11:121 Hud (Hud)

وأما من ليس من أهل الإيمان، فلا تنفعهم المواعظ، وأنواع التذكير، ولهذا قال: { وَقُلْ لِلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ْ} بعد ما قامت عليهم الآيات، { اعْمَلُوا عَلَى مَكَانَتِكُمْ ْ} أي: حالتكم التي أنتم عليها { إِنَّا عَامِلُونَ ْ} على ما كنا عليه.

يقول تعالى آمرا رسوله أن يقول للذين لا يؤمنون بما جاء به من ربه على وجه التهديد "اعملوا على مكانتكم" أي على طريقتكم ومنهجكم "إنا عاملون" أي على طريقتنا ومنهجنا.

Allah, the Exalted, commands His Messenger to say to those who disbelieve in what he has come ...

اعْمَلُواْ عَلَى مَكَانَتِكُمْ

(Act according to your ability) This means upon your path and your way.

إِنَّا عَامِلُونَ

(We are acting (in our way). This means that we are upon our path and our way (Islam).

وَانْتَظِرُواْ إِنَّا مُنتَظِرُونَ

(And you wait ! We (too) are waiting.) This means,

فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَن تَكُونُ لَهُ عَـقِبَةُ الدَّارِ إِنَّهُ لاَ يُفْلِحُ الظَّـلِمُونَ

(And you will come to know for which of us will be the (happy) end in the Hereafter. Certainly the wrongdoers will not be successful.)6:135 Verily, Allah fulfilled His promise to His Messenger , helped him and aided him. He made His Word uppermost (victorious), and the word of those who disbelieved lowly and disgraced. Allah is truly the Most Mighty, Most Wise.

And say to those who do not believe ‘Act according to your ability according to your status we are acting according to our status — this is a threat for them.

Difference: Blameworthy and Praiseworthy

When it was said in the fifth verse (118) - ` had your Lord willed, He would have made all the people a single community' - the sense is that had it been the will of Allah, He would have made all human beings accept Islam by force. All of them would have then become nothing but Muslims without any difference remaining between them. But, such are the dictates of His wisdom that, in this world, Allah Ta` ala does not compel anyone to do something. Instead, He has entrusted man with a kind of choice under which he could do whatever good or bad he wishes to do. Then, human temperaments differ, ways differ and deeds differ. The outcome is that there always will be some people who would keep at loggerheads against the true faith - of course, with the exception of those whom Allah Ta` ala has blessed with His mercy, that is, those who have been following the noble prophets.

This tells us that ` difference' at this place means hostility and op-position to the true faith and the teachings of prophets. The difference based on Ijtihad, which is inevitable among religious authorities and jurists of Islam, an ongoing process since the period of the Sahabah, is not included under this purview, nor is it contrary to Divine mercy. In fact, it is the very dictate of Allah's wisdom and mercy. Those who have declared the differences among Mujtahid Imams to be counter to Mercy in terms of this verse, have done something which is itself counter to the context of this verse as well as counter to the consistent practice of the Sahabah and Tabi` in.

واللہُ سُبحَانہ و تعالیٰ اَعلم

And Allah is Pure and High and He knows everything best.