62. " verily those who believed (in the prophet of islam),
and those of jews
and
christians and sabians, whoever believed (truly) in allah and
the
last day, and worked righteousness for them is their
reward
with their lord, and no fear shall be upon them,
nor
shall they grieve. "
commentary :
a general principle for
salvation
the qur'an, here,
points to a general and common principle when
it proclaims that
that which is worthy is ` truth ' and ` reality '. with
allah, only ` true
faith ' and ` good deeds ' are accepted.
" verily,
those who believed (in the prophet of islam) and those of
jews and
christians and sabians, whoever believed (truly) in allah and the
last day, and
worked righteousness for them is their reward with their
lord, ..."
therefore, they will
have no fear in the future nor any grief for
their past:
"...and no
fear shall be upon them, nor shall they grieve."
this verse, with
nearly the same form, has occurred in sura
al-ma'idah, no. 5,
verse 69; and with a further variation on the
same subject in sura
al-hajj, no. 22, verse 17.
a careful study over
the verses cited after this verse in sura
al-ma'idah, makes it
clear that the jews and christians boasted that
their religions were
better than other religions. they imagined that all
of heaven would be
for them alone, exclusively.
that very pride,
perhaps, was seen in the manner of some
muslims, too. the
current verse denotes that superficial faith, especially
with the lack of
doing good deeds, whether it proceeds from muslims or
jews, christians and
sabians, or the followers of any other religion, is
worthless. faith in
allah and the last day of judgment is noted
worthy by allah when
it is true, pure, and sincere, and accompanied
with righteous
deeds. only this agendum deserves rewards and causes
peace, security, and
salvation for a believer.
who are the sabians ?
there are a variety
of opinions as to who the sabians are. here
you are introduced
to a few of them which are usually referred to. for
example, the
description cited in: ` an arabic english lexicon, part
4,' p. 1640, by
edward william lame is, in brief, as follows:
the term /sabi'un/
in the kuran is said to mean: ` those who
depart from one
religion to another ...[the sabians,] said to worship
the stars secretly,
and openly to profess themselves to belong to the
christians: they are
called /as-sabi'ah/ and /as-sabi'un/ : and they assert
that they are of the
religion of sabi the son of sheyth [or sheth] the
son of adam: their
appellation may also be pronounced /as-sabiyun/...or
the sabi'un are a
certain class of the people who possess revealed
scripture: or a
people whose religion resembles that of the christians,
except that their
qiblah is towards the place where blows the [south, or
southerly, wind
called] janub... or according to some, their qiblah is the
ka`bah: and they
assert that they are of the religion of noah. it is said
that they are thus
called in relation to sabi the son of lamak [or
lamech], the brother
of noah. it is said that they are worshippers of
angels: and it said
that they are the worshippers of the stars: and that
their appellation is
arabic; from /saba'/ ` he departed from a religion ';
or from /saba/ ` he
inclined ', because of their inclining from truth to
falsehood.
another idea about `
sabians ', the appellation mentioned in the
holy qur'an, is what
the known scholar, raqib, cites in his book,
`mufradat '. he
says: " they are a group of followers of noah (a.s.), and
their name
mentioned along with the names of believers, jews, and
christians, is
also an evidence that they have been a religious group of
people, believing
in one of the heavenly religions who believed in god and
the hereafter,
too."
some other
commentators have said that the idea that some have
called them pagans
and star worshippers, or some others have
considered them
zoroastrians, does not seem right, because sabians
believed that:
first, the heavenly holy books were revealed to adam
(a.s.) and then to
noah (a.s.) and after him to sam (a.s.), then to ram
(a.s.) and
thereafter to abraham (a.s.), then to moses (a.s.) and after
him to john (a.s.)
the son of zachariah, all of which were sent rightfully
and divinely.
who are the `people of the book '
?
the qur'anic phrase
/ 'ahlul kitab / ` the people of the book ' has
occurred in more
than 30 different verses of the qur'an where it mostly
means both the jews
and the christians or either of them.
the above mentioned
arabic-english lexicon, part one, page 121
explains the phrase
/ 'ahlul-kitab / thus: ` (the people of the scripture,
or bible; and) the
readers, or reciters, of the mosaic law, and of the
gospel.'
apparently, all the
adherents of the prophets who had revealed
books, the clearest
example of whom are jews and christians, may be
called ` the people
of the book '. if so, we can also consider the
prophet's tradition
when he was asked about the number of the books
allah revealed and
he (p.b.u.h.) replied: " one hundred and four books
were revealed:
ten books to adam (a.s.), fifty books to shith, thirty books to
ukhnukh (enoch)
and he is the first one who wrote by pen, ten books to
abraham, the
turah to moses, the ingeel to jesus, zabur to david, and the
qur'an to
muhammad (the prophet of islam)." 1