Overview (Verses 30 - 31)

Clear Order and Perverse Response

Commenting on the assertions by the Jews and the Christians that Ezra or Jesus is the son of God, the Qur’ān emphasizes that they echo the assertions and concepts of unbelievers in former times: “Such are the assertions they utter with their mouths, echoing assertions made by the unbelievers of old.” (Verse 30) First of all this comment emphasizes that these assertions were made by them and not reported by others. This is the reason for mentioning `their mouths’ to add a physical image, following the Qur’ānic method of expression. It is evident that whatever they say or assert must be said by word of mouth. The deliberate mention of their mouths is neither redundant — far be it from God to unnecessarily add what is redundant — nor does it make the statement verbose. The Qur’ānic style pictures how they make their assertions and gives us a very real image that we can see as we listen to the statement. There is also an additional connotation stressing that the words do not describe any thing that exists in reality. These are merely words uttered and have no real significance.

Then we have another aspect of the uniqueness of the Qur’ān which points to its origin and that it is God’s revelation. This we find in the statement: “echoing assertions made by the unbelievers of old.” (Verse 30) Commentators on the Qur’ān used to say that this means that their assertions about God having a son are similar to what the Arab idolaters used to say that the angels were God’s daughters. The similarity between the two assertions is true, but this statement has a wider implication which has transpired only recently when the faiths of idolaters in India, ancient Egypt and Greece were studied. The study has brought to light the origins of the distorted beliefs of the people of earlier revelations, particularly the Christians. They were simply derived from those forms of pagan faiths which found their way firstly into Paul’s teachings and finally into those of the Church Synods.

The Egyptian trinity of Osiris, Isis and Horus forms the basis of Pharaonic idolatry, with Osiris representing the ‘father’ while Horus represents the ‘son’. In the Alexandrian divinity, which was taught many years before Christ, the assertion is made that “the word is the second deity,” and it is also called “the first son of God”.

The Indians believed that God might take three different states: Brahma which signified creation, Vishnu which signified lordship and the provision of sustenance, and Siva which signified destruction. In this faith Vishnu is considered the son of Brahma.

The Assyrians believed in the ‘Word’ which they called Mardookh whom they described as the first son of God.

The Greeks also believed in three states of God. When their priests slaughtered for sacrifice, they sprinkled the alter with holy water three times, and they handled incense from the censer with three fingers, and they splashed those around the alter with the holy water three times. All these rituals are symbols of the trinity. Together with the pagan beliefs they represented, these rituals were introduced by the Church into Christianity, to echo the beliefs of the unbelievers of old times.

A careful look at the ideologies of the ancient idolaters, which were not known to people at the time when the Qur’ān was revealed, in the light of this Qur’ānic statement: “echoing assertions made by the unbelievers of old, “ (Verse 30) will prove two points. It shows that the people of earlier revelations do not follow the faith of truth and do not have the right concepts of God. It also reveals a certain aspect of the uniqueness of the Qur’ān, pointing to its source and that it is revealed by God whose knowledge is perfect, absolute.

This verse, which makes it clear that the people of earlier revelations have adopted idolatrous beliefs, is concluded with these words: “May God destroy them! How perverse they are!” (Verse 30) Yes indeed. “May God destroy them!” How they overlook the simple truth which is clear and straightforward to adopt ambiguous and complex idolatrous concepts which have no logical or coherent basis.

The sūrah then describes another type of deviation from the truth manifested by the people of earlier revelations. This time the deviation is not confined to verbal statements and beliefs only; it translates itself into practices based on erroneous beliefs: “They make of their rabbis and their monks, and of the Christ, son of Mary, lords besides God. Yet they have been ordered to worship none but the One God, other than whom there is no deity. Exalted be He above those to whom they ascribe divinity.” (Verse 31)

This verse comes at its most appropriate place in this passage which dispels all lingering doubts that those people may still be following a divine faith. For this verse states that they are no longer following any religion revealed by God. This is proven by their beliefs and practices. They were ordered to worship God alone, but they took their rabbis and monks as lords besides God. They also made Jesus Christ the Lord. All this is a form of idolatry which associates partners with God. From the standpoint of beliefs, they are not true believers in God, and in practice, they do not follow the religion of truth.

An Order and its Distorted Application

Before we explain how they took their monks and rabbis for lords, we wish to mention some authentic reports which include the Prophet’s own interpretation. His is undoubtedly the correct and final interpretation.

Al-Tirmidhī and several major scholars of Ĥadīth report on the authority of `Adiy ibn Ĥātim, who was a Christian before he met the Prophet and adopted Islam: “When I first came to see the Prophet, he was reciting this verse of the sūrah entitled Repentance: ‘They make of their rabbis and their monks, and of the Christ, son of Mary, lords besides God.’ He explained: “They certainly did not worship these (rabbis and monks). But when they permitted them something they treated it as permissible, and when they prohibited something they treated it as forbidden.”

A second authentic report is transmitted by Imām Aĥmad, al- Tirmidhī and al-Ţabarī on the authority of `Adiy ibn Ĥātim: When `Adiy, who in pre-Islamic days was a Christian, heard of the Islamic message, he fled to Syria. His sister was taken prisoner together with a group of his tribesmen. The Prophet treated his sister kindly, granted her freedom and gave her some gifts. She went to her brother and urged him to adopt Islam and to meet the Prophet. `Adiy took his sister’s advice and travelled to Madinah. He used to be the chief of his tribe, Ţayyi’, and his father was widely renowned for his unparalleled generosity. People were speaking about his arrival in Madinah. When he went to see the Prophet he was wearing a silver crucifix which he hung around his neck. The Prophet was reading this verse: ‘They make of their rabbis and their monks...lords besides God.’ ‘Adiy said: `They have not worshipped them.’ The Prophet said: `Yes, indeed they did. They followed them when they forbade them what was lawful and permitted them what was forbidden. That is how they worshipped them.’

Al-Suddī, a learned commentator on the Qur’ān says: “They have sought the advice of human beings and abandoned God’s Book. Hence He says: ‘Yet they have been ordered to worship none but the One God,’ which means the One who may forbid something and it is treated by all as forbidden and may permit another and it is treated as lawful. His law is to be obeyed and His verdict is final.”

In his commentary on the Qur’ān, al-Ālūsī, a scholar of the modern period says: “That they made them lords does not mean that they treated them as if they were gods in control of the universe. What is meant is that they obeyed them in what they have bidden and forbidden.”

From the very clear Qur’ānic statement and its interpretation by the Prophet, which provides the ultimate judgement, and also from the observations of scholars, old and new, we may deduce a number of very important conclusions concerning religion and beliefs which we will state here very briefly: 

According to the Qur’ān and the Prophet’s interpretation, worship means the following of the law. The Jews and the Christians did not make their rabbis and monks as lords in the sense that they treated them as gods or that they offered their worship rituals to them. Yet God describes them in this verse as `associating partners with Him’ and, in a later verse in the sūrah, as `unbelievers’ only because they followed the laws they devised for them. This alone, regardless of beliefs and rituals, is sufficient to make anyone who does it a person who associates partners with God, which takes him out of faith altogether and puts him in the category of unbelievers.

The Qur’ānic statement attaches the descriptions of `associating partners with God’ and `unbelief’ to both the Jews who accepted the laws made for them by their rabbis and put those laws into practice and the Christians who believe that Christ is their Lord and offer worship rituals to him. Both actions are the same in the sense that both make their perpetrators polytheists ascribing lordship to beings other than God.

Polytheism, or idolatry, comes into being merely by assigning the authority to legislate to anyone other than God, even though this is not accompanied by a belief that such a legislator is a deity or by offering worship rituals to it. 

The primary aim of pointing out these facts is to deal with the circumstances of the Muslim society at the time, particularly the reluctance to confront the Byzantines and the feeling that they were believers on account of their having received revelations. Yet these facts are of general application and serve to emphasize the nature of the true religion.

The religion of truth which is the only one that is acceptable to God from any human being is ‘self surrender’. Such surrender is manifested by implementing God’s law, after having believed in His oneness, and offering worship to Him alone. If people are to implement a law other than that of God, then what God has said about the Jews and the Christians will apply to them as well. In other words, they would be idolaters and unbelievers, no matter how emphatically they assert that they believe in God. Those descriptions will apply to them once they willingly implement a law devised by human beings in total disregard of God’s law, unless they protest that they only follow such laws against their will and they have no power to repel that compulsion.

The term ‘religion’ has nowadays lost much of its significance in the minds of most people, so much so that they confine it to beliefs to which they may hold and rituals they may offer. This was exactly the situation of the Jews who are described by this categorical verdict, as interpreted by the Prophet (peace be upon him), as unbelievers, associating partners with God and disobeying His clear command not to worship anyone besides Him. This same Qur’ānic statement tells us that they have taken their rabbis as lords besides God.

The most essential meaning of ‘religion’ is `to submit and to follow’. This is most clearly evidenced by following the law as it is proven by offering worship. The matter is very serious. It admits no ambiguity of the sort that considers people who follow laws other than God’s law, without being compelled to do so, as believers and as Muslims, simply because they profess to believe in God and because they offer their worship to Him.

This ambiguity is perhaps the most serious threat to this religion of Islam at the present time. It is the worst weapon levelled at it by its enemies who depict some people and situations as Muslim and Islamic, even though these people are similar to the ones God describes as unbelievers taking as lords beings other than God and turning away from the religion of truth. If the enemies of this religion try to associate such people and situations with Islam, then it is the duty of the advocates of Islam to deny them that description and to uncover their reality. They would thus show them as they are: people who do not believe in God’s oneness and who take for themselves lords other than God when “they have been ordered to worship none but the One God, other than whom there is no deity. Exalted be He above those to whom they ascribe divinity.” (Verse 31)