Subtleties and Allusions

1) The Qur’an as the Reviver of Heavenly Religions

The late Kāshif al-Ghiṭāʾ has pointed out that the survival of Judaism and Christianity is due to the blessing of the Qur’an(460). This is because with the advancement of abstract intellectual sciences and empirical sensory sciences, the corrupted Torah and Gospel would not have been able to survive, and no one would have submitted to polytheistic Judaism and Christianity. This is because in the corrupted books of these sects, things are attributed to the prophets and saints of God that demonstrative reason does not accept.

If the Qur’an did not exist and the heavenly book was limited to the corrupted Torah and the dissolved Gospel, no one would have praised the prophets and saints of God for their infallibility, and would not have known Mary, Jesus, Moses, and other chosen ones of God for their purity. Gradually, those holy beings would have been regarded as ordinary guides.

The Qur’an revived the Torah and the Gospel and introduced the authentic and uncorrupted religions to the people. It praised the prophets for their infallibility and described Mary as possessing divine purity and selection. Therefore, if the Qur’an did not exist, there would be no news of heavenly religion on earth.

2) The Secret of the Invalidity of Corrupted Judaism and Christianity

The Jews and Christians were not content with their polytheistic innovations, but they considered them to be true and invalidated anything else. Thus, by monopolizing paradise, they imagined it to be exclusively theirs: “And they say, ‘None will enter Paradise except one who is a Jew or a Christian’”(461).

The Qur’an, warning of the danger of innovation in religion and exposing it, stated: The religion of all prophets is Islam. They all brought one truth, although the contribution of some prophets is precise and complete, and others more precise and more complete. All divine religions were sound, and none were flawed or polytheistic. Of course, Islam is more complete than previous religions and dominant over all of them. Others divided this single truth, considering what they had as right and invalidating what others had: “Indeed this, your religion, is one religion, and I am your Lord, so fear Me. But the people divided their religion among them into sects_—_each faction, in what it has, rejoicing”(462).

Jews and Christians, by allowing false beliefs into Judaism and Christianity, such as considering Ezra and Jesus Christ as sons of God, in fact invalidated their own religion. This is because the addition of the invalid to the perfect and the infiltration of falsehood into truth not only does not make that invalid and false true, but it also invalidates and falsifies the truth.

The Glorious God accepts pure religion: “So worship God, [being] sincere to Him in religion. Unquestionably, for God is the pure religion”(463). Therefore, even a small amount of ostentation in worship intended for God invalidates the entire worship, just as the addition of the unknown to the known in buying and selling makes the known unknown as well. Thus, the action of those who divided the divine religion and added falsehood to it is at the level of polytheism and causes the invalidation of this polytheistic religion: “And be not of those who associate partners with God, [Or] of those who have divided their religion and become sects, every faction rejoicing in what it has”(464).

3) Invalidating the False Claim of the People of the Book Regarding Divine Guardianship

The misguided notion of Jews and Christians, who considered only themselves to be righteous and destined for salvation while condemning others as invalid, not only led them to consider themselves as God’s guardians (awliyāʾ Allāh) but also gradually brought them to the erroneous belief of claiming formal prophethood, not natural prophethood. They counted themselves among the spiritual children of God Almighty, likening their relationship to that of a child to a father: “The Jews and Christians say, ‘We are the children of God and His beloved’”(465).

The Qur’an, in refuting these false claims, stated: The sign of divine guardianship is the desire to meet the Beloved, and the veil of this witnessing and meeting is the apparent life that must be removed through death. If you are truly among God’s guardians, you should be eager to meet your Guardian and wish for death, while in reality, you flee from death due to your misdeeds: “Say, ‘If you claim to be the allies of God excluding the [other] people, then wish for death, if you should be truthful.’ But they will not wish for it, ever, because of what their hands have put forth”(466). The sign of God’s love is protection from the torment of Hell, while you will be punished in Hell due to your misdeeds and sins: “But the Jews and the Christians say, ‘We are the children of God and His beloved.’ Say, ‘Then why does He punish you for your sins?’”(467).

God Almighty said: Their evil past prevents them from wishing for death. Not only are they not eager for death, but they are also more attached to the natural world than others, including the polytheists: “And you will surely find them the most greedy of people for life_—_[even] more than those who associate others with God. One of them wishes that he could be granted life a thousand years, but it would not remove him in the least from the [coming] punishment that he should be granted life”(468).

4) The Difficulty of Pure Monotheism

In the exegetical discussion, we alluded to the secret behind the Qur’an’s emphasis on Abraham’s, the Friend of the Most Merciful, innocence from doctrinal, moral, and practical disobedience, and its relation to what is mentioned in the verse under discussion. One of the points derived from this emphasis is the reference to the value and importance of pure monotheism and the scarcity of true monotheists.

Monotheism, contrary to the belief of most believers who consider it an easy matter and thus consider themselves monotheists and immune from polytheism, is a lofty attribute and one of the most difficult doctrinal qualities. Ordinary individuals in most cases rely on other than God, so if we analyze our inner beliefs, we find little trace of pure monotheism in ourselves. The Glorious God warns of this danger by stating that most believers are polytheists: “And most of them believe not in God without associating others (with Him)”(469). This is also why in some narrations, showing humility to the wealthy because of their wealth is considered a cause for the destruction of two-thirds of the foolish humble person’s religion: “Whoever comes to a rich person and humbles himself before him due to his wealth, two-thirds of his religion is gone”(470). This is because the causes of honor and factors of pride, namely Islam, Shi’ism, and guardianship, also exist in the poor. Therefore, the greater respect some people show to the wealthy is because they see them as closer to the world, and this is the very danger of polytheism and lack of pure monotheism that verses and narrations like these warn against.

The Qur’an, warning of the danger that some sins reach the border of polytheism, said: “Woe to those who associate others with God. Those who do not give zakāt”(471). Sin gradually leads a person to practical polytheism, then to moral polytheism, and finally to doctrinal polytheism.

The difficulty of pure monotheism has led to no statement being as weighty, magnificent, and valuable as the good word “There is no god but God,” as the Noble Prophet (s.a.w.) said: “Neither I nor any speaker before me has said anything like ‘There is no god but God’”(472). Although this blessed phrase is light and easy on the tongue, it is very heavy on the scale of belief, character, and action(473), to the extent that if the heavens and the earth were placed on one side of the scale and the good word “There is no god but God” on the other, the heavens and earth would not be able to bear it and would fall short in comparison: “If the heavens and their inhabitants and the seven earths were placed in one pan of the scale and ‘There is no god but God’ in the other, ‘There is no god but God’ would outweigh them”(474).