وَقَالُوا كُونُوا هُودًا أَوْ نَصَارَىٰ تَهْتَدُوا

قُلْ بَلْ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا ۖ وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ

قُولُوا آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنْزِلَ إِلَىٰ إِبْرَاهِيمَ

وَإِسْمَاعِيلَ وَإِسْحَاقَ وَيَعْقُوبَ وَالْأَسْبَاطِ وَمَا أُوتِيَ مُوسَىٰ وَعِيسَىٰ

وَمَا أُوتِيَ النَّبِيُّونَ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ

لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لَهُ مُسْلِمُونَ

"And they said, "Become Jews or Christians, and you will find the right path." Say: "Instead, (we shall remain) the followers of Ibrahim, the upright, - and he was not one of the associators." Say (O, Muslims): "We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us, and in what has been revealed to Ibrahim, Isma'il, Ishaq, Ya'qub and his children, and in what has been given to Musa and 'Isa (Jesus) and what has been given to the prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between any of them. And to Him we submit ourselves."" (2:135-136)

The earlier verses have defined the religion (Millat) of Sayyidna Ibrahim (A.S) and established that its present form is Islam. Now, the Jews and the Christians, in spite of their pretension to be his followers, did not in actual fact follow his religion. Each of these two groups, instead of accepting Islam, used to ask the Muslims to accept its own religion in order to find true guidance. No doubt, each of these two religions was, in its own time and for its own time, a genuine religion, but in its present form each had become distorted, and had also been abrogated by Allah.

So, in answer to them, Allah asks the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him to declare on his own behalf and on that of his followers that they are and shall remain steadfast in the religion of Sayyidna Ibrahim (A.S) who shunned all kinds of association (Shirk), who adored nothing but the One God and obeyed no one but Him, and whose religion, therefore, did not have even a trace of distortion. Then, in the second of these verses Allah asks the Muslims to declare the basic tenets of this religion too, which are as follows:-

(1) Muslims believe in Allah and in the guidance which He has sent them through the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him.

(2) They also believe in all the prophets Allah 'azza wa jal has sent from time to time - some of whom have been mentioned in this verse.

(3) Some of the prophets may in some ways be superior to others, but it is essential for a Muslim to believe in all the prophets without making any distinction.

(4) Muslims believe that the Shari'ahs of all the prophets mentioned here were instituted by Allah Himself, but they have now been abrogated. So, Muslims follow the Shari'ah of the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him, for this alone is now valid.

(5) Muslims ultimately obey Allah alone, and submit themselves totally to Him.

In the second of these verses the progeny of Sayyidna Ya'qub (Jacob (A.S)) has been described as 'Asbat or "tribes". The reason is that he had twelve sons, and the offspring of each son came to form a tribe. Allah so blessed his seed that in Egypt, Sayyidna Yusuf (Joseph (A.S)) and his brothers made up a group of twelve men, but their lineage flourished, and when the Israelites left Egypt along with Sayyidna Musa (Moses), their number ran into thousands. Another form of this blessing was that the progeny of Sayyidna Ya'qub (A.S) included a large number of prophets. (Ma'ariful Qur'an)

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 17th May 2011

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