A Prophet From Your Midst
2:151-152 “Even as We have sent among you a Messenger from among you who recites to you Our communications and purifies you and teaches you the Book and the wisdom and teaches you that which you did not know. Therefore remember Me, and I will remember you, and be thankful to Me, and do not deny Me.”
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2:151 is one of the many unfinished statements in the Quran. Some translators attempt to resolve the difficulty by attaching it to the previous verse, some to the next. Either way, it does not make much sense.
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In this verse, Allah tells the Arabs that they deserve a prophet too. So Allah sent them Muhammad, an Arab prophet, from among them.
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This sounds like a very good idea. That would have been very nice if Muhammad remained a prophet just for the Arabs. Why did it have to change?
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2:153 repeats previous instructions to pray, seek Allah’s help and be patient and full of hope: “O you who believe: Seek help with patience and prayer, for Allah is with the patient.”
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It is Good to Suffer and Die in the Cause of Allah
2:154-157 tell the Believers that it is good to die or otherwise be tested with calamities, if it happens while they fight in the way of Allah.
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In 2:154 we have our first encounter with the term “fi Sabil Allah”, meaning in “the way of Allah”, a term which is used to describe Jihad, namely: Fighting in the way of Allah:
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“And do not speak of those who are slain in Allah’s way as ‘dead’, but ‘alive’, but you do not perceive.”
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You do not perceive, so just obey, and when you are asked to fight and die in the way of Allah, I assure you that you will not be considered dead, but alive.
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In the next 3 verses, Muhammad explains the idea further:
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“Indeed, We will try you with things such as fear and hunger, and loss of goods and lives and fruits, yet give good tidings to the patient who, when they are visited by an affliction, say, ‘we belong to Allah, and to Him we return’. Those are they upon whom rest blessings and mercy from their Lord, and those are the truly guided.”
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The Believers are being mentally prepared to sacrifice all for the cause of Muhammad and his god.
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The motif of accepting the trials of your Lord patiently and faithfully seems to have been taken from the Book of Job, whose story is set in the same region where Muhammad’s audience lived, so these trials were not unfamiliar.
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It is also based on the Jewish theme of accepting the good and the bad from the Lord with love and faith. Even though Job was afflicted with horrible calamity, he did not abandon his faith, as we read in Job 1:21-22:
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“… the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. For all this Job sinned not, nor ascribed aught unseemly to God.”, and 2:10 “… shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?’ For all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
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In the case of the allegory of Job, however, the calamity did not befall him as a result of fighting against the Unbelievers.
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Divine Approval for Pilgrimage Rites
2:158 is another first: we are being introduced to the rites of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to the Holy Mosque and to Mecca.
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“Safa and the Marwa are among the signs appointed by Allah. So whoever makes a pilgrimage to the House or pays a visit, there is no blame on him if he goes round them both. And whoever does good voluntarily, then surely Allah is Grateful, Knowing.”
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Safa and Marwa are two high places near the Ka’bah in Mecca. Running between and around them was part of the Arab pagans’ pilgrimage religious rites. In this verse, Muhammad informs the believers that Allah has endorsed this ritual as part of his new religion.
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Present day Hajj includes this activity in the Umrah, the first rite of the Hajj. The rites of the Hajj pilgrimage are mentioned in more detail later in our surah. I will discuss the subject when we reach these verses.
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Curses on the Deniers and Those Who Conceal
In 2:159 we have some strong curses on those who conceal the true signs. These are the Jews, of course:
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“Those who conceal the clear signs and the guidance that We have sent down, after We have shown them clearly in the Book – they shall be cursed by Allah and the cursers,”
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This verse does not elaborate on the identity of the cursers who help Allah in cursing.
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In 2:160 we have the other half of the sentence: “save those who repent and make amends, and show clearly – towards them I shall turn. I turn, all-compassionate”
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If they repent and publicise the truth, then Allah will turn to them. Basically, Muhammad wanted the Jews who have been rejecting him and his message to retract, accept, and then issue a public statement to that effect.
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Of course, those whom Allah chose to deprive of the true guidance do not stand a chance either way.
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The warning continues in 2:161-162 “Surely those who deny and die while they are in their denial, these it is on whom is the curse of Allah and the angels and men all, Abiding in it for eternity, their chastisement shall not be lightened nor shall they be given respite.”
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It appears that “those who curse” from 2:159 are angels and men. “respite” in 2:162 is also translated as “to appear before, or be seen (by Allah)”.
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The Arabic words at the end of this verse are “wala hum yunthuroon”, meaning “and they will not be regarded, or looked after (by Allah)”. We have discussed this word earlier in the problematic verse 2:104. It looks like the problem persists.
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And to round off the section, 2:163 informs the Believers again: “And your god is one god. There is no god but He; He is the Merciful, the Compassionate.”
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Here I did not follow the common translation, which says “And your Allah is one Allah”. The Arabic text reads “wa-ilahukum (and your god) ilahun (god) wahidun (one)”.
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“ila” is “god”, not “Allah”, so our verse definitely states the generic term for god, not a proper name. “Allah is derived from “al-illa”, meaning “The god”, the epithet attributed to the top god in the Meccans pagan shrine of the Ka’bah, whose proper name, apparently, was “Hubal”.
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Allah’s Clear Signs Ignored by Evil Doers
2:164-165 list some of Allah’s works as signs for people who understand: The creation of Heaven and Earth, the cycle of day and night, the benefits of ships that run at sea, the rain giving life to Earth after its death, the beasts that roam the earth and the weather that is obedient to Allah.
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Yet, after seeing all these signs, there are still people who worship images (idols, as gods, I presume) beside Allah, and love them as they love Allah, and not less. But the Believers love Allah best.
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If only the evil-doers could see (feel) the future chastisement, as to Allah is all the power, and he is severe in punishment.
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That will happen either on Judgement Day, or upon the death of the Unbelievers. The Quran does not make it very clear.
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2:166 “When those that were followed disown their followers, and they see the chastisement, and their cords are cut asunder”, but that would be too late, as (2:167) “Those that followed say, ‘O if only we might return again and disown them, as they have disowned us!’ Even so Allah shall show them their works. O bitter regrets for them! Never shall they issue from the Fire.”
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The motif of “if only” appears in other variants in the Quran, like 26:102 “If only we could get another chance, we would then believe.”
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These are the Associators, those who accept Allah, but also recognise other gods beside him. Although Muhammad did not approve of that, we saw in the Satanic Verses episode, that he for a while accepted the concept, as an expedient to win over the Quraysh pagans. That, as we saw, back-fired very badly, and had to be retracted, blaming it all on the Devil.
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I am taking the liberty here to assume that “those that were followed” will not disown their followers, as they are lifeless idols, images without any power. Their followers, upon arriving in Hell and experiencing the chastisement of Allah, will realise that they have been abandoned by these gods, and will be very, very sorry. But of course it will be too late then.
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Your Forefathers Had No Sense
And now to something completely different:
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2:168-169 “O people, eat of what is in the earth lawful and good, and follow not the steps of Satan. He is a manifest foe to you. He only commands you to evil and indecency, and that you should speak against Allah such things as you know not.”
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What is unlawful to eat is listed in 2:173 below, so I assume that everything else is lawful.
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In Sira:382 there is a discourse between Muhammad and some “Jewish Rabbis”, who claimed that they must follow the religion of their fathers, and not Muhammad’s teachings, as they considered their ancestors “better men than they”.
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Muhammad begged to differ. (2:170):
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“And when it is said to them, ‘Follow what Allah has revealed’, they say: ‘Nay! We follow what we found our fathers doing.’ What! And though their fathers had no sense at all, nor did they follow the right way.”
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Dismissing wisdom that had been accumulated over centuries as nonsense is always easier for the ignorant than for the learned.
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The principle of following the customs of the ancestors is well entrenched in Judaism. Muhammad knew that he had to sever this tie to win over the Jews. It doesn’t look like he succeeded.
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Soon after that he decided to deal with them the only way he knew how: with force. This is when he expelled the Jewish tribe of Qaynooqa’ from Medina.
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In 2:171 we have another one of those obscure parables that could mean anything, or nothing:
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“The parable of those who deny is as the likeness of one who shouts to that which hears nothing, save a call and a cry; deaf, dumb, blind – they do not understand.”
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Here again, the obscurity is manifest in the translations: Yusuf Ali claims that the shouter is a goat-herd, while Khan claims that the audience, who can only hear cries, are a flock of sheep. The Arabic text does not support either translation.
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It is also unclear to me who the deniers are: those who shout or their audience.
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2:172 mentions eating good things again, and the following verse shed some lights on what is forbidden:
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2:173 “These things only has He forbidden you: carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, what has been hollowed to other than Allah. Yet he who is constrained, not desiring nor transgressing, no sin shall be on him. Allah is forgiving, compassionate.”
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Islamic ritual slaughter required uttering “In the name of Allah”. The rest is taken from Judaism, which forbids much more.
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A Dose of Hell Fire and Chastisement
The next three verses (2:174-6) seem to come out of nowhere: a tirade of torment and Hell fire, without warning, with no relation to the preceding verse, filled with details of the chastisement that await those who conceal parts of Allah’s Book and sell it for a small price, buy error instead of guidance, seek causes for dispute.
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They will eat fire. Allah will turn away from them, their chastisement will be painful, and they will have torment instead of forgiveness. Here is a sample:
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“… they shall eat … Fire in their bellies. Allah shall not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection neither purify them”, and “… they have bought error at the price of guidance …”, and “… Allah has sent down the Book with the truth, and those that are at variance… are in wide schism”
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The idea of Jews selling parts of the Book appears in a number of places in our surah, and indeed in other places in the Quran. The attacks on those who conceal parts of the book sounds to me like an attack on the Jews who were not forthcoming in supplying Muhammad with scriptural material needed to give substance to the new religion.
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Religious Instruction
Now Muhammad has calmed down, and in 2:177 he takes us back to religious instruction:
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“It is not righteousness that you turn your faces towards the East and the West, but righteousness is this that one should believe in Allah and the last day and the angels and the Book and the prophets, and give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for (redeeming) the captives, and keep up prayer and pay the poor-tax, and the performers of their promise when they make a promise, and the patient in distress and affliction and in time of conflicts– these are they who are righteous and god-fearing.”
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This is a good verse, except for the first clause, where we seem to have a problem: if the Believers are not to face east or west in prayer, can they face south and north? And how will those who are east or west of Mecca will be able to turn their face in its direction?
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2:178-179 “O you who believe! Retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the murdered: the free for the free, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female. But if any remission is made to any one by his brother, then prosecution for the blood-money should be made according to usage, and payment should be made to him in a good manner. This is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy, so whoever Transgresses after this, he shall have a painful chastisement. In retaliation there is life for you, men of understanding, perhaps you will be god-fearing.”
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Here we are dealing with “Qisas”, the law of equal punishment, in this case for murder. Muhammad adopts the existing Arab custom of retaliation or blood-money, and informs the Muslims that this law comes from Allah. As we will see in the rest of our surah, this is the case with many Islamic laws.
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We seem to have here three classes of people: free, slaves and females. What should be done when people from one class kill people from another, is not very clear to me. If a woman kills a man, should the woman be pursued, or should the life of a man be offered by the killer’s relatives?
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2:180 “Prescribed for you, when death approaches one of you, and he leaves behind some assets, that he should make a will in favour of his parents and kinsmen. This is a law for the god-fearing.”
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By the way, “prescribed for you” is a translation of “Kutiba ‘Alaykum”, meaning “it is written on (for) you”. Where it is written, the Quran does not tell us. We may assume that all these prescriptions may be found in the Mother of the Book up in Heaven.
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2:181-182 tells the Muslims that it is unlawful to for any man to change a will, except when he feels that the one who made the will committed an error or a sin. This is presumably in case of a dispute, as the man who has authority to change the will is required to reconcile and make peace between the parties.
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Ambiguity reigns here too, as we are not told who has the authority to amend wills and testaments, and what errors or sins would lead to such amendments.
