Muhammad: (2) And those who believed and did...

There are several issues here:

Issue 1: The Correlation of Faith, Deeds, Forgiveness, and Reward

We have repeatedly mentioned that whenever God Almighty mentions faith (īmān) and righteous deeds (al-ʿamal aṣ-ṣāliḥ), He links them to forgiveness and reward. For example:

• "{Indeed, those who believed and did righteous deeds—for them is forgiveness and a noble provision}" (Al-Hajj: 50).
• "{And those who believed and did righteous deeds—We will certainly remove from them their sins and reward them}" (Al-ʿAnkabūt: 70).

We previously established in the commentary on Surah Al-ʿAnkabūt that forgiveness is the reward for faith, and the recompense is for righteous deeds.

Here, the recompense is stated as:

1. "{We will certainly remove from them their sins}": This points to the reward for faith.
2. "{and set right their affairs}" (wa aṣlaḥ bāla-hum): This points to the reward for righteous deeds.

Issue 2: The Muʿtazilite Stance on Sin Removal

The Muʿtazilah argue that the removal of sins is contingent upon both faith and righteous deeds. Therefore, whoever believes but does not perform righteous deeds remains eternally in torment.

We respond to this by saying:

1. If their assertion were true, then misguidance (iḍlāl) would be linked to disbelief (kufr) and its opposite. If someone disbelieves, their deeds should not be considered misguided (as they have no deeds to be misguided).
2. Alternatively, we have established that God links two things to two things: Whoever believes, their sins are removed; and whoever does righteous deeds, their affairs are set right.
3. Furthermore, what believer can be conceived of as completely devoid of righteous deeds—meaning they perform no prayer, no fasting, no charity, and no feeding?
4. In this context, the conjunction "and did" (wa ʿamilū) is a conjunction of the effect (musabbab) to the cause (sabab), similar to saying, "I ate a lot, and I became full."

Issue 3: The Repetition of "Believed" (Āmanū)

The verse states: "{And those who believed and did righteous deeds and believed...}" (wa-lladhīna āmanū wa ʿamilū aṣ-ṣāliḥāti wa āmanū). Since "believed and did righteous deeds" already conveys the meaning, what is the wisdom behind repeating "believed"?

There are several interpretations:

First:

• The first "believed" (āmanū) refers to belief in God, His Messenger, and the Last Day.
• The second "believed and did righteous deeds" refers to believing in all matters mentioned in the Book and the Sunnah. This is a generalization following specifics, which is rhetorically sound (like saying, "God created the heavens and the earth, and everything else," either meaning everything other than what was mentioned, or encompassing everything generally).

Second:

• The meaning is: They believed initially, and then they believed in what was revealed to Muhammad, which is the Truth that distinguishes the truthful from the liar. That is, they first believed in the miracle, realizing that only God could produce the Qur'an. Then they believed and performed righteous deeds. The conjunction (wāw) is for absolute collection.
• It is possible that the latter mention precedes the former in actual occurrence. This is like saying, "I believed in it, and belief in it was obligatory."
• Or, the second mention is an explanation of their faith, as if saying: "{And those who believed and did righteous deeds, and believed}"—meaning they believed, and their belief was in the Truth, just as one says, "I went out, and my going out was successful," meaning my departure was good because I escaped such-and-such and gained such-and-such. Similarly, when God mentioned their belief, He clarified that their belief was according to God's command and revelation, not based on falsehood from others.

Third (The View of the Gnostics/People of Knowledge): Knowledge leads to action, and action leads to knowledge (al-ʿilmu ʿamalun wa-l-ʿamalu ʿilmun). Knowledge is acquired so that one may act upon it, as it is said: "When the scholar performs righteous deeds, he learns what he did not know."

For example, a person learns of God's power through evidence and command. The command motivates him to act, and his knowledge of God's status, power, reward, and punishment urges him on. When he performs a righteous deed, he learns new aspects of God's power and knowledge that no one could know except through divine unveiling. Then he believes further. This is the meaning of: "{It is He who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the believers so that they would increase in faith upon their faith}" (Al-Fatḥ: 4).

When the accountable person believes in Muhammad through proof and miracle and performs a righteous deed, his knowledge compels him to believe everything Muhammad said, without any doubt remaining in his heart.

The believer in the first stage has certain states, and in the final stage, other states:

• Regarding belief in God: In the first stage, he makes God his object of worship, but he may seek other things for his needs (asking Zayd or ʿAmr for provision, or treating one thing as a cause for another). In the final stage, God alone is the ultimate goal; he seeks nothing else and sees nothing except Him in secret and in public, turning to nothing else in any matter. This is the ultimate belief in God, distinct from the first belief.

• Regarding the Prophet (PBUH): Initially, he affirms that what the Prophet utters is true. Later, he affirms that the Prophet speaks nothing except by God, and no speech is heard from him except that which is from God. In the first stage, he affirms the truthfulness of the utterance and its occurrence from the Prophet. In the second stage, he affirms the impossibility of falsehood from him, because one who narrates another's speech is not attributed with falsehood, unless the narration itself is flawed. He knows he is merely narrating what God said.

• Regarding the Hereafter: In the first stage, he considers the Resurrection as future and present life as current. In the final stage, he considers the Resurrection as current and the worldly life as past. He divides his own life moment by moment, viewing the entire world as non-existent, paying it no heed and turning away from it.

Issue 4: Contrast with the Disbelievers

The phrase "{And those who believed and did righteous deeds and believed}" stands in contrast to the description of the disbelievers: "{and turned away}" (Muhammad: 1).

We explained that "turned away" means they turned away from following Muhammad (PBUH). This verse encourages following Muhammad (PBUH). They turned themselves away from the path of God, which is Muhammad and what was revealed to him. These individuals, conversely, urged themselves toward following His path. Consequently, they received the opposite of what those others received: God misguided the good deeds of the former, and He covered the sins of these latter ones.

Issue 5: The Phrase "{and it is the Truth from your Lord}"

Is the phrase "{and it is the Truth from your Lord}" (wa huwa l-ḥaqqu min rabbikum) a distinguishing adjective, like saying, "I saw a man from Baghdad," distinguishing him from someone from Mosul?

No, because everything that comes from God is Truth. Therefore, this phrase is not merely distinguishing the Truth from their Lord (as if there were another truth not from Him). Rather, "{from your Lord}" is a second predicate, as if saying, "It is the Truth, and it is from your Lord."

Alternatively, if it is a distinguishing adjective, it means: the Truth that was sent down from your Lord. This is because Truth can be perceived directly (e.g., the sun being luminous is a truth, but it is not sent down from the Lord; it is knowledge acquired through means God facilitated for us).

Forgiveness and Setting Affairs Right

Then God Almighty says: "{We will certainly remove from them their sins and set right their affairs}."

"Remove their sins" (kaffara ʿanhum sayyiʾātihim): This implies covering them. This phrasing suggests a positive outcome that would not be implied by saying "annihilate" or "erase" them. Erasing something does not imply that something else is established in its place, whereas covering does.

When someone covers a dirty or worn-out garment, they do not cover it with something similar; rather, they cover it with a fine, clean garment. Especially if the generous King covers the worn garment of one of his servants, he orders a garment of high quality to be brought, one that can only be obtained with a high price. This is the nature of covering between the beloved and the Beloved.

Forgiveness and expiation (takfīr) are conceptually linked. This is what is meant by: "{those will have their evil deeds replaced by good deeds}" (Al-Furqān: 70).

"And set right their affairs" (wa aṣlaḥa bāla-hum): This points to what we mentioned: that the bad deeds are replaced by good ones.

If one asks: How can a sin be replaced by a good deed? We reply: It means that after their sins, He rewards them with what He rewards the doers of good deeds.

If the objection remains: If God rewards a sin as He rewards a good deed, this would encourage sinning. We reply: We did not say He rewards the sin itself. We said He rewards after the sin with the reward given for good deeds. This happens when the believer commits a sin, then becomes aware, repents, stands before his Lord confessing his fault, feeling contempt for himself. In this state, he becomes closer to mercy than one who did not sin but approached his Lord boasting internally. The sin thus becomes a condition for repentance, and the reward is for the repentance, not the sin.

It is as if God says: "My servant sinned and returned to Me. What he did was a thing, but his assumption about Me was good, as he found no refuge except in Me, so he relied upon My grace."

This assumption (ẓann) is an action of the heart, while the sin is an action of the body. The action of the heart is more significant. Do you not see that the sleeping person or the unconscious person is not held accountable for the actions of their body? The paralyzed person, who has no movement, is judged by the intention of his heart.

The analogy is that of the spirit and the body: The spirit is the rider, and the body is the mount. The horse runs before a king, defending the rider with its sword and spear, and in its exertion, it soils the king's garment with its sweat. Does the king pay attention to the horse's action compared to the rider's action? Indeed, if the rider were idle, the horse's soiling would be addressed to the rider. Similarly, the spirit is the rider, and the body is the mount. If the spirit is occupied with the worship and remembrance of God, whatever issues from the body is overlooked; rather, it is deemed good, and the exertion of the running horse is encouraged, while the standing horse is abandoned. If the spirit is not occupied, the body's actions are held against him.

Then God Almighty says:

! 7 < { That is because those who disbelieved followed falsehood, and those who believed followed the truth from their Lord. Thus does God set forth for the people their examples. } > 7

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