The Family of ‘Imran (Al-‘Imran) آل عمران 118–120
118
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ بِطَانَةً مِّن دُونِكُمْ لاَ يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالاً وَدُّواْ مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاء مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الآيَاتِ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ
Believers, do not take outsiders as your intimate friends, they will spare no effort to harm you. They love to see you suffer; their hatred is evident from the words which fall from their mouths. But what their hearts conceal is far worse. We have made Our signs clear to you; will you not understand?
119
هَاأَنتُمْ أُوْلاء تُحِبُّونَهُمْ وَلاَ يُحِبُّونَكُمْ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْكِتَابِ كُلِّهِ وَإِذَا لَقُوكُمْ قَالُواْ آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلَوْاْ عَضُّواْ عَلَيْكُمُ الأَنَامِلَ مِنَ الْغَيْظِ قُلْ مُوتُواْ بِغَيْظِكُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ
It is you who love them, but they do not love you; you believe in all the revealed Books. When they meet you, they say, ‘We believe,’ but when they are alone, they bite their fingertips with rage. Say, ‘Die of rage!’ God is aware of what your hearts contain.
120
إِن تَمْسَسْكُمْ حَسَنَةٌ تَسُؤْهُمْ وَإِن تُصِبْكُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ يَفْرَحُواْ بِهَا وَإِن تَصْبِرُواْ وَتَتَّقُواْ لاَ يَضُرُّكُمْ كَيْدُهُمْ شَيْئًا إِنَّ اللّهَ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطٌ
Whenever something good happens to you, it grieves them; but when evil befalls you, they rejoice. If you persevere and fear God, their designs will never harm you in the least: God encompasses all that they do.
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
(a) This refers only to people whose enmity has become apparent from their behaviour and their utterances (Tabari). (b) The Muslims believed in the same divine faith as was given to the former People of the Book by their prophets. The religion of both was one in terms of actual reality, but the People of the Book opposed the believers. The reason being that they had formed a self-styled religion, which they attributed to their prophets. It was due to this self-styled religion that they had been enjoying a position of leadership with the people. In a true religion of God, all attention remains centred on God, whereas in a self-styled religion, people’s attention is diverted to the founders of the religion and the commentators. Upholders of the latter form of faith never tolerate the call of true religion, because this would amount to displacing themselves from their position of eminence. In such a situation, true believers should refrain from negative reaction and adhere steadily to the path of patience and piety (taqwa). Patience (sabr) entails holding fast to the truth under all circumstances, and taqwa entails regarding God, and no other, as the only decisive power. If believers give proof of maintaining this kind of positive attitude, no enmity, however great, can harm them. (a) This refers to the contemporary Jews or Christians. (b) The existence of love in the hearts of true believers for the People of the Book and the lack of love in the hearts of the latter for the believers shows who really subscribes to the truth and who does not. God is all mercy and justice. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all human beings, so whoever finds God in the real sense of the word, will open his heart to all God’s creatures. For him all human beings equally become the family of God. Then he begins to like for everyone what he likes for himself. But those who have not found God in the real sense of the word, those who have not subordinated their will to the will of God and who live only on the plane of the self, regard life’s possessions as paramount, both at the personal and the communal level. This mentality makes them inimical to anyone who appears to be against their interests—who is not, in short, a member of their own community. In spite of believing in God, they tend to forget that this world was made by God, and that no strategy can be effective here without God’s approval.