"With the name of Allah the All-Merciful, the Very-Merciful. Alif Lam Mim. [1] Allah: There is no god but He, the Alive, the All-Sustaining. [2] He has revealed to you the Book with the truth confirming what has been before it, and sent down the Torah and Injeel [Whenever the Holy Qur'an speaks of the 'Torah and the Injeel' it refers to the original books revealed to the prophets Musa and 'Isa (Moses and Jesus (A.S)). This should not, therefore, be confused, with the present Old and New testaments.] (the Evangile) earlier to give guidance to mankind, and sent down the Furqan (the Criterion of right and wrong). Surely, those who have rejected the verses of Allah, for them there is severe punishment. And Allah is Mighty, Lord of Retribution. [4] Surely, Allah is such that nothing is hidden from Him, either in the earth or in the heaven. [5] He is the one who shapes you in the wombs as He likes. There is no god but He, the Mighty, the Wise."[6] (3:1-6)

This is the first section of Surah 'Al-'Imran, the third Surah of the Holy Qur'an. It will be recalled that at the end of the Surah Al-Fatihah a prayer for guidance to the straight path was made. After that, by beginning the Surah Al-Baqarah with (That Book which has no doubt in it), it was pointed out that the prayer made in Surah Al-Fatihah for guidance to the straight path has been accepted and Allah Almighty has sent down this Qur'an which provides guidance to the straight path. Then came many injunctions of the Islamic law tak­en up briefly or in details. As a corollary to this, frequent mention was made of the hostility of the disbelievers and the need to confront them. Towards the end, this sequence was concluded with (Help us, then, against disbelieving people) - in the mode of prayer. Since the prayer was made in order that Muslims could confront and prevail over the disbelievers, it was in consonance with that prayer that, in the following Surah 'Al-'Imran, the text deals with the modalities of dealing with disbelievers, as well as, with the need to carry out Jihad against them, verbally and physically. This is, so to speak, an elaboration and extension of (Help us, then, against disbelieving people).

A Summary Of Meanings

These first five verses of Surah 'Al-'Imran explain the doctrine of Tauheed, the Oneness of Allah, which is the basic point of difference between Islam and other religions and between a disbeliever and a true Muslim. Those who believe in the Oneness of Allah (and in all His prophets (A.S)) are Muslims and those who do not so believe are known as disbelievers or non-Muslims. The first verse of this section presents a rational proof of the Oneness of Allah; the second verse, the reported proof [In the terminology of Islamic theology, a proof based on rational argument is called rational proof while a proof based on a verse of divine book or on a declaration made by an authority or a report narrated by a trustworthy person is called a reported proof.], followed by an answer to some doubts nursed by disbelievers towards the later part.

The first word, Alif Lam Mim at the head of the first verse be­longs to the special set of words used by the Qur'an which are words of hidden meaning and are known as Mutashabihat, the real meaning of which is a secret between Allah and His Messenger Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him, and the details of which appear a little later in the section. In the words (Allah: there is no god but He) which follow immediately, the doctrine of the Oneness of Allah has been put forth as a categorical declaration. It means that there is absolutely nothing worthy of wor­ship other than Allah.

Then come the words (the Alive, the All-Sustaining) which lay out a rational proof of the Oneness of Allah. The essence of the argument is that worship means to present oneself before some­body in utter submission and humility. It, therefore, requires that the one who is being worshipped must occupy the highest point of honour and power and who has to be most perfect from all angles. From this it is obvious that anything which cannot sustain its own being, rather is dependent upon somebody else for its very existence, could hardly claim to have any honour or power in its own right. Therefore, it is crystal clear that all things in this world which have no power to come into being by themselves, nor can they sustain it - be they idols carved in stone, or water, or trees, or angels and apostles - none of them is worthy of worship. The only Being worthy of worship is the One who has always been Alive and Present and shall always live and sustain. Such a Being is none but Allah; there is none worthy of worship but Him.

Verse 3 which follows carries the reported proof of the Oneness of Allah. Briefly stated, it means that the principle of Tauhid as described in the Holy Qur'an is not something peculiar to the Qur'an or the Prophet of Islam. On the contrary, Allah Almighty has sent Scriptures such as the Torah and the Injeel, and His prophets, in earlier times. And this was they all professed and this was they all brought as the message. When the Qur'an came, it simply confirmed their truth. It did not present any new claim which could pose problems for people in its understanding or acceptance.

The last two verses further fortify the doctrine of Tauheed on the ground that the attributes of encompassing knowledge and unlimited power are strong proofs of His being the One who possesses the eternal and all-encompassing knowledge and whose power controls every­thing, and that He is the only One who rightly deserves to be worshipped. Any one having imperfect knowledge and limited power can­not be entrusted with this exalted station.

Tauheed: A Consistent Belief Preached By All The Prophets (A.S)

Verse 2 gives a reported proof in some detail. The agreement of a large number of people on a certain principle from the very beginning of humanity may be taken as a natural proof of it's reality, if they be­long to different times and places, having no means of communicating with each other.

Keeping this in view, we see that Sayyidna Adam (A.S) was the first prophet who presented the message of Tauhid before human be­ings. That the message would remain effective after him through his progeny is not difficult to conceive. But, after a passage of time when the ways of the progeny of Sayyidna Aadam (A.S) shifted away from the original message, there comes Sayyidna Nooh (A.S) (Noah) who calls people towards the same principle. After a long passage of time, Sayyidna Ibraheem, Isma'eel, Ishaaq and Ya'qoob (A.S) born in Iraq and Syria rise with the same call. Then follow Sayyidna Moosa, Haroon and other prophets (A.S) in that order who all subscribe to the same principle of Tauhid and invite people to the same. Then, after another long passage of time, Sayyidna Isa rises with the same call. In the end, it is Sayyidna Muhammad al-Mustafa Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him who graces the world with the common call of all prophets.

This is the golden chain of prophets from Sayyidna Adam to the Last of the Prophets (A.S) upto whose time some one hundred and twenty four thousand blessed prophets were born in different periods, speaking different languages, living in different countries. All of them told and taught the same truth. Most of them did not even have the chance to meet each other. They were in an age when, communication through writing was not in vogue, which could make it possible for one prophet to have access to the books and writings of another and might help him to pick up the call of the earlier prophets as his own. Instead, what happened is that everyone from among them appeared centuries apart from each other, and had no source of informa­tion about other prophets, except the revelation received by him from Allah Almighty. The consensus of such a large group of persons consisting of not less than one hundred and twenty four thousand men of different times and places may be enough for establishing the principle, even regardless of their intrinsic trustworthiness. But when one looks at the personal qualities of the noble prophets, and at the highest possible standards of truth and justice set by them, one has to believe that their message is true and their call authentic.

It is narrated in some ahadith that some Christians came to the Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him and engaged him in a conversation about religion. The Holy Prophet Sallallahu 'Alayhi Wasallam: Peace be upon him, by the will of Allah, present­ed these two verses as arguments confirming the Oneness of Allah. The Christians had no answer to refute them.

Lastly, while referring to the absolute power and wisdom of Allah Almighty, verse 6 invites one's attention to the fact that Allah shapes all men and women in the wombs of their mothers according to His supreme wisdom which has created billions of men and women with clear distinguishable features establishing the identity of each individual distinct from all others. He is, therefore, the only One who should be worshipped. [Ma'ariful Qur'an]

» Posted by Seifeddine-M on 17th October 2011

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