7:28 Al-A'raaf (The Heights)

يقول تعالى مبينا لقبح حال المشركين الذين يفعلون الذنوب، وينسبون أن الله أمرهم بها. { وَإِذَا فَعَلُوا فَاحِشَةً } وهي: كل ما يستفحش ويستقبح، ومن ذلك طوافهم بالبيت عراة { قَالُوا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهَا آبَاءَنَا } وصدقوا في هذا. { وَاللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَا } وكذبوا في هذا، ولهذا رد اللّه عليهم هذه النسبة فقال: { قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَأْمُرُ بِالْفَحْشَاءِ } أي: لا يليق بكماله وحكمته أن يأمر عباده بتعاطي الفواحش لا هذا الذي يفعله المشركون ولا غيره { أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ } وأي: افتراء أعظم من هذا\"

قال مجاهد كان المشركون يطوفون بالبيت عراة يقولون نطوف كما ولدتنا أمهاتنا فتضع المرأة على قبلها النسعة أو الشيء وتقول. اليوم يبدو بعضه أو كله وما بدا منه فلا أحله فأنزل الله "وإذا فعلوا فاحشة قالوا وجدنا عليها آباءنا والله أمرنا بها" الآية. قلت كانت العرب ما عدا قريشا لا يطوفون بالبيت في ثيابهم التي لبسوها يتأولون في ذلك أنهم لا يطوفون في ثياب عصوا الله فيها وكانت قريش وهم الحمس يطوفون في ثيابهم ومن أعاره أحمسي ثوبا طاف فيه ومن معه ثوب جليد طاف فيه ثم يلقيه فلا يتملكه أحد ومن لم يجد ثوبا جديدا ولا أعاره أحمسي ثوبا طاف عريانا وربما كانت امرأة فتطوف عريانة فتجعل على فرجها شيئا ليستره بعض الستر فتقول. اليوم يبدو بعضه أو كله وما بدا منه فلا أحله وأكثر ما كان النساء يطفن عراة بالليل وكان هذا شيئا قد ابتدعوه من تلقاء أنفسهم واتبعوا فيه آباءهم ويعتقدون أن فعل آبائهم مستند إلى أمر من الله وشرع فأنكر الله تعالى عليهم ذلك فقال "وإذا فعلوا فاحشة قالوا وجدنا عليها آباءنا والله أمرنا بها" فقال تعالى ردا عليهم "قل" أي يا محمد لمن ادعى ذلك "إن الله لا يأمر بالفحشاء" أي هذا الذي تصنعونه فاحشة منكرة والله لا يأمر بمثل ذلك "أتقولون على الله ما لا تعلمون" أي أتسندون إلي الله من الأقوال ما لا تعلمون صحته.

Disbelievers commit Sins and claim that Allah commanded Them to do so!

Mujahid said, "The idolators used to go around the House (Ka`bah) in Tawaf while naked, saying, `We perform Tawaf as our mothers gave birth to us.' The woman would cover her sexual organ with something saying, `Today, some or all of it will appear, but whatever appears from it, I do not allow it (it is not for adultery or for men to enjoy looking at!)."' Allah sent down the Ayah,

وَإِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَـحِشَةً قَالُواْ وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهَآ ءَابَاءَنَا وَاللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَا

(And when they commit a Fahishah (sin), they say: "We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has commanded it for us.")7:28 I say, the Arabs, with the exception of the Quraysh, used to perform Tawaf naked. They claimed they would not make Tawaf while wearing the clothes that they disobeyed Allah in. As for the Quraysh, known as Al-Hums, they used to perform Tawaf in their regular clothes. Whoever among the Arabs borrowed a garment from one of Al-Hums, he would wear it while in Tawaf. And whoever wore a new garment, would discard it and none would wear it after him on completion of Tawaf. Those who did not have a new garment, or were not given one by Al-Hums, then they would perform Tawaf while naked. Even women would go around in Tawaf while naked, and one of them would cover her sexual organ with something and proclaim, "Today, a part or all of it will appear, but whatever appears from it I do not allow it." Women used to perform Tawaf while naked usually at night. This was a practice that the idolators invented on their own, following only their forefathers in this regard. They falsely claimed that what their forefathers did was in fact following the order and legislation of Allah. Allah then refuted them, Allah said,

وَإِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَـحِشَةً قَالُواْ وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهَآ ءَابَاءَنَا وَاللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَا

(And when they commit a Fahishah, they say: "We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has commanded it for us.")

Allah does not order Fahsha', but orders Justice and Sincerity

Allah replied to this false claim,

قُلْ

(Say), O Muhammad, to those who claimed this,

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْفَحْشَآءِ

("Nay, Allah never commands Fahsha'...") meaning, the practice you indulge in is a despicable sin, and Allah does not command such a thing.

أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

("Do you say about Allah what you know not") that is, do you attribute to Allah statements that you are not certain are true Allah said next,

قُلْ أَمَرَ رَبِّي بِالْقِسْطِ

(Say: "My Lord has commanded justice, (fairness and honesty)"),

وَأَقِيمُواْ وُجُوهَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ

("And that you should face Him only, in every Masjid, and invoke Him only making your religion sincere to Him...") This Ayah means, Allah commands you to be straightforward in worshipping Him, by following the Messengers who were supported with miracles and obeying what they conveyed from Allah and the Law that they brought. He also commands sincerity in worshipping Him, for He, Exalted He is, does not accept a good deed until it satisfies these two conditions: being correct and in conformity with His Law, and being free of Shirk.

The Meaning of being brought into Being in the Beginning and brought back again

Allah's saying

كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ

(As He brought you in the beginning, so shall you be brought into being again) 7:29. Until;

الضَّلَـلَةُ

(error.) There is some difference over the meaning of:

كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ

(As He brought you in the beginning, so shall you be brought into being again.) Ibn Abi Najih said that Mujahid said that it means, "He will bring you back to life after you die." Al-Hasan Al-Basri commented, "As He made you begin in this life, He will bring you back to life on the Day of Resurrection." Qatadah commented on:

كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَ

(As He brought you in the beginning, so shall you be brought into being again.) "He started their creation after they were nothing, and they perished later on, and He shall bring them back again." `Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam said, "As He created you in the beginning, He will bring you back in the end." This last explanation was preferred by Abu Ja`far Ibn Jarir and he supported it with what he reported from Ibn `Abbas, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood up and gave us a speech, saying,

«يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّكُمْ تُحْشَرُونَ إِلَى اللهِ حُفَاةً عُرَاةً غُرْلًا

كَمَا بَدَأْنَآ أَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُّعِيدُهُ وَعْداً عَلَيْنَآ إِنَّا كُنَّا فَـعِلِينَ

(O people! You will be gathered to Allah while barefooted, naked and uncircumcised, (As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it. (It is) a promise binding upon Us. Truly, We shall do it)).21:104 This Hadith was collected in the Two Sahihs. `Ali bin Abi Talhah reported that Ibn `Abbas commented on the Ayah,

كَمَا بَدَأَكُمْ تَعُودُونَفَرِيقًا هَدَى وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلَـلَةُ

(As He brought you in the beginning, so shall you be brought into being again. A group He has guided, and a group deserved to be in error;) "Allah, the Exalted, began the creation of the Sons of Adam, some believers and some disbelievers, just as He said,

هُوَ الَّذِى خَلَقَكُمْ فَمِنكُمْ كَافِرٌ وَمِنكُمْ مُّؤْمِنٌ

(He it is Who created you, then some of you are disbelievers and some of you are believers) 64:2. He will then return them on the Day of Resurrection as He started them, some believers and some disbelievers. I say, what supports this meaning, is the Hadith from Ibn Mas`ud that Al-Bukhari recorded, (that the Prophet said:)

«فَوَالَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ غَيرُهُ إِنَّ أَحَدَكُمْ لَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ حَتَّى مَا يَكُونُ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَهَا إِلَّا بَاعٌ أَوْ ذِرَاعٌ، فَيَسْبِقُ عَلَيْهِ الْكِتَابُ فَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ النَّارِ فَيَدْخُلُهَا، وَإِنَّ أَحَدَكُمْ لَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ النَّارِ حَتَّى مَا يَكُونُ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَهَا إِلَّا بَاعٌ أَوْ ذِرَاعٌ فَيَسْبِقُ عَلَيْهِ الْكِتَابُ، فَيَعْمَلُ بِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ فَيَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّة»

(By He, other than Whom there is no god, one of you might perform the deeds of the people of Paradise until only the length of an arm or a forearm would separate him from it. However, that which was written in the Book takes precedence, and he commits the work of the people of the Fire and thus enters it. And one of you might perform the deeds of the people of the Fire until only the length of an arm or a forearm separates between him and the Fire. However, that which was written in the Book takes precedence, and he performs the work of the people of Paradise and thus enters Paradise.) We should combine this meaning -- if it is held to be the correct meaning for the Ayah -- with Allah's statement:

فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفاً فِطْرَةَ اللَّهِ الَّتِى فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا

(So set you your face towards the religion, Hanifan. Allah's Fitrah with which He has created mankind) 30:30, and what is recorded in the Two Sahihs from Abu Hurayrah who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

«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.) Muslim recorded that `Iyad bin Himar said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

«يَقُولُ اللهُ تَعَالـى: إِنِّي خَلَقْتُ عِبَادِي حُنَفَاءَ، فَجَاءَتْهُمُ الشَّيَاطِينُ فَاجْتَالَتْهُمْ عَنْ دِينِهِم»

(Allah said, `I created My servants Hunafa' (monotheists), but the devils came to them and deviated them from their religion.) The collective meaning here is, Allah created His creatures so that some of them later turn believers and some turn disbelievers. Allah has originally created all of His servants able to recognize Him, to single Him out in worship, and know that there is no deity worthy of worship except Him. He also took their covenant to fulfill the implications of this knowledge, which He placed in their consciousness and souls. He has decided that some of them will be miserable and some will be happy,

هُوَ الَّذِى خَلَقَكُمْ فَمِنكُمْ كَافِرٌ وَمِنكُمْ مُّؤْمِنٌ

(He it is Who created you, then some of you are disbelievers and some of you are believers) 64:2. Also, a Hadith states,

«كُلُّ النَّاسِ يَغْدُو فَبَائِعٌ نَفْسَهُ فَمُعْتِقُهَا أَوْ مُوبِقُهَا»

(All people go out in the morning and sell themselves, and some of them free themselves while some others destroy themselves.) Allah's decree will certainly come to pass in His creation. Verily, He it is

وَالَّذِى قَدَّرَ فَهَدَى

(Who has measured (everything); and then guided) 87: 3, and,

الَّذِى أَعْطَى كُلَّ شَىءٍ خَلْقَهُ ثُمَّ هَدَى

(He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright) 20:50. And in the Two Sahihs:

«فَأَمَّا مَنْ كَانَ مِنْكُمْ مِنْ أَهْلِ السَّعَادَةِ فَسَيُيَسَّرُ لِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ السَّعَادَةِ، وَأَمَّا مَنْ كَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الشَّقَاوَةِ فَسَيُيَسَّرُ لِعَمَلِ أَهْلِ الشَّقَاوَة»

(As for those among you who are among the people of happiness, they will be facilitated to perform the deeds of the people of happiness. As for those who are among the miserable, they will be facilitated to commit the deeds of the miserable). This is why Allah said here,

فَرِيقًا هَدَى وَفَرِيقًا حَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الضَّلَـلَةُ

(A group He has guided, and a group deserved to be in error;) Allah then explained why,

إِنَّهُمُ اتَّخَذُوا الشَّيَـطِينَ أَوْلِيَآءَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ

(because) surely, they took the Shayatin as supporters instead of Allah). Ibn Jarir said, "This is one of the clearest arguments proving the mistake of those who claim that Allah does not punish anyone for disobedient acts he commits of deviations he believes in until after knowledge of what is correct reaches him, then he were to obstinately avoid it anyway. If this were true, then there would be no difference between the deviations of the misguided group - their belief that they are guided - and the group that is in fact guided. Yet Allah has differentiated between the two in this noble Ayah, doing so in both name and judgement."

And when they commit any indecency such as idolatry or circumambulating the Sacred House naked saying ‘We cannot perform the circumambulations wearing clothes in which we were disobedient to God’ — and so they forbade this wearing of clothes — they say ‘We found our fathers practising it and so we followed their example and God has also enjoined it on us’. Say to them ‘God does not enjoin indecency. Do you say concerning God that which you do not know?’ that He has said? the interrogative is meant as a repudiation.

Commentary

Before Islam, one of the many shameful and absurd customs Shaytan had made the people of ` Arab Jahiliyyah follow was that no one, other than the Quraysh, could make the Tawaf of Ka'bah in one's own clothes. Instead of that, the requirement was to borrow a dress from a Qurayshi, otherwise, make the Tawaf naked.

Mmmm50

As obvious, the Quraysh could not provide clothes to the whole people of Arabia, therefore, the consequence was that these people would make Tawaf mostly naked, men and women, both, with women usually doing their Tawaf in the darkness of the night. Then, they would explain the satanic expediency of this act by saying: The clothes wearing which we have committed sins are clothes in which making the Tawaf of the Ka'bah is contrary to etiquette (so devoid of commonsense they were that it did not occur to them that making their Tawaf naked was far more contrary to etiquette, and still more so, contrary to human dignity itself) and the only exception to this rule was the tribe of Quraysh which, because they were the servants of the sacred Haram, was not bound to follow this law of nudity.'

The first verse among those cited above has been revealed to identify and eliminate this absurd custom. It was said in the verse that on occasions when they did something shameful and people told them not to do so, their answer to them would be that their forefathers and elders have been doing so all along, and now for them, to forsake their practice was a matter of shame. Then, they also said that this was what Allah had told them to do. (Ibn Kathir)

In this verse, 'al-faihsha,' according to most commentators means this very naked Tawaf. In fact, fuhsh, fahsha and fahishah refer to every evil act the evil of which reaches the farthest limits and is all too loud and clear in terms of commonsense and sound taste (Mazhari). Then, that its good and bad becomes quite rational too, is something which stands established universally. (Rub al-Ma'ani)

Then, come the two arguments they advanced in support of the continuance of this absurd custom. One of these was the need to follow ancestral customs, that is, maintaining these was good in itself. The answer to this proposition was fairly clear as the blind following of ancestral customs was not something reasonable. Even a person of average commonsense can understand that a method cannot be justified on the basis that one's forefathers used to do so. If the methods used by forefathers were to be taken to be sufficient to justify the legitimacy of an action, then, the fact is that forefathers of different peoples of the world used to act differently, even contradictorily. This argument will, then, render all erroneous methods of the whole world to be correct and permissible. In short, this argument advanced by these ignorant people did not deserve attention. Therefore, the Qur'an has not considered it necessary to answer this question here. Though, in some Hadith narrations, it has been answered by saying that an act of ignorance which may have been committed by one's forefathers could hardly be worth following by any stretch of imagination.

The second argument in favour of their naked Tawaf advanced by these people was that Allah had ordered them to do so. This was a flagrant lie. They were attributing to Allah what He had never commanded. Addressing the Holy Prophet ﷺ the answer given was: قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ لَا يَأْمُرُ‌ بِالْفَحْشَاءِ (Allah never bids anything shameful) – because commanding people to do something like that is against His wisdom and counter to His state of being the Purest of the pure. Then, taken to task was their false and untrue, attribution to Allah. They were warned with the words: أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى اللَّـهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ (Do you say about Allah what you do not know?). It means that they were attributing a falsity to Allah without having an evidence in support; and it is obvious that attributing something to someone without proper investigation and authority is an act of rank effrontery and patent injustice. Then if done in the case of Allah Jalla Sha'nuhu, reporting anything so falsely will be a crime and injustice the magnitude of which cannot be imagined. At this point, let it be understood clearly that the respected Mujtahid Imams, when they deduce, formulate and describe injunctions which appear in the verses of the Qur'an through Ijtihad, that effort does not fall under the purview of this verse. The reason is that their deduction is a process which operates under the justification of the very words and meanings of the Qur'an.