Day 236; Qur’an 41:19-36, page 479-480

Welcome Friends:  Ahlan wa sahlan!

In English, ‘Tolerance’ means the ‘capacity to endure pain or hardship,’ and is a word often used today to indicate the capacity to recognize and accept the beliefs and practices of others (still bearing the connotation of enduring something unpleasant). 

Q. What is the corresponding word for ‘Tolerance’ in Arabic?

A. ‘TaHhammul- تحمل.’ But we do NOT use it to describe our relationships.  We use it to describe tolerance of the elements, of abuse, of all kinds of pain and hardship.

Arabs are historically noted for hospitality, which is why the Arabic word which describes relationships with ‘others’ is ‘taqabbul تقبل-,’ or ‘Acceptance.’ 

There is a big difference between mere ‘Tolerance’ and all-out ‘Acceptance!’

Unfortunately however, as Arabs and Muslims, we admit that some of us have lost sight of our traditional higher standards of ‘Acceptance,’ and also find ourselves unable to adopt today’s common standards of ‘Tolerance.’

Perhaps today’s Reading will help re-direct some of us to the higher and nobler goals:

In today’s Reading we find the Qur’an gradually setting us a course to build everlasting friendship with someone we once related to with ‘enmity.’  Hostility converted to ‘intimate Friendship’…

How can that be?

Read on.

       

Yusuf Ali’s Translation of this Chapter.

Muhammad Asad’s Translation of this Chapter. 

Their commentaries can only be read in verse by verse view.

COMMENTS:

PAGE 479 Arabic Qur’an.

1. After advising listeners (Qureish) to look around and learn from the destruction of predecessors who had belied their Messengers, Verses 19- 21 describe all such persons who had been ‘hostile’ to God in life, (having committed aggression [i]عدو). The verses describe them being driven in converging multitudes, ‘swarming’ ([ii]حشر) to the Fire and, then, from their very first to their very last… there confined ([iii]وزع).

That is when their faculties/ organs come to bear witness against them, as to what they had done in life. 

It is interesting to hear the argument between these persons and their ‘julood.’ ‘Jalada’ denotes resilience, and is used to describe the largest and most resilient of our organs;  an organ which is soft and strong, pliable and self-repairing, sensitive and waterproof… all at the same time.

And there is more:

Dear Reader: 

Thanks to our 1,000 year old Lexicon, we are revising our understanding of many words in this one Reading. 

Looking back at the definition of ‘naTtaqa’ ([iv]نطق)- (remember Prophet Solomon’s story?), we realize that it has two connotations which help us better understand today’s verse.  Firstly, ‘communication/ expression’ which is NOT necessarily what we call ‘speech[v]’ (see 11 instances in Qur’an), and secondly, something which ‘encircles, and holds within limits;’ ‘minTtaqa’ is a defined area, while a ‘niTtaaq’ is a belt or girdle. 

And now we can better understand how this organ, ‘Skin,’ can ‘bear witness:’

Since it ‘girdles’ our entire body, holding all our parts together as a ‘niTtaaq,’  with every cell retaining information of our experiences… it would be the best to ‘record’ as well as to impart: ‘naTtaqa!’

Isn’t Arabic amazing? 

                                        

And who would have thought that the commonly used Arabic noun ‘Hhasharah’ (حشرة) which we use these days for ‘insect’ is related to their ‘converging’ and ‘swarming?’  Actually, I feel remiss for not having looked up this word much earlier (today it appears for the 36^th out of 43 times in the Qur’an!) but I thought I knew what it meant. 

That is why our understanding of the Qur’an is deficient: 

We tend to rely on what we know or what we are told, without researching original connotations of the words and finding out how each was understood by its Early Recipients!

2.   Verses 22- 23 speak to the same persons (Those who were ‘Hostile’ to God, in life) in the second person plural ‘You.’  They are told that their downfall was brought about by their ‘presumption’ that God ‘did not know most of what they were doing,’ and that their presumption ended up making them of the ‘Losers.’

‘Thann,’  (ظن) as we mentioned earlier, denotes ‘presumption/ conjecture,’ and is the opposite of ‘yaqeen/ certainty’  (يقين) .

3. Verse 24 shows the seriousness of their loss: Whatever action they might take at that point… is futile!

Verses 25-26 show us how these people became hostile in the first place and were able to commit their aggression, pointing to the complicity of their generation!

(See all occurrences of قرن in the Qur’an.) 

Notice how the Deniers encouraged their peers NOT to listen to the Qur’an, but rather, to think lightly of it, and ‘disrupt/ interrupt’ it (فيه) with their frivolous and persistent jargon.

The word ‘laghu’ (لغو[vi]) has two connotations: 

·        Frivolity (lack of earnestness).

·        Persistent jargon (لهج).   

This is something each of us should worry about, dear Reader!

Indeed, by failing to confront today –or at least resist- what our peers ‘embellish’ for us of noxious feelings and destructive deeds, the ‘sentence’ of becoming ‘Losers’ (if meted out against us) would be Just.

 

Perhaps the best example to help us understand this today, is the persistent ridiculing of ‘others’ which affects the judgment of people around us, then the ‘extremist’ rhetoric which gets louder every day, and finally the violent actions which inevitably follow.  This is happening as we speak, and we know it.  We are not talking about warfare between two military forces here; we are talking about civil society.

Around the world, populations on all sides are made, by their own peers- قرناء – (whether ‘visible or incognito’)- to feel ‘justified’ in what they allege or commit against ‘others.’ 

People end up becoming ‘Losers’ when they forget that Justice knows no favorites, and that God is the Supreme Judge of all.

 

Readers who wish never to become a ‘Loser’ should ask themselves:

“Whom did I think of as I read the above paragraph?”

Whatever ethnicity, ‘faith’ or ‘denomination’ you might belong to, you would not have grasped this concept unless you were thinking of examples from YOUR own peers: Persons/ institutions from amongst yourself who make you feel ‘justified’ for any antagonistic rhetoric or destructive deeds they (or you) commit against others.

In Verses 27-28 we are informed of the recompense of Those who were Hostile to God, having discredited God’s Signs which they, in fact, had understood (jaHhada).

In Verse 29 we hear their demand to be shown WHOM it was, of both parties (jinn and ins), who were guilty of ‘leading them astray’ in life… for the purpose of placing them beneath their feet, so as to be of the most Debased.

New Readers:  Put ‘jinn’ and ‘ins’ in ‘Search this Site.’

PAGE 480 Arabic Qur’an.

After severe ‘Dissuasion’ we encounter a couple of the most beautiful verses of Persuasion!

4.     Verses 30- 32 speak of ‘Those Who Announced that their Lord is God, after which they formed their strategy in life, ‘re-straightening’ their course at every turn (الذين قالوا ربنا الله ثم استقاموا).

Such persons, whose caliber of deeds match the caliber of their words, are mentioned three times in the Qur’an.  It would do us great benefit to read all three instances, in context.

(We discussed HQ 22:40 on Aug 6^th.  We also mentioned earlier the soliloquy of the ‘striving’ man of Pharaoh’s people who had hidden his faith from them, until he spoke up and was killed for doing so:  When he heard Pharaoh’s plot to kill Moses, he rushed from the far end of town in Moses’ defense asking his people how they could kill a person who announces that his Lord is God…  See HQ 40:28)

What a beautiful status is granted to ‘Those Who Announce that their Lord is God, after which they straighten their course!’

(See May 14^th for a full discussion, and links to ‘Awliyaa’ul-Lah- أولياء الله-’- ‘Those with a close relationship to God.) 

Such persons are descended upon by Custodians /Angels who bear comfort and encouragement, informing them of their closeness to them, bidding them to neither fear nor to grieve, but rather to rejoice in the Garden of which they were promised; theirs shall be whatever they had prayed for, granted by the Forgiving, the Unceasingly Compassionate.

May we be among them: 

Our Lord is God.  

Dear God:  Help us reset course to Your direction at every turn!

Amen.

5.    After describing such honorable persons, Verse 33 asks: 

‘And who is more admirable of declaration than someone who invites to God, performs Goodness, and declares:  ‘I am indeed of the Purely Reverent!’?

The ‘Qur’an,’ unlike a ‘Compilation,’ is interactive, so here too, we respond by thinking:  ‘No one is more admirable.  May we be among them!’

And we look to other verses which help us understand this concept:

We know that both Prophets Noah and Muhammad, peace upon them, told their people that they were ‘commanded to be of the Purely Reverent’ ( أمرت أن أكون من المسلمين- HQ 10:72; 27:91).

Indeed, this declaration of ‘Pure Reverence’ is expected of the exemplary Cognizant Human -‘Insaan’- as in HQ 46:15!

And Prophets Abraham and Jacob, on their death-beds, told their children not to die except in a state of ‘Pure Reverence.’

So, what should WE do?

If we consider ourselves among ‘Those who attained Faith,’ then God Himself has commanded us directly to:

·        Live our lives in befitting Awareness of Him.

·        NOT TO DIE EXCEPT IN A STATE OF PURE REVERENCE!

Indeed, that command precedes all others, as we saw in HQ 3: 102- 105.

6. And now, Verses 34- 36, bring all the aforementioned concepts together, helping us re-direct ourselves to the higher goals. 

These verses inform us that:

·       A Good deed is not on par with a Bad deed/ Good deeds or not equal, neither are Bad deeds).

·        We should thrust forward with that which is Best (among all deeds).

· Upon doing so, we shall find that the person with whom Enmity/Hostility had set us apart… becoming as an intimate Friend.

·   However, none shall receive such (a great gift) except Those Who Persevered in Forbearance, and none shall receive it except those of great endowment/portion حظ.

·     And in the event of being incited (to a single incitement) by Deviance, we should seek refuge in God; indeed it is He Who is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.

As we may have noted above, this is the fourth and final time in which the Messenger, peace upon him is (and we too are)  directed to seek refuge in God. 

When we discussed such verses previously (see April 20^th), we understood that what necessitates us to seek refuge in God are circumstances where we could easily get side-tracked (deviate)…. circumstances where self-restraint and motivation are crucial for us to achieve successful interaction!

Whether it is about proper interaction with the Qur’an, or about healthy interaction with people… one thing is clear: 

In closing:

As Cognizant Humans with a dialectic nature (‘jadal,’ which makes us investigatively argumentative) we have a tendency to deviate, and need to CONSCIOUSLY redirect ourselves towards God (and seek refuge in Him) so as to stay on the right course.

We need to be aware of ‘peer pressure’ and the seemingly ‘benign’ yet highly malignant manner in which it operates.    

In this Reading, the Qur’an has set this course up for us, adding dissuasion and persuasion, encouraging us to be of those whose esteemed deeds match their esteemed words… those who invite to God, perform Goodness, and declare:  ‘I am indeed of the Purely Reverent!’

Only if we can persevere, day in and day out, implementing these high standards upon ourselves, can we succeed in building healthy relationships.  One result of that, would be that those who, at one point, were considered ‘enemies’…. end up as if they were ‘intimate friends!’

Enough said!

Our next Reading is from HQ 41: 37-54.

Peace unto all!

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[i] عدو: أصلٌ واحدٌ صحيحٌ يرجع إليه الفروعَ كلّها، وهو يدلُّ على تجاوُزٍ في الشيء وتقدُّمٍ لما ينبغي أن يقتصر عليه.

من ذلك العَدْو، وهو الحُضْر. تقول: عدا يعدو عَدْواً، وهو عادٍ.

قال الخليل: التعدّي: تجاوز ما ينبغي أن يُقْتَصَر عليه. وتقرأ هذه الآية على وجهين: {فَيَسُبُّوا الله عَدْواً بغيرِ علمٍ} و{عُدُوَّاً [الأنعام 108]. والعادي: الذي يعدو على الناس ظُلْماً وعُدواناً. وفلانٌ يعدو أمرَكَ، وما عَدَا أنْ صَنَع كذا. ويقال من عَدْوِ الفرس: عَدَوَانٌ، أي جيِّد العَدْوِ وكثيرُه. وذئب عَدَوَانٌ: يعدُو على الناس.

وتقول: ما رأيت أحداً ما عدا زَيْداً. قال الخليل: أي ما جاوَزَ زيداً. ويقال: عدا فلانٌ طَورَه. ومنه العُدْوانُ، قال: وكذلك العَدَاء، والاعتداء، والتعدِّي.

قال: والعُدْوان: الظلم الصُّراح . والاعتداء مشتقٌّ من العُدْوَان. فأمَّا العَدْوَى فقال الخليل: هو طلبك إلى والٍ أو قاضٍ أن يُعدِيَك على مَن ظَلَمك أي يَنقِم منه باعتدائه عليك. والعَدْوَى ما يقال إِنّه يُعدِي، من جَرَبٍ أو داء . والعَدْوَة: عَدوَة اللّصّ وعدوة المُغِير. يقال عدا عليه فأخَذَ مالَه، وعدا عليه بسيفه: ضَرَبه لا يريد به عدواً على رجليه، لكن هو من الظُّلم.

والعادية: شُغل من أشغال الدَّهر يَعدُوك عن أمرك، أي يَشغلُك. والعَدَاء: الشُّغْل.

والعَدَاء: طَوَار كلِّ شيء، انقاد معه عَرضه أو طُوله. يقولون: لزِمتُ عَدَاء النَّهر، وهذا طريقٌ يأخُذ عَداءَ الجَبل. وقد يقال العُدْوة في معنى العَداء، وربما طُرحت الهاء فيقال عِدْوٌ، ويُجمَع فيقال: أعداء النّهر، وأعداء الطريق.

قال الخليل: والعِنْدأْوَة: التواء وعَسَر قال الخليل: وهو من العَدَاء. ونقول: عَدَّى [عن الأمر] يعدِّي تعديةً، أي جاوزَه إلى غيره. وعدّيت عنِّي الهَمَّ، أي نحّيته عنِّي. وعدِّ عنِّي إلى غيري. وعَدِّ عن هذا الأمر، أي تجاوَزْه وخُذ في غيره.

ومن الباب: العدُوّ، وهو مشتقٌّ من الذي قدّمْنا ذِكره، يقال للواحد والاثنين والجمعِ: عدوّ.

قال الله تعالى في قِصّة إبراهيم: {فَإِنَّهُمْ عَدُوٌّ لي إِلاَّ رَبَّ الَعالمِين}  [الشعراء 77]. والعِدَى والعُدَى والعادِ والعُدَاة. وأمّا العُدَواء فالأرض اليابسة الصلبة، وإِنّما سمِّيت بذلك لأنّ مَن سكنها تعدّاها.

والعِدْوة: صَلابةً من شاطئ الواد. ويقال عُدْوة، لأنّها تُعادِي النهر مثلاً، أي كأنّهما اثنان يتعادَيانِ.

[ii] حشر: السّوق والبعثُ والانبعاث.  وأهل اللغة يقولون: الحشر الجمع مع سَوْقٍ، وكلُّ جمعٍ حَشْر. والعرب تقول: حَشرَتْ مالَ بني فلانٍ السنةُ كأنّها جمعته، ذهبت به وأتَتْ عليه.

وحشرات الأرض: دوابُّها الصغار، كاليرابيع والضِّباب وما أشبهها، فسمِّيت بذلك لكثرتها وانسياقها وانبعاثها. والحَشْوَرُ من الرّجال: العظيم الخَلْق أو البطنِ.

[iii] وزع: وَزَعْته عن الأمر: كفَفْته. قال الله سبحانه: (فَهُمْ يُوزَعُونَ)[النمل 17]، أي يحبَس أوّلُهم على آخِرِهم. وجمع الوازع وَزَعَة. وفي بعض الكلام: "ما يَزَعُ السُّلطانُ أكثَرُ مِمَّا يَزَعُ القرآن(1)"، أي إنَّ النَّاسَ للسُّلطان أخْوَف.‏ وبناء آخر، يقال: أوْزَعَ اللهُ فلاناً الشُّكرَ: ألْهَمَه إياه. ويقال هو من أُوزِعَ بالشَّيءِ، إذا أُولِعَ به، كأنَّ الله تعالى يُولِعُه بشُكْرِه. وبها أوزاعُ من النّاس، أي جماعات.‏

[iv] نطق:  أصلانِ صحيحان: أحدهما كلام أو ما أشبهه، والآخَر جنسٌ من اللِّباس.

الأوَّل المَنْطِق، ونَطَق يَنطِق نُطْقَاً. ويكون هذا لما لا نفهمه نحن. قال الله تعالى في قِصّة سليمان: {عُلِّمْنَا مَنْطِقَ الطَّيْر} [النمل 16].

والآخَر النِّطاق: إزارٌ فيه تِكَّة. وتسمَّى الخاصرة: الناطقة، لأنَّها بموضع النِّطاق. والمِنْطَق: كلُّ ما شَدَدتَ به وَسَطك. والمِنْطَقة: اسمٌ لشيء بعينه.

وجاء فلانٌ منتطِقاً فرسَه، إذا جانَبَه ولم يركبْه، كأنَّه عِندَ النِّطاق منه، إذْ كان بجَنْبه.

[v] Note:  This seems to be one reason for the Qur’an saying (HQ 53:3) about the Messenger Muhammad, peace upon him:

“And he does not ‘communicate’ from ‘desire.’

It is but exclusive information conveyed, (as it is) exclusively conveyed.”

وما ينطق عن الهوى.

إن هو إلا وحي يوحى.

As we know, this ‘exclusively conveyed information’ (the Qur’an), contains ‘utterances’ which are ‘communicated’ to us, but cannot be considered ‘speech:’ These are the SOUNDS, or ‘disjointed letters’ which introduce so many Qur’anic verses!

[vi] لغو: أصلان، حدهما يدلُّ على الشَّيءِ لا يُعتدُّ به، والآخَر على اللَّهَج بالشَّيء.

فالأوَّل اللَّغْو: ما لا يُعتَدُّ به من أولادِ الإبلِ في الدِّيَة. يقال منه لغَا يلْغُو لَغْواً. وذلك في لَغْو الأيمان.. قال الله تعالى: {لا يُؤَاخِذُكُمُ اللهُ بِاللَّغْوِ في أَيْمَانِكُمْ} [البقرة 225، المائدة 89].

والثاني قولهم: لَغِيَ بالأمر، إذا لَهِجَ به. ويقال إنَّ اشتقاق اللُّغة منه، أي يَلْهَجُ صاحبُها بها.

لسان العرب:

لغا: اللَّغْو واللَّغا: السَّقَط وما لا يُعتدّ به من كلام وغيره ولا يُحصَل منه على فائدة ولا على نفع. وكلُّ ما أسقط فلم يعتد به مُلْغًى.

ولَغِيَ بالشيء يَلْغَى لَغاً: لهِجَ. ولَغِيَ بالشراب: أَكثر منه.