Surah Al-An'am, Ayah 157

The Qur'an is Allah's Proof Against His Creation

Ibn Jarir commented on the Ayah, "The Ayah means, this is a Book that We sent down, so that you do not say,

إِنَّمَآ أُنزِلَ الْكِتَـبُ عَلَى طَآئِفَتَيْنِ مِن قَبْلِنَا

("The Book was sent down only to two sects before us.") This way, you will have no excuse. Allah said in another Ayah,

وَلَوْلا أَن تُصِيبَهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُواْ رَبَّنَا لَوْلا أَرْسَلْتَ إِلَيْنَا رَسُولاً فَنَتِّبِعَ ءايَـتِكَ

(Otherwise, they would have suffered a calamity because of what their hands sent forth, and said: "Our Lord! Why did You not send us a Messenger We would then have followed Your Ayat.")28:47." The Ayah,

Commentary

The reason of being ` ignorant of (or heedless to) what they studied - 156' was not that the Torah and the Injil were non-existent in the Arabic language because it is possible to become informed of the contents through a translation, in fact, this happens. Instead, this is because the people of the Book never took steps to educate and inform the people of Arabia in the mores of monotheism. That something falls within hearing distance casually is customarily ineffective as a meaningful warning - though, this much note of warning makes search and consideration obligatory, and on this basis, the coming of Divine punishment against the abandonment of Tauhid (the belief in the Oneness of Allah) was possible. However, this raises no doubts about the universal nature of the prophetic mission of Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) and Sayyidna ` Isa (علیہ السلام) because the particularization of this universality of message is with our master, may the blessing of Allah be upon him, and peace - and this particularization is in terms of the totality of fundamentals and subsidiaries, otherwise, in fundamentals, following all prophets is obligatory on all peoples. So, the punishment would have been proper on this basis. But, this would have been an excuse advanced initially. Now that too is no more valid. The argument of Allah is already established.

The Book which is revealed on behalf of God contains many details, but its purpose is but one and that is that man should firmly believe that he has to face God. In other words, he should spend life in the world in such a way that he should always treat himself as being answerable to God for his each and every action. His life should be a responsible life and not a free and unrestricted life. This was the purpose of previous Books and this is likewise the aim of the Quran. God has given full freedom to human beings, while keeping the rest of the world under His direct orders and subject to His regulation. The method devised by Him for human guidance is to make people aware of Truth and falsehood through the Prophets as well as His Books which are couched in the language of reason.In the world, God’s will appears before the people in the shape of reasoning. Here, acceptance of this reasoning means acceptance of God and rejection of this reasoning amounts to rejection of God.