Translation
O People of Faith, align with God and His Messenger and do not turn away while you hear; don’t be like those who hear but do not respond. Surely the worst among His creatures, in His view, are the ones that do not hear, do not speak and do not comprehend. Had God known any good in them, He would have helped them to hear but even if they are made to hear, their aversion for good turns them away (from truth). 402
O People of Faith, respond to God and His Messenger when he calls you to guidance that enriches your lives, be cognizant that God intervenes between your soul and your heart (to inspire and to guide) and He will gather you all to Him. Be mindful that afflictions and trials may not confine itself to those who are unjust to the exclusion of others (who consider themselves otherwise good) and God is fully capable of requiting.403
Remember when you were few in numbers, deemed insignificant on earth and fearful that others will destroy you by force, God sheltered you, strengthened you with His help and gave you wholesome sustenance and succor that you may be thankful.
O People of Faith, not be unresponsive to God and His Messenger and unfaithful to your trust (human affinity to truth and justice) while you have been endowed with the knowledge. Also, be aware that your material possessions and your family could be a source of trials and temptations (if you lose sight of greater purposes) and with God is the finality of all rewards and contentment. 404
Interpretation
402 The Qur’an is full of calls to the faithful. Mind that this call is made to anyone who has professed faith in God, not just Muslims, and in that sense, it is a universal call to all of humanity, giving credence to the fact that the Qur’an has been declared a guide for all of humanity, and the Prophet Mohammad has been declared in the Qur’an to be a mercy to mankind. It is important to underscore this aspect of the Qur’an that has gotten lost among the Muslims who sometime claims that it is a book that speaks to themselves only, whereas God speaks to all of us, particularly to those who believe in God and wish to do good in their lives, irrespective of religious affiliations. God is particularly wary of those human beings who refuse to listen, are unwilling to see the truth, and fail to comprehend while being gifted with hearing, sights, and cognition by God.
403 In making the call to humanity, God emphasizes the point that this guidance from Him is to enrich their lives and to make life meaningful. God refers to our soul and our hearts—the soul being the repository of the guidance (natural instinct and knowledge already endowed and programmed), while the heart has the emotion and intellectual capability to listen to the soul and act accordingly. God further reminds us that we all will journey back to Him and will be forced to assess our own lives and their accomplishments, whereas on this earth, our actions will result in trials and calamities for wider groups of human beings, beyond the immediate evildoers and mischief makers, as we can all see in our recent past and in human history.
404 As part of this universal call, God makes immediate reference to the small group of the Prophet’s followers who were receiving revelations of the Qur’an on a regular basis. They need to be mindful of God’s blessings, how when they were weak and few in number and were afraid of being wiped out from the face of the earth, God sheltered them and gave them provisions and each other to help and support. Such conditions are reminiscent of many communities in the past, such as followers of Moses and Jesus, who fought against ungodliness and, more recently, the followers of Martin Luther King, who fought against segregation and vestige of slavery, and followers of Nelson Mandela against the evils of apartheid, to name a few. We are reminded that we have an obligation to seek the truth and work for justice in the world we live in and not fall in love with material possessions and get overly consumed with our family while neglecting our larger role as members of human society to make life better for everyone.
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REFLECTION
Let’s be mindful that a call is being made to all people of faith, irrespective of religious affiliations (Muslims, Jews, Christians, and anyone else who claims faith in God), and this call is about paying attention to the guidance of God that is universal and applies to all of humanity and excludes none. We are asked to use God-given faculties of hearing, listening, and comprehending to develop a genuine understanding of God’s presence and guidance and to be wary that if we do not subscribe to such knowledge and guidance, we will do ourselves harm, a harm that may not only affect those who do evil but also drags us all, even if we are good. We are also reminded that all that we claim to possess (wealth, business, relationships, et cetera) and all that we love (family, children, spouses, et cetera.) can and will be a source of trial and temptation for us, irrespective of being good or evil people. In these verses are some insights about one of our contemporary questions: Why do bad things happen to good people?
ACTION
These verses appeal to our human condition, our sense of purpose, and our abilities to hear, sense, think, and comprehend so that each one of us can bring purpose in our lives, an outcome that should follow once we develop conscious faith in God and human goodness. Faith is incomplete unless and until we evolve to conscious beings capable of listening, inferring, and acting in purposeful and positive ways. This is a challenge of every generation!