Ala-Maududi
(42:13) He has prescribed for you the religion which He enjoined upon Noah and which We revealedto you (O Muhammad), and which We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus, commanding:“Establish this religion and do not split up regarding it.”[20] What you are callingto is very hard upon those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity. Allah chooses forHimself whomsoever He pleases and guides to Himself whoever penitently turns toHim.[21]
20. Here the same thing as already mentioned in the first verse has been further elaborated. Itclearly states that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is not the founder of any new religion, nor wasany of the Prophets a founder of a separate religion, but it has been one and the same religionwhich all the Prophets have been presenting from Allah from the very beginning, and the same isbeing presented by Muhammad (peace be upon him). In this regard, the first name mentioned is ofthe Prophet Noah (peace be upon him), who was the first Prophet after the Flood. After him theHoly Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has been mentioned, who is the last of the Prophets;then the Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) has been mentioned, whom the Arabs acknowledged astheir guide, and last of all, the Prophets Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them) have beenmentioned to whom the Jews and the Christians attribute their religions. This does not mean thatonly these five Prophets had been enjoined this religion, but what is meant to be said is thatall the Prophets who came to this world, brought one and the same religion and the names of thefive illustrious Prophets have been mentioned only as examples through whom the world receivedthe most well known codes of divine law.
As this verse throws important light on Deen (religion) and its aim, it is necessary that weshould study it to understand it well.
Lexically, the word sharaa in sharaa lakum (ordained for you) means to make the way. As a term itimplies appointing a way, a code and a rule. Accordingly, in Arabic the words tashri and shariatand shari are understood as the synonyms of legislation and law and law giver respectively. Thisdivine legislation, in fact, is the natural and logical result of the fundamental truths whichhave been stated in (Surah Ash-Shuraa, ayat l), and (Surah Ash-Shuraa, ayat 9-10) above: that Allah alone is the Owner of everything in the Universe, and He aloneis man’s real Guardian and it is for Him to judge the disputes that arise between human beings.Now, when Allah alone is the Owner and Guardian and Ruler, inevitably He alone is entitled tomake the code of law for man and it is His responsibility that He should give this code of lawto man. So, He has carried out His responsibility like this.
Then the words min-ad-din (of the nature of din) denote that the way appointed by Allah islegislation pertaining to deen. If the explanation of the word deen that we have given in (Surah Az-Zumar, ayat 2) note 3 above, iskept in view, there can be no difficulty in understanding that deen means nothing butacknowledging the sovereignty and leadership of someone and obeying his commands. And when thisword is used in the meaning of the way, it implies the way which man must regard as obligatoryfor himself to follow and the one appointing it as the one whom he ought to obey. On this basis,calling God-appointed Way as legislation pertaining to deen clearly means that it is not merelyrecommendatory in nature or a mere counsel, but it is a law enjoined by the Master, which mustnecessarily be obeyed by the servants and disobedience of which is tantamount to rebellion, andthe one who does not obey it, in fact, denies Allah’s being the Sovereign and Ruler and his ownposition of a servant.
Then, it has been said that this legislation which pertains to deen is the same as was enjoinedon Noah. Abraham and Moses and the same now has been enjoined on Muhammad (peace be upon themall). This contains several points:
(1) That Allah did not send this legislation of His directly to every man, but appointed wheneverHe deemed proper and necessary a person as His Messenger and consigned the legislation w him.
(2) That this legislation has been the same from the beginning. It did not so happen that in oneage one particular deen was appointed for a nation, and in another age another and contradictorydeen was sent for another nation. Allah did not send many deens but on every occasion He sentone and the same deen.
(3) That it is an essential part of this deen to acknowledge the apostleship of those men throughwhom the legislation has been sent and the revelation in which the legislation has been couched,besides acknowledging the Sovereignty of Allah; and it is the demand of reason and logic too,that it should be a necessary part of it, for a man cannot obey this legislation at all unlesshe is satisfied that it is authentically from Allah.
Then it has been said that the Prophets were given this legislation pertaining to deen, with theexpress instruction: Aqim-ud-din; “Establish this deen”, or “Keep this deen established,” asvariously translated by Shah Waliullah, Shah Rafiuddin and Shah Abdul Qadir. Both thesetranslations are correct, for iqamat means both to establish and to keep established, and theProphets were appointed to perform both the functions. Their first duty was to establish thisdin wherever it was not established, and the second that they should keep it established afterthey had established it, or had found it already established in a place. Obviously, a thing canbe kept established only when it has already been established, otherwise the primary requirementwould be to establish it first, and then make continuous effort to keep it established.
Here, two questions arise: First, what is the meaning of establishing the deen? Second, what isdeen itself, which we have been enjoined to establish and then keep it established? Let us tryto understand these questions well.
The word iqamat (to establish) when used in respect of a material or physical object impliescausing it to rise from the sitting or lying positions or assembling the scattered parts of athing and raising it up high. But when iqamat is used in respect of a thing which is notmaterial but spiritual in nature, it does not merely imply preaching it, but also actingaccording to it as best as one can, introducing it and enforcing it practically. For example,when we say that so and so established his rule, it does not mean that he invited others to hisgovernment but that he subdued the people of the land and organized the different departments ofthe government in a way that the administration of the country began to function according tohis orders. Similarly, when we say that courts have been established in the country, it meansthat judges have been appointed to do justice and they ate hearing the cases and givingjudgments, and not that hymns in praise of justice are being sung and the people beingimpressed. Likewise, when the Quran enjoins the establishment of the Prayer (Salat), it does notimply that one should merely preach and exhort others to the Prayer but that one should not onlyperform it himself, observing all its conditions, but should also strive to make arrangement sothat it becomes a regular practice among the believers. There should be mosques, there should bearrangements for offering the Prayer collectively and for the Friday congregational Prayer, andfor making calls to the Prayer punctually. There should be the Imams to lead the Prayers and thescholars to give sermons, and the people should visit the mosques regularly and punctually andmake offering the Prayer an essential part of their daily routine. After this explanation, thereshould remain no difficulty in understanding that when the Prophets were enjoined to establishthe deen and to keep it established, it did not simply mean that they should practice itthemselves and not only that they should preach it to others so that the people may accept itstruth, but also that when the people have accepted it, steps should be taken to introduce andenforce the entire deen practically among them so that they may start living according to itforever afterwards. No doubt preaching is the primary necessary stage of this work without whichthere can be no second stage, but every intelligent person can himself see that in this commandpreaching has not been made the object, but the real object is to establish the deen and keep itestablished. Preaching is certainly a means to the end but not the end in itself, but nobody cansay that it was the only and foremost object of the mission of the Prophets.
Now, let us take the second question. When some people saw that the deen which has been enjoinedto be established is common among all the Prophets, and their shariahs have been different, asAllah Himself says: We appointed for each community among you a law and a way of life, theyformed the view that inevitably this deen did not imply the shariah commandments, rules andregulations but only the acceptance of Tauhid, the Hereafter and the Book and the Prophethoodand performance of certain acts of devotion to Allah, or at the most, it included some of themajor moral principles which have been common to all the shariahs. But this is a superficialview, which has been formed after having a cursory glance over the unity of religion and thedifference of the shariahs. This is, however, a dangerous view, which if not corrected in time,may well lead to the separation between deen (religion) and shariahs (law). It was this veryview in, which St. Paul was involved, who presented the doctrine of the deen (religion) withoutshariah (law), and corrupted the community of the Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him). For, ifshariah (law) is something separate from deen (religion) and the command is only forestablishing the deen and not the shariah, inevitably the Muslims also, like the Christians,would regard the shariah as unimportant and overlook its establishment as not being the realobject by itself, and would remain content with only beliefs and a few important moralprinciples. Instead of determining the meaning of deen from such speculations, let us turn tothe Quran itself and see whether the deen which we have been enjoined here to establish impliesthe beliefs and a few important moral principles only, or the shariah values and commandments aswell. When we explore the Quran we find that what it regards as deen includes the followingthings as well:
(1) And the only command they were given was to worship Allah, making their deen sincerely His,turning all their attention towards Him, and to establish the Salat and to pay the Zakat, thisalone is the true and right deen. (Surah Al-Bayyinah, Ayat 5). This shows that the Salat and the Zakat are included in this deen,whereas the commandments pertaining to both have been different in the different shariahs. Noone can say that in all the previous shariahs the Salat has had the same form, the sameelements, the same number of the rakahs, the same direction of the qiblah, the same times andthe same other commands concerning it. Likewise, no one can claim also about the Zakat that inall the shariahs the same has been the exemption limits, the same rates and the same injunctionsconcerning its collection and distribution. But in spite of the difference of the shariahs,Allah has regarded both these as part of deen.
(2) You are forbidden carrion and blood, the flesh of swine and of that animal which has beenslaughtered in any name other than of Allah, and of the strangled animal, and of that beaten todeath or killed by a fall or gored to death or mangled by a beast of prey, save of that you dulyslaughtered while it was still alive, and of that which is slaughtered at (ungodly) shrines. Itis also unlawful for you to try to find your fortune by means of divining devices, for all thesethings are sinful acts. Today the disbelievers have despaired of (vanquishing) your religion;therefore do not fear them but fear Me. Today I have perfected your deen for you and completedMy blessing on you and approved Islam as the deen (way of life) for you. (Surah Al-Maidah, Ayat 3). This showsthat all these shariah commandments are also deen.
(3) Fight with those from among the people of the Book, who do not believe in Allah nor in theLast Day; who do not make unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful, and do notadopt the right deen as their deen. (Surah At-Taubah, Ayat 29). This shows that besides belief in Allah and the Hereafter it isalso deen to accept and follow the commands about the lawful and the unlawful, which have beengiven by Allah and His Messenger.
(4) The woman and the man guilty of fornication, flog each one of them with a hundred stripes,and let not any pity for them restrain you in regard to a matter prescribed in the deen ofAllah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. (Surah An-Noor, Ayat 2). It did not behooveJoseph to seize his brother by the king’s deen. (Surah Yousuf, Ayat 76). This shows thatthe criminal law is also deen. If a man follows the criminal law prescribed by God, he is afollower of God’s deen and if he follows a king’s law, he is a follower of the king’s deen.
These are the four specimens in which the shariah commandments have been described as deen inclear words. But, besides these, a careful study shows that the eradication of the sins forwhich Allah has held out the threat of Hell (e.g. adultery, taking of interest, killing of abeliever, consuming the property of the orphan, taking possession of the other peoplesproperties in unlawful ways etc.), and the crimes which become the cause of God’s torment, e.g.sodomy (the act of Prophet Lot’s people) and dishonesty in business dealings (as practiced bythe Prophet Shuaib’s people) should necessarily be included in deen, for if deen cannot save onefrom Hell and Allah’s torment, what use could it be? Likewise, those shariah commandments alsoshould be part of the deen, violation of which has been regarded as cause of entry into theFire, e.g. injunctions relating to inheritance, after stating which it has been said: Andwhoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger and transgresses the limits prescribed by Him, Allahwill cast him into the Fire wherein he will have a disgraceful torment. (Surah An-Nisa, Ayat 14). Likewise,the prohibition of those things whose prohibition Allah has mentioned with great emphasis andabsoluteness, e.g. prohibition of the mother, sister and daughter and prohibition of wine,theft, gambling, false evidence, etc. if not included in the establishment of the deen, it wouldmean that Allah has given some unnecessary commands also, which are not meant to be introducedand enforced. Similarly, establishing those things which Allah has made obligatory, e.g. fastingand pilgrimage, cannot be excluded from the establishment of deen only on the pretext that theentire month of fasting of Ramadan had not been enjoined in the previous shariahs, andpilgrimage to the Kabah was enjoined only in the Shariah which was inherited by the Ishmaelitebranch of the Prophet Abraham’s progeny.
As a matter of fact, the misunderstanding was caused only because the verse: We appointed foreach community among you a law and a way of life, has been misconstrued to mean that since theshariah appointed for every community was separate and the command given was only to establishthe deen (way of life) which was common to all the Prophets, the establishment of the shariahwas not included in the establishment of the deen, whereas the real meaning of this verse isjust the opposite of it. If the context (Surah Ash-Shuraa, ayat 41-50) in whichthis verse has occurred in Surah Al- Maidah is studied carefully, it will be seen that thecorrect meaning of this verse is: Whatever shariah was given by Allah to the community of aProphet, was the deen for that community, and the establishment of the same deen was the objectduring his Prophethood. And since now is the period of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be uponhim) Prophethood, the shariah which has been given to the Ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him)is the deen of this time, and to establish the same is to establish the deen. As for thedifference of the shariah, it does not mean that the shariahs sent by God were mutuallycontradictory, but it means that in their details there have been some differences owing to thedifferent environments, take, for instance, the Prayer and the Fast. The Prayer has beenobligatory in all the shariahs, but the qiblah of all the shariahs was not the same, and therewas a difference in its times and rakahs and elements as well. Likewise, the Fast was obligatoryin every shariah, but the month long fasting of Ramadan was not there in the other shariahs.From this it is not correct to conclude that the Prayer and the Fast as such are included in theestablishment of deen but performing the Prayer in a particular way and observing the Fast at aparticular time is excluded from it. However, the correct conclusion that one can draw is: Toperform the Prayer and observe the Fast according to the rules and procedures that had beenappointed for the people in the shariah of every Prophet amounted to establishment of deen inhis time. In the present age the establishment of the deen is that these acts of worship beperformed according to the procedures enjoined in the Shariah of the Prophet Muhammad (peace beupon him). The same is true about all other Shariah commandments as well.
Whoever studies the Quran carefully will see that this Book does not envisage that its adherentswill live as subjects of the disbelievers and will pass a religious life under them, but itopenly proclaims that it will have its own rule established; it demands from its followers thatthey should struggle with their lives for the intellectual, cultural, legal and politicalsupremacy of the true faith; and it gives them a program for the reformation of human life, themajor part of which can be acted upon only when political power and authority is in thebelievers’ hand. As stated by itself, the object of this Book’s being sent down is: We have sentdown this Book to you with the truth so that you may judge between the people in accordance withthe light that Allah has shown you. (Surah An-Nisa, Ayat 105). The Commandments given in this Book about the collection anddistribution of the Zakat expressly envisage a government who should be responsible forcollecting the Zakat and distributing it among the deserving people according to a laid downprocedure. (Surah At-Taubah, Ayat 60),(Surah At-Taubah, Ayat 103). Theprohibition of interest that has been enjoined in this Book and the declaration of war that hasbeen made against those who do not abstain from taking interest (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 275-279) canbe enforced only when the political and economic system of the country is entirely in thebelievers’ hand. The Law of Retribution for murder (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 178), cuttingoff of the hand for theft (Surah Al-Maidah, Ayat 38) and carrying out of the prescribed punishment for adultery and calumny (Surah An-Noor, Ayat 2-4) have not beenenjoined on the assumption that the believers will remain subject to the police and courts ofthe disbelievers. The command to fight the disbelievers (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 190),(Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 216) has notbeen given with the idea that the followers of this deen will carry out this command by gettingenlisted in the army of disbelief. The command to take Jizyah from the followers of the formerBooks (Surah At-Taubah, Ayat 29) has notbeen given on the assumption that the Muslims will take Jizyah from them while being theirsubjects and will be responsible for their protection. And this thing is not true only about theMadinite Surahs; in the Makkan Surahs as well a discerning eye can clearly see that the schemeenvisaged from the very beginning was of Islam’s supremacy and dominance and not of Islam’s andthe Muslims’ subjugation under an un-Islamic rule. See, for instance, (Surah Bani Israil, Ayat 76-89); (Surah Al-Qasas, Ayat 85-86); (Surah Ar-Room, Ayat 1-6); (Surah As-Saaffat, Ayat 171-179);Introduction (Surah Saud, Ayat 11) note 12 on it.
Above all, this misinterpretation clashes with the great work that the Prophet (peace be uponhim) himself accomplished during the 23 years of his Prophethood. Who can deny the fact that hesubdued entire Arabia by means of both preaching and the sword and established in it a fullfledged system of government with a detailed law, covering all aspects of life, from beliefs andrites of worship to personal conduct, collective morality, culture and civilization, economicand social life, politics and judiciary, peace and war. If this entire work of the Prophet(peace be upon him) is not accepted as a commentary of the command of iqamat deen (establishmentof deen) which, according to this verse, he had been enjoined to undertake like all otherProphets, then it could have one of the two meanings: That earlier, God forbid, the Prophet(peace be upon him) should be blamed that he had been appointed only to preach and teach beliefsand a few important moral rules but he exceeded his mandate and established a government of hisown whim and laid down a code of law, which was different from the common law of the Prophets aswell as in excess of it; or that Allah should be blamed that after having made the abovementioned declaration in Surah Ash-Shura. He went back on His own word, and made His lastProphet do something which was not only much over and about and different from the objective ofiqamat deen as stated in this Surah, but on the completion of this mission He also made thisdeclaration, contrary to His first declaration: Today I have perfected your deen for you. (Surah Al-Maidah, Ayat 3). May Allahkeep us safe from this! Apart from these two, if there is any third alternative, which makesthis interpretation of iqamat deen plausible and also does not lay any blame on Allah or HisMessenger, we would like to know it.
After giving the command for iqamat deen, the last thing that Allah has stated in this verse isthis: La tatafarraqu fihi: Do not create schisms in the deen: Be not divided in it. Creatingschisms in deen implies that one should introduce something new in religion for which thereexists no sound basis, and then should insist that belief and unbelief depend on the acceptanceof the innovation, and should separate along with those who have accepted it from those who havenot accepted it. This new thing can be of several kinds:
(1) To introduce something entirely new into deen.
(2) To exclude from deen something which actually belonged to it.
(3) To tamper with the fundamentals of deen by misinterpretations and introduce new beliefs andnovel practices.
(4) To distort the deen by making changes of fundamental nature in it, for example, by reducingwhat was important in it to un-important, by raising what was at most permissible to theposition of imperative and obligatory, even to the position of the most fundamental pillar ofIslam. Owing to such innovations, divisions first appeared in the communities of the Prophets;then gradually the creeds of the sects developed into wholly separate and mutually exclusivereligious systems whose followers now do not have any idea that once they all belonged to oneand the same origin. These divisions have nothing to do with the permissible and reasonabledifference of opinion which naturally takes place among the scholars when they are engaged inunderstanding and studying the injunctions and fundamentals of the deen for the purpose ofderiving and extracting points of law, and for which there is room in the words of the Book ofAllah itself owing to the considerations of lexicon, idiom and rules of grammar. For a detaileddiscussion of this subject, see (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 213); (Surah Aal-Imran, Ayat 19), (Surah Aal-Imran, Ayat 50); (Surah An-Nisa, Ayat 171); (Surah Al-Maidah, Ayat 77); (Surah Al-Anaam, Ayat 159); (Surah An-Nahl, Ayat 118-124); (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayat 92-93); (Surah Al-Hajj, Ayat 67); (Surah Al- Muminun, Ayat 53-54); (Surah Al-Qasas, Ayat 53); (Surah Ar-Room, Ayat 32) andthe E.Ns.
21. Here the same thing as stated in (Surah Ash-Shuraa, ayat 8-9) above, has been reiterated, and we have explained it in (Surah Ash-Shuraa, ayat 8) note 11 above.The object of repeating it here is as if to say: You are presenting the clear highway ofreligion before them but the foolish people, instead of appreciating the blessing, are becomingannoyed over it. But even among them there are the people of their own tribe, who are turning toAllah and Allah also is drawing them closer to Himself. But one should understand that Allah’sbestowal of His blessings is not blind. He draws only him towards Himself who is inclined to bedrawn and not him who runs away from Him.