Tafsir of Surah Al-'Ankabut - Verse 69

The Blessing of the Sanctuary Here

Allah reminds Quraysh how He blessed them by granting them access to His sanctuary which He has made (open) to (all) men, the dweller in it and the visitor from the country are equal there, and whoever enters it is safe, because he is in a place of great security, although the Arabs of the desert round about used to ambush and raid one another and kill one another. As Allah says:

لإِيلَـفِ قُرَيْشٍ - إِيلَـفِهِمْ رِحْلَةَ الشِّتَآءِ وَالصَّيْفِ - فَلْيَعْبُدُواْ رَبَّ هَـذَا الْبَيْتِ - الَّذِى أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَءَامَنَهُم مِّنْ خوْفٍ

(For the protection of the Quraysh. The caravans to set forth safe in winter and in summer. So let them worship the Lord of this House. Who has fed them against hunger, and has made them safe from fear.) (106:1-4)

أَفَبِالْبَـطِلِ يُؤْمِنُونَ وَبِنِعْمَةِ اللَّهِ يَكْفُرُونَ

(Then do they believe in falsehood, and deny the graces of Allah) means, is the thanks that they give for this immense blessing to associate others with Him and worship others besides Him, idols and rivals

بَدَّلُواْ نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ كُفْرًا وَأَحَلُّواْ قَوْمَهُمْ دَارَ الْبَوَارِ

(Have you not seen those who have changed the blessings of Allah into disbelief, and caused their people to dwell in the house of destruction) (14:28) They disbelieved in the Prophet, servant and Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when what they should have done was to worship Allah Alone and not associate anything with Him, and to believe in, honor and respect the Messenger ﷺ, but they rejected him and fought him, and expelled him from their midst. So, Allah took His blessing away from them, and killed those of them whom He killed at Badr, then His Messenger and the believers gained the upper hand, and Allah enabled His Messenger to conquer Makkah, and He disgraced them and humiliated them (the disbelievers). Then Allah says:

وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ افْتَرَى عَلَى اللَّهِ كَذِباً أَوْ كَذَّبَ بِالْحَقِّ لَمَّا جَآءَهُ

(And who does more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allah or denies the truth, when it comes to him) There is no one who will be more severely punished than one who tells lies about Allah and says that Allah revealed something to him at the time when Allah did not reveal anything to him, or says, `I shall reveal something like that which Allah revealed.' And there is no one who will be more severely punished than one who denies the truth when it comes to him, for the former is a fabricator and the latter is a disbeliever. Allah says:

أَلَيْسَ فِى جَهَنَّمَ مَثْوًى لِّلْكَـفِرِينَ

(Is there not a dwelling in Hell for the disbelievers) Then Allah says:

وَالَّذِينَ جَـهَدُواْ فِينَا

(As for those who strive hard for Us,) meaning the Messenger and his Companions and those who follow him, until the Day of Resurrection,

لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا

(We will surely guide them to Our paths. ) means, `We will help them to follow Our path in this world and the Hereafter.' Ibn Abi Hatim narrated that `Abbas Al-Hamdani Abu Ahmad -- one of the people of `Akka (Palestine) -- said, concerning the Ayah:

وَالَّذِينَ جَـهَدُواْ فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

(As for those who strive hard for Us (in Our cause), We will surely guide them to Our paths. And verily, Allah is with the doers of good.) "Those who act upon what they know, Allah will guide them to that which they do not know." Ahmad bin Abu Al-Hawari said, "I told this to Abu Sulayman Ad-Darani, and he liked it and said: `No one who is inspired to do something good should do it until he hears a report concerning that; if he hears a report then he should go ahead and do it, and praise Allah because it was in accordance with what he himself felt."'

وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ لَمَعَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ

(And verily, Allah is with the doers of good.) Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Ash-Sha`bi said; "Isa bin Maryam, peace be upon him, said: `Righteousness means doing good to those who ill-treat you, it does not mean doing good to those who do good to you."' And Allah knows best. This is the end of the Tafsir of Surat Al-`Ankabut. All praise and thanks are due to Allah.

وَالَّذِينَ جَاهَدُوا فِينَا لَنَهْدِيَنَّهُمْ سُبُلَنَا (And those who strive in Our way We will certainly take them to Our paths - 69). The real meaning of jihad is to put in all efforts to remove the hurdles in the way of faith. These hurdles include those that are put up by the infidels, for which fighting is at the top pedestal, and also those hurdles that are created by one's own Self and by Shaitan.

There is a promise in this verse for both types of jihad, that Allah Ta’ ala guides those waging jihad to the righteous way. It means that when there is a 'confusion between evil and virtue, truth and false, and profit or loss, and a wise person wonders which way to adopt, on such occasions Allah Ta’ ala guides those striving in His way to the path which is straight, righteous and without risk. In other words, He turns their hearts toward a way that may bring the divine blessing and the best results.

Knowledge improves if it is acted upon

Sayyidna Abu Ad-Darda' ؓ while interpreting this verse has said that the people who strive for acting in accordance with their knowledge are promised by Allah Ta’ ala in this verse that He will disclose to them some other areas of knowledge that they did not have before. Fudayl Ibn ` Iyad (رح) has given yet another interpretation to this verse, that is, ` those who strive for knowledge, We make it easy for them to act'. (Mazhari). وَاللہُ سبحانَہُ و تعالیٰ اَعلَم

The Sacred House of Makkah, i.e. the Kabah, is a wonderful gift of Almighty God. God fills the hearts of people with awe whenever they see it, so that even the overbearing and arrogant drop their evil ways on reaching there. This sanctity of the Kabah was one of the signs of God’s power. It called for people to open their hearts to God. But what the worshippers of falsehood did was to ascribe God’s attributes to entities other than God and wrongly divert people’s instinct of devotion towards them. But even worse, when the Prophet Muhammad advised them to renounce the imaginary gods and bow down before the one real God, they became hostile to him. In such an atmosphere the loss suffered by the believers in the world is more than made up for by the rewards bestowed on them by God. Distancing themselves from material comforts, they come closer to the state of spiritual experience. The outward glitter of things is no longer in view, but the inner realities of things are laid bare to them.