Surah Al-Baqarah 2:249-253 - Quran Translation Commentary

249. And when Talut (Saul) set out with the army,³⁹³ he said to them: “ Allah will test you by a river.³⁹⁴ Whosoever drinks there of is not of me, except him who takes thereof in the hollow of his hand.” But they drank thereof,³⁹⁵ all save a few of them. And he had crossed (the river), he and those who believed with him, they said: We have no power this day against Jalut (Goliath)³⁹⁶ and his forces.³⁹⁷ But those who knew that they would meet their Lord said: “How often, by Allah’s will has a small force vanquished a big one, Allah is with the steadfast.”³⁹⁸

250. When they advanced to meet Jalut (Goliath) and his forces, they prayed. “Our Lord! Bestow on us endurance, make our foothold sure and give us victory over the disbelieving folk.”

251. So they routed them by Allah’s will and David³⁹⁹ slew Jalut; and Allah gave him power and wisdom and taught him whatever He willed.⁴⁰⁰ And if Allah had not repelled some men by others the earth would have been filled with corruption and chaos. But Allah is full of bounty to all the peoples of the world,⁴⁰¹

252. These are the Revelations of Allah which we recite to you with truth, and indeed you are one of the messengers.⁴⁰²

253. Those are the Messengers⁴⁰³– some of whom we have caused to excel others,⁴⁰⁴ and of them there was some to whom Allah spoke, while some of them He exalted (above others) in degree; and we gave Issa (Jesus), son of Mariam (Mary), clear signs and we helped him with the holy Spirit.⁴⁰⁵ And if Allah had so willed it, those who followed after them would not have fought among themselves after the clear signs had come to them. But they differed, some of them believing and some disbelieving. And if Allah had so willed it, they would not have fought among themselves; but Allah does what He wills⁴⁰⁶.

Commentary

393. The contest was with the infidels of Palestine, who had aggressively captured some regions of the children of Israel.

394. Probably it refers to the River Jorden.

395. This command was given to test the discipline and moral strength of the army. The condition for coming out successful in this test was that the water of this stream or river should not be tasted; the water that could be taken in the hollow of a hand was exempted. Very few came out successful in this test.

396. Jalut (Goliath) was a Philistinian sandow, who was very tall, well built and expert fighter . He was the commander-in-chief of the Philistinian army. The name of Jalut in Bible appears as Goliath.

397. These were the words of those who had drunk the water from that river and were unsuccessful in the test.

398. That is: Acts with courage and determination which bring the support of Allah. And in war victory depends on the help and support from Allah and not on the large or small number of soldiers. In history innumerable examples will be found where smaller groups have inflicted defeat on larger groups.

O you who believe ! spend out of what we have provided for you, before the Day comes when there will be no bargains, nor friendship, nor intercession . The disbelievers, they are the wrong-doers. (Al-Quran)

399. David, who was later on graced by Allah with prophethood and kingdom, was a youth at that time. He accepted the challenge of Goliath and attacked him so valiantly that Goliath was slain in the attack. After his death, there was a panic in the Philistine army and it was defeated ignominiously. The Bible states :

“Then David said to the philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear; for the better is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.’

When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground.

So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him; here was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. ( I Samuel 17. 45 – 51

David’s historical life begins with this great adventure.

400. Means those bounties and favours which were bestowed on prophet David. Allah gave him kingdom and wisdom. If the people are not ruled with wisdom then it becomes a tyrannical rule and if the people are ruled with wisdom, then it becomes a just and fair government and by implementing the commands and laws given by Allah it attains the status of vicegerency of Allah. The government of the prophet David was the Islamic caliphate (or vicegerency of Allah).

401. That is: It is a rule of Allah that when a group after becoming powerful crosses its limits, then Allah raises another group to bring down the aggressor group. This explains the necessity of wars and fighting. If the wars were totally unlawful, then the world would have been full of mischief and corruption.

This also goes against the ascetic and nonviolent conception of religion, which considers that fighting is opposed and contrary to righteousness and religion. The reformers and prophets who fought wars did so to raise the word of Allah above others, to establish justice and balance in the world and to remove mischief and corruption and therefore such fighting is beneficial and in ‘the interest of mankind’.

402. Refers to the point that the children of Israel had made the important historical incident of Talut (Samuel) a senseless thing. Accordingly, a study of the Bible shows that they had made the Book of Samuel a collection of true and false details. But Allah has stated the facts correctly in the Quran, which has brought out wise and inspiring points before the people. The relating of this incident which had taken place about one thousand and five hundred years ago with such correctness and truth, when there was no source of knowing the incident, is an open proof of Hazrat Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) being the prophet of Allah. Hazrat Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) was one of the prophets of Allah. prophet means that he is sent by Allah and is His messenger and that he does not have Divine qualities nor is he an incarnation of God. The concept of prophet which the Quran presents to the world is free from all false superstitions.

403. Refers to the entire group of Messengers or the prophets, whose mention was made in the foregoing verse.

404. That is: Allah has granted superiority to every messenger in one aspect or the other e.g. Moosa was granted the privilege of personally speaking with Allah, prophet Issa was enabled to perform open miracles. Similarly other messengers were given special excellence or greatness. It is not proper to accept or recognise the greatness of some Messengers and reject or deny the greatness of others. But the followers of these prophets have adopted strange policies.

They claim all kinds of superiority and greatness for the prophet of their own community and are not ready to accept any superiority for the prophets of other peoples, with the result that they are deprived of deriving any benefit from the other messengers.

Had they not acted with prejudice, it would not have been difficult for them to believe in all the prophets without discrimination. In such a case they would have benefited from that Guidance which was revealed to the last messenger of Allah, prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) in the form of the holy Quran. How realistic and convincing is the teaching of Quran that whatever special superiorities that were given to whichever prophet should all be accepted as true and without discriminating among them the heavenly guidance, which is common to all, should be accepted.

405. The Holy Spirit means the chief of the angels, Archangel Jibril, (Gabriel) through whom Allah helped and supported Issa (Jesus Christ), but the Christians made him a god and included him in their self-invented belief of Trinity.

406. Refers to the policy of Allah where in Allah Has not adopted the method of compulsion in the matter of guidance. If He wanted to compulsorily make people believe in Him, then nobody would have been able to adopt the line of rejection of faith. But Allah gave freedom to His slaves to decide for themselves whether they would believe in the One and Only Allah or they would take the course of rejecting Him and to see for themselves the consequences of their decision.

Allah’s desire of not forcing mankind to believe in Him and to give full freedom to the people to fight among themselves in the name of religion is based on wisdom and justification. No decision of Allah is devoid of wisdom and justification. It may be remembered that in the foregoing verses the discussion was about fighting and spending in the cause of Allah in connection with freeing the House of Ka’aba from the possession of the infidels. In this connection it is being explained that the fighting which the people of the Book are forcing on the people of faith is mainly due to the fact that on account of their blind prejudice they do not accept any prophet other than their own and do not grant any superiority or greatness to the other prophets. Even today various communities in the world are suffering from this disease and they are not prepared to believe in the prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) or to accept any greatness for him only because he was born in another country and among another people, although they observe this fact daily that the light of the sun is not confined to any one country or any one nation and that its benefit is derived by the entire world and the whole mankind. Then why do they want to confine Divine Guidance to geographical limits and national boundaries ?