SURAH AL-BAQARAH
Ayah 2.
ذَلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لاَ رَيْبَ فِيهِ هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ
That book, there is no doubt in it, as an enormous guidance to people of taqwa.
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"That book"
(1) Why did Allah mentioned “That” instead of “This”?
(2) Why did Allah mention “Book” instead of “Qur’an”?
Allah mentioned “That Book” = something that has been written (documented) and is located far away.
ذَلِكَ “That” = ism isyarah lil-ba’eed. An “ism” noun used for pointing far object. “That Book” is at an elevated place far from you. It can also mean the Book that is at a high glorious noble divine status far higher than any written books by man.
Some scholars said ذَلِكَ can also be translated as "This" in the context of this ayah.
When “Book” was mentioned, the Jews knew that a “Book” is where documented knowledge was stored. An illiterate man talking about a “Book”? It was a surprise to them.
Allah did not mention “Quran” (recital). Therefore it was originally a “Written Book” far away from us. We have no idea in what way it was written. Maybe we can understand it via this parable = When you are recording on a “CD re-writable disk”, the computer term used is “writing” on the disk. You yourself are not able to read directly from the disk as they are written in bits and bytes and not alphabets, but the computer can “read” the data from the disk. The computer is our tool to read the document stored in the disk.
The same concept goes to “That Book”. The “divine” Qolam (pen) wrote on “that Book”. We don’t know how it works, but to create some kind of understanding, let’s imagine the magnetic “Write” head in a Computer Hard Drive writing on the Disk Platter. It’s a different kind of writing than we would write using pen and paper. The Disk Platter stores the “written” information.
“That Book” = the “Book” that is in “lauh mahfudz” (a place near Allah) not the Mushaf (book) that we know the Qur’an today. The recitation of “That book” is called the Qur’an.
We have no ability (or “Access Rights”) to read directly from “that Book”. Therefore it came to us via the things that we will be able to read the messages, i.e:
- via recital from angel Jibreel a.s (Gabriel) to the Prophet s.a.w
- and from the recital of Prophet s.a.w to his companions
- and from some literate companions who penned down the divine speeches
- to later generations who wrote it on physical Mushaf (book) that we can hold and read
- and the modern people put the Quran into a Mobile App
The Prophet s.a.w had several scribes which will immediately wrote down whatever the Prophet s.a.w recite from the Quran when it was revealed to him. Since the majority of the Arabs were illiterate, hence memorization was the main way of preservation of the divine speeches by the people. They had strong memories since they relied on memory power since young as they are not taught on how to read or write.
Memorization and recitation were still the original form of divine messages. The Mushaf (physical book) was to make it easier for the coming generations to read and thus memorize. Our humanly writings were one of the tools in preserving the divine speeches coming out from “That Book”.
The written texts do not teach you the style of reading. You need to learn the recitation styles coming from a teacher’s mouth. The teacher had learned the styles from his own teacher and so on forming a learning chain of teacher to student starting from the Messenger s.a.w himself. This is what made the Quran unique. Nobody can just read it in the original language and style without having a recitation teacher since reciting it with "Tajwid" is "Fardhu 'ain" (a must).
We know that even though the Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet bit by bit throughout the years, the complete “kalamullah” speech of Allah was already there in “that Book”, also indicating that Allah already know what was going to happen through the life of the Prophet in his struggle to convey Allah’s message to the people. The ayaat were revealed to him in accordance to events that happened during those times. Another definition of a God is He is all-knowing of everything happening in the future and in the past.
“there is no doubt in it”
There is no doubt that this book is revealed by The God, Allah. Not a composition of the Prophet s.a.w.
There is no doubt in the truth in the content of “The Book” that will be guiding you to the truth i.e. the guidance that you have been asking for as mentioned in the first Surah al-Fatihah. Do not doubt the Quran. Remove all your doubts by receiving guidance from this Book for you to live your life. One of the attribute of the Quran is Guidance.
No human will write a book and immediately declare in the beginning of the book that there is no doubt in his book. This is Kalamullah (the speech of Allah), not written by human, hence there is no problem in the declaration.
We are to start with having an attitude of believing everything in the book even though you are just beginning to read it and still do not have full knowledge of the book yet. When you are naive and have little knowledge of the Qur’an, syaithan will be able to slip in doubts.
Knowledge removes doubts. This religion is meant to be studied. It is not meant for mere belief or faith without any knowledge based study. If you have any doubt, you have the right to ask sincerely to your teacher. If your teacher is unable to answer you satisfactorily, you have the right to ask another teacher.
In some other religion, you do not have the right to ask things that you doubt. This religion is not based on what you get from the newspaper or heard from some unknowledgeable guy. It is not only based on assertion of faith. You questioned the religion and you work your way to find the answer to your questions.
However the very first thing is to surrender to Allah’s knowledge as your capacity is limited.
To be an Engineer, you will study hard on anything Engineering.
To be a Doctor, you will study and do research on anything medical.
To be a Muslim, you will have to put time and effort to study the religion, beginning with the Qur’an. The more you dig deeper in your research of this religion, the lesser your doubts until you have none left.
When your knowledge grows and your understanding is “rock” solid, there is no room to slip in “was-was” (doubts). Therefore Allah in the beginning is telling you that you will have no doubt in the Book. Encouraging you to continue reading, studying, researching on the Qur’an which will answer any doubts that you may have in the beginning. Do not give up in finding the Truth.
The goal is to get Guidance (Huda). You can get "Huda" via:
(1) Getting explanation (knowledge) of the truth from a pious person that gives direction leading to Guidance.
(2) The faith (Guidance) that resides in the heart that only Allah is able to put it into His slaves.
"as an enormous guidance to people of taqwa"
In the previous surah (al-fatihah), we read “guide us to the straight path”. In this surah, the answer to that request is given. You will get guidance.
“Huda” = enormous guidance.
Where? The enormous guidance is in this “Book”, meant for people who have “Taqwa”.
Allah did not merely mention guidance to people in general, but guidance to the “Muttaqiin” (people of Taqwa). Guidance in it is only granted to the righteous.
What does Taqwa means? Some translations say “fear”. Taqwa does not merely mean “fear”, but it is more than that.
Only people with “taqwa” will want to have guidance from Allah. Only they, will approach the Qur’an seeking guidance. Note in the previous surah, we asked for guidance, the same guidance as the path of the blessed people of Taqwa. Taqwa is not static as it increases and decreases. The people of Taqwa are the ones who are able to maintain their level of Taqwa day by day. This is the reason we are asking for Guidance and the guidance is in this Book that we are to recite and ponder everyday!
The root meaning of Taqwa is to avoid what one dislikes.
What are the characteristics of “People of Taqwa” ?
- Believing everything in what Allah revealed.
- Who believe in the Ghayb (unseen)
- Perform the Salah (i.e. the following ayah 3) and all other Pillars and Sunnah.
- They are Believers who avoid "Shirk" (associate partners) with Allah
- Consistently and diligently strive towards the path of obedient to Him
- After recognizing the Truth, they will not abandon it for a small price
- Doing good deeds hoping to get Allah's pleasure.
- Loves his Master so much that he do not want to incur His displeasure.
- Those who fear Allah's punishment by avoiding any type of sins
- Protects himself from being complicit in any kind of evil.
- Sincerely seeking guidance and protection from his Creator/Master
- The hope in Allah's mercy
- A person who always thinks of his Creator/Master in whatever place or situation he is in.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The servant will not acquire the status of the Muttaqin until he abandons what is harmless out of fear of falling into that which is harmful”.
Imagine a youth who studied hard because he does not want to disappoint his parents. He wants to make his parents proud.
“Taqwa” also means a person who is fearful of his safety and who is searching for safety. Even a non-muslim, who has thoughts of death, and fearful for his safety after death, is a criteria of a person who will have no doubts when he reads the Quran. A person who do not have this attitude (even though people call you a Muslim), will not find guidance in “that book”.
It is understandable that you look for safety from the dangers of the “seen” physical world but it is another matter when you fear the unseen “world” because not all people will believe in life after death (the “unseen” world).
A person who has no fear and not looking for safety after death, will have no effect when reading the Quran. The Quran is not meant for a hardened heart full of ego and overly impressed with himself.
Some people read the Quran because of intellectual curiosity, some read because of philosophical curiosity, but the one that reads the Quran because he is fearful of his safety in the hereafter is the one that will get guidance.
“Muttaq” = a person who is concern with safety.
“Muttaqiin” in this context = Pious and righteous people who fear Allah much (abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds which He has forbidden) and love Allah much (perform all kinds of good deeds which He is pleased with).
Crime takes place because it is triggered by the lack of Taqwa of an individual. School children are educated with Crime Prevention, but we are not educated on how to overcome crime being triggered in the first place. The fear of justice in the hereafter will prevent anyone from doing crime even though he knows that he can get away from the police or the court but he cannot escape from the court of his Master. If each individual of a community is guided (having Taqwa), hence ideally there will be no crime.
It is really an enormous guidance indeed that you have started looking for safety for your life in the unseen hereafter. Not everybody is thinking about it.
The next ayah Allah mentioned “Solah”, the daily communication with Him. When our relationship matures, we will start to love Allah as compared to fearing Him in the beginning.