Quran Garden

Session 398

Chapter 3

Verse 69

Some of the People of the Book would dearly love to lead you astray, but they only lead themselves astray, though they do not realize it. (Chapter 3: Verse 69)

Why would anyone go out of their way to mislead others? Because misery loves company!  When a sinner sees people acting righteously, it highlights his or her failings.  Righteous people are able to control their desires and commit to God's teachings, while a sinner has little self-control.  Thus, he or she says out of envy, "How are these people able to control themselves?"  The righteous expose the sinners' weakness, so they feel the need to remove this nuisance from their way.  Thus, you often see those who properly practice faith ridiculed in their community. 

Take the example of a lazy student who sees her friend studying and preparing for exams.  She starts wondering, "Why is my friend disciplined to study and succeed, and I cannot bring myself to sit down and focus?" No one likes to feel inferior to others.  Sadly, for many people, the solution is not to sit down and study but to distract the good student from studying or make fun of her.  This is exactly what happens when someone is upright in a corrupt society.  God says:

Some of the People of the Book would dearly love to lead you astray.

And in another chapter:

The wicked used to laugh at the believers, wink at one another as they passed by them, and joke about them when they got back to their folks.  When they saw them, they said, "They have indeed gone astray," though they were not sent to be their keepers. (83:29-33)

Sinners often try to lead good people towards sin and, when they fail, they resort to mock and ridicule.  In essence, they work hard to adorn sin and undermine faith in society.  Don't we see this scenario play out in our communities today? Corrupt people often make fun of scholars and ridicule those who adhere to God's teachings as squares or out of touch with modernity.  And, when they get together with their family and friends, they share these fun stories.  Allah assures the believers that they will have a day when they too will laugh:

So, today, the believers are laughing at the disbelievers as they sit on couches, gazing in wonder. Have the disbelievers been repaid for what they used to do? (83:34-36)

This brings us back to the verse.  The phrase "would dearly love" indicates the disbelievers' deep wish to attract the believers to their camp.  But not everything that a person desires happens.  To wish is to demand something challenging or impossible to achieve.  At times, you may even end up with the opposite result.  God says, "But they only lead themselves astray, though they do not realize it."

Let's take a few moments to study the word "astray" translated from the Arabic origin ضَلَال (Dalal). When mentioned in the Quran, it holds a few distinct meanings.  For example, God says:

They say, "What! When we have been astray into the earth, shall we really be created anew?" In fact, they deny the meeting with their Lord. (32:10)

In the verse above, "astray" refers to the death and obliteration of the body.  In other words, the disbelievers are mocking the fact God will ever be able to resurrect bodies that decayed and vanished into the earth. 

The second meaning of "astray" is "to be aimless without a clear goal."  Allah says describing our beloved Muhammad before the advent of Islam:

Did He not find you astray and guided you? (93:07)

From his youth, Muhammad refused to worship the idols and rejected the practices of the pagans.  Muhammad would seclude himself from the corruption of Quraish and meditate in the cave of Heraa outside Mecca.  For years, he kept searching for the right path until God guided him with the revelation of the Quran. 

The last meaning of "astray" describes a person who knows the proper path but intentionally deviates from it.  God says:

Some of the People of the Book would dearly love to lead you astray, but they only lead themselves astray, though they do not realize it. (Chapter 3: Verse 69)

It is a double tragedy when the person who knows the truth decides to reject it and works hard to mislead others.  Rejecting God's teachings is a sin; leading others astray is a compound sin.  This concept helps us appreciate the following two verses.  God says:

No soul will bear the burden of another: even if a heavily laden soul should cry for help, none of its sins will be carried, not even by a close relative.  You can only warn those who fear their Lord, though they cannot see Him, and keep up the prayer –whoever purifies himself does so for his own benefit. Everything returns to God. (35:18)

We understand that each person is fully responsible for his or her actions, so if you sin, no one will carry that load for you.  Then we run across the following verse.  God says:

Hence, they will bear their own burdens of sin in full on the Day of Resurrection and some of the burdens of those whom they, being ignorant, caused to go astray. Look now! How terrible is the burden they load upon themselves! (16:25)

So which is it? Are you just responsible for your own sins? Or can you also be responsible for the sins of others? We answer that the burden of sin God referred to in the first verse is that of your own sins. In contrast, the burden in the second verse is that of misleading others.  Prophet Muhammad explained it best.  He, peace be upon him, said, "Whoever calls for guidance will have a reward equal to the reward of those who follow him or her until the Day of Resurrection, without diminishing anything from their rewards.  And whoever calls for misguidance will carry sins equal to the sins of all those who follow him or her until the Day of Resurrection, without diminishing anything from their sins."  God says:

Some of the People of the Book would dearly love to lead you astray, but they only lead themselves astray, though they do not realize it. (Chapter 3: Verse 69)

What the disbelievers do not realize is how catastrophic the burdens of their actions are.  They will be held accountable for all those they mislead.  Had they taken just a few moments to think, they would have left people alone and would not have tried to corrupt all those around them.