112. The preceding verse concludes God's response to Moses' prayer. This
was the appropriate moment to invite the Israelites to follow the Message preached
by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him). The upshot of what is being said
here is that people can even now attain God's mercy exactly as they could in
the past. These conditions require that people should now follow the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be on him), since refusal to follow a Prophet after his advent
amounts to gross disobedience to God. Those who do not commit themselves to
follow the Prophet (peace be on him) cannot attain the essence of piety, no
matter how hard they try to make a pretence of it by observing the minor details
of religious rituals generally associated with piety.
Likewise, the Israelites had been told that paying Zakah was essential to win
God's mercy. However, payment of Zakah is meaningless unless one supports the
struggle to establish the hegemony of truth which was being carried on under
the leadership of the Prophet (peace be on him). For unless one spends money
to exalt the word of God, the very foundation of Zakah are lacking, even if
a person spends huge amounts in the way of charity. They were also reminded
that they had been told in the past that God's mercy was exclusively for those
who believed in His Revelation. Now those who rejected the Revelation received
by Muhammad (peace be on him) could never be considered believers in Revelation
no matter how zealously they claim to believe in the Torah.
Reference to the Prophet (peace be on him) in this verse as umimi is significant
as the Israelites branded all other nations as Gentiles (ummis). Steeped in
racial prejudice, they did not consider members of other nations as their equals,
let alone accept any person not belonging to them as a Prophet. The Qur'an also
states the Jewish belief that they would not be taken to ask for whatever they
might do to non-Jews. See (Al'Imran 3: 75). Employing the same term which they
themselves had used, the Qur'an tells them that their destiny was linked with
the ummi Prophet. By obeying him they would become deserving of God's mercy.
As for disobedience to the Prophet (peace be on him). it would continue to arouse
God's wrath which had been afflicted upon them for centuries.
113. Pointed and repeated reference to the coming of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) is made in the Bible. (See Deuteronomy 18: 19; Matthew 21: 33-46; John 1: 19-25; 14: 15-17, 25-30; 15: 25-26; 16: 7-15.)
114. The Prophet declares the pure things which they had forbidden as lawful, and the impure things which they had legitimized as unlawful.
115. The Israelites had fettered their lives by undue restrictions which had been placed on them by the legal hair-splitting of their jurists, the pietistic exaggerations of their spiritual leaders, the introduction of superstitions and self-contrived laws and regulations by, their masses. The Prophet, by relieving them of every unnecessary burden and releasing them from every unjustified restriction, in fact liberated their shackled lives.