Qur’an...

Qur’an: And they say: “None shall enter the garden except he who is a Jew or a Christian” : The verse explicitly joins the Christians with the Jews; from now on the sins and crimes of both will be enumerated together. Qur’an: Yes!

whoever submits his self entirely to Allah and he is the doer of good, he has his reward with his Lord : It reiterates for the third time the basic principle that the spiritual felicity does not depend on name or nomenclature, that no one can get honour with Allah except by true faith in, and total surrender to, Him.

The first declaration was in the verse: Surely those who believe and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabaens, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good, they shall have their reward... (2:62); the second one was in the verse: Yea! whoever earns evil... And (as for) those who believe and do good deeds, these are the dwellers of the garden... (2:81-82); the third is this verse under discussion.

A comparison of this verse with the previous two shows that the true belief entails submitting one's self entirely to Allah; and “al- ihsan” ( اَلإحْسَانُ ) = to do good) is synonymous to the good deeds. Qur’an: while they recite the Book : that is, while they follow the Book revealed to them. They should not say such things because they have the Book with them and it clearly shows them where the truth is.

This explanation is supported by the next sentence, “Even thus say those who have no knowledge, like to what they say”. The word, “those who have no knowledge”, refers to the unbelievers (other than the People of the Book) and the polytheists of Arabia. They used to say, “The Muslims do not follow any-thing good”, or “The People of the Book do not follow anything good”. Qur’an: And who is more unjust than he who prevents. Apparently it refers to the unbelievers and polytheists of Mecca.

These two verses were revealed not long after the Apostle of Allah (S) emigrated to Medina. Qur’an: it was not for them that they should have entered them except in fear : The verb, “was”, shows that the sentence describes a past event. It perfectly fits the pagans of Mecca and their misdeeds.

The traditions say that “he who prevents” refers to the unbelievers of Mecca, it was they who prevented the Muslims from praying in the Sacred Mosque ( Masjidu 'l-Haram ) and in other mosques within the precinct of the Ka'bah.

✦ ✦ ✦