QURAN CHAPTER - 28
Al-Qasas - The Stories
Revealed - Meccan
Ruku - 9
Ayat - 88
Theme - The main theme of this Surah is to remove the doubts and objections that were being raised against the Prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (SWS) and to invalidate the excuses which were being offered for not believing in him.
The story of the Prophet Moses has been related, which, by analogy with the period of revelation, impresses the following points in the listeners mind automatically:
- First, Allah provides the means and motives of whatever He wills to do, in imperceptible ways.
- Thus, Allah so arranged things that the child through whom Pharaoh had to be removed from power, was bred and brought up in his own house, and he could not know whom he was fostering. Who can then fight God and frustrate Him by his machinations.
- Secondly, Prophethood is not granted to a person amid festivities by issuing a proclamation from the earth and heavens.
- You wonder how Muhammad (SWS) has been blessed with Prophethood unexpectedly, all of a sudden, but Moses whom you yourselves acknowledge as a Prophet had also become a Prophet unexpectedly, while on a journey, and nobody had known what event had occurred in the desolation at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Even Moses himself did not know a moment before what he was going to be blessed with. He, in fact, had gone to bring a piece of the fire but had returned with the gift of Prophethood.
- Thirdly, the person from whom Allah wants to take some service comes out without any army and armour and without an apparent helper or force at his back, yet he puts to rout much stronger and better equipped opponents.
- The contrast that existed between the strengths of Moses and Pharaoh was much more prominent and glaring than that which existed between Muhammad (SWS) and the quraish; yet the world knows who had come out victorious in the end and who had been routed.
- Fourthly, you refer to Moses again and again and say, "Why has Muhammad not been given the same which was given to Moses"? i. e. miracles of the staff, the shining hand, etc. as if to suggest that you would readily believe only if you were shown the kind of the miracles that were shown by Moses to Pharaoh.
- But do you know what sort of response was made by those who were shown those miracles? They had not believed even after seeing the miracles, and had only said, "This is magic", for they were involved in stubbornness and hostility to the Truth. The same malady afflicts you today. Will you believe only when you are slowly the same kind of miracles? Then, do you know what fate the disbelievers had met even after seeing the miracles? They were annihilated by Allah. Do you now wish to meet the same doom by asking for the miracles in your obstinacy?
This was the background against which the story of the Prophet Moses was narrated so that a perfect analogy was established automatically in every detail between the conditions prevailing then in Makkah and those existing in the time of the Prophet Moses.
- In the first place, the narration of a 2000 year old historical event by the Holy Prophet with such accuracy and detail, is presented as a proof of his Prophethood.
- Then the disbelievers of Makkah have been warned and put to shame for an event that occurred in those very days. Some Christians had come to Makkah and embraced Islam when they heard the Quran from the Holy Prophet.
In conclusion, the excuse that the disbelievers put forward for not believing in the Holy Prophet has been dealt with. What they feared was this:
"If we give up the polytheistic creed of the Arabs and accept the doctrine of Tauheed instead, this will put an end to our supremacy in the religious, political and economic fields, which, in turn, will destroy our position of the most influential tribe of Arabia and we shall be left with no refuge anywhere in the land."
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