Quran Garden

Session 357

Chapter 3

Verse 23

Didn't you see those who were given a share of the Scripture? When they are called to God's Book to arbitrate between them in their disputes, a group from them turns away objecting. (Chapter 3: Verse 23)

There are many verses of the Quran that address our beloved Muhammad with the phrase "Didn't you see?"   In the verse under study, the matter was very clear to the Prophet Muhammad.  He saw those who were invited to God's Book to solve their disputes turn away over and over.  However, in many other verses, the question "Didn't you see?"  does not seem to make any sense because it asks the Prophet about events that happened before his time.  There is no way that Muhammad could have seen them.  Listen to the following verse from Surah Al-Baqarah:

Didn't you see those who abandoned their homes, though they were in the thousands, for fear of death? Allah said to them, "Die." Then He restored them to life. Truly, God shows real favor to people, but most of them are ungrateful. (2:243)

Allah chose to ask the Prophet Muhammad and the companions "Didn’t you see?" about an event that happened hundreds of years prior.  No one reciting the Quran could have seen these events.  They might have heard or read about it, but none could have seen it.  What is the point of the question then? It would have made more sense to ask, "Haven’t you heard?" or "Didn’t you read?"  We answer that eyesight is the most certain of our senses.  You may hear from someone you trust about an event that happened, but there is always room for doubt.  You may read about an event from a trusted news source, but there is still room for bias and error.  However, when you see something with your own eyes, you become certain.  So are the words of our Lord.  To the believer, what God says is as real and sure as one's own eyesight.  The Quran is God's word, and the phrase "Didn’t you see?" implies that we should believe in what God tells us with the same certainty as if we were there witnessing the event first hand.  A believer sees through his or her faith what his or her eyes fail to see.  This vision and certainty are continuous for every believer who recites the verse until the Day of Judgment. 

In another example, God addresses the Prophet in the following verse:

Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the people of the elephants? (105:1)

Some critics of Islam cite this verse to challenge the authenticity of the Quran.  Prophet Muhammad was born in the year of the battle of the elephant.  God addressed him by using the phrase "Didn’t you see?" although the Prophet, an infant at the time, could not have seen the incident.  We answer that when we hear the words of God, we believe in them as if we were physically there.  So let your Lord be more trustworthy to you than your own eyes.  When Allah informs you about an event, you should believe in it as if it has happened right in front of you.  Ready for an example?  God says:

God's command has already come, so do not ask to bring it on sooner.  Glory be to Him, and highly exalted be He above what they associate with Him! (16:01)

How is it that "God's command has already come," yet we are asked to be patient and not to hasten it?  The phrase "has already come" is in the past tense, meaning that it has happened.  We answer that Allah is the All-Powerful, All-Knowledgeable, and when He decrees a matter, no one can stop it.  Thus, Allah's will, even for future matters, will come to pass with absolute certainty.  No power can oppose the Almighty to bring forward a different matter. 

This brings us back to the verse.  God says, "Didn't you see those who were given a share of the scripture?"   What is a share? It is a part of something, less than the whole.  For example, if you have twenty dollars and you divide them amongst four people, each will receive a share of five dollars.  So, the phrase "those who were given a share of the scripture"  is a beautiful gesture from God.  Why? Because Allah is reminding our beloved Muhammad that some of the Jews and Christians of Medina are excused because only a small part of their original scriptures reached them.  God says:

When they dishonored their pledge, We condemned them and hardened their hearts. So they distort the words of the Scripture out of context and have forgotten some of what they were reminded with. You will always hear of treachery on their part except that of a few. But forbear and forgive them, for God loves those who do good. (5:13)

Of course, that does not apply to everyone.  Some of the scholars had full access to true knowledge.  God says:

Those We gave Scripture know it as well as they know their own sons, but some of them hide the truth that they know. (2:146)

The scholars who had full access to the original scriptures hid it from their followers.  Thus, many commoners were deceived, but that was not all.  God says: 

Among them is a group who distort the Book with their tongues so that you think it is from the Book when it is not.  They say, "It is from God," but it is not from God. They tell a lie against God, and they know it. (3:78)

So the heavenly scriptures that were revealed before the Quran were subjected to more than one type of assault until only a fraction of the truth remained.  The Quran is inviting the Christians and the Jews to uphold the remaining truths in their disputes, and discard the parts that were tainted by corrupt clergy over the centuries.