Radi (Radical): Marhaban, as-salaamu ‘alaykum (Hello, peace be upon you.)Modi (Moderate): Wa ‘alaykum as-salaam (And upon you, peace.)
Mani (Mainstream): Sabaah al-khayr, Radi. (Good morning.)
Radi: A friend is trying to learn the Qur’an. I told him just to read it and Allah will make things clear to him. He read the second surah[1] three times and still cannot make sense of it.
Modi: The second surah, “al Baqarah” [2] is the longest surah in the Qur’an. I cannot blame him for not understanding it right away.
Radi: Why is it so long?
Modi: Because ayats were added to it as time went by. If you remember the first surah, al Fatihah[3], it was revealed in Mecca and ended with a prayer asking for guidance to the straight path. Although Surah 2 was revealed later, in Medina, it provides that guidance mentioned in Surah 1.
Mani: I was always wondering about that myself.
Modi: Most of the second surah was revealed during the first two years in Medina. However, the rest of the ayats were revealed in later periods, but they were related to the guidance in this surah, so that is why they are there.
Radi: I do not understand why Allah organized the Qur’an as He did. It is so difficult to understand.
Mani: You are not alone. We could have had a little tweaking done to help, but those headhunters of yours, Radi, would not let anybody change anything.
Radi: Why were so many subjects put into that one chapter?
Modi: Others have said it was because when the surah was started, many subjects had to be discussed lightly, but no one anticipated the numbers of Muslims that would crowd Medina so soon after the Hejira. When the spoils were divided after the Battle of Badr, Medina’s population grew considerably.
Mani: I see. It was very important that more details were added quickly so that the people would know how to live in peace with each other.
Modi: Right. It was also important to know how to go to war and win against overwhelming odds.
Mani: You mean that since many of our guiding principles were being established during that period in Medina, other ayats that were revealed later had to go back to that second surah, even though they were revealed after many more surahs were revealed?
Modi: Yes. That surah was significantly expanded. Look, remember that our Most Beloved tried to explain to the Jews that they used to be Muslims in the beginning, but they “strayed away through centuries of degeneration.”
When they were told about it and given a chance to redeem themselves, they clung to their wickedness and joined those who would try to crush Islam. They inexplicably dropped the name of Muslim and called themselves Jews. The people had to know about the Jews so that they would understand why some Jewish tribes were banished and others were attacked.
Mani: Too bad all those arguments about the Jews were not given their own surah. It would have made things a little clearer. Surah 2 would not have been so crowded.
Modi: For a while there, it appeared that the Jewish tribes were pleased with Muhammad’s work and cooperated with him. The breach came when he visited their place of worship and announced that he was the new Jewish Prophet. The Jews, some of whom had been studying and researching for decades, greeted that in several different ways, none of them pleasing to Muhammad (pbuh). They just did not accept him as a Jewish prophet.
Mani: So, that is the source of the many ayats in that surah, castigating the Jews quite bitterly. I guess it was important to let the people know about the Jews right away.
Modi: Some of the ire was directed at the munafiqin (hypocrites). Those were the Muslims who were like Ted Kennedy to a Republican president. The less they knew, the more sullenly and loudly they knew it. You may remember they were particularly annoying right before the Battle of the Trench. The people had to learn about them also.
Mani: What kind of guidance was in Surah 2?
Modi: Of course, I do not have al Kitab with me to try to give you a list, but I will do what I can.
He divided mankind into three main groups: believers, disbelievers, and hypocrites. Allah invited mankind to accept the guidance, just as he had invited Adam and Eve to do so. The Jews were invited to take part in Islam, but they refused, and so Allah had quite a lot to say about that. Allah also changed the qiblah from Jerusalem to Mecca[4].
Modi (takes a breath): The details on prayers, fasting, the Zakat[5], the Hajj[6] and jihad all found their way into the surah, just as drinking and gambling did.
The formal prayers, Salat, are very important in Islam, even though arising before dawn to begin the first prayer is hard to take at times. It was necessary that the people knew as soon as possible the right way to do things. Did you know, Radi, that your prayers mean nothing without the ablutions first?
Radi: That is quite a lot of guidance for that period.
Modi: People needed a set of laws to live by, and they had to be based upon the principles laid down in Medina. Muhammad did not write the Sharia, but it is based on the Qur’an, the Hadiths, the Sirah, and centuries of study, analysis, and debate.
Radi: Debate?
Mani: Yes, Radi. Nothing is supposed to be set in stone, though sometimes it looks like it.
Modi: Allah also revealed in that surah that he wanted everyone to spend in the way of Allah and not horde wealth.
He did not want just a few wealthy people cornering the markets and getting wealthier while others starved. It was fine if people bought things that made life easy for them as long as they did not drink, gamble, and abuse others. Lending money at high interest rates was one way of abusing your fellow Muslims, and He was not going to allow anyone to do that.
Mani: I read Sayyid Qutb’s book, Social Justice in Islam. One would think that he had the Qur’an open beside him as he wrote.
Modi: Well, what do you think, Radi? Do you have enough information to give to your friend about learning the Qur’an?
Radi: I think I do for the second surah, but I know he will have to do as you suggested last week. He should use the sirah as a guide to reading the Qur’an.
Modi: He can always look around for the Mawdudi work Towards Understanding the Qur’an in several volumes. Fortunately, they are not too expensive. They are out of print, so he can find only the used ones.
Mani: I used to have an imam explain things to me, but the imams are too busy now with larger congregations and so many things going on. In some mosques, they do not allow the nonradicals to speak, especially if the building was financed with money from certain places. Now I find that some of these turkeys are getting confused because the people turned against al-Qaeda and the other insurgents.
Modi: Yes, I know. We may see a different world before long. Our planet is getting smaller because we have more people. Except for some dumb holdouts, people want more freedom to think and act for themselves. I saw some statistics showing 40% of young Muslims in Europe are not practicing their religion. Waking up for prayer before dawn after a night on the town does not compute, I guess.
Mani: I agree. One of these days, our women are going to get together and turn on some of these old beards, who are going to discover what “getting stoned” really means. I know they are going to tear out some Sharia pages.
Radi: Well, I don’t agree. I love this religion, and it should not change at all.
Modi: Very well, Radi. You keep it; however, do not let your religion bring harm to your neighbor. Once a religion brings harm to someone it becomes a cult and must be suppressed. Remember that.
Radi: There is nothing wrong with my religion. I will kill the first person who does not agree.
Mani: Radi is always a case in point, Modi.
Radi: What does that mean?
Mani: It means when there is nothing more to be said, you are still saying it.
HJS
Partially adapted from Mawdudi’s introduction to Surah Two of
The Noble Qur’an, the download version.
[1] A surah is a chapter in the Qur’an. An ayat is a verse inside a surah.
[2] The Cow, named for one of the subjects in the surah, ayats 67-73.
[3] The Opening. It is the opening surah of the Qur’an.
[4] Quiblah--The direction faced when a Muslin prays. Most mosques build a niche in a wall to indicate the direction. Thw qiblah plays an important in everyday ceremonies. The qiblah was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca after the arguments between the Jews and Muhammad had begun.
[5] Poor Tax: 2.5% of one’s capital annually.
[6] Pilgrimage to Mecca.
No comments:
Post a Comment