Questions and Answers

Question 1

What is this verse about, in brief?

Accepted Answer

God commands the Prophet to communicate a revelation and warns that if he does not, he will not have communicated His message at all. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says the verse mentions two features of this revelation: not communicating it is like not communicating the religion at its root, and communicating it caused the Prophet fear. That revelation is neither the whole of the religion nor one of its subsidiary matters, but one of its principles, realised in practice only through the wilāyah of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his imāmah. That is why God added a threat, and then a promise to protect the Prophet from the people.

Question 2

Why does the verse not say what is to be communicated?

Accepted Answer

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī takes the silence itself as a sign of the revelation’s greatness, its lofty standing and its importance. The vagueness of the speech, and the phrase that which has been sent down to you from your Lord, serve only to honour what is commanded. He also notes that the explicit command Communicate is used only in this verse, which shows the utmost concern for what it conveys.

Question 3

Why is the Prophet addressed as “O Apostle!” here?

Accepted Answer

The Qur’an addresses other prophets by their names, O Noah, O Adam, O Abraham, but it addresses the Prophet Muḥammad by the two titles O Prophet! and O Apostle!, as a mark of special honour. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī explains that O Prophet! is used where the subject is his relationship with God and the receiving of revelation, and O Apostle! where it is his relationship with the people and communicating revelation to them. The title of messengership also shows that, as far as his mission goes, his only duty is to communicate what has been sent down to him.

Question 4

Is the verse just about conveying the Qur’an word for word?

Accepted Answer

Some have read it that way: what counts is conveying the Qur’an with its exact meanings, words and composition, unchanged. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī accepts that the Qur’an was sent down from God in that form, without change or distortion, but says that is not what this verse means.

Question 5

Should the verse be read with the verses around it?

Accepted Answer

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī sets out a general principle of exegesis: one first looks at the context of the verse’s own words, before the reports and before the context of other verses. An external indicator is taken into account only after the verse’s internal indicator.

Question 6

How can a verse relate to the verses next to it?

Accepted Answer

He distinguishes three cases. Sometimes there is a definite connection, as when one verse asks a question and the next answers it, like the question about Dhū al-Qarnayn or about the Spirit. Sometimes there is no connection at all. And in many verses the connection is uncertain, so the surrounding verses are used to clarify the meaning.

Question 7

Is there an example of a passage with no connection to its context?

Accepted Answer

Yes: Today I have perfected your religion for you (5:3) comes in the middle of a list of forbidden foods. The sending down of food rulings does not make the faithless despair, and those rulings had been sent down before Sūrat al-Māʾidah, so the two words Today are not connected with them. Such a passage is like a speaker who breaks off to warn his listeners of some danger: the warning is connected neither with what comes before nor with what comes after, yet it is not idle, and may serve an important purpose.

Question 8

What do the verses before and after this one talk about?

Accepted Answer

They rebuke the People of the Book for turning away from God’s commands. Read on its own, by contrast, the verse is very clear: God commands the Prophet to communicate a new revelation, with a severe threat if he does not, and promises to protect him from the schemes of the people. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī concludes that the internal and external indicators point to a complete break between this verse and its neighbours, and that the internal context takes precedence.

Question 9

Could the verse be about communicating something to the Jews and Christians?

Accepted Answer

Some Sunni exegetes connected it with the preceding verses on not taking the Jews and Christians as allies. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī listed ten possible occasions of revelation, the tenth being the ḥadīth of Ghadīr, yet still connected the verse with the account of the Jews. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī rejects this. The promise of protection shows that communicating this matter carried danger for the Prophet, but at the end of his life the People of the Book were weak and stripped of power, and no harm was to be expected from them. Had they been the danger, the verse would have come down in the early years in Medina.

Question 10

Hadn’t the Prophet already said much harsher things to the Jews?

Accepted Answer

Yes. He had communicated to them, without fear, verses such as Be you spurned apes, as We cursed the People of the Sabbath and they were struck with abasement and poverty, and they earned Allah’s wrath. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī asks how he could fear them over some lesser matter when they were weak and humbled.

Question 11

Why does the promise of protection point to something especially dangerous?

Accepted Answer

At the beginning of his mission the Prophet was commanded to communicate tawḥīd and the abandoning of idols to Quraysh, who were extreme in their unbelief and a greater danger to him than the People of the Book. Yet God did not promise him protection then. So, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says, the subject of this verse is the most dangerous of the subjects the Prophet was newly charged with communicating.

Question 12

Did the Prophet ever hold back any revelation?

Accepted Answer

No. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī draws two attributes from the Qur’an. Everything he says is revelation, not desire: Nor does he speak out of [his own] desire: it is just a revelation that is revealed [to him]. And he communicated everything sent down to him, for he is not miserly concerning the Unseen, so he concealed nothing of it at all.

Question 13

What could have stood in the way of his communicating?

Accepted Answer

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī names four basic obstacles: economic siege, social and psychological pressure such as isolation and ridicule, political isolation, and fear of war. All of these were present at the beginning of the mission, and none of them stopped him. He did not draw back during the siege in the Shiʿb of Abū Ṭālib, nor when the hypocrites tried to cut off his support. How, then, could he desist when this verse came down, after the conquest of Mecca, in the days of Islam’s power?

Question 14

Was he afraid of war?

Accepted Answer

No. It was not permissible for him to flee the battlefield even if left alone, and God commanded him to fight even if no one helped him. Imam ʿAlī himself said: “Whenever the fighting grew fierce, we would shield ourselves with the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), and none of us was nearer to the enemy than he.” All the prophets fear no one but God: such as deliver the messages of Allah and fear Him, and fear no one except Allah. If that is true of them, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī asks, what of their Seal?

Question 15

Then why the threat and the promise of protection?

Accepted Answer

Because what is apparent from the verse is that the Prophet was hesitant about communicating this matter, fearful of it, and waiting for a suitable time. Had he felt no fear and made no delay, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says, there would have been no need for a threat or a promise of protection, and neither of these occurs in the verses of the beginning of the mission.

Question 16

Could “that which has been sent down” mean the whole religion?

Accepted Answer

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says it can hardly mean that. The verse would then have had to come down at the beginning of the mission, not at the end of the Prophet’s life. And the condition and its consequence would be the same: “if you do not communicate the whole religion, you will not have communicated the whole religion”, which is meaningless.

Question 17

Could the verse be Meccan, placed later in a Medinan sūrah?

Accepted Answer

Some exegetes held this, as the author of al-Manār relates. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī answers that a Meccan verse in a Medinan sūrah is possible in principle, but it goes against the default assumption and needs strong proof, and there is none here, while many indications show the verse cannot be from the beginning of Islam. That it came down alone before the Hijrah and was later placed in al-Māʾidah is “utterly far-fetched”.

Question 18

Could it be a ruling such as prayer or fasting?

Accepted Answer

No. Most subsidiary matters, such as prayer, zakāt, fasting and ḥajj, are mentioned in the Qur’an, and none of them was what the Prophet feared. So the verse refers to one of the principles (uṣūl) of the religion. It is not tawḥīd either, nor general prophethood or the challenge of the Qur’an, for he had communicated all of these without fear or delay before this verse came down.

Question 19

Could it be about the hypocrites or the polytheists?

Accepted Answer

Neither. Verses describing hypocrisy as a sickness had already come down, and the Prophet communicated them without fear or delay. As for the polytheists, he had argued against them with the verses of tawḥīd more than once, and after conquering Mecca he broke their idols while they looked on.

Question 20

So what was the matter to be communicated?

Accepted Answer

A principle of the religion with two attributes: it was so important that without it the Prophet would not have communicated anything of the religion, and he delayed communicating it out of fear, which is why God promised him protection. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says there is no doubt that this was the wilāyah of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and his succession (khilāfah) after the Prophet, for these two have both attributes, and nothing else does.

Question 21

How can leaving one matter be the same as not communicating the whole message?

Accepted Answer

Some exegetes said that leaving any part of the messages is like leaving them all, just as disbelieving in some is like disbelieving in all. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī found this weak and read the words as intensification, on the pattern of the poet’s “I am Abū al-Najm, and my poetry is my poetry”. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says traces of deviation appear plainly in exegeses of this kind, and that once the verse’s correct meaning is clear there is no need to answer these difficulties. ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī, whom he quotes, takes the meaning to be: if you do not communicate this ruling, you will not have communicated the root of His message, or the whole of it. The end of the verse shows that a faithless lot had resolved to oppose this ruling, and God promised to bring their scheming to nothing.

Question 22

Did the Prophet fall short when he asked for a pen and inkwell before his death?

Accepted Answer

No. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says what happened then did not arise from any shortcoming on the Prophet’s part, for he had communicated all of God’s messages. It was only that some people refused to bring him the pen and the inkwell.

Question 23

Was the Prophet afraid for himself?

Accepted Answer

No. He was always ready to communicate God’s command even at the cost of his life and wealth, as his wars show. He was not afraid of Abū Sufyān, who had only outwardly embraced Islam, nor of the Jews who had been driven from their strongholds. His fear, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says, was for the very principle of the religion: of the hypocrites’ misguiding, their plotting and their sowing of discord.

Question 24

What exactly did he fear would happen?

Accepted Answer

The hypocrites had kept silent about the verses against hypocrisy, but over the wilāyah and the succession some people might waver, and the hypocrites might say: the man who claimed prophethood ruled for a while, and now he has handed the government to his son-in-law. Many people were new to Islam, without a faith rooted in the heart, so there was a strong possibility they would be deceived and turn back on their heels, and the Prophet would then face war with them. He was waiting for a suitable opportunity until the command came that its time had come.

Question 25

Is it right for a prophet to feel fear?

Accepted Answer

This fear was praiseworthy and reasonable, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says, because it was for the preservation of the religion, not for himself. He gives other examples. The Prophet was apprehensive about marrying the wife of Zayd, a break with custom that could give rise to objection and apostasy: and you feared the people though Allah is worthier that you should fear Him. And when Moses felt a fear within his heart before the sorcerers, Imam ʿAlī said: “Moses did not feel fear for himself; he was apprehensive of the dominance of the ignorant and the reign of misguidance.”

Question 26

Does God promise to protect the Prophet’s life?

Accepted Answer

That is not what the verse means. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says the protection meant is not of his person but of his religious standing (shakhṣiyyah), on which the survival of Islam depends. Otherwise the promise would have come on the Night of the Bed (laylat al-mabīt), when the polytheists sought his life and ʿAlī slept in his place; yet God did not promise it then, but commanded him to emigrate.

Question 27

Might he have feared being killed before the religion was complete?

Accepted Answer

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī considers this and answers that the Prophet was a pure servant of God, as You have no hand in the matter (3:128) requires, and the matter belongs to God alone. Supposing the Prophet were killed, God would keep His religion alive without any need of him.

Question 28

Didn’t the Prophet send his guards away when the verse came down?

Accepted Answer

There is a report that he told the guards among his Companions: “Go back to your quarters, for God Almighty has protected me from the people.” Even so, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says, if the report is sound, the verse cannot be taken to mean only the protection of his person; he was in awe of the people only because of the political and social matters that affect the survival of their religion. Nor is what happened on the day of Uḥud inconsistent with the promise, since the verse came down at the end of his life, and what was intended was the protection of his standing.

Question 29

Who are “the people” he was protected from?

Accepted Answer

The Qur’an uses “the people” (al-nās) in different ways: neutrally, with honour, as in guidance to mankind, and with blame, as in most people do not know. Here the word is used with blame, and Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says it applies to the hypocrites who used to harm the Prophet. God promised to protect his standing and his religion from their schemes.

Question 30

What guidance is withheld from the faithless?

Accepted Answer

Not legislative guidance (al-hidāyah al-tashrīʿiyyah), which God has given to all. What is meant is the guidance of enabling grace (al-hidāyah al-tawfīqiyyah): God brings the scheming of the unbelievers to nothing, so that they are left disappointed. This shows, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says, that when the verse came down, in the tenth year of the Hijrah, there were those lying in wait for the religion, though they failed every time.

Question 31

Can the plotters ever succeed against the religion?

Accepted Answer

At first sight it seems that both sides have their plots and one of them wins. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī’s final view is that plots are with God: He did not give the unbelievers the chance to destroy the root of His religion by their plotting, even if some Muslims were killed and some of their places destroyed along the way. As the Qur’an says, their plots are known to Allah, so even a plot to move mountains would come to nothing.

Question 32

Who are “the faithless lot” in this verse?

Accepted Answer

Here the Qur’an calls the hypocrites unbelievers. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says it means everyone who rejected the wilāyah of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, whether in creed or in practice: the hypocrites who outwardly professed Islam, whom the Prophet feared. It does not mean unbelievers without qualification.

Question 33

Does mawlā at Ghadīr just mean “friend”?

Accepted Answer

The author of al-Manār said the ḥadīth of Ghadīr means only the wilāyah of help and affection, not of authority. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī rejects this. Before saying “Of whomever I am the master (mawlā), ʿAlī is his master”, the Prophet recited The Prophet is closer to the faithful than their own souls (33:6) and had the people acknowledge it. So wilāyah here is the wilāyah of disposal (wilāyat al-taṣarruf). Had he meant love and help, he would have recited the faithful, men and women, are comrades of one another instead. He adds that the People of the Household, who knew the secrets of revelation, all stated explicitly that the wilāyah in this verse is the wilāyah of disposal.

Question 34

How could the Imam know so much more than other people?

Accepted Answer

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says this question does not belong here, and the author of al-Manār was wrong to bring it in. The Qur’an is a reality that descends as a firm rope, not as raindrops, and extends through the worlds of nature, the image and the intellect. The perfect, infallible human being who holds fast to it is never parted from it, and so has kinds of knowledge that others do not, just as the Qur’an holds knowledge that other books do not. This has no connection with the Bāṭinīs, who disregard the outward meanings.

Question 35

What do the narrations say about why the verse came down?

Accepted Answer

Ibn ʿAbbās reports that it came down concerning ʿAlī: the Prophet took ʿAlī by the hand and said, “Of whomever I am the master, ʿAlī is his master. O God, befriend whoever befriends him, and be the enemy of whoever is his enemy.” Ibn ʿAbbās and Jābir add that the Prophet feared people would say, “He has favoured his cousin.” In a report from al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq, he feared it would be hard on a group of his Companions.

Question 36

Which obligation did the people abandon?

Accepted Answer

Imam al-Bāqir says God made five things obligatory: prayer, zakāt, fasting, ḥajj and the wilāyah. The people took four and abandoned one. When the wilāyah came down at ʿArafah with Today I have perfected your religion for you, the Prophet said, “My community is fresh from the Jāhiliyyah,” until a decisive command came, with a threat, and he took ʿAlī by the hand and said, “this is your guardian (walī) after me.”

Question 37

Do Sunni sources mention Ghadīr in connection with this verse?

Accepted Answer

Some Sunni exegetes refer to it briefly, but most do not mention it at all and cite other reports with no connection to the verse; some cite it and then raise objections to explain it away. ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī answered the problems raised in these exegeses and critically examined the Sunni reports on this verse.

Question 38

How strongly is the ḥadīth of Ghadīr reported?

Accepted Answer

It is mutawātir as the occasion of this verse’s revelation, transmitted by more than a hundred routes among both Sunnis and Shia. Many Companions narrated it, among them al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, Zayd ibn al-Arqam, Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, Salmān, Abū Dharr and Ibn ʿAbbās. The infallible Imams were unanimous on its soundness. In the Raḥbah at Kufa, Imam ʿAlī put the people under oath, and thirteen men stood and bore witness that they had heard it.

Question 39

Was ʿAlī’s name originally part of the verse?

Accepted Answer

Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says this is certainly incorrect. No one could have removed such words in the presence of all the Muslims, and had they been there, Imam ʿAlī would have argued with them at the Saqīfah and the Council, and the Imams would have held fast to them. Words like “concerning ʿAlī” in some reports are exegesis and application (taṭbīq): they mean the verse came down concerning him. The proof is that some reports also add “I will punish you with a painful punishment”, which is clearly an explanation of if you do not, you will not have communicated His message, and no one claims that phrase was removed.

Question 40

Why is ʿAlī not named in the Qur’an?

Accepted Answer

Imam al-Ṣādiq was asked this by Abū Baṣīr. He replied that prayer was sent down without naming three or four rakʿah*s, zakāt without naming one dirham in forty, and ḥajj without saying “go around seven times”: the Prophet explained each. Likewise, obey those vested with authority among you came down concerning ʿAlī, al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, and the Prophet said of ʿAlī, “Of whomever I am the master, ʿAlī is his master.” Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says this narration strongly indicates that what is reported about ʿAlī’s name is application of the verse to him, not a name that was later omitted.

Question 41

Why must anything equal to the Qur’an be appointed by God?

Accepted Answer

After narrations on the two weighty things, the Book of God and the People of the Household, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī observes that anything equal (ʿidl) to the Qur’an would have to be heavenly, and would have to be by appointment (naṣb), not by choice: the condition for it is that it be from God, not from the people.

Question 42

What happened to the man who objected at Ghadīr?

Accepted Answer

Imam al-Ṣādiq narrates that al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Ḥārith came to the Prophet and asked whether appointing ʿAlī was from him or from God. The Prophet swore it was from God. Al-Nuʿmān turned away saying, O Allah, if this be the truth from You, rain down upon us stones from the sky; a stone struck his head and killed him, and An asker asked for a punishment sure to befall was sent down. Does that conflict with Allah will not punish them while you are in their midst (8:33)? Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says that verse concerns the punishment of extermination and general chastisement, not a particular punishment. He adds that some hold Sūrat al-Maʿārij to be Medinan, and that even if it is Meccan, a Medinan verse in a Meccan sūrah is not objectionable.

Question 43

Why did the Prophet delay the announcement on the way back from ḥajj?

Accepted Answer

In Imam al-Bāqir’s account, Jibrīl commanded the Prophet to set up ʿAlī for the people, but he feared his people and the hypocrites would split apart and return to the ways of the Jāhiliyyah. He waited for God’s promise of protection, which did not come at the Mosque of al-Khayf or at Kurāʿ al-Ghamīm. At Ghadīr Khumm, three miles before al-Juḥfah, Jibrīl brought the verse with rebuke and with the protection.

Question 44

How many people were with the Prophet on that ḥajj?

Accepted Answer

Seventy thousand or more, according to the same narration: around the number of the companions of Moses from whom he took the oath of allegiance to Aaron, and who broke it and followed the Calf and al-Sāmirī. In the same way, it says, the Prophet took the oath of allegiance for ʿAlī, and they broke it: “a practice for a practice”.

Question 45

Why did the Prophet say he had asked to be excused?

Accepted Answer

In the sermon he says he asked Jibrīl to ask God to excuse him from this, because he knew how few were the Godwary and how many the hypocrites, and how often they had harmed him, even calling him “an ear”. Yet God would not be pleased with him unless he communicated what had been sent down.

Question 46

What did the Prophet say about ʿAlī in the sermon?

Accepted Answer

He said God had set ʿAlī up as guardian and Imam, whose obedience is obligatory on the Emigrants and the Helpers and on every monotheist, and that after him the imāmah would be in those from his loins. He described ʿAlī as his brother, his legatee and the vessel of his knowledge, and said God had perfected the religion only through his imāmah.

Question 47

What lessons does Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī draw from the sermon?

Accepted Answer

He points to two things: the hypocrites’ rancour caused the Prophet’s deliberate delay (tarayyuth), and that delay was praiseworthy; and the sermon shows regard for the rights of the people, among them the right to be informed about their future ruler. He also notes that the sermon interprets the Qur’an by the Qur’an, reading The Prophet is closer to the faithful than their own souls (33:6) alongside Your guardian is only Allah (5:55), so that the wilāyah in them must be one in meaning, and not the believers’ friendship with one another.

Questions and Answers ​

The address and the command ​

What is this verse about, in brief? ​

Why does the verse not say what is to be communicated? ​

Why is the Prophet addressed as “O Apostle!” here? ​

Is the verse just about conveying the Qur’an word for word? ​

Reading the verse in its context ​

Should the verse be read with the verses around it? ​

How can a verse relate to the verses next to it? ​

Is there an example of a passage with no connection to its context? ​

What do the verses before and after this one talk about? ​

Was the verse about the People of the Book? ​

Could the verse be about communicating something to the Jews and Christians? ​

Hadn’t the Prophet already said much harsher things to the Jews? ​

Why does the promise of protection point to something especially dangerous? ​

What was the Prophet commanded to communicate? ​

Did the Prophet ever hold back any revelation? ​

What could have stood in the way of his communicating? ​

Was he afraid of war? ​

Then why the threat and the promise of protection? ​

Could “that which has been sent down” mean the whole religion? ​

Could the verse be Meccan, placed later in a Medinan sūrah? ​

Could it be a ruling such as prayer or fasting? ​

Could it be about the hypocrites or the polytheists? ​

So what was the matter to be communicated? ​

“You will not have communicated His message” ​

How can leaving one matter be the same as not communicating the whole message? ​

Did the Prophet fall short when he asked for a pen and inkwell before his death? ​

Why the Prophet feared ​

Was the Prophet afraid for himself? ​

What exactly did he fear would happen? ​

Is it right for a prophet to feel fear? ​

“Allah shall protect you from the people” ​

Does God promise to protect the Prophet’s life? ​

Might he have feared being killed before the religion was complete? ​

Didn’t the Prophet send his guards away when the verse came down? ​

Who are “the people” he was protected from? ​

“Indeed Allah does not guide the faithless lot” ​

What guidance is withheld from the faithless? ​

Can the plotters ever succeed against the religion? ​

Who are “the faithless lot” in this verse? ​

Allusions and subtleties ​

Does mawlā at Ghadīr just mean “friend”? ​

How could the Imam know so much more than other people? ​

The narrations on the occasion of revelation ​

What do the narrations say about why the verse came down? ​

Which obligation did the people abandon? ​

Do Sunni sources mention Ghadīr in connection with this verse? ​

How strongly is the ḥadīth of Ghadīr reported? ​

Was ʿAlī’s name originally part of the verse? ​

Why is ʿAlī not named in the Qur’an? ​

Why must anything equal to the Qur’an be appointed by God? ​

What happened to the man who objected at Ghadīr? ​

The ḥadīth of Ghadīr Khumm ​

Why did the Prophet delay the announcement on the way back from ḥajj? ​

How many people were with the Prophet on that ḥajj? ​

Why did the Prophet say he had asked to be excused? ​

What did the Prophet say about ʿAlī in the sermon? ​

What lessons does Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī draw from the sermon? ​

The address and the command