Surah Hud , 11

Recitation of surah Hud by Shaykh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_b78VcQag8&noredirect=1



EACH ACCOUNT RELATED IN THE QUR'AN highlights certain aspects of the history of the nations and communities concerned. When these narratives are put together, a full picture emerges. This in itself is a specialist feature in the interpretation and understanding of the Qur'an. Hud relates such accounts in a rather similar way to al-Ara'f, but on Noah [ Nu'h ], for instance, we find in this surah certain details, extending over almost two pages, that are not given in al-Ara'f which devotes only a few lines to the same story. Noah's pleading with God to save his own son from drowning in the Flood cannot fail to move one's emotion and sympathy. " And Noah cried unto his Lord and said: My Lord! Lo! my son is of my household! Surely Thy promise is the truth and Thou are the Most Just of Judges "(45). Noah was asking God to keep His promise to save him and his family from the Flood, but God's swift reply came saying:

O Noah! Lo! he is not of thy household; lo! he is of evil conduct, so ask not of Me that whereof thou hast no knowledge. I admonish thee lest thou be among the ignorant. (46)

Some scholars have erroneously interpreted these statements tp mean that Noah's wife has been unfaithful and the son was the result of an illicit relationship. This cannot be further from the truth. Noah's wife betrayed him in as much as she had joined those of her people who rejected Noah's prophethood and opposed his mission, thereby allying herself with his enemies. Her son also took a similar stand which stripped him of affinity to Noah, as God pointed out to him, according to the surah. The son was swept away by the flood like all the others., and that is what the surah refers to in saying: "He said: O Noah! Lo! he is not of thy household; lo! he is of evil conduct, so ask not of Me that whereof thou hast no knowledge. I admonish thee lest thou be among the ignorant " (46). Noah's response was as to be expected: obliging and compliant. He said:

My Lord! Lo! in Thee do I seek refuge (from the sin) that I should ask of Thee that whereof I have no knowledge. Unless Thou forgive me and have mercy on me I shall be among the lost. (47) It was said (unto him): O Noah! Go thou down (from the mountain) with peace from Us and blessings upon thee and some nations (that will spring) from those with thee. (There will be other) nations unto whom We shall give enjoyment a long while and then a painful doom from Us will overtake them. (48)

God's revelation to all His prophets and messengers since Noah and Abraham right up to Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad has always  given precedence to ties of faith and religion over those of blood and ancestry. To love or to hate, for the sake of God, has always been the basis for agreement or disharmony, respectively, among individuals and communities.

Having given us an account of Noah's experience, the surah moves on to relate how Hud's people reacted with such hostility and opposition to his effort to guide them to God. His only solace was to say: "' Lo! I have put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Not an animal but He doth grasp it by the forelock! Lo! my Lord is on a straight path"' (56). When divine retribution fell on those people it was swift and decisive. Those mighty and powerful giant-like people were overwhelmed by gales that snatched them off: " away as though they were uprooted trunks of palm-trees."(al-Qamar: 20). Hud and his followers were rescued. "And when Our commandment came to pass We saved Hud and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us; We saved them from a harsh doom "(58) . The depressing episode is concluded with the following damning comment:

And such were A'ad. They denied the revelations of their Lord and flouted His messengers and followed the command of every froward potentate. (59) And a curse was made to follow them in the world and on the Day of Resurrection. Lo! A'ad disbelieved in their Lord. A far removal for A'ad, the folk of Hud! (60]

Once God's judgement is passed in those communities that reject Him and oppose His will, no matter how powerful and strong they might be, they would stand no chance on the face of God's mighty punishment. It remains an historic mystery why the ancient Arabised tribes such as 'Ad and Thamud were so unanimously headstrong in opposing God's prophets and persecuting their followers. It had brought them nothing but destruction and annihilation.

The surah then moves on to relate accounts of the tribe of Thamud and their response to prophet Salih. The caste sysytem which had emerged during the time of Noah seems to have become even more entrenched in the Thamud society. Most of Salih's followers, however, seem to have come from the lower and less powerful classes. In another surah, we read that:

The chieftains of his people, who were scornful, said unto those whom they despised, unto such of them as believed: Know ye that Salih is one sent from his Lord? They said: Lo! In that wherewith he hath been sent we are believers. Those who were scornful said: Lo! in that which ye believe we are disbelievers. (al-Ara'f: 75-76)

For inidividuals to choose to destroy themselves is reproachable enough, but when whole communities opt for mass self-destruction. the crime become compounded. Racial discrimination stems basically from blind arrogance, and it is the underlying cause behind all the ethnic strife see in the world, past,  and present. Racial prejudice was rife among the Arabs before Islam, and it is particularly deeply ingrained in many societies of today. A pre-Islamic Arab poet, 'Amr ibn Kulthum, put it rather arrogantly when he said:

When we go to fetch water,
We draw the purest and the sweetest,
Others drink muddy and soiled water.

Even though the spread of ethnocentric tendencies such as fascism and Nazism ha sbeen relatively curtailed in recent times, national bigotry, chauvanistic scientific and scholarly research and self -centred personal greed remain the collective backbone of "modern nationalism." All other loyalties have been swept away. But humanity has not been created to further such bigoted narrow-minded causes. God says:

And unto (the tribe of) Thamud (We sent) their brother Salih. He said: O my people! Serve Allah, Ye have no other God save Him. He brought you forth from the earth and hath made you established on it. So ask forgiveness of Him and turn unto Him repentant. Lo! my Lord is Nigh, Responsive. (61)

This statement is not addressed to Thamud alone, but rather to all generation of humankind whom God had charged at various stages of human history with cultivating the earth and developing it, and who have an obligation to worship God and serve Him until a day that they will return to Him for accountability and final judgement. One can only feel a sense of frustration and despondency at the prevailing state of affairs in the world today. It is torn between two camps. One, the Muslim camp, upholds and represents authentic religious faith but has no say in, or influence on, world affairs or destiny. The other, the materialist power-hungry West, and its allies all over the world, is effectively the dominant culture in today's world. It has harnessed the earth's energies and resources and ventured to conquer outer space, but has no room for God in its philosophy or way of life.

Thamud were closer to the latter type, powerful but faithless. Their prophet Salih advised them to:

And remember how He made you viceroys after A'ad and gave you station in the earth. Ye choose castles in the plains and hew the mountains into dwellings. So remember (all) the bounties of Allah and do not evil, making mischief in the earth. (al-Araf :74)

But, blinded by arrogance and corrupted by power, Thamud proved ungrateful and showed no respect for their obligations towards God and so: "So, when Our commandment came to pass, We saved Salih, and those who believed with him, by a mercy from Us, from the ignominy of that day. Lo, thy Lord! He is the Strong, the Mighty (66).

Thamud were succeeded by Madyan who combined political deviation with economic corruption. In al-Araf, as we have seen, earlier in this work, a relentless campaign was waged on political corruption and oppression, but in Hud the attack is directed against economic corruption. In the former, God appeals to the people of Madyan to tolerate and open their minds to views opposed to their own, and to examine notions and concepts before rejecting them or persecuting those holding them. They were told by prophet Shu'ayb:

Lurk not on every road to threaten (wayfarers), and to turn away from Allah's path him who believeth in Him, and to seek to make it crooked. And remember, when ye were but few, how He did multiply you. And see the nature of the consequence for the corrupters! (al-Araf: 86)

But Madyan also opted for refusal and confrontation with Shu'ayb and his followers. "The chieftains of his people, who were scornful, said: Surely we will drive thee out, O Shu'eyb, and those who believe with thee, from our township, unless ye return to our religion. He said: Even though we hate it? (al-Araf: 88) In Hud, however, the emphasis, together with the condemnation of polytheist belief, is on fighting economic corruption. It says:

And unto Madyan (We sent) their brother Shu'ayb. He said: O my people! Serve Allah. Ye have no other Allah save Him! And give not short measure and short weight. Lo! I see you well-to-do, and lo! I fear for you the doom of a besetting Day. (84) O my people! Give full measure and full weight in justice, and wrong not people in respect of their goods. And do not evil in the earth, causing corruption. (85)

Madyan's response to their prophet was a mixture  of disdain and mockery:

They said: O Shu'ayb! Doth thy way of prayer command thee that we should forsake that which our fathers (used to) worship, or that we (should leave off) doing what we will with our own property. Lo! thou art the mild, the guide to right behaviour. (87]

Effectively, they had rejected the belief in one God, "Tawhid", and consequently failed to live a clean, moral and just way of life. As Shu'ayb continued to advise and guide them, they said: "O Shu'ayb! We understand not much of that thou tellest, and lo! we do behold thee weak among us. But for thy family, we should have stoned thee, for thou art not strong against us "(91). Their end was just as tragic and catastrophic as that of their predecessors: 
"As though they had not dwelt there. A far removal for Madyan, even as Thamud had been removed afar!"(95) .

Then comes an account of the Pharaohs, who suffered a similar fate, whose story we shall encounter in more detail in later surahs. Having related these accounts , God says to Muhammad: "And all that We relate unto thee of the story of the messengers is in order that thereby We may make firm thy heart. And herein hath come unto thee the Truth and an exhortation and a reminder for believers " (120) . Surah Hud has given extensive coverage to episodes from the history of earlier nations in order to show Muhammad that there was nothing new about his own people's rejection of his call. The battle between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, would never cease, but the final triumph shall be to the believers.

Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali
[ 1917 - 1996 ]
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