Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2 : 189

Overview (Verse 189)
 
This new passage resumes the elaboration of religious obligations and practical rules governing behaviour within the Muslim community and its relations with the outside world.
 
It explains the religious and practical significance of the phases of the moon. It dismisses the pre-Islamic Arab superstitious practice of entering houses through the back door on certain occasions. It outlines the rules governing war and fighting generally, as well as the prohibition of fighting in the four lunar months: Rajab (the seventh), Dhu’l-Qa’dah (the eleventh), Dhu’l-Ĥijjah (the twelfth) and Muharram (the first) and particularly in the vicinity of the Sacred Mosque in Makkah. It ends with a comprehensive description of the rituals of the pilgrimage and the `Umrah (which may be described as a mini-pilgrimage) as prescribed by Islam, revising, modifying and replacing all the pagan and idolatrous concepts and practices of former times.
 
In one concise passage, and in a succinctly clear style, the Qur’ān lays down rules and principles relating to faith and belief, the regulation of religious rituals and practices, as well as war and fighting. These are all linked and interlaced with powerful admonitions and comments evocative of God and His power.
 
On correcting the Arab practice of entering houses through the back door, the sūrah points out that form, in itself, is not what really matters but it is one’s consciousness and fear of God. It says: “Righteousness does not mean that you enter houses from the rear; but truly righteous is he who fears God. Enter houses by their doors and fear God, so that you may be successful.” (Verse 189)
 
In dealing with war, the sūrah directs Muslims never to initiate aggression, affirming that “God does not love aggressors.’’ (Verse 190) Commenting on fighting during a sacred month, the sūrah urges:
 
“Fear God and be sure that God is with those who are God-fearing.” (Verse 194)
 
The sūrah calls on Muslims to spend of their wealth for the cause of God, exhorting them to “Persevere in doing good, for God loves those who do good.” (Verse 195)
 
The sūrah again emphasizes consciousness and fear of God when dealing with the pilgrimage rituals. “Fear God, and know well that He is severe in retribution.” (Verse 196) “Provide well for yourselves: the best provision of all is to be God-fearing. Fear Me, then, you who are endowed with insight.” (Verse 197) “Have fear of God, and know well that you shall all be gathered before Him.“ (Verse 203)
 
It is quite clear that there is a common thread firmly binding these instructions and rulings together. Matters of faith, ritual and law, the spiritual and the mundane, the religious and the secular, the personal, national and international, are all intertwined and spun together in one comprehensive, universal religious and social system based on rules and laws laid down directly by God.
 
The Islamic Transformation
 
Beginning with this passage, we note a salient feature recurring in the rest of the sūrah. We find the Muslims addressing the Prophet Muĥammad with specific enquiries relating to a wide range of everyday issues and situations they were encountering in their new way of life. They reveal a genuine desire on the part of the new Muslims to find out what their new religion has to say about these matters. The believers wanted to learn more about how Islam viewed and interpreted the social and physical phenomena they were experiencing in the world around them.
 
They ask about the moon and the various phases it goes through. Why does it start as a fine crescent which becomes bigger until it develops into a full sphere, and then reverses the cycle until it disappears altogether before it is reborn in the shape of a thin crescent again?
 
They enquired about what part and how much of their wealth they should give away as charity. They enquired about war, and whether it would be allowed during the sacred months and in the vicinity of the Sacred Mosque in Makkah. They asked for Islamic rulings on alcoholic drinks and gambling, which were social habits in pre- Islamic Arabian life.
 
They enquired regarding menstruation, and whether sexual contact between spouses was allowed during such periods. They enquired about even more intimate and personal issues concerning matrimonial relations. These questions were sometimes raised by women.
 
Questions relating to other issues are to be found in several other sūrahs in the Qur’ān. The fact that they were raised is in itself significant in more ways than one.
 
To begin with, it indicates a high degree of enlightenment and dynamism in the Muslim society, which was already developing a distinct character. A sense of community was rapidly growing. The Muslims were no longer a set of isolated individuals, nor were they any longer separate tribes scattered all over Arabia. They had become a nation with its own identity, systems and relationships, in which every person was keen to assume his or her role and position. This new social, intellectual and emotional awareness was brought about by Islam, and was moulded by the Islamic outlook on life, its system and its pioneering views and concepts.
 
Second, this inquisitiveness also indicates a keen sense of religious consciousness emerging in the new society. It reflects the depth and strength of the hold the new faith had taken on the hearts and minds of its followers. Having discarded their old assumptions and attitudes, and wrenched themselves away from pre-Islamic customs and traditions, they lost confidence in the old order and began looking to their new religion for education and guidance in all aspects of life.
 
This state of emotional and intellectual awareness is generated by true faith. The believer is freed from all former beliefs and traditions. He begins to view with scepticism all previously held ideas, and to subject all his actions to fresh scrutiny. The believer becomes readily receptive to the directives of the new faith, and keen to reform his or her life accordingly. Even those former concepts and practices which are approved or adopted by the new order will assume a new context as they are integrated into the new faith.
 
The new order need not necessarily replace the old one in every detail, but it is important that those details adopted by the new faith should be assimilated and incorporated into it in substance as well as in spirit. This is very well illustrated by the pre-Islamic pilgrimage rituals which Islam transforms into a new set of rules, hardly bearing any resemblance to those formerly practised by the Arabs.
 
Third, some of the questions the Muslims were raising relate directly to the historical context of that period. The Jews in Madinah and the idolatrous Arabs in Makkah would often voice doubts as to the merits of Islamic teachings and principles. They would seize every opportunity to disparage Islam, exploiting certain occasions or events to wage a campaign of hostility and disinformation. One such occasion involved unwarranted criticism to the effect that a Muslim expedition, led by `Abdullāh ibn Jaĥsh, had violated the prohibition of fighting during the sacred months by attacking a Quraysh caravan.
 
The Muslims found it necessary to solicit answers and explanations to reassure themselves and to enable them to face the propaganda launched against them by their enemies.
 
This illustrates that the Qur’ān was keeping abreast of the confrontation between the Muslims and the non-Muslims, and providing the Muslims with guidance and leadership. This was happening in areas of faith and belief as well as in the real world, where the enemies of Islam were incessantly scheming and plotting against its followers.
 
The situation today is not very different: the same battles continue to rage on. Human nature has not changed, and the enemies of Islam can be found everywhere. But the Qur’ān is also there. Neither man nor the Muslim world community will be safe until the Qur’ān assumes conduct of the battle as it did for the first generation of Muslims. Unless Muslims realize this fact they cannot hope to succeed or prosper.
 
The least that results from such a realization is that Muslims would approach the Qur’ān with the same understanding and attitude. The Qur’ān would be seen as a dynamic, active force, formulating new concepts, facing up to anti-Islamic ideas, insulating Muslims against ignorance and deviation and helping them avoid the pitfalls. This would be far removed from the present approach many have adopted towards the Qur’ān, viewing it merely as a fine work of literature and going no farther than reciting it rhythmically or chanting its words like a melody on certain occasions.
 
The Qur’ān was revealed for a totally different purpose. God meant it as a blueprint for a complete way of life, a stimulus, a driving force guiding the Muslim community, charting its course through thick and thin, and helping it overcome and avoid all the difficulties and obstacles it is bound to encounter in this world.
 
The New Moon and its Significance
 
They ask you about the new moons. Say, ‘They are signs for people to mark fixed periods of time, and for the pilgrimage.’ Righteousness does not mean that you enter houses from the rear, but truly righteous is he who fears God. Enter houses by their doors and fear God, so that you may be successful. (Verse 189)
 
Some reports suggest that the Prophet Muĥammad was asked why the moon goes through its various phases. Others say that he was asked why have the crescent moons been created, which seems to be more consistent with the answer given in the sūrah: “They are signs for people to mark fixed periods of time, and for the pilgrimage.”
 
They serve as a means by which people fix and measure the time of important religious events and activities such as travel, pilgrimage, fasting, marriage and divorce, as well as trade transactions and loan periods.
 
Whatever the original enquiry, the answer had gone beyond mere abstraction and given practical, rather than ‘scientific’, information relating to the phases of the moon. The Qur’ān, without going into a detailed astronomical discussion, speaks of the function of the moon and its role in people’s daily life. The Qur’ān did not embark on an explanation of the moon’s position within the solar system or the relative movement of stars, planets and galaxies, although this is implied in the question.
 
What significance, then, does the answer given in the Qur’ān imply? The principal objective of the Qur’ān was the creation and promotion of a new conception of life in a new social, political and economic order. Indeed, it was working towards the creation of a new human community, with a special role of leadership in the world. It was developing a new model of human society, the like of which had not been known before, to uphold a new way of life that would firmly establish essential universal features and principles which the rest of mankind would look up to and emulate.
 
A scientific answer would undoubtedly have provided the Prophet’s followers with theoretical knowledge about the universe, to add to their meagre understanding of it. Indeed, it is doubtful that the Arabs knew enough about astronomy at that time to be able to make use of further theoretical information, which would have required an understanding of basic principles and phenomena that were beyond all scientific progress achieved in the world up to that time.
 
The Qur’ān avoided a scientific answer because people were not ready for it, and it would have been of little use for the universal mission the Qur’ān was revealed to fulfil. Its role was far greater than the mere dissemination of detailed knowledge. The Qur’ān was never intended to be a book on astronomy, chemistry or medicine, as some of its admirers and detractors try, each for their own different purposes, to demonstrate.
 
These attempts betray a lack of understanding of the nature of the Qur’ān, its function and scope. It is mainly concerned with the human soul and the state and direction of the human condition. Its purpose is to establish a broad view of the world in which we exist and its relationship with the Creator, and a general outline of man’s position in this world and his relationship with the Creator. On the basis of these broad concepts, the Qur’ān goes on to establish a way of life which enables man to apply all his skills and abilities, not least his intellectual faculties. Once these are properly and correctly developed, they are given full freedom, through observation, experiment and scientific research, to probe the mysteries of life and the universe and make the appropriate conclusions — which could never, in any case, be said to be final or absolute.
 
The basic raw material with which the Qur’ān is concerned is man himself: the way he views things around him, his beliefs, emotions and ideas, his behaviour and activity, and the ties and relationships that govern his life. The conduct and development of material science and innovation are left to man’s mental and intellectual capabilities and his diligent endeavour to know and understand. It is this knowledge and understanding that are the essential prerequisites for man to fulfil his divinely ordained mission in the world, for which he is naturally fitted and qualified.
 
The Qur’ān nurtures man’s basic nature and protects it against deviation and corruption. It provides man with the moral, social, political and economic foundations and mechanisms that enable him to put his talents and skills to full and proper use. It furnishes him with a broad and comprehensive view of the nature, the inherent harmony, and the delicate balance of the physical world, of which man himself is an important and integral part, and its relationship with the Creator.
 
The Qur’ān does not cover such topics in great detail, because that is man’s task. He is expected to take the initiative to search, discover and use his environment in order to further and fulfil his supreme position in the world.
 
The attempt to make the Qur’ān what it was never meant to be often seems naïve and counter-productive. The fact that the Qur’ān is not a reference book for medicine or chemistry or astronomy takes nothing away from its power and glory.
 
The Qur’ān and Scientific Truth
 
The Qur’ān deals with something much wider and more comprehensive than all those sciences. It is concerned with man himself, the key to uncovering the facts and mysteries of the world around. The human mind is fully equipped to scrutinize and probe into man’s surroundings, and to experiment with and apply the theories he formulates and the tools he invents. The Qur’ān concentrates on nurturing man’s character, conscience and mind, and laying the sound foundations of the human environment which allows him to make full use of his own hidden potential and that of the world around. Having laid down the groundwork and given man the necessary mental tools and criteria, the Qur’ān leaves man free to seek and search, experiment, achieve and make mistakes, in all areas of life.
 
There is also a great risk in attempting to seek verification of facts of a scientific nature given occasionally in the Qur’ān through suppositions, theories or so-called ‘scientific facts’ arrived at through human empirical efforts.
 
The facts that the Qur’ān mentions are absolute and final truths, while those arrived at through human research are not, no matter how advanced or sophisticated the means or the approach used to arrive at them. The latter are constrained by the conditions of man’s own environment, and they are limited by the nature and scope of the tools used. The absolute and final truths of the Qur’ān cannot, therefore, be qualified or authenticated by the inconclusive ones discovered by man.
 
In addition to ‘scientific fact’, this applies in the case of ‘scientific theory’. This includes theories on the origin of the universe, the creation and evolution of man, and psychological and sociological theories. Even within the realm of human thought, these are not considered to express scientific facts. Indeed, they are no more than suppositions or speculative ideas which, at best, help explain a vast array of physical, biological, psychological or sociological phenomena. As more accurate instruments and more discoveries are made, these theories are constantly amended and developed, or superseded by others that give wider or more accurate explanations or interpretations.
 
The attempt to verify Qur’ānic facts by the changing findings of human science is fundamentally flawed. It reflects three negative aspects that should not be associated with the Qur’ān.
 
First, is an inner defeatism that science is somehow superior to the Qur’ān. This leads to an attempt to find scientific evidence to verify and corroborate what the Qur’ān says. But in fact, Qur’ānic statements are definitive, complete and conclusive, while human science remains in a constant state of flux and development. This is due to the constraints of the environment in which human research and experiment are conducted, and the inadequacy of the tools and methods used in those processes.
 
Second, is a misunderstanding of the true nature and function of the Qur’ān as the absolute definitive truth addressing man in his totality according to his basic nature and within the constraints of the physical world and its laws. Ideally, it aims to achieve perfect harmony between man and the physical world, avoiding a clash between man and nature. Such harmony enables man to unravel, through enquiry, observation, experiment and application, as many of the world’s mysteries as he can and use its potential energies and resources to enhance his position and fulfil his role as God’s vicegerent on earth.
 
Third, is the continuous interpretation and re-interpretation, with frequent resort to far-fetched and arbitrary methods, of Qur’ānic statements in a vain attempt to make them agree or coincide with speculative suppositions and tentative theories.
 
However, this should not prevent us from making full use of what human sciences uncover about man, life and the world, for a better understanding of the Qur’ān. God says: “We shall show them Our signs across all horizons and within themselves, until they clearly see that this [revelation] is the truth.” (41: 53) This is a clear call to study closely and absorb what science discovers of God’s signs and to use them to expand the meaning and application of the Qur’ānic injunctions, without undermining or demeaning the immutability and integrity of the Qur’ān.
 
This may be illustrated further by the following examples:
 
The Qur’ān says: “And He created all things and ordained them in due proportion.” (25:2) Scientific observation also has led to the conclusion that there are inherent harmony, very intricate interactions and consonances within the structure of the universe. The earth’s shape and distance from both the sun and the moon, its size relative to theirs, its speed and axis of rotation, and countless other factors combine to make life on earth possible and sustainable. None of this may be attributed to chance or coincidence, or can be said to be without purpose.
 
These observations no doubt are useful in gaining a better understanding of the Qur’ānic statement. This is quite legitimate and should be encouraged. But here are other examples that are neither legitimate nor scientifically correct.
 
The Qur’ān says: “We created man from an extraction of clay.” (23: 12) Centuries later, scientists such as Charles Darwin, proposed a theory of evolution which purports that life began in water as a single cell, and that human beings are the result of millions of years of evolution. Now, it would be pointless, indeed wrong, to attempt to show that this is precisely what the Qur’ān says.
 
To begin with, the theory is not conclusive and, within a century, it underwent several amendments and changes that have made it almost unrecognizable. There were flaws in the original theory, which was conceived at a time when nothing was known of the genes which carry hereditary properties and distinguish one species from another. Several aspects of Darwin’s theory have since been disproved, and many others are still a matter of debate.
 
The Qur’ānic statement is conclusive as it establishes the origin of man without giving any details of the process involved. It does not aim at more than that and carries no other connotations or meaning.
 
The Qur’ān tells us: “And the sun runs towards its resting place.” (36: 38) This is a statement of fact concerning the movement of the sun. Science has shown that the sun is indeed moving relative to other stars nearby and is part of a galaxy which itself is moving. Furthermore the speeds at which the sun and the galaxies move are measured. Such observations, relative and inconclusive as they are, do not affect the truth of the Qur’ānic statement, which is final.
 
The Qur’ān says: “Are the unbelievers unaware that the heaven and the earth were once one single entity, which We then parted asunder?” (21: 30) Some have tried to reconcile this statement with the theory that suggests that the earth was part of the sun and then they were separated. It is futile to try and limit Qur’ānic statements with human scientific theory. This particular theory is not the only one in its field and it is contested by many scientists, while the Qur’ānic statement is complete and conclusive. It merely states a fact without telling us what is meant by ‘heavens’ or how the fragmentation occurred. No scientific proposition should be used to corroborate Qur’ānic statements, no matter how apparently close or similar the conclusions may be.
 
Having established these principles, we may now return to the Qur’ānic text: “Righteousness does not mean that you enter houses from the rear, but truly righteous is he who fears God. Enter houses by their doors and fear God, so that you may be successful.” (Verse 189)
 
This part of the verse and the preceding one relating to phases of the moon seem to be connected by the theme of pilgrimage: the new moon as an astronomical time marker for pilgrimage and other events, and the pre-Islamic Arab pilgrimage custom of entering houses from the rear.
 
Al-Bukhārī and Muslim relate a report by al-Barā’, in which he said: “It was the custom of the Anşār [i.e. Muslims from Madinah] that on returning from pilgrimage they would approach their houses from the rear. When one of them broke this tradition and entered by the front door, he was severely criticised. It was at this point that the verse was revealed.” A similar report is related by Abū Dāwūd.
 
Whether this custom related to the pilgrimage only, which seems more probable, or to travelling in general, the Arabs had maintained the belief that it was a sign of piety and righteousness to uphold it. However, the Qur’ān refutes that as an empty gesture that could serve no religious purpose. It goes on to establish the proper religious concept of righteousness as consciousness of God and His presence at all times and in all situations, rather than as a routine gesture that had no meaning whatsoever. Therefore it gives the instruction that houses must be approached from the front, and re-emphasizes the importance of God-fearing as the road to success in this life.
 
The verse, then, focuses our minds and hearts on taqwā, God- fearing, as a basic fact of faith, and links it with the attainment of absolute success, both in this life and in the life to come. It repeals a useless, ignorant tradition and directs the believers to appreciate God’s grace in providing them with the new moon at the beginning of every month to enable them to determine the time for pilgrimage and other human activities.