098
Muhammad Asad
AL-BAYYINAH (THE EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTH)
THE NINETY-EIGHTH SURAH
Total Verses: 8
PERIOD UNCERTAIN
Introduction
WHEREAS some of the
authorities are of the opinion that this surah belongs to the
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
((1) IT IS NOT [conceivable] that such as are bent on
denying the truth - [be they] from among the followers of earlier revelation or
from among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God 1 - should ever be
abandoned [by Him] ere there comes unto them the [full] evidence of the truth:
(2) an apostle from God, conveying
[unto them] revelations blest with purity,
(3) wherein there are ordinances of
ever-true soundness and clarity. 2
(4) Now those who have been vouchsafed revelation aforetime
3 did break up their unity [of faith] after such an evidence of the truth had
come to them. 4
(5) And withal, they were not enjoined aught but that they
should worship God, sincere in their faith in Him alone, turning away from all
that is false; 5 and that they should be constant in prayer; and that they
should spend in charity: 6 for this is a moral law endowed with ever-true
soundness and clarity. 7
(6) Verily, those who [despite all evidence] are bent on
denying the truth 8 - [be they] from among the followers of earlier revelation
or from among those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God - will find
themselves in the fire of hell, therein to abide: they are the worst of all
creatures.
(7) [And,] verily, those who have
attained to faith, and do righteous deeds - it is they, they who are the best
of all creatures.
(8) Their reward [awaits them] with God: gardens of
perpetual bliss, through which running waters flow, therein to abide beyond the
count of time; well-pleased is God with them, and well-pleased are they with
Him: all this awaits him who of his Sustainer stands in awe!
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1 I.e., idol-worshippers or
animists (in the anthropological sense of this word) who have never had any
revealed scripture to fall back upon.
2 This aggregate connotation is
inherent in the adjective qayyimah as used here (Razi). - The above passage has caused some difficulties to
the classical commentators on account of the participle munfakkin
occurring in the first verse. It is generally assumed that this participle, in
combination with the phrase lam yakun at the
beginning of the verse, denotes "they did not [or "could not"]
give up" or "separate themselves from" - i.e., supposedly, from
their erroneous beliefs - "until there came to them the evidence of the
truth" in the person of the Prophet Muhammad and in the revelation of the Qur’an: implying that after the evidence came, they did
give up those false beliefs. This assumption is, however, deficient on two
counts: firstly, it is well-known that not all of the erring ones from among
the ahl al-kitab and the mushrikin accepted the message of the Qur’an
when it was conveyed to them; and, secondly, the ahl
al-kitab are spoken of in verse 4 as having
"broken their unity [of faith]" - i.e., offended against the
fundamental principles of that faith - after "the evidence of the
truth" had come to them. This apparent contradiction has been convincingly
resolved by no less an authority than Ibn Taymiyyah (see Tafsir Sitt Suwar,
pp. 391 ff.); and it is his interpretation that I have followed in my rendering
of the above three verses. According to Ibn Taymiyyah, the pivotal phrase lam yakun
munfakkin does not denote "they did not give
up" or "separate themselves from", but, rather, "they are
not abandoned" - i.e., condemned by God - unless and until they have been
shown the right way by a God-sent prophet, and thereupon have consciously
refused to follow it: and this is in accord with repeated statements in the Qur’an to the effect that God does not take anyone to task for
wrong beliefs and wrong actions unless the true meaning of right and wrong has
previously been made clear to him (cf. 6:131-132 and the second paragraph of
17:15, as well as the corresponding notes). Hence, the above reference to
"the evidence of the truth" does not relate only to the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad but to all the earlier
prophets and revelations as well (cf. 42:13 and the corresponding notes 12-14)
- just as the "ordinances of ever-truue soundness and clarity"
(spelled out in verse 5 below) are common to all God-inspired messages, of
which the Qur’an is the final, most perfect
expression.
3 This definition is general,
comprising the followers of all religious teachings revealed before the advent
of the Prophet Muhammad (lbn Kathir),
and not - as some commentators assume- only the Jews and the Christians. (See
also notes 12 and 13 on
4 I.e., most of them strayed from
the teachings of the prophets sent to them, all of whom had preached the same
fundamental truths (see next verse and note 6 below).
5 For this rendering of hunafa' (sing. hanif), see surah
2, note 110.
6 Since the term zakah has here obviously a wider meaning than the
obligatory tax incumbent on Muslims (which, as its name indicates, is meant to
purify their income and their possessions from the taint of selfishness), I am
rendering the above phrase in the more general sense of "spending in
[i.e., practicing] charity".
7 As regards the connotation of
"moral law" in the term din, see note 3 on 109:6; the qualifying noun
al-qayyimah (in the genitive case) has here the same
meaning as the adjective qayyimah at the end of verse
3. The above definition of moral law outlines, in a condensed form, all the
basic demands of true religion: a cognition of God's oneness and uniqueness
and, implicitly, of man's responsibility to Him; a turning-away from all false
concepts, values and dubious beliefs, all over-estimation of oneself, and all
superstition; and, finally, kindness and charity towards all of God's
creatures.
8 Namely, the
self-evident principles formulated in the preceding verse as the beginning and
the end of all moral law.