Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2 : 285

Overview (Verse 285)
 
These two verses make up the final passage of this comprehensive and remarkable sūrah, the longest in the Qur’ān. Its subject matter covers a wide range of issues and fundamental Islamic concepts, rules and principles. It outlines the nature and role of the Muslim community in the world, and identifies its enemies and detractors, their attitudes and the methods they use to undermine and weaken it, and the means the community has to use in order to combat their intrigues and thwart their schemes. The sūrah then elaborates on the nature and scope of man’s role in the world, as well as his weaknesses and shortcomings.
 
These closing verses give a concise and appropriate summary of the major themes of the sūrah, and form an inspiring conclusion to its grand message.
 
The sūrah opened with the statement: “This is the Book; there is no doubt about it, a guidance for the God-fearing. Those who believe in what lies beyond the reach of human perception, observe prayer and give of what We bestow upon them. Those who believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you, and are certain of the Hereafter. Those follow their Lord’s guidance, and they shall surely prosper.” (Verses 1-5)
 
Throughout the sūrah we have found frequent references to the recognition and endorsement by Islam of all divine messages revealed to earlier prophets and messengers. Now the sūrah gives the final summation: “The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him by his Lord, and so do all the believers. Each one of them believes in God, His angels, His Books, and His Messengers. We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” (Verse 285) The two passages coalesce beautifully as if to form the frame of a single work of art.
 
The sūrah covers quite extensively many of the laws and rules governing all aspects of personal and communal life. It has described at length the excesses and the impertinence of some Israelite communities. Here it concludes with a clear statement regarding the fulfilment, or otherwise, of one’s obligations in this life. It stresses that God neither wishes to overburden the believers who uphold the faith; nor to favour them with any concessions or privileges, as some Israelites had claimed for themselves. Nor does He leave them to their own devices. “God does not charge a soul with more than it can bear. In its favour shall be whatever good it does, and against it whatever evil it does.” (Verse 286)
 
The sūrah has related various episodes of Israelite history, pointing out the grace God accorded them and how some of them had received that grace with insolence and ingratitude, for which they had to pay a heavy price amounting, in certain cases, to their own lives. Here it concludes with a moving and passionate prayer in which believers plead with God Almighty: “Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong. Our Lord, do not lay on us a burden such as that You laid on those before us. Our Lord, do not burden us with what we do not have the strength to bear. Pardon us, and forgive us our sins, and bestow Your mercy on us. You are our Lord Supreme; grant us victory against the unbelievers.” (Verse 286)
 
The sūrah has instituted jihād and generous donations for God’s cause to combat aggression. It ends with believers seeking God’s help and support, saying: “You are our Lord Supreme; grant us victory against the unbelievers.” (Verse 286)
 
These concluding verses are precisely formulated, and every word has its place and significance in the text. Taken as a whole, they reflect the central aspects of faith and define the position of believers, their relationship with God and their perception of His will and purpose in the world, which they accept and willingly submit themselves to Him. The verses are a superb example of the excellence of the Qur’ānic style and approach, which remain fascinating even to those who are well acquainted with the Qur’ān. Let us now look more closely at these two verses.
 
One True Faith
 
The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him by his Lord, and so do the believers. Each one of them believes in God, His angels, His books, and His messengers. We make no distinction between any of His messengers. And they say, ‘We hear and we obey. Grant us Your forgiveness, our Lord; to You we shall all return.’ (Verse 285)
 
The Qur’ān refers to that privileged community of believers who are the archetype of faith, and to all succeeding communities modelled on their example. This community is honoured by, and greatly appreciates, being mentioned in the same breath as God’s Messenger.
 
The Messenger’s faith springs directly from the revelations he receives from God, the ultimate truth. It is a degree of faith that cannot be described except by one who has experienced it; it remains beyond comprehension for those mortals who have not experienced divine revelation and is, therefore, totally unique and exclusive to God’s Messenger himself. That is why it is such an honour for ordinary believers to he mentioned side by side with God’s Messenger.
 
The sūrah defines the nature and parameters of this faith. It is a comprehensive and universal faith, commensurate with the far- reaching and historic role the Muslim community is destined to inherit and take on in the world. It is a commitment that identifies humanity, throughout its history, as being of only two main groups: the believers who represent the party of God, and the unbelievers who constitute the party of Satan.
 
“Each one of them believes in God...” According to Islam, belief in God is the foundation of a Muslim’s understanding of life, and of the code governing his life, morals, economic and all other activities. It means believing in God as the Supreme Being, the Lord of everything and the sole object of reverence and worship. He is the ultimate authority over man’s conscience and behaviour in every single aspect of his life.
 
God has no partners in His Godhead and Lordship over the world. He is the Creator and the active ruler of the whole cosmos, and no other power interferes with His organization and running of the physical world or of life in it. He is the sole provider of life and sustenance for all creation. He is the only and ultimate cause of what befalls the world, without whose will and knowledge nothing, great or small, happens or comes into being in this world.
 
Nothing and no one but God Almighty should be adored and worshipped, in any sense of the word. God is the supreme authority to be obeyed, and all temporal authority is derived from Him, and from total adherence to His teachings and commands and the laws He lays down. An imperative of faith in God is submission to, and acceptance of, the principles and values He has set out for the moral, social, legal and economic spheres of life. Faith in this sense sets man free from control and manipulation by all other forces, powers and authorities, and from the fetters of obligation or submission to anyone or anything other than God Almighty.
 
“... and His angels...” This is an important aspect of belief in the unseen, the unknowable which lies beyond human perception or understanding, or, to use the Islamic term ghayb, as already discussed at the beginning of the sūrah. Man’s ability to perceive and accept a world above and beyond the physical world whose existence he can discern and verify sets him above the rest of creation and confers on him his human qualities. This belief puts into proper perspective man’s natural curiosity for what lies beyond the material physical world, which he instinctively and clearly perceives to exist. Without this clear perspective and vision, man resorts to myth and superstition, leading to imbalance and instability.
 
Angels are a fact of ghayb that humans cannot perceive by conventional sensory or intellectual means. But man has an instinctive urge to look beyond the world that he can see; and God, in His infinite wisdom, has seen to it that this natural and legitimate human urge is satisfied in order to save man the frustration and suffering he would otherwise inevitably encounter. There is sufficient evidence to show that those individuals and communities who have chosen to defy human nature and reject all notion of a world beyond have fallen victim to utterly farcical and fallacious superstitions that have blurred their vision, undermined their mental well-being, and turned their lives into a series of negative and destructive obsessions.
 
Like other aspects of ghayb, belief in the angels widens man’s perception and understanding of the world around him. It is no longer restricted to what he can see and feel, which is only a small part of reality. He feels safer in the company of these faithful creatures, fellow believers in God’s oneness, who pray constantly for man’s redemption, and in the comforting thought that they are there to help and guide him spiritually. Furthermore, the mere knowledge of this fact is a blessing from God to those who believe in Him and His angels.
 
“... and His books and His messengers. We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” According to the Islamic view, belief in God’s books and messengers follows logically and naturally from belief in God Himself. To believe in God is to believe in the truth of all that is revealed by Him, and in the honour and integrity of all the messengers He has commissioned, and inn the unity of the source of the messages they have preached. A Muslim has no notion of discrimination between God’s messengers. They all preached Islam in various versions, suited to the circumstances of the communities they addressed. Muĥammad, (peace be upon him), was the last and final of those Prophets and messengers who has delivered the final, complete and universal version of Islam, which will remain valid for the rest of time.
 
The Muslim community, therefore, inherits the legacy of God’s religion on earth in its totality, which places a grave responsibility on Muslims. As bearers of God’s banner on earth, they are the custodians of the greatest gift to mankind. Their mission is to promote and establish the Islamic order, and to stand up to chauvinistic, oppressive and totalitarian ideologies of all kinds, whenever they are advocated, anywhere in the world.
 
The Muslim community, or ummah, is undoubtedly the legitimate heir to the greatest treasure of guidance, light, confidence and fulfilment, as well as certainty and knowledge, ever made available to mankind. Those deprived of its benefits and blessings might as well be living in darkness and confusion. Their life is inevitably plagued with scepticism, cynicism, unhappiness, spiritual suffering and deprivation.
 
The history of mankind has seen countless individuals and communities deprived of the sustenance and happiness of faith. The agony and miserable experiences of many a sensitive and troubled heart have been most eloquently and passionately preserved for posterity in poetry, literature and art. There are those, however, who are immune to religious faith and have no desire for knowledge beyond the material world. They go through life with little or no humanity, hardly better than animals. They eat and survive and fend for themselves ruthlessly. They oppress, tyrannize and corrupt others in order to further their own interests and desires. They are despised by God and by their fellow human beings.
 
Human societies deprived of the grace and blessings of faith in God are miserable despite their affluence, barren despite their wealth, and restive despite their apparent freedom, security and peace. There are, even today, obvious examples of such unfortunate societies, a fact denied only by the arrogant.
 
The Ultimate End
 
Those who truly believe in God and His angels, books and messengers, know well that they shall return to their Lord, and so they turn to Him in obedience and submission, seeking His mercy and forgiveness. “And they say, ‘We hear and we obey. Grant us Your forgiveness, our Lord; to You we shall all return.’“ (Verse 285)
 
This submission is an expression of their faith. They heed and obey every commandment received from God in affirmation of His oneness and in recognition of the validity of His order in every aspect of life. No submission can be sincere without adherence to God’s guidance and implementation of His rule in every sphere. Man’s faith cannot be complete if he turns his back on God’s teachings and seeks moral, social, economic or political guidance elsewhere. Faith is a quality firmly entrenched in man’s heart and is only given credence when expressed in actions.
 
With submission and obedience to the Lord comes a feeling of inadequacy and deficiency in paying one’s dues towards God. Thus believers appeal to the merciful God to overlook their failures and shortcomings: “... Grant us Your forgiveness, our Lord...” (Verse 285)
 
The appeal for forgiveness follows the assertion of total submission and obedience. It is then followed by certainty in one’s fate here in this life and in the life to come. God’s word is the final and ultimate truth; everything shall return to Him; He is omnipotent; His will is done and His power unchallenged; His forgiveness, mercy and grace provide the way to escape punishment for sins we commit.
 
“To You we shall all return.” (Verse 285) This statement implies belief in the hereafter, which, from the Islamic point of view, is another essential aspect of faith in God. Islam asserts that God has created man and made him His vicegerent on earth on the basis of a clear covenant encompassing all man’s activities on earth. Throughout his earthly existence man is on probation. When his probation is over, he shall be judged and made accountable for his actions. Thus belief in the Day of Judgement and man’s accountability for his deeds is a correlative of belief in God. This faith plays a central role in shaping and guiding a believer’s conscience and behaviour, and his perception of values and consequences in this life. A believer will live in obedience to God, promoting good and supporting the truth, regardless of whether the result of his endeavour in this world is happiness or suffering, gain or loss, victory or defeat, recompense or deprivation, or even death. The reward he seeks for passing the test of life is in the hereafter. Were the whole world to stand in opposition to him in this pursuit, and were his very life to be threatened, it would not dissuade him. He is dealing directly with God Almighty, fulfilling his obligation towards Him and looking forward to the reward He has in store for him.
 
This short Qur’ānic verse encapsulates the basic concept of the unity and integrity of the Islamic belief. It is a simple and clear belief in the unity of God, His angels, His books and messengers, with no distinction among those messengers whatsoever, based on total obedience and submission to God and an unshakeable faith in the Day of Judgement.
 
Such is Islam, a faith perfectly suited to epitomize the full and final divine message. It reflects the procession of faith which began with the creation of man and continued throughout the generations. It has been expounded and elucidated by messenger after messenger, according to the intellectual and social development of the recipient communities. With the Prophet Muĥammad (peace be upon him), the message is brought to full maturity and its complete unity is declared, leaving man with the task of understanding its principles and details, and implementing it in his life.
 
Islam is a religion that recognizes man as a unique being; neither animal nor inanimate, neither angelic nor Satanic. Islam takes a holistic, rather than a fragmented, view of man. It allows for his weaknesses as well as his strengths, treating him as an integrated being comprising a physical aspect with instincts, impulses and natural drives, and a discerning intellectual power, and a soul with spiritual passions and yearnings. It requires of man only such tasks as he is able to fulfil, maintaining that delicate balance between obligations and abilities, with fairness and without duress, satisfying the needs of body, mind and soul in perfect harmony. The corollary to that concept is man’s freedom to choose and bear full responsibility for his choice.