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
1 majma`-ul-bayan,
vol. 10, p. 476
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