The Cattle (Al-An‘am) الأنعام 148–150
148
سَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُواْ لَوْ شَاء اللّهُ مَا أَشْرَكْنَا وَلاَ آبَاؤُنَا وَلاَ حَرَّمْنَا مِن شَيْءٍ كَذَلِكَ كَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِم حَتَّى ذَاقُواْ بَأْسَنَا قُلْ هَلْ عِندَكُم مِّنْ عِلْمٍ فَتُخْرِجُوهُ لَنَا إِن تَتَّبِعُونَ إِلاَّ الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ أَنتُمْ إَلاَّ تَخْرُصُونَ
Those who associate partners with God will surely say, ‘Had God pleased, neither we nor our fathers would have served other gods besides Him; nor would we have made anything unlawful.’ Likewise those who lived before them argued falsely until they came to taste Our punishment! Say, ‘Have you any knowledge? If so, produce it before us. You follow nothing but conjecture. You are merely guessing.’
149
قُلْ فَلِلّهِ الْحُجَّةُ الْبَالِغَةُ فَلَوْ شَاء لَهَدَاكُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
Say, ‘God alone has the conclusive proof. If He had willed, He could have guided every one of you.’
150
قُلْ هَلُمَّ شُهَدَاءكُمُ الَّذِينَ يَشْهَدُونَ أَنَّ اللّهَ حَرَّمَ هَـذَا فَإِن شَهِدُواْ فَلاَ تَشْهَدْ مَعَهُمْ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاء الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُواْ بِآيَاتِنَا وَالَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالآخِرَةِ وَهُم بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ
Say, ‘Come, bring your witnesses, who can testify that God forbade [all] this.’ If they bear witness [falsely], do not bear witness with them; nor yield to the wishes of those who deny Our signs, nor of those who do not believe in the life to come and set up others as equals with their Lord.
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
(a) The unadulterated missionary call for Truth always stands out as something rather strange. On the one hand, there is the customary religion which enjoys prominence in all social institutions. Centuries of traditions are behind it to lend it weight. On the other hand, there is the call for Truth, which has no time-honoured conventions in its favour. It is difficult, therefore, for people to understand that customary religion, which has such an elevated status and great popularity, will not be to God’s liking. The common presumption is that it has been possible for the customary religion to flourish to this extent because it suited God’s will and pleasure: had it not been so, it would not have spread and endured to this extent. They raise the question of whether God’s favoured religion will be one already enjoying a high status everywhere in this world of God or one which has no standing whatsoever. (a) God has made this world like one great examination hall in which He has left it up to man to do well or badly in the questions of right and wrong. Of course, differentiating between Truth and falsehood should always be based on real reasoning and not on conjecture or on references to popular custom. But man is not bound to opt for the path of logic. For, instead of forcibly imposing His will on man, God adopted the method of teaching man about what is right or what is wrong and left it to him to tread the right or the wrong path. This means that in the life of the world, argument (reasoning) is God’s representative. When a man bows before a correct or sound argument, it is as if he is bowing down before God, and when he refuses to do so, it is as if he is rejecting God. The reason why a man does not accede to reasoning is that he is unable to rise above his desires. In order to justify his actions, he is prepared to declare falsehood to be truth. His recklessness goes to the extent of ignoring God’s signs. He becomes careless of the fact that finally God is going to have him in His grasp, and gives to other things the importance which he should give to God alone.