Tafsir of Surah Al-An'am - Verse 80

أَتُحَاجُّونِّى فِى اللَّهِ وَقَدْ هَدَانِى

(Do you dispute with me about Allah while He has guided me). The Ayah means, do you argue with me about Allah, other than Whom there is no god worthy of worship, while He has guided me to the Truth and made me aware of it Therefore, how can I ever consider your misguided statements and false doubts Ibrahim said next,

وَلاَ أَخَافُ مَا تُشْرِكُونَ بِهِ إِلاَّ أَن يَشَآءَ رَبِّى شَيْئاً

(and I fear not those whom you associate with Allah in worship. (Nothing can happen to me) except when my Lord wills something.) Ibrahim said, among the proofs to the falsehood of your creed, is that these false gods that you worship do not bring about any effect, and I do not fear them or care about them. Therefore, if these gods are able to cause harm, then use them against me and do not give me respite. Ibrahim's statement,

إِلاَّ أَن يَشَآءَ رَبِّى شَيْئاً

(except when my Lord wills something.) means, only Allah causes benefit or harm.

وَسِعَ رَبِّى كُلَّ شَىْءٍ عِلْماً

(My Lord comprehends in His knowledge all things. ) meaning, Allah's knowledge encompasses all things and nothing escapes His complete observation,

أَفَلاَ تَتَذَكَّرُونَ

(Will you not then remember) what I explained to you, considering your idols as false gods and refraining from worshipping them This reasoning from Prophet Ibrahim is similar to the argument that Prophet Hud used against his people, `Ad. Allah mentioned this incident in His Book, when He said,

قَالُواْ يَهُودُ مَا جِئْتَنَا بِبَيِّنَةٍ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَارِكِى ءالِهَتِنَا عَن قَوْلِكَ وَمَا نَحْنُ لَكَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ - إِن نَّقُولُ إِلاَّ اعْتَرَاكَ بَعْضُ ءَالِهَتِنَا بِسُوءٍ قَالَ إِنِّى أُشْهِدُ اللَّهِ وَاشْهَدُواْ أَنِّى بَرِىءٌ مِّمَّا تُشْرِكُونَ - مِن دُونِهِ فَكِيدُونِى جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ لاَ تُنظِرُونِ - إِنِّى تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى اللَّهِ رَبِّى وَرَبِّكُمْ مَّا مِن دَآبَّةٍ إِلاَّ هُوَ ءاخِذٌ بِنَاصِيَتِهَآ إِنَّ رَبِّى عَلَى صِرَطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ

(They said: "O Hud! No evidence have you brought us, and we shall not leave our gods for your (mere) saying! And we are not believers in you. All that we say is that some of our gods have seized you with evil." He said: "I call Allah to witness - and bear you witness - that I am free from that which you ascribe as partners in worship with Him (Allah). So plot against me, all of you, and give me no respite. I put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving creature but He has grasp of its forelock. Verily, my Lord is on the straight path (the truth).") 11:53-56 Ibrahim's statement,

وَكَيْفَ أَخَافُ مَآ أَشْرَكْتُمْ

(And how should I fear those whom you associate. ..) means, how should I fear the idols that you worship instead of Allah,

وَلاَ تَخَافُونَ أَنَّكُمْ أَشْرَكْتُم بِاللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ عَلَيْكُمْ سُلْطَـناً

(while you fear not that you have joined in worship with Allah things for which He has not sent down to you any Sultan.) meaning, proof, according to Ibn `Abbas and others among the Salaf. Allah said in similar Ayat;

أَمْ لَهُمْ شُرَكَاءُ شَرَعُواْ لَهُمْ مِّنَ الدِّينِ مَا لَمْ يَأْذَن بِهِ اللَّهُ

(Or have they partners who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not allowed) 42:21, and,

إِنْ هِىَ إِلاَّ أَسْمَآءٌ سَمَّيْتُمُوهَآ أَنتُمْ وَءَابَآؤُكُم مَّآ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ بِهَا مِن سُلْطَـنٍ

(They are but names which you have named, you and your fathers, for which Allah has sent down no authority.) 53:21 His statement,

فَأَىُّ الْفَرِيقَيْنِ أَحَقُّ بِالاٌّمْنِ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

((So) which of the two parties has more right to be in security If you but know.) means, which of the two parties is on the truth, those who worship Him in Whose Hand is harm and benefit, or those who worship what cannot bring harm or benefit, without authority to justify worshipping them Who among these two parties has more right to be saved from Allah's torment on the Day of Resurrection Allah said,

الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَلَمْ يَلْبِسُواْ إِيمَـنَهُمْ بِظُلْمٍ أُوْلَـئِكَ لَهُمُ الاٌّمْنُ وَهُمْ مُّهْتَدُونَ

(It is those who believe and confuse not their belief with Zulm (wrong), for them (only) there is security and they are the guided.) Therefore, those who worship Allah alone without partners, will acquire safety on the Day of Resurrection, and they are the guided ones in this life and the Hereafter.

Shirk is the Greatest Zulm (Wrong)

Al-Bukhari recorded that `Abdullah said, "When the Ayah,

وَلَمْ يَلْبِسُواْ إِيمَـنَهُمْ بِظُلْمٍ

(and confuse not their belief with Zulm (wrong).) was revealed, the Companions of the Prophet said, `And who among us did not commit Zulm against himself' The Ayah,

إِنَّ الشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظِيمٌ

(Verily! Joining others in worship with Allah is a great Zulm (wrong) indeed.) 31:13, was later revealed." Imam Ahmad recorded that `Abdullah said, "When this Ayah was revealed,

الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَلَمْ يَلْبِسُواْ إِيمَـنَهُمْ بِظُلْمٍ

(It is those who believe and confuse not their belief with Zulm (wrong),) it was hard on the people. They said, `O Allah's Messenger! Who among us did not commit Zulm against himself' He said,

«إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ الَّذِي تَعْنُونَ، أَلَمْ تَسْمَعُوا مَا قَالَ الْعَبْدُ الصَّالِحُ

(It is not what you understood from it. Did you not hear what the righteous servant (Luqman) said,

يَبُنَىَّ لاَ تُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّ الشِّرْكَ لَظُلْمٌ عَظِيمٌ

(O my son! Join not in worship others with Allah. Verily! Shirk is a great Zulm (wrong) indeed.)) 31:13. Therefore, it is about Shirk. Allah's statement,

وَتِلْكَ حُجَّتُنَآ ءَاتَيْنَـهَآ إِبْرَهِيمَ عَلَى قَوْمِهِ

(And that was Our proof which We gave Ibrahim against his people.) means, We directed him to proclaim Our proof against them. Mujahid and others said that `Our proof' refers to,

وَكَيْفَ أَخَافُ مَآ أَشْرَكْتُمْ وَلاَ تَخَافُونَ أَنَّكُمْ أَشْرَكْتُم بِاللَّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ عَلَيْكُمْ سُلْطَـناً فَأَىُّ الْفَرِيقَيْنِ أَحَقُّ بِالاٌّمْنِ

(And how should I fear those whom you associate in worship with Allah (though they can neither benefit nor harm), while you fear not that you have joined in worship with Allah things for which He has not sent down to you any Sultan. (So) which of the two parties has more right to be in security) Allah has testified Ibrahim's statement and affirmed security and guidance, saying;

الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَلَمْ يَلْبِسُواْ إِيمَـنَهُمْ بِظُلْمٍ أُوْلَـئِكَ لَهُمُ الاٌّمْنُ وَهُمْ مُّهْتَدُونَ

(It is those who believe and confuse not their belief with Zulm, for them there is security and they are the guided.) Allah said,

وَتِلْكَ حُجَّتُنَآ ءَاتَيْنَـهَآ إِبْرَهِيمَ عَلَى قَوْمِهِ نَرْفَعُ دَرَجَـتٍ مَّن نَّشَآءُ

(And that was Our proof which We gave Ibrahim against his people. We raise in degrees whom We will.) And;

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌ

(Certainly your Lord is All-Wise, All-Knowing.) He is All-Wise in His statements and actions, All-Knower of those whom He guides or misguides, and whether the proof was established against them or not. Allah also said,

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ حَقَّتْ عَلَيْهِمْ كَلِمَةُ رَبِّكَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ - وَلَوْ جَآءَتْهُمْ كُلُّ ءايَةٍ حَتَّى يَرَوُاْ الْعَذَابَ الاٌّلِيمَ

(Truly! Those, against whom the Word (wrath) of your Lord has been justified, will not believe. Even if every sign should come to them -- until they see the painful torment.) 10:96-97 This is why Allah said here,

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌ

(Certainly your Lord is All-Wise, All-Knowing.)

Using Wisdom and Strategy in Tabligh and Da'wah is the Way of Prophets

Let us begin with verse 76 which opens with the words: رَ‌أَىٰ كَوْكَبًا So, when the night enveloped him, he saw a star. Then, beaming at his people, he said: This is my Lord. The sense in which he said it was: Is it not, as you think and believe, my Lord and your Lord, the Rabb of both of us who nurtures, nourishes and sustains us? In a little while you will find out how real that is. Then, after some time, the star vanished. This gave Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) a good occasion to drive his argument home against his disbelieving people. He said: لَا أُحِبُّ الْآفِلِينَ (I do not like those who vanish). The word: آفِلِين (` afulin' ) is from: افول ('afulin) which means to set.

The sense is that things which set or vanish do not deserve being held dear - and when something is to be given the status of an object of worship has to be, quite obviously, most worthy of love and reverence. Maulana Rumi, in one of his couplets, has directly referred to thisevent when he said (in Persian, with its stylized translation)

خلیل آسادرِ ملکِ یقین زن

نوایٔے لا اُح، بُّ الآفِلِینِ زن

Like Khalil [ Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) ...] Enter The Domain of Belief

By proclaiming The Password: I do not like the vanishing!

After that, some other night, with a glowing moon in sight, he again beamed his dialogue at his people following the earlier method, and said: (according to your view) this is my Lord but its reality you will find out after a little while. So, when the moon vanished, he said: If my Rabb had not been guiding me all along, I would have been enlisted among the stray like you, and it would have been the moon itself I might have taken as my Lord and my object of worship. But, the alternating conditions of its rising and setting brought me to the chas-tening conclusion that this star too is not worthy of worship.

Also hinted in this verse is that the Rabb or Lord of Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) is a totally different entity from Whom guidance keeps coming to him.

Then, the day he saw the sun rising, he again said to his people as he had done earlier: This (according to your view) is my Rabb. And this is the biggest of all. But, its reality you will soon find out. So, when came the time for the sun to set, set it did. Driven home was his final argument against the ideas of his people. The reality had become all too obvious. So, he said: یا قَوْمِ إِنِّي بَرِ‌يءٌ مِّمَّا تُشْرِ‌كُونَ ( O my people, I am free of whatever you associate with Allah).

In conclusion, he made it clear before them that his Rabb (the Lord of life who nurtures, cherishes and sustains it) and their Rabb can never be any of these created heavenly bodies which are not free of dependence on something else for their existence, and are surrounded by constant and ongoing changes of rising and setting. Instead of them, his Lord and their Lord was no other than the One who has created the heavens and the earth and everything therein. Therefore, he declared, that he had changed his orientation away from their self-sculpted idols and away from the stars of their fancy which changed and alternated under creational compulsion, and it was to the total exclusion of all these, that he had turned to Allah alone, the One God who has no partners and associates with Him - (and when that was settled, he was different) so, he made it frank and clear that he was not a Mushrik (disbeliever or polytheist) like them. (Indeed, a line of demarcation drawn forever! )

In this debate, it is significant that Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) has shown characteristic prophetic wisdom and elegance of approach when he does not make a frontal assault on the false notions of star-worship entertained by his people as being false or erroneous. He has, rather, chosen a very telling style of presentation which by itself would help any rational human being to absorb the point being made and be able to recognize reality at the end. Of course, when the case was that of idol-worship, his method was different - there, he had taken a hard line right from the start, and had told his father point-blank that he and his people had gone astray. The reason was that idol-worship was all too obvious an error, contrary to star-worship the error of which was not so obvious and pronounced.

Noteworthy here is the outcome of the argument against star-worship presented by Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) before his people. He said that (a) things which are subject to change, (b) things which keep alternating in their conditions, and (c) things which in their movements are subservient to some other power can never become deserving of being taken as anyone's Rabb or Lord. In this argument, it was possible to seek help from all other conditions of the stars, such as their rising and their intermediary stage before their setting, when it could have been said that they were not independent in their movements and were moving in a pre-specified orbit under the command of someone else. But, Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) ، from out of all these states and conditions, chose the setting of these stars as the main thrust of his argument - because their setting, in a way, spells out their decline in the sight of common people. The typical argument presented by prophets, may peace be upon them all, is what would go on to influence the minds of common people. They do not pursue philosophical truisms, instead, they address people at the level of common comprehension. Therefore, it was to prove the helplessness and ineffectiveness of stars that the phenomenon of their setting was presented. Otherwise, the rising of the stars might have also been used to prove that they were helpless and powerless - and it would have also been possible to get hold of an argument from changes that come upon them before they finally set.

Some Instructions for Preachers of Islam

This debating style of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) provides some important points of guidance for Muslim scholars and Da'wah workers:

1\. In matters relating to carrying the call of truth to people (Tabligh) and seeking reform among them (Islah), being universally rigid or universally lenient is not appropriate. The correct approach is to understand that each of these has an occasion and a limit. For ex ample, Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) has used strong words when it comes to idol-worship, because its error is within common sight. But, he has not used such strong words in the case of star-worship where he has used a particular method to clarify its reality in the minds of his people - because the matter of stars and planets being helpless and powerless was not so readily obvious as was that of self-carved idols. This tells us that should common people be involved in an error of judgment or conduct, which they do not realize as such, then, the ` Alim (religious scholar) or Muballigh (religious preacher) would do well to avoid taking a hard line, rigid or excessive or dogmatic, and try to find a better way to remove their doubts.

2\. The second guidance concerns the manner in which truth has to be presented. The example is that Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) did not address his people directly asking them to do what had to be done. Rather than say something in the mode of an order, he simply told them about how he felt in this matter. He said that he could not declare things which were helplessly involved in a cycle of rising and setting as objects of worship. For this reason, he told them, he had turned to the Being that is the creator, nurturer and caretaker of all these things. Of course, the purpose was to bring them round to do the same. But, in his wise way, he abstained from a direct address lest they become totally uncompromising by opposing the suggestion just for the sake of opposition. This tells us that the job of a reformer and preacher is not to go ahead and tell what is true in just about any way. Instead of doing something like that, he is bound to say it in a manner which would produce the desired effect on his listeners.

The story of Abraham narrated here is not the story of his search for Truth but that of his observation of Truth. Abraham was born in Iraq four thousand years ago in an environment in which the sun, moon and stars were worshipped. However, Nature’s guidance and God’s special help kept Abraham away from polytheism. His keen vigilant eyes observed signs in the phenomena spread throughout the universe which supported the idea of the oneness of God (tawhid). Everywhere in the mirror of the universe, the face of the one God would appear before him. Feeling sorry for his community, he used to ask them why they were blind to reality, in spite of the facts revealed before them. Whenever a thing or person is given the status of the worshipped one (ma‘bud), it naturally follows that the concepts of mysterious pre-eminence and greatness become attached to that thing or person. People start thinking that, in the scheme of the universe, this being has a high status such as is not enjoyed by anybody else. Pleasing him brings good fortune, while displeasing him does the reverse. Accordingly, when Abraham said that his community’s deities were valueless and that in this world of God they had absolutely no powers, people were afraid that, as a result of this ‘insolence’, they might be subjected to some suffering and they started arguing with Abraham. They warned him against such talk and said that the vengeance of these deities would be wreaked upon him—he would become blind, go mad, would face destruction, etc.