وَيَقُولُونَ آمَنَّا بِاللَّهِ وَبِالرَّسُولِ وَأَطَعْنَا ثُمَّ يَتَوَلَّى فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُم مِّن بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ وَمَا أُوْلَئِكَ بِالْمُؤْمِنِينَ
They say: ‘We have faith in Allah and in His Apostle, and we obey.’ Then after that a part of them refuse to comply, and they do not have faith.
EXEGESIS
Yatawallā (refuse to comply) is from the root of walā, which means ‘something to come after another thing, with the two being somehow connected’. The form tawliyah which is used here means to turn away from a position and revert to an earlier position.[1] Here it is referring to those who proclaimed Islam and submission to God and His Prophet, but then reverted to their earlier state of rebellion and enmity against them.
Farīq (part) comes from faraqa meaning to separate between two things. A farīq and a firqah refer to a group of people who are separate and distinguished from the rest.[2] In other words, a party, sect, or group.
EXPOSITION
Now that in the preceding verses some lessons have been drawn about how God’s ‘clear command’[3] has ordered all of creation, attention is once again returned to how the command of God is meant to give harmonious order to the Muslim community. The only way this can happen is if the Muslims adopt a spirit of submission to God and strive to follow His commands. This is discussed in the next batch of verses (47-52).
They say: although some have claimed that this is referring to the hypocrites,[4] it should also certainly include those of weak faith, as testified to by the statements, and they do not have faith, and Is there a sickness in their hearts (verse 50), and, Rather it is they who are the wrongdoers (verse 50). In fact, as we will discuss, it should be addressed to the Muslim community as a whole, as is appropriate given the context and theme of the surah.
We have faith in Allah and in His Apostle, and we obey: the preposition in (bi in Arabic) is repeated to highlight their emphatic proclamations of faith,[5] especially their boisterous and blustering claims of loyalty to the Messenger, so easily belied by the actions of some of them. When the hypocrites come to you they say: ‘We bear witness that you are indeed the apostle of Allah’ (63:1).
Another way to understand this is that it is an allusion to the mentality of those people who claim such faith, who in reality wish to differentiate between obedience to God and His Messenger, Those who disbelieve in Allah and His apostles and seek to separate Allah from His apostles (4:150).[6] Yet true faith does not make room for such a distinction, as obedience to God’s Messenger is considered an extension of obedience to God and inseparable from it, Whoever obeys the Apostle certainly obeys Allah (4:80).
Then after that a part of them refuse to comply: with the dictates of faith and their promise to obey the Messenger.
And they do not have faith: because faith means not just to say one believes in God, or the Prophet, or the Quran, or the hereafter, but it entails in actually obeying God and trying to live by His commands – and by extension the commands of His Messenger. Unfortunately, many suffer from the wrong type of thinking with regards to this matter. They wish to proclaim their faith in God, yet they do not want to actually have to accommodate that in any way in their behaviour, lifestyle, and choices. For them, believing in God is fine and Islam is fine as long as it does not require one to compromise what they want to do. God declares that this type of selective faith or faith of convenience is not faith at all.
This verse is considered one of the evidences that faith is not established simply based on someone proclaiming it.[7]
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.[8]
- To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.[9]
Note: This passage is addressed to the church in Sardis, who had a reputation of ‘being alive’ (of being faithful), yet it criticises that their actions do not live up to that standard.
[1] Tahqiq, 13/225-228, w-l-y.
[2] Raghib, pp. 632-633, f-r-q.
[3] See the Introduction.
[4] Baghawi, 3/423. Related in Tibyan, 7/450.
[5] Alusi, 9/386.
[6] Mizan, 15/145.
[7] Tabrisi, 7/236; Razi, 24/410.
[8] Isaiah 29:13.
[9] Revelation 3:1-2.