Monday, March 28, 2005

2:62

Salaam all,

this is 2:62
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَالَّذِينَ هَادُواْ وَالنَّصَارَى وَالصَّابِئِينَ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحاً فَلَهُمْ أَجْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَلاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
Transliteration:
Inna allatheena amanoo waallatheenahadoo waalnnasara waalssabi-eenaman amana biAllahi waalyawmi al-akhiriwaAAamila salihan falahum ajruhum AAinda rabbihimwala khawfun AAalayhim wala hum yahzanoona

Note:
That Aya says with emphasis “ Those that Trusted/felt safe (in GOD), the Jews, the Christians and the Sabaeans, whoever makes own self feel safe/trust in the GOD and the last day and did works that are good/useful/sound (Things that make life on earth better to all on earth), they earned their compensation from their nurturer. There is no fear on them and they will not be sad.”

Personal note:
This is a key Ayah and has many important points. It says that GOD will compensate whoever trusts or feel safe in GOD, as well as believe in the day of judgement as well as doing the works that make life better on earth. Those works are spiritual and physical. They include the obligations of prayer, alms giving, fasting (and more). From a physical aspect, the taking care of the environment, the spreading of peace and reconciliation as well as the making useful, whatever was not useful (and more).

This also says that Heaven and the reward from GOD is open to anyone (irrespective of religion) who uses those simple, but challenging rules. It is a message of hope to all.

Translation of the Transliterated words:
INNA: This is mentioned for stressing what comes after.
Allatheena: Those that
Amanoo: Made themselves trust (in GOD)/made themselves feel safe (in GOD)
Note: The root here is A-M-N and it means to become safe/to become trusting for the verb and Safety/trust for the noun. AAMANOO is a third person plural in the past tense for a verb that is derived of the same root and that means Those that make themselves trust/feel safe (in GOD)
Waallatheena: And those that
Hadoo: Were Jewish
Note: the word points to the Jewish people.
Waalnnasara: And the Christians
Note: the word is the one that the Qur’an uses related to the Christians. It derives from the Town of NASIRA or Nazareth in Arabic. The same word has a root N-Sad-R and it means to Aid someone who needs Aid for the verb, or AID when needed for the noun. It could be that the Christians were called NASARA because they aided Jesus (peace be with him) at the time when he needed aid.
waalssabi-eena: And the Sabaeans
Note: this is a group of people with a religious belief that uses baptisms a lit and they revere John the Baptist. They live mainly in the Iraq area, and they are considered a Gnostic sect.
Man: Who
Amana: Makes self Trust/Makes Self feel safe
Note: the root is A-M-N and it means to become trusting/ to become safe for the verb and Safety/trust for the noun. AMAN is a third person singular past tense form of a related verb that means To make (someone or oneself) Trust/feel safe in (something or someone)
biAllahi: In the GOD/By the GOD
waalyawmi: And the day
Note: WA means And. YAWM means Day
al-akhiri: The last/The later
Note: The root is A-KH-R and it means last/later or other depending on the vowel between the second and the third consonants.
waAAamila: And made/did
Note: Wa means And. AAaMILA is derived from the Root Ain-M-L and it means to make/to do for the verb, and work for the noun. AAaMILA is a third person singular form of the verb in the past tense.
Salihan: Works that are good/useful/fixed if broken/sound and relationships reconciled. Anything that makes life on earth better
Note: this is a verb important word and a very important root. The root is Sad-L-Haa. It means to become fixed/good/useful for things or people and to become reconciled for relationships. The noun means fixing what it broken and reconciling a damaged relationship. SALIHAN is work that is sound/useful/good and relationships that are reconciled. In short any work that makes life on earth better
falahum: So to them
ajruhum: Their compensation for their work
Note: AJR is derived from the root A-J-R and it means to compensate for work done for the verb. For the noun, it means the compensation for the work that was done.
AAinda: At
Rabbihim: Their Nurturer
Note: the root is R-B-B and it means to grow/to become nurtured. RABB is the one that does the work, therefore the nurturer/ the sustainer.
Wala: And no
Khawfun: Fear
Note: the root is KH-W-F and it means to become afraid for the verb and fear for the noun. KHAWF is the noun in this case.
AAalayhim: On them
wala hum: And they will not
yahzanoona: Be sad/become sad
Note: the root is Haa-Z-N and it means to become sad/to be sad for the verb and Sadness for the noun. YAHZANOON is the third person plural in the present tense form of the verb.

Salaam all and have a great week

hussein

4 comments:

Chikara 2 said...

Salamun 'alaikum Hussein,

May I ask, is there any verses beside 2:62 that has the same message as is in 2:62 ?

Salam

hussein said...

Aya 5:69 says nearly the same.

Nayeem said...

Dear Mr. Hussein,

Assalaamu alaikum,

I really appreciate your endeavour. However, while going through the comment on 2:62, I do have some queries;

1- Your usage of AMN as made themselves trust and made themselves feel safe (in GOD). This translation doesnt say anything about believe.

2- With your personal note, this aya opens the door of heaven to everyone, irrespective of religion and it is a message of hope to all. Does it mean, all and sundry and eligible for everlasting bliss in heaven?

3- If this is the interpretation, then what do you have to say about the concept of final book, final messenger and believe in (Quran & Prophet Muhammad-saws). When the prophet had issues with his addressees in Makkah, Madinah and elsewhere!

If we take your interpretation, then the book will contradict and the history has to be re-written, especially the ones during the prophethood of Muhammad - saws.

hussein said...

Jazaka Allah kheir brother Nayeem,

Regarding point number 1. IMAN is about trust and safety mainly. When we translated IMAN as belief then we are shortchanging it to something much more restricted than the concepts that the Arabic word Iman covers. One may believe but not trust nor feel safe while the person who trusts and feels safe in an entity will believe it unconditionally. So, I chose trust and safety as my translation because I feel that it better reflects the true essence of the word IMAN while the term belief reflects only partial aspect of Iman and can lead to many misunderstandings as I will point later in this post. This understanding actually agrees with the Sunni scholarly understanding of the term IMAN where they are in agreement that it is in the heart, mind, tongue and action.

Your points 2 and 3 are really valuable and important. My last paragraph can certainly be misunderstood or taken beyond it's intent. The aya 2:62 cannot be read in isolation of the rest of the Qur'an as you said and it's understanding will have to be subjected to the criteria that other Ayat of the Qur'an impose on it. The main Ayat that come to mind are Ayat 3:19 and 3:85. So, if one takes all those ayat and 2:62 together then the way one understands 2:62 is like this: "Those of the above religions are in good shape as long as they have Iman, Trust and safety in Allah and the day of judgement manifested in the heart and the tongue and actions. The actions include fulfilling the definition of Islam".

Now the scholars of Islam would teach us that there is a "general" Islam and there is a "Particular" Islam. The general Islam is basically defined "Acting to the best of the person's abilities in accordance to Allah's teachings that are available to him/ her". While the particular Islam is the Islam that we know as came to the prophet Muhammad upon him be peace.

So, if the person did not receive the message of the particular Islam or it could not be appropriately understand then that person will be under the "general Islam" as long as he or she worked to the best of their abilities within what is available to them.

However, if that same person received the message of "particular Islam" and adequately understood it but rejected it preferring whatever he or she was on, then that person will be out of both the general and the particular Islam and the Aya 2:62 will not apply to him because such person did not have "IMAN" even though he or she may have "believed" that there is one God and a day of judgement. Why? because he or she did not trust Allah enough to follow His new message that needs to be followed.

The same applies to the finality of the message in that if someone comes claiming he or she is a new prophet with a new message then that is also outside of Iman and Islam since it is creating a new "Islam " that Allah did not bring down and this person is again outside of the Iman that is talked about in Aya 2:62 and outside of the "general" and the "oarticular' Islam.

I hope this helps a little and Jazaka Allah kheir again for bringing this subject. If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to ask again or to ask for any more clarifications.

Hussein