Maariful Quran - Mufti Shafi Usmani RA - Vol - 1 - Page

Surah Al-Baqarah 2 : 8 - 20 122him necessary to keep him healthy, so that his body can no longerfunction properly, which may finally lead to his total destruction. Inthe terminology of the Holy Qur'an and the ~adith, the word 'disease'is also applied to certain mental or psychic states (we are using thetwo terms in the original and more comprehensive sense) which hinderman from attaining any degree of spiritual perfection, for theygradually deprive him of the ability to perform good deeds, and even ofordinary human decency, till he meets with his spiritual death. Thegreat spiritual master, Junaid of Baghdad, has said that just as thediseases of the body arise from an imbalance among the four humours,the diseases of the heart arise from a surrender to one's physicaldesires. According to the present verse, the disease hidden in theirhearts is unbelief and rejection of the truth, which is as much aphysical sickness as a spiritual one. It is all too obvious that beingungrateful to one's creator and nourisher and going against Hiscommandments is to be spiritually sick. Moreover, to keep thisdisbelief concealed for the sake of petty worldly gains and not to havethe courage to speak out one's mind is no less a disease of the soul.Hypocrisy is a physical disease too in so far as the hypocrite is alwaysshudderinghfor fear of being exposed. Jealousy being a necessaryingredient of hypocrisy, he cannot bear to see the Muslims growingstronger in the world, and yet the poor hypocrite cannot even have thesatisfaction of unburdening his heart of the venom. No wonder that allthis tension should express itself in physical ailment.As for Allah making them grow in their malady, it means that theyare jealous of the growing strength of the Muslims, but it is Allah'swill to make the position of the Muslims even stronger, as they can seefor themselves, which feeds their bile and keeps the disease of theirhearts growing.The fourth and the fifth verses expose the sophistry of thehypocrites - their activities threatened to produce a general chaos anddisorder, and yet, in their mealy-mouthed way, they pretended to bemen of good will and to be serving the cause of peace and order. TheHoly Qur'an makes it clear that oral claims alone do not decide thequestion whether one is working for order or disorder, for what thiefwould call himself a thief? It depends on what one does, not on what