Surah An-Nahl 16:120-128 - Quran Translation Commentary

124. The Sabbath was appointed only for those who differed concerning It,¹⁸⁴ and verily your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Judgment about what they used to differ.¹⁸⁵

125. Call men to the path of your Lord with wisdom and kindly exhortation, and argue with them in a courteous manner.¹⁸⁶ Verily your Lord is well aware of him who strays from His way and He is well aware of them who go aright.

126. If you retaliate, then retaliate with the like of what you were afflicted. But if you endure patiently, verily it is better for the patient. ¹⁸⁷

127. And (O Prophet!) endure patiently. Your endurance is only by the help of Allah. Grieve not for them, and be not in distress at their intrigue.

128. Undoubtedly Allah is with those who fear Him, and those who perform good acts.

Commentary

174. In the text the word used is Ummah, which has several meanings. One meaning is: a personality who is peerless, and the other meaning is: Imam (leader) and teacher of virtues (Lisanul Arab, Vol. 12, page 27). Ibn Taimiah has taken it to mean an ideal personality (Majmu’ Fatawa Ibn Taimiah, Vol. 17, page 483) and we have preferred this meaning.

The purpose in mentioning this characteristic of Prophet Ibrahim was to impress upon the polytheists, who considered him as their leader and claimed to follow him, that the environment in which he was born was fully polytheistic, but his personality was unique and distinctive that he rose up as an ideal monotheist, who gave the lesson of tawheed to the world. Therefore, he is the Imam of the monotheists and not of the polytheists, and if they really wanted to be his followers, then they should adopt the path of monotheism. Further on his other attributes are narrated, which mirror his comprehensive and ideal personality.

175. In the text the word ‘Qanit’ is used, which means a person who is constantly submissive and obedient. Ibn Taimiah writes: “Qunut means constant obedience and qanit is one who is constantly obedient to Allah.” — (Majmu’ Fatawa Ibn Taimiah Vol: V, page 23).

176. The word used here is ‘Hanif. It means an upright person, and one who is dedicated to Allah. Ibn Taimiah states: “Hanif, i.e. Who turns towards Allah with his heart and not towards anyone else.” — (Ibid V.28, page 32).

177.Prophet Ibrahim was never a polytheist, therefore, to relate your polytheistic religion to him is absolutely wrong. It is elicited that Prophet Ibrahim had never indulged in polytheism in his life, therefore, what he had stated on seeing the stars cannot be termed, as an act of polytheism, for it was merely an argument in a discussion (Surah An’am Note No. 131).

178. That is: For the bounties of God, he was; thankful to God only and appreciated His favours.

179. That is: God had chosen him for prophethood.

180, After blessing him with prophethood, God opened the path of the religion (Islam) for him, which was a straight path, leading to Him.

181. Among the good recompense which Allah had granted Prophet Ibrahim in this world are honour and leadership, sons like Ismail and Ishaq, the auspicious region of Syria, the soul invigorating land of Makkah, and resources in abundance for doing righteous deeds, etc. Besides the speakers of Truth will ever keep the name of Prophet Ibrahim at the top of the World leaders. Peace be upon Prophet Ibrahim.

182. The first condition for success in the Hereafter is to be virtuous. The higher ranks come afterwards. Prophet Ibrahim had passed a virtuous and pious life in the world, therefore, in the Hereafter also he will be a virtuous personality.

183. Millat of Ibrahim means the way or religion of Prophet Ibrahim and his Shariah. His religion was the religion of tawheed, that is, Islam, and his Shariah was a simple one, which did not have those restrictions which were imposed subsequently on the Jews because of their disobedience. The rites of Hajj are also the part of the Shariah of Ibrahim. The revelation of Quran took place to keep alive the religion and the Shariah of Prophet Ibrahim, and the direction given to Prophet Muhammad (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) to follow his way is to show that the path of Qur’an is the same which was that of Ibrahim, therefore to follow the path of Qur’an is to follow the path of Prophet Ibrahim, as against this the path of the polytheists is not the path of Prophet Ibrahim.

184. The explanation about the observance of Sabbath has been given in Surah A’raf Note No. 250. The best explanation of what is stated here— that is, the imposition of observance or Sabbath was ordained for those who had differed concerning that is— that which occurs in a hadith:

“The Messenger of Allah (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) said that we are the ummah that came later on, but on the Day of Resurrection will be ahead of all, though they got the Book before us and We got it after them. It is this very day (Friday) which was made compulsory for them, but they differed in it. So Allah gave us guidance in this matter. Now they have remained behind us: Jews for tomorrow and the Christians for the day after tomorrow.” — (Muslim —Kitabul Juma’)

It means that in the beginning the Jews were ordained to observe Friday for performing special commands given by Allah, but they differed with their prophet, and insisted that Saturday should be appointed instead. Allah appointed this day for them, and because of their dispute He ordained severe commands for observing this day. Had they agreed to observe Friday as a special day, then such severe commands would not have been given. Thereafter, when the Christians came, they also differed in the matter of Sabbath and instead of Saturday, they reserved Sunday as a special day for themselves. But the Ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him) got Friday by the grace of God. When they were given special commands regarding observance of Friday, they did not disagree. Thus the day of Friday, with which the week begins came to the lot of Muhammad’s Ummah. Jews remained a day behind because of Saturday and the Christians two days behind because of Sunday.

Concerning the command of slaughtering the cow also, the Jews, as narrated in Surah Baqarah, ayat 67 to 71, raised various kinds of queries. Similarly, they had also changed the words of the saying which they were ordained to utter while entering a city victoriously (Surah Baqarah, Verse No.58). Therefore, it is not unusual for them to have refused to agree to the observance of Friday, and Allah in view of their disagreement and mischief ordained them to observe Saturday with more restrictions.

As for the Christians, they differed from the Jews and reserved Sunday for themselves as their Sabbth instead of Saturday, although they believe in the Torah.

Accordingly, a commentator of the Bible writes:

“The changeover from Sabbath (Saturday in the Gentile Calendar) to Sunday as the day of worship was accomplished by the early 2nd Cent.”— (The Interpreter’s Commentary on the Bible, page 650).

Actually in this ayah the objection of the polytheists is being answered as to why this prophet does not give the command concerning the observance of Sabbath. They have been answered that the command for Sabbath was not given in the Shariah of Prophet Ibrahim, but that it was for the Jews on account of special circumstances, and since this Prophet was been given basically the same Shariah which was given to Prophet Ibrahim, there are no severe restrictions like Sabbath in it.

185. That is: The final judgment concerning all the disputes and disagreements that have been created about God’s religion and His Shariah will be given on the Day of Judgment.

186. Three ways have been mentioned here of inviting people to Allah’s religion:

The first method is of wisdom, that is, such points as may be appealing to common sense and intellect, which may include those arguments that are akin to human nature, and also reasoning with the help of signs in the universe. This method is more suitable for the intelligentsia.

The second method is that of kindly exhortation, that is to present such points as may appeal direct to the heart and which may create a feeling of emotional tenderness, etc., so that people’s hearts may be ready to accept the exhortation. This is not ‘sermonizing’, but it is imparting education and training, reminding and appealing. It includes presentation of moral-teaching instances from the histories of the prophets, reminding of the inevitable death, narrating the scheme of reward and punishment of Allah, etc. This method is more suited to the common people.

As regards the third method, it is of fair argumentation, which means that if it becomes necessary to argue and enter into discussion, it should be adopted provided a fair way of presenting the arguments is followed, that is if any argument is rejected, it should be done with reasonableness and every objection should be answered in a good way, and remaining within the limits of good etiquette so that opponent may not be provoked to obstinacy, resistance and violence, or else he will not be prepared to understand the main Dawah.

The main methods of dawah are only two as mentioned above and the method of argumentation and discussion has been adopted as of necessity. It becomes necessary when the opponent presents objections, doubts, or a false theory and philosophy. There are various examples of this in the Qur’an, e.g. Prophet Ibrahim’s argumentation with his people and Namrood (Nimrod), replies to the polytheists on their objections concerning revival of mankind on the Day of Resurrection, etc.

187. In Makkah the idolaters were subjecting the people of faith to inhuman oppression and torture for the reason that they had responded to the voice of their conscience and embraced Islam. The Muslims were a handful of people and were not in a position to wield their power in a collective way. In these circumstances they have been exhorted to suffer patiently, but they were also permitted to take revenge from their oppressor to the extent that they were made to suffer by him, that is you can inflict the same degree of affliction which you suffered at his hands, you are not allowed to exceed this limit. This provides us a guiding principle that in a non-Islamic society a Muslim, even if he is a da’ee (missionary) he is allowed to give tit for tat.