Surah Al-Ahzab 33:69-73 - Quran Translation Commentary

69. O you who believe! Do not be like those who annoyed Moosa, but Allah cleared him of what they said (against him), and he was well esteemed in Allah’s sight.¹⁴²

70. O you who believe! Fear Allah, and speak a straight speech. ¹⁴³

71. He will rectify your acts ¹⁴⁴ for you and will forgive you your sins. Whoever obeys Allah and His messenger,¹⁴⁵ he has verily achieved a great achievement.

72. Verily, We offered (Our) trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were afraid of it. And man undertook to bear it. Verily man is a wrong-doer and ignorant being.¹⁴⁶

73. So Allah will punish hypocrites, men and women, and the disbelieving men and the disbelieving women,¹⁴⁷and Allah will pardon believing men and believing women,¹⁴⁸ and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

Commentary

142. This is an emphatic command: do not harass or annoy or malign your Prophet as the Bani Israil had done Prophet Moosa. Quran contains various references to the bitter answers which the Bani Israil had given to Prophet Moosa after disobeying him. For example, their reply that you and your Lord may go to the holy land and fight, we will remain here only. Ayah No.5 of Surah Saf hints at this kind of annoyance which they caused. But here the annoyance which is being mentioned is of the type which amounts to character-assassination, that is false allegations and slander against him. And when a dirty allegation is leveled against a Prophet, Allah clears His prophet of this allegation during his life time only, so that the personality of His prophet may not appear to be blemished before the people. In this connection, the example of Prophet Yusuf is very clear, as He cleared him of the false charges against him in such a way that there remained no shadow of doubt about his innocence. In this ayah also it is stated that Allah cleared Moosa of the allegations, and he was a respectable and dignified prophet in the sight of Allah. Both these things point that the allegations were such that they affected the reputation and honour of Prophet Moosa. Quran has not pointed out what was that specific incident, as it is better not to relate such incidents from the remembrance points of view. Therefore, we will also not try to go into the details of this incident.

Commentators generally quote a hadith in explaining this ayah. The summary of this hadith is that Abu Hurairah (R) reports from the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, that he said that Prophet Moosa was very modest and careful about his clothes. He took particular care not to expose any part of his body. But Bani Israil said that it was so because he had some defect in his body or some secret disease. (In view of the respect due to a Prophet we would not like to name the defect which was mentioned in this narrative). Allah wanted to clear him of this false allegation, and one day it so happened that when Moosa was alone he disrobed himself and put his clothes on a stone and took a bath. After his bath, when he tried to take his clothes, the stone started running. Moosa pursued him and reached a crowd of Bani Israil. There the people saw him in the naked state and came to know that there was no defect in Moosa’s birth or body. Thus Allah cleared him of the thing of which they were accusing Moosa. Then the stone stopped and Moosa put on his clothes, and then struck the stone with his staff, which left some marks on the stone. The reference of the ayah “La Takoonoo…… “ (Do not be like those who annoyed Moosa) is to this incident. -(Bukhari Kitab Ahadith-ul- Anbiya).

This hadith has been quoted by Bukhari as well as by Muslim. In one of the narratives of Bukhari it is also stated that the Prophet said that the Bani Israil used to bathe in the naked state and used to watch the genitals of one another, but Moosa used to bathe in solitude. (Bukhari Kitabul Ghusl)

But the said narrative is not reliable from the point of view of its sources and its text. Abdul Wahab Najjar has criticized this story in his book Qasasul Anbia, which is a book of research in Arabic, whose summary is as under:

1) What kind of a miracle is it that it exposes the private parts of a prophet. Even if there were a physical defect in Moosa’s body, how could it render him undignified in the sight of Allah:

2) If Moosa had been accused of having a physical defect, how could it prevent him from being a prophet, when in Surah Saf this saying of Prophet Moosa has been quoted: O people of my community! why are you hurting me, you know that I am a Messenger of Allah sent to you. Therefore, the hurt or the annoyance must be of a more grave nature, and in the Quran the word ‘Eeza’ (hurt) is used for a discomfort of a grave nature.

3) The said hadith had, as one of its sources, a narrator named Auf about whom the well known and reliable book of Asmaur Rajal, Tahzeebut Tahzeeb says that he was a shiah, Rafzi and Satan.

4) I accept only those hadith whose narrators are pure, that is they have no defects of character and about whom my conscience is satisfied. As for the hadith whose narrator is questionable, however small the cause for unreliability may be, my conscience does not accept it regardless of the fact how many other might have accepted it as reliable. I give more importance to reliability, particularly when the narrator is an innovator, regardless of the fact whether he is inviting us to his innovation or not. And in the case of a narrator being a Shiah I take more precautions.

5) In the hadith it is stated that Hasan Basri reported from Abu Hurairah, when the hearing of hadith by Hasan Basri from Abu Hurairah is not proved, nor is the hearing of hadith by Khilas from Abu Hurairah is proved. In Umdatul Qari (Sharh- e-Bukhari) this explanation is given.

6) As for that narrative in Bukhari which has been stated through other sources, in that one narrator is Abdul Razzaq, about whom Ibn Mueen says that he is not firm and he belongs to Shiah cult. He has narrated a number of Ahadith in praise of Ahl-e-Bait, which traditions no other reliable narrator has narrated.

7) Ulema says that in the shariah of Bani Israil bathing naked was allowed, but there is no proof for such a statement. The disagreeableness to expose private parts before others is inborn in human nature.

8) Is a miracle proved without the support of a definite reference in the Divine Scripture? - (Qasasul Anbia by Abdul Wahab Najjar, pages 281 to 291 ).

There is considerable force in the reasoning of Abdul Wahab Najjar, and there is no reason why the said hadith be considered a hadith of the Prophet, and a story be related to Moosa which amounts to an insult. But those who do not want to allow research and religious insight being applied to judge a hadith, on such occasions they accuse others of denial of hadith. But we should care more for the defence of the good name of Quran and the Prophet than our own reputation. We would further like to say that from the viewpoint of sources this hadith is not at all one which can be said to be authentic. About Abdul Razzaq in the book.(Meezanul E’tidal, a book of Asmaur Rajal, edited by Imam Zahbi) contradictory opinions of the narrators of hadith have been quoted. Imam Bukhari says that he is reliable, but in narrating hadith from Muammer he commits errors.

Nasai says that false hadith are narrated by him, and Ibn Adi says that he is said to belong to Shiism. Muhammad bin Uthman At-Thaqafiul Basri states that when Abbas bin Abdul Azim came from sanaa, from Abdul Razzaq, he said to us: By Allah, except Him there is no other God, Abdul Razzaq is a liar Ibn Adi says that Abdur Razzaq has reported this hadith from the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam that whenever you see Muaviyah on my mimber, (pulpit), kill him. (See Meezanul E’tidal, Vol.2, page 609 to 612), Similarly different opinions about Auf are held by the teachers of hadith. (Ibid Vol.3, page 305)

Even after such clarifications by the teachers of hadith, if Imam Bukhari considers Abdur Razzaq’s narration to be acceptable, then it is not necessary that others should also agree with his view.

However, in the explanation of the ayah, the following hadith from Bukhari can be presented:

“The Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, distributed the spoils of war, then a person said that in the distribution Allah’s pleasure was not sought. Abdullah Bin Masood says that he went to the Prophet and informed him of this. He became very much upset, then said: May Allah have mercy on Moosa. He was maligned even more than this, but he showed patience.”- (Bukhari Kitab Ahadith-ul- Anbia)

The charge of injustice in the distribution of the spoils of war was such which threw aspersions on his character, therefore, the reference which he gave on this occasion of Prophet Moosa shows that Prophet Moosa was hurt in such a way that it cast aspersions on his moral character.

143. “Qaul-e-Sadeed” means true speech or true words, which also include the points of not making any false allegations or charges against anybody, and that it means whatever one says should be out and out truthful, and not speaking half-truths or ambiguous words which would mislead others ................. However, to speak half truths at the time of war in order to avert a greater mischief is an exceptional case ................ People of faith should take care to say everything with fear of Allah in their hearts, and should adopt truthful speaking as their way of life. If they promise anybody something, they must try to fulfill that promise. Empty promises for fulfilling which no care is taken are contrary to truthful speech or straight speech.

144. It is learnt that the person who speaks truth and is truthful in his talks and keeps his promises gets guidance from God to reform his acts, in other words the fruit of truthful speech is the reformation of the practical life. As against this, a person who talks irresponsibly and is not tolerant to hear about his own errors, he keep himself deprived of reformation.

145. The command is given for obeying the Messenger along with the command of obeying Allah. And the obedience of the Prophet is this that, whatever commands are proved to have been given by the Prophet, whether concerning worship or worldly affairs, whether connected with the individual life or the social life, they should be strictly followed.

146. Here trust means those authorities and powers which have been given to man to make use of them in obeying Allah, but since after giving these powers man has been sent to the testing ground for being tested, he has the liberty to use these powers either to use them for the obedience of Allah or for disobeying Him. A person who uses them for His obedience, he will be successful and on account of proving himself to be trustworthy will deserve to get a great rewardeternal success and pleasure. And a person who uses them for his disobedience, he will fail in this test and on account of misappropriation in Allah’s trust will be liable to heavy punishment, eternal failure and torture.

This burden of trust was so heavy that the great creations like the heavens and the earth and the mountains were afraid to bear it, but since man was physically capable of bearing it, accepted this offer of Allah in greed of eternal reward. Therefore, man’s position in this world is that of a creature having powers or authority of trusteeship, and naturally his responsibility is to use these powers according to the dictates or desires of his Lord. But man has forgotten these realities, and therefore, a large number of humans considers itself independent and is misappropriating the trust by using it according to its own whims and fancies. By doing so such men are doing a great disservice to their own selves and proving themselves to be ignoramuses.

“Kana Zalooman Jahoola” has been taken by many commentators to mean that he was a great tyrant and ignorant, and have proceeded to offer lengthy interpretations, although ‘kana’ does not always come to mean ‘was’. But it is also used to mean ‘is’ or ‘happens to be’, as in “Kanallahu Ghafoorar Raheema” (Allah is Forgiving Merciful) Or “Kanal Insanu A’joola” (Man is or happens to be hasty). Therefore, whatever meaning is suitable at this place has been taken, that is, man has become wrong-doer and ignorant after bearing this burden of trust. Wrong doer because he is misappropriating the trust of God, and ignorant because he does not realise his own responsibility, and considers himself free and independent, being carefree of the consequences. In the world the condition of many men is like this. As for the question as to heaven and the earth and the mountains are lifeless materials, then what is the meaning of offering them this trust? We should not try to fix its meaning while remaining in our own limited sphere of knowledge, nor should we consider it on the level of worldly affairs. We should consider it as a fact in the same way in which it is stated in the Quran. Allah can talk with His any creation, whether it is lifeless or not, and that creation can hear Him. Quran has stated that everything in the world recites His glory and praises but man cannot understand it. It can also be concluded from the ayah that had heavens and the earth and the mountains shown willingness to accept this burden of trust, then they would have been given powers according to their status and subjected to test, but they shook from its very concept. Their refusal also does not mean that Allah had given them command to bear the burden and they had refused it, but that they had been given the choice of accepting or not accepting it. But they did not show willingness to accept.

147. The essential result of misappropriation in this trust is that the perpetrators of this crime be punished. Hypocrites (who hide their denial and appear as Muslims) and polytheists, whether men or women, are misappropriates, therefore they will definitely be made to receive their punishment.

148. Those who will prove to be honest in keeping the trust, will deserve to get rewards from Allah, and those who prove to be trustworthy can only be people of faith, whether men or women. When they might have used their powers, considering them to be the trust from Allah, then whatever errors might have been committed by them Allah will surely forgive them and Allah will accept their repentance, In this there is a persuasion for the people of faith to keep in view their action and their errors and must always repent before Allah.