133. The preceding discourse concluded with the note that God made the Israelites enter into a covenant with their Lord. In the following passages all men are told that a covenant with God is not the exclusive privilege of Israel. In fact all human beings are bound in a covenant with God and a Day will come when they will be made to answer how well they were able to observe that covenant.
134. This event, according to several traditions, took place at the time
of the creation of Adam. Apart from the prostration of the angels before Adam
and the proclamation that man would be God's vicegerent on earth, all the future
progeny of Adam were gathered, and were endowed with both existence and consciousness
in order to bear witness to God's lordship. The best interpretation of this
event is found in a statement by, 'Ubayy b. Ka'b, who has probably given the
substance of what he had heard from the Prophet (peace be on him):
God gathered all human beings, divided them into different groups, granted them
human form and the faculty of speech, made them enter into a covenant, and then
making them witnesses against themselves He asked them: 'Am I not your Lord?'
They replied: 'Assuredly you are Our Lord.' Then God told them: 'I call upon
the sky and the earth and your own progenitor, Adam, to be witness against you
lest you should say on the Day of Judgement that you were ignorant of this.
Know well that no one other than Me deserves to he worshipped and no one other
than Me is your Lord. So do not ascribe any partner to Me. I shall send to you
My Messengers who will remind you of this covenant which you made with Me. I
shall send down to you My Books.' In reply all said: 'We witness that You are
Our Lord and our Deity. We have no lord or deity other than You.' (Ahmad b.
Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 5, p. 135 - Ed.)
This event has also been interpreted by some commentators in a purely allegorical
sense. They are of the opinion that the purpose of the Qur'an is merely to emphasize
that the acceptance of God's lordship is innate in human nature. However, this
was narrated in such a way as to suggest that the event did actually take place.
We do not subscribe to this allegorical interpretation of the primordial covenant
of man with God. For both the Qur'an and Hadith recount it not only as an actual
happening, but also affirm that the covenant would be adduced as an argument
against man on the Day of Judgement. There remains, therefore, no ground whatsoever
to interpret the event in terms of mere allegory.
In our own view the event did take place. God caused all human beings whom He
intended to create until the Last Day to come into existence. He endowed upon
them life, consciousness and the faculty of speech, and brought home to them
that there is no god or lord besides Him, and that Islam alone is the right
way to serve Him.
If someone considers calling all human beings together in one assembly impossible,
that shows, more than anything else the woeful paucity of his imagination. For
if someone accepts that God has the power to create countless human beings in
succession, there is no reason to suppose that He did not have the power to
create them all at some given moment prior to the creation of the universe,
or that He will be unable to resurrect them all at some given moment in the
future. Again, it stands to reason that at a time when God wanted to designate
man as His vicegerent on earth after endowing him with reason and understanding,
He took from him an oath of allegiance. All this is so reasonable that the actual
occurrence of the covenant should not cause any wonder. On the contrary, one
should wonder if the event did not take place.