“Euzubillahiminesheytanirracim.”
“Bismillahirrahmanirrahim”
67 – Ve iz kale musa li kavmihi innellahe ye’murukum en tezbehu bekarah *kalu etettehizuna huzuva *kale euzu billahi en ekune minel cahilin
And recall when Moses said to his people, “Allah commands you to slaughter a cow.” They said, “Are you mocking us?” He said, “I seek refuge in Allah, my essential reality, from being among the ignorant (those who are veiled from the reality).” (A.Hulusi)
And remember Moses said to his people: “Allah commands that ye sacrifice a heifer.” They said: “Makest thou a laughing-stock of us?” He said: “Allah save me from being an ignorant (fool)!”
Ve iz kale musa li kavmihi innellahe ye’murukum en tezbehu bekarah *kalu etettehizuna huzuva *kale euzu billahi en ekune minel cahilin O, Sons of Israel who became Jews; remember the time Moses addressed his community. “Allah commands you to slaughter, sacrifice a cow.” They asked; “Are you mocking us?” And after that, Moses answered them; “I seek refuge in Allah from being among the ignorant.”
Dear fellows, there’s this incident starting here in this verse. The incident here is the reason of this suras name. This sura was named as Baqarah (Cow), because of this cow situation.
Baqarah means cow. And you will comprehend why this sura was named after a cow and the function of this cow, after we finish translating this chapter. But at this point, I should accept that, naming this sura with that name is indeed an accurate choice. Because every community, every society who are blessed with the responsibility of carrying the revelations to humanity; may have a sacred cow. So the cow here actually symbolizes the true and bigger threat and danger awaiting the communities who are responsible to deliver the revelations, celestial words to mankind. Emphasises the situation to collect the attention.
The thing being told here; Moses said to his community; “Allah commands you to sacrifice a cow.” Now let’s look at the historical background for this verse and remember briefly; a murder had occured among sons of Israel. An unresolved assassination. Perpetrators unknown. A verdict was present in Tora at that time, and it was this. If a murder is happened somewhere, victim is found but murderer doesn’t; people must gathered in the nearest settlement to the crime scene and sacrifice a cow. All people present there must wash their hands with blood of this sacrifice and take a vow. This vow indicates the innocence of this person for that crime. If by any chance a person refuses to swear, it reveals that person is the perpetrator for the crime. And if no one steps out, in that case the responsibility of the community is done. This is the order put by Allah in the sheriah of Moses.
So by holding this historical background in our minds, we shall continue. They answered the verdict of Allah via their prophet Moses like this. “Are you mocking us?” Actually this hesitation, this question reveals that Allah already figured out their intentions. It means they noticed why they were ordered to sacrifice a cow. And right after this question, Moses answered like this. “It’s the job of a prophet to deliver a command in the name of Allah. And a prophet can never make any kind of ignorance about this.” This is the meaning of this addressing. “I seek refuge from being among the ignorance. From mocking you in the name of Allah… From telling you, “Allah commands it.”, even Allah wasn’t commanding something. I seek refuge from that because those type of behaviours can only be done by ignorances who doesn’t recognize Allah. And a prophet who knows and recognizes Allah never does an act of ignorance like this.”
[Additional Info: There was a rich man among the sons of Israel. This man had a young son. Two sons of his uncle, or sons of his boys uncle killed this boy, so that his heritage, his share from fathers wealth would pass to them. They left the body of him on the road between the clans of sons of Israel. So naturally when he was found, these clans began to accuse and fight each other about this boys murder. Right about that time, an order was sent down to sacrifice a cow, to take a piece of meat from that sacrifice and rub it to this boys body. That way this boy would be resurrected and tell his killers. With a metaphoric angle of this incident, this young boy is the heart, son of the soul who owns all the wisdom and riches. Murdering him means keeping him from living his true life, ripping out the true love from him which is the center of life and enslaving him by the forces of lust and wrath.
And the reasoning from cow is the animalic ego. Slaughtering this animalistic ego means crushing the desires and earthly passions. Because desire and earthly passion is the life of ego. Cutting the ego with the blade of austerity means to prevent it from action by its own desires.(İbn. Arabi-Te’vilat)]
68 – Kalud’u lena rabbeke yubeyyil lena ma hi *kale innehu yekulu inneha bekarutl la fariduv ve la bikr * avanum beyne zalik * fef’alu ma tu’merun
They said, “Turn to your Rabb to make clear to us what exactly He wants (slaughtered).” “Indeed He says ‘It is a cow which is neither too old nor too young, but in between the two’, so now do as you are commanded.” (A.Hulusi)
They said: “Beseech on our behalf Thy Lord to make plain to us what (heifer) it is!” He said; “He says: The heifer should be neither too old nor too young, but of middling age. Now do what ye are commanded!”
Kalud’u lena rabbeke yubeyyil lena ma hi They said, “Turn to your Rabb to explain us the features of this cow.” Kale Moses answered; innehu yekulu inneha bekarutl la fariduv ve la bikr. “Allah says: The cow should be neither too old nor too young.” avanum beyne zalik “but in between the two.” fef’alu ma tu’merun “Now do what you are commanded!”
They didn’t comply this order even they personally recieved it. This time they impeded and continued to ask questions to change the agenda.
69 – Kaludu lena rabbeke yubeyyil lena ma levnuha *kale innehu yekulu inneha bekaratun safrau fakiul levnuha tesurrun nazirin
(Unsatisfied with this answer, they went into further unnecessary detail and) said, “Turn to your Rabb to inform us of its color.” “Indeed He says, ‘It is a yellow cow, bright in color – pleasing to the eye.’” (A.Hulusi)
They said: “Beseech on our behalf Thy Lord to make plain to us her color.” He said: “He says: A fawn-colored heifer, pure and rich in tone, the admiration of beholders!”
Then they said; “O Moses, ask your Rabb to tell us the color of it. kale innehu yekulu inneha bekaratun safrau fakiul levnuha tesurrun nazirin Moses answered them and said: “Indeed my Rabb says: the cow you should sacrifice must be a yellow cow, its color must be bright to please the eyes of beholders.”
Of course there’s a wordplay here, a settle euphemism. That is tesurrun nazirin pure and bright color – “admiration of beholders.” Tesurru means, to create a feeling of admiration for those who look at something. At that time they figured out that a specific cow was being mentioned there. What was that cow? It’s like a replacement of the cow within their hearts of which they gave their golden jeweleries on their necks and arms to Samiri the Artist, – right after their release from the torment of Pharaoh and after Moses’s journey to the Mountain Tur to get revelations from Allah- to create the idolic statue of cow deity, Hathor which is also worshipped by their enemy Pharaoh and other Egyptians instead of just thanking their Rabb.
Allah ordered them to cut their enemies goddess there. Because even their bodies were free from slavery, their souls were still in shackles and chains. So this incident was the symbolic ritual of saying, “Now you make your souls free.” The cow which they were ordered to sacrifice was also the symbol of the cow who sits on the throne within their hearts. Qur’an also says;
ve ushribu fi kulubihimul icle (Baqarah/93) And their hearts were filled (with the love) of the calf. Think about it. Their hearts were being drunk with the love of it. This is the meaning of this verse right here. Allah wanted them to crush the idol, sit on the throne of their heart.
70 – Kalud’u lena rabbeke yubeyyil lena ma hiye innel bekara teshabehe aleyna* ve inna in shaellahu le muhtedun
(Further insisting) they said, “Turn to your Rabb to make clear to us exactly the kind of cow He wants us to slaughter; for many cows fit this description? Allah willing, we will find the right cow…” (A.Hulusi)
They said: “Beseech on our behalf Thy Lord to make plain to us what she is: To us are all heifers alike: We wish indeed for guidance, if Allah wills.”
Kalud’u lena rabbeke yubeyyil lena ma hiye Instead of obeying the order, they kept slacking and asking more questions. They chose to change the agenda while they should just do what they were told to do. They chose it. They said again; Turn to your Rabb to make clear to us exactly the kind of cow we should slaughter innel bekara teshabehe aleyna for many cows fit this description ve inna in shaellahu le muhtedun if Allah explains us the features of it, hopefully we may find this cow. And after that we might sacrifice it.
While they were ordered three times, but they chose to turn their backs and slacking the job, the real motive here was in fact their will to change the agenda even they realize the truth of the situation and the message given. Let’s read more and look closely to this illness of becoming Jewminded.
71 – Kale innehu yekulu inneha bekaratul la zelulun tusirul erda ve la teskil hars* musellemetul lashiyete fiha* kalul ane ci’te bil hakk* fe zebehuha ve ma kadu yef’alun
“He says, ‘It is an unyoked cow neither trained to plow the earth nor to irrigate the field, a free cow with no spot on her!’” They said, “Now you have come with the truth.” So (with great difficulty they found a cow with such attributes and) they slaughtered her (but they paid a great price to find the only cow that met the criteria). They were nearly going to be unsuccessful! (A.Hulusi)
He said: “He says: A heifer not trained to till the soil or water the fields; sound and without blemish.” They said: “Now hast thou brought the truth.” Then they offered her in sacrifice, and they scarcely did it.
Kale, answered Moses; innehu yekulu inneha bekaratul la zelulun tusirul erda ve la teskil hars Allah says; The cow you were ordered to sacrifice is a cow neither trained to plow the ground or water the fields; unyoked from field work. That means this cow must be free. Free from plowing the fields, free from watering the plants. Musellemetul all grown and free, must be this cow. lashiyete fiha also it must be spotless and perfect.
Of course the situation was fully revealed now, since the cow described was indeed the cow they showed their respects. Because of that kalul ane ci’te bil hakk they said; “Now you come with the truth.” Those who said that, wasn’t actually worshipping the cow as we now it. From research I’ve done about sons of Israel, they weren’t worshipping or praying a cow as we think they were. But they were showing their respects to it. It wasn’t an act of prostration they had done. With a wider explanation, they weren’t believing or worshipping a cow as they were believing Jehovah as sons of Israel know by that name of Allah, the greatest Rabb, Jehovah as they know. They weren’t that dumb. But what were they doing? They were showing their respects to it. Reverencing it, honoring and blessing it.
So Allah named this type of action as worshipping the cow. Also, this action never named as “worshipping cow” in any part of Qur’an, but always used with verbs of “ce a le”. It doesn’t mean “they make the cow, their god”, it means “they manifested the cow.” This type of forming shows us, the action here was not a direct worshipping, but an indirect one. This form of respect as in, showing respect to another human being, or any other creature, some stone or cow or tree, any form of physical or intangible entities; instead of respecting Allah; Allah has named these type of behaviours as insult and shirk.
For those reasons, the answer here; kalul ane ci’te bil hakk “Now you come with the truth.” might not be given by those who were showing their respects to that cow. But instead a handful of people who were staying out of that bunch and protesting that heretic behaviour. As in “Yes..! Now O Moses; You revealed this shirk, this rudeness they have been doing. This is what we were hoping for nonetheless.” So the answer might came from a small group of honest true believers; not from who were showing their respects for a cow.
fe zebehuha What did they do, right after that? They sarcificed it. ve ma kadu yef’alun they were almost fail to comply.
Yes, dear fellows, this incident is indeed the incident that gave this sura its name. If there weren’t any lessons we should take from it, surely our Rabb wouldn’t choose it from within long saga of human history and put in the Qur’an. Because Qur’an is not a book arrived just for sons of Israel and this incident; there’s a lesson that must be understand by all humanity from this incident. So, a person should determine his position very carefully within this situation.
Now we should realize what this incident means for us. Because Qur’an never tells us a historical event, just for story or fiction or just information from history. So why this incident came within Qur’an? Even gave its name to one of the longest sura in Qur’an thus Al- Baqarah was formed? This is important. Because the name of a thing, reflects the most important feature of it. This incident is almost the face of Al-Baqarah. Face… Because a persons face reflects the personality of him. Thus, this incident forms the sura of Baqarah like a person and gives a face to it. And by that, the character of Baqarah reveals itself within this incident as well. Because of this, we should read it, understand it, percept it by asking the question of; “What lesson should we take from this?”
The lesson given here is this. Forgetting the real target by lingering in unnecessary details. This is the first lesson that this incident tries to give us.
They wanted details. Every translator who process this subject put a footnote as this. If they sacrificed the cow with first command, they would easily be succeeded on their job. But with every detail, their task became more and more difficult. This difficulty became so intense they almost couldn’t finish the task at hand ve ma kadu yef’alun as the verse described it. They complicated the task with their own hands. This is the definition of complicating the religion. For that reason our Prophet says; Yessiru vela tu’assiru Simplify it; don’t complicate. bessiru vela tuneffiru Announce the good, don’t cause hate. At this spot I would like to narrate an incident from century of happiness (Prophet Muhammad’s Time)
When the pilgrimage became a duty, our prophet announced it to all true believers. As Allah’s command… One individual rised and asked. “Is this duty mandatory for every year, o Rasulallah?” That question upset our prophet. Troubled him even. “If I say yes, then it would become vacip. (secondary duty)” After that he continues; “Let my sayings suffice for you. Those who were blessed with (celestial) books before, perished; because they asked too many questions to their prophets, became obsessed with every little details and argued over every news that their prophets gave them.”
Nowadays we realize the importance of this situation as our understanding became just like that. Religion is so full of details, so drown; the maneuver grounds that Allah blessed the human with are no more. In fact all the spots Allah and Qur’an uses silences are actually these grounds which were also put there by Allah. Why? “O people, I left those grounds as blessings and mercy to you.” This religion is a universal religion, one that will holds its constant values until the apocalypse; of course there will be some moving grounds for human. Wasn’t Allah who gave the human his own free will? What good does a free will do, if there aren’t any moving grounds designed for that use? What would be the point in that? Free will would be given but there won’t be any places that you can use it, what would be the significance, the function of that great gift then?
So like that, those before us had made some cases. They did some cases within that maneuver grounds. Those moving spaces that were given as blessings to humanity, they made cases and filled that spaces. They were right in their own ways. They did the right things, that was what Allah wanted from humans too in fact. By using the power of mind in that space they were also complying Allah’s wishes. But what about those who came after them? They confirmed those actions without touching them and act them like they were also the constants. They immobilized them, made them unchangables and solidified them. Froze them and left no room for those who will come after them, so that they may use their own powers of mind. And with that arriving point, another meaning came up. Everything that needs to be thought, talked and done, are already finished. Nothing new may come after that.
Is it though? Does religion really telling us that? No; those moving grounds are still avaliable just like it was for those who came before us. Just like it will exist who will come after us as well. But alas our way became like sons of Israel’s way, casuistic. We call it casuistic method in islamic law or in other words; issue based Islamic law. As in full of details, filled with unnecessary informations and no room for moving at all. Human turns into a form of a non-moving statue. No movement and no turning back is possible at this point. In reality religion is a door. What is the meaning of these doors? But all those thousand doors of religion turned into a wall. Religion should be the way out, a simple doorway whenever a person feels like cornered. But with this attitude this door, this religion turned into a wall that cornered the human by itself. Yet in reality religion is still that thousand doors. Whenever life corners a person, religion saves that man from its corner and delivers him to salvation. It has been like this and still is. This is the first lesson.
What is the other lesson, another share we get from this incident? Changing the agenda… They changed the agenda, the situation at hand. What did they do? Allah wanted them to sacrifice a cow. But they were questioning its color, content, features, kind and other irrelevant detail. This also means they were resisting the command, trying to find ways for rejection and for that changing the agenda. In these times we are living in now, the greatest threat for us is still this “Omen of Becoming Jewminded”; changing the agenda, disregarding the true situations.
As I look at it now, we really have some serious agendas on our own. Hasn’t the most important, most constant agenda of a true believer, his eternal happiness? Hasn’t it death? Hasn’t death, one the basic subjects? Afterlife or eternal conclusion, haven’t them our constant and important agendas? Indeed they have been. Qur’an says so. At least ne be un azim. Greatest news. This is the headline of Qur’an. Topside. ne be un azim olay Iza veka’atilvaki’atu. Look at the first verse of the sura Vakia. When it happens, the greatest event comes… This is the headline of Qur’an. But when we look at our greatest events, what do we see? The greatest events… Big News… What is it? Nothing, a fluff piece that will be forgotten very next day. Your shocking news and Qur’an’s shocking news are absolutely different. Our lives constant agendas are covered with some full of lies bits and pieces. This is an act of sin, or an action based sin. Kufr (blasphemy) means covering. And covering the real agenda with false and fake agendas means an act of blasphemy.
This is changing the agenda. They had also figured this situation really good. They were asked to destroy the love of cow filling their hearts, more specifically they were asked to destroy the love that enslaved themselves. In reality the command of Allah was this. Your bodies tasted freedom yet your hearts are still slaves so let go of your loves for cow. But what did they do? They changed the agenda towards the cow? Think carefully about it; not the freedom. This is officially changing the agenda. When we do things like that we will also be jewminded like sons of Israel. This is the greatest danger waiting this community and frankly we have been doing this mistake a lot.
There are three main grounds that Islamic sheriah (law) rised upon. Since the topic is here, we should say them as well. Those three principles are the reasons for all laws. All celestial laws…
1 – First one is adem-ul harac. What is this? Absense of difficulty. Because Islam is the the name of universal principles. Constant values. And these values come from Islam are all for the happiness of humanity. Allah doesn’t need those! Human needs them. And humans are the ones who will benefit from them. And for that happiness of humanity is mandatory. Principles are human based. That’s why I counted first reason as adem-ul harac, absense of difficulty.
2 – Second reason of sheriahs is “takl”, tekalik. It means responsibilities are simple and few as much as possible. What is that mean? Moving grounds in life are quite much. It means the space Allah give humans, spaces to let us to us our own will are quite wide.
3 – Third one is “Et teberruc, fid teshvik”. It means when it comes to take actions, transferring constant values, laws and doctrines into life; following the road one step at a time. Moving step by step, level by level. These three rules are the foundations of all celestial originated laws.
[Additional Info: There’s a story told about this incident. An elder from sons of Israel was the owner of a newborn calf. This old man had a young son. The elder took the calf and showed it to the mother of the child and said; “This calf belongs to this boy. Let it roam freely in meadows. When the boy becomes a man, he may use it.” When the time came and sons of Israel began their search for a specific cow that belongs to this boy, old woman heard the news and reminded the boy about his fathers advice. At that time boy was a young man. He went to meadow and get the cow. Sons of Israel made a bargain with the boy to buy the cow but old woman intercepted and didn’t let the transaction happens. At the end they bought the cow for a bag of gold. In this story, old man is the soul. Old woman is the nature and the young boy of elder is the mind, product of soul. The boy murdered before is the heart. (İbn. Arabi- Te’vilat)]
[Additional Info: We can understand the outer meanings of verses by taking them to the level of their inner meanings. To be able to do that, we should put ourselves to the position of addressed individual in verses. If we try to see the cow not in an outer level but an inner one, we may see the meaning of it as our own animalistic beings. Hakk wants us to slaughter our personal egos, which are the proofs of our animalistic natures.
So the animal we look for is not some place for from us, it’s already within us. But Moses’s community because of their level of understandings, couldn’t figure that out. And because they were unable to understand the wisdom behind it, they objected Moses right after, which we see in the first verse of this incident. They said Moses:“Are you making fun of us?” They thought they were made fun of. But if only they could figure out the command for “leaving the behaviour of bowing their heads for their animalistic egos”, they might be able to see what greatest blessing was, Hakk gave them. They couldn’t see the inner meaning that lead them to salvation, so they continued to dwell on the material, outer meaning of the situation. The questions they asked are the open proofs of their inability to understand the real situation. Yet if they would understand the real meaning of it, they might consider this a very heavy command and scared, left and run from Moses. (Necdet Ardic)]
72 – Ve iz kateltum nefsen feddara’tum fiha* vallahu muhricum ma kuntum tektumun
And recall when you killed a man and disputed over it, whereas Allah brings out that which you conceal! (A.Hulusi)
Remember ye slew a man and fell into a dispute among yourselves as to the crime: But Allah was to bring forth what ye did hide.
Ve iz kateltum nefsen feddara’tum fiha Remember you killed a man. You killed a human and disputed over it. Blamed each others. vallahu muhricum ma kuntum tektumun Allah brings out what you try to conceal. Knows and reveals.
The incident happened before, originally. But for the reason of the lessons we should take from it, the incident put forth to this verse. The point we should all take, revealed before. What’s that point? Everyone, -with respect- beware of the cow sitting in your hearts. Allah advanced that point. And now the reason to sacrifice a cow per incident arrives. Now in the verse of 72. Remember one you killed a man and blame each others for it. Allah revealed what you were trying to conceal. It’s obvious, what’s telling here.
73 – Fe kulnadribuhu bi ba’diha* kezalike yuhyillahul mevta ve yurikum ayatihi leallekum ta’kilun
So, We said, “Strike (with the divine forces in your essence) the dead with a part of (the cow you slaughtered).” Thus does Allah bring the dead to life. He shows you the signs (of the forces in your essence) so that you might use your reason (evaluate). (A.Hulusi)
So We said: “Strike the (body) with a piece of the (heifer).” Thus Allah bringeth the dead to life and showeth you His Signs: Perchance ye may understand.
Fe kulnadribuhu bi ba’diha We said, ordered them to compare this unsolved murder and after process with other unsolved murders and after processes happened before. Do like that. kezalike yuhyillahul mevta Thus Allah brings the dead back to life. ve yurikum ayatihi leallekum ta’kilun Allah shows you verses and signs so that you may use your heads and understand.
We chose to give a different translation rather than the ordinary ones before. I owe thanks to late translator Rashid Riza for this difference. Because usually classic translators have given the meaning to this verse, based on some stories from that time. According to these stories;
Take a part of that sacrificed cow. Pat it to the man murdered, so that he rises and talks. Because that’s the story’s explanation. All the way back from Israilian Mythology. Yet it’s odd that there were no explanations from our prophet to back those claims. Neither from the first community of Muhammad. Yet it’s also strange that there are no proofs for this in Tora as well. So where was this come from? Like I said it was designed from a story of Jewish Mythology. And this verse designed to be an answer. So it seems.
Fe kulnadribuhu bi ba’diha Also this phrase means, compare this with some of other unsolved murders. Because the verb darabe comes with very different meanings in Qur’an. Like Daraballahu. It means hit something. But Allah gives us an example here, this example.
Another part in Qur’an uses this word for “taking a trip for business. It uses the word “mudarebe”. What is mudarebe? It means a business contract happened between money and profit for one side and labor and work for another. Also comes from the root of darb.
Again there are meanings for firing someone, divorcing, leaving. Qur’an uses darb word for many forms. One of the forms is comparing. Compare unsolved murders with this one. The biggest clue is “h” pronoun in the word adribuhu. If “h” pronoun goes to an ego, in that case the man murdered, ego is spiritual, moral in arabic language. It’s feminine. Spiritual is in feminine word group. In that case it has to be darabuha.
For all those reasons I chose to translate this part as “reveal” based on Late Rashid Riza’s translation and the rule set for sons of Israel in Tora. What was that rule? Whenever an unsolved murder occured near a living zone. People of that living zone sacrifice a cow, washing their hands on that cows blood and swear. Swear for saying “We have nothing on this murder.” That way, responsibility of commune should be done. Also that way killer reveals himself. That rule is one of my reasons to translate this part based on “comparing”.
How should we understand kezalike yuhyillahul mevta ? It’s pretty obvious. Like the verse (Al-Maida/32) about reviving the dead. ve men ahyaha fe ke ennema ahyen nase cemia if any one slew a person … it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. The reasoning behind reviving a person is not resurrecting the dead; it means not touching his life, not traspassing his right to live.
Again in Al-Baqarah/179, Qur’an says Ve lekum fil kisasi hayatu In the Law of Equality there is (saving of) Life to you. Why? By preventing a persons death… Qur’an takes this as reviving the dead as well. That expression integrates this meaning.
74 – Summe kaset kulubukum mim ba’di zalike fe hiye kel hicarati ev esheddu kasveh* ve inne minel hicarati lema yetefecceru minhul enhar* ve inne minha lema yeshekkaku fe yahrucu minhul ma’* ve inne minha lema yehbitu min hashyetillah* vemallahu bi gafilin amma ta’melun
After this your hearts became hardened again, like stones or even harder (unable to manifest the reality in your essence). Whereas there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some that split open and water gushes out… There are even stones that fall and roll out in of awe Allah… Verily Allah is never veiled from what you do (as He forms your existence with His Names). (A.Hulusi)
Thenceforth were your hearts hardened: They became like a rock and even worse in hardness. For among rocks there are some from which rivers gush forth; others there are which when split asunder send forth water; and others which sink for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unmindful of what ye do.
Summe kaset kulubukum mim ba’di zalike After that your hearts became hardened again. fe hiye kel hicarati, Hardened as rocks. ev esheddu kasveh Even worse, even harder than rock. ve inne minel hicarati lema yetefecceru minhul enhar For among rocks there are stones from which rivers burst forth e inne minha lema yeshekkaku fe yahrucu minhul ma’ For among rocks there are stones which when split asunder send forth water; ve inne minha lema yehbitu min hashyetillah For among rocks there are stones that fall and roll out in of awe Allah... vemallahu bi gafilin amma ta’melun Allah is never awared, veiled from what you do.
What is “kasvet-ul kalp” means? Stone hearted. There’s an important thing being told us. After all that your hearts became hardened. Actually became stone hearted equals to a person became a stranger, an alien to himself. This is the thing wanted to be displayed here.
O sons of Israel who became Jewminded, you alienated yourselves. Why? Because you imitated your enemies who tried to destroy you. Your hearts became monkeys. Your minds became monkeys. lehum kunu kiradeten hasiin (65) worse than apes; was said. Worse than apes they became. You lower yourselves to the level of imitating your enemies. You were worshipping your enemies deities. Whereas Allah is a friend to you. Allah saved you, blessed you, be with you while you were living your darkest times. You saw Allah blessings, all of you. Yet you are still in betrayal. Because you became strangers to yourselves.
A hearts hardening, means a persons alienate to himself. What happens a person became stranger to his essence? He became stranger to Allah, stranger to human, stranger to the truth. All those because he became a stranger to himself, to his essences truths. And for that he became unable to recognize the truth. Unable to see… Unable to hear. This is the definiton of summun bukmun ummun. A persons alienate himself. Blind, deaf and mute.
For among rocks there are stones from which rivers burst forth… As you know, the experts who look for water in a field, whenever they search for water, first thing they do is searching for rocks in that field. Because if there are no stones, that means there are no water either.You see, a hardened, alienated heart cannot be even compared to stone on that matter. Because if there are stones, there is water as well. Stone is the messanger of water. Yet what good does a stone heart do? Cannot cry, cannot ache, cannot miss, cannot burn… What good does it do then? Unable to love, miss, talk, burn, chill, ache; I assure you that heart is more vulgar than the heart on butchers chain. At least you can eat the heart on butchers chain. You can’t even eat this.
Therefore, heart is a nuclear power plant. Heart is the greatest possibility. Of course for a person who hasn’t alienated to himself. But think a heart; which its area is wide open, big enough to fit heaven and earth within; alas blackened, darkened, became an unfeeling dull version of its former self and unable to comprehend the truth anymore. Then owner of this heart carries a gigantic rock instead of an endless field. Can you imagine? Instead of a big power plant, carrying the biggest rock. Is there a bigger calamity than that? Can there be a greater disaster for a human?
For that, the thing has been reminded to sons of Israel who became Jewminded is this. When you were in slavery, you had a heart functional, a heart able to miss, burn, ache. Now your bodies tasted freedom but your hearts are in danger of slavery. Your hearts hardened. This is the real danger. Because escaping the pharaoh was far more easy than escaping a hardened heart. So it’s been said, save yourselves however you can. And for the first addressed group of these verses, first and modern Muslims; the lessons must be;
O community of Muhammad who are tasked to deliver the revelations through humanity like the sons of Israel once was; if you desensitivize to commands, if you try to change the agenda against Allah’s orders, if you act with a sassy attitude to Allah’s verse like they did; you will also face the same results. Your hearts harden, you become strangers to yourselves. And if you become strangers to yourselves, then you become strangers to the eternal truth. For those who alienate to the eternal truth, there’s no need for a greater disaster. Because it’s the biggest disaster. This calamity means carrying an unending rock instead of a loving, feeling and caring heart within your chest.
[Additional Info: From this, it’s understood that there are four types of hearts:
1 – First heart type enlightens with celestial light, baths with that light. It dives and sinks in the ocean of knowledge. There are rivers of knowledges gush forth from that heart. And those who drink from that source should find the eternal life. This type of hearts are like the hearts of Allah’s friends. This type of hearts are explained as: “For among rocks there are stones from which rivers burst forth.
2 – Other form of heart drinks the knowledge to its full, memorizes and understands it. Other people benefit from it. Those are like the scholars hearts who are deep within the knowledge. This type of hearts are explained as: For among rocks there are stones which when split asunder send forth water.
3 – One other form of hearts, shivers, complies, surrenders and obeys. Those hearts are like muslim pilgrims and monks. Those form of hearts are explained as: For among rocks there are stones that fall and roll out in of awe Allah... As in, complying Allah’s commands, it has a fluid tendency for heading out to the center.
4 – And all thats left behind are uneffected from knowledge, hardened against the fear, turn his back to guidance, in his hubris comply the societies commands only, and oppose the truth with stubbornness. Throughout all minerals and mines there aren’t any similarity for those hearts. (İbn. Arabi-Te’vilat)]
75 – E fetatmeune ey yu’minu lekum ve kad kane ferikum minhum yesmeune kelamellahi summe yuharrifunehu mim ba’di ma akaluhu ve hum ya’lemun
Do you covet the hope, o believers, that they (the Jews with this genetic past) would believe you? Whereas a group of them used to hear the word of Allah (Moses) and understand them, then deliberately distort it (pervert its meaning). (A.Hulusi)
Can ye (O ye men of Faith) entertain the hope that they will believe in you?- Seeing that a party of them heard the Word of Allah, and perverted it knowingly after they understood it.
E fetatmeune ey yu’minu lekum You, o true believers; with all those proofs are right in front of you; really waiting for them to show faith to those you believe. First addressed group of this verse are the community of Muslims of Madina. It shows us that those people are in some kind of hope. Just because Jews are one of the “Society of Books” while they weren’t, those Arabs see them more advanced at that time. After all they had their books, they knew Allah, they knew reading and writing and had a background. Naturally they thought like “Surely, they will heed the true words of this eternal message.”
They were in expectation for this. If they convert to Islam, they would be very happy. But Allah informs us their true positions. Are you really waiting them to show faith since their situation is pretty obvious? Your expectation is a fools errand. Because they were being stranger to themselves, how can they become intimate to the last revelations? Everything is out in the open. This is what explains here. This expectation is not a healthy one. They even couldn’t be Mosevian, how could you wait them to be Muhammadian? Their beliefs to Moses are false. Their commitments to Tora are lies. They couldn’t even learn to behave to their own books and prophets; how can you wait them to show faith to Muhammad and commitment to Qur’an? Allah informs us their situations. Their prophets which are also our prophets, showed them the truth, yet their behaviours are clear. For that the owner of a hardened stone like that, surely cannot react for the celestial messages. Cannot answer, cannot show faith. Becase it’s broken. What you see in front of you is not a man but a standing reptile on his two feet and a rock in his chest.
ve kad kane ferikum minhum yesmeune kelamellahi A group of them, some words; ferikum minhum most of them, this is the accurate meaning here. Most of them hear Allah’s words. summe yuharrifunehu But even they hear them, they deliberately distort them right after that. Change them, destroy them. mim ba’di ma akaluhu Even they already understand the true meaning of the message. That means, right after they understand the true meaning, real aspect of the message, what did they do? Distorted it. Like I translated a while ago, they were ordered to sacrifice a cow. Yet they distorted the message and changed the agenda. It’s sure they understood the real message of Allah but they chose to ignore it, even dared to change it. ve hum ya’lemun Of course they did it on purpose, now that’s the important part.
There’s an expression here. Kelamellah, kelamullah. What is kelamullah? It means speech of Allah. Speech of Allah doesn’t mean the language of Allah. Qur’an is a speech of Allah. Like also Tora is a speech of Allah. As does the Bible and pages sent down to Prophet Abraham. In total all messages sent down to all celestial prophets are indeed speeches of Allah. So we should understand that “speech of Allah” is not an expression about linguistics, but a matter of meaning. It’s the expression about the constant values and the meanings of the eternal message. Therefore, Arabic is Qur’an’s speech. Qur’an’s language, to be exact. We cannot say arabic is Allah’s language. Speech of Qur’an is revelation and Qur’an is the speech of Allah, not language. Translators always point out the constant usage of kelamullah and there are no possible usage for the word “kavlullah”. That means Allah’s language is one thing and Allah’s speech is another.
There’s another expression here. Distort. Yuharrifunehu I chose to translate it as distort. What is distortion? In literal meaning, distortion comes from the etymologic root of sculpt, pare. They say tahrif-ul kalem, for example. Pare off a pen. And sculpt means cut off a few or some pieces of a whole, detract. It causes a decrease in meaning. That’s distortion. That’s chiseling. The source of decrease is this distortion.
Sons of Israel who turned to Jewminded chose to distort for two reasons. One is a distortion for political reasons. To butter up their leaders. To be more precious on their eyes, they were distorting the speech of Allah. Second reason is need, material need to be specific. They chose to distort the speech for mere money. Interesting though, this distortion didn’t always in the text, they mostly distort the meaning behind the text. Sometimes they change the text as well. Like their verses informed them the arrival of Qur’an.
la tekulu raina ve kulunzurna (Al-Baqarah/104) Don’t say “Raina”; say “Unzurna”. Raina means look, unzurna also means look and see, see us. So why not saying raina? Because they were slightly twisting the word Ra’ina, and using it like “Rai’ina!” In that case the word gains a meaning of sheppard. They were making word plays like that to mock and insult the prophet. For that they say “Rai’ina!” like Ra’ina… They were also doing that things like that when they were saying their greetings. We learnt it from a genuine hadith, Hz. Aisha said and we read it from Buhari. They were giving their greetings to Rasulallah by saying “Essahmu aleykum.” You cannot tell the difference by looking outside to this wordplay. “Esselamu aleykum” means “Be at peace, be happy.” But slightly broken use of this “essahmu aleykum” means “go to hell, be with the devil.”
They were playing over words like that. And by using those wordplays they were also twisting the meanings. Distortion is the name of all twistings and wordplays on that manner.
So what is the meaning of that for this community? I mean what is the message of this verse for first and modern Muslims who are addressed? Clear. If you distort the speeches of Allah, the basic and constant truths, you will also be Jewminded. Allah’s orders, order is clear. What’s it saying? So clear.
You see a verse of Qur’an orders tesettur (a form of veil for women to use as headcovering). You can also see some minds who are on their way to become Jewminded, use countless excuses like, “There were no head mentioning in there it says cover, it says cilbab or celabib.” Would you look at that! There’s the sign of becoming Jewminded right here. They were exactly doing that. To learn how were they doing that, one can look for the translations about pharaoh topiced verses by famous Jew philosophers. That’s an example of distortion to Allah’s verses by their hands. So obviously they were also experts on what must be told to these kind of topics. Veil is a form of head cover but you cannot see the word head in here. People say “Yemeni” but there are no head word in yemeni. People use the expressions like tulbend or yazma (both other types of veil) but none of them say head word in them. Everyone knows these covers are used for head wrapping and covering. No one uses yemeni to cover her foot, you don’t wrap your knees with veils. Because nobody misunderstands the use of these. Every single person to interact with a veil knows that this piece of clothing is made for heads, not any other part of body. There is no necessity for using the word head with it. You can see many more examples to see these acts of distortions throughout the history. For example I can give you another one. We read in Qur’an;
innema ene besherum mislukum (Fussilat/6) “I’m a human being like you.” This is something adviced to Prophet to tell his people about himself. Point out his humanity to his community. “I’m not an angel, I’m someone among you. But Allah chose me to deliver the message to you through me. In the message innema ene besherum mislukum that innema word is a “kaffe metufe”. Meaning it’s a adjoined completion. That one piece is a preposition. But first they split it to two pieces “inne” and “ma”. Ma takes a negative meaning by that form of using. Even it’s not suppose to be used like this. Ellezi meaning… But they give the ma a negative meaning and the conclusion is a sentence, “I’m definitely not a man like you.” which is the exact opposite of the message. This is distortion. This is turning to Jewminded. Of course many more examples can be given on that.
76 – Ve iza lekullezine amenu kalu amenna* ve iza hala ba’duhum ila ba’din kalu etuhaddisunehum bi ma fetehallahu aleykum li yuhaccukum bihi inde rabbikum*
When they meet those who believe, they say, “We have believed”; but when they are alone with one another, they say, “Do you talk to them about the truth Allah has disclosed to you so that they can use it as evidence against you? Do you not think?” (A.Hulusi)
Behold! when they meet the men of Faith, they say: “We believe”: But when they meet each other in private, they say: “Shall you tell them what Allah hath revealed to you, that they may engage you in argument about it before your Lord?”- Do ye not understand (their aim)?
Ve iza lekullezine amenu kalu amenna When they unite with them, when they meet with true believer, they say; “We believe.” ve iza hala ba’duhum ila ba’din But when they are alone with each others; Kalu, this kalu and the other kalu above have different verbs. The ones who said “We believe” is one group. But the other one, the following kalu are another group. Their mentors. When they are alone with each others they say; etuhaddisunehum bi ma fetehallahu aleykum li yuhaccukum bihi inde rabbikum* Do you give them leverage about the truth Allah has disclosed to you so that they can use it as evidence against you? You tell them the secrets which your Rabb revealed to you. Surely they will use them against you as evidences in front of Allah. Their mentors trick their hearts and minds like that.
What’s that leverage; e fe la ta’kilun It goes on; “Are you stupid to think that?” they say. Those mentors… To those who say; “We believe.”… So what is this secret Allah revealed only to them? This leverage is without a doubt the chapters in their books, confirming the prophethood of Rasulallah Muhammad.
Tis surely is a detailed matter. But as much as my memory served, In Tora, in Old Testament; there are several points revealing the Rasulallah I can quote. For example in the book of devarim an expression shows itself. I will send them a prophet like you among brothers.
Some of Tora translators take the brothers word as sons of Ishmael and translate like that. Because from the beginning, the sons of Israel have come from sons of Isaac and for that; they call the line of Ismael, Isaac’s brother; “our brothers.” And in Tora many verses aim for sons of Ishmael, when they reveals words like brothers in plural form. Because both lines have come from the two sons of Abraham. Sons of Israel is a community dates back to the son of Abraham; Isaac. Yet Rasulallah Muhammad’s roots come from Ishmael, the other son of Abraham. Both lines unite with Prophet Abraham. So it’s obvious by this verse in Tora when it reveals, a prophet will arrive from your brothers, from the line of Ishmael.
Again in the same book; there’s another expression as; “Rabb reflected self to world in Sina, glowed on Sair, and born in the mountain of Tarab. The reason of reflection in Sina is the revelations sent down to Moses. And the Mountain of Sair is a mountain close to the place where Jesus lived. Everyone admits them. But elderly translators of Tora cannot explain the location of this Taran Mountain.
Yet the strangest thing; in the book of bereishit (Genesis), Tora explains how the prophet Ishmael settled and grew in the desert of Taran with his mother and how the prophet Abraham left his wife Hagar and his little son. So this Taran is in fact, the Mecca. Because of this fact, before our prophet Muhammad’s born, some Jews had been able to notice this. Even the reason of Salman Pharisi’s relocation to Madina, was this. He had come by saying; “After long searches, this is the place described to me by my masters. This region, this area…”
There were also rumors that some Jews named their childs “Muhammad.” Also this practice was followed by some Arabs as well. The underlying cause of this name giving, reveals a fact. There’s a sentence used in the book of Genesis for Ishmael. “Your Allah give Ishmael semere. Your Rabb Allah will give Ismael semere.” As in a beautiful fruit.
The expression written there is “bi madmad”, A hebrew expression. Those Jews found the value of this sentence in Arabic by using their alphanumeric system called ebced. In Ebced, this sentence equals to 92 and the arabic match of this number is Muhammad. In other words the name Muhammad also have the same value of 92. Jews have been using this alphanumeric system. It’s also a coding-decoding system. So this word in Tora, this madmad as in the precious fruit which was promised to give Ishmael, also has a match in arabic language and it matches the word or name Muhammad. The Jews who had found out this possibility, began to name their kids, Muhammad. They even told this to Arabs living in that area, so that they also name their kids as Muhammad. Therefore this may happen. Can it be the reason of this?
This is an important anecdote. Of course there are several other anecdote to back up and strenghten this particular anecdote. For example, it’s been said that when Rasulallah was born, some astrologist found this out. Again when Rasulallah had arrived in Madina, the uncle of Hz. Safiya who was also the leader of Jewish community back there, came to see Rasulallah Muhammad. And after this encounter he said “He’s the one, God’s honest. And I swear I will fight against him till my life ends.” According to relevant sources.
77 – E ve la ya’lemune ennellahe ya’lemu ma yusirrune ve ma yu’linun
Do they not know that Allah knows what they conceal and what they disclose? (A.Hulusi)
Know they not that Allah knoweth what they conceal and what they reveal?
E ve la ya’lemune ennellahe ya’lemu ma yusirrune ve ma yu’linun Don’t they know that Allah knows what they conceal and what they reveal?
78 – Ve minhum ummiyyune la ya’lemunel kitabe illa emaniyye ve in hum illa yezunnun
There are among them (ummiyyiina) people who have no knowledge of the Book (knowledge of the reality), other than what they assume (based on their conditionings); they live with their (baseless) conjectures. (A.Hulusi)
And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing but conjecture.
Ve minhum ummiyyune la ya’lemunel kitabe illa emaniyye There are among them ummu (uneducated). They don’t know the book. They only have their delusions. They do conjecture. They believe delusions and fantasies. ve in hum illa yezunnun And they only assume. Their beliefs are only assumptions. It’s not based on intimate or knowledge.
The ummiyyune, we see in this verse; Ummiy; Ummet comes from the same word with Imam. Comes from the root Umm. Umm means public. First meaning of Ummi is, ignorant, uneducated. And the second meaning is pure and clean as the first day of borning. The ummi words, using to describe the prophet in Qur’an, are based on this meaning, pure and clean like his first day, never exposed to any cultural invasion, his heart and mind didn’t affected from enviromental cultures, pure and clean as light. Third meaning used in Qur’an for ummi is, those who didn’t blessed with book.
Emunel means this; emunel, is the plural form of ummi, which also means Utopia. As you may know in greek language when you use te word Utopia, U letter fell off. The remaining word is Topia Land. Non-existing country, neverland, dream country.
For ummiye, in other words utopia, Qur’an describes it as a devil’s trap. Ki vele u men ni yemnehum “I will tricked them again with Utopia.” I will delay them with utopic ideas. This is it. Utopia is ummiye. Also the 80.th verse we are about to reach says a similar notion like this. “Fire won’t touch us except a few countable days.” they said. That was their utopia. They were been cheated by their scholars. Their scholars were actually saying them a non-existing future.
“Whatever you do, whichever sin you make; you are Jews, aren’t you, you are the sons of Israel, aren’t you? Then you won’t feel the flames except a few countable days, You won’t feel the torment except that.”
They were stringing them along by saying them Allah will give you a special status, just because of your race. Why? Because they were ignorant. They were doing all that things because of their ignorance, which the following verse describe that as it is.
79 – Fe veylul lillezine yektubunel kitabe bi eydihim summe yekulunel kitabe bi eydihim summe yekulune haza min indillahi li yeshteru bihi semenen kalila* fe veylul lehum mimma ketebet eydihim ve veylul lehum mimma yeksibun
So woe to those who write the knowledge with their own hands (driven by their illusory selves), then say, “This is from Allah,” in exchange for a small price! Woe to what they write with their hands and woe to what they earn in this way! (A.Hulusi)
Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say: “This is from Allah,” to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.
Fe veylul lillezine yektubunel kitabe woe to those who write the book with their own hands. bi eydihim yes, indeed woe to them. summe yekulune haza min indillahi What do they do by writing the book by themselves? They say: This is from Allah.” li yeshteru bihi semenen kalila They do this because of what? Gaining a small profit, getting their hands on some money. fe veylul lehum mimma ketebet eydihim Woe to them for what their hands do the writing. ve veylul lehum mimma yeksibun And woe to them for the gain they make.
There’s a settle point right there, you should notice. They didn’t sell the celestial messages for mere gain. What they were selling, couldn’t be celestial message of any kind, not Tora or any other Allah’s message. They were marketing the cheap, rip off things. What were all those? Things they wrote with their own hands. Not a holy or celestial message. For some reasons, this expression was understood like they were marketing Tora; the message they took from Allah and the messages they wrote down.
So what is the situation here? They were slandering Allah by saying their own words as “Allah’s messages.” They were laying some rules which were clearly from their hands and not Allah’s domain. How could they manage that? Like they were making annotations to Tora first. Some honest scholars make some deeds and activities. Then these people were putting annotations to these activities. Some generations later these annotations became written down, solid actions. They became the core. The book that holds all those solid annotations is called Vishna. The following scholars translated vishna as well. After long and detailed translations another book appeared and it’s called demara. With the total book of vishna and demara is called kalmuk. And this book handed the Jews by saying, “This is your book.”
So the book they offer is the leftovers of the leftovers of Tora. Those people had put their own ideas inside Tora, inside Allah’s words. After that nobody could reach the Tora anymore. Because whenever someone wanted to search for anything or ask anything, he had to look that annotations book the previous people created for them, not the Tora itself. They had to look what they searched in kalmut which is the united version of vishna and demara. And they had to answer from it.
That is what meant to say. They streched themselves between Allah’s book and humans. And they forced them to act thinks that doesn’t belong to Allah’s command but showed them like it was written in book. They gave them and they did it for just their own gains. For their efforts they gained either political or material profits but there was always a profit at the recieving end.
80 – Ve kalu len temessenen naru illa eyyamem ma’dudeh* kul ettehaztum indellahi ahden fe ley yuhlifellahu ahdehu em tekulune alellahi ma la ta’lemun
And they say, “The fire won’t burn us except for a certain amount of days.” Say to them, “Have you taken a covenant from Allah (the Absolute Reality in your essence)? For Allah will never break His covenant. Yet you make fabrications against Allah.” (A.Hulusi)
And they say: “The Fire shall not touch us but for a few numbered days:” Say: “Have ye taken a promise from Allah, for He never breaks His promise? or is it that ye say of Allah what ye do not know?”
Ve kalu len temessenen naru illa eyyamem ma’dudeh What were they saying? “The fire won’t touch us but a few numbered days.” There’s a fine example of claims they have from their own books written by their own hands. To make things convenient, they were guaranteeing societies fate by saying the fire shall not touch them, but a few days.
kul ettehaztum indellahi ahden fe ley yuhlifellahu ahdehu Have you taken a promise from Allah, for Allah never breaks a promise?
em tekulune alellahi ma la ta’lemun Or are you slandering Allah? Ask them; “Are you slandering Allah with something you clearly don’t know?”
Those salesmen were backing their claims, as it was 7 or 40 days according to tafsirs or Tora. How can they be able to do that? They translated the verse connected to this matter like this. “You will burn as long as you worshipped the cow.” (Except that, you won’t.) This was their back up. By definition of commenting, what was that? This is distortion of semantics. Semantic corruption, comment distortion. We can also say hermonotic distortion as well. So if we accept that a clear word change distortion is how dangerous; the meaning and comment based semantic distortion is very much the same. The corruption on the meaning and commenting.
Today, we muslims didn’t distort the words of Qur’an, couldn’t do it, to be honest. Allah has protected the text. Yet we muslims do this second type of distortion a lot unfortunately, this semantic, hermonotic meaning and commenting distortion. Allah protects and guides all of us from becoming this type of Jewminded people.
81 – Bela men kesebe seyyietev ve ehatat bihi hatiy’etuhu fe ulaike ashabun nar* hum fiha halidun
No! The truth is not as they assume! Whoever earns evil (through his thoughts or actions) and his mistake encompasses him (his system of thought blinds him from the truth) those are the people of the fire (suffering) eternally. (A.Hulusi)
Nay, those who seek gain in evil, and are girt round by their sins,- they are companions of the Fire: Therein shall they abide (for ever).
Bela men kesebe seyyietev Noo..! On the contrary; whoever makes an evil act, ve ehatat bihi hatiy’etuhu And his crime, his mistake surrounds him completely, fe ulaike ashabun nar whoever they are; they are the people of fire. Companions of Flames, Society of Fire. hum fiha halidun and they shall stay there eternally. Not temporary. Not some 7 days or 40 days or so. Forever.
Since I had translated these eternity concept while I was explaining the huldun meaning of heaven and hell, I’m moving on now.
Especially here, there’s an expression of ehatat bihi hatiy’etuhu . His sin, his mistake surrounds him completely, there’s a magnificent explanation here. These two expressions. Indeed one great metaphor is present here in this sentence.
What is the meaning of a sin completely covers or surrounds a person. Can a sin encompass a human being? Yes. “Hatiy” means “Wall” in arabic. Almost like building a wall of sins. A wall which blocks and surrounds heart.
How can you build a wall of sins in a heart? Every sin is a brick in that wall. By adding bricks one after another, it may reach a level so high, that wall blocks the conscience entirely. Then the heart wouldn’t be able to hear the voice of conscience. Cannot be able to listen to reason. Cannot be able to hear the sound of Qur’an, the revelations. So this situation comes with the words; ve ehatat bihi hatiy’etuhu. Sins surrounds a man. Right here, we may remember a hadith from Rasulallah; he says; A sin committed by a man, leaves a black dot in that mans heart. If he repents, that dot disappears. If not, every sin after that blackens the heart more and more and eventually heart darkens just like Allah says in Qur’an.
Kella bel rane ‘ala kulubihim (Mutaffiifin/14) No! On their hearts is the rust, (stain of rust) which they do. This is the verse our prophet shows as an example.
Heart is a glass mirror. Think, this mirrors glass peels off. Darkens. A darkens, blurred mirror wouldn’t be able to reflect the truth anymore. If you put this mirror in front of the truth, it cannot show you anything. You cannot say, “At least I can use it for glass purposes only.” Because it wouldn’t do you any good on that either. You can neither see the truth nor reflect it with that twisted glass mirror. Because without a proper build, you cannot use that thing for a mirror or just glass.
So think a heart build like that. This is the meaning of mistakes, sins surrounds a human completely. What does that do? It makes a human to alienate himself. Alienate the truth, which this should make you remember the verse we processed above.
Summe kaset kulubukum (74) Hardened heart. Their hearts hardened like stones, this is the very meaning of sin covered human metaphor. It almost like hese two verses translate themselves.
82 – Vellezine amenu ve amilus salihati ulaike ashabul cenneh* hum fiha halidun
But those who believe and do righteous deeds (for their salvation, as a result of becoming aware of their reality) – they are the people of Paradise and will abide therein eternally. (A.Hulusi)
But those who have faith and work righteousness, they are companions of the Garden: Therein shall they abide (For ever).
Vellezine amenu ve amilus salihati ulaike ashabul cenneh. But those who show Iman and do righteous deeds, they are the people of Paradise. hum fiha halidun They will stay there forever.
83 – Ve iz ehazna misaka beni israile la ta’budune illellahe ve bil valideyni ihsanev ve izl kurba vel yetam vel mesakini ve kulu lin nasi husnev ve ekiymus salate ve atuz zekah* summe tevelleytum ila kalilem minkum ve entum mu’ridun
And recall when We made a covenant with the Children of Israel “Do not assume the existence of, and worship an ‘other,’ other than Allah; give your parents their due right; do good to your relatives, orphans, and the needy; speak good words to people (words that direct them to the reality); and establish salat and give zakah (their practice of salat and zakah was different to the Islamic way).” Yet after this, except a few of you, you turned away (from your word), and you still continue to do so. (A.Hulusi)
And remember We took a covenant from the Children of Israel (to this effect): Worship none but Allah. treat with kindness your parents and kindred, and orphans and those in need; speak fair to the people; be steadfast in prayer; and give Zakat. Then did ye turn back, except a few among you, and ye backslide (even now).
Ve iz ehazna misaka beni israile la ta’budune illellahe ve bil valideyni ihsanev And remember We took a covenant from the Children of Israel. Covenant as in, their promise, their swear, oath. la ta’budune illellahe Worship none but Allah, you won’t serve anyone, only Allah.
ve bil valideyni ihsanev ve izl kurba vel yetam vel mesakini Treat with goodness to your parents, siblings, and orphans (I translated orphan is having nobody, because in literatural position every lone being who hasn’t anybody around for him is considered as orphan) A child whos mom and dad passed away is called an orphan. For this treat with kindness to orphans and people are in need, do good deeds to them.
ve kulu lin nasi husnev speak good words to people, ve ekiymus salate be steadfast in your salat (prays). ve atuz zekah and give zakah. summe tevelleytum ila kalilem minkum ve entum mu’ridun But what did you do after all those orders? You turned away. You opposed. ila kalilem minkum Most of you turned away from those orders except a few of you. ve entum mu’ridun (and for those Jews who were living in Madina when this verse arrived, to them) and you still continue to do so.
There are some of humanities unchangable constant values. Every verse shows these values. And these values are the same values that sent to sons of Israel in Tora. Treating with kindness to parents, to poor people. Making good deeds to siblings, to those who have nobody. Saying good words to people. Prays ans zakah which symbolize the connection between human and Allah, also with human and society. Zakah symbolizes the relations between human and his community. Salat (Prays) regulates the relations with Allah. And if you put these with the words above, what can you understand? la ta’budune illellahe Don’t worship anyone but Allah is connected to prays, so that human-Allah relation may establish clearly. Unity.
And to establish another connection between human and society, following words arrived. Watching over the poor, relatives, orphans and those who have nobody. Makind good deeds to parents. As you can see Qur’an establishes the rules and telling us the concepts of connections of humans between both Allah and human society.
84 – Ve iz ehazna misakakum la tesfikune dimaekum ve la tuhricune enfusekum min diyarikum summe akrartum ve entum teshhedun
And recall when We took your word that you will not shed each other’s blood or evict one another from your homes, and you had bore witness and consented to this. (A.Hulusi)
And remember We took your covenant (to this effect): Shed no blood amongst you, nor turn out your own people from your homes: and this ye solemnly ratified, and to this ye were witness.
Ve iz ehazna misakakum la tesfikune dimaekum ve la tuhricune enfusekum And remember that time we took your promise. la tesfikune dimaekum So that you won’t shed blood of each others.
[Additional Info: We took your promise that you won’t shed blood by following egos needs and desires and by leaving your real lives and special actions to follow egos features and search for its titles and its empty wishes. (İbn. Arabi- Te’vilat)]
ve la tuhricune enfusekum min diyarikum and you won’t evict one another from your homes.
[Additional Info: It means yourselves, your essences. Because soul is named as “person/essence”. “We took your promises that you won’t evict your essences from your homelands, your spititual headquarters, your holy gardens. (İbn.Arabi)]
summe akrartum ve entum teshhedun then you had consented to this. We took your covenants and you bore witness. ve entum teshhedun O..! The Jew Society who still live in Madina in times those verses arrived in, you are still testify to this promise. Because those promises we took are also written in Tora in your own hands.
85 – Summe entum haulai taktulune enfusekum ve tuhricune ferikam minkum min diyarihim tezaherune aleyhim bil ismi vel udvan* ve iy ye’tukum usara tufaduhum ve huve muharramun aleykum ihracuhum* e fe tu’minune bi ba’dil kitabi ve tekfurune bi ba’d* fe ma cezau mey yef’alu zalike minkum illa hizyun fil hayatid dunya* ve yevmel kiyameti yuraddune ila esheddil azab* vemallahu bi gafilin amma ta’melun
Yet you are killing one another and evicting a group of your people from their homes. You unjustly unite against them as enemies. And if they come to you as captives, you ransom them and evict them (although this was forbidden to you). So, do you believe in part of the knowledge of the reality (Book) and disbelieve in part? The recompense for those who do so among you is disgrace in worldly life; and on the Day of Resurrection they will be subject to the severest of suffering. Allah as your essential reality, is not unaware of what you do. (A.Hulusi)
After this it is ye, the same people, who slay among yourselves, and banish a party of you from their homes; assist (their enemies) against them, in guilt and transgression; and if they come to you as captives, ye ransom them, though it was not lawful for you to banish them. Then is it only a part of the Book that ye believe in, and do ye reject the rest? but what is the reward for those among you who behave like this but disgrace in this life?- and on the Day of Judgment they shall be consigned to the most grievous penalty. For Allah is not unmindful of what ye do.
Summe entum haulai taktulune enfusekum Then what happened? After that promise? You murdered each others. You slaughtered yourselves. ve tuhricune ferikam minkum min diyarihim One group amongst you emerged and evicted the other group from their homes. Banished them.
The thing mentioned here was the war between Jewia and Israelia, the two countries founded after Prophet Solomon’s death and split of his lands. These two countries handshaked with their neighbours and attacked on the other. Think about it. Israel nation made a pact with Assyrias and together they slaughtered the people of the Kingdom of Jew. Mostly they killed them, and they handed the rest to their old enemies new allies as slaves. Jews made them to other Jews.
After that, what happened? Interesting though, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar The Second made another pact with those enemies and crushed that Israelia nation who handed their brothers to their enemies. According to history records, there was a death count of 200.000 people at that incident.
Yes, there was a pointer in history, their past. You’ve always done that. Of course by that addressing another attention was out for the first addressed Jews at that time. What were they doing back then? Ben-i Kayyuka (one jewish tribe) made a pact with evs tribe. Beni- Kuraysa and Ben-i Nadir (other two jewish tribes) were making another pact with hazrech tribe of Madina arabs.
These evs and hazrech tribes were always in fight with one another. And by those pacts, their allies were always joining the fight with them. They were slaughtering one another again. Both in history and that times when this verse arrives.
tezaherune aleyhim bil ismi vel udvan You were helping each others with only sin, hatred and grudge. To yourselves of course. ve iy ye’tukum usara tufaduhum Whenever you capture a prisoner, even from your own tribe, even another jew just like you, you only let them go free for ransom. You were doing that.
ve huve muharramun aleykum ihracuhum This sentence is a muterize, a quote subtext. It belongs to the text above; as in (even evicting someone from his own is ordered as a sin to you); you were doing that even it was ordered you as a sin.
e fe tu’minune bi ba’dil kitabi ve tekfurune bi ba’d O you sons of Isreal who became Jewminded; is it only a part of the Book that you believe in, and reject the rest? Do you believe the truth partially and cover up the rest?
This thing mentioned there is this; they deleted the commands which they don’t like in Ten Commandments. I checked that Ten Commandments in Tora. Inside that ten commands there was no order about helping the poor and in needs like I translated in the verse 83. So what did they do? They splitted the first commandment into two pieces and served them as commands number 1 and 2. It’s like; O sons of Israel, (1) you will only worship me and (2) You won’t have any other deity but me. It’s clearly the same thing, same command. That means they deleted one command and split another into two pieces. So that they covered up the truth.
So this is the lesson here. This is what meant to be said. Don’t you become Jewminded too about this subject. Don’t give people your sorry excuses after you cover the truth and changing Allah’s commands by splitting or corrupting just for it doesn’t suit you.
fe ma cezau mey yef’alu zalike minkum illa hizyun fil hayatid dunya* What is the penalty for those among you who behave like this on earth; but disgrace in this life? Being sentenced to agony. ve yevmel kiyameti yuraddune ila esheddil azab On the Day of Judgement those shall be sentenced to the most grievous penalty. vemallahu bi gafilin amma ta’melun For Allah is not unmindful of what you do.
There’s a telling here that breaking and corrupting the truth would cause a social desolution and a loss of identity and character. It’s almost said he would be served as food to earth communities. Because agony on earth is this. Can’t you see this in society you live in? Those you dominated before, don’t count you as a human being today, this is a penalty, an agony. And the result of becoming Jewminded.
[Additional Info: You; who severed your connections from your borning essences, veiled from the light of the constant truth; you kill each others because you go astray and follow your egos and desires. A group among you, makes you follow the road of sin, directs you to wrong, encourages you to commit sins and follow your earthly desires; and by doing that they will banish you from your original, eternal homes. You help them with committing sins, you stay together in sins, commit those unspoken wrongs, so that they may notice you and follow you. You become tyrants, antagonize people, torture them, so that those dreadful acts may reach them. After that you infect them with those terrible acts, those savage natures. You encourage them to commit those same terrible sins you even embellish those horrible things to them. (İbn. Arabi-Te’vilat)]
86 – Ulaikellezineshteravul hayated dunya bil ahirati fe la yuhaffefu anhumul azabu ve la hum yunsarun
Those are the ones who have bought the life of this world (bodily desires and pleasures) in exchange for the eternal life to come (the inner reality). Their suffering will not be lightened, nor will they be aided! (A.Hulusi)
These are the people who buy the life of this world at the price of the Hereafter: their penalty shall not be lightened nor shall they be helped.
Ulaikellezineshteravul hayated dunya Those are the ones who have bought the life of this world in exchange for the eternal life to come. In other words, they sold their eternal joy for having earth. Getting earth means sacrificing your eternal life. What’s that mean? Your moral code would turn upside down. Taking something valuable and lower its value and taking something vulgar and exalting its nature. This is the turning your values, your ethics upside down. If that happens to your ethics and values; you behave badly to higher valued things and behave like they are your purposes to those that in truth means nothing to you. What is that means by another look? It means this. Even this world is your ride, even you should stay on its back for the ride, you switch roles and make the earth to travel on your back. Earth would made you its ride. This is by all means turning your ethics and values upside down. Earthly vessel, afterlife soul… Earthly vessel never gives up the opportunities for enslaving the heart.
By etymologic definitions, the origin of Earth means two things. 1- Down, 2- Close. Close, because it is close to body and mud. Humans body is made from mud. It’s low, down because of this mud. Compared to afterlife, of course. So if this temporary world tricks you, then your eternal afterlife would be lost to you forever.
fe la yuhaffefu anhumul azabu ve la hum yunsarun For those who do that; their suffering will not be lightened, nor will they be aided! They won’t find help in afterlife. How it won’t be helped? The second they find out that their values and ethics are reversed on earth; they will cry; “No..! How could we be tricked like that?” That regret will be the greatest agony for them for they won’t find any help after that point.
“Ve ahiru davana velil hamdulillahi rabbil alemiyn” (Jonah/10) “
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds!” All products of our claims, causes and lives are for Allah and our last word to our Allah is “Hamd”. “Esselamu aleykum.”
