Islam Guidance

Verse97

(97) إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلآئِكَةُ ظَالِمِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ قَالُواْ فِيمَ كُنتُمْ قَالُواْ كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ

فِي الأَرْضِ قَالْوَاْ أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللّهِ وَاسِعَةً فَتُهَاجِرُواْ فِيهَا فَأُوْلَـئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَسَاءتْ مَصِيرً ا

Section 14
Believers remaining with the enemy
To weak to fly to their homes ِ those who fly to their homes not to fear straitness.
97. " Verily (as for) those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their own selves, they (the angels) will ask: 'In what state were you?' They will reply: ' We were oppressed in the land'. (The angels) will say: ' Was not Allah's land vast so that you could have migrated therein?' So these (are those) whose abide is Hell, and an evil destination it is! "
Commentary:
Before the occurrance of the Battle of Badr, the pagans of Mecca called the citizens of Mecca to fight against the Muslims.

They ordered that all men should participate in the war. They treatened people that the houses of those who might offend the issue would be ruined and their property could be confiscated. Some of the Muslims, who were still living in Mecca and had not imigrated to Medina, for the fear of their lives, accompained the pagan in the war against the Muslims in the Battle of Badr, where they were killed. The verse was revealed and counted guilty those who did not migrate and stayed in the invironment of infidelity. The verse blamed them because they had wronged against themselves. Thus, it is obligatory to migrate from the center of infidelity, and staying there to be a multitude of the soldiers of disbelievers, is unlawful. If you can change the circumstances of the invironment, do it, else you should migrate from there in order not to be called to account, becaouse justification of faults will not be accepted.
"...'We were oppressed..."
We should know that the principle is the goal and belief, not the life and the house. Or, in other words, we must becareful that theism is the principle not patriotism.
By the way, according to the Islamic literature, an oppressed person is he who cannot recognize the path of responsibility and the difference between right and wrong.(1)
Some Islamic traditions denote that he who imigrates a distence, even as long as a span, in order to protect the religion, will be admitted to Heaven and will be companion of the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and Abraham (a.s.).(2)
" Verily (as for) those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their own selves, they (the angels) will ask: 'In what state were you?' They will reply:
' We were oppressed in the land'. (The angels) will say: ' Was not Allah's land vast so that you could have migrated therein?' So these (are those) whose abide is Hell, and an evil destination it is! "

(1) Tafsir-us-Safi, vol. 1, p. 153.
(2) Nur-uth-Thaqalayn, vol. 1, p. 541.

• Prev
• Next