Topic: Allah Not Unjust In

42:41.

68:44; 75:25; 80:41, 42; 88:3, 4.

Important Words:

عاصم (One who protects) is the active participle from عصم which means, he or it prevented or hindered; or he defended or protected or he or it preserved or kept. عصمه الله من المکروه means, God protected him from evil. اعتصم بالله means, he held fast to God. اعتصم means, he defended or preserved himself; or he refrained or abstained. عصمة means, protection from that which causes destruction of man; faculty of avoiding acts of disobedience with possession of power to commit them; inability to disobey. عصمة النکاح (plural عصم) means, the tie or bond of marriage. عاصم means, defender. The Quranic expression, لا عاصم الیوم من امر الله means, there is no defender this day from the decree of God; or there is no possessor of defence this day (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse embodies several important truths: (a) whereas the reward of good is manifold, the reward of evil is only the like thereof; (b) those who break the law of God cease to be inspired by high ideals and great ambitions. They become mere imitators of others, losing all initiative and never aspiring to be the leaders of men; (c) having thus fallen and incurred the displeasure of God, they forfeit His assistance, which is so necessary to raise them from the depths of degradation into which they sink; (d) the iniquities and transgressions of evildoers cannot long remain hidden but sooner or later become exposed and known to the world.

6:132; 20:135; 26:209; 28:60.

Commentary:

The verse clearly shows that it is unjust to punish any people unless they make themselves deserving of it by their misdeeds. It is a pity that in spite of the fact that various kinds of afflictions and miseries have fallen upon present-day Muslims, they persist in thinking that they are following the right path. This, in other words, means that they look upon God as unjust and themselves as righteous. The important lesson that we learn from this verse is that as punishment comes only when people become corrupt, therefore when people see signs of an impending punishment they should take a warning from it and should at once set about eschewing evil practices and reforming themselves.

As the word مصلحون (righteous) also means "making peace among themselves", the verse also shows that the way to avert Divine punishment is that people should make peace among themselves and there should be unity and concord among them. In fact, decline and degradation overtake a people only when they are rent by dissensions and discord and fall victim to various kinds of moral and spiritual maladies.

42:41.

42:44.

Commentary:

In this verse Muslims are told that when they preach Islam to other nations, the latter, instead of listening to them, will persecute and wage war against them. In such a contingency Muslims will have to take up arms in self-defence. But even when fighting in self-defence, they are not to exceed legitimate bounds, but punish the enemy only to the extent to which he has oppressed them. The word used here which implies the permission to fight and retaliate in self-defence is عاقبوا (punish). The root-meaning of this word is "to follow". The use of this word thus shows that Muslims can only fight in self-defence. jihad connotes fighting only in self-defence i.e. only after Muslims have been wantonly attacked. The Quran has taken care to explain the necessary conditions and limitations of jihad before permitting it.

3:129; 5:41; 17:55.

Commentary:

As stated in many places in the Quran, God does not punish arbitrarily but only after punishment has been fully deserved. This verse only means that God in His perfect knowledge well knows who has deserved punishment, and He punishes accordingly.