Surah Al-Hijr, Ayah 98

The Command to proclaim the Truth openly

Allah commanded His Messenger to convey what He sent him with, to proclaim and spread the Message, which means confronting the idolators with it. Ibn `Abbas said that the Ayah,

فَاصْدَعْ بِمَا تُؤْمَرُ

(Therefore openly proclaim that what you have been commanded,) means, "Go ahead with it." According to another report it means, (افْعَلْ مَا تُؤْمَرُ) "Therefore proclaim that which you commanded." Mujahid said, "It is reciting the Qur'an aloud during prayer." Abu `Ubaydah reported that `Abdullah bin Mas`ud said, "The Prophet was still practicing and preaching Islam secretly until this Ayah was revealed:

The Spiritual Defence Against Enemy Hostility

From verses 97 and 98, we learn that should one face heart-rending sayings and doings of enemies the anxiety from which bothers him, then, there is a spiritual cure for that condition: Let him or her get busy with Tasbih and ` Ibadah, praising Allah Ta’ ala and praying before Him. Allah Taala will Himself remove this pain and anxiety.

The ‘seven oft-repeated verses’ refers to the first chapter of the Quran. It is the essence of the whole Quran, and the rest of the Quran is an elaboration upon it. Undoubtedly, the Quran is the greatest gift of God. Its being a book of guidance offers the guarantee of success in the Hereafter to its believers and its being the last book makes it essential that it should necessarily overcome its opponents, because if it does not prevail, it cannot exist as the last book. The preacher of God’s word should not be despondent over those who have not embraced the Faith, but should be satisfied looking at those who have embraced the Faith and devote his full attention to making them contented and giving them training. Fragmenting the Quran (the scriptures) means fragmenting the Torah. The ancient Jews had divided their holy scriptures into two parts. They used to leave out those teachings that went against the desires of the self, while those that were consistent with the wishes of the self were welcomed by them. The first type of verses were kept only as holy relics but were disregarded. Because these verses did not find favour with them, they did not propagate them, whereas they gave wide publicity to the other type of verses which were in consonance with their desires. In other words, they had made the Book of God subservient to their self-interest, instead of it being a means to encourage human beings to obey the commands of God. There are two ways of finding a thing. One is to find its parts and the other is to find it in its totality. When a man recognises a tree in its totality, he says: ‘This is a tree.’ But if he does not recognise it in its totality, he will mention its trunk, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit. He will not be able to utter that one word, on uttering which different parts become rooted in one root and take the shape of one unit. The same is true of God’s Book. There are many different commandments in God’s Book. At the same time it has its totality and its central point. Those who are engrossed in God’s Book will find God’s Book in its totality. On the contrary, when those who are engrossed in themselves see God’s Book, it appears to them only as a collection of miscellaneous commandments. From these they pick and choose a part which suits their taste and condition and start laying stress upon it, as if only that was what mattered most. When the roots of a tree are watered, the water reaches all of their parts. Similarly, if the central aspect of God’s Book is revivified, the moment this happens, all the remaining parts come necessarily to life. As opposed to this, if some parts are selected to the exclusion of all others and much emphasis is laid on them, there can be a great deal of outward fanfare about this, but the real revival of religion does not take place, because its core features have been ignored. And the revival can take place only by reviving its central point.