Surah Ale-Imran (The Family Of Imran ) 3 : 169

Overview  (Verses 165- 171)

God’s Will and Man’s Doing 

The sūrah speaks of the Muslims’ surprise at the turn of events, which betrayed their  naïve  concept  of  life.  Soon,  however,  experience  told  them  to  look  at  the realities of life and how the laws of nature work. They realised that anyone who does not conform to nature and its laws should expect no preferential treatment. People must adapt themselves to the seriousness inherent in the nature of the universe, life and fate. The sūrah brings them back to reality as it explains to them that what has befallen them is the result of their own doing. But this is not all. Behind cause and effect lies God’s predestination, and beyond the laws of nature lies God’s free will.

The purpose of what happened is explained to them so that they learn how God directs events in the believers’ favour to serve the cause which they advocate. It was an experience which made them better equipped to face what was bound to come, to put them through a serious test in order to sift their ranks and to mark out the hypocrites who were able to betray them. The whole affair, then, was part of the accomplishment of God’s will. They were thus able to view the event in its totality, equipped with this Qur’ānic explanation: “Why, when a calamity befell you, after you had inflicted twice as much [on your enemy], did you exclaim, ‘How has this come about?’ Say: ‘It has come from your own selves. Surely, God has the power over all things.’ That which befell you, on the day when the two hosts met in battle, happened by God’s leave, so that He may mark out the true believers.” (Verses 165-166)

God has committed Himself to grant victory to those who support His cause and fight to defend His faith. He, however, has made the granting of victory conditional upon certain things: that the whole concept of faith be deeply entrenched in their hearts, that the practical implications of faith manifest themselves in their organisation and behaviour and that they equip themselves with all the means necessary to achieve victory and exert their maximum effort. This is the law of nature which God has set in operation and which favours no one. When the believers fall short of meeting any of these conditions, they have to accept the consequences. The fact that they are Muslims and believers does not mean that the laws of nature should be suspended or abrogated for their sake. They are Muslims because they submit themselves to God and conduct their lives according to the laws of nature God has set in operation. This means, in practice, that they achieve harmony between their nature as human beings and the laws of nature.

That they are Muslims is a fact which does not remain inconsequential. They submit themselves to God, raise His banner and determine to obey Him and conduct their lives according to His constitution. All that will eventually turn their errors and shortcomings to good effect after they bear any sacrifice or pain attendant on them. Their mistakes become lessons and experiences which have their good effect. They make their faith pure and their submission clearer. Their ranks are purged of those whose faith is suspect. They are better equipped to achieve the ultimate victory. Thus, God’s mercy and care are not withheld from the Muslims. Indeed, they provide them with what they need to continue along their way, despite all the hardships they may have to face.

It  is  with  such  clarity  and  seriousness  that  the  questioning and surprise  of  a Muslim community are answered. Both the immediate cause, the actions of the Muslim community, and the ultimate purpose, God’s design, are explained. The hypocrites, on the other hand, are shown the fact that death is inevitable and cannot be avoided by staying at home at the time of battle: “Why, when a calamity befell you after you had inflicted twice as much [on your enemy], did you exclaim: ’How has this come about?’“

At Uĥud, the Muslims suffered a serious setback, losing 70 martyrs in addition to all the pain they experienced on that difficult day. They found the setback hard to swallow, considering that they were the believers who were fighting in defence of God’s cause. Yet those very Muslims had, prior to this setback, inflicted twice as many losses on their enemy. In the Battle of Badr, they inflicted similar damage on the idolaters when they killed 70 brave warriors of the Quraysh. They achieved a similar feat at Uĥud, when they were following the express orders of the Prophet. But then they weakened before the temptation of the loot and entertained thoughts which must never be entertained by believers.

God reminds them of all this as He answers their questioning surprise. He attributes what happened to them to its immediate cause: “It has come from your own selves.” It is you who have weakened and entered into dispute. It is you who have failed to fulfil the conditions set by God and His Messenger, and it is you who have succumbed to greed. It is you who have disobeyed God’s Messenger and failed to implement his battle plan. What has happened to you, to your surprise, has come from your own souls, because the laws of nature set into operation by God have to apply to you. The laws of nature apply to all human beings, believers and unbelievers alike. Such laws are not suspended for a believer’s sake. His faith is not complete unless he conducts his life according to God’s laws.

“Surely, God has the power over all things.” It is part of His overall power that His law should remain in operation and that matters must continue according to His will. The laws He has devised for the universe and for human life must continue as they have been set.

Nevertheless, God’s will in this whole affair was accomplished for a definite purpose of His own. We must not forget that God’s will lies beyond everything that takes place and every movement and action in the whole universe: “That which befell you, on the day when the two hosts met in battle, happened by God’s leave.” It has not taken place by mere coincidence or for idle play. Every movement and every action takes place according to a definite plan, with its causes and effects well reckoned. They indeed take place according to the laws of nature which must remain in operation, but in their total sum they accomplish God’s purpose and complete the total design of the universe as God created it.

The Islamic view with regard to this whole issue is both comprehensive and well balanced and is not matched by any other view human beings have ever entertained.

Human life exists according to a consistent constitution and unavoidable rules, and beyond these lies God’s active and free will. Yet all these are also subject to His wisdom  which  determines  every  thing  that  takes  place.  Thus  the  constitution governs all, and the rules apply to everything, including man. By his choice of action and what he determines, initiates and does, man makes himself subject to these rules which are bound to affect him. All this, however, takes place in accordance with God’s will and fulfils His purpose. On the other hand, man’s own will, thought, action and movement are part of the constitution and the rules God has set in the universe. He accomplishes with them what He wills. There is no conflict between these and the rules of nature God has set in operation. Such a conflict exists only in the minds of people who put God’s will and action against those of man, weighing the one against the other.

That way of thinking is contrary to the Islamic outlook. According to Islam, man is neither equal nor an enemy to God. Indeed when God granted man his constitution, intellect, will, freedom of choice and action, He placed nothing of this in conflict with His own will or laws. Nor did He allow these to serve a purpose other than His overall purpose in the whole universe. He only made it part of His will that man should reflect and decide, take action and produce an effect, be liable to God’s rules and laws and bear the full consequences of all that. These consequences may bring him pleasure or pain, comfort or trouble, happiness or misery. But behind all that stands God’s free will that encompasses everything in perfect coherence.

What happened in the Battle of Uĥud provides a good example of what we have just said about the way Islam views all matters. God has explained to the Muslims His rules and conditions which bring them victory or cause defeat. They paid no heed to those rules and, consequently, suffered pain, hardship and defeat. But the matter did not stop there. Their disobedience and their pain contributed to the fulfilment of God’s purpose of testing their community so as to mark out the true believers, give them a clear outlook and help them overcome their weakness, and also identify the hypocrites.

All this will ultimately be of benefit to the Muslim community, despite the pain and suffering. It all works in accordance with God’s rules and laws. That gives believers who submit themselves to God and follow the way of living He has laid down an assurance that His help and care are forthcoming. By the same token, their errors are ultimately turned to their benefit, because the suffering such errors cause them becomes a means for proving their metal and educating them.

On such solid grounds the believers stand comfortably. They are reassured, free of worry and confusion as they face God’s will and interact with His laws. They feel that God determines what He wills concerning them and others. They are merely one of the tools God employs to fulfil His purpose. Whatever they do, right or wrong, and all that results from it remain in full harmony with God’s will and fulfils His purpose. It will all benefit them in their life: “That which befell you, on the day when the two hosts met in battle, happened by God’s leave, so that He may mark out the true believers. And (He might] mark out the hypocrites. When these were told, ‘Come, fight in God’s cause’, or ‘Defend yourselves’, they answered, ‘Had we known there would be a fight, we would certainly have followed you.’ On that day they were nearer unbelief than faith, uttering with their mouths something different to what was in their hearts, but God knew full well all that they tried to conceal.” (Verses 166-167)

This verse refers to the attitude of `Abdullāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl and those who joined him. They are described here as “the hypocrites”. Their true feelings became clear for all to see. They were marked out by their true attitude: “On that day they were nearer unbelief than faith.” They lied when they protested that they only went back because they felt there would be no fight between the Muslims and the unbelievers. That was in no way their real reason. The fact is that they were “uttering with their mouths something different to what was in their hearts.” Their hearts were infested with hypocrisy which meant that they placed their own considerations above those of faith.

This is indeed true, because what `Abdullāh ibn Ubayy was thinking about that day was the fact that the Prophet did not follow his counsel, and that the arrival of the Prophet and his Companions in Madinah deprived him of the position of overall leader his people were preparing for him. Instead, the leadership belonged to faith and the messenger preaching it. These facts were indeed behind the desertion of `Abdullāh ibn Ubayy and his followers when the unbelievers were at the gates of Madinah. That is indeed the reason for their refusal to listen to `Abdullāh ibn `Amr ibn Ĥarām when he said to them: “’Come, fight in God’s cause’, or ’Defend yourselves:” They said they did not think a fight would take place anyway. But the truth about them is made clear by God Himself: “God knew full well all that they tried to conceal.’’

The sūrah continues to uncover the true nature of their attitude which aimed to spread a state of confusion and perplexity in the Muslim ranks: “Such were they who, having themselves stayed behind, said of their brothers: If only they had listened to us, they would not have been slain.’” (Verse 168) They did not merely stay behind when the battle was imminent, with all the confusion and turmoil that resulted from their desertion. What made things worse was that `Abdullāh ibn Ubayy was still thought to be an honourable man. His hypocrisy was not yet known. God had not until that point identified him as a hypocrite, which would have much detracted from his standing among his people. They continued to raise doubt, sow discord and nurture feelings of regret, particularly among the families of those who died in battle. “Such were they who, having themselves stayed behind, said of their brothers: If only they had listened to us, they would not have been slain.”

In this way they tried to show their own desertion as both wise and beneficial, while obeying the Prophet was shown to be disadvantageous and causing harm. Furthermore, they undermined the clear Islamic concept of God’s will, which makes it inevitable that every person dies at his or her appointed time, according to God’s will. Hence, the Qur’ānic statement answers them with an irrefutable argument that makes clear all the issues involved: “Say to them: ‘Ward off death from yourselves, then, if what you say be true.’” (Verse 168) Death affects everyone: the fighter in the battlefield as well as the deserter, the brave man and the coward. It can neither be prevented by taking precautions, nor delayed by cowardice or the evasion of risk. It is this fact that the Qur’ān puts to them plainly and clearly, thereby foiling all their wicked plotting, reassuring the Muslims and giving them all the comfort faith provides.

A very interesting point in the Qur’ānic review of the events of the battle is that `Abdullāh ibn Ubayy’s desertion, which occurred before the battle had even started, is commented on only at this point. Bringing it up so late in the discussion illustrates an important feature of the Qur’ānic method of educating the Muslim community. It starts with establishing the main rules which formulate the Islamic outlook, illustrating the proper feelings nurtured in a Muslim heart and explaining the criteria by which Islamic values come into play. When the Qur’ān has done that, it makes this reference to “the hypocrites”, showing their action and how they subsequently behaved. By this time, we are well prepared to evaluate their action and understand how far removed it is from proper Islamic values. This is the right sequence and progress: to establish the right values and standards first, then to evaluate actions and behaviour according to them in order to arrive at the right conclusions.

There may be another purpose for delaying the reference to the desertion, namely, and that is to show that the deserters, particularly their chief, are viewed with contempt. He is not mentioned by name, so that he may sink into insignificance as “one of the hypocrites”. In the scales of faith, he and his action are not worth more than this humiliating reference.

The sūrah then tackles another highly important matter with far- reaching effects. That is the fact that martyrs killed in the defence of God’s cause are not dead; they continue to live and they receive what they need from their Lord. They continue to interact with the Muslim community and the events affecting it after they have departed. Such interaction is the most important aspect of continued life. Thus the life of the Uĥud martyrs is strongly linked to the events that followed their martyrdom before the sūrah describes the attitude of the true believers. These were the ones who responded to God and His Messenger after they had suffered the calamity of defeat. They immediately chased the Quraysh army so as to prevent any possible attempt by that army to attack Madinah. They paid little heed to other people’s warnings that the Quraysh were marshalling large forces to attack them. They placed their trust in God and thus gave practical credence to their declaration of belief in Him: “Do not think of those who are slain in God’s cause as dead. They are alive, and well provided for by their Lord. Happy they are with what God has granted them. They rejoice that those [of their brethren] who have been left behind and have not yet joined them have nothing to fear, nor have they [cause] to grieve. They rejoice in the happy news of God’s blessing and bounty, and in the fact that God will not suffer the reward of the believers to be lost.” (Verses 169-171)

Having reassured the believers and established the true facts concerning death and the Divine will, the sūrah adds to the reassurance of the believers by describing the fate of the martyrs who are killed while defending God’s cause. Indeed that is the true meaning of a martyr, for there is no martyrdom except that achieved through defending God’s cause, and dying in the process. These martyrs are indeed alive, having all of the essential qualities of life. They “receive” their needs from their Lord, are happy with the grace God bestows on them, rejoice at the happy news of what is to befall their brethren whom they had left behind, and they witness the events of the Muslim community. Such are the qualities of the living. Why should we, then, be distressed at their departure, when they are indeed interacting with those who are alive?  But  they  have  much  more  than  this  interaction.  They  have  all  that  God bestows on them of His grace. Why do believers, then, create untrue separations between a living martyr and his people whom he has left behind, between this world and the world beyond, when there should be no such separation in their thoughts as in both worlds they deal with God.

To clarify this fact is of central importance in the formulation of one’s overall understanding. Indeed it initiates a Muslim’s perception of the universe, what takes place in it, as well as life in its various stages. Death is not the end of all life, as other people believe. Indeed it does not even represent a barrier between what comes before it and what comes after it.

“Do not think of those who are slain in God’s cause as dead. They are alive, and well provided for by their Lord.” This verse gives an order not to think of people killed while serving God’s cause as dead, even though they have departed from this world and are no longer seen by the living. It gives also an assurance that they are very much alive, with their Lord. The verse then gives a list of the aspects of life they have. The first of these is that they are “well provided for.”

In this life, we do not know what type of life martyrs have, except for whatever the Prophet has told us in authentic ĥadīths. Nevertheless, this true statement by God, Who knows all, is sufficient as a basis for us to fundamentally change our views of life and death, what separates them and what joins them together. It is enough to tell us that things need not be as they appear. Hence when we formulate our conceptions of absolute facts on the basis of their apparent features, we will not be able to arrive at a perfect understanding of such facts. It is infinitely better for us to wait for the right  explanation  of  these  facts  from  the  One  Who  knows  them  all,  God  the Almighty.

Here the sūrah tells us about people from among us who are slain, depicting a life which is familiar to us in its visible aspects. However, because they are slain “in God’s cause”, and because they have purged their thoughts and feelings of everything else while their souls look up to God and are sacrificed for His sake, God tells us that they are alive, not dead. He forbids us to think of them as dead, assuring us that they are with Him, well provided for, and that they receive His bounty in the same way as the living. He then tells us about other qualities of their life. Thus we learn that they are happy “with what God has granted them.” They are certainly pleased with what is given to them by God, because they know that it is part of His grace. Hence it is, for them, an evidence of the fact that He is well pleased with them.

Moreover, they think about their brethren whom they have left behind, rejoicing at their prospects, because they know that God is pleased with those who strive to serve His cause: “They rejoice that those [of their brethren] who have been left behind and have not yet joined them have nothing to fear, nor have they [cause] to grieve. They rejoice in the happy news of God’s blessing and bounty, and in the fact that God will not suffer the reward  of  the  believers  to  be  lost.”  That  is  a  complete  picture  showing  them  as continuing to be concerned with their brethren, feeling happy with what they have and reassured about the prospects of their brethren. What qualities of life do they, then, miss? How are they separated from those who are left behind? Why should their departure be an occasion of sadness and grief when it is one of happiness and pleasure?

These verses provide a complete transformation of the reality of death, when it comes about in the course of dedication to God’s cause, and the feelings associated with it among the fighters themselves and those who are left behind. The outlook on life gives it a far wider expanse than the present fleeting one. Indeed this wider outlook strengthened the believers in all generations. It steadied their footsteps as they sought martyrdom for God’s cause. Hence, the history of Islam portrays countless examples of the type of believers ready to sacrifice their lives for their faith. Some of these examples have been given at the beginning of our commentary on the events of the Battle of Uĥud.