Appearance
The Meaning of “ilā Allāh”
Some exegetes(473) say: The word “ilā” means “with” and the phrase “man anṣārī ilā Allāh” means “who are my helpers with God?”; meaning which group will help me along with God? To support their view, they cite the verse “and do not eat up their property [by mingling it] with [ilā] your own property.”(474)
ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī, does not consider this explanation to be compatible with Qur’anic etiquette, because God is above being placed alongside others or having anything parallel to Him, such that God would be on the same level as something else in any matter.(475) The concept of “withness” (maʿiyya) in the Qur’an is either a special withness: “Indeed God is with those who are Godwary and those who are virtuous”,(476) or it is an existential withness (maʿiyya quyyūmī) as mentioned in the verse “and He is with you wherever you may be.”(477) Therefore, instead of manipulating the meaning of “ilā”, we should consider the word “helpers” (anṣār) in relation to spiritual wayfaring (sayr wa sulūk), because “help” (naṣr) is used with “with” (maʿ) not with “to” (ilā), unless it means “to traverse a path” (salaka).
Based on this, “Who will be my helpers for God’s sake?” means who will help me in preserving His religion. This meaning can also be understood from the verse “O you who have faith! Be God’s helpers, just as Jesus son of Mary said to the disciples, ‘Who will be my helpers for God’s sake?’ The Disciples said, ‘We will be God’s helpers!’ So a group of the Children of Israel believed, and a group disbelieved. Then We strengthened the faithful against their enemies, and they became the dominant ones.”(478) The disciples’ response also shows that Jesus (a.s.) was asking them for help in supporting God’s religion.
Of course, as ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī has stated, this is what Qur’anic etiquette requires. However, sometimes God mentions His noble name alongside others’ names to emphasize the importance of a matter, such as “Be wary of God, in whose Name you adjure one another, and the wombs”,(479) meaning observe the rights of both God and kinship. Also, like “O Prophet! Sufficient for you is God and those of the faithful who follow you.”(480) If the word “those” (man) is joined to “God” rather than to the addressee’s pronoun, the verse would mean that although armies of enemies have lined up against you, God and the believers are sufficient for you. However, considering the monotheistic spirit that pervades the entire Qur’an, which considers God alone as effective in all matters, “those” (man) should be joined to the addressee’s pronoun, even if this might not align with the apparent initial reading of the Qur’an. In other words, “Sufficient for you is God and those of the faithful who follow you” should be evaluated in light of that monotheistic spirit, just as the verse “But if they desire to deceive you, God is indeed sufficient for you. It is He who strengthened you with His help and with the means of the faithful”(481) means that God alone is sufficient for you, and it is He who supports you with His divine assistance and human forces. Indeed, it is He who guides the believers to follow the Prophet (s.a.w.), so that he may achieve victory.
Two points can be derived from these two verses: 1. The believers are not equal to God in helping the Prophet (s.a.w.), and saying “God and people” or “God and creation” is not compatible with complete monotheism (tawḥīd). 2. Mentioning people or believers alongside God means that believers and people are manifestations of God’s action, His agents and messengers, and in reality, they are companions and counterparts to divine help, not counterparts to Him. And when ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī stated that if “to” (ilā) means “with” (maʿ), it would not be compatible with Qur’anic etiquette, it is because in the verse under discussion there is no contextual evidence to preserve that monotheistic spirit, so it does not mean “with.”
Note:
It should be carefully noted that the meaning of Jesus’s (a.s.) request becomes clearer with the disciples’ response, because he said “Who will be my helpers toward God” and the disciples replied “We will be helpers of God” not helpers toward God; meaning that although our standing and resistance appears to be helping you (Jesus), it is actually helping God’s religion.
Some have said that no preposition has the meaning of another preposition, as each preposition has its own specific meaning. Sometimes some prepositions can be used in place of others and still be meaningful. Prepositions are close to each other in conveying meaning, and a person of little understanding might think that two prepositions mean the same thing; for example in “I will surely crucify you on the trunks of palm trees”,(482) if “on” (ʿalā) were used instead of “in” (fī) it would be correct; not because “on” means “in” or “in” means “on”, but because if something is hung on a tree, it is both on the tree and in the tree, like “in the mountain” and “on the mountain”; however in the example “dates in the bag”, if one were to say “on the bag”, it would not be meaningful.(483)