SURAH AL-BAQARAH
Ayah 6.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنذِرْهُمْ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ
As for those who disbelieve—it is the same for them, whether you have warned them, or have not warned them— they do not believe.
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After describing about the Believers, Allah now talks about the second group of people, i.e. the Disbelievers = “Kafiruun”. Note that “Disbelievers” are not the same as “Non-Believers”.
“those who disbelieve"
If you as a Muslim believe in some ayaat of the Quran and disbelieve in other ayaat of the Quran, then you are currently the same as among the disbelievers too. Allah already described the whole of Quran as having no doubt in it. There will be an answer to your uncertainty. You just have to gather more knowledge.
Example a fire-warden comes running into your office saying that there is a fire raging and that you must leave the office immediately. You believed that there is indeed a raging fire. However you do not believe the part where you have to leave your office immediately. It shows that you didn’t really believe in what the fire-warden has said. You lack the complete knowledge of the actual fire.
Mistakenly Muslims regard all non-Muslims as Kafiruun. That is wrong and unfair. This is because in the previous ayah, Allah said “yu’minuuna” meaning those who currently believe and those who will believe (in the future tense). A Non-Muslim may either be a “Disbeliever” or a “Non-believer”.
— The “Disbelievers” are those who after gaining knowledge, rejects it, eg. out of arrogance, racism or because he is a person of influence, a celebrity, a king, etc. They are rebellious towards the truth after realizing it. They are the “Kafiruun”.
— As for the “Non-Believers”, they are not exposed to the Deen and may find this Deen makes sense to them after gaining knowledge about it and are not rebellious to the truth.
Analogy of a Non-Believer: Just like when the first time the fire-warden instructed you to immediately get out of your office but you still didn’t leave until the smell of smoke came to you and you are now certain that you must leave your office. Some people not even aware that there is a fire in the building because nobody come to warn them. The fire-alarm is not installed, etc. Some people are not introduced to the deen and don’t know anything about the Deen. We cannot call them as “Kafiruun”.
“Kafaru” = is to bury something (eg. a seed) in the ground (not visible from outside). The “fitrah” of human was that each one of us has been planted (programmed) with “eeman” believing in the Creator. Before we are born into this world, we already acknowledged that He is the Creator. Like an electronic product containing electronic components stamped with the logo “Texas Instrument” on the memory chips during production in the factory. These memory chips are inside our Desktop PC and we are not aware of the logo.
A Disbeliever “hides” that signature, bury it until it is no longer remembered. “Humans” in Arabic means a creature that forgets. When he is reminded, he is supposed to acknowledge, but instead he suppressed that remembrance of the Creator.
“Kafiruun” are people who were thoroughly reminded with accurate knowledge of the Deen and instead of entering the Deen, they developed animosity towards the Muslims. Just like after the fire-warden had screamed “fire” at you and you didn’t leave your office because you are still busy with work. You are in fact annoyed at the fire warden. The smoke and heat entered your office but you are still busy. You have been given time to analyze the situation and you still ignore them.
Imagine a person who holds a thick barrier between himself and another person who is trying to sell him a product or trying to warn him of something. He only hears mumbling from the other person. He has on purpose shuts himself from knowing what is it all about.
“Your reminder to them is the same as if you (the Prophet s.a.w) do not remind them at all“.
Allah was telling to the Messenger to stop preaching and not waste anymore time on them (i.e the Mushrikuun who dangerously have developed intense dislike to the revelations). You need to move on to other people.
"they do not believe"
After a decade of the Prophet s.a.w preaching, the Mushrikun of Makkah were determine not to listen with their intellect.
This ayah is not meant to say that it is useless in any “dakwah” (invitation) effort to anyone not yet Muslim. We must see who are the targeted people that this ayah was referring to.
Look at the context. Who among us is a better preacher than the Prophet himself. The Mushriquun were given a decade to listen to the best messages from the best Preacher but they have deliberately sealed off their hearts due to worldly matters (such as wealth, status etc). In short, the refusal to believe.
The word “them” in this ayah doesn’t include all of the people in Makkah but only of those who rebelled. As for those who were oblivious, having no animosity and had nothing to do with the rebellion against it, they were not called as “Kafiruun” (Disbelievers). As stated in history, these oblivious people of Makkah accepted Islam later on in their life.
After you have spent a considerable amount of efforts in preaching to certain people and has shown them proof after proof based on logical thinking for many years with clear explanation but they still refuse to embrace the “Deen”, hence it is an indication of their arrogance blocking them. There is no point explaining to them anymore. It is in fact dangerous to continue as they have shown animosity (like what the Mushrikuun in Makkah did).
They have on purpose put a barrier between them and the Truth. If they prefer to lift up the barrier, the Truth is easily understood by any innocent and sincere heart.
This ayah is not targeting those who are “invited” only once and are “stamped” as worthless of the invitation. Some non believers have frequent contacts with Muslims and are familiar with the practices of Muslims. They have no interest to know what this religion is about. If you have tried inviting them over and over again, and still they reject, then it’s up to Allah to decide on them.
We are told to stop pestering people of other faith when they clearly do not want to believe. This clearly proves that there is no such thing as forcing people into this religion eg. spread by the sword and all that nonsense. Eeman is in the heart where you can’t see. There is no logic if a person is physically forced to embrace a new religion but the heart is still with disbelief. The Creator will deal with matters of the heart, not us.