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Surah al-Maidah
The Table Spread (5) - Ayahs
101,102
In the name of Allah, the
Beneficent, the Merciful
"Believers!
Do not ask about the things which, if made clear to you, would vex you; for,
if you ask about them while the Quran is being revealed, they will be made
manifest to you. Allah has pardoned whatever happened in the past. He is
All-Forgiving, All-Forbearing. Indeed some people before you had asked such
questions and in consequence fell into unbelief."
Commentary:
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Many secrets are wisely hidden from us. If the
future were known to us, we would not necessarily be happy. If the inner
meaning of some of the things we see before our eyes were disclosed to us, it
might cause a lot of mischief.
Examples of Unnecessary and
Irrelevant Inquiries
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People used to ask the Prophet
(salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) many questions which were of no
practical relevance to either religious or day-to-day affairs. Once, for
instance, a person asked the Prophet (saw) in the presence of a crowd:
"Who is my real father?"
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Likewise, many people used to
ask unnecessary questions about legal matters. In the Quran, for example,
Hajj had been declared obligatory. A person who became aware of this, came
to the Prophet (saw) and inquired: "Has it been made obligatory to
perform it every year?" To this, the Prophet (saw) made no reply. On
being asked for the third time, the Prophet (saw) said, "Woe to you!
Had I uttered 'Yes' in response to your question, it would have become
obligatory to perform it every year. And then you would not have been able to
observe it and would have been guilty of disobedience." [al-Bukhari, Ahmad,
Malik]
Prophet's Warning and its
Implications
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The Prophet (saw) once said,
"God has imposed upon you certain obligations, do not neglect them; He has
imposed certain prohibitions, do not violate them; He has imposed certain
limits, do not even approach them; and He has remained silent about certain
matters - and has not done so out of forgetfulness - so do not pursue them."
In this Hadith an important fact has been called to our attention. In
matters where Allah has chosen to lay down certain injunctions only broadly,
without any elaborate details, or quantitative specifications, He has done
so not because of neglect or forgetfulness, but allows us latitude and ease
in following His commandments.
Purpose of the Verse and Its
Neglect Today
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The people referred to in this
verse are the Jews, and the Muslims who followed in their footsteps and left
no stone unturned, despite the warnings contained in the Quran and in the
sayings of Prophet (saw).
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Now there are some people who
make unnecessary inquiries, cause elaborately prescribed, inflexibly
determined and restrictive regulations to be added to the Law. Some others, in
cases where such details are in no way deducible from the text, resort to
analogical reasoning, thereby turning a broad general rule into an elaborate
law, full of restrictive details. Both sorts of people put Muslims in great
danger, especially in the area of 'Aqeedah (belief).
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That is exactly why it would be foolish to pry
into things too deep for us to understand, either individually or
collectively. When foolish questions are asked by people with a weak faith,
and no answer is available, it further weakens their faith with all sorts of
doubts.
[compiled from "Towards Understanding the
Qur'an", by Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi, Vol. II, p. 197-8]
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