Living The Quran
From Issue: 548 [Read full issue]
Slanderous Reviler
Al-Humazah (The Slanderous Reviler)
Sura 104
: Verses 1-4
"Woe to every slanderous reviler, habitual defamer, who hoards wealth and incessantly counts it! He thinks his wealth will immortalize him. Most surely, no, indeed! He will be hurled in the Crusher."
When good and evil contend in the world, both seek to win hearts. Good hurls statements of truth at falsehood in the open court of public opinion and depends upon the sincerity of people to recognize its legitimacy and to make the necessary sacrifice to undo the powers of corruption. Evil tries to crush good by perverting its message and maligning its messengers, anticipating that people will side with power, self-glorification, and vilification of "the other," and have faith in false hope that the obduracy will keep them secure against change, admitting wrongfulness, and implementing justice.
When God commanded Muhammad, peace be upon him, to announce his prophethood to his people and declaim the Quran among them, the Makkan elite perceived his message of human equality before God as a threat to their standing because they believed that their personal status and the fortunes they had amassed directly resulted from the imbalanced mores of tribalism and the culture of idol-worship. Several notables among the Prophet's clan of Quraysh went to the nearby city of Thaqif and conspired to revile the Prophet and those who followed him. The Prophet had long enjoyed a reputation for impeccable honesty and trustworthiness among the character-conscious Arabs, which the power-elite feared might lend credence to his call. Their purpose was to kill Islam in its cradle by giving it an aura of dishonour and associating it with conflict. This, they hoped, would rile people in the name of tribe and tradition and mire them in irrelevant debate in order to keep them from an actual examination of the principles of Islam as a religion and from comparing it with the conventions and explanations of their parochial paganism, and thus discourage conversion to Islam or cause new converts to renounce it.
The above verses informed such avid opponents of truth that the fleeting pleasures of the world they so dearly loved would pass away. Then the Resurrection they belied would transpire, and God's Judgment would bring them to eternal woe.
Compiled From:
"The Gracious Quran" - Ahmad Zaki Hammad, pp. 291, 292