Sunday 20 March 2011

surah al baqarah verse 30-34

Translation:
30. And (remember) when your Lord said to the angels: "Verily, I am going to place (mankind) generations after generations on earth." They said: "Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood, - while we glorify You with praises and thanks (Exalted be You above all that they associate with You as partners) and sanctify You." He (Allah) said: "I know that which you do not know."
31. And He taught Adam all the names (of everything) , then He showed them to the angels and said, "Tell Me the names of these if you are truthful."
32. They (angels) said: "Glory be to You, we have no knowledge except what you have taught us. Verily, it is You, the All-Knower, the All-Wise."
33. He said: "O Adam! Inform them of their names," and when he had informed them of their names, He said: "Did I not tell you that I know the Ghaib (unseen) in the heavens and the earth, and I know what you reveal and what you have been concealing?"
34. And (remember) when We said to the angels: "Prostrate yourselves before Adam.". And they prostrated except Iblis (Satan), he refused and was proud and was one of the disbelievers (disobedient to Allah).

Tafseer
Allah created Jinn and sent them on earth way before the creation of humans. and these Jinn when given the freedom created mischief on earth. So when Allah informed the angels that after jinn He intends to send generations of mankind on earth, the angels said that wont the humans create mischief on earth and shed blood ( like the jinn had done). The angels further added that they are totally engrossed in praising and glorifying their Lord then why the need for a generation sent to earth which would worship Him. Allah replied that He is All- Knowing. It needs to be noted here that angels do no intend to complain or question Allah's decision rather they are expressing their opinion and this freedom of voicing opinion has been preferred in humans as well as per our religion. Islam fully allows us the freedom of expressing opinions as can be proved by this gesture of angels. Another important point is that the angels worship is involuntary. That's what they are made for. But humans have been commanded to live a life which is dedicated to His worship but at the same time live a life as taught by Holy Prophet(pbuh). if our duties had been like those of angels then humans wouldnt have been commanded to perform the other duties as well (which includes earning a Halaal livelihood,  fullfilling the rights of neighbours, family and overall humanity and other such responsibilities). a further proof of this fact is that Allah reduced the Salat commandments fro 50 to 5 times a day. If it had been 5o times then prayer would have been all that we would have done all day long.
And then Allah taught Hazrat Adam all the names. there are two schools of thought on what these "names" refer to?
the first school of thought states that they are the names of ALL the things present on earth
the second school of thought states that they are names of ALL the children of Hazrat Adam. ( before being sent on the earth Allah had created every human being in the form of spirits and it was then that Hazrat Adam was familiarized with all this children who would be sent to earth at different times)
And then the angels were asked to repeat all that Hazrat Adam was taught and they replied that indeed Allah is All-Knowing and when Hazrat Adam was asked to do so, he repeated what he had been taught. this goes on to show that humans have been blessed with a gift - the gift of knowledge while angels have limited knowledge relevant to their duties. and then the angels were commanded to bow before Hazrat Adam and they did except for Iblis who refused to do so in his arrogance. Iblis was actually a jinn but he was extremely pious and was a staunt worshipper of Allah but when Allah informed them of His decision to create humans and send them on earth(implying that they would be superceding the jinns in terms of knowledge and reputation), he in his arrogance refused to bow before Hazrat Adam. Hence, he was classified among the non-believers based on this refusal.
This gives us two thoughts to ponder over. Firstly, that humans have been made the highest reputed living creatures on earth (Ashraful Makhlooqaat) as obvious by the fact that even the angels were asked to bow before Hazrat Adam. Do we do justice to this highly elevated reputation we have been blessed with?
Secondly,  Iblis was termed as a non-believer by Allah when he refused to bow before Hazrat Adam, and we dont even bow before the Almighty Creator so where does that leave us?

These verses signify the two most important blessing given to humans - the blessing of knowledge and the honour of been the ashraful makhlooqaat.

1 comment:

  1. wondeful work MASHAALLAH....I must appriciate this tremendous work

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