Surah 1-2 - YasSarNal QuR'aN

Al-Baqarah (The Cow) | THE SACRED MONTHS, FIGHTING AND PILGRIMAGEspouses was allowed during such periods. They enquired about even more intimateand personal issues concerning matrimonial relations. These questions weresometimes raised by women.Questions relating to other issues are to be found in several other sūrahs in theQur’ān. The fact that they were raised is in itself significant in more ways than one.To begin with, it indicates a high degree of enlightenment and dynamism in theMuslim society, which was already developing a distinct character. A sense ofcommunity was rapidly growing. The Muslims were no longer a set of isolatedindividuals, nor were they any longer separate tribes scattered all over Arabia. Theyhad become a nation with its own identity, systems and relationships, in which everyperson was keen to assume his or her role and position. This new social, intellectualand emotional awareness was brought about by Islam, and was moulded by theIslamic outlook on life, its system and its pioneering views and concepts.Second, this inquisitiveness also indicates a keen sense of religious consciousnessemerging in the new society. It reflects the depth and strength of the hold the newfaith had taken on the hearts and minds of its followers. Having discarded their oldassumptions and attitudes, and wrenched themselves away from pre-Islamiccustoms and traditions, they lost confidence in the old order and began looking totheir new religion for education and guidance in all aspects of life.This state of emotional and intellectual awareness is generated by true faith. Thebeliever is freed from all former beliefs and traditions. He begins to view withscepticism all previously held ideas, and to subject all his actions to fresh scrutiny.The believer becomes readily receptive to the directives of the new faith, and keen toreform his or her life accordingly. Even those former concepts and practices whichare approved or adopted by the new order will assume a new context as they areintegrated into the new faith.The new order need not necessarily replace the old one in every detail, but it isimportant that those details adopted by the new faith should be assimilated andincorporated into it in substance as well as in spirit. This is very well illustrated bythe pre-Islamic pilgrimage rituals which Islam transforms into a new set of rules,hardly bearing any resemblance to those formerly practised by the Arabs.Third, some of the questions the Muslims were raising relate directly to thehistorical context of that period. The Jews in Madinah and the idolatrous Arabs inMakkah would often voice doubts as to the merits of Islamic teachings andprinciples. They would seize every opportunity to disparage Islam, exploiting certainoccasions or events to wage a campaign of hostility and disinformation. One suchoccasion involved unwarranted criticism to the effect that a Muslim expedition, ledby `Abdullāh ibn Jaĥsh, had violated the prohibition of fighting during the sacred217