Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi

The mis­sion­ar­ies have once again made an attempt to gen­er­ate a so-called con­tra­dic­tion” in the Qur’an. The gist of their claim is :

The Qur’an states that a per­son will only be respon­si­ble for his/​her actions.…17:13 – 15 Sher Ali ; S. 53:38 – 42 Sher Ali. Yet these state­ments are con­tra­dict­ed by the next set of passages.…S. 8:24 – 25 Sher Ali. Here, even the inno­cent will suf­fer the afflic­tion that will smite the wrongdoers.

As it turns out, an appeal to the time-test­ed method­ol­o­gy of the Qur’?n explain­ing the Qur’?n would make this gen­er­at­ed error evap­o­rate” into thin air, as we shall soon find out.

Response

Both Qur’?n 17:13 – 15 and Qur’?n 53:38 – 42 are talk­ing about the state of man on the Day of Res­ur­rec­tion, where­by man will face the judge­ment of God and there­fore no one is account­able for his deeds/​actions on earth except himself.

Qur’?n 8:24 – 25, how­ev­er, is warn­ing about inter­nal dis­cord or tumult, and has noth­ing do do with one suf­fer­ing the con­se­quence of sin”.[1] This is not­ed by A. Yusuf Ali in foot­note 1198 as :

Fit­nat has many mean­ings : (1) the root mean­ing is tri­al or temp­ta­tion, as in ii. 102 and viii. 28 ; (2) an anal­o­gous mean­ing is tri­al or pun­ish­ment, as in v. 74 ; (3) tumult or oppres­sion, as i. 193 ; and here ; and in vii 39 ; (4) there is here (viii. 25) the fur­ther shade of mean­ing sug­gest­ed : dis­cord, sedi­tion, civ­il war.

This warn­ing against inter­nal dis­cord or tumult was very nec­es­sary in the Civ­il Wars of ear­ly Islam, and was nev­er more nec­es­sary than it is now. For it affects inno­cent and guilty alike.[2]

The above is fur­ther con­cured by the renowned Mus­lim schol­ar, the late Prof. Dr. HAMKA, in his famous exe­ge­sis (writ­ten in Indone­sian) on the inter­pre­ta­tion of Qur’?n, 8:24 – 25.[3]

As for where the vers­es that dis­cuss the wor­ship of the Gold­en Calf, the Qur’?n does not cast blame on the present-day Jews or hold them account­able for the sin of their ances­tors. Rather, it warns them of the con­se­quences if they insist on repeat­ing the mis­takes of their fore­fa­thers. As Qur’?n 8:24 – 25, as we had not­ed ear­li­er, is total­ly unre­lat­ed to the issue at hand, there is lit­tle to add from here.

Hence the mis­sion­ar­ies are guilty of propos­ing a red her­ring, i.e. going off the tan­gent by con­tra­dict­ing the under­stand­ing of renowned Mus­lim schol­ars, and their obvi­ous hatred, para­noia and xeno­pho­bia are mak­ing them dif­fi­cult” to under­stand such sim­ple pas­sages as the above.

We have used the tra­di­tion­al method of Qur’?nic exe­ge­sis, i.e., al-Qur’?n yufas­siru ba’­duhu ba’­dan (dif­fer­ent parts of the Qur’?n explain each oth­er). What is giv­en in a gen­er­al way in one place is dis­cussed in detail in some oth­er place in the Qur’?n. What is dealt with briefly at one place is expand­ed in some oth­er place.

And only God knows best !

Ref­er­ences

[1] The word fitn?’ here is trans­lat­ed as afflic­tion and tri­al” and/​or tumult”, oppres­sion”. This usage is con­sis­tent in A. Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an : Text, Trans­la­tion and Com­men­tary, Kitab Bha­van, India (1996) and Hilali & Khan, Inter­pre­ta­tion of The Noble Qur’an in the Eng­lish Lan­guage, Mak­ta­ba Dar-us-Salam, Sau­di Ara­bia (1994).

[2] A. Yusuf Ali, ibid., p. 421

[3] Prof. Dr. HAMKA, Tafsir Al-Azhar : Juzu’ 789 (1984), pp. 328 – 332. After giv­ing exam­ples of the civ­il wars in ear­ly Islam, he con­cludes as follows :

Islam masih ada dan hidup. Al-Qur’an pun masih utuh. Kita akan mem­bangk­itkan Islam kem­bali. Maka ayat ini adalah pedo­man pent­ing bagi kita, yaitu awasi­lah bahaya fitnah.”
(Islam is still here and alive. The Qur’?n has remains as it is. We will there­fore be able to restore Islam soon. There­fore this ayah serves as an impor­tant reminder for us, which is to be aware of the dan­gers of fit­na’ [inter­nal dis­cord or tumult])


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