Surah al-A`raf (The Elevated Places) 7 : 1

Overview (Verses 1 - 2)

Issues Spelt Out 

The sūrah begins with four separate letters, similar to those that occur at the beginning of the second and third sūrahs. When we discussed such separate letters in our commentary on these sūrahs, we expressed our support of the view that these letters are meant as a reference to the fact that the Qur’ān is composed of words made up of the Arabic alphabet which Arabs use in their language. Nevertheless, it is impossible for them to make up from these letters and sounds a discourse similar to that of the Qur’ān. This in itself proves that the Qur’ān is not composed by a human being. How else can we explain the fact that these letters, sounds and words were available to the Arabs and yet they could not make of them anything similar to the Qur’ān. There must be, then, some other element which gives the Qur’ān its unique character. We feel that this is perhaps the most likely interpretation of these separate letters occurring at the beginning of some sūrahs. God knows best the purpose He has in mind for using them. It is possible, therefore, to consider these four letters together as the subject of a sentence, which is given in the translation as, “this”, which means that those letters and what is composed of them and of other letters are “the book bestowed from on high”. On the other hand, we may take these letters as sounds serving to alert us to the meaning that follows which suggests that the book has been revealed from on high. “This is a book that has been bestowed on you from on high.” (Verse 2) This book, then, is revealed for warning, so that the Prophet is able to confront with its message all mankind, although they may not like to be so confronted. Its message is thus set in opposition to beliefs, traditions, social norms and set-ups. This is reason enough for entertaining feelings of doubt and hardship with regard to the duty it imposes. This can only be appreciated by those who wish to implement this instruction and raise the message of this book high in society. In so doing, they aim to achieve a complete and total change of the social set-up of the human community, beginning with its foundations and finishing with its outward appearance and points of detail. Hence, the Prophet, the one who was to deliver the message of this book for the first time, must have felt all this when he confronted the state of ignorance, or jāhiliyyah, prevailing in Arabia and throughout the world.

This state of affairs is not limited to the situation that prevailed in the Arabian Peninsula at the time, or to what prevailed in surrounding areas. Islam is not a mere event of history which took place at a particular point in time. It is a permanent confrontation that continues to the end of time. Today, Islam puts its message before humanity, as it did the first time, and as it does whenever humanity reverts to jāhiliyyah in a repeated `reactionary’ cycle. Whenever this happens, Islam comes forward to pick up humanity from the mud of reaction and to set it along the way to progress and civilization. Every time the advocates of Islam warn people on the basis of the Qur’ānic message, they face the same difficulty and hardship endured by the first advocate of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It was he who first warned people that their lives were a continuing endurance of the darkness of jāhiliyyah which combined the blindness of erring concepts, unrestrained desires, with the oppression of tyranny and subjugation to momentary—whims and fleeting pleasures. Whoever takes up the duty of conveying the Islamic message in order to try to save mankind from the depth of its ignorance will inevitably appreciate the significance of this directive to the Prophet: “This is a book that has been bestowed on you from on high — so do not entertain any doubt about it — in order that you may warn people with its message.” (Verse 2)

It is real facts that tell us who the believers to be admonished with the Qur’ānic revelations are and who the unbelievers to whom the warning is addressed are. To the advocate of Islam, the Qur’ān is always a new message, revealed at this moment in time, to confront a situation which is bound to impose on him a very hard struggle.

Today, mankind is in a similar position to that which prevailed when the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was instructed by his Lord to start his warning and admonition, entertaining no feeling of anxiety or difficulty, aiming to bring about a very radical change in the life of humanity as a whole. Time has moved full circle since that day, and mankind has reverted to a state of complete ignorance which affects the basis and practical aspects of all its values, norms and practices. In its very concept of faith, humanity has reverted back to some absurdities that prevailed in the past. This applies even to those whose fathers and forefathers used to believe in this religion of Islam, submit themselves to God and associate no partners with Him. The concept of faith held by these new generations has also been distorted.

This religion of Islam has been revealed so that it changes the face of the world, in order to establish a new world order which acknowledges God’s absolute authority and removes the authority of all tyrants. In this world order, worship, in its very comprehensive sense, is offered to God alone. When this world order is established, God enables whomever He pleases of His servants to submit himself to God alone instead of submitting to other authorities. In this world order, a new human being is born, who is free and noble, having overcome the tyranny of his desires and the authority of anyone other than God.

This religion of Islam is meant to establish a solid foundation. Indeed, every prophet, in all periods of history, subscribed to this foundation, declaring its motto loud and clear: “There is no deity other than God.” This declaration has only one meaning, which is that sovereignty in human life, and indeed in the entire universe, belongs only to God alone. It is He who rules over the universe as He exercises His will, and it is He who controls the lives of human beings in accordance with the law He has laid down and the way of living He has prescribed. On the basis of this rule, a Muslim is a firm believer in God’s oneness and that He controls the whole universe. He addresses his worship to God alone. From Him he receives his laws and values. By correlation, he rejects every authority that seeks to replace God’s authority in any way.

This is the basic foundation of the religion of Islam. How far away from it does humanity stand today? Mankind can be classified into several groups all of which belong to the realm of jāhiliyyah. To start with, there is an atheist group which denies God’s existence altogether. Their case needs no elaboration. Another group are idolaters. They recognize the existence of God but associate with Him other partners and deities as we see in India, Central Africa and other parts of the world.

A third group are normally described in the Qur’ān as “the People of the Book”, which is a reference to the Jews and Christians. These reverted to polytheism when they claimed that God had begotten a son. They also considered their priests and rabbis as lords alongside God, since they acknowledged their authority to legislate and accepted whatever legislation those priests and rabbis gave them. It is true that the Christians and Jews did not worship those people, but they acknowledged their legislative authority. Today, they deny God’s authority to legislate altogether, establishing instead capitalist or socialist systems and adopting democratic or dictatorial styles, etc. By doing so, they abandon the rule of faith altogether and revert to an ignorant system similar to that which prevailed in ancient Rome or Greece.

A fourth group claims to be Muslim, but it nevertheless follows those systems of the “People of the Book” step by step. Thus they remove themselves from the proper Islamic system and adopt a different one. The religion acceptable to God includes a code of living, a law, a system and a complete constitution for life. The religions of human beings include their own systems and laws and their own setups.

Time has come full circle, and we are today in a situation similar to that which prevailed when God revealed this religion of Islam. None of these human groupings follows the divine faith. The Qur’ān is now confronting humanity in the same way as it confronted it the first time. It wants humanity to adopt Islam anew as a faith, before it starts to implement its laws and regulations. Hence, any person who advocates such a revival is bound to feel the hardship and difficulty felt by the Prophet as he started his call to mankind. Today the advocates of Islam aim at establishing the faith in the minds of people, so that they can consciously and positively make the declaration: “I bear witness that there is no deity other than God.” This will inevitably lead to the establishment of a new social order in which God is worshipped by people. This signals another rebirth for man, where man is liberated from worshipping human beings or worshipping his own caprice and desire and is made free to enjoy the worship of God alone.

A Revelation to Admonish Believers

Islam is not a mere event of history that took place at a particular point in time and completed its role. Today it has a role to play similar to that which it played when it first confronted humanity. Indeed, the circumstances, social systems, beliefs, values and traditions that prevail in the world today are not dissimilar to those which prevailed when Islam first addressed mankind. The term jāhiliyyah refers to a state of affairs, not to a particular period in history. Today, it prevails everywhere and applies to all types of beliefs, doctrines, systems and circumstances. It is based on assigning sovereignty and legislative authority to human beings instead of acknowledging that such authority belongs to God alone. The very foundation of this state of ignorance, or jāhiliyyah, makes human caprice or desire or thought the ultimate arbiter in human affairs instead of adopting the divine code as the law to implement. Jāhiliyyah may take different shapes and forms, adopt different names, follow a variety of creeds, but in all its versions it has the same basic role determining its nature.

Adopting this criterion, it is clear that a state of ignorance, or jāhiliyyah, prevails today throughout the world. Islam, on the other hand, has ceased to exist as an entity. Its advocates have the same objective for which the Prophet Muhammad, God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) dedicated himself. They face the same type of opposition he faced. Hence, they should listen to the same reminder contained in this Qur’ānic verse: “This is a book that has been bestowed on you from on high — so do not entertain any doubt about it — in order that you may warn people with its message, and admonish the believers.” This fact needs some elaboration.

Human communities today are, generally speaking, overwhelmed by jāhiliyyah, and as such, they are `backward’ or `reactionary’, in the sense that they have reverted to a state of ignorance after Islam had saved them from it. It is Islam that is called upon today to save these communities from their backwardness and reaction and to set them along the road to progress and civilization which makes the divine values and standards prevail. It is only when a community acknowledges that the top authority belongs to God, and when this is manifested in practice by the implementation of God’s law, that human beings in that community are truly free from subjugation to their own desires or to those of other human beings.

This is indeed the only true image of Islam or civilization, according to the divine standard, because the civilization God wants human beings to enjoy must be based on total freedom and dignity for every individual. How can an individual enjoy such freedom and exercise such dignity if he must submit himself to other human beings? Dignity and freedom cannot truly exist in a community in which some individuals exercise sovereignty and claim to be the ultimate arbiters while others have to submit to them. When we speak of sovereignty in this sense we do not only refer to the authority to legislate and the process of law making. Rather, values, standards, morals and traditions also come under the same heading of legislation, because people submit to them consciously or subconsciously. Such a society can only be described as reactionary and backward, or, to use the Islamic terminology, jāhilī’, or unbeliever.

When the bond in a community is that of faith, and when intellectual concepts and the way of life are derived from divine revelations, not subject to the will of any human being, then that community is progressive and civilized, or, to use the Islamic terminology, `a Muslim community that surrenders itself to God.’ The basis of such a community, then, reflects the highest qualities of man which shape his spirit and intellect. On the other hand, when the bond that unites a community is that of race, colour, tribe or geographic area, the community is then backward and reactionary, or, to use the Islamic terminology, an ignorant community. Such bonds do not relate to any of the supreme qualities of man, because a human being retains his human status regardless of his race, colour, tribe, nation or country, while beyond his spirit and intellect, he has no human existence.

On the other hand, by his own free will — which is the highest blessing God has given him — man can change his faith, intellectual concepts or mode of living. He can adopt divine guidance once he has taken care to try to understand it and reflect on its blessings. He can never change his race, colour or nation. He cannot determine beforehand where he will be born or in what nation or to which parents he will belong. A community where people come together on the basis of something they choose by their own free will is much higher and more civilized than one in which people are united on the basis of something over which they have no control. 

On the other hand, when materialism in any shape or form, is considered the supreme value, either theoretically as in Marxism, or in the shape of material production as in America, Europe and other capitalist societies, then that community is, in Islamic terminology, both jāhilī and idolatrous, or reactionary and backward in the broadest sense. This is due to the fact that such a society sacrifices all human values, particularly moral values, for its supreme bond of materialism. 

It is important to remember here that a Muslim community does not despise or deride matter or materialism, either in the form of theory or in that of productivity. What people produce helps man to fulfil the task that has been assigned to him when God made him vicegerent on earth. To enjoy what is wholesome and useful of human production is something that Islam encourages, as this sūrah makes clear.However, it cannot be considered the supreme value in society.

It is the values and morals which prevail in a community that determine its character and whether it is civilized and progressive, or, to use the Islamic terminology, Islamic. Such human values and morals are neither vague nor changeable. These are the morals and values that promote the qualities of man which distinguish him from animals, not the ones which he has in common with them. When the question is placed on this basis, we can easily visualize a clear line of demarcation which negates the whole concept of evolution. We will not have then agricultural morals as opposed to industrial ones, or capitalist morals as opposed to socialist ones. Nor can there be pauper values contrasting with those of the bourgeoisie. Morals will not be the product of the environment and the standard of living, treating these as independent factors shaping moral values and traditions, or following an inevitable course of development. There can only be sound human values and morality which Muslims adopt in their civilized community. These may only contrast with morality and values that we may loosely describe as `animal’. These latter ones can only be adopted by a backward community. To use the Islamic terminology, there can only be Islamic values and morality, and reactionary or ignorant ones, i.e. jāhiliyyah.

The communities in which `animal’ values, morality and desires prevail cannot be civilized communities, no matter how scientifically advanced they are. In modern jāhiliyyah societies, the concept of morality has become so weak that it is no longer concerned with what distinguishes man from animals. In these communities, for example, illegitimate sexual relationships, and indeed perverted ones, are not considered immoral. Moral values are only confined to personal or economic or political transactions, and even these are sometimes limited to the interest of the country itself. In such communities, writers, journalists, novelists, the media and all sources of education and information make it clear to young people of both sexes that free sex is not immoral. Such communities, then, are, from the human point of view, backward, not civilized. If we are to consider human progress, we describe these communities as non-Islamic as well. The line Islam follows is that of liberating man from his desires, lust, and other animal inclinations in order to enhance and develop within him his human qualities.

Perhaps this is all that we can say for the present in describing such human communities and how they sink deep in jāhiliyyah. Indeed, jāhiliyyah characterizes all aspects of these communities, from faith to morality and from concepts to practices. What we have said is sufficient to make it clear that these communities are indeed in a state of ignorance or jāhiliyyah. It also makes it clear that the objective of the Islamic message today is the same as it was at the beginning: to call on people to adopt Islam as a faith, a moral system and a way of life. It is the objective which the Prophet set for himself when he started to fulfil the task assigned to him by God. The advocates of Islam today have to adopt the same attitude and set themselves the same objective, remembering what God said to the Prophet at the beginning: “This is a book that has been bestowed on you from on high — so do not entertain any doubt about it — in order that you may warn people with its message, and admonish the believers.” (Verse 2)