Surah 24. An-Nur

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Verses [Section]: 1-10[1], 11-20 [2], 21-26 [3], 27-34 [4], 35-40 [5], 41-50 [6], 51-57 [7], 58-61 [8], 62-64 [9]

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Quran Text of Verse 51-57اِنَّمَاOnlyكَانَisقَوْلَ(the) statementالْمُؤْمِنِیْنَ(of) the believersاِذَاwhenدُعُوْۤاthey are calledاِلَیtoاللّٰهِAllahوَ رَسُوْلِهٖand His Messengerلِیَحْكُمَto judgeبَیْنَهُمْbetween themاَنْ(is) thatیَّقُوْلُوْاthey sayسَمِعْنَاWe hearوَ اَطَعْنَا ؕand we obeyوَ اُولٰٓىِٕكَAnd thoseهُمُ[they]الْمُفْلِحُوْنَ (are) the successful وَ مَنْAnd whoeverیُّطِعِobeysاللّٰهَAllahوَ رَسُوْلَهٗand His Messengerوَ یَخْشَand fearsاللّٰهَAllahوَ یَتَّقْهِand (is) conscious of Himفَاُولٰٓىِٕكَthen thoseهُمُ[they]الْفَآىِٕزُوْنَ (are) the successful ones وَ اَقْسَمُوْاAnd they swearبِاللّٰهِby Allahجَهْدَstrongاَیْمَانِهِمْtheir oathsلَىِٕنْthat ifاَمَرْتَهُمْyou ordered themلَیَخْرُجُنَّ ؕsurely they (would) go forthقُلْSayلَّا(Do) notتُقْسِمُوْا ۚswearطَاعَةٌObedienceمَّعْرُوْفَةٌ ؕ(is) knownاِنَّIndeedاللّٰهَAllahخَبِیْرٌۢ(is) All-Awareبِمَاof whatتَعْمَلُوْنَ you do 24. An-Nur Page 357قُلْSayاَطِیْعُواObeyاللّٰهَAllahوَ اَطِیْعُواand obeyالرَّسُوْلَ ۚthe Messengerفَاِنْbut ifتَوَلَّوْاyou turn awayفَاِنَّمَاthen onlyعَلَیْهِupon himمَا(is) whatحُمِّلَ(is) placed on himوَ عَلَیْكُمْand on youمَّا(is) whatحُمِّلْتُمْ ؕ(is) placed on youوَ اِنْAnd ifتُطِیْعُوْهُyou obey himتَهْتَدُوْا ؕyou will be guidedوَ مَاAnd notعَلَی(is) onالرَّسُوْلِthe Messengerاِلَّاexceptالْبَلٰغُthe conveyanceالْمُبِیْنُ [the] clear وَعَدَAllah (has) promisedاللّٰهُAllah (has) promisedالَّذِیْنَthose whoاٰمَنُوْاbelieveمِنْكُمْamong youوَ عَمِلُواand doالصّٰلِحٰتِrighteous deedsلَیَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْsurely He will grant them successionفِیinالْاَرْضِthe earthكَمَاasاسْتَخْلَفَHe gave successionالَّذِیْنَto those whoمِنْ(were) before themقَبْلِهِمْ ۪(were) before themوَ لَیُمَكِّنَنَّand that He will surely establishلَهُمْfor themدِیْنَهُمُtheir religionالَّذِیwhichارْتَضٰیHe has approvedلَهُمْfor themوَ لَیُبَدِّلَنَّهُمْand surely He will change for themمِّنْۢafterبَعْدِafterخَوْفِهِمْtheir fearاَمْنًا ؕsecurityیَعْبُدُوْنَنِیْ(for) they worship Meلَاnotیُشْرِكُوْنَthey associateبِیْwith Meشَیْـًٔا ؕanythingوَ مَنْBut whoeverكَفَرَdisbelievedبَعْدَafterذٰلِكَthatفَاُولٰٓىِٕكَthen thoseهُمُ[they]الْفٰسِقُوْنَ (are) the defiantly disobedient وَ اَقِیْمُواAnd establishالصَّلٰوةَthe prayerوَ اٰتُواand giveالزَّكٰوةَzakahوَ اَطِیْعُواand obeyالرَّسُوْلَthe Messengerلَعَلَّكُمْso that you mayتُرْحَمُوْنَ receive mercy لَا(Do) notتَحْسَبَنَّthinkالَّذِیْنَthose whoكَفَرُوْاdisbelieveمُعْجِزِیْنَ(can) escapeفِیinالْاَرْضِ ۚthe earthوَ مَاْوٰىهُمُAnd their abodeالنَّارُ ؕ(will be) the Fireوَ لَبِئْسَand wretched isالْمَصِیْرُ۠the destination

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Translation of Verse 51-57

(24:51) When those that believe are called to Allah and His Messenger in order that he (that is, the Messenger) may judge their disputes among them, nothing becomes them but to say: "We hear and we obey." Such shall attain true success.

(24:52) Those who obey Allah and His Messenger and fear Him and avoid disobeying Him: such, indeed, shall triumph.

(24:53) (The hypocrites) solemnly swear by Allah: "If you order us, we shall surely go forth (and fight in the cause of Allah)." Tell them: "Do not swear. The state of your obedience is known.⁸¹ Allah is well aware of all that you do."⁸²

(24:54) Say: "Obey Allah and obey the Messenger. But if you turn away, then (know well) that the Messenger is responsible for what he has been charged with and you are responsible for what you have been charged with. But if you obey him, you will be guided to the Right Way. The Messenger has no other responsibility but to clearly convey (the command)."

(24:55) Allah has promised those of you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely bestow power on them in the land even as He bestowed power on those that preceded them, and that He will firmly establish their religion which He has been pleased to choose for them, and He will replace with security the state of fear that they are in. Let them serve Me and associate none with Me in My Divinity.⁸³ Whoso thereafter engages in unbelief,⁸⁴ such indeed are the ungodly.

(24:56) Establish Prayer and pay Zakah and obey the Messenger so that mercy may be shown to you.

(24:57) Do not even imagine that those who disbelieve can render Allah powerless in the land. Their abode is the Fire; what an evil abode!

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Commentary

81. Alternatively, it might mean that the obedience and surrender to God required of believers is of a well-known quality. Those who are truly obedient to God stand apart from others, their distinctiveness can be perceived by everyone. Their conduct leaves no room whatsoever for any doubt that might prompt them to swear so as to convince others about the sincerity of their faith.

82. Such fraudulent measures might possibly enable people to deceive their fellow-men. But as far as God is concerned, such things cannot deceive Him for He is fully aware of everything, whether it is open or secret. His knowledge extends even to the innermost thoughts of human beings.

83. As we have indicated at the outset of this discourse, the present statement aims at warning the hypocrites that God's promise to bestow His vicegerency on Muslims does not apply to those who only have Muslim names or who were registered as Muslims on the occasion of a census or at the time of their birth. That promise was in fact meant for true Muslims who are firm in their belief, who are righteous and God-fearing in their character and conduct, and who faithfully follow the religion of God, who are committed to purge themselves of every taint of polytheism and who worship with full devotion the One True God and none else. Those who are devoid of these qualities and only claim with their tongues that they are believers do not deserve to receive this favor, nor was the promise of this favor meant for them.

Some people tend to interpret vicegerency in the narrow sense of mere power, of dominance and hegemony. With this false assumption, they infer that whoever is in power is ipso facto a true believer, is righteous, is on the way of God, and that ipso facto he worships God and shuns polytheism. What is even more deplorable is that in order to justify their inference they misinterpret several key terms of the Qur'an such as faith, righteousness, religion, worship of God, and polytheism. Such people tend to distort whatever they find, i.e. find it discordant with their preconceived notions. This is the worst misinterpretation of the teachings of the Qur'an, even worse than the distortion of the Scriptures by the Jews and Christians. For this interpretation ascribes a meaning to this Qur'anic verse which distorts the teachings of the Qur'an in its entirety and disturbs the whole Islamic scheme of things. If one understands God's vicegerency in the above sense, the promise to bestow God's vicegerency is applicable to all those who have been dominant in the world either in the past, or are so in the present. This applies to all holders of power, even to those who have rejected God, revelation, Prophethood, the Hereafter, and all the other articles of faith. It also applies to all those who are steeped in what the Qur'an brands as major sins such as dealing in interest, having unlawful sexual relations, and drinking and gambling. If all such people are true believers and are elevated to God's vicegerency owing to this twisted understanding of the verse, then faith is bound to be perceived as no more than following the laws of nature, and righteousness as no more than efficiently exploiting and harnessing those laws to serve one's own purpose. If these assumptions are accepted, then true religion would mean nothing else but gaining perfect mastery in natural sciences and thereby making the utmost progress in trade, industry, business and in other walks of life. By the same token, serving God would mean strictly following the laws which, insofar as they are natural laws, are essential for the success of every human endeavor, both individual and collective. Likewise, if these assumptions are correct, then polytheism can only mean that a person or a people adheres, along with following these natural laws which are useful in pragmatic terms, to ways that are conducive to harm.

Now, can anyone who has studied the Qur'an with an open mind, ever subscribe such meaning to the key concepts of the Qur'an, namely faith, righteousness, true religion, worship of God, the Oneness of God, and polytheism? The interpretations to which those concepts have been subjected can only be entertained by those who have either never studied the Qur'an, or who are guilty of picking up Qur'anic verses at random and adapting them to their preconceived ideas. Alternatively, such an attitude may be adopted by those who have the audacity to go about dismissing as meaningless and faulty all those verses of the Qur'an which describe God as the One True Lord and the only true object of worship, service and obedience, revelation from God as the only true source of guidance, and the Messengers of God as those who ought to be followed faithfully. Or such notions may be entertained by those who contemptuously disregard those Qur'anic verses which not only ask people to believe that another life will follow the present one, and that those who set their minds to worldly success alone, either because they deny or are heedless of their accountability in the Next World, can never achieve true success. These major themes recur so often and in such a variety of ways in the Qur'an and are expressed in such categorical and unmistakable terms that it is hard for us to believe that any student of the Qur'an can genuinely misunderstand the verse, which promises that power on the land will be bestowed upon those who believe and do righteous deeds, to mean what has been described above. As a matter of fact, the interpretation of the terms khilafah and istikhlaf on which this whole structure of false ideas has been raised, is too patently absurd to be accepted by any student of the Qur'an.

To look at the matter more carefully, the Qur'an employs the term khilafah (vicegerency) and the verbal form istikhlaf (bestowing power on the land) which is derived from it in three different ways. In each case it rs the context which determines the meaning in which these terms are used.

One of the meanings of the term khilafah is to possess the powers granted by God. In this sense all the descendants of Adam are vicegerents of God on earth. The second meaning of the word khilafah is to possess and exercise the powers of vicegerency within the parameters of God's sovereignty and in accordance with God's Will (that is, God's revealed Will or command rather than the will which underlies the cosmic order and consists of natural laws). Taken in this sense, only a believer who acts righteously can be considered to have assumed the vicegerency that conforms to this description. On the contrary, an unbeliever or a wicked person cannot be God's vicegerent in this sense; instead, he is a rebel because he abuses the powers that have been granted to him by His Lord in His realm.

In its third usage, the word khilafah means one community's succession by another community; its replacing the dominant community in the sense of wresting power from it.

Whereas in the earlier-mentioned usage of the term, khilafah denotes vicegerency, in its latter usage it is closely related to the idea of succession to power. Both these meanings of the term khilafah are well known in Arabic lexicon.

Anyone who reads the present verse on khilafah and remembers the context in which it occurs, can never have any illusion as to the sense in which the expression khilafah has been employed here. In this particular instance, khilafah denotes a government which fulfils all the obligations of vicegerency according to God's revealed command (rather than simply according to natural laws).

It is significant that even the hypocrites who claimed to be Muslims, let alone those who were declared unbelievers, were excluded from God's promise that khilafah would be bestowed upon them. The intent of the Qur'an is unmistakable: it proclaims that only those characterized with the virtues of faith and righteousness deserve to be invested with the vicegerency of God. In the same vein, it is being made clear that the fruit of such vicegerency is Islam, and that this way of life prescribed by God, will be pervasive. Accordingly, the condition for obtaining this favor from God is that believers should serve and worship the One True God to the exclusion of all else and shun every iota of polytheism.

To contend that this promise of God applies to the dominant powers of our own time such as the USA or the former USSR is tantamount to gross ignorance. If these superpowers, by the sheer dint of their redoubtable material power are considered to be the holders of the office of khilafah, one is left wondering why God should have cursed Pharaoh and Nimrod. (For further elaboration see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, vol. V, al-Anbiya' 21, n. 99, pp. 299-304.)

Another point seems noteworthy, namely that while this promise of God pertains indirectly to Muslims of a later date, it was in the first instance directly addressed to the Prophet's Companions. Moreover, this promise was made at a time when Muslims lived in a state of dire insecurity because Islam had by then not put down any strong roots even in the Hijaz. However, after only a few years this state of insecurity was replaced by a state of peace and security as Islam spread from Arabia to dominate major parts of Asia and Africa. Not only was Islam established in the region from which it had arisen, but also in many other parts of the world. That God did make His promise come true is corroborated by the events which unfolded during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, 'Umar and 'Uthman. God's promise was fulfilled in such a resounding manner that a fair-minded person can hardly have any doubt about the validity of the Caliphate of these three since the Qur'an itself testifies to it, and God Himself confirmed them to be true believers. If anyone has any doubt regarding this, he would be well-advised to read 'Ali ibn Abi Talib's speech in Nahj al-Balaghah which he delivered in order to dissuade 'Umar from personally joining the battle against the Persians. He said:

That this cause should gain strength or be weakened is not contingent upon the numbers [of the believers who take part in the fighting]. It is the religion of God Which He Himself has promoted; and it is God's army which He Himself has strengthened and supported until it has reached its present stage. God Himself promised us: 'Allah has promised those of you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely bestow power on them in the land . . .' (al-Nur 24: 55). God will fulfil His promise and certainly help His army to victory. The position of leader (qayyim) in Islam is that of the cohesive thread in a necklace of pearls. If that cohesive thread is broken, the pearls will be scattered. Once things become disorderly, it becomes that much harder to reorder them. The Arabs are no doubt small in number, yet Islam has made them large in number, and their cohesion has made them strong. You should better remain here as the axis and keep the hand mill of Arabs revolving around yourself and keep directing the war from here. Once you move away, the cohesion of the Arabs will start to shatter and things might reach a point when you will be more concerned with threats from the rear than from the enemy in the front. On the other hand, the Persians have focused their eyes upon you. They believe that you are the very root of the Arabs. They believe that once this root is amputated, they will enjoy smooth sailing. Therefore, they are concentrating all their strength upon destroying you. You say that the Persians have amassed in large numbers [and hence you should personally go and fight]. To this I say that we have also been confronting them in the past, but not by dint of our numbers. It is God's help and support which has led us to victory until now.

Anyone who reads this can readily understand what 'Ali understood by the use of the term istikhlaf in the present verse.

84. The word kufr, [which is translated here as 'unbelief'], can variously mean ingratitude or rejection of the truth. Taken in the former sense, the statement means that although God favored them with vicegerency, they nonetheless drifted away from the Right Path. Taken in the latter sense, it applies to those who persist in their hypocrisy despite their knowledge of God's promise.