Overview (Verses 69 - 74)

A Deliberate Attempt to Conceal the Truth

A party of the people of earlier revelations would love to lead you astray; but they lead astray none but themselves, although they may not perceive it. People of earlier revelations! Why do you disbelieve in God’s revelations when you yourselves bear witness [to their truth]? People of earlier revelations! Why do you cloak the truth with falsehood, and knowingly conceal the truth? A party of the people of earlier revelations say [to one another]: “Declare at the beginning of the day, that you believe in what has been revealed to the believers, and then deny it at the end of the day, so that they may go back on their faith. But do not really trust anyone except those who follow your own faith” — Say: All true guidance is God’s guidance — That anyone may be given the like of what you have been given. Or that they should contend against you before your Lord” Say: “Grace is in God’s hand: He bestows it on whom He wills. God is Munificent and All- Knowing. “He singles out for His mercy whom He wills. And God’s grace is great indeed. (Verses 69-74)
 
In this passage, the Muslim community is told of the intentions of the people of earlier revelations behind every argument they may raise. The Qur’ān confronts those people with what they actually plot and scheme in close proximity to the Muslim community. Their masks are torn from them and their reality is made apparent to all.
 
The grudge which the people of earlier revelations bear to the Muslim community relates to the faith of that community. They hate that the Muslims should have Divine guidance. They hate to see them holding to their own faith with firmness and reassurance. They, therefore, mobilise all their efforts to cause the Muslims to go astray: “A party of the people of earlier revelations would love to lead you astray.” It is, then, an inner desire which lies behind all their plotting, scheming, arguments and concealment of the truth. There is no doubt that such a desire, motivated by prejudice and grudge, is deviant. An evil desire cannot be based on any right guidance. Hence, the moment they entertain a desire to turn the Muslims away from their faith, they cause themselves to go astray. It is only a person who finds himself lost in a labyrinth of deviation that loves to lead astray those who are following a straight path: “But they lead astray none but themselves, although they may not perceive it.” (Verse 69)
 
The Muslims will come to no harm from what their enemies may scheme against them as long as they maintain and implement their faith. God guarantees them that the scheming and plotting of their enemies will be counter-productive as long as the Muslims hold on to their faith.
 
The people of earlier revelations are then made to face the reality of their untenable situation: “People of earlier revelations! Why do you disbelieve in God’s revelations when you yourselves bear witness [to their truth!? People of earlier revelations! Why do you cloak the truth with falsehood, and knowingly conceal the truth?” (Verses 70-71)
 
Those people who had received earlier revelations were at that time, and still are, able to recognise the truth clearly embodied in this religion. This applies to those who know the references contained in their own Scriptures about this religion. Some of them were candid about what they read, so much so that a number of them embraced Islam on this basis. It also applies to those who are not so aware of these references but who are nonetheless able to recognise the clear truth of Islam which is sufficient to persuade them to accept it. Both groups, however, continue to reject the truth of Islam, not because of any lack of evidence and proof, but because of personal prejudices and vested interests. The Qur’ān addresses them as “people of earlier revelations”, because it is this very quality which should have prompted them to hearken to God’s new revelations and follow His new Book.
 
They are addressed again in order to unmask their efforts at confounding truth with falsehood, deliberately and knowingly. This is an action which merits uncompromising censure.
 
This attitude of the people of earlier revelations so condemned by God is the one which they have adopted since the time of the Prophet until the present day. The Jews began by adopting it at the very first moment, and they were followed later by the Christian Crusaders.
 
Over the centuries, they have unfortunately been able to plant in Islamic heritage that which has nothing to do with this religion of Islam and which cannot be discovered without Herculean efforts. They have managed to confound truth with falsehood in much of our heritage, with the exception, however, of this Book which God has undertaken to preserve intact for the rest of time. Praise be to God for His limitless grace.
 
They have distorted much of Islamic history and its events as well as the images of its best men of action. They have also put their alien plants in the field of the ĥadīth until God has enabled the great scholars of ĥadīth to verify and sift out the true from the false, as much as is humanly possible. Their distortions have also crept into commentaries on the Qur’ān to the extent that it has become very difficult for a student of the Qur’ān to find his clear way to a correct understanding. They have also implanted their own men, hundreds if not thousands, to distort our Islamic heritage. Some of these are with us even today in the shape of Orientalists and their disciples who occupy positions of intellectual leadership in the countries whose peoples claim to be Muslim. They have also implanted in our societies scores of people who are given the status of heroes when they have actually been carefully brought up by Zionism and Christian fanaticism in order to serve the enemies of Islam in a way which cannot be achieved by any open enemy.
 
Such evil schemes continue to be pursued with no sign of weakening. The only way to guard against them and to be spared their damaging effects is to hold tight to God’s Book which He Himself has undertaken to preserve, and to refer to it for guidance and for plotting our strategy in this ever-continuing battle. A reference is then made to some of the attempts undertaken by a party of the people of earlier revelations to cause internal confusion within the Muslim community and to turn them away from Divine guidance: “A party of the people of earlier revelations say [to one another]: ‘Declare, at the beginning of the day, that you believe in what has been revealed to the believers, and then deny it at the end of the day, so that they may go back on their faith.’” (Verse 72)
 
As we have said, this is an act of wicked deception. When such people pretend to accept Islam, then reject it, their action is bound to perplex those who do not have strong faith, and those who have not fully appreciated the truth of Islam and its nature. This was true in an even greater measure in the case of the illiterate Arabs, at the time of the Prophet, who took it for granted that the people of earlier revelations were more aware than themselves of the nature of religions and revelation. When they saw such people accepting Islam one day and rejecting it the next day, they thought that their subsequent action was the result of their coming to realise that there was something wrong with that religion. This caused them considerable consternation and they were uncertain what attitude to adopt.
 
This trick continues to be employed even today, in a variety of ways suitable to each particular situation and adapted to the mentality of people in every generation.
 
A Dirty Tricks Campaign to Confuse Believers
 
The enemies of Islam have realised that to employ this trick in a simple form is no longer possible. They, therefore, resort to a wide range of methods of concealment which are no more than variations on the old theme.
 
These forces rely today on a large army of disciples all over the Muslim world. Among these are professors, lecturers, thinkers and scholars, as well as writers, poets, artists and journalists who all have Muslim names because they come from Muslim families. Some of them indeed are included in the ranks of Islamic “scholars”.
 
This army of disciples is mobilised for the achievement of the ultimate goal of shaking the foundations of faith within the Muslim community. It employs all methods of scientific research, literary works, art and information. All these complement one another in the onslaught on Islamic faith and Islamic law. They belittle the role of Islamic faith, interpret it in their own way, and overburden it with what is alien to it. They never tire of branding Islam as “reactionary” and calling on people to break away from it. They try hard to keep Islam away from human life either because they fear the effect of human life on Islam or because they fear the effect of Islam on human life. They work hard to invent concepts, ideals, values and standards which are in direct conflict with those of the Islamic faith, painting the former in the most appealing of pictures while distorting the latter so that they appear in the most grotesque of forms. Moreover, they try to facilitate the breaking loose of carnal desires, seeking to erode the moral basis upon which clean faith is founded. What is more, they distort history in the same way as they distort Scriptures.
 
To compound their evil, they claim to be Muslims. They, after all, have Muslim names. With these names they declare to be believers at the beginning of the day. With their evil designs they deny the faith at the end of the day. In both their actions, they play the same role as the people of earlier revelations. All that has changed is the framework.
 
The people of earlier revelations used to encourage one another to pretend to be Muslims one day and to reject Islam the next, so that the Muslims would go back on their faith. They also counselled each other to keep this secret between themselves, not to reveal it to anyone except the followers of their own religion: “But do not really trust anyone except those who follow your own faith.” (Verse 73) Their secret was closely guarded against the Muslims. The same applies today to the servants of Zionism and Christian fanaticism. They are all working together for a definite objective, that is, the total destruction of the Islamic faith. They may not have sat together to sign a contract or to draw up a plot defining their respective roles, but they, nevertheless, have the sort of understanding which normally exists between stooges who work for the same goal defined by their common master. They trust each other and compare notes. They, or some of them at least, subsequently adopt false pretences. Everything around them is placed in their service and those who are aware of the nature of this faith all over the world are suffering persecution and imprisonment. “But do not really trust anyone except those who follow your own faith.”
 
At this point, God directs the Prophet to declare that true guidance is that provided by God, and that unless people accept and abide by it they will never find real guidance by any other method or way of life: “Say: ‘All true guidance is God’s guidance.” This statement is given in answer to their encouragement to one another to “declare at the beginning of the day, that you believe in what has been revealed to the believers, and then deny it at the end of the day, so that they may go back on their faith.” This serves as a warning to the Muslims and helps them to foil the evil goal of their enemies. Since there is no true guidance except that provided by God, then those schemers only want the believers to sink back into deviation and total disbelief. It should be mentioned here that this instruction to the Prophet to declare that true guidance is that provided by God, is given even before the statements of people of earlier revelations are quoted in full. The sūrah then goes on quoting them: “That anyone may be given the like of what you have been given. Or that they should contend against you before your Lord” (Verse 73) These are the reasons they give for stating earlier: “Do not really trust anyone except those who follow your own faith.” This betrays their grudge, envy and hatred of the idea that God should give prophethood and revelation to anyone other than them. It also betrays their fear that should the Muslims come to know the truth they themselves know, despite their denials, they will take it as an argument against them before God. They say this as if God does not take against them anything other than verbal statements. The fact is that such thoughts cannot be entertained by anyone who has a sound concept of God and His attributes, or who has a correct knowledge of the true nature of Divine messages and prophethood, or the duties required by faith.
 
God directs His Messenger to teach them and the Muslim community the nature of God’s grace when He wills to favour any nation with a messenger and a message: “Say: ‘Grace is in God’s hand: He bestows it on whom He wills. God is Munificent and All- Knowing.’ He singles out for His mercy whom He wills. And God’s grace is great indeed.” (Verses 73-74)
 
He has willed to give His message and revelation to a nation other than that which received His earlier revelations. He has chosen to do so after they violated their covenant with Him, breached the pledges of their father, Abraham, knowingly confounded the truth with falsehood, betrayed the trust He has placed in them, abandoned the rulings of their Book and the laws of their religion and showed their unwillingness to refer their disputes to God’s revelations for arbitration. What this meant in practice was that human life was no longer following God’s constitution and its leadership was no longer in the hands of believers. Hence, He has given the leadership to the Muslim nation in which He placed His trust as an act of infinite honour and grace from Him: “God is Munificent and All-Knowing. He singles out for His mercy whom He wills.” This He does on the basis of His knowledge of where His mercy should be placed and on the basis that when He bestows His grace, there is no limit to what He gives. “God’s grace is great indeed.“ There is no grace greater than His guidance provided to any nation in the shape of a Book, or His limitless bounty given in the shape of a message, or His great mercy bestowed in the form of a messenger.
 
When the Muslims listen to this they realise what great favour God has given them when He has chosen them to carry His message, and they will hold tight to it, defend it with all the power available to them, and try to foil the schemes of their enemies. We see here an aspect of how the Qur’ān was educating the first Muslim community. It remains the Qur’ānic method of educating the Muslim community in every generation.