In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace.
After all the stories of the prophets a.s. and their people...communities in which God destroyed, God had something else to add to His message:
(116-119) But, alas, among those generations [whom We destroyed] before your time there were no people endowed with any virtue - [people] who would speak out against [the spread of] corruption on earth - except the few of them whom We saved [because of their righteousness], whereas those who were bent on evildoing only pursued pleasures which corrupted their whole being, and so lost themselves in sinning.
For never would thy Sustainer destroy a community for wrong [beliefs alone] so long as its people behave righteously [towards one another]. And had thy Sustainer so willed, He could surely have mankind one single community: but [He willed it otherwise, and so] they continue to hold divergent views - [all of them,] save those upon whom thy Sustainer has bestowed His grace.
And to this end has He created them[all].
But [as for those who refuse to avail themselves of divine guidance,] that word of thy Sustainer shall be fulfilled: "Most certainly will I fill hell with invisible beings as well as humans, all together!"
Here, the 'moral of the story' is revealed:
- these communities were not destroyed due to their holding to wrong beliefs but due to their appalling behaviour towards God's creatures. In Note 149 of Chapter 11...
God knows best.
After all the stories of the prophets a.s. and their people...communities in which God destroyed, God had something else to add to His message:
(116-119) But, alas, among those generations [whom We destroyed] before your time there were no people endowed with any virtue - [people] who would speak out against [the spread of] corruption on earth - except the few of them whom We saved [because of their righteousness], whereas those who were bent on evildoing only pursued pleasures which corrupted their whole being, and so lost themselves in sinning.
For never would thy Sustainer destroy a community for wrong [beliefs alone] so long as its people behave righteously [towards one another]. And had thy Sustainer so willed, He could surely have mankind one single community: but [He willed it otherwise, and so] they continue to hold divergent views - [all of them,] save those upon whom thy Sustainer has bestowed His grace.
And to this end has He created them[all].
But [as for those who refuse to avail themselves of divine guidance,] that word of thy Sustainer shall be fulfilled: "Most certainly will I fill hell with invisible beings as well as humans, all together!"
Here, the 'moral of the story' is revealed:
- these communities were not destroyed due to their holding to wrong beliefs but due to their appalling behaviour towards God's creatures. In Note 149 of Chapter 11...
...Explaining the above verse in this sense, Razi says: "God chastisement does not afflict any people merely on account of their holding beliefs amounting to shirk and kufr, but afflicts them only if they persistently commit evil in their mutual dealings, and deliberately hurt [other human beings] and act tyranically [towards them]. Hence, those who are learned in Islamic Law (al-fuqaha) hold that men's obligations towards God rest on the principle of [His] forgiveness and liberality, whereas the rights of man are of a stringent nature and must always be strictly observed" - the obvious reason being that God is almighty and needs no defender, whereas man is weak and needs protection.- that diversity in our thoughts, beliefs etc are a part of God's plan that makes us moral creatures with relative free will. This freedom of choice (free will) is God's gift to us. In Note 150 of Chapter 11...
Thus, the Quran stresses once again that the unceasing differentiation in men's views and ideas is not incidental but represents a God-willed, basic factor of human existence. If God had willed that all human beings should be of one persuasion, all intellectual progress would have been ruled out, and "they would have been similar in their social life to the bees and the ants, while in their spiritual life they would have been like the angels, constrained by their nature always to believe in what is true and always to obey God" (Manar XII, 193) - that is to say, devoid of that relative free will which enables man to choose between right and wrong and this endows his life - in distinction from all other sentient beings - with a moral meaning and a unique spiritual potential.And in Note 152...
According to Zamakhshari, it refers to the freedom of moral choice which characterises man and is spoken of in the preceding passages: and since it is this freedom which constitutes God's special gift to man and raises him above all other created beings (c.f. the parable of Adam and the angels in 2:30-34), Zamakshari's interpretation is, in my opinion, the most comprehensive of all.- therefore, the message is there for guidance to those who choose to be guided.
God knows best.
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