" Why him of all the people, why not one of us ?"
Tan Seri Abu Jahal asks Datuk Sri Abu Lahab, aghast and angry, at being excluded by God Himself !
WE OWE IT TO OUR CREATOR, God Almighty, to recognize and acknowledge His existence without having had to have messengers sent to guide us. The world around us is full of evidence for His existence and grace and , left to its own pristine nature and undefiled instincts, humankind's intuition should have eventually led them to God.
Although we do not know the total number and names of all the divine messengers sent by God to humankind over the generations, what we do know is that Muhammad was the last of them and that the Qur'an is the final and complete version of all their messages. It was God's will that Islam should be the final and universal messages. "Blessed is He Who hath revealed unto His slave the Criterion (of right and wrong), that he may be a warner to the people "(1). Muhammad was an ordinary human being but with exceptional qualities. His mission epitomized the glory of all humanity., his experience marked the cross-roads of history, and under his leadership humanity entered its great phase of maturity. He was chosen and charged with this great historic task by God:
He unto Whom belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, He hath chosen no son nor hath He any partner in the Sovereignty. He hath created everything and hath meted out for it a measure. (2)
These divine attributes had been debated by ignorant and unbelieving people for far too long, but Muhammad had come to establish a society and a whole nation that would be dedicated to upholding their existence and fighting to preserve belief in them. The surah lists a whole set of objections raised by Muhammad's detractors and undertakes to discuss and refute them, one by one:
1. The rejection of God's prophets and messengers by their own people is an age-old stance, and it was, therefore, not surprising that Muhammad should receive the same treatment. " Those who disbelieve say: This is naught but a lie that he hath invented, and other folk have helped him with it, so that they have produced a slander and a lie "(4).
Who was those 'others' who have supposedly helped Muhammad fabricate the Qur'an? And if indeed they had been capable of such commendable feat, why had they not claimed prophethood for themselves?
2. "And they say: Fables of the men of old which he hath had written down so that they are dictated to him morn and evening " (5)
This was a reference to the Jews and Christians whom the Arabs claimed were teaching Muhammad his religion. But would the Christians have taught him to reject the trinity or refute it? Or, would the Jews have approved of the ferocious criticism leveled against them in the Qur'an? Such allegations simply do not stand to scrutiny.
3. "And they say: What aileth this messenger (of Allah) that he eateth food and walketh in the markets? Why is not an angel sent down unto him, to be a warner with him "(7)
Eating of course would not demean the Prophet in any way for it was natural to do so. As for the allegation that an angel should have come with him, one can retaliate with the question: What would its supposed role have been anyway? Would it stood in for the Messenger? Moreover, if the Prophet was in need of an angel's support, why would he be charged with a task he was not capable of performing himself?
4. "See how they coin similitudes for thee, so that they are all astray and cannot find a road! (9) Blessed is He Who, if He will, will assign thee better than (all) that - Gardens underneath which rivers flow - and will assign thee mansions " (10)
" A Thematic Commentary On The Qur'an "
Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali
[ 1917 - 1998 ]
Reflection and commentary by Mufti Ameen Aziz,
ayat 1 -ayat 6
ayat 7 - ayat 12
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