Surah 6. Al-An'am, Ayah 108
| وَلَا تَسُبُّوا الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ فَيَسُبُّوا اللَّهَ عَدْوًا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ زَيَّنَّا لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ عَمَلَهُمْ ثُمَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ مَرْجِعُهُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُهُمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ |
| Transliteration | : | wa- laa tasubbo 'alladhena yadcon min doni 'allaah fa- yasubbo 'allaah cadw(an) bi- ghayr cilm ka- dhaalika zayyannaa li- kull 'ummah camal -hum thumma 'ilaa rabb -him marjic -hum fa- yunabbi' -hum bi- maa kaano yacmalon |
| Pickthall | : | Revile not those unto whom they pray beside Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance. Thus unto every nation have We made their deed seem fair. Then unto their Lord is their return, and He will tell them what they used to do. |
| Asad | : | But do not revile those [beings] whom they invoke instead of God,92 lest they revile God out of spite, and in ignorance: for, goodly indeed have We made their own doings appear unto every community.93 In time, [however,] unto their Sustainer they must return: and then He will make them [truly] understand all that they were doing. |
| Malik | : | O believers, do not insult those, whom these mushrikin call upon besides Allah, lest in retaliation they call bad names to Allah out of their ignorance. Thus We have made the deeds of every group of people seem fair to them. In the end they will all return to their Rabb and then, He will inform them of the reality of all that they have done. |
| Yusuf Ali | : | Revile not ye those whom they call upon besides Allah lest they out of spite revile Allah in their ignorance. Thus have We made alluring to each people its own doings. In the end will they return to their Lord and We shall then tell them the truth of all that they did. 936 |
Note - 92This prohibition of reviling anything that other people
hold sacred - even in contravention of the principle of
God's oneness - is expressed in the plural and is,
therefore, addressed to all believers. Thus, while
Muslims are expected to argue against the false beliefs
of others, they are not allowed to abuse the objects of
those beliefs and to hurt thereby the feelings of their
erring fellow-men.
|
Note - 93Lit., "thus goodly have We made ...", etc., implying that
it is in the nature of man to regard the beliefs which
have been implanted in him from childhood, and which he
now shares with his social environment, as the only true
and possible ones - with the result that a polemic
against those beliefs often tends to provoke a hostile
psychological reaction.
|
Note - 936A man's actual personal religion depends upon many
things, -his personal psychology, the background of his
life, his hidden or repressed feelings, tendencies, or
history (which psychoanalysis tries to unravel), his
hereditary dispositions or antipathies, and all the
subtle influences of his education and his environment.
The task before the man of God is: (1) to use any of
these which can subserve the higher ends, (2) to purify
such as have been misused, (3) to introduce new ideas and
modes of looking at things, and (4) to combat what is
wrong and cannot be mended: all for the purpose of
leading to the truth and gradually letting in spiritual
light where there was darkness before. If that is not
done with discretion and the skill of a spiritual
Teacher, there may be not only a reaction of obstinacy,
but an unseemly show of dishonour to the true God and His
Truth, and doubts would spread among the weaker brethren
whose faith is shallow and infirm. What happens to
individuals is true collectively of nations or groups of
people. They think in their self-obsession that their own
ideas are right. God in His infinite compassion bears
with them, and asks those who have purer ideas of faith
not to vilify the weaknesses of their neighbours, lest
the neighbours in their turn vilify the real truth and
make matters even worse than before. In so far as there
is active evil, He will deal with it in His own way. Of
course the righteous man must not hide his light under a
bushel, or compromise with evil, or refuse to establish
right living where he has the power to do so.
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This prohibition of reviling anything that other people hold sacred - even in contravention of the principle of God's oneness - is expressed in the plural and is, therefore, addressed to all believers. Thus, while Muslims are expected to argue against the false beliefs of others, they are not allowed to abuse the objects of those beliefs and to hurt thereby the feelings of their erring fellow-men. |
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Lit., "thus goodly have We made ...", etc., implying that it is in the nature of man to regard the beliefs which have been implanted in him from childhood, and which he now shares with his social environment, as the only true and possible ones - with the result that a polemic against those beliefs often tends to provoke a hostile psychological reaction. |
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A man's actual personal religion depends upon many things, -his personal psychology, the background of his life, his hidden or repressed feelings, tendencies, or history (which psychoanalysis tries to unravel), his hereditary dispositions or antipathies, and all the subtle influences of his education and his environment. The task before the man of God is: (1) to use any of these which can subserve the higher ends, (2) to purify such as have been misused, (3) to introduce new ideas and modes of looking at things, and (4) to combat what is wrong and cannot be mended: all for the purpose of leading to the truth and gradually letting in spiritual light where there was darkness before. If that is not done with discretion and the skill of a spiritual Teacher, there may be not only a reaction of obstinacy, but an unseemly show of dishonour to the true God and His Truth, and doubts would spread among the weaker brethren whose faith is shallow and infirm. What happens to individuals is true collectively of nations or groups of people. They think in their self-obsession that their own ideas are right. God in His infinite compassion bears with them, and asks those who have purer ideas of faith not to vilify the weaknesses of their neighbours, lest the neighbours in their turn vilify the real truth and make matters even worse than before. In so far as there is active evil, He will deal with it in His own way. Of course the righteous man must not hide his light under a bushel, or compromise with evil, or refuse to establish right living where he has the power to do so. |
