Welcome Friends: Ahlan wa sahlan!
How amazing was it to meet all those who had become honored title-holders! The statement ‘God Loves The MuHsineen appears five times in the Qur’an.
The account relating to the Battle of Uhud continues today.
COMMENTS:
1. In verses 149-151, just as Those Who Attained Faith were previously warned against obeying the People of the (earlier) Compilation (HQ3:100), here they are warned against obeying the Deniers, and the verses are clear in that, if they did, they would in fact be transformed into Losers. HOWEVER (bal/ بل – meaning: “but rather”) God is your Protector/Guardian, and He is The Best of Supporters/Bestowers of NaSr/Benevolent Prominence -as opposed to ‘Prominence’ on its own, which most often is malevolent.[1]
The Qur’an clearly warns the Deniers that their denial of God and their their ‘shirking’ of Him (by associating other deities with Him) is what causes fear and alarm to be cast into their hearts/minds.
2. In Verses 152-154 the Qur’an recounts how God fulfilled His promise to Those Who Attained Faith (that they would gain the upper hand), right up to the point when 40 out of 50 archers changed the course of battle by failing their comrades, disputing about the matter, and violating their command. Then the verses quite picturesquely describe the battle-ground as well as the deepest sentiments of those soldiers who had made an error in judgment; an error with monumental repercussions.
The regret they felt was but an outcome they had brought on themselves: Their brothers who were killed defending their posts were yearning for the Hereafter whereas they (now shamefully defeated) had yearned after the spoils of war … but not anymore. Having fully appraised what they had done, they had begun to seriously suffer the psychological and physical results. But then, Verse 152 ends on a note of Forgiveness!
3. We have often heard of the dangers of stress, but perhaps we do not realize its seriousness. In his book ‘Ageless Body, Timeless Mind,’ Dr. Deepak Chopra explains that, although humans can withstand extraordinary stress …
…” if we are pushed too far, our stress response turns on our own bodies and begins to create breakdowns both mentally and physically. In war, which is a state of extremely heightened, continual stress, every frontline soldier will eventually go into shell shock or battle fatigue if kept under fire too long; both syndromes are signs from the body that it is exceeding its own coping mechanisms.
Whenever you experience a stress, there are three phases to your response: (I) the stressful event; (2) your inner appraisal of it; (3) your body’s reaction.
What makes the stress response so difficult to handle is that once it begins, the mind has no control over it.
Most of the time, your cells are occupied with renewal- roughly 90 percent of a cell’s energy normally goes to building new proteins and manufacturing new DNA and RNA. When the brain perceives threat, however, the process of building is set aside. Whatever you decide to do in fight-or-flight situations, your body needs a massive burst of energy to propel your muscles.
To allow this, the normal style of metabolism that builds the body, called anabolic metabolism, converts to its opposite, catabolic metabolism, which breaks down tissues.
…As a temporary expedient, the stress response is vital, but if it is not terminated in time, the effects of catabolic metabolism are disastrous.”[2]
4. Perhaps we now understand why God, in His Mercy, let descend upon the best of them the soothing mantle of slumber (أمَنة نعاساً), to be their refuge from insurmountable guilt and sorrow. Their well-being depended on it- so he brought it down upon them.[3] Sleep is indeed a wonderful refuge for the weary and the worried!
As for those who had doubted God, they had no slumber induced upon them. They naturally remained alert, wondering why they had put themselves in the path of danger to start with.
This should also help us understand better the Verse of Dominion/Knowledge ‘Ayatul Kursi’ with its statement:
God, there is no deity save Him, The Ever-Living, Self-Subsistent Fount of All Being, neither slumber overtakes Him nor sleep…”
He IS as He Is, The Fount of all Being- and that is all we need to know!
5. The beauty of these verses (as many others in the Qur’an) is that they publicize the inner feelings and thoughts of someone who would much rather have had them remain private. Just think of finding the Qur’an expose our thoughts like that! People sometimes say, “I wish I’d lived during the Prophet’s time …” without realizing what responsibility that entails, or whether or not they would have been among his best supporters, peace upon him.
We are extremely blessed to be where we are right now, despite our ordeals. Aren’t we healthy enough, comfortable enough, educated enough, technologically advanced enough, to be reading this explanation of God’s words at our leisure? Aren’t we blessed beyond measure to be enriched and motivated by God’s very Words drawing us closer to Him, and then pulling us together to others with whom we can share this experience? How many people on this earth do you think can say that?
6. Verse 155 tells the Prophet’s Companions that indeed, it was the Deviant (Shaytan) who caused them to stumble that particular day because of something they had earned before that, on their own, and reassures them that God has erased their misdeed.
M. Asad’s note 117 summarizes the Qur’anic doctrine of ‘Satan’s influence,’ that Satan influence is NOT the cause of a person’s misdeed, but rather is the first consequence after one had earned the guilt oneself by having committed or omitted something.[4] Each of us freely chooses his/her course of action.
God-willing, we’ll by trying to discuss the many Arabic words which are commonly translated as ‘sin’ in English (ithm – sayi’a – Thanb – khaTa’-khaTee’a – maع’Siya/إثم -سيئة -ذنب -خطأ-خطيئة -معصية) as well as the different words commonly translated as ‘forgiveness.’ (ع’afu-maghfirah-takfeer-tajaawuz/عفو-مغفرة -تكفير -تجاوز). Arabic is a such a RICH language, and it is amazing how different these words actually are!
7. In Verses 156-157, Those Who Attained Faith are told not to be similar to the Deniers when they need to journey or face a battle situation which puts them in danger. If anyone died in so doing, it would be in God’s Way, so they shouldn’t respond as the Deniers do, and should not say the words ‘If only they had stayed, they wouldn’t have died or been killed,’ for God will cause that to be a source of bitter regret in their hearts. It is God Who gives Life and Death.
In his note Yusuf Ali’s says: “It is want of faith that makes people afraid (1) of meeting death, (2) of doing their duty when it involves danger, as in travelling in order to earn an honest living, or fighting in a sacred cause. Such fear is part of the punishment for want of faith.”
Al Zamakhshari[5] has an alternative take on the statement about the bitter regret in the hearts of the Deniers, that this could be related to their deepest acknowledgement of how different -how superior- the Faithful are to them, which causes them great distress.
Enough said!
Our next Reading is from HQ 3:158-173.
Peace unto all!
[1] We spoke about NaSr on Day 17, that it is about prominence which delivers goodness and generosity, and is the name for rain that quenches the earth, fills it with goodness, and is generous to all. Now we have a proper term for it!
[2] Excerpted from pages 150-153: Chapter: ‘The Invisible Threat.’
[3] Sleep renewal, or anabolism, is at its maximum during sleep when protein synthesis helps form new cells (such as skin cells) and replaces the constituents of others (such as brain cells).
[4] “Satan’s influence” on man is not the primary cause of sin but its first consequence: that is to say, a consequence of a person’s own attitude of mind which in moments of moral crisis induces him to choose the easier, and seemingly more pleasant, of the alternatives open to him, and thus to become guilty of a sin, whether by commission or omission. Thus, God’s “causing” a person to commit a sin is conditional upon the existence, in the individual concerned, of an attitude of mind which makes him prone to commit such a sin: which, in its turn, presupposes man’s free will – that is, the ability to make, within certain limitations, a conscious choice between two or more possible courses of action.”
[5] “معناه أنّ الله عز وجل عند اعتقادهم ذلك المعتقد الفاسد يضع الغم والحسرة في قلوبهم، ويضيق صدورهم عقوبة، فاعتقاده فعلهم وما يكون عنده من الغم والحسرة وضيق الصدور فعل الله عز وجل كقوله{ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيّقاً حَرَجاً كَأَنَّمَا يَصَّعَّدُ فِى ٱلسَّمَاء } الأنعام 125 ويجوز أن يكون ذلك إشارة إلى ما دلّ عليه النهى، أي لا تكونوا مثلهم ليجعل الله انتفاء كونكم مثلهم حسرة في قلوبهم، لأنّ مخالفتهم فيما يقولون ويعتقدون ومضادّتهم، مما يغمهم ويغيظهم ..” انتهى