7:102 Al-A'raaf (The Heights)

{ وَمَا وَجَدْنَا لِأَكْثَرِهِمْ مِنْ عَهْدٍ ْ} أي: وما وجدنا لأكثر الأمم الذين أرسل اللّه إليهم الرسل من عهد، أي: من ثبات والتزام لوصية اللّه التي أوصى بها جميع العالمين، ولا انقادوا لأوامره التي ساقها إليهم على ألسنة رسله. { وَإِنْ وَجَدْنَا أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَفَاسِقِينَ ْ} أي: خارجين عن طاعة اللّه، متبعين لأهوائهم بغير هدى من اللّه، فاللّه تعالى امتحن العباد بإرسال الرسل وإنزال الكتب، وأمرهم باتباع عهده وهداه، فلم يمتثل لأمره إلا القليل من الناس، الذين سبقت لهم من اللّه، سابقة السعادة. وأما أكثر الخلق فأعرضوا عن الهدى، واستكبروا عما جاءت به الرسل، فأحل اللّه بهم من عقوباته المتنوعة ما أحل.

"وما وجدنا لأكثرهم" أي لأكثر الأمم الماضية "من عهد وإن وجدنا أكثرهم لفاسقين" أي ولقد وجدنا أكثرهم فاسقين خارجين عن الطاعة والامتثال والعهد الذي أخذه هو ما جبلهم عليه وفطرهم عليه وأخذ عليهم في الأصلاب أنه ربهم ومليكهم وأنه لا إله إلا هو وأقروا بذلك وشهدوا على أنفسهم به وخالفوه وتركوه وراء ظهورهم وعبدوا مع الله غيره بلا دليل ولا حجة لا من عقل ولا شرع وفي الفطر السليمة خلاف ذلك وجاءت الرسل الكرام من أولهم إلى آخرهم بالنهي عن ذلك كما جاء في صحيح مسلم "يقول الله تعالى: إني خلقت عبادي حنفاء فجاءتهم الشياطين فاجتالتهم عن دينهم وحرمت عليهم ما أحللت لهم" وفي الصحيحين "كل مولود يولد على الفطرة فأبواه يهودانه وينصرانه ويمجسانه" الحديث وقال تعالى في كتابه العزيز "وما أرسلنا من قبلك من رسول إلا نوحي إليه أنه لا إله إلا أنا فاعبدون" وقوله تعالى "واسأل من أرسلنا قبلك من رسلنا أجعلنا من دون الرحمن آلهة يعبدون" وقال تعالى "ولقد بعثنا في كل أمة رسولا أن اعبدوا الله واجتنبوا الطاغوت" إلى غير ذلك من الآيات وقد قيل في تفسير قوله تعالى "فما كانوا ليؤمنوا بما كذبوا من قبل" ما روى أبو جعفر الرازي عن الربيع بن أنس عن أبي العالية عن أبي بن كعب في قوله "فما كانوا ليؤمنوا بما كذبوا من قبل" قال كان في علمه تعالى يوم أقروا له بالميثاق أي فما كانوا ليؤمنوا لعلم الله منهم ذلك وكذا قال الربيع بن أنس عن أبي العالية عن أبي بن كعب عن أنس واختاره ابن جرير وقال السدي "فما كانوا ليؤمنوا بما كذبوا من قبل" قال ذلك يوم أخذ منهم الميثاق فآمنوا كرها وقال مجاهد في قوله "فما كانوا ليؤمنوا بما كذبوا من قبل" هذا كقوله "ولو ردوا لعادوا" الآية.

تِلْكَ الْقُرَى نَقُصُّ عَلَيْكَ

(Those were the towns that We relate to you) O Muhammad,

مِنْ أَنبَآئِهَا

(their story), and news,

وَلَقَدْ جَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُم بِالْبَيِّنَـتِ

(And there came indeed to them their Messengers with clear proofs,) and evidences of the truth of what they brought them. Allah said in other Ayah,

وَمَا كُنَّا مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّى نَبْعَثَ رَسُولاً

(And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger (to give warning).) 17:15, and,

ذَلِكَ مِنْ أَنْبَآءِ الْقُرَى نَقُصُّهُ عَلَيْكَ مِنْهَا قَآئِمٌ وَحَصِيدٌ وَمَا ظَلَمْنَـهُمْ وَلَـكِن ظَلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ

(That is some of the news of the towns which We relate unto you; of them, some are standing, and some have been reaped. We wronged them not, but they wronged themselves.) 11:100-101 Allah said

فَمَا كَانُواْ لِيُؤْمِنُواْ بِمَا كَذَّبُواْ مِن قَبْلُ

(but they were not such who would believe in what they had rejected before.) meaning they would not have later on believed in what the Messengers brought them, because they denied the truth when it first came to them (although they recognized it), according to the Tafsir of Ibn `Atiyyah. This explanation is sound, and is supported by Allah's statement,

وَمَا يُشْعِرُكُمْ أَنَّهَآ إِذَا جَآءَتْ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَوَنُقَلِّبُ أَفْئِدَتَهُمْ وَأَبْصَـرَهُمْ كَمَا لَمْ يُؤْمِنُواْ بِهِ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ

(And what will make you perceive that if it came, they will not believe And We shall turn their hearts and their eyes away (from guidance), as they refused to believe therein for the first time.) 6:109-110 This is why Allah said here,

كَذَلِكَ يَطْبَعُ اللَّهُ عَلَى قُلُوبِ الْكَـفِرِينَوَمَا وَجَدْنَا لاًّكْثَرِهِم

(Thus Allah does seal up the hearts of the disbelievers. And most of them We found not...) meaning, We did not find most of the previous nations,

مِّنْ عَهْدٍ وَإِن وَجَدْنَآ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَفَـسِقِينَ

(true to their covenant, but most of them We found to indeed be rebellious.) This Ayah means, We found most of them to be rebellious, deviating away from obedience and compliance. The covenant mentioned here is the Fitrah that Allah instilled in them while still in their fathers' loins, and taking their covenant, that He is their Lord, King, and that there is no deity worthy of worship except Him,. They affirmed this covenant and testified against themselves to this fact. However, they defied this covenant, threw it behind their backs and worshipped others besides Allah, having no proof or plea, nor support from rationality or by divine law. Surely, the pure Fitrah defies these actions, while all the honorable Messengers, from beginning to end, forbade them. Muslim collected the Hadith,

«يَقُولُ اللهُ تَعَالَى إِنِّي خَلَقْتُ عِبَادِي حُنَفَاءَ فَجَاءَتْهُمُ الشَّيَاطِينُ فَاجْتَالَتْهُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِمْ وَحَرَّمَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ مَا أَحْلَلْتُ لَهُم»

(Allah said, "I created My servants Hunafa' (monotheists), but the devils came to them and deviated them from their religion and prohibited them what I allowed them.") It is recorded in the Two Sahihs,

«كُلُّ مَوْلُودٍ يُولَدُ عَلَى الْفِطْرَةِ فَأَبَوَاهُ يُهَوِّدَانِهِ وَيُنَصِّرَانِهِ وَيُمَجِّسَانِه»

(Every child is born upon the Fitrah, it is only his parents who turn him into a Jew, a Christian or a Zoroastrian.)

And We did not find in most of them that is people any covenant that is any loyalty to a covenant from the day the pledge was made. Nay wa-in in is softened We found that most of them were indeed wicked.

The verse 102 has said, "And We did not find with most of them any covenant (unbroken)." The Companion ` Abdullah ibn Abbas ؓ has said that the covenant referred to in this verse is the Covenant called . That is, the covenant that Allah made with the spirits of all the creatures before creating them, when Allah said to them: أَلَسْتُ بِرَ‌بِّكُمْ ''Am I not your Lord?" All the human spirits entered into a covenant by answering" Yes" to the question. Most of the people forgot this covenant after they came to earth, and got involved in worshipping false gods instead of worshipping Allah. The verse, therefore, has said that Allah did not find most of the people true to this covenant. (Tafsir Kabir)

The respected companion ` Abdullah ibn Masud ؓ عنہما has said that the covenant referred to in this verse is the covenant of 'Iman' the Faith as has been indicated in the Holy Qur'an in these words إِلَّا مَنِ اتَّخَذَ عِندَ الرَّ‌حْمَـٰنِ عَهْدًا "Except the one who entered into a covenant with Rahman (Allah), the covenant in this verse signifies the covenant of Faith. The verse, therefore, implies that most of the people deviated from their covenant with Allah. We usually note that nearly every individual when he finds himself trapped in some distress, no matter how sinful he is, turns to Allah and often makes a promise in words or in his heart that he will be faithful to Allah and obey Him and avoid disobedience if he is relieved from this calamity. But when they are out of the mess, they indulge in their mundane desires having no regard for their covenant with Allah.

The Holy Qur'an has made mention of many of such people. It may be noted that the verse has made exception by saying 'most of them' and not 'all of them'. It is because there are people who are so perverted that even in their distress they do not turn to Allah, and they do not think of making any promise with Allah, while there are others who fulfill their promise and stay obedient to Him. At the end, the verse has the phrase "We found most of them sinners." That is, most of the people deviate from their covenant of staying obedient to Allah.

The above verses have described five events of earlier people so that present people may learn lesson from them and avoid following the course of their forefathers that led them to disaster.

Of all the events of early people described in this chapter the next event is of prophet Musa (علیہ السلام) which has been described in some detail in the following verses because his miracles are larger in number and more prominent in their nature. Similarly, his people, the Israelite, were more obstinate and ignorant than other people of the world. In addition, these verses, 103-110 carry some injunctions and points of discussion.

We found nothing of covenant in most of them; indeed, We found most of them ungodly. Junayd said, “The most beautiful of servants in state is he who halts with God in preserving the limits and being loyal to the covenants.”