Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

dear brother

asak

except for the translation, i havent been able to understand the inner meaning of the following ayaths (all from surah baqarah)

1) ayath no.114. wa man azlama mimmam manaa......... fil aqirathi adhabun azeem.

2)ayaath no 106. ma nansakh min ayathin.........kulli shayin qadeer

3) Why were the people ordered to say unzurna instead of raina

I would like a detailed answer for the all the above ayaths

jazzakhallah khair

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Answer:

Unzurna quran aayah

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Your Question-1): ayath no.114. wa man azlama mimmam manaa......... fil aqirathi adhabun

azeem.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 114: And who is more unjust than he who forbids that in places for the worship of Allah, Allah's name should be celebrated? Whose zeal is (in fact) to ruin them? It was not fitting that such should themselves enter them except in fear. For them there is nothing but disgrace in this world and in the world to come an exceeding torment.

In the above Aayah Allah Subhanah is describing the state of the pagan Quraish of Makkah who were striving with might and means to stop the believers from worshipping their Lord in the Sacred House. These evil criminals had placed all kinds of images and idols of their false gods in this Most Sacred of Mosques, whereas the Command of Allah Subhanah was that only His Name and Glory should be praised; which the believers under the guidance and leadership of the Prophet (saws) were striving to fulfill. Their placing, invoking and worshipping of their pagan gods in the Sacred House was an abomination in itself in the sight of Allah Subhanah; but to go beyond all bounds and persecute and oppress and forbid the believers from worshipping Allah Subhanah in the Sacred House was an evil deed beyond all comprehension!

Thus Allah Subhanah declares and warns the pagans of Makkah in the above Aayah that their prosecution and oppression of the true believers is absolutely unacceptable and abhorred by Him, and if they do not amend their conduct and Praise and Glorify Allah Subhanah Alone like the believers do, and fear the Lord as He should be feared, He will bring about nothing for them except disgrace in their life of this world, and the punishment in the Hereafter of such evil doers will be very severe indeed.

Your Question-2): ayaath no 106. ma nansakh min ayathin.........kulli shayin qadeer

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 106: None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten but We substitute something better or similar; knowest thou not that Allah hath power over all things?

Allah Subhanah, in His Sublime and Infinite Mercy towards the believers, revealed the Law in His Glorious Quran stage by stage, piecemeal by piecemeal, over a period of 23 years. There was to be absolutely no compromise regarding the basic foundations of faith like the Oneness of Allah, the Message and the Messenger (saws), the concept of the Hereafter, etc. But when it came to the Law, or the declaration of the lawful and unlawful, or the declaration of making some acts of worship obligatory and compulsory….a few commands sent in the form of Verses in the Holy Quran at the beginning period of belief were abrogated and substituted by new commands when the believing community was absolutely trained and ready to accept and submit to each and every Will of Allah Subhanah.

For example, the commands that changed the direction of prayer from the ‘Masjid-al-Aqsa’ to the ‘Sacred House’ in Makkah; or the change from praying two rakah prayers at several times of the day to the fixed five obligatory prayers in congregation; or the making of voluntary fasts and charity into obligatory; or the change from first discouraging the consumption of intoxication by forbidding the believers to pray in a state of intoxication, to the final and absolute prohibition of the consumption of any type of intoxication, etc.

The following Aayahs reveal how Allah Subhanah abrogated one verse and substituted it with a better verse regarding the consumption of intoxicants; leading finally to the absolute and total prohibition of the consumption of intoxicants in the verses of Surah Maidah.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 219: They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: "In them is great sin and some profit for men; but the sin is greater than the profit."

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 4 Surah Nisaa verse 43: O ye who believe! approach not prayers with a mind befogged (intoxicated) until ye can understand all that ye say.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verse 90-91:

90 O ye who believe! Intoxicants, and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows are an abomination of Satan's handiwork: Eschew such (abomination) that ye may prosper.

91 Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants and gambling and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer: will ye not then abstain?

In the wisdom and knowledge of the All Wise and Merciful Lord, if all the commands of Law prescribing all the obligatory or the declaration of all the haraam were revealed in the beginning on the untrained believing community, it would have been too much of a burden for them to bear. Thus the Merciful Lord, in His Sublime and Infinite Mercy towards the believers, revealed the commands in stages to train the believing community; and once they were trained in their belief and were in absolute submission of their wills to the Will of their Lord, some of the commands were abrogated and new ones were substituted in their place. All Praise is due to Allah Subhanah Alone Who, in His Infinite and Sublime Mercy towards His believing slaves, never places a burden on someone more than he can bear!

Your Question-3): Why were the people ordered to say unzurna instead of raina

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 101: 104 O ye of Faith! Say not (to the Apostle) words of ambiguous import (Raena) but words of respect (Unzurna); and hearken (to him); to those without faith is a grievous punishment.

Some amongst the disbelievers, especially the Jews, used to twist and pronounce the Arabic word ‘Raina’ to the Prophet (saws) in such a way that instead of its respectful original meaning of ‘guide us’ or ‘look at us’, it would mean ‘O one who takes us to pasture’ or ‘Our shepherd’ on in their Hebrew dialect ‘Our bad one’. Thus they meant to twist the words from their original meaning, and meant revile and disrespect in their hearts towards the Noble Prophet (saws) because of their averse disbelief in his (saws) appointment of Prophethood. These evil people would then snicker amongst themselves at their having twisted the term from its respectful original meaning to disrespect towards the Prophet of Allah (saws).

Allah Subhanah commanded the believers to not use the Arabic term ‘Raena’ when addressing the Prophet (saws), and thus cut out the root of the play of the disbelievers and the Jews; and commanded the believers to instead address the Prophet (saws) with the respectful term ‘Unzurna’ (do look at us), which even if the disbelievers wished, they could not twist it to something ambigious and disrespectful.

Allah Subhanah absolutely exposed and humiliated the evil designs of the disbelievers and the Jews by the Revelation of the above verse of Surah Baqarah and the below quoted verse of Surah Nisaa, and thus like all times, safeguarded His Messenger (saws) and His Message from ever being used as a tool of abuse by the disbelievers.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 4 Surah Nisaa verse 46: Of the Jews there are those who displace words from their (right) places and say: "We hear and we disobey"; and "Hear what is not heard": and "Raeina"; with a twist of their tongues and a slander to faith. If only they had said: "We hear and we obey"; and "Do hear"; and "Do look at us": it would have been better for them and more proper; but Allah hath cursed them for their unbelief; and but few of them will believe.

Such was the intensity of the hatred of the disbelieving Jews of Medina against the growing influence of Islam and the believers on the region, and because they were absolutely powerless against doing anything that would stop or defuse this influence, these disbelievers would satisfy their jealous hearts with their evil plays of twisting the words and hideously disrespecting the Messenger (saws) and the Message he had brought.

Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 8.57 Narrated by Abdullah bin Mulaika

Aisha said that the Jews came to the Prophet (saws) and said, "As-Sammu 'Alaikum" (death be on you)." Aisha said (to them), "(Death) be on you, and may Allah curse you and shower His wrath upon you!" The Prophet (saws) said, "Be calm, O 'Aisha! You should be kind and lenient, and beware of harshness and Fuhsh (i.e. bad words)." She said (to the Prophet (saws)), "Haven't you heard what they (Jews) have said?" He (saws) said, "Haven't you heard what I have said (to them)? I said ‘the same to you’, and my invocation against them will be accepted while theirs against me will be rejected (by Allah)."

When the salutations of peace (As-Salaamu Alaykum) was encouraged between the believers by the Messenger of Allah (saws), the Jews would slightly twist the salutation used by the believers when they met the Prophet (saws), and they would say, ‘As-Sammu Alaykum’ which would mean ‘death be upon you’! But after Allah Subhanah had exposed the evil mischief and hatred of Jews and warned the Prophet (saws) about their art of twisting words of respect to mean terms of disrespect in the Holy Quran, the Prophet (saws) would simply reply to them: ‘Wa alaykum’ meaning the ‘the same (that you wished for me) upon you too’. The Jews did not relent upon their mischief until they were ultimately thrown out from Medina!

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan