Surah Al-Haj 22:73-78 - Quran Translation Commentary

73. O mankind! An example is given, listen to it carefully: Those whom you invoke besides Allah can never create even a single fly though they combine together for the purpose.¹¹⁸ And if a fly carried away anything from them, they could never retrieve it.¹¹⁹ Weak is the seeker and the sought ! ¹²⁰

74. They did not appreciate Allah as He rightfully deserves to he appreciated. Verily Allah is Strong Mighty.¹²¹

75. Allah chooses messengers from angels, and also from men.¹²²Verily Allah hears all, sees all.¹²³

76. He knows what is before them and what behind them. And to Him will return all matters.¹²⁴

77. O you who believe!¹²⁵ bow down and prostrate yourselves,¹²⁶ and worship your Lord,¹²⁷ and do good¹²⁸ so that you may triumph.

78. Fight (strive) for the cause of Allah as striving in His cause deserves.¹²⁹ He has chosen you ¹³⁰ and has laid in religion no narrowness,¹³¹ the faith of Ibrahim, your father.¹³² He has given you the name Muslim before and in this (Qur’an) also,¹³³ so that the messenger may be a witness for you, and that you may be witness for mankind.¹³⁴ So establish salat (prayer), pay zakat, and hold fast to Allah.¹³⁵ He is your Guardian. What an excellent Guardian and what an excellent Helper !

Commentary

118. Fly is the meanest of the insects, and when all the gods of the polytheists combined together cannot create so mean an insect as a fly, then what can they create? when they cannot create anything how they became God?

119. The idolaters of Makkah used to apply honey and saffron on their idols, while the idolaters of India present sweets before their idols. Presenting food to the gods is nothing but foolishness. The helplessness of these deities is such that when a fly carries away anything of their food, they are unable to retrieve it.

120. That is the worshipper is weak, so also is the worshipped. By worshipping such deities what good will be derived by their worshippers ?

By this easy simple example the refutation of polytheism and idolatry has been done so effectively that there remains no doubt about their being false. But the greatest weakness of man is that he is carried away by blind following, and he refuses to use his common sense and intelligence. This is the reason why in the modern times when the flight of intellect has carried man to the skies and the space, he has not been able to get to his real Lord, and what a number of nations have made brick and stone their god.

121. Allah is the Mightiest Being and Victorious over all. Whoever has this concept of Allah in his mind, he cannot admit anyone else to be god, for there is none beside Allah, mighty and victorious. Polytheists believe in a number of gods because their concept of god is not correct. They do not believe in the greatness of Allah, but think Him to be less mighty.

122.Polytheists do not believe in prophethood, but they believe in god’s having sons and daughters or God’s reincarnation, because they do not know that the highest position which Allah bestows on His favourite slave is different. He said that position is of a Rasool (messenger), who is a slave of God and not god.

Allah’s method is that for the guidance of His slaves He selects from among His slaves those who are capable of carrying the heavy burden of this responsibility of conveying His message to His slaves. And for carrying his message to these selected messengers He selects angels who reveal it to the selected men-Allah’s prophets. Exactly in this way was made the selection of Prophet Muhammad (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) as Allah’s messenger.

123. That is: He does not remain unaware of the manner in which these messengers fulfill their responsibilities. He hears every talk of theirs and sees every act of theirs.

He knows what is before them and what behind them. And to Him will return all matters. O you who believe! bow down and prostrate yourselves, and worship your Lord, and do good so that you may triumph. (Al-Quran)

124. That is : Being a messenger of God, does not give him the position of God that people should approach him or invoke him for meeting their needs. To be invoked in times of need is only Allah. Before him are placed all matters and He gives judgment in all matters.

125. These are the concluding ayat which are addressed to the people of faith.

126. Bowing down (Ruku’) and prostrating oneself (Sajda) signify salat.

127. That is: Worship either in the form of salat or in the form of Hajj or in any other form is only for Allah and should be reserved for Him alone as He is your real Lord.

128. In the good acts are included all that work which depends on Allah’s obedience, and whose benefit reaches the slaves of God.

129. Here jihad means that striving in which force is used, and in which the force of the opponents is broken. In the cause of Allah or for the sake of Allah means that its objective should be to raise the word of Allah to spread His religion, and arms should be taken up against those who prevent people from following the path of Allah, so that they may not be able to accept His faith or may not be able to fulfill its important demands. In this surah it has been mentioned how they thwarted the progress of Allah’s faith and how they were using force against Muslims. In this background, the people of faith are being commanded not only to fight but to fight in a way that would satisfy the occasion and the cause for which the jihad is to be undertaken, i.e. they should put their whole heart, might, everything in this fight. This principled directive with its conditions, is operative till the last day. In the hadith it is stated-

“A party from my ummah will be on truth and will be fighting for it till the Day of Resurrection, and will be victorious.” -(Muslim- Kitabul Eeman).

130. That is: You have been given this good luck that you should be the standard bearer of His religion and be a tower of guidance for humanity.

It is thus made clear that the group of the companions of the Prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam)which was the first addressees of these ayat, was the favourite and approved group of Allah. Therefore, those sects among Muslims, who utter curses against this entire group of the companions barring a few individuals, on the basis of unreliable narratives and misquoted events recorded in history books openly deviate from the clarifications given in the Qur’an. If these people study Qur’an with an open mind, and give precedence to Qur’an over the unreliable narratives, they will become true admirers of the group whom Allah had chosen for His special blessing.

131. In this Shariah there are no harsh commandments which were found in the earlier Shariahs, e.g. the command for observing Sabbath, which was given to the Jews and which was very hard. These harsh commandments were given them on account of their rebellious attitude. But the Shariah which was given to the last prophet was not for a particular nation or for a particular period of time, but it is for the entire Muslim Ummah which in its formation is universal in nature and will last till the Day of Resurrection. Therefore, it has been made easy and concessions have been given in its observance. But it does not mean that no command has been given following which will be difficult for Muslims. In the above ayat command for jihad has been given, which demands sacrifice of life and property. Therefore, the correct meaning of the ayah is the same which is commensurate with the other clarifications given in the Qur’an.

132. That is: This is the same religion of monotheism which was the religion of Prophet Ibrahim. This Shariah is also basically the same which was given to Ibrahim, i.e. simple Shariah- Al-Hanifiyatus Sumhah, and in which are in cluded Hajj and other rituals.

133. That is: Allah had named you people of faith- Muslims among the other nations also, and in this Book also your name is Muslim. It is not correct to say that this name was given by Prophet Ibrahim, and that before him this name was not given. Prophet Nooh, who lived much earlier than Prophet Ibrahim, had declared himself to be a Muslim

“And I have been commanded to be a Muslim.” (Surah Yunus-72).

This name expresses those qualities which are hidden in its meaning, i.e. he who has accepted the faith of Islam, and offered himself in service of Allah and who is submissive to Him. After this Muslims have no right to name themselves in any other manner instead of their own name given by Allah, or to put some additional name to it. But when Muslims were divided into different sects, every sect named himself differently, and today generally Muslims put some suffix with their names, which shows their school of Fiqh. It needs to be reformed urgently. It should suffice for them to name themselves as Muslims, the name given to them by Allah.

134. You have been raised as an ummah bearing these attributes so that you may give witness before the people about this religion, for giving a witness about which Allah’s messengers were sent among you.

This command places a responsibility on the Muslim Ummah that it should present the message of Islam before the world, and for this purpose it should bring into play all its resources. Dawah, tabligh and propagation of religion is the most important duty, for performing which this ummah was raised, but today there is very insignificant realisation of this fact among the Muslims. Therefore, they have resigned to the fate of being only a nation. There are very few people who care about giving witness about the religion, that is who may be presenting the dawah of Islam before non- Muslims.

135. Holding fast Allah means strengthening strong relationship with Allah and this relationship gets strong by having an awareness of His attributes, by His worship and obedience, love with Him and trust in Him.