Surah Ali 'Imran 3:102-109 - Quran Translation Commentary

103. And hold fast, all together, to the rope¹³²,¹³³ of Allah, and be not divided among yourselves;¹³⁴ and remember Allah’s favour to you, for you were enemies¹³⁵ and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, you became brethren; and you were on the brink of the pit of fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make His signs clear to you, that you may be guided.¹³⁶

104. Let there be a group among you that should invite (the people) to all that is good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong;¹³⁷ they are the ones who are successful.

105. And be not like those who are divided amongst themselves and fall into disputations after receiving clear teachings;137AA for them is a very severe punishment.

106. On that day a number of faces will be bright ( white) and a number of faces will be black; to those whose faces will be black (will be said): “Did you reject faith after accepting it? So taste the punishment for rejecting faith.”

107. However, those whose faces will be bright, they will be in Allah’s mercy, they will abide therein for ever.

108. These are revelations of Allah, we recite them to you in truth. Allah does not intend to do injustice to the people of the world.

109. And to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and on the earth; and to Him all matters will be presented.

Commentary

130. This is the desired standard that man should fear Allah as He deserves to be feared. As regards the limit of fear from the legal and the Fiqh point of view, it is stated at another place:

“Fear Allah as much as is possible for you” (Taghabun- 16).

131. That is: For the whole of your life remain steadfast with Islam and when you die, die as a Muslim.

132. ‘Habl’(Rope) here means Allah’s Book (Quran), which joins Allah’s slaves with Allah and which is like a covenant and an agreement and therefore, to hold it is to hold Allah. In a hadith, the prophet has said: Allah’s Book is Allah’s Rope which is stretched from the sky to the earth.”– ( Ibn Katheer, Vol. I, P. 389, with reference to Tabri).

133. That is: The Muslims not only individually but also collectively hold fast to the Quran, and only this Book should enjoy the central position in the Ummah and they should establish a deep attachment to it.

134. Differences and divisions creep in when the attachment with the Divine Book is weakened and when in practice it is not given the central position and its appointed centre of attention, though there is no let up in the respect shown to the Book. Instead of making the Divine Book the centre of attention, the saying of mortal persons and their books are given more importance, and then such circles of spiritual attachments are formed and the followers hold firmly the ropes of their own particular ‘Imam’, ‘Sufi’, ‘Buzurg’, ‘Qaid’ and’ Allama’ that they do not even feel the slipping away of the Divine Rope, Quran, from their hands. As a result severe disputations and sectarian divisions emerge in the Ummah and the community becomes a prey to disruption.

It is really sad that inspite of this warning, Muslims were divided into different sects. This sectarianism among the Muslims can be eliminated if Muslims, regardless of their schools of Fiqh and sect, give the Divine Book the position which it rightly deserves and deeply attach themselves to this Book.

135. Refers to the mutual enmity of the Arabs, as a result of which one tribe used to be always at war with another tribe.

136. That is: Appreciate and respect that religion which has created in you feelings of extreme love, integration and brotherhood: It means that Islam is the basis, by correctly adopting which the human society can have brotherly relationship, perfect integration and emotional harmony in the real sense of the world.

137. ‘Amr bil Ma’roof’ (Enjoining what is right) and ‘Nahi anil Munkar’(Forbidding what is wrong) is the essential quality of a Muslim, as is clear from the clarifications in the Quran. But the work of dawah of the religion needs preparation as well as capability and moreover it demands spending of time and making untiring efforts. Therefore, for this service, the earmarking of a group for this purpose is necessary so that this duty may be performed safisfactorily. It is the great responsibility of the Muslim Ummah that it should. from among itself, prepare a group of missionaries of truth who should be learned and capable, and to provide to such a group all the means and resources for undertaking this work. If the Ummah is careless in this work, then it would prove to be a failure in its duty because this Ummah has been called the ‘balanced Ummah’ for this reason only and it has to perform the duty of giving witness for the mankind. In the verse the word ‘good’ means Islam, which contains all the good of this world and the next, e.g. fear of God, good treatment to the parents, doing good to the relatives, neighbours, assistance to the helpless, truth, honesty, trust, justice and help to the oppressed, etc. etc. By wrong and forbidden are meant those evils whose being evil is quite clear, e.g. denial of God, unjustified killing, oppression, falsehood, breaking the promise, lewdness, shamelessness. etc. etc. These are the good and the evil things which are universally considered as good and evil by the human nature. Therefore man knows about their being good or evil and from this consideration everybody is responsible for his acts and answerable to God. The details of good and evil presented by Islam contains these good and evil thing at the head of the list, which are pointed out by the human nature.

To inform people of what is good and to keep them away from what is evil requires advice, persuasion and efforts and sometimes force also that is why direction is given to raise’ such a group as would perform this duty specifically and where Muslims are in power, there’ the power should be used to promote what is good and to forbid the commitment of what is evil.

137A. The word, ‘those who are divided among themselves and fall into disputations after receiving clear signs’, point to the Jews and Christians, who were given a clear concept of the right religion through the Torah and the Gospels, and who were convincingly explained the meaning of oneness of Allah. They were also imparted the teachings of the religion in clear-cut terms but they engaged in rhetorics and theological hair-splitting and created thousands of problems which resulted in their dividing into various sects and becoming a prey to differences and disruption.

The purpose of referring to the course of action of the Jews and the Christians is to warn the Muslims that they should appreciate the truth that has been revealed to them by the Quran and the clean teachings that they have received through it and should not follow the footsteps of the misguided nations and communities.

A great pity that inspite of this warning of the Quran, Muslims created new problems in the Quranic teachings, so much so that they have done so in matters of belief also, which has tarnished the concept of the religion and they have become a prey to differences and disruption. The intensity of differences gave birth to the sects, and now the position is that the concept of religion of every sect is different. The real and effective remedy for this condition is that as directed by the Quran a group should rise that should be above the sectarian, groupist and schools-of- Fiqh prejudices and should directly and unhesitatingly invite all to that religion which Quran has called ‘Khair’ (good ).

And whatever good that they would do will not be denied, and Allah knows well the God-fearing people. ( But) the riches and the children of those who rejected faith will not avail them aught against Allah; they will be the companions of the fire, dwelling therein (for ever). (Al-Quran)