It means that society is not composed of more than two poles.

It means that society is not composed of more than two poles. The opulent, the oppressors, and the exploiters, who are also the disbelievers are on one side and the oppressed, who are also the believers, are on the other side. It is quite obvious that the division of society into oppressors and oppressed is responsible for giving rise to two groups at level of faith viz., the disbelievers and the believers.

Oppression is the essential condition accompanying polytheism, disbelief, hypocrisy, inequity, and corruption; being oppressed is the condition accompanying belief, monotheism, virtue, goodness, and piety. In order to be sure of the meaning of this correspondence, it is enough to study the verses of Surat al-'A'raf beginning from the verse 59 لقد أرسلنا نوحاً الى قومه.. (We sent Noah unto his people…) till the end of the verse 13, و دمرنا ما كان يصنع فرعون و قومه و ما كانوا يعرشون (...

We annihilated all Pharaoh and' his folk had done and that they had contrived.). ln these forty verses, the stories of Noah, Hud, Salih, Lot, Shu'ayb and Moses are narrated. In all these stories (with the exception of the story of Lot) it may be observed that the class that followed the prophets was the oppressed class ( mustad’af ), and the class that arose in revolt and negated them was the ruling class ( mala' ) of the tyrants ( mustakbirun ).

This correspondence is explained by nothing except class consciousness, which is the requisite condition as well as the result of historical mate­rialism. Thus according to the Qur’an the conflict between belief and disbelief reflects the corresponding struggle of the oppressed and the exploited against the oppressors and the exploiters. The Qur’an clearly considers ghina (i.e.

Korah was not an Egyptian, but belonged to the tribe of Israel. He was one of Moses' people, the same oppressed people whom Pharaoh was exploiting.