Chapter 5: The Previous Prophets and Religions
Prophets Adam to Abraham
158. Did the Prophet Adam introduce any religious system and divine law?
Answer: No, it was the Prophet Noah who first introduced them, as reflected in the verse: He has prescribed for you the religion which He had enjoined upon Noah and which We have [also] revealed to you, and which We had enjoined upon Abraham, Moses and Jesus (). This verse is intended to show God’s favor and blessing upon the Muslim community (ummah). In this light it states that the religion brought by the Prophet Muḥammad encompasses all past religions imparted to humankind by divine revelation. In enumerating these religions, it names the religions of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad. Had there been any other religion, the verse would have also mentioned it to demonstrate the comprehensiveness of Islam. This means that there had existed no religious law (shariah, meaning laws to govern the society and settle the disputes) before the Prophet Noah, because the first religion named in the verse is that of Noah: the religion which He had enjoined upon Noah ().
159. What was the religion and shariah followed by people before the time of Prophet Noah?
Answer: People led a life of austere simplicity from the time of Prophet Adam to that of Prophet Noah. All people lived in unanimity and were untouched by major differences in material life, religious denominations, thoughts, views, and beliefs.
160. So, what was the religion practiced by the Prophet Adam and his followers?
Answer: They followed a set of general doctrines and moral principles.
161. Did the Prophet Abraham perform the ritual prayer (ṣalāh)?
Answer: Yes, he did.
Pilgrimage in the Previous Religions
162. Was the Prophet Adam endowed with any shariah, including pilgrimage to Mecca?
Answer: There is no evidence to support it. There are only some traditions about the Prophet Adam’s pilgrimage to a pavilion which was originally pitched up in the present location of the Sacred House of God. It is narrated that God took the pavilion up to the heavens in the Flood at the time of Prophet Noah.
163. There is a narration where the narrator inquires forty thousand questions to one of the imams about the hajj [over several years]. The narrator then asks the Imam about why there are so many rulings for an act of devotion which is performed only once a year, and which is obligatory only once in a lifetime? In response, the Imam says, “It is a House visited before Adam by a thousand years…” This tradition implies that the House of Kaʿbah had been visited and circumambulated by pilgrims in ancient times, even before the Prophet Adam. Is this a sound statement?
Answer: Who had been the pilgrims of the Kaʿbah before the Prophet Adam?! It must have been the angels and the jinn. It should also be clear that this tradition is not about the present form of the Kaʿbah, which was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. This is similar to another tradition which says: “The Frequented House (al-Bayt al-Maʿmūr) is aligned with the Kaʿbah in the heavens.” It certainly does not imply that the Frequented House is made of bricks.
Accordingly, the present form of the Kaʿbah is not what is intended by “House” when the Imam says: “The House visited before Adam by a thousand years …,” because the Kaʿbah was constructed by Abraham and Ishmael. God says: As Abraham raised the foundations of the House with Ishmael (). The Black Stone (al-Ḥajar al-Aswad, embedded in the wall of the holy Kaʿbah) is treated in like manner. It is narrated that it was “purer than pearls”; it was “[like] a white pearl”; and God descended it from paradise. Therefore, it was not this House of God which existed at the time of Adam or before him, but there had been a kind of pavilion in its place.
164. So, how do you explain the verse: Our Lord! I have settled part of my descendants in a barren valleyby Your sacred House ()? When Abraham says “by Your sacred House” doesn’t it imply that that House had been built before him?
Answer: The House was built when Ishmael had grown into a young man, and his descendants obviously settled there after the construction of the House. Accordingly, the verse implies that Abraham settled his descendants in a barren valley after building the House and beside it. Abraham made a prayer before the construction of the town [of Mecca], and a prayer after that. The former is mentioned in the verse: And when Abraham said, “My Lord, make this a secure town (baladan)…” (), and the latter in the verse: My Lord, make this the secure town (al-balad)… (). The latter prayer postdated the former, since the definite article “the” (al-) precedes “town” (balad), implying that the House was already there.
165. Apparently you mentioned in a previous session that the Holy Kaʿbah was built by Prophet Abraham.
Answer: Yes, he built it with the help of Prophet Ishmael. God Almighty says: As Abraham raised the foundations of the House with Ishmael ().
166. According to some traditions, the Holy Kaʿbah was a pilgrimage site from before. For example: “[It is] a house which had been visited two thousand years before the creation of Adam.” Who were its pilgrims back then?
Answer: The pilgrims might have been a group of jinn who had been created before Adam. However, that Kaʿbah was different from our Kaʿbah, since the foundations of the present Kaʿbah were raised by Abraham and his son Ishmael. According to some traditions, it was previously in the form of a pavilion.
167. Could we say that pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) was included in the shariah (legal code) of Prophets Moses and Jesus?
Answer: No, we could not. But God, addressing Abraham, says: And proclaim the hajj to people (). Following this command, Abraham called the people, to go on hajj and taught them its rites and rituals, but his audience were not the Children of Israel.
It is to be noted in passing that a terrible war broke out between the tribe of Jurhum, who had invaded Mecca from Yemen, and a group of the descendants of Ishmael, who were monotheists, believed in the religion of Abraham, and were headed by ʿAmr b. Luḥayy. The tribe of Jurhum was defeated, and ʿAmr b. Luḥayy, the chief of Ishmael’s descendants, became the ruler of Mecca. Later, he fell sick and settled in Syria on his physicians’ advice. Influenced by Idolatrous Syrians, he became an idolater, had the idol Hubal transported to Mecca and installed above the Kaʿbah, and called the people to idolatry. Consequently, all the inhabitants of Hejaz, who had so far followed Abraham’s religion, embraced idolatry. Nevertheless, according to our traditions, the ancestors of the Noble Prophet never turned away from monotheism.
168. Did Moses and Jesus perform pilgrimage to Mecca?
Answer: When Moses visited Shuʿayb in Madyan (Midian), he learned that they had the custom of hajj. Shuʿayb said to Moses: Indeed I desire to marry you to one of these two daughters of mine, on condition that you hire yourself to me for eight (rounds of) hajj (). It is also narrated that “Moses went on hajj as he rode on a red camel and said: ‘Here I am [at Your service] (labbayka)!’”
169. Could we say that Abraham was somehow superior to Moses and Jesus based on the verse: Rather [we will follow] the creed of Abraham, a man of pure faith, in the verse And they say, “Be either Jews or Christians, that you may be [rightly] guided.” Say, “Rather [we will follow] the creed of Abraham, a man of pure faith, and he was not one of the polytheists” ()?
Answer: No, we cannot deduce such superiority from this verse. Nevertheless, the religions of Prophets Moses and Jesus did not include the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), while Abraham’s religion did, as reflected in the verse: And proclaim the hajj to people ().
170. Does eight (rounds of) hajj () imply that Moses had to perform eight hajjs on behalf of Shuʿayb?
Answer: No, it does not mean performing the hajj. It implies that Moses should hire himself out to graze the sheep of Shuʿayb for eight years.
171. Did the polytheists perform the ritual ramy al-jamarāt (lapidation of Satan) in their hajj?
Answer: Their hajj was similar to that of Abraham. They visited ʿArafāt and Mashʿar (Muzadlifah), and circumambulated the Kaʿbah. However, it is uncertain if their hajj included all of the details and individual rituals.
Classification of Prophets
172. What does ulū al-ʿazm mean?
Answer: ʿAzm is synonymous with ʿazīmah, which means ḥukm (ruling, judgment, command) and shariah (law). Therefore, ulū al-ʿazm denotes “possessors of divine law.” Yet, another meaning of ʿazm is “decision,” which, in the context of prophets, denotes “firm determination to forbear denial and persecution.” Thus ulū al-ʿazm means implies “prophets who were steadfast against the denial and harassment of their nation.”
According to a narration from Imam al-Riḍā, an ulū al-ʿazm prophet was one who had a divinely revealed book and legal code. Then his succeeding prophets would follow and propagate his book and law, until the next ulū al-ʿazm prophet would come with a new book and legal code. Thus the cycle continued.
173. How many ulū al-ʿazm (resolute) prophets were there, who were sent to their nations with a scripture and a legal code?
Answer: There were five ulū al-ʿazm prophets: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad b. ʿAbd-Allāh. God Almight says: He has prescribed for you the religion which He had enjoined upon Noah and which We have [also] revealed to you, and which We had enjoined upon Abraham, Moses and Jesus ().
174. Was the Prophet Shuʿayb of Arab extraction?
Answer: Yes, he was, and Madyan (Midian) was an Arab populated city. The Prophets Ṣāliḥ and Shuʿayb were both of Arab origin.
175. Could we say that all prophets were either descendants of Israel [that is, Jacob] or of Arab extraction [that is, descendants of Ishmael]?
Answer: This cannot be deduced from the Qur’an, which says: We have not destroyed any town without its having warners (). This verse indicates that there was some warner in every town, which is applicable to Greece and China. Therefore, there must have been prophets in those lands to convey the divine message to their inhabitants.
The Creation and Garden of Adam
176. Can the prophethood of Adam be deduced from these verses: Indeed Allah chose Adam and Noah, and the progeny of Abraham and the progeny of ʿImrān above all the nations; some of them are descendants of the others ()?
Answer: The verse also mentions the progeny of Abraham and the progeny of ʿImrān. Could we say that they were prophets as well?!
177. Could we say that the Prophet Adam had been in paradise before inhabiting this world? How may this argument be supported?
Answer: He had been in a garden in the intermediate realm (barzakh), rather than the Eternal Garden of paradise (khuld). The reason is that he left the garden where he was, while one does not leave the Eternal Garden once he is admitted to it.
178. What is intended by saying that Adam had been in an imaginal (mithālī) paradise?
Answer: An intermediate (barzakhī) paradise is similar to seeing beings in dreams. It has the properties of the imaginal faculty (khayāl).
179. Was the intermediate and imaginal paradise on the earth?
Answer: One cannot argue for that, because the Qur’an says that they were commanded to “descend” from it: We said, “Get down from it, all together!” (). Thus Adam descended from heavens and landed on Mount Sarandīb in India.
180. Was Adam in the imaginal paradise from the beginning?
Answer: First, Adam’s body was created and was given life by the blowing of spirit into it. Then they [Adam and Eve] entered the imaginal garden and received commands and prohibitions. Then they wree driven out from there and fell to the earth.
181. Was Adam created directly [by God, from nothing]?
Answer: God created and proportioned him from clay.
182. How was he proportioned and created?
Answer: God proportioned a body of clay and it was after a while that divine spirit was breathed into the body. Eve was similarly created. Then they were admitted to the garden and were warned to keep away from wheat, while they were allowed to pick other produce and partake of them. They were tempted and misled by Satan, and thus they were driven out of their bountiful dwelling place.
183. It is narrated in some traditions that God created Eve from a rib of Adam on his left side. Are these traditions sound?
Answer: No, God proportioned Eve like Adam and breathed into them of His spirit. It is narrated from Imam al-Bāqir: “God created Adam by His hand of might, and created Eve from the remainder of the same clay.”
The verse, and created its mate from it (), implies that Eve was from the same kind and species as Adam, not that she was from Adam’s body. In this sense, this verse is comparable to the following verse: And of His signs is that He created for you mates from your own selves that you may take comfort in them ().
184. Was it possible for Adam to commit sins in the garden?
Answer: Adam did not commit a sin. He contravened an advisory command (al-amr al-irshādī) rather than an authoritative command (al-amr al-mawlawī). At that point no religious duty or law had been legislated yet. Religious commands were legislated following Adam’s fall, as God says: We said, “Get down from it, all together! Yet, should any guidance come to you from Me, those who follow My guidance shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve” ().
185. Did Adam commit an evil by eating wheat?
Answer: Adam had been warned against eating it but he did.
186. How come Adam sinned against God?
Answer: He did not sin, since committing sins is only possible in the material world. Sin is meaningless in the imaginal world.
187. Did he not disobey an authoritative command of God?
Answer: “Disobedience” is not applicable at that level. It is only in the physical world that one confronts the dichotomy of obedience and disobedience.
188. Could we say that Adam was transported from the world of intellect to the imaginal world, and thence to the world of matter?
Answer: We cannot deduce this from the apparent text of the Qur’an.
189. Is it be possible to bid an imaginal being in an imaginal garden to descend on the earth and the world of matter?
Answer: No, it is not possible for an imaginal being to descend onto a lower world. Form cannot turn into matter.
190. How long did Adam stay in the garden?
Answer: Based on the traditions, he was in the garden for six hours.
191. What is intended by ẓulm (wrongdoing, injustice, oppression) in the verse: But do not approach this tree, lest you should be among the wrongdoers (, )?
Answer: It means wronging oneself.
192. The Qur’an says: Then Satan caused them to stumble from it, and he dislodged them from what they were in (). What is intended by he dislodged them from what they were in?
Answer: That is, they were divested of the blessings which had been bestowed on them.
193. Who is addressed in the verse: We said, “Get down from it, all together!” (, , )?
Answer: Adam, Eve and Satan; or Adam, Eve and Adam’s descendants.
194. Did Adam and Eve disobey an authoritative divine command by disobeying God’s command, do not approach this tree (, )?
Answer: No, there was no disobedience of any duty there. Religious obligations were introduced only after their fall from the garden, as God says: We said, “Get down from it, all together! Yet, should any guidance come to you from Me, those who follow My guidance shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve” (); He [God] said, “Get down both of you from it, all together, being enemies of one another! Yet, should any guidance come to you from Me, those who follow My guidance will not go astray, nor will they be miserable; But whoever disregards My remembrance, his shall be a wretched life, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall raise him blind” ().
In the above verses, “My guidance” refers to religion and divine laws. Obedience to it will lead the obedient to proximity to God and paradise, while disobedience to it will deprive the disobedient of divine proximity and paradise. Adam’s failure to comply with God’s command predated the fall and legislation of religious laws and duties.
Accordingly, the prescription in the verse, and eat thereof freely whencesoever you wish () and the proscription in the verse, do not approach this tree (, ) should be interpreted as advisory commands. It was a command that pointed to some benefit (maṣlaḥah) for them, not a command pointing to their duty with regards to God as their Master. The system of reward for obedience and punishment for disobedience was ordained only after that. It was formulated as a divine law that obedience will result in bliss, and disobedience will lead to being deprived of divine blessings. The disobedient, despite being in possession of worldly bounties, lead wretched lives [emotionally and psychologically].
195. With respect to Adam’s eating from the forbidden tree, could one say that “God decreed [legislatively] but did not will [existentially]”?
Answer: Yes. God warned Adam against eating from that tree as a legislative prohibition (which can be violated) but He willed it to occur as a takwīnī will (that is, a creational, existential or cosmological will, which cannot be not violated).
A similar interpretation applies to the following tradition: “The fourth day of the month of Rajab is the day of your fast and breaking your fast.”,
196. The Holy Qur’an says that Adam was prohibited against approaching the tree and eating of its fruit: Do not approach this tree, lest you should be among the wrongdoers (, ). However, he ignored the divine command and ate of its fruit: They both ate of it (). Is such wrong act not contrary to his infallibility?
Answer: No, it is not, because the prohibition against approaching the tree and eating of its fruit was an advisory one (irshādī), not an authoritative one (mawlawī). The latter kind of command comes into play when religious duties are legislated, but no such duty or legislation predated Adam’s fall.
As reflected in the following verses, it was after Adam’s fall that religious commands were introduced: He [God] said, “Get down both of you from it, all together, being enemies of one another! Yet, should any guidance come to you from Me, those who follow My guidance will not go astray, nor will they be miserable; But whoever disregards My remembrance, his shall be a wretched life, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall raise him blind” (). Accordingly, there had been no religious law or obligation to make room for any contradiction between disobedience and infallibility.
197. Can we interpret Adam’s eating from the forbidden tree as “abandoning a preferred act” (tark al-awlá)?
Answer: “Abandoning a preferred act” (tark al-awlá) pertains to authoritative commands, not advisory ones. The divine prohibition against approaching that tree and eating of its fruit falls into the latter category. Tark al-awlá falls into the category of religious legislation and obligation, which was only introduced following Adam’s fall, as reflected in these verses: He [God] said, “Get down both of you from it, all together, being enemies of one another! Yet, should any guidance come to you from Me, those who follow My guidance will not go astray, nor will they be miserable; But whoever disregards My remembrance, his shall be a wretched life, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall raise him blind” ().
198. Was God’s command to prostrate before Adam tashrīʿī (legislative) or takwīnī (creational, existential)?
Answer: Apparently it was legislative, because the Holy Qur’an says that Iblīs (Satan) transgressed against his Lord’s command: When We said to the angels, “Prostrate before Adam,” they prostrated, but not Iblīs. He was one of the jinn, so he transgressed against his Lord’s command (). Violation of a creational command is impossible, as reflected in another verse: All His command, when He wills something, is to say to it “Be,” and it is ().
199. Should a legislative command be preceded by the enactment of religious laws and the sending of messengers and prophets?
Answer: The discussions on general and specific prophethood pertain to the plane of human existence and activity. Their applicability to the angelic realm is not certain.
200. Was Iblīs an angel? If he was, why did he disobey God? Because God says: Rather they [the angels] are [His] honoured servants. They do not venture to speak ahead of Him, and they act by His command (); They [the angels] do not disobey whatever Allah has commanded them, and carry out what they are commanded ().
Answer: There had existed some creatures [of jinn] before Adam, but God destroyed them through the angels, who then took Iblīs captive. It is clearly stated in the Holy Qur’an that Iblīs was not an angel, but he was one of the jinn: When We said to the angels, “Prostrate before Adam,” they prostrated, but not Iblīs. He was one of the jinn, so he transgressed against his Lord’s command (). The word shayṭān (satan), meaning “devil,” is a general term with many application, but Iblīs is a proper noun for a being who has helpers [of other devils]. God Almighty says: Indeed he sees you he and his hosts whence you do not see them ().
In some the traditions on the Return (rajʿah) it is said that once the Imam of the Age establishes justice in the world, both Imam al-Ḥusayn and Yazīd will return, each with his army, companions and supporters. They will will wage battle against one another, and the Imam will vanquish his foes. Imam al-Ḥusayn will thus live for a while at the time of Imam al-Mahdī. Then, Imam al-Mahdī will pass away, and Imam al-Ḥusayn will make preparations for washing and shrouding his body. He will perform his funeral prayer and bury him.
Following the return of Imam al-Ḥusayn, Imam ʿAlī will also return. He and his army will fight and defeat the army of Iblīs. Before being slain, Iblīs will say, “Indeed I have been reprieved until the day of the known time, but the time is yet to come.”
The tradition proceeds as saying, “Thus he [Imam ʿAlī] will leave him be. Then, the Messenger of God will arrive to slay him with a weapon, but he will flee to Jerusalem. The Noble Prophet will catch and behead him on “the Rock” in Jerusalem.
201. Was the arrogance of Iblīs against Adam or only against God?
Answer: Adam was also involved in this, as he was endeared by God. Iblīs said: I am better than him (, ). He fell into perdition because he saw himself and said, I.
202. God Almighty says: Certainly We created you, then We shaped you, then We said to the angels, “Prostrate before Adam” (). Were the angels commanded to prostrate solely before Adam, or before all humankind as represented by Adam?
Answer: God commanded them to prostrate before Adam as a representative and archetype of humankind, as the narrations say: “Adam was simply a qiblah (direction of prostration) for the angels.” The above verse [] implies that God created humans and then He shaped them. Then, He commanded the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam. It is worthy of note in passing that such sequence is simply verbal rather than temporal.
203. Did Adam’s children marry among themselves incestuously? If the answer is positive, why was incest lawful at that time but it is not unlawful now?
Answer: God Almighty says: All rule belongs only to God (, , ). Thus, something may be lawful at some time, but unlawful later. It is also narrated that “some houris and jinn were sent, to whom the children of Adam married.” However, this tradition stands in contradiction to the apparent meaning of the Qur’an.
204. Are all humankind the descendants of Adam and Eve?
Answer: Yes, these two verses indicate that all humankind are their descendants: [God] created you from a single soul, and created its mate from it, and, from the two of them, scattered numerous men and women (); O Children of Adam! Do not let Satan tempt you, like he expelled your parents from paradise (). The first verse does not say “from the two of them and others besides them.”
Prophet Noah
205. Is Noah’s Flood considered as his miracle?
Answer: The Qur’an does not describe it as a miracle, but it was certainly a supernatural event.
206. How big was the Prophet Noah’s Ark?
Answer: Some pieces of the Ark were found on Mount Jūdī, the landing site of the Ark, as the Holy Qur’an says: It settled on al-Jūdī (). It is in the range of Mount Ararat, located between Turkey and Iran. The pieces are currently preserved in the United States and the Soviet Union. Its size is estimated to be similar to that of the British ocean liner Queen Mary, 1019 feet in length and 118 feet in width.
207. Was there every kind of animals on the Ark?
Answer: Animals were in pairs, as mentioned in the verse: We said, “Carry in it a pair of every kind [of animal]” ().
208. Was there anyone who was spared from drowning without embarking on the Ark?
Answer: The Qur’an says: He [Noah’s son] said, “I shall take refuge on a mountain; it will protect me from the flood.” He [Noah] said, “There is none today who can protect from Allah’s command” (). This indicates that the mountains were immersed in water and no human being was spared. On the Ark there were only Noah’s family, eighty people of his nation who were guided to the right path, and a pair of every kind of animal. God recreated humankind and animals from them.
209. Was the earth in its entirety immersed in the Flood?
Answer: The inhabited regions, particularly Asia, were immersed in the Flood.
210. How many people believed in Noah and accompany him on the Ark?
Answer: Only seventy, eighty, or eighty-four members of his kin were believers. This was after all the hardship that he incurred over a period of 950 years. Sometimes they would bring his body home like a dead person [after a long day of missionary work and prosecution from his people].
211. God narrates from Noah: My Lord! Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless (). Elsewhere He says to Noah: And do not plead with Me for those who are wrongdoers: they shall indeed be drowned (). Are these verses consistent?
Answer: There is no contradiction between the two. In the second verse God tells him: “Rest assured that all of them will be drowned.” Thus Noah learned that they would all perish. Then, in line with God’s words, he cursed the disbelievers: My Lord! Do not leave on the earth any inhabitant from among the faithless (). This shows his noble status of servitude, such that he willed precisely what was willed by God.
212. What was the title of the Prophet Noah’s Book?
Answer: It was simply known as Noah’s Book. God Almighty says: Humankind were a single community; then Allah sent the prophets as bearers of good news and as warners, and He sent down with them the Book with the truth, that it may judge between the people concerning that about which they differed (). “The Book” in this verse refers to Noah’s Book.
Prophets Jacob and Joseph
213. Why did the Prophet Jacob’s children, at the time of his demise, described themselves and their father as the descendants of Ishmael, when they said: We will worship your God, and the God of your fathers (ābāʾika), Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, the One God, and to Him do we submit ()? Ishmael was Isaac’s brother, which would make him their paternal uncle, not their father.
Answer: It is of interest to know that this verse best indicates that ab (father), in the Holy Qur’an, may imply ʿamm (paternal uncle). Abraham had two sons: Isaac and Ishmael, and Jacob was Isaac’s son. Accordingly, Abraham was the paternal grandfather of Jacob; Isaac was his father; and Ishmael was his paternal uncle.
However, he is regarded as one of his ancestors (ābāʾ); the word ab (father) is applied to all the three. Thus, it becomes evident that even though Abraham calls Āzar “father” (ab), as mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, it does not indicate that Āzar was his father. Āzar was in fact Abraham’s paternal uncle; Abraham’s father was Tārukh (Terah).
Āzar was an idolater and a polytheist. Abraham asked him to abandon idolatry and embrace monotheism, as reflected in these verses: When he said to his father, “Father! Why do you worship that which neither hears nor sees, and is of no avail to you in any way? Father! Indeed knowledge has already come to me which has not come to you. So follow me that I may guide you to a right path” ().
Āzar threatened to slay him and drove him away: If you do not relinquish, I shall stone you. Keep away from me gently (). However, Abraham, following the injunction of the verse: And when the fools address them, they say, “Peace!” (). That is why we read: He said, “Peace be to you! I shall plead with my Lord to forgive you” (). Thus, Abraham promised to invoke God to forgive Āzar, as he prayed later: And forgive my father, for he is one of those who are astray (). That was when he still hoped that Āzar might believe in God, as reflected in the verse: Abraham’s pleading forgiveness for his father was only to fulfill a promise he had made him ().
When he was certain that Āzar would not seek the truth, rather he is an enemy of God, Abraham turned away from him: So when it became manifest to him that he was an enemy of God, he repudiated him (). All these occurred in the early stages of his prophetic mission, before his emigration to the Holy Land and before having children. Then, he made up his mind to emigrate and depart for the Holy Land. Then in his late career and after denouncing his paternal uncle Āzar, he asked God to forgive his parents. There he referred to his father by wālid, which is used specifically for biological father: Our Lord! Forgive me and my parents (wālidayya) ().
In this supplication, Abraham invokes God to forgive his father (wālid), rather than his paternal uncle Āzar (ab). It would have been meaningless to ask God to forgive Āzar after denouncing him. Instead, he invoked God to forgive himself and his biological parents (wālidayya).
214. In response to his brothers’ apologies, the Prophet Joseph: There shall be no reproach on you today. Allah will forgive you, and He is the most merciful of the merciful (). What did he intend by saying: There shall be no reproach on you today?
Answer: It means that they would never be mistreated by him. This was a sign of Joseph’s utmost magnanimity, for he had suffered so many agonies caused by his brothers in a period spanning forty years, from being cast down into the well to being sold as a slave and being cast into prison. In return for all this, he simply said: There shall be no reproach on you today ().
215. As mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, the brothers of Prophet Joseph said: Surely Joseph and his brother are dearer to our father than [the rest of] us (). Did the Prophet Jacob love Joseph due to his beauty?
Answer: It was due to the Prophet Jacob’s divinely given intuition, as he said to Joseph: That is how your Lord will choose you (yajtabīka, from ijtibāʾ), and teach you the interpretation of dreams, and complete His blessing upon you and upon the house of Jacob, just as He completed it earlier for your fathers, Abraham and Isaac (). The word ijtibāʾ (choosing) means “to collect and select what is due.” Jacob said that God has chosen Joseph and will grant him the same blessing that He bestowed on Abraham and Isaac. It means that Joseph resembled Abraham and Isaac in excellence.
Prophets David and Solomon
216. God says: And We gave David the Psalms (, ). What were the contents of Prophet David’s Psalms (Zabūr)? Could we say that he was an ulū al-ʿazm (resolute) prophet on the basis that he was given a scripture?
Answer: No, the Psalms did not contain any divine laws, but they consisted of prayers and invocations.
217. Did the Prophet Solomon have a flying carpet?
Answer: There are numerous traditions in this respect, such that we cannot reject them all.
218. God Almighty says: When they came to the Valley of Ants, an ant said, “O ants! Enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his hosts should trample on you while they are unaware” (). It is narrated concerning this verse that the Prophet Solomon said to that ant, “We were flying in the sky, so why did you say to the ants: Enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his hosts should trample on you?” The ant replied, “I feared lest they should be fascinated by you and thus forgot God, or that they would look at your glory and thus develop a liking for the life and pleasures of this world.” Is this tradition sound?
Answer: I haven’t come across this tradition. Besides, the Prophet Solomon’s carpet might not have been so large as to carry his entire army. There are some strange accounts narrated concerning the verse, Certainly We tried Solomon, and cast a [lifeless] body on his throne. Thereupon he was penitent (); accounts which are irreconcilable with his status as a prophet. For example, it is narrated that one day the Archangel ʿIzrāʾīl (Angel of Death) visited the Prophet Solomon, where he stared at Solomon’s son. Thus Solomon commanded the wind to take away his son and hide him in the clouds.
219. The Prophet Solomon said: My Lord! Forgive me, and grant me a kingdom that does not befit anyone except me. Indeed You are the All-Munificent (). Was it befitting of him as a prophet to make this request?
Answer: It was actually most befitting of him! He invoked God to grant him a sovereignty that God would not normally give to anyone. He did not say, “Give me but don’t give anybody else.” Instead, he said: “Give me that which you do not give anybody else.”
220. When he says, that does not befit anyone, doesn’t it mean that others are not worthy while I am worthy? Doesn’t this request imply a sense of envy [that is, exclusion, monopolization]?
Answer: He invoked God to grant him a sovereignty which will not be granted anybody else after him. Had he said, “Grant me but not anybody else,” such request would have implied envy. But Solomon simply invoked God to grant him a sovereignty which does not befit anybody else. In other words, he asked for a sovereignty that is beyond the worth and merit of everyone. He did not say that “others are not worthy but I am!”
Prophet Jesus and the Holy Mary
221. Concerning Jesus, God Almighty says: When Allah said, “O Jesus, I shall take you (mutawaffika, from tawaffī), and I shall raise you up towards Myself” (). However, it is reflected in another verse that Jesus neither died nor was he crucified: And certainly they did not kill him; rather Allah raised him up towards Himself ().
Answer: The word tawaffī [which is used in the first verse] does not mean “making one to die and perish.” Rather, whenever this word is used in the Holy Qur’an, it means “to take, to seize.” Similarly, when it is used for loans and claims, it implies collecting. Accordingly, I shall take you, and I shall raise you up () implies that God will take him from his people, rather than He will take his life and soul. It is a matter of being delivered, rather than being annihilated.
Nowhere in the Qur’an does the word tawaffī mean death. Some examples are: Allah takes (yatawaffá) the souls at the time of their death (); When death approaches anyone of you, Our messengers take him away (tawaffathu) (); Say, “You will be taken away (yatawaffākum) by the Angel of Death, who has been charged with you” (). This can be deduced from the last verse, which is mentioned in response to: They [the unbelievers] say, “When we have been lost in the dust, shall we be indeed created anew?” Rather they disbelieve in the encounter with their Lord ().
The verse [] is a counterargument against those who denied afterlife and the Resurrection. They said, “Will we be raised from the dead when our bodies will have been decomposed and indistinguishably scattered throughout the land?” Thus God says in response: Say, “You will be taken away (yatawaffākum, from tawaffī) by the Angel of Death” (). “You” here refers to their souls. Their souls will be taken from their bodies, which means that they will not perish to non-existence by death. If the word tawaffī meant death, then this verse could not serve as a counterargument against them.
God tells them that they will not perish by tawaffī, but you will be taken away by the Angel of Death, who has been charged with you (). Their souls will be entrusted to God and preserved. It is only the bodies which perish, just as they wree always subject to transformation in this life. Thus, what defines an individual is his soul, not his body; and the human soul is not destroyed by the destruction and decay of the body.
Another counterargument against the disbelievers’ denial is found at the end of the last verse: Rather they disbelieve in the encounter with their Lord (). This means that the encounter with their Lord is bound to happen [thus the souls will not perish].
222. According to the Qur’an, baby Jesus said in his cradle: Indeed I am a servant of Allah! He has given me the Book and made me a prophet. He has made me blessed, wherever I may be, and He has enjoined me to [maintain] the prayer and to [pay] the zakat as long as I live, and to be good to my mother (). The point is that Jesus had not served God at that time, and he did good to his mother only later on. How could the words of Jesus in this verse be justified?
Answer: In what he said, the pronoun “I” does not refer to him only at that time, but it refers to his entire lifetime in this world, from his birth to his ascension towards God. The same is true about to be good to my mother ()
223. God Almighty says: And the boy is not like the girl (). Who did say this? Mary, Mary’s mother, or God?
Answer: God said this. The definite article al- in al-dhakar (the boy, the male) and al-unthá (the girl, the female) implies familiarity and acquaintance (ʿahd). God is saying, “The son which Mary’s mother wished was not the same as the daughter that We gave her.”
224. Why is the word iṣṭifaʾ (choosing) repeated in the verse: And when the angels said, “O Mary, Allah has chosen you and purified you, and He has chosen you above the world’s women” ()?
Answer: The latter instance of “choosing” refers to Mary’s preferment over other women. The former is general in application, in that it includes both men and women. It means that Mary was chosen from among women and men.
225. Was Mary preferred over men as well?
Answer: Mary was a very great and noble figure. She is referred to in the Qur’an along with the prophets. The Qur’an says: And mention in the Book Mary (). Then in the following verses, Abraham, Moses, Ishmael, and Idrīs (Enoch) are mentioned in the same way: And mention in the Book Abraham. Indeed he was a truthful one, a prophet (); And mention in the Book Moses. Indeed he was exclusively dedicated [to Allah], and a messenger and a prophet (); And mention in the Book Ishmael. Indeed he was true to his promise, and a messenger and a prophet (); And mention in the Book Idrīs. Indeed he was a truthful one, a prophet ().
226. Is Mary included in the verse: They are the ones whom Allah has blessed ()?
Answer: Yes, the verse in question is a reference to Mary as well as all those referred to in the previous verses.
227. Is Mary even preferred over Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ?
Answer: The Messenger of God said, “Mary was the master of all ladies in her time, but my daughter Fāṭimah is the master of all ladies from the beginning to the end.”
For further details, see al-Mīzān, vol. 2, pp. 115, 128. See also a tradition narrated from Imam al-Bāqir reported in ibid, p. 146. ↩︎
See verse . ↩︎
See Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 11, p. 211, tradition 17, vol. 99, p. 61, tradition 31. ↩︎
See Wasāʾil al-Shīʿah, vol. 11, p. 12, tradition 14118. Zurārah narrates: I said to Imam al-Ṣādiq, “May I be your ransom! It’s been forty years that I inquire from you about the hajj and you issue rulings (fatwa) about it.” The imam replied, “O Zurārah! Do you expect to exhaust in forty years every question regarding pilgrimage to a House which was visited by pilgrims two thousand years before the Prophet Adam?!” ↩︎
See Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 5, p. 330, tradition 24, vol. 6, p. 97, tradition 2, vol. 11, p. 110, traditions 24-25, p. 184, tradition 36, p. 194, tradition 48, p. 209, tradition 11, vol. 17, p. 89, tradition 18, vol. 58, p. 5, tradition 2, p. 55, tradition 10, p. 58, tradition 5, p. 61, tradition 12, vol. 84, p. 120, tradition 19. ↩︎
See ibid., vol. 11, p. 206, tradition 7, vol. 26, p. 269, tradition 6, vol. 58, p. 57, tradition 2, vol. 99, p. 58, tradition 12. ↩︎
See Man Lā Yaḥḍuruhu al-Faqīh, vol. 2, p. 519. ↩︎
See Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 11, p. 211, tradition 17, vol. 99, p. 61, tradition 31. ↩︎
See ibid., vol. 15, p. 7, vol. 15, p. 127, tradition 67, p. 144, tradition 76, vol. 35, p. 34, tradition 34, p. 81, tradition 22. ↩︎
Ibid., vol. 99, p. 64, tradition 41. ↩︎
TR: It can be inferred from verse that hajj was practiced overall at the time of Prophet Moses. The narrations also suggest that all prophets—including Adam, Noah, Moses, David, Solomon, Jonah and Jesus—performed the hajj. ʿAllāmah referred to one of these narrations in the last question. Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī, vol. 1, p. 60; al-Kāfī, vol. 4, p. 214; Man lā Yaḥduruhu al-Faqīh, vol. 2, pp. 234-236; ʿUyūn-i Akhbār al-Riḍā, vol. 2, p. 120. ↩︎
See al-Kāfī, vol. 4, p. 201. ↩︎
TR: Both meanings are found in the narrations. ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī has presented these in his discussion of traditions under verse in al-Mīzān. See volume 3, pp. 188-189 of the English translation. ↩︎
TR: See ʿAllāmah’s discussion of traditions under verse in al-Mīzān, volume 7, pp. 215-216 of the English translation. ↩︎
TR: Islamic philosophy classifies the planes of existence into three: (1) The realm of nature or matter, which includes existents that are material both in their essence and in their actions. (2) The realm of forms or the imaginal world (ʿālam al-mithāl), which includes existents that are immaterial in their essence but not in their actions. There is no matter in the imaginal world, but there are attributes of matter such as forms and shapes. (3) The realm of intellect, where “intellect” denotes sheer immateriality. It includes existents that are immaterial both in their essence and in their actions. ↩︎
TR: This shows that from the beginning Adam had a material aspect, although he also had an immaterial dimension. He was meant to descend on the earth even before being placed in the imaginal garden, as it can be deduced from verse . ↩︎
Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 11, p. 188, tradition 45. ↩︎
See al-Kāfī, vol. 1, p. 151; Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 4, pp. 239, 292, vol. 5, pp. 101, 124; al-Tawḥīd, p. 64. ↩︎
In other words, legislatively you are told to fast that day, but if one fails to fast it, it shows that God did not will the fasting to occur. ↩︎
TR: This narration was not found. What is meant by “violation” here is not the approval of its violation as a value judgment, but the possibility of its violation as an objective fact. It is impossible for any event to come into existence without God’s creational will (al-irādah al-takwīniyyah). It is possible, however, that He ordains something legislatively but its opposite occurs existentially. Such violation would again occur only by God’s creational will or permission (al-idhn al-takwīnī). ↩︎
TR: This means that just as sinning is meaningless at that stage, infallibility is also meaningless. These concepts are only applicable to a context where a being with free will is faced with religious commands. The same can be said about the angels: even though they are sometimes called “infallible,” it should not be mixed with infallibility as it applies to the sphere of human activity. ↩︎
TR: This refers to verses and . ↩︎
There are four groups of traditions dealing with the “known time,” until when God has reprieved Iblīs, and when his life will come to an end: ↩︎
Wasāʾil al-Shīʿah, vol. 6, p. 388, tradition 8256; Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 57, p. 214, tradition 184, vol. 77, p. 301, tradition 6. ↩︎
TR: See ʿAllāmah’s discussion of traditions under verse in al-Mīzān, volume 7, p. 216 of the English translation. ↩︎
TR: Here “miracle” is meant specifically as a supernatural act that proves the prophethood of a prophet. ↩︎
See Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 11, p. 336; ʿAyyāshī, Tafsīr, vol. 2, p. 148; Jazāʾirī, Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ, p. 80; Maʿānī al-Akhbār, p. 151. ↩︎
TR: This is based on two assumptions: (1) “Book” in the Qur’an refers specifically to scriptures that bear divine law. (2) Noah was the first Prophet to bring a divine code of law. Both of these are deduced from the Qur’an, including the verse above (). Other verses were discussed in some questions above concerning prophethood. ↩︎
See Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 9, p. 223, vol. 14, pp. 3, 37; Tafsīr al-Qummī, vol. 2, pp. 77, 126. ↩︎
See Biḥār al-Anwār, vol. 14, pp. 90-92, vol. 64, p. 246. A similar account is to be found in Tafsīr al-Rāzī. ↩︎
See ibid., vol. 14, p. 98, tradition 4. This is a rather lengthy tradition. ↩︎
TR: There is rather a subtle difference between the two. In short, Solomon’s request did not involve any prohibitive component. It is also instructive to complement Solomon’s story in the Qur’an with his account in the Old Testament. There he does not request long life or riches, but requests wisdom, which God grants him. See 1 Kings 3:5ff and 2 Chronicles 1:7ff. Nevertheless he was also given riches and kingdom. ↩︎
TR: Her inclusion can be inferred from the subsequent part of the verse, where there is a category for each of the figures mentioned before. There, those whom We guided and chose () can best be matched with Mary. ↩︎
See ibid., vol. 14, p. 192, tradition 2, vol. 37, p. 85, tradition 52, vol. 43, p. 24, tradition 20. ↩︎