Surah At Tin: A Commentary- II

Commentary on 'Surah At Tin': Second & Final Part 

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful; By the Fig and the Olive, And the Mount of Sinai, And this City of security; We have indeed created man in the best of moulds, Then do We reduce him to the lowest of the low, Except for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for they shall have a reward uninterrupted; Then what can, after this, contradict thee, as to the judgment (to come)? Is not Allah the Best of judges?” (And at the end, we reply: Bala! Wa ana ala Zaaleka minash Shahideen - “Indeed, I am among those who testify to this). (At-Tin 95: 1-9).

By the grace of Allah, I continue my sermon today on the same subject as last Friday, i.e., on Surah At-Tin (Chapter 95). Last week I expounded on the first verse, on the Fig and the Olive and today I shall give you an explanation on the rest of the verses of this Surah.

3.Wa Tuuri siiniina

And the Mount of Sinai

It is on Mount Sinai that Hazrat Musa (as) received the Torah (the divine laws) - most particularly the ten commandments - which had been revealed for the Jews. That exceptional moment when he received those revelations, Allah manifested Himself to Hazrat Musa (as) in the form of an Extraordinary Bright Light. But the Jews did not remain true to the commandments of Allah and they disobeyed Him. They thus had to pay for the consequences of their acts and they shall still suffer like this because of the disobedience which they show before Allah. 

This is indeed a lesson for all of you that, whenever Allah sends His commandments for us - i.e. to revive the teachings of the Holy Quran in particular - and His reformer to revive (or bring back) those lost teachings, therefore you should never leave that clean path which leads to the salvation of our souls, for otherwise, if you disregard this and take the wrong path and turn your backs to the divine manifestations, signs and commandments of Allah, your consequences shall be grievous (before Allah).

Qur'an on the Human Condition

 Surah At-Tin: A Commentary

“In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful; By the Fig and the Olive, And the Mount of Sinai, And this City of security; We have indeed created man in the best of moulds, Then do We reduce him to the lowest of the low, Except for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for they shall have a reward uninterrupted; Then what can, after this, contradict thee, as to the judgment (to come)? Is not Allah the Best of judges?” (At the end, we reply: Bala! Wa ana ala Zaaleka minash Shahideen - “Indeed, I am among those who witness to this (truthful reality)). (At-Tin 95: 1-9).

In the light of these verses, we see that all that which exists in nature has been created for the fulfilment of man in all aspects. Through divine revelations, we have learnt that Allah has created man in the best of moulds. And we have learnt also that man can also become worst than an animal, or he can perfect himself morally and spiritually in such a way that he reaches a high station and accedes to the presence of Allah. When he succeeds in perfecting himself, he reaches such a state where he is absolutely convinced of the unicity of God (Allah) and he realises that all that this world and the universe contain, and even himself, all belong to Allah. He thus makes much effort to please Allah and come near to Him. When he makes such efforts to accede to Allah, he cultivates love, respect and the fear of Allah (Taqwa) - in his heart; and all this helps him to come out of his animalistic state and become moral and spiritual.

When he finds himself in the state where he develops and maintains morality, he develops an excellent character where he acts with goodness and wisdom and he accomplishes such actions as to help him attain his goal. Nobody besides Allah knows his heart and he cannot hide anything from Allah, and on the Day of Judgement, it is Allah, The Most Wise, and the most Just of all judges - the best Judge - Who shall judge him. If he had no sincerity in his heart and used to do (good) deeds only for the eyes of people, then his punishment shall be grievous and painful for him. But if he was sincere towards Allah and had a pure and clean heart, then his value before the eyes of Allah shall increase and his reward shall be good and eternal (for him to enjoy).

'Freewill' and the Diverging Paths

Allah has given us - mankind - the freedom to choose our paths, i.e., freewill. We can either choose to attach ourselves to this temporal world and become worse than an animal, or we have the choice to forego the attractions of this world and attach ourselves firmly to Allah, whereby we choose to go forward for the moral and spiritual progress of our souls so as to reap Allah (as reward). We shall attain to such high degree of morality and spirituality only by obeying Allah completely and when Allah shall manifest Himself at any time, any hour, we need to grip firm to the rope of Allah and follow His instructions and His guide (and/ or guidance) so that Allah may be pleased with us and we also be pleased with Him (Allah).

Exalted status of the Humans

Man has been bestowed superiority to an animal. Man has the power of reasoning and he has the capacity to take a decision whereas an animal relies only on its (basic) instincts. Therefore, man should use that (God-given) capacity - i.e. his reasoning power/ his intelligence - to take the decision to leave his animalistic state and progress further to reach the stage of purity, morality and spirituality. 

Qur'an on the Death of Jesus (as)

Muhammad is only a messenger; Verily, all the messengers have died before him. So, were he to die, or if he was killed, would you turn back on your heels? And he who turns back on his heels will never harm Allah at all; but Allah will reward the grateful. (Al-Imran 3: 145).

A false rumour was spread at Uhud, that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had been killed. The verse alludes to this incident and means that even if the rumour was founded, it should not have made the faithful falter in their faith. Muhammad (pbuh) was only a prophet and like other prophets before him were dead, he too would die. Only the God of Islam, the One and Supreme God lives eternally.

First Proof

When seven years after the incident at Uhud (after the battle of Uhud) the Holy Prophet (pbuh) died, Umar (ra) stood in the mosque of Medina, sword in hand, and said, “Whoever says that the prophet of God has died, I will slit his throat. He has not die but went to his Lord just as Moses had gone to his Lord and he shall return to punish the hypocrites.”

At that moment, Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra), who was not present at the moment when the prophet breathed his last, returned quickly, went straight into the prophet's room and upon realising that he had actually died, kissed his forehead and said, “You are sweet (sacred) in death as you were when alive, and surely God is not going to give you two deaths.”

Then he went out, resolved, and asked the assembly in the mosque: “O people! Whoever worshiped Muhammad, let him know that Muhammad is dead; And he who worships God, let him be assured that God is alive, and that He does not die.” 

And he recited to them this verse: “Muhammad is only a messenger; Verily, all the messengers have died before him. So, were he to die, or if he was killed, would you turn back on your heels?” (Al-Imran 3: 145). He meant that it was not surprising under these circumstances that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) was also dead. On hearing this very appropriate verse, Umar (ra) and all the others were convinced of the prophet's death and were plunged into great mourning. Thus this verse proves incidentally that the prophets who had preceded our beloved prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had all died because if any one of them was still alive, the verse could not have been cited as evidence of the death of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).