Surah al-Furqan (The Criterion ) 25 : 56

Explanatory Note

God then reassures His Messenger, lightening his burden. He assures him that once he has discharged his duty, delivering his message, with what it brings to people of good news and warnings, striving hard against the unbelievers through the Qur’ān, then there is no reason for him to be troubled at the unbelievers’ stubborn rejection of his message. God will take over the fight against those who oppose him. All he needs to do is to place his trust in God and leave matters to Him.

Thus the task of God’s Messenger is defined: it is to give happy news and issue a warning. At the time this sūrah was revealed, the Prophet was still in Makkah and had not yet received orders to take up arms against the idolaters to ensure the freedom of expression and advocacy of his message. That order was given to him later, after his immigration to Madīnah. There was certainly a definite purpose behind withholding such an order at the time, and this is best known to God Himself. However, we think that at the time the Prophet was still inculcating the new faith in the minds and hearts of his followers. He wanted it to sink deep so as to impart its distinctive character to them and for it to become manifest in their lives and actions. Thus, they would become the nucleus of the Muslim society which moulds itself on the basis of its Islamic faith. Moreover, the order to refrain from fighting during the Makkan period avoided bloody hostilities and vengeance killing which could have shut the door firmly between the Quraysh and Islam. God certainly knew that eventually they would all embrace Islam, with some of them doing so before the Prophet’s immigration to Madīnah and the rest after the Muslims’ re-entry into Makkah. They would form the solid base of the new faith.

Nevertheless, the core of the Islamic message remained the same in Madīnah: giving happy news and issuing serious warnings. Fighting was permitted only to remove physical barriers erected by the unbelievers to deprive God’s message of free expression, and to protect the believers against religious oppression. This means that the Qur’ānic statement was applicable both in Makkah and Madīnah: “We have sent you only as a herald of good news and a warner.”