Surah 1-2 - YasSarNal QuR'aN

Al-Baqarah (The Cow) | SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHTand are patient in misfortune and adversity and in time of peril. Such are those whohave proved themselves true, and such are the God-fearing. (Verse 177)The subject of this verse is clearly linked to the issue of the direction of prayer andthe controversy surrounding it, as discussed earlier. It now establishes acomprehensive principle that covers this issue and all matters that the Jews ofMadinah were wont to dispute. These mostly centred on new religious rituals andforms of worship introduced by Islam and which differed from their own.The purpose behind the change of the place Muslims face in prayers, and indeedall aspects of worship and ritual, has never been the direction people face, or indeedany outward form. These are not what gives worship its value or meaning, nor whatmakes people good and righteous. Righteousness is the result of a total feeling, anattitude and a mode of behaviour which shape the individual’s conscience and themind set of the community. It is a discipline whose effects are immediately andconstantly apparent in one’s life and the life of society as a whole. Without theseaspects, facing east or west, or turning one’s face to the right and to the left at the endof prayer or the performance of the various movements of prayer would have noeffect or significance.“Truly righteous is he who believes in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and theProphets...“ Taken as a whole, the verse spells out the total sum of goodness, orrighteousness. What, then, gives these beliefs and actions their value and meaning?What is the value of believing in God, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and theProphets?Belief in God marks a definite turning point in one’s life, at which one is freedfrom servitude and submission to all manner of powers, forces and desires, andsubmits to God alone. It is a transformation from chaos to order, from aimlessness topurpose, and from fragmentation to unity. It is a focal point around which allmankind stands equal in the eyes of God and which gives the whole of existencedirection, balance, and coherence.Belief in the Last Day is a belief in universal and divine justice. It is a testimony tothe fact that human life on earth is not without purpose or value or order, and thatgood works that seem to go unrewarded shall certainly be rewarded.Believing in the angels is an essential part of believing in a world that is beyondhuman perception. It is what distinguishes the way humans perceive the world andunderstand it from the way animals do. Animals perceive the world through theirsenses and instincts, while man believes in a world that lies beyond the reach of hisperception. 11 This is fully discussed in our commentary on the first few verses of this sūrah, pp.28-30187