43. Many of us have the experience to differentiate a Sunni from a Shi`ee from his face alone. Nothing strange then, that the Awliaya’ Allah should have been able to distinguish between a Muslim and non-Muslim, a good believer and a corrupt one to say, “I can smell belief in him,” or, “I can smell disbelief in him.” The Prophet, above all in his spiritual powers, would have been able to recognize them with the help of his own light of faith. It is in this light that the scholars have said, (since, as a hadith it is either very weak or fabricated: Au.) that,

“Be mindful of the acumen of a believer. He sees by the light of Allah” (Alusi).

That said, I would like to add, says Thanwi, that this does not make inquisitiveness allowable, but makes inquiry permissible if the reason is reformation. E.g., the Prophet telling `A’isha, after she was slandered, “If you have committed an error, then, seek Allah’s forgiveness.”

44. We have a pertinent report in Musnad Ahmad:

On the authority of Abu Mas`ud, “Once the Prophet addressed us. He began by praising Allah and extolling Him. Then he said, Among you are hypocrites. So when I name one of you, let him get up (and leave). Then he began to say, ‘Rise: so and so.’ ‘Rise: so and so.’ ‘Rise: so and so,’ until he named some thirty-six men. The he said, ‘Surely in you, or, of you .. therefore, fear Allah.”

`Umar happened to encounter one of those men who was leaving the mosque, whom he used to know and trust. He asked, “What’s the matter with you?” He told him the story about what the Prophet said. `Umar said, “Away with you for the rest of the day man” (Ibn Kathir).

Haythami did not give this report full clearance (Au.).

A two line report in Qurtubi however, throws a refreshing light on the report above. Ibn Zayd said: “Allah wished to expose the hypocrites and so they were ordered to leave the mosque. But (some) refused, and clung to the testimony of Islam (kalimah), and therefore, their lives were spared and they were allowed to marry Muslim men or women.”

45. That is, bring to light (Qurtubi).

46. “Akhbar: the things reported of you; reputation for courage and constancy, which has to be brought to the test of facts and experience. In an epigram of Tacitus we are told of a Roman Emperor that he would have been considered in every way to have been worthy of being a ruler if only he had never ruled! So in life people may think us courageous, true, noble, and self-sacrificing; and we may consider ourselves as possessing all such virtues; but it is actual experience that will bring them to the test” (Yusuf Ali).

Fudayl b. `Iyad would cry at this verse and say, “O Allah, do not try us. If You did, You will expose us” (Qurtubi).

47. Ibn `Umar and Abu al-`Aliyyah said, “The Companions were originally of belief that since no (good) deed was acceptable from a state of disbelief, it was legitimate to conclude that no (evil) deed would do any harm from a state of belief, until Allah revealed this verse about the collapse of good deeds.”

Some of the Salaf, like Ibn `Umar, felt that major sins led to the collapse of one’s good deeds, but, in view of another verse (4: 47),

“Surely Allah will never forgive that He should be associated with, but might forgive anyone anything other than that,” changed the opinion to as follows: “Fear (of punishment) concerning those who committed major sins, and hope (of forgiveness) concerning those who did not indulge in them” (Zamakhshari, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Razi points to another possible meaning, Do not commit the sin of Association after your Islam. If you did, all the good deeds of the past will collapse, as Allah said (39: 65),

“If you committed Association, your deeds will collapse.”

Qatadah however said, “Whoever of you can manage that he does not lead his deeds to collapse by committing sins after good deeds of the past, then, let him do it” (Ibn Jarir, Alusi, Thanwi).

48. It might be recalled that at the time this was revealed, Muslims were still in hundreds, facing a million of the Peninsula Arabs, bent on destroying Islam root and branch, while the Jews and Christians of the world over, plus the fire-worshiping Persians, watched the struggle with interests and waiting to finish off the job if the Quraysh and others would not (Au.).

49. “If life is declared as devoid of any meaning or purpose with reference to the Hereafter, and is not guided by the rules laid down by Allah, then surely it is reduced to nothing but play and pastime. It is the way of life as determined by Allah which makes it the field whose fruit will be harvested in the Hereafter, and which turns man into the vicegerent who will inherit the everlasting abode. This is what the words that follow indicate: ‘But if you believe and acquire piety, He shall grant you your wages.’ Belief and piety then, are elements that do not allow this life to turn into a meaningless pastime. They lift man from the state of animal existence to the state of caliphate connected to higher existence. A day will arrive when nothing that a believer would have earned in this world but would appear as reward, in the true, lasting world” (Sayyid).

50. Yusuf Ali touches on our souls when he writes: “Complete self-sacrifice, if voluntarily offered, has a meaning: it means that the person’s devotion is exclusively and completely for the Cause. But no law or rule can demand it. And a mere offer to kill yourself has no meaning. You should be ready to take risks to your life in fighting for the Cause, but you should aim at life, not death. If you live, you should be ready to place your substance and your acquisitions at the disposal of the Cause. But it is not reasonable to pauperise yourself and become a hanger-on for the Cause. Moreover, the inborn tendency to self-preservation in an average man would lead to concealment and niggardliness if all were asked for the Cause, by Law, and there would further be a feeling of bitterness and rebellion.”

51. The dictionary meaning of “al-dhaghn” is hatred, or extreme rancor. This is the meaning we have adopted at ayah 29 where the reference is to hypocrites. However, the meaning stated by Qurtubi is slightly different. It is, “that which is concealed of dislike.” This is the meaning that suits the common believers who conceal their dislike to spend off all their wealth in Allah’s cause, while “hatred” is the right meaning for the sentiments that the hypocrites bear for Islam.

Asad expounds: “The implication is that since ‘man has been created weak (4: 28), the imposition of too great a burden on the believers would be self-defeating inasmuch as it might result not in an increase of faith but, rather, in its diminution. This passage illustrates the supreme realism of the Qur’an, which takes into account human nature as it is, with all its God-willed complexity and its inner contradictions, and does not, therefore, postulate a priori an impossible ideal as a norm of human behavior..”

52. That is, far from your wealth, of which Allah does not seek all, even your physical bodies and presence are not indispensable to Him; He could replace you if He so wished.

Some scholars have thought that the allusion by the nation that might be brought in place of the older one is to non-Arabs and Persians. There is a hadith to this effect:

The Prophet recited this verse, “Yet if you turn away, He will substitute you with a people other than you, and then, they will not be the likes of you.” They asked him, “Who are they O Messenger of Allah – those who, if we turned away, will replace us, and then they will not be like us?” In answer he struck on Salman Farsi’s shoulder and said, “This, and his people. If religion were to be in Sirius, surely, one of the Persians would bring it (down)” - Ibn Jarir, Kashshaf, Razi, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir, Alusi.

The hadith is in the Sahih of Ibn Hibban also.

The point to note is that the prophesy amazingly came true. Within a hundred years, and for more than a millennium thereafter, thousands of scholars from Khurasan and farther afield dominated the fields of Tafsir, Hadith and Fiqh, leaving their permanent mark on the world of Islam. The prophesy was made at a time when pen and ink were not sold in the shops of Khurasan. Who but a Prophet could have predicted t? - Au.