11:27 Hud (Hud)

{ فَقَالَ الْمَلَأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ قَوْمِهِ } أي: الأشراف والرؤساء، رادين لدعوة نوح عليه السلام، كما جرت العادة لأمثالهم، أنهم أول من رد دعوة المرسلين. { مَا نَرَاكَ إِلَّا بَشَرًا مِثْلَنَا } وهذا مانع بزعمهم عن اتباعه، مع أنه في نفس الأمر هو الصواب، الذي لا ينبغي غيره، لأن البشر يتمكن البشر، أن يتلقوا عنه، ويراجعوه في كل أمر، بخلاف الملائكة. { وَمَا نَرَاكَ اتَّبَعَكَ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ هُمْ أَرَاذِلُنَا } أي: ما نرى اتبعك منا إلا الأراذل والسفلة، بزعمهم. وهم في الحقيقة الأشراف، وأهل العقول، الذين انقادوا للحق ولم يكونوا كالأراذل، الذين يقال لهم الملأ، الذين اتبعوا كل شيطان مريد، واتخذوا آلهة من الحجر والشجر، يتقربون إليها ويسجدون لها، فهل ترى أرذل من هؤلاء وأخس؟. وقولهم: { بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ } أي: إنما اتبعوك من غير تفكر وروية، بل بمجرد ما دعوتهم اتبعوك، يعنون بذلك، أنهم ليسوا على بصيرة من أمرهم، ولم يعلموا أن الحق المبين تدعو إليه بداهة العقول، وبمجرد ما يصل إلى أولي الألباب، يعرفونه ويتحققونه، لا كالأمور الخفية، التي تحتاج إلى تأمل، وفكر طويل. { وَمَا نَرَى لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا مِنْ فَضْلٍ } أي: لستم أفضل منا فننقاد لكم، { بَلْ نَظُنُّكُمْ كَاذِبِينَ } وكذبوا في قولهم هذا، فإنهم رأوا من الآيات التي جعلها الله مؤيدة لنوح، ما يوجب لهم الجزم التام على صدقه.

فقال "الملأ الذين كفروا من قومه" والملأ هم السادة والكبراء من الكافرين منهم "ما نراك إلا بشرا مثلنا" أي لست بملك ولكنك بشر فكيف أوحي إليك من دوننا ثم ما نراك اتبعك إلا الذين هم أراذلنا كالباعة والحاكة وأشباههم ولم يتبعك الأشراف ولا الرؤساء منا ثم هؤلاء الذين اتبعوك لم يكن عن ترّو منهم ولا فكر ولا نظر بل بمجرد ما دعوتهم أجابوك فاتبعوك ولهذا قالوا "وما نراك اتبعك إلا الذين هم أراذلنا بادي الرأي" أي في أول بادئ "وما نرى لكم علينا من فضل" يقولون ما رأينا لكم علينا فضيلة في خلق ولا خلق ولا رزق ولا حال لما دخلتم في دينكم هذا "بل نظنكم كاذبين" أي فيما تدعونه لكم من البر والصلاح والعبادة والسعادة في الدار الآخرة إذ صرتم إليها هذا اعتراض الكافرين على نوح عليه السلام وأتباعه وهو دليل على جهلهم وقلة علمهم وعقلهم فإنه ليس بعار على الحق رذالة من اتبعه فإن الحق في نفسه صحيح سواء اتبعه الأشراف أو الأراذل بل الحق الذي لا شك فيه أن اتباع الحق هم الأشراف ولو كانوا فقراء والذين يأبونه هم الأراذل ولو كانوا أغنياء ثم الواقع غالبا أن ما يتبع الحق ضعفاء الناس. والغالب على الأشراف والكبراء مخالفته كما قال تعالى "وكذلك ما أرسلنا من قبلك في قرية من نذير إلا قال مترفوها إنا وجدنا آباءنا على أمة وإنا على آثارهم مقتدون" ولما سأل هرقل ملك الروم أبا سفيان صخر بن حرب عن صفات النبي صلي الله عليه وسلم قال له فيما قال: أشراف الناس اتبعوه أو ضعفاؤهم؟ قال بل ضعفاؤهم. فقال هرقل هم أتباع الرسل وقولهم "بادي الرأي" ليس بمذمة ولا عيب لأن الحق إذا وضح لا يبقى للرأي ولا للفكر مجال بل لا بد من اتباع الحق والحالة هذه لكل ذي زكاء وذكاء بل لا يفكر ههنا إلا غبي أو عيي والرسل صلوات الله وسلامه عليهم أجمعين إنما جاءوا بأمر جلي واضح. وقد جاء في الحديث أن رسول الله صلي الله عليه وسلم قال "ما دعوت أحدا إلى الإسلام إلا كانت له كبوة غير أبي بكر فإنه لم يتلعثم" أي ما تردد ولا تروى لأنه رأى أمرا جليا عظيما واضحا فبادر إليه وسارع. وقوله "وما نرى لكم علينا من فضل" هم لا يرون ذلك لأنهم عمي عن الحق لا يسمعون ولا يبصرون بل هم في ريبهم يترددون في ظلمات الجهل يعمهون وهم الأفاكون الكاذبون الأقلون الأرذلون وهم في الآخرة هم الأخسرون.

The Story of Nuh and His Conversation with His People

Allah, the Exalted, informs about Prophet Nuh. He was the first Messenger whom Allah sent to the people of the earth who were polytheists involved in worshipping idols. Allah mentions that he (Nuh) said to his people,

إِنَّى لَكُمْ نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ

(I have come to you as a plain warner.) meaning, to openly warn you against facing Allah's punishment if you continue worshipping other than Allah. Thus, Nuh said,

أَن لاَّ تَعْبُدُواْ إِلاَّ اللَّهَ

(That you worship none but Allah;) This can also be seen in his statement,

إِنِّى أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ أَلِيمٍ

(surely, I fear for you the torment of a painful Day.) This means, "If you all continue doing this, then Allah will punish you with a severe punishment in the Hereafter." Then Allah says,

فَقَالَ الْمَلأُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ مِن قِوْمِهِ

(The chiefs who disbelieved among his people said;) The word `chiefs' (Al-Mala'u) here means the leaders and the heads of the disbelievers. They said,

مَا نَرَاكَ إِلاَّ بَشَرًا مِّثْلَنَا

(We see you but a man like ourselves,) This means, "You are not an angel. You are only a human being, so how can revelation come to you over us We do not see anyone following you except the lowliest people among us, like the merchants, weavers and similar people. No people of nobility, or rulers among us follow you. These people who follow you are not known for their intelligence, wit, or sharp thinking. Rather, you merely invited them (to this Islam) and they responded to your call and followed you (ignorantly)." This is the meaning of their statement,

وَمَا نَرَاكَ اتَّبَعَكَ إِلاَّ الَّذِينَ هُمْ أَرَاذِلُنَا بَادِىَ الرَّأْى

(nor do we see any follow you but the meanest among us and they (too) followed you without thinking.) The statement, "without thinking," means that they merely followed the first thing that came to their minds. Concerning the statement,

وَمَا نَرَى لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا مِن فَضْلٍ

(And we do not see in you any merit above us, in fact we think you are liars.) In this they are saying, "We do not see that you and your followers have any virtuous status above us in your physical appearance, your character, your provisions, or your condition, since you accepted this (new) religion of yours."

بَلْ نَظُنُّكُمْ كَـذِبِينَ

s(in fact we think you are liars. ) This means, "We think you are lying about that which you are claiming for yourselves of righteousness, piety, worship and happiness in the abode of the Hereafter when you arrive there." This was the response of the disbelievers to Nuh and his followers. This is a proof of their ignorance and their deficiency in knowledge and intelligence. For verily, the truth is not to be rejected because of the lowly status of those who follow it. Verily, the truth is correct in itself, regardless of whether its followers are of low status, or nobility. Actually, the reality concerning which there is no doubt, is that the followers of the truth are the noble ones, even though they may be poor. On the other hand, those who reject the truth are the lowly wretches, even though they may be wealthy. Thus, we see that usually the weakest of people are the ones who follow the truth, while the nobility and high-class people usually are opposed to the truth. This is as Allah says,

وَكَذَلِكَ مَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ فِى قَرْيَةٍ مِّن نَّذِيرٍ إِلاَّ قَالَ مُتْرَفُوهَآ إِنَّا وَجَدْنَآ ءَابَآءَنَا عَلَى أُمَّةٍ وَإِنَّا عَلَى ءَاثَـرِهِم مُّقْتَدُونَ

(And similarly, We sent not a warner before you to any town (people) but the luxurious ones among them said: "We found our fathers following a cerain way and religion, and we will indeed follow their footsteps.")43:23 When Heraclius, the emperor of Rome, asked Abu Sufyan Sakhr bin Harb about the qualities of the Prophet , he said to him, "Are his followers the noble people, or the weak" Abu Sufyan said, "They are the weakest of them." Then Heraclius said, "They (weak ones) are the followers of the Messengers." Concerning their statement,

بَادِىَ الرَّأْى

(without thinking. ) In reality this is not objectionable, or something derogatory, because the truth when it is made clear, does not leave room for second-guessing, or excessive thinking. Rather, it is mandatory that it should be followed and this is the condition of every pious, intelligent person. No one continues doubtfully pondering the truth (after it is made clear) except one who is ignorant and excessively critical. The Messengers - Allah's peace and blessings be upon them all - only delivered what was obvious and clear. Concerning Allah's statement,

وَمَا نَرَى لَكُمْ عَلَيْنَا مِن فَضْلٍ

(And we do not see in you any merit above us,) They did not see this (the virtue of accepting Islam) because they were blind from the truth. They could not see, nor could they hear. Rather, they were wavering in their skepticism. They were wandering blindly in the darknesses of their ignorance. They, in reality, were the slanderers and liars, lowly and despicable. Therefore, in the Hereafter they will be the greatest losers.

The council the respected elders of his people who disbelieved said ‘We see you but a mortal like us and you have no merit over us and we see not that any follow you save the vilest among us the riffraff among us such as the weavers and the shoemakers through rash opinion bādiya’l-ra’ya read with hamza or without in both cases in other words impulsively without thinking you over it bādiya’l-ra’ya is in the accusative because it is an adverbial clause that is to say at the time that their opinion first came into being. We do not see that you have any merit over us for which you would deserve our following you; nay we deem you liars’ with regard to your claim to be bringing a Message they the disbelievers included his folk with him in their address to him.

Some questions raised by the disbelievers appear in the third verse (27). Before we take these up, let us first look at the meanings of some of the words there.

The word ملا : (mala) generally means a group. Some leading lexicographers say that a group of the chiefs of a people is called: ملا (mala' ). Bashar (بشر) is translated as human being or man. Aradhil (ارزذل) is the plural form of ardhal (ارذل). It means someone lowly, not having any status or respect among his people. The expression: بَادِيَ الرَّ‌أْيِ (badiyarra'y) means cursory or shallow opinion.

As for their objections, the first one related to the status of Sayyidna Nuh (علیہ السلام) as a prophet and messenger: مَا نَرَ‌اكَ إِلَّا بَشَرً‌ا مِّثْلَنَا (We see that you are nothing but a man like us). In effect, they were saying that he ate, drank, walked, slept and woke up like them. How then, they questioned, could they accept this extraordinary status of his as a messenger and prophet of God? They thought that the person who is sent to men as a messenger from Allah should not belong to the genus of man, instead, he should be an angel whose distinct status had to be recognized by everyone, willingly or unwillingly.

This was answered in the fourth verse (28) as follows:

يَا قَوْمِ أَرَ‌أَيْتُمْ إِن كُنتُ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍ مِّن رَّ‌بِّي وَآتَانِي رَ‌حْمَةً مِّنْ عِندِهِ فَعُمِّيَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنُلْزِمُكُمُوهَا وَأَنتُمْ لَهَا كَارِ‌هُونَ

He said, "0 my people, tell me when I am on a clear path from my Lord, and He has bestowed mercy upon me from Himself and it has been hidden from your sight. Shall we, then, impose it upon you while you are averse to it?".

Here we are being told that for a rasul or messenger to be a man is not contrary to his mission as a prophet or messenger. In fact, a little thought would show that this is how it should be - that the rasul of men should be a man so that men find it comfortable to learn their religion from him. There is an enormous difference in the mental and emotional make up of men and angels. If an angel were to be sent as a rasul, learning religion from him would have become terribly difficult. The reason is that an angel is not hungry or thirsty or sleepy or plain tired, nor does he have to deal with all those human compulsions. How would he have the feeling for such human weaknesses? And, without this feeling, how could men have followed him deed-wise? This theme has appeared in other verses of the Qur'an, either explicitly or suggestively, at several places. Bypassing these, they were exhorted to use their reason and realize that it was not the least necessary that a prophet and messenger should not be a man. But, what is necessary is that he brings with him some proof, argument and evidence from Allah Ta` ala that could make it easy for people to accept that he was definitely a rasul sent by Allah. Those open proofs بَیِّنۃ (bayyinah) and binding arguments for common people take the form of miracles shown at the hands of prophets. Therefore, Sayyidna Nuh (علیہ السلام) said that he had brought with him the clear path, argument and mercy from his Lord. If they had seen it carefully and thought about it, they would not have refused to accept the invitation. But, their aversion and hostility made them blind, hence they opted to deny the truth and became adamant to it.

But, this mercy of Allah Ta` ala that comes through a prophet is not something which could be caused to fall over the heads of people - until they themselves show their inclination to have it. There is a hint here that the prophet would have passed on the wealth of' ‘Iman he had come with to them, if he could, despite their denial and obstinacy. But, this was against Divine law. A blessing is aspired for. People cannot be compelled to have it. From here it also stands proved that it has never been permissible, in any period of a prophet, that people should be compelled to become believers. Even those who continue to spread the ugly propaganda that Islam was spread by the sword are not themselves unaware of the truth of the matter. But, they find it convenient to use the power of a lie to sow seeds of doubt in the hearts of the ignorant only to keep the torches of their hatred burning.

As a side benefit, it has also become easier to understand why an angel was not made a prophet. The reason is that an angel is endowed with supernatural power. He is way distinct from human beings in every facet of his existence. To see him and then to believe in him would have become an exercise in compulsion. With an angel in front of him, who could dare being obstinate - something so conveniently demonstrated before prophets? Then, according to the dictate of the Shari` ah, if a person believes unwillingly under the threat of some coercive power, his belief and faith is not acceptable. In fact, the ideally desirable thing is to believe without seeing (al-'Iman bi'l-ghaib اَلاِیمَان بِالغَیب) - that one believes without having fully observed and witnessed the ultimate subduing power of Allah Ta` ala.

The second objection they raised was: وَمَا نَرَ‌اكَ اتَّبَعَكَ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ هُمْ أَرَ‌اذِلُنَا بَادِيَ الرَّ‌أْيِ (and we do not see you followed by anyone but by the lowest among us who are of shallow opinion - 27). This objection has two aspects: (1) That the people of higher status would have been the first to accept your call, if it was correct and true; and that only such lowly people have accepted it shows that the call itself is not worth accepting. (2) That there is something else that stops us from accepting your call to believe. Suppose we were to believe, then we understand that we too will be taken as Muslims, like them and equal to them and, in rows of prayers as well as in other meetings, we will have to sit with them as equals. This we cannot do.

These people were far from reality and very unaware indeed. Simply because poor people did not wallow in wealth and pride in office and status, they had elected to berate them as lowly and mundane - although, the thought itself is as ignorant as it can be. Honor and dis-grace, reason and understanding are not subservient to wealth and property. Rather, as experience bears out, power and wealth can become intoxicating enough as would stop its possessors from under-standing and accepting so many reasonable and correct things. These barriers do not stand before the meek and the poor. They go ahead and accept what is correct and true. This is the reason why the customary Divine practice through the lanes of time gone by has been no other but that the first among those who believe in prophets are none but the weak and the meek. This phenomenon has also been explained in past Scriptures. Pursuant to this, when the blessed letter from the Holy Prophet ﷺ inviting him to believe reached the Byzantine Emperor, Hiraql, he felt the need to ascertain the truth of the matter - because, he had read the signs of the noble prophets in the Torah and the Injil. Therefore, he assembled people of Arabia who were visiting Syria at that time and asked them some questions about those signs.

One of these questions was, ` Are those who follow him the poor and the weak among his people, or those who are considered big and notable among them?' He was told, ` They are poor and weak.' Thereupon, Hiraql confessed, ` this is sign of his being a true prophet because those who follow prophets initially are these very poor and weak people.'

In short, taking poor people to be lowly was ignorance on their part. In reality, ` radhil' or disgraced is he who does not recognize his creator and sustainer and disobeys what He has asked him to do. Therefore, the venerated Sufyan Ibn Said Ath-Thawri, was asked by someone, ` who is mean and disgraced?' He said, ` people who keep flattering rulers and officials.' And Ibn al-Arabi said, ` mean is he who earns Dunya (benefits of worldly life) by selling his din دِین (religion).' Someone asked him, ` who is the meanest?' Then, he said, ` a person who ruins his religion and streamlines the worldly life of someone else.' Imam Malik said, ` mean is he who maligns the noble Companions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ because they are the greatest benefactors of the entire Muslim Ummah, and the source through which the blessings of 'Iman and Shari` ah have reached us.'

Returning to the ignorant thought expressed by the objectors, we see that it has been initially refuted in the third verse (29). It has been said that a prophet does not fancy anyone's wealth or property. He takes no compensation for his service or good counsel to people. His compensation is with Allah alone. Therefore, the rich and the poor are equal in his sight. Let the rich not be scared about their wealth for no one would start asking for it once they become believers.