Believers! Remember the blessings God bestowed on you when hosts came down upon you. We let loose against them a windstorm and hosts that you could not see. Yet God sees all that you do.
They came upon you from above and from below you. Your eyes rolled (with fear) and your hearts leapt up to your throats, and confused thoughts about God passed through your minds. That was a situation when the believers were sorely tested and severely shaken. (The Confederates Al-Ahzab: 33: 9-11)
In the early days of Islam, it was in the midst of events that the Muslim personality was molded. With every new day and every new situation, this personality came closer to maturity, presenting its distinctive features. Furthermore, this Muslim community, reflecting the total sum of its members’ personalities, also had its own unique qualities and values that distinguished it from all other communities. At times, the predicaments the Muslim community faced presented its members with an acid test that separated the true from the false and which also proved everyone’s true mettle.
Qur’anic revelations were given either before or after a particular test, describing events and throwing light on the difficulties involved. This brought into focus the attitudes taken as the event unfolded, and what intentions and motives were behind these attitudes and feelings. The Qur’an then addressed people’s hearts as they lay open to the light, with no screen to cover them. It touched them at precisely the right spot so as to ensure the right response. This was a continuous educational exercise making use of events and experiences, one after the other, day after day.
The Muslims were not given the Qur’an in its totality in one go so that they could study it, understand its directives, observe its prohibitions and fulfill its commands. Instead, God put them to a variety of tests because He is fully aware that man does not attain full maturity except through practical experience and it is this that drives lessons home and molds characters. The Qur’an then tells people the truth about what has taken place and its significance. Thus, it issues its directives only when people have gone through the ordeal.
The experiences the Muslims went through during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace be upon him) were truly remarkable. For it was a period of direct contact between heaven and earth, reflected in both events and words. When a Muslim went to bed he was aware that God watched and heard him, and that his every action, word, thought or intention could be exposed and commented upon by the Qur’an. Similarly, all Muslims felt a direct contact with their Lord: if they faced a problem or a hardship, they hoped that the gates of heaven would open with a ruling that removed their difficulties. It was a period when God, in His majesty, said to one or the other: “You have done, intended, declared or said this and that; or you must do this or should refrain from that.” It is infinitely awesome that God should address Himself to a particular person when that person and all who live on earth, and indeed the whole earth with all that it contains, do not represent more than a tiny particle in His glorious kingdom. Hard as we may find it to reflect on that period and its events we can hardly imagine how it was in practice. This is indeed beyond imagination.
Yet God did not leave the education of the Muslims and the molding of their personalities to be accomplished through feelings only. He put them to practical tests necessitating their interaction. He is infinite in His wisdom, and He knows best the creation He has created. We need to reflect long on this wisdom so that we can better understand what we may encounter of tests during our own lives.
The passage, which we begin discussing today analyses one of the great events in the history of the Muslim community, indeed, one of its hardest tests. The event was the attack launched by confederate forces on Madinah, which took place in the fourth or fifth year of the Prophet’s migration. A thorough reading of this passage and the way it portrays the events and comments on them, highlighting certain scenes and bringing out certain thoughts and feelings experienced by some Muslims, will enable us to understand how God shaped the personality of the Muslim community through both the events themselves and the Qur’an. In order to understand this we will explain the Qur’anic text after we have briefly related the events as given in books on the Prophet’s life and history. This will demonstrate the great difference between how God relates historical events and the narrative man gives of them.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq relates: “The beginning of events leading to the Encounter of the Moat started when a number of Jews, including Sallam ibn Abi Al-Huaqayq, Huyay ibn Akhtab and Kinanah ibn Abi Al-Huqayq, all of the Al-Nadir tribe, and Huwadhah ibn Qays and Abu Ammar of Wa’il, as well as others of both Jewish tribes traveled to Makkah and spoke with the Quraysh. It was these Jews who worked hard to forge the alliance against God’s Messenger. When they met the Quraysh elders they called on them to join them in fighting the Prophet. They said to them: “We will join forces with you until we have exterminated him and his followers.” The Quraysh put the following question to them: ‘You, the Jews, are the people who follow the first divine book, and you know the issues over which we differ with Muhammad: which is better, our religion or his?”’ Those Jewish elders answered: “Your religion is better than his, and you are closer to the truth than him.” It is concerning these people that God revealed in the Qur’an:
Are you not aware of those who, having been granted a share of Divine revelations, now believe in falsehood and arrogant deviation (from Divine faith), and they say to the unbelievers that they are better guided than the believers. These are the ones whom God has rejected; anyone whom God rejects shall find none to succour him. Have they, perchance, a share in (God’s) dominion? If so, they would not give other people so much as (would fill) the groove of a date-stone. Do they, perchance, envy other people for what God has given them out of His bounty? We have indeed given revelation and wisdom to the House of Abraham, and We did bestow on them a mighty dominion. Some of them believe in him and some turn away from him. Sufficient scourge is the fire of Hell. (4: 51-55.)
The Quraysh were very happy with this answer and expressed a readiness to join the Jews in battle against the Prophet.
