Chapter 3: Surat Aal-'Imran (The House 'Imran), verse 1-6
Translation:
In the Name
of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Alif lam mim. God! There is no god but Him, the Living the Ever-existent One. He has revealed to you the Book with the Truth, confirming the scriptures which preceded it; for He has already revealed the Torah and the Gospel for the guidance of mankind, and the distinction between right and wrong. Those that deny God's revelations shall be sternly punished; God is mighty and capable of revenge. Nothing on earth or in heaven is hidden from God. It is He who shapes your bodies in your mothers' wombs as He pleases. There is no god but Him, the Mighty, the Wise One. (1-6)
Commentary:
The creator
and sustainer of the universe is not a mechanical God, He is in fact a live and
conscious being. He sent guidance for man in all ages, including the Books,
Torah and the Bible, revealed to the former prophets. But man has always put
different constructions upon the teachings of God. Thus through his self-styled
interpretations he divided one religion into many. Ultimately, in according with
God’s plan, the final book in the form of the Qur’an was sent down to man.
The Qur’an is not only a true guide book but also serves as a criterion to
judge between right and wrong. The Qur’an tells us as to which is the true
religion and which is the religion devised by human beings through their
self-styled interpretations. Now those who deny the book of God and do not
abandon the religion devised by the human beings are deserving of God’s
punishment. These are the people whom God granted eyes but they failed to see
the light (sent by God in the form of this book). These are the people whom God
granted brains/mind but they failed to understand the truth when it came to them
in the form of arguments. To save their small greatness* they refused to bow to
the Truth. (Bowing to the truth required them to bow to the Prophet and to God).
(*
They think that by
surrendering to God and the Prophet they will become small.)
Only
God can truly tell as to what He is as to His being and His attributes. And He
has told it so clearly in His Book that any one who is keen to know Him will
certainly gain this knowledge. The same pertains to the assigning of guidance
for man. The knowledge of the whole universe is required in order to come to
grasp the nature of man and tell as to what behaviour/attitude can be guaranteed
to man’s success in both the worlds. A proper attitude/behaviour for man can
only be one which is in harmony with the rest of the universe and is in complete
accordance with the vaster system of the world. The proper course of action for
man can be determined only by someone who not only knows man from his birth to
death but who also knows what is before his birth and after his death. There can
be no such being save that of God’s. As such the only realistic approach for
man is to trust God in this matter and accept and follow whole heartedly/with
full conviction the guidance from God.