وَما لَكُم لا تُؤمِنونَ بِاللَّهِ ۙ وَالرَّسولُ يَدعوكُم لِتُؤمِنوا بِرَبِّكُم وَقَد أَخَذَ ميثاقَكُم إِن كُنتُم مُؤمِنينَ
Why should you not have faith in Allah while the Apostle invites you to have faith in your Lord, and He has certainly made a covenant with you, should you be faithful?
EXEGESIS
Your Lord (rabbikum) is mentioned instead of ‘Allah’ as an endearment, to soften the heart of the faithful and serve as a reminder that rabb is also the sustainer and nurturer who provides you with everything, so you have no reason not to have faith in Him.
It would, in fact, make no difference even if we read the pronoun He in He has certainly made a covenant with you as ‘he’ – referring to the Holy Prophet – for God takes a covenant from people either directly or through His Apostle. Faith in Allah is therefore mentioned here without ‘and His Apostle’, but it is implied.
EXPOSITION
The purpose of a rhetorical question is to persuade, subtly influence, and get its audience to reflect, rather than answer the obvious that it asks. In this case, the obvious that the verse invites the faithful to think about is that they have no reason to lack faith in God when His Apostle is in their midst, showing them God’s signs. It is very similar to the message in the verse, How shall Allah guide a people who have disbelieved after their faith and [after] bearing witness that the Apostle is true, and [after] manifest proofs had come to them? (3:86), and similar as well is the verse, And how would you be faithless while the signs of Allah are recited to you and His Apostle is in your midst? (3:101).
Why should you not have faith followed by should you be faithful also confirms what was said in the previous verse, that the addressees are indeed the faithful.
Why should you not have faith means: Why don’t your actions match your claim to faith, such as spending in the way of God? While the Apostle invites you to have faith could mean his invitation to spend in God’s cause, and the conclusion, should you be faithful, would suggest responding to this invitation and being loyal to one’s covenant with God would be a way to test and prove one’s faith and sincerity.
On the meaning of the covenant (mīthāq), it alludes to the pledge and commitment that new Muslims made to the Prophet, to believe in him and support him as God’s messenger, to believe in God’s unicity (tawḥīd), to give up sinful ways, and even to sacrifice their possessions and lives, if necessary, to uphold their faith and God’s message. It would be similar to the verse, Remember Allah’s blessing upon you and His covenant with which He has bound you when you said: ‘We hear and obey.’ And be wary of Allah (5:7), which exegetes understand either as a general pledge made by the new Muslims when they gave up polytheism or, for specific covenants such as the two pledges at ʿAqabah (621 ce (2 bh) and 622 ce (1 bh) respectively), the pledge of Riḍwān (628 ce/6 ah), and so forth. See also the Review of Tafsīr Literature section for a more metaphysical interpretation of the covenant.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- The Apostle of God said to his companions one day: ‘Whose faith amazes you the most?’ ‘The angels,’ they replied. He said: ‘Why should they not have faith while they are before their Lord?’ ‘Then the prophets,’ they said. He said: ‘And why should they not have faith while revelation comes to them?’ ‘Then us,’ they said. And he replied: ‘And Why should you not have faith while I am before you? Rather, those with the most amazing faith are a people who shall come after you. They will [only] find a scripture and have faith in what is in it.’[1]
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Rāzī quotes al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār as saying that the words Why should you not (mā lakum) proves that people have free will to choose faith over disbelief, otherwise it would make no sense for God to say this, just like it is never said to a person, ‘Why don’t you become taller?’ or ‘Why don’t you become fairer in your complexion?’ This proves therefore that faith is from the creature and not compelled by God’s decree on a person.[2]
Tabatabai has said that some exegetes hold that the covenant alluded to in this verse was in the primordial world (ʿālam al-dharr) when only souls existed and people were still in the loins of Adam (7:172), and therefore the He in He has certainly made a covenant with you can only refer to God. But this is unlikely to be the case, argues Tabatabai, firstly because, even if it were true that God took a covenant from the souls of people before their physical existence on the earth, they have forgotten it so it would not be fair to argue Why should you not have faith in Allah while, and secondly, those who hold the belief in the primordial world do not restrict it to the faithful – it included the hypocrites and the faithless, while this verse is clearly for the faithful, given the words should you be faithful.[3]
The belief that the covenant in this verse refers to what is given in 7:172, as a primordial pledge of humanity to worship one God, has also been mentioned by Ibn Kathīr,[4] Suyūṭī,[5] and Rāzī, amongst others. Rāzī however refutes it with Tabatabai’s first argument.[6]
But Rāzī and Tabatabai ignore the fact that the verse in question (7:172) also addresses the matter of people not remembering the pledge they had made to God. For the verse concludes: [This,] lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Indeed we were unaware of this’ (7:172). This means man is asked to trust God’s word that a pledge was made and the Quran, in part, recounts and reminds of this forgotten pledge. Or, that the pledge and covenant are what gives man his divine nature (fiṭrah) (30:30) and innate ability to recognise the truth by following what is available through revelation and the intellect, such that one cannot argue that following the right path is only an obligation to those aware of what the prophets preached.[7] It is in light of this understanding that other verses speaking of God’s pledge with man can also be understood, such as: ‘Did I not exhort you, O children of Adam, saying: “Do not worship Satan. He is indeed your manifest enemy”?’ (36:60).
Another way to read the verse, instead of He has certainly made a covenant with you, would be: Your covenant has certainly been made, either when He brought you forth from the loins of Adam (7:172) or by His establishing proofs and signs that clearly invite you toward following Prophet Muhammad (s), should you be faithful.[8]
[1] Suyuti, 1/65; Ibn Kathir, 8/45.
[2] Razi, 29/451.
[3] Mizan, 19/152.
[4] Ibn Kathir, 8/45.
[5] Jalalayn, p. 541.
[6] Razi, 29/451.
[7] Razi, 29/451.
[8] Baghawi, 5/27.