النص المفهرس

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necessary. So, the question arises as to why the Holy Qur'an should be
content to choose for mention only two - namely, performing Salah and
spending in the way of Allah. In answering this question, one could
say that all the good deeds which are obligatory or necessary for man
pertain either to his person and his body or to his possessions. Among
the personal and bodily forms of 'Ibadat (acts of worship), the most
important is the Salah. Hence the Holy Qur'an mentions only this
form in the present passage. As for the different forms of 'Ibadat
pertaining to possessions, the word Infaq (spending) covers all of them.
Thus, in mentioning only two good deeds, the Holy Qur'an has by
implication included all the forms of worship and all good deeds. The
whole verse, then, comes to mean that the God-fearing are those who
are perfect in their faith and in their deeds both, and that Islam is the
sum of faith and practice. In other words, while providing a complete
definition of 'Im an (Faith), the verse indicates the meaning of Islam as
well. So, let us find out how 'Iman and Islam are distinct from each
other.
The distinction between 'Iman and Islam
Lexically, 'Im an signifies the acceptance and confirmation of
something with one's heart, while Islam signifies obedience and
submission. 'Im an pertains to the heart; so does Islam, but it is related
to all the other parts of the human body as well. From the point of
view of the Shari'ah, however, 'Iman is not valid without Islam, nor
Islam without 'Im an. In other words, it is not enough to have faith in
Allah and the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in one's heart unless the
tongue expresses the faith and also affirms one's allegiance and
submission. Similarly, an oral declaration of faith and allegiance is not
valid unless one has faith in one's heart.
In short, 'Im an, and Islam have different connotations from the
lexical point of view. It is on the basis of this lexical distinction that
the Holy Qur'an and Hadith refer to a difference between the two.
From the point of view of the Shariah, however, the two are
inextricably linked together, and one cannot be valid without the other
- as is borne out by the Holy Qur'an itself.
When Islam, or an external declaration of allegiance, is not

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accompanied by 'Iman or internal faith, the Holy Qur'an terms it as
Nifaq (hypocrisy), and condemns it as a greater crime than an open
rejection of Islam:
إِنَّ الْنْفِقِيْنَ فِى الدَّرْكِ الْأَسْفَلِ مِنَ النَّارِ
Surely the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of Hell. (4:145)
In explanation of this verse let us add that so far as the physical world
goes, we can only be sure of the external state of a man, and cannot
know his internal state with any degree of certainty. So in the case of
men who orally declare themselves to be Muslims without having faith
in their heart, the Shari'ah requires us to deal with them as we would
deal with a Muslim in worldly affairs; but in the other world their fate
would be worse than that of the ordinary disbelievers. Similarly, if
'Iman or acknowledgment in the heart is not accompanied by external
affirmation and allegiance, the Holy Qur'an regards this too as kufr or
rejection and denial of the Truth - speaking of the infidels, it says:
يَعْرِ فُؤْنَهَ كَمَا يَعْرِفُونَ أَبْنَآءَ هُمْ
They know him (that is, the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم) as
they know their own sons (2:146);
or in another palce:
جَحَدُوا بِهَا وَاسْتَيْقَنَتْهَا أَنْفُسَهُمْ ظُلْمًا وَعْلُوًّا
Their souls knew them (the signs sent by Allah) to be true, yet
they denied them in their wickedness and their pride. (27:14)
My respected teacher, 'Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Anwar Shah
used to explain it thus - the expanse which 'Iman and Islam have to
cover in the spiritual journey is the same, and the difference lies only
in the beginning and the end; that is to say, 'Iman starts from the
heart and attains perfection in external deeds, while Islam starts from
external deeds and can be regarded as perfect when it reaches the
heart.
To sum up, Iman is not valid, if acknowledgment in the heart does
not attain to external affirmation and allegiance; similarly, Islam is
not valid, if external affirmation and allegiance does not attain to
confirmation by the heart. Imam Ghazzali and Imam Subki both have
arrived at the same conclusion, and in Musamarah, Imam Ibn

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al-Humam reports the agreement of all the authentic scholars in this
respect.2
... who believe in what has been revealed to you and in what has
been revealed before you, and do have faith in the Hereafter.
This verse speaks of some other attributes of the God-fearing, giv-
ing certain details about faith in the unseen with a special mention of
2. Today one finds a very wide-spread confusion, sometimes amounting to a
total incomprehension, with regard to the distinction between Islam and
'Iman, essentially under the influence of Western modes of thought and
behaviour and, to be more specific, that of the ever-proliferating Protestant
sects and schools of theology. Since the middle of the 19th century there
have sprouted in almost every Muslim country a host of self-styled
Reformists, Revivalists, Modernists et al, each pretending to have
understood the "real" Islam for the first time, and each adopting an
extremist, though untenable, posture with regard to Islam and 'Iman. On
the one hand, we have people claiming that Islam is only a matter of the
"heart" (a word which has during the last four hundred years been used in
the West as an equivalent of "emotion" or, worse still, of "emotional
agitation") or of "religious experience" (a very modish term brought into
currency by William James). As a corollary, they stubbornly refuse to see
the need for a fixed ritual or an ethical code, all of which they gladly leave
to social exigency or individual preference. They base their claims on the
unquestioned axiom that religion is "personal" relationship between the
individual and "his" God. It is all too obvious that this genre of Modernist
"Islam" is the progeny of Martin Luther with cross-pollination from
Rousseau. On the other hand, we have fervent and sometimes violent
champions of Islam insisting on a merely external performance of rituals -
more often on a mere conformity to moral regulations, and even these, of
their liking. They would readily exclude, and are anyhow indifferent to, the
internal dimension of Islam. A recent modification of this stance (in the
wake of a certain Protestant pioneering, it goes without saying) has been to
replace divinely ordained rituals by acts of social service or welfare, giving
them the status and value of acts of worship. Counselling on divorce,
abortion, premarital sex and the rest of the baggage having already become
a regular part of the functions of a Protestant clergyman, it would not be
too fond to expect, even on the part of our Modernists, the speedy inclusion
of acts of entertainment as well. There is still another variety of
deviationists, more visible and vociferous than the rest, and perhaps more
pervasive and pernicious in their influence, finding easy credence among a
certain section of Muslims with a sloppy western-style education. While
dispensing with the subtle distinctions between Islam and 'Iman, they
reduce Islam itself to a mere system of social organization, or even to
state-craft. According to their way of looking at things, if Muslims fail to set
up a social and political organization of a specified shape, they would cease
to be Muslims. Applied to the history of Islam, this fanciful notion would
lead (Continued)

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faith in hereafter. Commenting on this verse, the blessed Companions
،Abdullah ibn Masud and 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas رضى الله عنهم أجمعين have
said that in the days of the Holy Prophet ; God-fearing Muslims
were of two kinds, - those who used to be associators and disbelievers
but accepted Islam, and those who used to be among the people of the
Book (that is, Jews and Christians) but embraced Islam later on; the
preceding verse refers to the first group, and this verse to the second.
Hence this verse specifically mentions belief in the earlier Divine
Books along with belief in the Holy Qur'an, for, according to the
Hadith, people in the second group deserve a double recompense,
firstly, for believing in and following the earlier Books before the Holy
Qur'an came to replace them, and secondly, for believing in and
following the Holy Qur'an when it came as the final Book of Allah.
Even today it is obligatory for every Muslim to believe in the earlier
Divine Books except that now the belief has to take this form:
everything that Allah has revealed in the earlier Books is true
(excepting the changes and distortions introduced by selfish people),
and that it was incumbent upon the people for whom those Books had
been sent to act according to them, but now that all the earlier Books
(Continued) to the grotesque conclusion that no Muslim had ever existed.
These are only a few examples of the intellectual distortions produced by
refusing to define Islam and 'Iman clearly and ignoring the distinction
between the two. Contrary to all such modernizing deviations, Islam in fact
means establishing a particular relationship of obedience and servitude
with Allah. This relationship arises neither out of vague "religious
experiences" nor out of social regimentation; in order to attain it, one has to
accept all the doctrines and to act upon all the commandments specified in
the Holy Qur'an, the Hadith and the Shari'ah. These doctrines and
commandments cover all the spheres of human life, individual or collective,
right up from acts of worship down to social, political and economic
relations among men, and codes of ethics and behaviour, morals and
manners, and their essential purpose is to produce in man a genuine
attitude of obedience to Allah. If one acts according to the Shari'ah, one, no
doubt, gains many worldly benefits, individual as well as collective. These
benefits may be described as the raison d'etre of the commandments, but
are in no way their essential object, nor should a servant of Allah seek them
for themselves in obeying Him, nor does the success or failure of a Muslim
as a Muslim depend on attaining them. When a man has fully submitted
himself to the commandments of Allah in everything he does, he has
already succeeded as a Muslim, whether he receives the related worldly
benefits or not.

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and Shari'ahs have been abrogated, one must act according to the Holy
Qur'an alone. 3
3. Exactly as predicted by a Hadith, today we see all around us a
proliferation of "knowledge" and of "writing". One of the dangerous forms
the process has taken is the indiscriminate translation at least into
European languages and the popularization of the sacred books of all
possible religious and metaphysical traditions - not only the Hindu, the
Chinese or the Japanese, but also the Shamanic or the Red Indian. The
lust for reading sacred books has virtually grown into a mania, specially
among the modern young people with their deep sense of being uprooted
and disinherited, and all considerations of aptitude have been
contemptuously set aside. In these circumstances, Muslims with a
Western orientation are naturally impelled to ask themselves as to what
they can or should make of such books which sometimes seem to offer
similarities and parallels to the Holy Qur'an itself, and more often to the
Sufi doctrines. The problem has already attained noticeable proportions,
for in 1974 the government of Turkey found it necessary to ban the entry
of certain Hindu sacred books like the Bhagavadgita and Upanishads.
The correct doctrinal position in this respect is that it is obligatory for
every Muslim, as an essential part of the Islamic creed, to believe in all
the prophets and messengers of Allah and in the Divine Books (not in
their distorted forms, but as they were originally revealed) that have
specifically been mentioned by their names in the Holy Qur'an, and also
to believe that Allah has sent His messengers and His books for the
guidance of all the peoples and all the ages, and that Muhammad is
the last prophet and the Holy Qur'an the final Book of Allah which has
come down to replace the earlier Books and Shari'ahs. As to the question
of the authenticity and divine origin of a particular book held in
reverence by an earlier religion or metaphysical tradition, a Muslim is
not allowed to affirm such a claim unequivocally, nor should he
unnecessarily reject such a possibility. In so far as contents of the book
concerned agree with what the Holy Qur'an has to say on the subject, we
may accept the statement as true, otherwise spiritual etiquette requires
an average Muslim to keep quiet and not meddle with things which he is
not likely to understand. As for reading the sacred books of other
traditions, it should be clearly borne in mind that a comparative study of
this nature requires a very special aptitude which is extremely rare, and
hence demands great caution. A cursory reading of sacred books,
motivated by an idle curiosity or by a craze for mere information, may
very well lead to an intellectual disintegration or to something still
worse, instead of helping in the "discovery of the truth" and the
acquisition of "peace" which a comparative study is widely supposed to
promise. Even when the aptitude and the knowledge necessary for the
task is present, such a study can be carried out only under the
supervision of an authentic spiritual master. In any case, we cannot
insist too much on the perils of the enterprise.

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An argument to the Finality of Prophethood
The mode of expression helps us to infer from this verse the
صلى الله عليه وسلم fundamental principle that the Holy Prophet Muhammad
is the last of all the prophets, and the Book revealed to him is the final
revelation and the last Book of Allah. For, had Allah intended to
reveal another Book or to continue. The mode of revelation even after
the Holy Qur'an, this verse, while prescribing belief in the earlier
Books as necessary for Muslims, must also have referred to belief in
the Book or Books to be revealed in the future. In fact, such a
statement was all the more needed, for people were already familiar
with the necessity of believing in the Torah, the Evangile and the
earlier Books, and such a belief was in regular practice too, but if
prophethood and revelation were to continue even after the Holy
Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم , it was essential that the coming of another
prophet and another book should be clearly indicated so that people
were not left in doubt about this possibility. So, in defining 'Iman, the
Holy Qur'an mentions the earlier prophets and the earlier Books, but
does not make the slightest reference to a prophet or Book to come
after the last Prophet . The matter does not end with this verse.
The Holy Qur'an touches upon the subject again and again in no less
than forty or fifty verses, and in all such places it mentions the
prophets, the Books and the revelation preceding the Holy Prophet
but nowhere is there even so much as a hint with regard to the coming
of a prophet or of a revelation in the future, belief in whom or which
should be necessary. We cite some verses to demonstrate the point:
وَمَّا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ
And what We have sent down before you. (16:43)
وَلَقَدُ آَرْسَلُنَا وٍسُلًا مِنُ قَبْلِكَ
وَلَقَدُ آَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ قَبْلِكَ وُسْلًا
And certainly before you We have sent messengers. (20:47)
And We have certainly sent messengers before you". (40:78)
وَمَّا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ
And what was revealed before you. (4:60)

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وَلَقَدُ أُوْحِىَ إِلَيْكَ وَ إِلَى الَّذِيْنَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ
And it has certainly been revealed to you and to those who
have gone before you ... (39:65)
كَذَلِكَ يُحِىٌّ إِلَيْكَ وَ إِلَى الَّذِيْنَ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ
Thus He reveals to you and He revealed to those who have
gone before you. (42:3)
كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمُ
Fasting is decreed (literally, written) for you as it was decreed
for those before you. (2:183)
صَّةَ مَنُ قَدُ أَرُسَلُنَا قَبْلَكَ مِنْ ◌ُسْلِنَ
Such was Our way with the messengers whom We sent before
you. (17:77)
In these and similar verses, whenever the Holy Qur'an speaks of
the sending down of a Book or a revelation or a prophet or a
messenger, it always attaches the conditional phrase, Min qabl
(before) or Min Qablik (before you), and nowhere does it employ or
suggest an expression like min ba'd (after you). Even if other verses of
the Holy Qur'an had not been explicit about the finality of the
prophethood of Muhammad ; and about the cessation of revelation,
the mode of expression adopted by the Holy Qur'an in the present
verse would in itself have been sufficient to prove these points.
The God-fearing have Faith in the Hereafter
The other essential quality of the God-fearing mentioned in this
verse is that they have faith in Al-Akhirah (the Hereafter). Lexically
the. Akhirah signifies 'that which comes after something'; in the
present context, it indicates a relationship of contrast with the
physical world, and thus signifies the other world which is beyond
physical reality as we know it and also beyond the sensuous or
rational perception of man. The Holy Qur'an gives to the Hereafter
other names too - for example, Dar al-Qarar (the Ever-lasting Abode),
Dar al-Hayawan (the Abode of Eternal Life) and Al- 'Uqba (the
Consequent): The Holy Qur'an is full of vivid descriptions of the
Hereafter, of the joys of heaven and of the horrors of hell. Although
faith in the Hereafter is included in faith in the unseen which has

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already been mentioned, yet the Holy Qur'an refers to it specifically
because it may, in a sense, be regarded as the most important among
the constitutive elements of faith in so far as it inspires man to
translate faith into practice, and motivates him to act in accordance
with the requirements of his faith. Along with the two doctrines of the
Oneness of God and of prophethood, this is the third doctrine which is
common to all the prophets and upon which all the Shari'ahs are
agreed. 4
Faith in the Hereafter: A revolutionary belief
The belief in the Hereafter, among Islamic doctrines, is the one
whose role in history has been what is nowadays described as
revolutionary, for it began with transmuting the morals and manners
of the followers of the Holy Qur'an, and gradually gave them a place of
distinction and eminence even in the political history of mankind. The
reason is obvious. Consider the case of those who believe that life in
the physical world is the only life, its joys the only joys and its pains
the only pains, whose only goal is to seek the pleasures of the senses
and the fulfilment of physical or emotional needs, and who stubbornly
refuse to believe in the life of the Hereafter, in the Day of Judgment
4. There is a deplorable misconception with regard to the Hereafter, quite
wide-spread among those who are not, or do not want to be, familiar with
.
the Holy Qur'an and who have at the same time been touched by the
rationalism, materialism and libertarianism of the Western society, which
makes them cherish certain mental and emotional reservations at least
about the horrors of hell, if not about the joys of heaven. Some of them have
gone to the preposterous length of supposing that these are the inventions
of the 'Ulama' whom they describe as 'abscurantists' - of course, in the
jargon of the Western Reformation and of the so-called Enlightenment.
They ignore the obvious fact that faith in the Holy Qur'an necessitates faith
in every word of the Holy Qur'an, and that it is not possible to affirm one
part of the Book while denying another and yet remain a Muslim -- 3-3-31
What, do you believe in one part of the Book and deny": ببعض الكتب وَتَكْفُرُوْنَ
another?"(2:85) Moreover, these enlightened Muslims have never made a
serious attempt to take into account the complex historical factors that led
to-the rise of the Enlightenment in Europe, nor the meaning of the
subsequent development in ethical ideas. We may, therefore, give a few and
very brief indications. There has been no dearth, even in the hey-day of the
Enlightenment, of thinkers who have had no scruples in dispensing with
ethics altogether which they look upon as superstition or tyranny and
hence a blight for the human personality.
Continued

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and the assessment of everyone's deeds, and in the requital of the
deeds in the other world. When such people find the distinction
between truth and falsehood, between the permissible and the
forbidden, interfering with the hunt for the gratification of their
desires, such differentiations naturally become intolerable to them.
Now, who or what can effectively prevent them from committing
crimes? The penal laws made by the state or by any other human
authority can never serve either as real deterrents to crime or as
agents of moral reform. Habitual criminals soon grow used to the
penalties. A man, milder or gentler of temperament or just timid, may
agree to forego the satisfaction of his desires for fear of punishment,
but he would do so only to the extent that he is in danger of being
caught. But in his privacy where the laws of the state cannot encroach
upon his freedom of action, who can force him to renounce his
pleasures and accept the yoke of restraints? It is the belief in the
Hereafter and the fear of Allah, and that alone, which can bring man's
private behaviour in line with his public behaviour, and establish a
harmony between the inner state and the outer. For the God-fearing
man knows for certain that even in the secrecy of a well-guarded and
sealed room and in the darkness of night somebody is watching him,
and somebody is writing down the smallest thing he does. Herein lies
the secret of the clean and pure society which arose in the early days
of Islam when the mere sight of a Muslim, of his manners and morals,
was enough to make non-believers literally fall in love with Islam. For
(Continued) But even those thinkers who have recognised the indispensable
need for regulations and rules, if not principles, for human conduct in order
to preserve social order or to make social life possible, have in general had
no qualms about discarding the very idea of divine sanction - despite the
intimation of Voltaire, the arch-priest of relationalism, that man would
have to invent God, even if He did not exist. As to the nature and origin of
the ethical regulations and the sanction behind them, Western thinkers
have from time to time tried to promote various agencies - the sovereign
state, social will or convention or custom, the supposedly pure and innocent
nature of man himself with its capacity for self-regulation, and finally
biological laws. The second half of the twentieth century has witnessed the
withering away of all these ethical authorities which has left the modern
man without even a dim prospect of constructing a new illusion. It is only
in this perspective that one can properly consider the significance of the
belief in the hereafter for human society.

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true Faith in the Hereafter, certitude must follow Oral Affirmation.
Before we proceed, we may point out that in speaking of faith in
the hereafter as one of the qualities of the God-fearing, the Holy
Qur'an does not use the word yu'minuna (believe) but the word
yuqinūna (have complete certitude), for the opposite of belief is denial,
and that of certitude is doubt and hesitation. Thus, we find a subtle
suggestion here that in order to attain the perfection of 'Iman it is not
enough to affirm the hereafter orally, but one must have a complete
certitude which leaves no room for doubt - the kind of certitude which
comes when one has seen a thing with one's own eyes. It is an
essential quality of the God-fearing that they always have present
before their eyes the whole picture of how people will have to present
themselves for judgment before Allah in the hereafter, how their deeds
will be assessed and how they will receive reward or punishment
according to what they have been doing in this world. A man who
amasses wealth by usurping what righfully belongs to others, or who
gains petty material ends by adopting unlawful means forbidden by
Allah, may declare his faith in the hereafter a thousand times and the
Shari'ah may accept him as a Muslim in the context of worldly
concerns, but he does not possess the certitude which the Holy Qur'an
demands of him. And it is this certitude alone which transforms
human life, and which brings in its wake as a reward the guidance
and triumph promised in verse 5 of this Surah:
أُولَئِكَ عَلَى هُدِّى ◌ِنْ تَبِّهِمْ وَ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ
It is these who are on guidance given by their Lord; and it is
just these who are successful.
Verses 6-7
إِنَّ الَّذِيْنَ كَفَرُوا سَوَّا ؟ ◌َلَيْهِمْ ءَ آَنْذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنْذِرُهُمْ لَ
يُؤْمِنُونَ ١ خَتَمَ اللهُ عَلى قُلُوبِهِمْ وَعَلى سَمُعِهِمْ ،وَ عَلى
أَبْصَارِهِمْ غِشَاوَةٌ وَّلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ )
Surely for those who have disbelieved, it is all the same
whether you warn them or you warn them not: they
would not believe. Allah has set a seal on their hearts
and on their hearing, and on their eyes there is a

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covering; and for them there lies a mighty punishment.
(Verses 6-7)
After affirming the Holy Qur'an as the Book of Guidance and as
being beyond all doubt, the first five verses of the present Surah refer
to those who derive full benefit from this Book and whom the Holy
Qur'an has named as Mu'minun (true Muslims) or Muttaqun (the
God-fearing), and also delineate their characteristic qualities which
distinguish them from others. The next fifteen verses speak of those
who refuse to accept this guidance, and even oppose it out of sheer
صلى الله عليه وسلم spite and blind malice. In the time of the Holy Prophet
there were two distinct groups of such people. On the one hand were
those who came out in open hostility and rejection, and whom the Holy
Qur'an has termed as kafirun (disbelievers); on the other hand were
those who did not, on account of their moral depravity and greed, had
even the courage to speak out their minds and to express their
disbelief clearly, but adopted the way of deceit and duplicity. They
tried to convince the Muslims that they had faith in the Holy Qur'an
and its teachings, that they were as good a Muslim as any and would
support the Muslims against the disbelievers. But they nursed denial
and rejection in their hearts, and would, in the company of
disbelievers, assure them that they had nothing to do with Islam, but
mixed with Muslims in order to deceive them and to spy on them. The
Holy Qur'an has given them the title of Munafiqun (hypocrites). Thus,
these fifteen verses deal with those who refuse to believe in the Holy
Qur'an - the first two are concerned with open disbelievers, and the
other thirteen with hypocrites, their signs and characteristics and
their ultimate end.
Taking the first twenty verses of this Surah together in all their
detail, one can see that the Holy Qur'an has, on the one hand, pointed
out to us the source of guidance which is the Book itself, and, on the
other, divided mankind into two distinct groups on the basis of their
acceptance or rejection of this guidance - on the one side are those who
have chosen to follow and to receive guidance, and are hence called
Mu'minun (true Muslims) or Muttaqun (the God-fearing); on the other
side are those who reject the guidance or deviate from it, and are
hence called Kafirun (disbelievers) or Munafiqun (hypocrites). People
of the first kind are those whose path is the object of the prayer at the

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end of the Surah Al-Fatihah, 'pt 3313ji bb: "the path of those on
whom You have bestowed Your grace", and people of the second kind
غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا are those against whose path refuge has been sought
tal "Not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who
have gone astray.
This teaching of the Holy Qur'an provides us with a fundamental
principle. A division of mankind into different groups must, in order to
be meaningful, be based on differences in principle, not on
considerations of birth, race, colour, geography or language. The Holy
Qur'an has given a clear verdict in this respect:
خَلَقَكُمْ فَمِنْكُمْ كَافِرٌ وَّمِنْكُمْ تُؤْمِنٌ
"It was He that created you: yet some of you are disbelievers
and some of you are believers" (64:2).
!
As we have said, the first two verses of this Surah speak of those
disbelievers who had become so stubborn and obstinate in their denial
and disbelief that they were not prepared to hear the truth or to
consider a clear argument. In the case of such depraved people, the
usual way of Allah has always been, and is, that they are given a
certain kind of punishment even in this world - that is to say, their
hearts are sealed and their eyes and ears stopped against the truth,
and in so far as truth is concerned they become as if they have no
mind to think, no eyes to see and no ears to listen. The last phrase of
the second verse speaks of the grievous punishment that is reserved
for them in the other world. It may be observed that the prediction
that: 3 Y : "they shall not believe" is specifically related to those
disbelievers who refused to listen to the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and
who, as Allah knew, were going to die as disbelievers. This does not
apply to disbelievers in general, for there were many who later
accepted Islam.
What is Kufr ? (Infidelity)
As for the definition of kufr (disbelief), we may point out that
lexically the word means to hide, to conceal. Ingratitude is also called
kufr, because it involves the concealing or the covering up of the
beneficence shown by someone. In the terminology of the Shari'ah,
kufr signifies the denial of any of those things in which it is obligatory
to believe. For example, the quintessence of 'Iman as well as the very

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Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 6 - 7
basis of the Islamic creed is the requirement that one should confirm
with one's heart and believe with certitude everything that the Holy
Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم has brought down to us from Allah and which
has been established by definite and conclusive proof; therefore, a man
who has the temerity to question or disregard even a single teaching of
this kind will be described as a kafir (disbeliever or infidel).
The meaning of 'Indhar' (warning) by a Prophet
In translating the first of these two verses, we have used the
English verb 'to warn' for the Arabic word Indhar. This word actually
signifies bringing news which should cause alarm or concern, while
Ibshar signifies bringing good news which should make people rejoice.
Moreover, Indhar is not the ordinary kind of warning meant to
frighten people, but one which is motivated by compassion and love,
just as one warns one's children against fire or snakes or beasts.
Hence a thief or a bandit or an aggressor who warns or threatens
others cannot be called a Nadhir (warner). The latter is a title
specially reserved for the prophets >JI+ , for they warn people
against the pains and punishments of the other world out of their
compassion and love for their fellow men. In choosing this title for the
prophets, the Holy Qur'an has made the subtle suggestion that for
those who go out to reform others it is not enough merely to convey a
message, but that they must speak to their listeners with sympathy,
understanding and a genuine regard for their good.
In order to comfort the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم the first of these
verses tells him that some of the disbelievers are so vain, arrogant and
opinionated that they, in spite of recognizing the truth, stubbornly
persist in their refusal and are not prepared to hear the truth or to see
obvious proofs, so that all the efforts he makes for reforming and
converting them will bear no fruit, and for them it is all one whether
he tries or not.
The next verse explains the reason, that is, Allah has set a seal on
their hearts and ears, there is a covering on their eyes, all the avenues
of knowing and understanding are thus closed, and now it would be
futile to expect any change in them. A thing is sealed so that nothing
may enter it from outside; the setting of a seal on their hearts and ears

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Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 6 - 7
also means that they have altogether lost the capacity for accepting
the truth.
The Holy Qur'an describes the condition of these disbelievers in
terms of their hearts and ears having been sealed, but in the case of
the eyes it refers to a covering. The subtle distinction arises from the
fact that an idea can enter the heart from all possible directions and
not from one particular direction alone, and so can a sound enter the
ears; an idea or a sound can be blocked only by sealing the heart and
the ears. On the contrary, the eyes work only in one direction, and can
see only the things which lie in front of them; if there is a covering on
them, they cease to function. (See Mazhari)
Favour withdrawn by Allah is a punishment
These two verses tell us that the other world is the place where one
would receive the real punishment for one's disbelief or for some of
one's sins. One may, however, receive some punishment for certain
sins even in this world. Such a punishment sometimes takes a very
grievous form - that is, the divine favour which helps one to reform
oneself is withdrawn, so that, ignoring how one's deeds are to be
assessed on the Day of Judgment, one keeps growing in disobedience
and sin, and finally comes to lose even the awareness of evil. In
delineating such a situation certain elders have remarked that one
punishment for an evil deed is another evil deed which comes after,
and one reward for a good deed is another good deed which comes
after. According to a Hadith, when a man commits a sin, a black dot
appears on his heart; this first dot disturbs him just as a smudge on a
white cloth is always displeasing to us; but if, instead of asking Allah's
pardon for the first sin, he proceeds to commit a second, another dot
shows up, thus, with every new sin the black dots go on multiplying
till the whole heart turns dark, and now he can no longer see good as
good nor evil as evil, and grows quite incapable of making such
distinctions. The Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم added that The Holy
Qur'an uses the term Ra'n or Rain (rust) for this darkness: as in
Mishkat from the Musnad of Ahmad and Tirmidhi.
كَلَّ بَلُ زَانَ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ تَّا كَانُوا يَكُسِبُوْنَ
No. But what they did has rusted their hearts (83:14)

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Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 6 - 7
According to another authentic Hadith reported by Tirmidhi from
the blessed Companion Abu Hurairah &s JI yo, the Holy Prophet &
has said, "When a man commits a sin, his heart grows dark, but if he
seeks Allah's pardon, it becomes clear again". (See Qurtubi)
It should be carefully noted that in announcing that it is all one
whether the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم warns the disbelievers or not,
the Holy Qur'an adds the condition 'Alaihim (for them), which clearly
indicates that it is all one for the disbelievers alone, and not for the
Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم , for he would in any case get a reward for
bringing the message of Allah to his fellow-men and for his efforts to
teach and reform them. That is why there is not a single verse in the
Holy Qur'an which should dissuade the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from
calling even such people to Islam. From this we may infer that the
man who strives to spread the Word of Allah and to reform his
fellow-men does always get a reward for his good deed, even if he has
not been effective.
A doubt is removed
We may also answer a question which sometimes arises in
connection with the second of these two verses that speaks of the
hearts and the ears of the disbelievers having been sealed and of their
eyes being covered. We find a similar statement in another verse of the
Holy Qur'an:
كَلَّا بَلُ كَانَ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ مَّا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ
No. But what they did has rusted their hearts. (83:14)
which makes it plain that it is their arrogance and their evil deeds
themselves that have settled on their hearts as a rust. In the verse
under discussion, it is this very rust which has been described as 'a
seal' or 'a covering'. So, there is no occasion here to raise the objection
that if Allah Himself has sealed their hearts and blocked their senses,
they are helpless and cannot be held responsible for being disbelievers,
and hence they should not be punished for what they have not
themselves chosen to do. If we consider the two verses (2:7 and 83:14)
together, we can easily see why they should be punished - in adopting
the way of arrogance and pride they have, wilfully and out of their own
choice, destroyed their capacity for accepting the truth, and thus they

119
Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 8 - 20
themselves are the authors of their own ruin. But Allah, being Creator
of all the actions of His creatures, has in verse 2:7 attributed to
Himself the setting of a seal on the hearts and the ears of the
disbelievers, and has thus pointed out that when these people insisted,
as a matter of their own choice, on destroying their aptitude for
receiving the truth, Allah produced, as is His way in such cases, the
state of insensitivity in their hearts and senses.
Verses 8-20
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ يَقُوْلُ أُمَتَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الْأُخِرِ وَمَاهُمُ
بُؤْمِنِينَ أُ يُخْدِعُونَ اللهَ وَالَّذِيْنَ امَنُوْا وَمَا يَخْدَعُوْنَ إِلَّ
أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَمَا يَشْعُرُوُنَ ا فِيْ قُلُوبِهِمْ تَرَضْ قَزَادَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَرَضًاٍ
وَّلَهُمُ عَذَابٌ اَلِيُمُّ بِمّا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُوْنَ ا وَإِذَا قِيْلَ لَهُمْ لَا
تُفْسِدُوْا فِى الْأَرْضِ قَالُوا إِنَّمَا نَحُرُ مُصْلِحُوْنَ ا آَلَّ إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ
الْفُسِدُوْنَ وَلِكِنْ لَا يَشْعُرُوْنَ () وَإِذَا قِيْلَ لَهُمْ أُمِنُوا كَمَّا أَمَنَ
النَّاسُ قَالُوا أَنُؤْ مِنُ كَمَّا أمَنَ السُّفِهَاءُ « آلَ إِنَّهُمْ هُمُ السُّفَهَاءُ
وَلَكِنْ لَّ يَعْلَمُوْنَ () وَإِذَا لَقُوا الَّذِيْنَ أُمَنُوْا قَالُوَّا أَمَنَّاهُ وَإِذَا
خَلَوْا إِلَى شَيْطِيْنِهِمْ قَالُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُمُ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ مُسْتَهُزِهُ وُنَّ 0
اللهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ وَيَمْدُّهُمْ فِىْ طُغْيَانِهِمْ يَعْمَهُوْنَ ا أُولَئِكَ
الَّذِيْنَ اشْتَرَوْاْ الصَّلْلَةَ بِالْهُذِى فَمَا رَبِحَتْ تَّجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا
مُهْتَدِيْنَ ا مَثَلُهُمْ كَمَثَلِ اَلَّذِى اسْتَوْقَدَ نَارًا، فَلَمَّا أَضَآ ءَتُ
مَا حَوْلَهُ ذَهَبَ اللّهُ بِنُوْرِهِمْ وَتَرَكَهْمْ فِى ظُلُمُتٍ لََّ يُبُصِرُوُنَ 0
صُمُّبُكُمُّ عُمْىٌّ فَهُمْ لَا يَرْجِعُوْنَ ا أَوْكَصَيِّبٍ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فِيْهِ
ظُلُمُتْ وَرَعُدُ تَّبَرُقْ يَجْعَلُونَ أَصَابِعَهُمْ فِىَ أُذَانِهِمْ يِّنَ
الصَّوَاعِقِ حَذَرَالْمَوْتِ ﴿ وَاللهُ مُحِيْطَ بِالْكُفِرِيْنَ ) يَكَادُ الْبَرْقُ
يَخْطَفُ أَبْصَارَهُمْ ، كُلَّمَا آَضَاءَ لَهُمْ تَشَرًا فِيْهِ وَإِذَا أَظْلَمَ

120
Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 8 - 20
عَلَيْهِمْ قَامُواه، وَلَوْ شَآءَ اللَّهُ لَذَهَبَ بِسَمُعِهِمْ وَأَبْصَارِهِمْ إِنَّ
اللّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيْر05
And among men there are some who say, "We believe in
Allah and in the Last Day", Yet they are no believers.
They try to deceive Allah and those who believe, when
they are deceiving none but their ownselves, and they
are not aware. In their hearts there is a malady, so
Allah has made them grow in their malady; and for
them there lies a grievous punishment, for they have
been lying. And when it is said to them, "Do not spread
disorder on the earth", they say, "We are nothing but
reformers." Beware, it is, in fact, they who spread
disorder, but they are not aware. And when it is said to
them, "Believe as people have believed," they say, "Shall
we believe as fools believe?" Beware, it is, in fact, they
who are the fools, but they do not know. And when they
meet those who believe, they say, "We have entered
Faith;" but when they are alone with their Satans, they
say, "Indeed, we are with you; we were only mocking."
It is Allah who mocks them, and lets them go on
wandering blindly in their rebellion. These are the
people who have bought error at the price of guidance;
so their trade has brought no gain, nor have they found
guidance. Their case is as if a man kindles a fire, and
when it illuminates everything around him, Allah takes
away their lights and leaves them in layers of darkness
-- they see nothing. Deaf, dumb and blind, they shall
not return. Or (it is) like a rainstorm from the sky
carrying darkness, thunder and lightning; they thrust
their fingers in their ears against thunderclaps for the
fear of death, and Allah encompasses the disbelievers --
and lightning (all but) snatches away their eyes; every
time a flash gives them light, they walk by it; and when
darkness grows upon them, they stand still. And if
Allah willed, He would certainly take away their
hearing and their eye: surely Allah is powerful over
everything. (Verses 8 - 20)
As we have seen, the Surah Al-Baqarah opens with the declaration
that the Holy Qur'an is beyond all doubt. The first twenty verses of the
Surah delineate the features of those who believe in the Holy Qur'an

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Surah Al-Baqarah 2 :8 - 20
and of those who do not -- the first five dealing with the former, under
the title of Al-Muttaqun (the God-fearing); the next two with those
disbelievers who were quite open and violent in their hostility -- that
is, Al-Kafirun (the disbelievers or the infidels), and the following
thirteen with those crafty disbelievers who claimed to be Muslims but,
in reality, were not so. This second variety of the disbelievers has
received from the Holy Qur'an the name of Al-Mūnafiqun (the
hypocrities).
Of these thirteen verses, the first two define the characteristic
behaviour of the hypocrites thus:
وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَنْ تَقُولُ أَمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَيِلْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ
And among men there are some who say, 'We believe in Allah
and in the Last Day',
yet they are no believers. They try to deceive Allah and those who
believe, when they are deceiving none but their ownselves, and they
are not aware. These verses expose their claim to be Muslims as false
and deceitful, and show that they are only trying to be clever.
Obviously, no one can deceive Allah - probably they themselves could
not have had such a delusion. But the Holy Qur'an equates, in a way,
their attempt to deceive the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and the
Muslims with the desire to deceive Allah Himself (See Qurtubi)
Such a desire, the Holy Qur'an points out, can have only one
consequence - they end up by deceiving no one but themselves, for
Allah Himself cannot possibly be deceived, and Divine Revelation
protects the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم from all trickery and deceit, so
that the hypocrites themselves will have to bear, in the other world as
well as in this, the punishment for their presumptuousness.
The third verse indicates why the hypocrites behave so foolishly
and why they fail to see the folly of their course:
◌ِفِىُ قُلُوُبِهِمْ تَمَّرَضَّ فَادَهُمُ اللَّهُ مَرَضًا
In their hearts there is a malady, so Allah has made them
grow in their malady.
Now, illness or disease, in the general medical sense, is a state in
which a man has lost the balanced proportion of the elements within

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Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 8 - 20
him necessary to keep him healthy, so that his body can no longer
function properly, which may finally lead to his total destruction. In
the terminology of the Holy Qur'an and the Hadith, the word 'disease'
is also applied to certain mental or psychic states (we are using the
two terms in the original and more comprehensive sense) which hinder
man from attaining any degree of spiritual perfection, for they
gradually deprive him of the ability to perform good deeds, and even of
ordinary human decency, till he meets with his spiritual death. The
great spiritual master, Junaid of Baghdad, has said that just as the
diseases of the body arise from an imbalance among the four humours,
the diseases of the heart arise from a surrender to one's physical
desires. According to the present verse, the disease hidden in their
hearts is unbelief and rejection of the truth, which is as much a
physical sickness as a spiritual one. It is all too obvious that being
ungrateful to one's creator and nourisher and going against His
commandments is to be spiritually sick. Moreover, to keep this
disbelief concealed for the sake of petty worldly gains and not to have
the courage to speak out one's mind is no less a disease of the soul.
Hypocrisy is a physical disease too in so far as the hypocrite is always
shuddering for fear of being exposed. Jealousy being a necessary
ingredient of hypocrisy, he cannot bear to see the Muslims growing
stronger in the world, and yet the poor hypocrite cannot even have the
satisfaction of unburdening his heart of the venom. No wonder that all
this tension should express itself in physical ailment.
As for Allah making them grow in their malady, it means that they
are jealous of the growing strength of the Muslims, but it is Allah's
will to make the position of the Muslims even stronger, as they can see
for themselves, which feeds their bile and keeps the disease of their
hearts growing.
The fourth and the fifth verses expose the sophistry of the
hypocrites - their activities threatened to produce a general chaos and
disorder, and yet, in their mealy-mouthed way, they pretended to be
men of good will and to be serving the cause of peace and order. The
Holy Qur'an makes it clear that oral claims alone do not decide the
question whether one is working for order or disorder, for what thief
would call himself a thief? It depends on what one does, not on what

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Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 8 - 20
one says. If a man's activities do result in mischief, he will be called a
mischief-maker, even if he had no such intention.
These two verses, thus, describe the state of their insensitivity and
ignorance - they regard their defects as merits. The sixth verse shows
the other aspect of this depravity - the merit of others (that is, the
unalloyed faith of the Muslims) changes into a defect, and even
becomes contemptible in their eyes.5
This verse also places before the hypocrites a criterion of true
faith ('Iman) :ُأمِنُوا كَمَا أُمنَ النَّاس :"Believe as people have believed".
According to the consensus of commentators, the Arabic word Nas: ~ WI
(people) in this verse refers to the blessed Companions of the Holy
Prophet because it is just these 'people' who had embraced the
Faith and had accepted the Holy Qur'an as the word of Allah while it
was being revealed. So, the verse indicates that the only kind of 'Iman
(faith) acceptable to Allah is the one which should be similar to that of
the blessed Companions, and that the 'Iman of others would be worthy
of the name only when they believe in the same things in the same
way as the Companions did. In other words, the 'Iman of the
Companions is a touchstone for testing the 'Iman of all the other
Muslims; any belief .or deed which departs from their faith and
practice, however pleasing in its looks or good in its intention, is not
valid according to the Shari'ah. There is a consensus of commentators
on this position. One should also notice that the hypocrites used to call
the blessed Companions 'fools' (Sufaha'). This has always been the
way of those who go astray - anyone who tries to show them the right
path is, in their eyes, ignorant and stupid. But who could, the Holy
Qur'an points out, be more stupid than the man who refuses to see
clear signs?
In the seventh verse, we see the double-facedness and trickery of
the hypocrites. In the company of the Muslims, they would
vociferously declare their faith in Islam; but, going back to their own
5. As for the hypocrites declaring openly that they were not prepared to
believe as others did believe, and as for their dubbing the Muslims as
fools, it is obvious that they could have been so outspoken only before the
poor among the Muslims, otherwise they used to be very careful about
keeping their disbelief concealed.)