Towards Understanding the Qur'an. Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi
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if any of you trusts another, let him who is trusted, fulfil the trust and fear Allah, his Lord.
And do not conceal what you have witnessed, for who- ever conceals it, his heart is sinful. ▶
103 It should also be noted that the purpose of taking a pledge is merely to assure the lender the return of his loan. He has no right at all to benefit from the pledged property. If, however, either cattle or beasts of burden have been pledged, they can be milked and used for transport in lieu of the fodder that one provides them during the period of custody.
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Al-Baqarah 2: 284–6
Allah has full knowledge of all that you do.
(284) All that is in the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. Whether you disclose whatever is in your hearts or conceal it, Allah will call you to account for it, and will then forgive whomsoever He wills, and will chastise whomsoever He wills. Allah has power over everything.
(285) The Messenger be- lieves, and so do the believers, in the guidance sent down upon him from his Lord: each of them believes in Allah, and in His angels, and in His Books, and in His Messengers. They say: “We make no distinction between any of His Messengers. We hear and obey. Our Lord! Grant us Your forgiveness; to You we are destined to return.”
(286) Allah does not lay a re- sponsibility on anyone beyond his capacity. In his favour shall be whatever good each one does, and against him what- ever evil he does.
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Al-Baqarah 2: 286
(Believers! Pray thus to your Lord): “Our Lord! Take us not to task if we forget or commit mistakes. Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden such as You laid on those gone before us. Our Lord! Lay not on us burdens which we do not have the power to bear. And overlook our faults, and forgive us, and have mercy upon us. You are our Guardian; so grant us victory against the unbelieving folk.”
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Al [Imran 3: 1–6
(The House of [Imran)
(Madinan Period)
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.
(1) Alif, Lam, Mim. (2) Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self- Subsisting, Who sustains the entire order of the Universe – there is no god but He.
(3) He has revealed this Book to you, setting forth the Truth and confirming the earlier Books, and He revealed the Torah and the Gospel (4) before that for the guidance of mankind; and He has also revealed the Criterion (to distinguish the Truth from falsehood). A severe chastise- ment lies in store for those who deny the Signs of Allah. Allah is All-Mighty; He is the Lord of Retribution.
(5) Nothing in the earth and in the heavens is hidden from Allah. (6) It is He Who fashions you in the wombs as He wills. There is no god but He; the All- Mighty, the All-Wise. ▶
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Al [Imran 3: 7
(7) He it is Who has revealed the Book to you. Among them there are absolutely clear and lucid verses,1 and these are the core of the Book. Others are ambiguous.2 Those in whose hearts there is perversity, go about the part that is ambigu- ous, seeking mischief and seeking to arrive at its meaning arbitrarily, although none knows their true meaning but Allah. But those firmly rooted in knowledge say: ▶
1 The muhkam verses mentioned here are those Qur’anic verses which are embodied in clear and lucid language and whose meaning is not liable to any ambiguity and equivocation. Such verses form the core of the Book; they are the verses which fulfil the true purpose for which the Qur’an was revealed, and they invite the whole world to Islam. They embody admonition and instruction, refutation of erroneous doctrines as well as elucidation of the Right Way. They also contain the fundamentals of the true faith, embodying teachings relating to belief, worship and morality, and mandatory duties and prohibitions.
2 “Ambiguous” (mutashabih) verses are those whose meaning may have some degree of equivocation. It is obvious that no way of life can be prescribed for man unless a certain amount of knowledge explaining the truth about the universe, its origin and end, about man’s position in it and other matters of similar importance, is intimated to him. It is also evident that the truths which lie beyond the range of human perception have always eluded and will continue to elude man; no words exist in the human vocabulary which either express or portray them. In speaking about such things, we necessarily resort to words and expressions that are generally employed in connection with tangible objects. In the Qur’an, too, this kind of language is employed in relation to supernatural matters; the verses which have been characterized as “ambiguous” refer to such matters.
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Al [Imran 3: 8–11
“We believe in it; it is all from our Lord alone.”3 No one derives true admonition from anything except the people of understanding. (8) They pray to Allah: “Our Lord! Do not let our hearts swerve towards crookedness after You have guided us to the Right Way, and bestow upon us Your Mercy for You are the Munifi- cent Giver! (9) Our Lord! One Day You will surely gather all mankind together, a Day about (the coming of which) there is no doubt. Surely Allah never goes against His promise.”
(10) As for the unbelievers, neither their wealth nor their offspring will avail them in the least against Allah. They shall be the fuel of the Fire. (11) (To them shall happen) the like of what happened to the people of Pharaoh, and those before them. They rejected Our signs as false, so Allah seized them for their sins. Allah indeed is severe in punishment. ▶
3 This might give rise to an unnecessary problem: How can people believe in “ambiguous” verses when the contents of these cannot be grasped? The fact is that a reasonable person will have faith that the Qur’an is the Book of God through his reading of its clear and lucid verses, rather than by learning fanciful interpretations of the ambiguous verses. Once so convinced, he is not likely to be troubled by doubts and anxieties caused by the ambiguities of a few verses.
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Al [Imran 3: 12–14
(12) Tell those who have disbelieved: “You shall soon be overpowered and mustered to Hell; what an evil resting place!” (13) You have already come across an instructive sign in the two hosts that encountered each other in battle (at Badr): one host fighting in the way of Allah, and the other that of unbelievers. They saw with their very eyes that one host was twice the number of the other.4 But (the result of the battle proved that) Allah succours with His victory