Sūrat al-Aʿrāf
Section 19 of 25 · Surah Studies · Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
We Need to Hear God Directly
Mūsā (peace be upon him) now tells the people that they must listen and obey the commands of Allah (swt). And what they tell him is: we cannot believe that this is from God. We must hear Him. God must tell us directly. Subḥān Allāh. God must tell us; we must be able to hear God telling us; we do not believe it comes through this book. Hence Mūsā (peace be upon him) — it is said in verse 155:
وَٱخْتَارَ مُوسَىٰ قَوْمَهُۥ سَبْعِينَ رَجُلًا لِّمِيقَـٰتِنَا ۖ فَلَمَّآ أَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلرَّجْفَةُ قَالَ رَبِّ لَوْ شِئْتَ أَهْلَكْتَهُم مِّن قَبْلُ وَإِيَّـٰىَ ۖ أَتُهْلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ ٱلسُّفَهَآءُ مِنَّآ ۖ إِنْ هِىَ إِلَّا فِتْنَتُكَ تُضِلُّ بِهَا مَن تَشَآءُ وَتَهْدِى مَن تَشَآءُ ۖ أَنتَ وَلِيُّنَا فَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَا ۖ وَأَنتَ خَيْرُ ٱلْغَـٰفِرِينَ
“And Mūsā selected seventy men from his people for Our appointment. Later when the earthquake seized them, he said, “My Lord, had it been Your will, You could have destroyed them earlier, and me too. Would You destroy us for what the foolish among them have done? It is nothing but a trial from You, wherewith you let go astray whom You will, and give guidance to whom You will. You are our protector, so forgive us, and have mercy on us, and You are the best among those who forgive.” (7:155)
Wa-khtāra Mūsā qawmahu sabʿīna rajulan li-mīqātinā. Mūsā (peace be upon him) then chooses a delegation of seventy. He is very patient with these people. He is bold in everything else; but when he comes to them, he is full of compassion. He simply bears with all this disturbance. He says: very well, seventy of you. So when Mūsā (peace be upon him) chose seventy for Our meeting: fa-lammā akhadhat-humu al-rajfatu qāla rabbi law shiʾta ahlaktahum min qablu wa-iyyāy. And even after Allah (swt) had spoken to them — consider it. Has Allah spoken directly to any other people? No. To his people Allah speaks, and they say: no, that is not enough; we must see Him. We do not trust the speaking now. It is a high degree of scepticism. This is what scepticism does to a man. With scepticism — may Allah save us — one begins at length to wonder whether one is truly one's parents' child. Hence the way al-Ghazālī dealt with it, by the question he put: when you are in a dream you take it for reality, and when you wake you know it was a dream; but while in the dream you take it for reality. If, then, you would be a sceptic, what if you are in a dream even now? How do you know you are not dreaming at this moment, and that one day you will wake from this great dream, and all of it will have been a dream? One hopes not. We know with certainty that it is not so, in shāʾ Allāh; we are not in a dream. But the sceptical doubt everything, and will doubt this too. And it becomes a disease. It is then a mental illness, not an academic matter.