120. In the foregoing verses methods of curbing and crushing the mischief and evil of the rebels was mentioned. Now the faithful are being directed to develop in themselves those basic qualities which would make them virtuous and of impeccable character.

121. That is: avoid and eschew the evil and sinful acts.

122. That is: Perform those acts and deeds which get you nearness to Allah. For getting near to Allah merely avoiding commitment of sins is not sufficient. It is necessary in a positive way, to worship Him and obey His commands. Therefore, along with fear of Allah (piety), emphasis is laid on performing those acts which are the means of gaining nearness to Allah.

The meaning of the word ‘wasilah’(means) used here is correct with reference to the context and also by the fact of its being in consonance with the general trend of the Quranic teachings, because Quran has declared Faith and pious deeds as the means of reaching God and of gaining His pleasure, and on this rests the success in the Hereafter.

In the text the word ‘wasilah’ has not been used as a common noun (nakirah) but as denoting a proper noun (ma’rifah). The ‘al’ before the word, according to the Arabic grammar (Nahv), refers to that particular thing to which the mind of a Quran reader turns immediately on reading this word. And it is obvious that the mind of the person studying Quran turns to righteous deeds on reading the word ‘wasilah ‘(the means of nearness). Therefore, there is no room for taking some other means as the meaning of the word wasilah according to the rules of the Arabic grammar.

So far as the dictionary meaning is concerned, in the Lisan-ul-Arab, which is the biggest and the most reliable dictionary of the Arabic language, the meaning of the word ‘wasilah’ has been given as nearness only:

wasilah that is nearness.- ( Lisanul Arab Vol. 11, page 727).

And in the oldest dictionary, As-Sihah Lil Jauhari. wasilah has been explained as under:

“A certain person gained ‘wasilah’ to His Lord means that a certain person sought the nearness of His lord through his acts.” (As-Sihah Lil Jauhari Vol. 5 P.1841)

And our pious forefathers (Salaf Saleheen) had taken wasilah to mean nearness or the means to nearness only. Accordingly, Ibn Jarir Tabari, stating the meaning of wasilah to be nearness, has quoted the statements of Mujahid, Ata, Abu Wayel, Hasan, etc. in support, and also this commentary of Qatadah:

“That is: by His obedience and by performing acts of His liking, gain the means of His nearness.”-( Tafseer Tabari Vol. 4, page 147).

Allama Ibn Katheer also gives the same meaning and writes: “The contention which these leading lights have stated (in the explanation of the word wasilah), there is no difference of opinion among the commentators about this meaning of this word.”-(Tafseer Ibn Katheer, Vol. 2 page 52).

After this explanation, the edifice of ‘wasta , and wasilah’ which the ahl-i-bidat (innovators) have erected by giving the word a wrong meaning, comes down crashing automatically. They explained the verse as ‘Seek the means or the medium of the prophets and the saints.’ Then they declared calling the prophets and the saints for solving their difficulties and to seek their unseen help in adversity as proper and permissible, and then they created this concept that Allah bestows His favours and blessings through them only. As a result this self-created means of theirs, became the means of polytheism and they could not adhere to the tawheed, which. was taught by Quran and the recipient of the Quran (Peace be upon him).

123. By jihad is meant that striving which may be undertaken to stand firmly by the religion of truth, to propagate its dawah, to fight its enemies, to raise its Kalimah, and to enforce its laws; for achieving this purpose all the might and abilities may be brought into play, to sacrifice the property and all the means in this cause, so much so that for achieving the goal even the life may be sacrificed.

Jihad is also applicable to actually waging war in the cause of Allah, and also for striving peacefully for the same objective, when the missionary has to pass through storms of oppositions.

124. The disbelievers in the Hereafter consider the worldly wealth as everything worth living and striving for. But when the Doomsday will occur, they would realise that the main and real problem was of the salvation in the Hereafter. By ignoring that, they had committed a blunder in the world, as a result of which they had become great losers. They would like that somehow amends might be made, but at that time nothing would avail. This helplessness of theirs has been pictured in these words that if they would have the entire wealth and treasures of the world, nay even if twice this wealth and treasures, and if they offer all this as ransom for getting salvation from their final and certain doom, this ransom will not be accepted from them. The same thing has been stated in the following hadith:

“On the Doomsday the infidel would be asked that if he got gold equal to the entire earth, would he give it as a ransom? He would say of course ! He would be told that less than that was demanded of him, but he did not agree.” (Bukhari and Muslim).

125. That is: They would like to run away from the Hell, but there will be no possibility of their escaping from that prison.

126. The Islamic punitive law does not make any distinction between the criminals on the basis of their sex. The person found guilty of the crime, whether male or female, deserves punishment in equal measure.

127. In the event of the crime of theft having been proved, only one hand, i.e. right hand, will be cut off. The enforcement of this law and other punitive laws of this kind has not been demanded of a single individual but of the society of the believers, and the time of the revelation of this Surah shows that this demand was made at a time when the Muslims had gained ruling power and had established their own system of justice.

As regards the question: What is the demand of Islam, in respect of establishing their own Islamic system of justice, from the Muslims of a country where they are not in a position to do so? The brief reply to this question is that their inability to enforce the Islamic punitive law in such a country is obvious, but this helpless does not mean that they should give up their support of the criminal laws of Islam, and they should support and endorse the self-made laws enacted by man as right and proper, because to consider the man-made laws right and proper compared to the laws ordained by God is contrary to faith and also opposed to their stand of being the standardbearers of truth and justice. In fact, it is their responsibility that they should hold aloft the standard of Islam and present the Islamic dawah before the people till such time these dawah efforts reach their logical end.

128. It refers to the wisdom behind this punishment. Cutting off the hand as a punishment for theft is really a very severe punishment, but this harsh punishment has been prescribed with the purpose of teaching a lesson to the crime-loving persons, so that they are discouraged. Theft does not merely remain a theft, along with it more heinous crimes like murder, rape, etc are also committed. Therefore, by prescribing this harsh punishment for theft, Islam has not only checked the commitment of theft but also other more outrageous crimes. The present day man-made laws have tried to prove the crime of theft to be a minor one, by prescribing light punishment, inspite of the fact that the increasing number of crimes of thefts and other more severe crimes have disturbed the peace of the modern society and have caused an inestimable damage to civilization. The law experts try to veil the reality by inventing new philosophies about the crime. They feel pity for the thief but have no pity for the society, whose very order and peace is challenged by the thief. They cry out when they see the hand of a thief being severed, but they have no tears to shed for the heads of the innocent persons being severed by the thieves ! Wherever this punitive law of Islam is inforce today, there it exercises such an awful terror that the incidence of theft is found to be merely nominal. And this reality is to silence all the objections that are being raised against the Islamic laws describing them to be barbaric.

129. Allah is Mighty, therefore His laws should be enforced and be obeyed. He is Wise, therefore His laws are not without wisdom and good justification. The punishment for theft is harsh, but it is not against the interests of humanity, but for its benefit.

130. That is: By repenting and by reforming his conduct, he would be spared the punishment in the Hereafter. It may be noted that repenting after having been caught by the law enforcing authority does not absolve a person from receiving the due punishment.

131. The entire authority and power of punishing and forgiving is vested in Allah. There is no power which can interfere with Him in the exercise of this authority.

132. That is: There are people who are leaving no stone unturned to see that Islam does not gain power and the affairs of men are not decided by the just Islamic Shariah; a missionary of Islam is naturally perturbed by the activities of such people, but that should not dishearten him.

133. Means hypocrites, particularly those hypocrites who were in league with the Jews.

134. This is the description of the party of the Jews, who used to come and meet the Prophet, whereas there were also others who did not come to him at all. Those who used to see him did so not to seek the truth, but to spread a concoction of what they learnt from him, and falsehood, so that the people who did not see the Prophet, may not be drawn towards him. In other words, those Jews who used to go to the Prophet had a scheming mind.

135. Its explanation has been given in the foregoing note. Here it also means that when they did not hesitate to distort the words of Allah as revealed in the Quran, it would not be at all difficult for them to distort the meaning of what the Prophet said.

136. Refers to the learned men of the Jews who used to say to their people that if the commands which they were giving to the people were also given by the Prophet, then they should be accepted, otherwise they should not be obeyed.

137. For those persons who knowingly and consciously follow the evil path, and whose conscience is dead, no advice can have any effect. on them. When such people are subjected to a trial by Allah, instead of taking a lesson from that they tend to become more wicked, as a result there is an increase in their evil and mischievous deeds. None has the ability to bring them to the right path. It is this divine law of straying which has been mentioned here as “To whom Allah intends to subject to temptation...”

138. That is: When they themselves want to remain impure at heart, with evil and sinful tendencies, why should Allah purify them?

139. In the text the word used is ‘Soht’ which means the unlawful earning. In Arabic it is mostly used to connote bribe. Here it refers particularly to the Qazis (judges) of the Jews who used to take bribes and accepting wrong evidence gave judgements against truth and justice.

140. That is: If they come to you requesting you to give judgement in their cases, then it is up to you to decide to give judgment or to refuse to take that responsibility.

At that time the colonies of the Jews that were located around the city of Madina had their own separate sphere of influence. Therefore, the responsibility of giving judgments in their mutual cases did not devolve on the Islamic government of Madina. But some of the Jews did not want their cases to be decided by the commands given in the Torah, and wanted them to be decided by the Prophet of Islam, in the hope that perhaps there may be a light judgment in the Islamic Shariah.

141. The meaning of judging in equity is that no partiality be shown to any party of the dispute, nor any excess be committed with either of the parties. It also means that the judgments be given according to the just Islamic Shariah.

142. In this verse an expression of astonishment is made on the practice of the Jews that they bring to the prophet such cases for decision about which clear commands are found in the Torah, in order that the Prophet may give some other decision than what is in their Book. They claimed to believe in the Torah, at the same time they were not prepared to abide by the commands given in that Book. Similarly, they did not believe in the Prophet of Islam, yet they wanted him to give judgment in their disputes. This action, this practice of theirs is a proof of the fact that in reality they believed in nothing.

Here the reference to the Torah that it contains Allah’s command means that it contains the punitive laws and Shariah limits, which is explained in the coming verse No.45. It also indicates the nature of the cases which they wanted to refer to the Prophet, that they pertained to laws of punishment, about which there were clear laws and commands in the Torah, but they wanted to seek a means of escape from those laws.