Temptation (Fitnah)
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ
آمَنُواْ
اسْتَجِيبُواْ
لِلّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ
إِذَا دَعَاكُم
لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ...
8: 24. O ye who believe!
give your response to Allah and His Messenger, when He calleth you to that which will give you life;
C1196. There are two points to note.
1. Note that after Allah and His Messenger are mentioned, the pronoun and verb in the next clause are singular:
everything that Allah's Messenger put forward as an injunction came by inspiration from Allah:
the Messenger made his will coincide completely with Allah's will.
2. We are asked actively to give our response in deed and life to the call of duty and conscience, for that call leads to real life, the life eternal, even though it may apparently mean in this world the loss of things that make life dear or the loss of life itself.
If we refer this to Jihad, i.e., fighting in and for the Cause, both literally and metaphorically, the meaning becomes quite clear.
...وَاعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ اللّهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِ...
and know that Allah cometh in between a man and his heart,
C1197. If the human heart is refractory and refuses to obey the call of Allah, that is not the end of the matter. Allah has to be reckoned with. The refusal may be because there was some pet human scheme which the heart of man was not willing to give up for Allah's Cause.
Will that scheme come to fruition by refusing to serve the higher Cause?
By no means. Man proposes, but God disposes.
If the scheme or motive was perfectly secret from men, it was not secret from Allah. The heart is the innermost seat of man's affections and desires: but Allah intervenes between man and his heart. (R).
...وَأَنَّهُ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ ﴿٢٤﴾
and that it is He to whom ye shall (all) be gathered.
وَاتَّقُواْ
فِتْنَةً لاَّ
تُصِيبَنَّ
الَّذِينَ
ظَلَمُواْ
مِنكُمْ خَآصَّةً...
8: 25. And fear tumult or oppression, which affecteth not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong
C1198. Fitnah: has many meanings:
- the root meaning is trial or temptation, as in 2:102 and 8: 28;
- an analogous meaning is trial or punishment, as in 5:71;
- tumult or oppression, as in 2:193, and here: and in 8:39,
- there is here (8:25) the further shade of meaning suggested, discord, sedition, civil war.
This warning against internal discord or tumult was very necessary in the Civil Wars of early Islam, and was never more necessary than it is now. For it affects innocent and guilty alike.
...وَاعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ اللّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ ﴿٢٥﴾
and know that Allah is strict in punishment.
Asad’s Version:
8: 24 O you who have attained to faith! Respond to the call of God and the Apostle wherever he calls you unto that which will give you life; and know that God intervenes between man and [the desires of] his heart, and that unto Him you shall be gathered.
See ali’s note 1196
8: 25 And beware of that temptation to evil which does not befall only those among you who are bent on denying the truth, to the exclusion of others; and know that God is severe in retribution.
11.Surah Hud
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
فَلَوْلاَ
كَانَ مِنَ
الْقُرُونِ
مِن قَبْلِكُمْ
أُوْلُواْ
بَقِيَّةٍ
يَنْهَوْنَ
عَنِ الْفَسَادِ
فِي الأَرْضِ...
11 :116. Why were there not, among the generations before you, persons possessed of balanced good sense, prohibiting (men) from mischief in the earth --
C1619. Baqiyat: some virtue or faculty that stands assault and is lasting;
balanced good sense that stands firm to virtue and is not dazzled by the lusts and pleasures of this world, and is not deterred by fear from boldly condemning wrong if it was fashionable or customary.
It is leaders possessed of such character that can save a nation from disaster or perdition. The scarcity of such leaders-and the rejection of the few who stood out- brought ruin among the nations whose example has already been set out to us as a warning.
In 11:86 the word has a more literal meaning.
...إِلاَّ قَلِيلاً مِّمَّنْ أَنجَيْنَا مِنْهُمْ...
except a few among them whom We saved (from harm)?
C1620. The exceptional men of firm virtue would have been destroyed by the wicked to whom they were an offence, had they not been saved by the grace and mercy of Allah.
Or perhaps, but for such grace, they might themselves have succumbed to the evil around them, or been overwhelmed in the general calamity.
...وَاتَّبَعَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ مَا أُتْرِفُواْ فِيهِ وَكَانُواْ مُجْرِمِينَ ﴿١١٦﴾
But the wrongdoers pursued the enjoyment of the good things of life which were given them, and persisted in sin.
11: 116
Asad But, alas, among those generations [whom We destroyed] before your time there were no people endowed with any virtue – who would speak out against the corruption on earth – except the few of them whom We saved, whereas those who were bent on evildoing only pursued pleasures which corrupted their whole being, and so lost themselves in sinning.
Pickthall If only there had been among the generations before you men possessing a remnant (of good sense ) to warn (their people) from corruption in the earth, as did a few of those whom We saved from them! The wrong-doers followed that by which they were made sapless, and were guilty.
Transliteration Fa lau la_ ka_na minal quru_ni min qablikum ulu_ baqiyyatiy yanhauna 'anil fasa_di fil ardi illa_ qalilam mimman anjaina_ minhum, wa-ttaba'al lazina zalamu_ ma_ utrifu_ fihi wa ka_nu_ mujrimin(a).