Delivered by Mowlana Syed Aftab Haider on 9 June 2016 at Ahlul Bait (a.s) Islamic Centre, Ottery, Cape Town

In the last verse we learnt that Allah creates everything and determined its measure precisely.

Verse 3 relates the contrast to this truth and says:

وَاتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ ءَالِهَةً لاَ يَخْلُقُونَ شَيْئاً وَهُمْ يُخْلَقُونَ وَلاَ يَمْلِكُونَ لاَنفُسِهِمْ ضَرّاً وَلاَ نَفْعاً وَلاَ يَمْلِكُونَ مَوْتاً وَلاَحَيَاةً وَلاَ نُشُوراً

“Yet they have taken gods, besides Him, gods that do not create anything while they are themselves created and they do not own for themselves any loss or profit, nor can they control death nor life nor resurrection.”

These verses speak about the logic of Mushrikeen who believed in gods that cannot create anything, while Islam spoke about a God who created everything.

Quran establishes 5 qualities before you can be worthy of being worshiped. These are that you should be able to:

– benefit others;

– harm others;

– cause life;

– cause death;

– cause resurrection after death.

If you not able to do these, then you are effectively helpless and not worth of being worshiped.

It appears the Mushrikeen also used to believe in life after death and thus the Quran makes reference to this issue to them as if they understand it.

Verse 4 says:

قَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَذَا إِلآَّ إِفْكٌ افْتَرَاهُ وَأَعَانَهُ عَلَيْهِ قَوْمٌ ءَاخَرُونَ فَقَدْ جآءُوا ظُلْماً وَزُوراً

“And those who disbelieve say: ‘This (Quran) is nothing but a lie which he (our Apostle) has forged, and other people have helped him at it; so indeed they have done injustice and (uttered) a falsehood.”

The Mushrikeen response to this sound argument of Quran was one filled with contempt to say Prophet Muhammad (sawa) fabricated it and that others helped him.W

WHY THE REFERENCE TO OTHERS HELPING HIM?

While they were saying its a forgery, the contents of the Quran was very rich and they could not just brush it aside and ignore it and thus they said others must have helped him.

This response means that they indirectly accepted the great contents of the Quran to then claim that he could not have produced it on its own!

The Quran thus considers this accusation of forgery to be a blatant injustice as previously they had blindly believed Muhammad (sawa) due to his truthfulness.

Quran thus says this is an oppression that they have committed as they prevented their people from reaching the message of the Quran by accusing it to be a forgery.

Verse 5 says:

وَقَالُوا أَسَاطِيرُ الاَوَّلِينَ اكْتَتَبَهَا فَهِيَ تُمْلَي عَلَيْهِ بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيلاً

“And they say: ‘(Qur’an is) the stories of the ancients he has got them written, so they are dictated before him morning and evening’.”

Since Quran had information about previous generations, they further claimed he must have been helped by the Jews. But they did not know how to phrase their objection and accused Prophet Muhammad (sawa) of doing a “copy and paste” job.

They claim he “wrote” it, even though they knew that he never read or wrote and thus it was impossible to “copy and paste”.

They then claimed it was dictated to him. But he was always with the people, so when did this happen? They thus claimed it secretly happened during the early morning and evening when he was alone!

Verse 6 says:

قُلْ أَنزَلَهُ الَّذِي يَعْلَمُ السّـِرَّ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالاَرْضِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ غَفُوراً رَّحِيماً
“Say: ’He sent it down Who knows the secrets in the heavens and the earth. Verily He is ever Forgiving, Merciful‘.”

This is the follow up response to their ridiculous accusations and serves as a defense of the Prophet (sawa) and thus starts with the saying “Say: He sent it down….”

Allah is so Merciful that even though the Non Believers acted unjustly, the doors of repentance remained open after these ridiculous accusations as Allah is “ever Forgiving, Merciful.”

It was thus possible to undo their past actions through repentance.

To be continued………….


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