6:116 Al-An'aam (The Cattle)

يقول تعالى، لنبيه محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم، محذرا عن طاعة أكثر الناس: { وَإِنْ تُطِعْ أَكْثَرَ مَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ يُضِلُّوكَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ } فإن أكثرهم قد انحرفوا في أديانهم وأعمالهم، وعلومهم. فأديانهم فاسدة، وأعمالهم تبع لأهوائهم، وعلومهم ليس فيها تحقيق، ولا إيصال لسواء الطريق. بل غايتهم أنهم يتبعون الظن، الذي لا يغني من الحق شيئا، ويتخرصون في القول على الله ما لا يعلمون، ومن كان بهذه المثابة، فحرى أن يحذِّر الله منه عبادَه، ويصف لهم أحوالهم؛ لأن هذا –وإن كان خطابا للنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم- فإن أمته أسوة له في سائر الأحكام، التي ليست من خصائصه.

يخبر تعالى عن حال أكثر أهل الأرض من بني آدم أنه الضلال كما قال تعالى "ولقد ضل قبلهم أكثر الأولين" وقال تعالى "وما أكثر الناس ولو حرصت بمؤمنين" وهم في ضلالهم ليسوا على يقين من أمرهم وإنما هم في ظنون كاذبة وحسبان باطل "إن يتبعون إلا الظن وإن هم إلا يخرصون" فإن الخرص هو الحزر ومنه خرص النخل وهو حزر ما عليها من التمر وذلك كله عن قدر الله ومشيئته.

Most People are Misguided

Allah states that most of the people of the earth, are misguided. Allah said in other Ayat,

وَلَقَدْ ضَلَّ قَبْلَهُمْ أَكْثَرُ الاٌّوَّلِينَ

(And indeed most of the men of old went astray before them.) 37:71 and,

وَمَآ أَكْثَرُ النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ

(And most of mankind will not believe even if you eagerly desire it.)12:103 They are misguided, yet they have doubts about their way, and they rely on wishful thinking and delusions.

إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلاَّ الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ هُمْ إِلاَّ يَخْرُصُونَ

(They follow nothing but conjecture, and they do nothing but lie.) Thus, they fulfill Allah's decree and decision concerning them,

هُوَ أَعْلَمُ مَن يَضِلُّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ

(It is He Who knows best who strays from His way.) and facilitates that for him,

وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ

(And He knows best the rightly guided.) He facilitates that for them, all of them are facilitated for what He created them.

فَكُلُواْ مِمَّا ذُكِرَ اسْمُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ إِن كُنتُم بِآيَـتِهِ مُؤْمِنِينَ

If you obey most of those on earth that is the disbelievers they will lead you astray from the way of God from His religion; they follow only supposition when they dispute with you concerning the status of carrion saying ‘What God has killed is more worthy of your consumption than what you kill yourselves!’; they are merely guessing speaking falsehood in this matter.

In the third verse (116), Allah Ta ala tells the Holy Prophet ﷺ that the majority of the progeny of 'Adam living on the earth is in error. Let him not be overawed by this situation and let him ignore what they say or do. The Qur'an has dealt with this subject at several places. In Surah As-Saaffaat, it is said: وَلَقَدْ ضَلَّ قَبْلَهُمْ أَكْثَرُ‌ الْأَوَّلِينَ ﴿71﴾ (And truly before them, many of the ancients went astray (37:71) In Su-rah Yusuf, it is said: وَمَا أَكْثَرُ‌ النَّاسِ وَلَوْ حَرَ‌صْتَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿103﴾ (And the majority of people - even if you wish - are not to be believers (12:103). The outcome is that the awe of majority customarily overwhelms an individual and he or she ends up following it. Therefore, the address made to the Holy Prophet ﷺ was:

And if you obey the majority of those on earth, they will make you lose the way of Allah. They follow nothing but whims, and they do nothing but make conjectures.'

The gist of the advice is that he should not be impressed by their numerical majority as a model to follow because they lack principles and go off the right way: At the end of the verse (117), it was said:

` Surely, your Lord knows best those who go astray from His way, and He is the best knower of those who are on the right path (consequently, as the errants shall be punished, the people of the straight path shall be rewarded).

Wert thou to obey most of those in the earth, they would misguide thee from the path of God. In terms of number, God's delegates are few, but they have weight and gravity. The folk of false- hood are many, but they have no weight or meaning. For a world of metaphor, one iota of reality is enough. For a world of foolishness and falsehood, one breath of the lords of finding is enough. One swat of the Lion for a world full of carrion-eaters, one blast of the Trumpet for a hundred thousand Pharaoh-natures! [DS 184] “O MuḤammad! If you see them in terms of number and manyness, they will throw you into trouble. If you seek to get along with them, they will hold you back from the Real. Obey Our command, and turn away from them. So shout out what thou art commanded, and turn away from the associaters” [15:94].