♠Moshood♠™

THE REJECTION OF ONE, THE DENIAL OF ALL By Imam Jibreel Jokomba Bismillah. There is a fascinating expression in suratu Shuaraa that deserves more than a fleeting glance. I have always maintained that some of the most profound treasures of the Qur’an lie in expressions that an inattentive reader might hurry past without a second thought. Allah says: كَذَّبَتْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍ الْمُرْسَلِينَ “The people of Nuh denied the messengers.” As you gad through the subsequent verses, you’ll discover that Allah makes a similar pronouncement concerning Aad, Thamood and several other nations that had the effrontery to reject their respective messengers. But here is something I want you to pay particular attention to. Nuh was the messenger sent to his people. HUD was sent to Aad, and Soolih to Thamood. Yet, in recounting their defiance, Allah repeatedly employs the plural expression المرسلين (the messengers), rather than the singular الرسول (the messenger). Why? Why would Allah accuse a nation of rejecting several messengers when, in fact, the messenger sent to them was only one? To an uninformed Muslim, this might appear to be a grammatical incongruity, an inexplicable departure from what the ordinary rules of expression would seem to demand. But such a conclusion would be a spectacular exhibition of ignorance, not a discovery of some linguistic blemish in the Quran. The Quran is not a literary composition struggling to attain perfection. Its eloquence is beyond the reach of human rivalry. Even the Arabs, whose linguistic prowess once towered over the literary landscape, could not produce its equal. Now, back to the discussion. There is a fundamental principle in Islamic theology which states: الكفر برسول يوجب الكفر بالرسل “Disbelief in one messenger necessarily entails disbelief in all the messengers.” This is where the supposed grammatical difficulty begins to unravel. The messengers of Allah were not isolated religious figures, each pursuing an independent theological ambition. They were successive bearers of one divine truth, entrusted with communicating the same fundamental message, although certain practical legislations differed from one dispensation to another. Consequently, to repudiate the prophethood of one genuine messenger is, in principle, to repudiate the very authority upon which the prophethood of the others rests. Interestingly, this explanation is not a product of modern theological reasoning. Imam Baghawi, in his Teseer, relates that Al-Hasan Al-Basri was asked about these very verses. How could Allah describe the people of Nuh, Aad and Thamood as having denied the messengers when each nation had only one messenger sent to it? His response was: إن الآخر جاء بما جاء الأول، فإذا كذبوا واحدا فقد كذبوا الرسل أجمعين In essence, the later messenger came with the same fundamental message as the earlier one. Therefore, whoever rejected one had, by implication, rejected them all. To further appreciate the magnitude of this principle, let us take a brief excursion into Suratul Baqarah. Allah says: آمن الرسول بما أنزل إليه من ربه والمؤمنون كل آمن بالله وملائكته وكتبه ورسله لا نفرق بين أحد من رسله “The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and so do the believers. All believe in Allah, His angels, His Books and His messengers. We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” The expression I want to draw your attention to is: لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِنْ رُسُلِهِ “We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” You cannot assemble a catalogue of prophets, embrace the ones whose teachings appeal to your religious inclinations, and discard the others as though divine revelation were a buffet from which you could make selective choices. No! Your belief in the messengers must be comprehensive. The deliberate rejection of even one prophet whose prophethood is established is incompatible with the faith Islam requires.