Surah Hud, Ayah 20

Those Who invent Lies against Allah and hinder Others from His Path are the Greatest Losers

Allah, the Exalted, explains the condition of those who lie against Him and that their scandal in the Hereafter will be presented before the heads of creation (for testimony) from the angels, Messengers, Prophets and the rest of mankind and Jinns. This is just as Imam Ahmad recorded from Safwan bin Muhriz. Safwan said, "I was holding the hand of Ibn `Umar when a man was brought to him. The man said, `How did you hear the Messenger of Allah ﷺ describe An-Najwa (secret counsel or confidential talk) on the Day of Resurrection' Ibn `Umar said, `I heard him say,

«إِنَّ اللهَللهَعزَّ وَجَلَّ يُدْنِي الْمُؤْمِنَ فَيَضَعُ عَلَيْهِ كَنَفَهُ، وَيَسْتُرُهُ مِنَ النَّاسِ، وَيُقَرِّرُهُ بِذُنُوبِهِ وَيَقُولُ لَهُ: أَتَعْرِفُ ذَنْبَ كَذَا؟ أَتَعْرِفُ ذَنْبَ كَذَا؟ أَتَعْرِفُ ذَنْبَ كَذَا؟ حَتَّى إِذَا قَرَّرَهُ بِذُنُوبِهِ وَرَأَى فِي نَفْسِهِ أَنَّهُ قَدْ هَلَكَ قَالَ: فَإِنِّي قَدْ سَتَرْتُهَا عَلَيْكَ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَإِنِّي أَغْفِرُهَا لَكَ الْيَوْم»

The word: bayyinah (بینہ) appearing in this verse refers to the Qur'an. As for the meaning of ` shahid' (شاھِد evidence), statements of Tafsir authorities differ. The author of Bay-an a1-Qur'an takes ` shahid' to mean the miracle of the Qur'an that is present in the Qur'an as such. Thus, it comes to mean that those who adhere to the Qur'an, they already have a witness to the veracity of the Qur'an within it, that is, its miracle. Then, the other witness has already come in the form of Torah. Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) had brought it as guidance and mercy for people. The reason is that the Torah confirms the truth of the Qur'an clearly.

Here the invention of a falsehood does not refer to the Being of God, but to His word. God did not appear before us Himself, in order to give His message, but had it announced through the mouth of a human being. This human being at that time happened apparently to be an ordinary man, but there were clearly godly glimpses in his discourse. If, in their judgement of him, people had taken into account his discourse, they would have found God in its greatness. But thanks to people’s superficiality and appearance-loving nature, their view was contorted by the ordinary position of the preacher. The prophet’s being ‘ordinary’ (in terms of worldly glory) was visible to them, but they were unable to see the extraordinary nature of the message given by him. They considered it as emanating from an ‘ordinary’ man and heaped scorn upon it; they raised false objections to what he had to say and then ignored it as if it were of no importance whatsoever.