1) It contains the verse يَا أَيُّهاَ النَاس (“O people”), and does not contain the verse يَا أيُّهَا الَّذِيْنَ آمَنُوا (“O
believers”)
(2) It contains negations كَلاَّ (“not at all!” “on the
contrary!” “by no means!” “Certainly
not!|” “never!” “no!”). The term indicates prevention and rebuke, mentioned in
33 times in 15 sῡrahs.
(3) It contains the story of
Adam and Iblis, except sῡrat al-Baqarah (Chap. 2)
(4) It mentions the stories of
ancient time, Allah and His Oneness (tawḥīd), the coming of the Resurrection
and the Judgment Day.
The main themes in these
chapters are mainly Allah and His Oneness (tawḥīd), the coming of resurrection
and judgment, and righteous conduct. The Arabs in pre-Islamic Arabia believed
in the Supreme Power controlling the universe, but this belief was corrupted because
they worshiped idols. They were called pagans, because they did not believe in
any chief religions of the world, such as Judaism and Christianity. They were
also called idolaters because they worshiped idols.
The examples for their belief in one God are
found in their poems, such as the pre-Islamic poet al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī (d.
604 CE) said, ”I swear without any margin of doubt, for who else can support
man beside Allah? Another
pre-Islamic poet Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmá
(d. 609) said, “The deeds are recorded in the scroll to be presented in the
Judgment Day.” Allah says in the Qur’an:
وَلَئِنْ سَأَلْتَهُمْ
مَنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ لَيَقُولُنَّ
اللَّهُ
فَأَنَّى يُؤْفَكُونَ.
... وَلَئِنْ سَأَلْتَهُمْ مَنْ نَزَّلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَحْيَا بِهِ الْأَرْضَ
مِنْ بَعْدِ
مَوْتِهَا لَيَقُولُنَّ اللَّهُ قُلِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ
بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ (العنكبوت:61، 63)
If indeed thou ask them
who has created the heavens and the
earth and subjected the sun and the moon (to
His law) they will
certainly reply ‘Allah!. How are they then deluded away
(from
the truth)?.... And indeed if thou ask them
who it is that
sends down rain from
the sky, and gives life therewith
to the earth after
its death, they will certainly reply
‘Allah!’ Say ‘Praise be to Allah’ But most of
them understand not. (Q. 29:61,63)[2]
Each tribe in pre-Islamic
Arabia worshiped its own idols. The Kalb worshiped وَدًّ (Wadd), the Hudhayl worshiped سُوَاعً (Suwā‘ ), the Quraysh worshiped يَغُوثَ (Yaghῡth), the
Hamdān worshiped يَعُوق (Ya‘ῡq, in the form of a horse), and the
Ḥimyar worshipedنَسْر , (Nasr, in the form
of Vulture). These idols are mentioned in the Qur’an as follows:
وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ
آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا
(نوح:23)
And they have said: “You shall not leave your
gods: not shall you leave, Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaguth, nor Ya’uq, nor Nasr” (Q. 71)
Their most ancient idol was called Manāt.
Other idols were Allāt and Al-‘Uzzá which was erected at
Nakhlah Shāmiyah between Makkah and Iraq. These idols are also mentioned in the
Qur’an, as follows:
أَفَرَأَيْتُمُ اللَّاتَ
وَالْعُزَّى. وَمَنَاةَ الثَّالِثَةَ الْأُخْرَى (النجم:19-20)
Have you then
considered Al-Lat and Al-‘Uzza. And
Manat, the other third? (Q. 53:19-20)
There were also many other idols
around and inside the Ka‘bah. The biggest idol was Hubal located inside
the Ka‘bah in the form of a man carved
of red granite. Ritual arrows stood beside it drawn by the soothsayer (kāhin)
for divination in many purposes. For example, if someone wanted to know whether
his baby was legitimate or not, he went to the soothsayer who drew one of the two
arrows; if it was written سَرِيْح (sarīḥ, “free”), the baby was
legitimate. Otherwise, it was written مُلْصَق (mulṣaq, “attached”), then the baby
was illegitimate.
The idols in pre-Islamic Arabia can be
divided into three categories: (a) الْأَوْثَان (al-awthān),
carved metal or wooden images or statues resembling living forms; (b)لْأَصْنَام (al-aṣnām),
stone statues also resembling living forms; and (c) الْأَنْصَاب (al-anṣāb), shapeless masses of
stone, pieces of volcanic or meteoric rock they made sacred because they
believed that their origins were
heavenly. Before traveling they touched their idols, and upon their return the
first thing they did was to touch them again in reverence and gratitude.
The pre-Islamic Arabs also worship the
heavenly bodies, trees and dead heroes of their tribes. They worshiped the sun,
and had their names connected to it, such as عَبْدُ الشَّمْس (“The servant of the sun”), and عَبْدُ الشُّرُوْق (“the servant of the rising sun”).
The pre-Islamic Arabs believed that
time can shape their destiny, that fate determined the course of their lives,
which was a fatalistic view. Allah referred it in the Qur’an, as follows:
وَقَالُوا مَا هِيَ إِلَّا
حَيَاتُنَا الدُّنْيَا نَمُوتُ وَنَحْيَا وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ
وَمَا لَهُمْ بِذَلِكَ
مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِنْ هُمْ إِلَّا يَظُنُّونَ (الجاثية:24)
And they say, ‘What is there but our life in this world? We shall
die and we live, and nothing but time can
destroy us.’ But of that
they
have no knowledge: they merely conjecture. (Q. 45:24)
It
was the duty of the Prophet in this Makkan period to bring people from the
darkness of the jahiliyyah (ignorance) to the light and guidance of
Islam, from worshiping idols to worshiping Allah Alone, tawḥīd. There are three aspects of tawḥīd:
a.
Tawḥīd al-Rubῡbiyyah, Oneness of
the Lordship of Allah. It is to believe that there is only one Lord for the
entire universe; He is the Creator, Organizer, Planner, Sustainer, and the
Giver of security; He is Allah the Almighty. The Arabs in pre-Islamic Arabia
believed in this.
b.
Tawḥīd al-Ulῡhiyyah, Oneness
of the worship of Allah. It is to believe that none has the right to be
worshiped but Allah. This is what the pre-Islamic Arabs did not have. They
worshiped idols.
c.
Tawḥīd al-Asmā’ wa ’l-Ṣifāt, Oneness of the Names and the Qualities of Allah. It is to believe that:
(i) we must not name Allah or qualify Him except what He and the Prophet have
named or qualified Him; (ii) none can be named or qualified with the names or
qualifications of Allah. In other words, Allah’s names and qualifications are,
in strict sense, attributed solely to Him, such as al-Karīm (“the [real]
Noble, the [real] Beneficent, the [true] Generous, the [true] Honourable, the
[real] Benefactor”(. We can be karīm
(generous, honourable), but it is relatively and extremely very little,
compared to Allah’s generosity and nobility.
We are living in the era similar to that of the jāhiliyyah
(pre-Islamic ignorance and un-Islamic practices) and we can call it the modern
one. In some aspects, modern jāhiliyyah is worse that the classical
pre-Islamic one. Therefore, as Allah talked to people through the Prophet in
the early jāhiliyyah era, He is talking to us in this modern
jāhiliyyah era in order to solve our similar problems. For example, in
modern time, by using modern and sophisticated arms, the victims of war are not
only those who are engaged in the battlefield, but also non-combatants,
civilians who are not in the battlefield, even animals. Buildings are
destroyed, water and air become polluted and contaminated, and various sicknesses
became rampant due to lack of food, clean water, medicine, and sanitation.
Gambling
becomes legal and can be done in many ways: buying lottery tickets, and going
to gambling casinos. Gambling machines are installed in night clubs to
entertain their customers. You can even gamble wherever and whenever you are
through the internet and mobile-phones. In order to attract people to buy
fund-raising tickets, they are also tempted and promised with prizes, as if they
are buying lottery tickets. In Las
Vegas, California, one welcomed its visitors, saying, “Welcome to the Gambling Capital
of the World.” Another city of gambling is Monte Carlo near Nice, in Monaco.
Instead
of worshiping idols, people worship their jobs, positions, and wealth. In the
early jāhiliyyah some people buried their infant girls alive, nowadays
they kill their children before they are born, disregarding their gender
through abortion. Living together out of matrimony, adultery, legalized
prostitution, brothels in almost every big city, and alcohol drinking are made
legal, with the exception of girls trafficking, the consumption of narcotics, the
practice of money laundering, corruption, bribery.
With
the advance of science and technology, people feel that they can solve all
their problems, and they become further and further away from religion and God,
resulting with their lack of spirituality. Mental depression occur, especially
among soldiers returning from the fronts in the Middle-East ending up in mental
hospitalities, and sometimes with suicide.
With the invention of computer in 1991
called “Silicon Neuron” by scientist in California Technology laboratory in
Boston, USA, people started relying on it in finding the solutions of their
problems. The more advanced it is made, the more people rely on it, until it is
treated like a sole adviser, and for atheists, this is their god, as it can think
and analyze faster than man. Sometimes
we say jokingly, “if you have any question, ask Shaykh Google.”
Like
the classical jāhiliyyah the
modern jāhiliyyah can be solved with the application of the Islamic law.
When Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, declared on the 1st week
of of May this year 2014, that he is applying the Shariah (Islamic law)
in this country the West responded negatively, he replied: The West should worry about themselves, about
their children shot dead at schools, or their prisons which have become too
crowded that they cannot accommodate criminals any longer, the high rate of
crimes, suicides, abortions, and the spread of AIDS in their countries. The West should open their eyes on what is
happening in Syria, Bosnia, Rohingy, Palestine, Egypt, etc. where thousands of
people have been killed. Not a single person has been killed after applying Islamic
law in his country, and people accept it peacefully. (CIVIC, 16 May, 2014)
المراجع:
المكتبة الشاملة
تفسير الطبري
(ت. 310 هـ)
تفسير القرطبى
(ت. 671 هـ)
تفسير ابن كثير
(ت. 774 هـ)
Ahmad von Denffer, ‘Ulῡm al-Qur’ān. Kuala
Lumpur: A.S. Noodeen, 1991.
http://www.islamedia.co/2014/05/diserang-dunia-barat-ini-jawaban -cerdas.html 
