Quran Garden

Session 484

Chapter 3

Verse 154

a continuation

After sorrow, He descended calm upon you, a sleep that overtook some of you.  Another group, caring only for themselves, entertained false thoughts about God, thoughts more appropriate to pagan ignorance, and said, "Do we get a say in any of this?" tell them, "Everything to do with this affair is in God's hands." They conceal in their hearts things they will not reveal to you.  They say, "If we had had our say in this, none of us would have been killed here." Tell them, "Even if you had resolved to stay at home, those who were destined to be killed would still have gone out to meet their deaths." God did this in order to test everything within your chests and in order to prove what is in your hearts.  God knows your innermost thoughts very well.  (Chapter 3: Verse 154)

We start with the phrase, "They conceal in their hearts things they will not reveal to you.  They say, "If we had had our say in this, none of us would have been killed here." Here Allah puts on display what the weak in faith hid in their hearts: They wanted to stay home and off the battlefield and then entertained the thought that God did not fulfill his promise, so as a result, they missed out on the victory and the loot.  They complained to themselves, "Do we get a say in any of this?  If the Muslims had listened to us, we would all be safe and would not have suffered what we suffered." It was as if they wanted to associate death and killing with specific places and reasons.    

Who said that death or killing is linked to anything?  Death is not associated with any cause, time, place, or age.  Haven't you seen someone die or get killed outside of a battlefield?  If killing only occurred in war, what they said would make sense.  Death is a general fact of life, and humans die because they simply do.   

Thus, if you associate death with a place or time, you have stepped outside the faith.  God says, "Even if you had resolved to stay at home, those who were destined to be killed would still have gone out to meet their deaths." And in another verse,

As for those who stayed behind and said of their brothers, "If only they had listened to us, they would not have been killed," tell them, "Ward off death from yourselves, if what you say is true." (3:168)

We say that the person who is destined to die is keener on meeting death than death is eager to meet him.  Take the example of an ill person who needs surgery.  The doctor advises him to wait a month because the operation is not urgent and his schedule is overbooked.  The patient insists, looks for mediators, and offers to pay extra to have the surgery done sooner.  The doctor reluctantly accepts and frees up time for the procedure, only for this patient to die on the operating table.  Wasn't this person chasing death more than death was chasing him?

God says, "Even if you had resolved to stay at home, those who were destined to be killed would still have gone out to meet their deaths.  God did this in order to test everything within your chests and in order to prove what is in your hearts."  The phrase "gone out" refers to the physical movement of stepping forward from the ranks.  The Muslims in Uhud and their descendants were tasked to carry the banner of Islam until the end of time.  Thus, they had to undergo a grueling purification test for such a critical mission.  Such a test cannot happen in the security and comforts of home but has to be carried out on the battlefield, and that is precisely what happened.  

We saw how the Muslim Army was distilled down to the best and most sincere believers.  Shortly after the Army departed Medina, a large group deserted along with their leader Ibn Ubay.  The remaining force was distilled again when some of the archers left their position to chase after the spoils.  The final purification came when a rumor spread that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was killed.  God says, "God did this in order to test everything within your chests and in order to prove what is in your hearts.  God knows your innermost thoughts very well."  We hide all our secrets in the chest and do whatever we can not to expose them to others.  But God, the All-Knowing, is fully aware of every thought you have.