The Medium Nation

Qur'an 2:143 · Al-Baqarah

وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَـٰكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِّتَكُونُوا۟ شُهَدَآءَ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ ٱلرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا ۗ وَمَا جَعَلْنَا ٱلْقِبْلَةَ ٱلَّتِى كُنتَ عَلَيْهَآ إِلَّا لِنَعْلَمَ مَن يَتَّبِعُ ٱلرَّسُولَ مِمَّن يَنقَلِبُ عَلَىٰ عَقِبَيْهِ ۚ وَإِن كَانَتْ لَكَبِيرَةً إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ هَدَى ٱللَّهُ ۗ وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَـٰنَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِٱلنَّاسِ لَرَءُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ

(2:143) Thus We have made you a middle nation that you may be witnesses to the people, and that the Apostle may be a witness to you. We did not appoint the qiblah you were following, but that We may ascertain those who follow the Apostle from those who turn back on their heels. It was indeed a hard thing except for those whom Allah has guided. And Allah would not let your prayers go to waste. Indeed Allah is most kind and merciful to mankind.

The question

Who are the “witnesses for the people” in “We have made you a medium nation so that you may be witnesses for the people and the Messenger may be a witness for you”, and which qiblah is “the qiblah which you had”?

Views answered: traditions from Sunni narrators, an interpretation of “the qiblah which you had”

Al-Mizan's argument

Al-Mizan reads the verse as joining the change of the qiblah to the ummah being made a “medium nation” that witnesses for the people, with the Messenger as witness for it. He sets aside two other explanations: one deserves no comment, and the other, of “medium” as the middle way between two extremes, does not explain why a medium nation should be witnesses. Witnessing in the Qur'an is seeing the reality of people's deeds in this world and testifying to it on the Day of Resurrection, a station only of God's pure friends; the ummah is called witness because such witnesses are within it, as Abraham prayed. He answers two objections, explains “the qiblah which you had” as Bayt al-Maqdis and the believers' misgivings about the change, and in the narrations weighs the reports that the whole ummah will testify.

Views compared

The other exegetes' readings are given as al-Mizan reports them. Each point links to the passage in the commentary.

Thus We have made you Read →

Other exegetes

Like this wonderful making, We have made you a medium nation.

Al-Mizan

Such an explanation deserves no comment.

A medium nation Read →

Other exegetes

Another exegete: the ummah is in the middle between the polytheists and dualists, who attend to the body and this world, and groups like the Christians, who emphasize the spirit to the detriment of the body; so it is the criterion that judges both extremes, and the Prophet, its perfect example, is the criterion for it.

Al-Mizan

What he says is true in itself but does not explain the wording: being in the middle makes the ummah a criterion, not a witness, and there is apparently no correlation between being a medium and being a witness, nor between the two witnessings. The ummah is called medium because it stands between the Messenger and the people ().

Witnesses for the people Read →

Other exegetes

The ummah witnesses because its religion combines physical perfection with spiritual sublimity.

Al-Mizan

Witnessing in the Qur'an (, , ) is witnessing the realities of deeds, seen in this world () and testified to on the Day of Resurrection; the senses cannot perceive what is in hearts, so only one whom God makes to see the hidden realities can do it ().

The whole ummah as witnesses Read →

Other exegetes

Those who believe in Allah and His messengers, these are the truthful and the witnesses near their Lord () shows that all believers are witnesses.

Al-Mizan

Only the pure friends of God reach this station; the ummah is called witness because there are witnesses within it, as the Children of Israel were said to excel the worlds. Near their Lord () means they will be joined to the witnesses on the Day of Resurrection, and that verse speaks of believers of all nations, not this ummah.

The link between being medium and witnessing Read →

Other exegetes

Objection: on this reading too, being a medium does not entail being witnesses, nor the Messenger's witnessing over them.

Al-Mizan

The verse makes them witnesses because they were made a medium nation; bases both witnessings on their being chosen and having no hardship in religion, as the Muslim ummah of Abraham's prayer, purified by the Messenger he prayed for (), joined to the Messenger on one side and to the people on the other.

The qiblah which you had Read →

Someone

The qiblah which you had refers to the Kaʿbah.

Al-Mizan

It refers to Bayt al-Maqdis; otherwise both Bayt al-Maqdis and the Kaʿbah would have been prescribed as qiblah twice, and there is nothing to support that.

The Prophet's testimony for his ummah Read →

Traditions from Sunni narrators

The ummah will testify that the prophets conveyed the message, and the Prophet will testify to his ummah's purity and justice.

Al-Mizan

This can be accepted only if the testimony is for a selected group, not the whole ummah, and the tradition rests on the mistaken idea that hearsay testimony is acceptable.

Reading guide

Each part opens the commentary at that point.

1. The verse: as with the qiblah, so the medium nation
2. Two other explanations of the verse
3. Why the middle way does not explain “witnesses”
4. What witnessing means in the Qur'an
5. Not the whole ummah, but a group within it
6. Two objections and replies (57:19; 22:77-78)
7. “The qiblah which you had” and the believers' misgivings
8. Traditions: the ummah testifies for the prophets

Read the whole commentary on 2:143 →