Rejection of Quran without evidence to backing up this claim?

قُلۡ اَرَءَیۡتُمۡ اِنۡ کَانَ مِنۡ عِنۡدِ اللّٰہِ ثُمَّ کَفَرۡتُمۡ بِہٖ مَنۡ اَضَلُّ مِمَّنۡ ہُوَ فِیۡ شِقَاقٍۭ بَعِیۡدٍ

اے نبیؐ، ان سے کہو، کبھی تم نے یہ بھی سوچا کہ اگر واقعی یہ قرآن خدا ہی کی طرف سے ہوا اور تم اس کا انکار کرتے رہے تو اس شخص سے بڑھ کر بھٹکا ہوا اور کون ہو گا جو اس کی مخالفت میں دور تک نکل گیا ہو؟⁶⁹

سُوْرَةُ حٰمٓ السَّجْدَة حاشیہ نمبر :69

69۔ اس کا یہ مطلب نہیں ہے کہ محض اس خطرے کی بنا پر ایمان لے آؤ کہ اگر کہیں یہ قرآن خدا ہی طرف سے ہوا تو انکار کر کے ہماری شامت نہ آ جاۓ۔ بلکہ اس کا مطلب یہ ہے کہ جس طرح سر سری طور پر بے سوچے سمجھے تم انکار کر رہے ہو، اور بات کو سننے اور سمجھنے کی کوشش کرنے کے بجاۓ کانوں میں انگلیاں ٹھونسے لیتے ہو، اور خواہ مخواہ کی ضد میں آ کر مخالفت پر تل گۓ ہو، یہ کو ئی دانشمندی کی بات نہیں ہے۔ تم یہ دعویٰ تو نہیں کر سکتے کہ تمہیں اس قرآن کے خدا کی طرف سے نہ ہونے کا علم ہو گیا ہے اور تم یقین کے ساتھ یہ جان چکے ہو کہ خدا نے اسے نہیں بھیجا ہے۔ ظاہر ہے کہ اسے کلام الہٰی ماننے سے تمہارا انکار علم کی بنا پر نہیں بلکہ گمان کی بنا پر ہے۔ جس کا صحیح ہونا اگر بادی النظر میں ممکن ہے تو غلط ہونا بھی ممکن ہے۔ اب ذرا ان دونوں قسم کے امکانات کا جائزہ لے کر دیک لو۔ تمہارا گمان فرض کرو کہ صحیح نکلا تو تمہارے اپنے خیال کے مطابق زیادہ بس یہی ہو گا کہ ماننے والے اور نہ ماننے والے دونوں یکساں رہیں گے، کیونکہ دونوں ہی کو مر کر مٹی میں مل جانا ہے، اور آگے کوئی زندگی نہیں ہے جس میں کفر و ایمان کے کچھ نتائج نکلنے والے ہوں ۔ لیکن اگر فی الواقع یہ قرآن خدا ہی کی طرف سے ہوا اور وہ سب کچھ پیش آ گیا جس کی یہ خبر دے رہا ہے، پھر بتاؤ کہ اس کا انکار کر کے اور اس کی مخالفت میں اتنی دور جا کر تم کس انجام سے دوچار ہو گے۔ اس لیے تمہارا اپنا مفاد یہ تقاضا کرتا ہے کہ ضد اور ہٹ دھرمی چھوڑ کر سنجیدگی کے ساتھ اس قرآن پر غور کرو۔ اور غور کرنے کے بعد بھی تم ایمان نہ لانے ہی کا فیصلہ کرتے ہو تو نہ لاؤ، مگر مخالفت پر کمر بستہ ہو کر اس حد تک آگے تو نہ بڑھ جاؤ کہ جھوٹ اور مکر و تلبیس اور ظلم و ستم کے ہتھیار اس دعوت کا راستہ روکنے کے لیے استعمال کرنے لگو، اور خود ایمان نہ لانے پر اکتفا نہ کر کے دوسوں کو بھی ایمان لانے سے روکتے پھرو۔

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 69

This does not mean that you should embrace faith merely out of the risk that, if the Qur’an should turn out to be from God, disaster might befall you for having denied it. Rather, it means this: the manner in which you are rejecting it hastily and without reflection—stopping your ears instead of trying to listen and understand, and digging in out of sheer stubbornness—is simply not wise. You cannot claim to know for certain that this Qur’an is not from God; you have not arrived at any certain knowledge that God did not send it. Clearly, then, your denial that it is divine speech rests not on knowledge but on conjecture—conjecture which, on the face of it, could just as easily turn out to be wrong as right. Now consider both possibilities. Suppose your conjecture turns out to be correct: by your own reckoning, the most that would follow is that believers and disbelievers end up the same, since both must die and return to dust, with no further life in which faith or disbelief would produce any consequence. But if this Qur’an really is from God, and everything it warns of comes to pass, then consider what fate you will meet after denying it and opposing it so vehemently. Your own interest, then, demands that you set aside stubbornness and obstinacy and reflect seriously on this Qur’an. And if, even after reflecting, you still decide not to believe, then do not believe—but do not go so far in your opposition that you resort to lies, deception, and oppression to block this message’s path, and, not content with withholding your own faith, go on to obstruct others from believing as well.

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 62

This statement makes the listeners aware of two things: first, that not only the knowledge of the Hour, but the knowledge of all unseen matters, belongs to God alone—there is no other knower of the unseen. Second, that the God who possesses such detailed knowledge of every particular cannot possibly overlook anyone’s deeds and actions; therefore, no one should feel free to act however he pleases in God’s domain without fear. It is in light of this second meaning that this phrase connects with what follows. If one reflects on what is stated immediately after this, the sequence of the discourse itself makes clear that the point being made is: why are you so preoccupied with finding out the date of the Hour’s coming? Instead, be concerned with what price you will have to pay for your present misguidance when it does come. This is the very point the Prophet (peace be upon him) once made to a man who asked him about the date of the Hour. A narration reaching the level of mass transmission (tawātur) in the collections of Sahih, Sunan, and Musnad reports that once, while the Prophet was traveling somewhere, a man called out to him from a distance, “O Muhammad!” The Prophet said, “Speak, what do you want to say?” The man asked, “When will the Hour come?” The Prophet replied, in essence: “Woe to you, it is coming regardless — so what have you prepared for it?”

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 58

This brief phrase gives the complete diagnosis of the disease afflicting the disbelievers of Mecca. It tells us that they are caught in doubt about the Qur’an and about Muhammad (peace be upon him), and that this doubt has thrown them into severe inner turmoil and agitation. This means that, outwardly, they deny with great vehemence that the Qur’an is the word of God and that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is His messenger—but in reality, this denial is not based on any certainty; rather, intense inner conflict rages within their hearts. On one hand, their personal interests, the desires of their own selves, and their ignorant prejudices demand that they reject the Qur’an and Muhammad (peace be upon him), and oppose them with all their strength. On the other hand, their hearts cry out from within that this Qur’an is truly a matchless discourse, the like of which has never been heard from any man of letters or poet; that no madman in a fit of insanity could produce such words; and that devils could never come for the purpose of teaching people to worship God and to pursue goodness and purity. Likewise, when they call Muhammad (peace be upon him) a liar, their hearts say from within: have some shame, O servants of God—can this man possibly be a liar? And when they accuse him of doing all this not for the sake of truth but for his own glory, their hearts rebuke them from within: shame on you—you call this righteous man self-seeking, a man you have never once seen chasing after wealth, power, or fame, whose entire life has been free of any trace of self-interest, who has always worked for goodness and good, but who has never once done anything improper for the sake of his own desires.

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 54

This is another instance of the same stubbornness with which the Prophet (peace be upon him) was being confronted. The disbelievers would say: Muhammad (peace be upon him) is an Arab, and Arabic is his native tongue, so if he presents the Qur’an in Arabic, how can it be believed that he did not compose this discourse himself, but that God revealed it to him? His discourse could only be accepted as revealed by God if he suddenly began delivering eloquent speech in some language he did not know—Persian, or Byzantine Greek, or the like. In response, God says that now the Qur’an has been sent in their own language so that they can understand it, yet they still object, asking why this discourse was revealed in Arabic, through an Arab, for the Arabs. But had it been sent in some other language, these very same people would then have objected: “This too is strange—a messenger has been sent from among the Arab nation to the Arabs, yet the discourse revealed to him is in a language that neither the messenger nor his people understand.”

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 52

The meaning of “falsehood cannot approach it from the front” is that if anyone tries to attack the Qur’an directly and prove some statement of it wrong or some teaching of it false and corrupt, he cannot succeed. The meaning of “nor from behind” is that no fact or truth can ever come to light that contradicts the realities presented by the Qur’an; no knowledge can ever emerge that is genuinely “knowledge” and yet refutes the knowledge stated in the Qur’an; no experience or observation can ever prove that the guidance the Qur’an has given mankind regarding belief, morality, law, civilization and culture, economics and society, and politics is wrong. Whatever this Book has declared to be true can never be proven false, and whatever it has declared to be false can never be proven true. Furthermore, this also means that whether falsehood attacks openly from the front or makes covert raids through devious paths, it can in no way defeat the message that the Qur’an has brought. Despite all opposition and all the secret and open schemes of its opponents, this message will continue to spread, and no one will be able to overcome it.

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 41

After seeking refuge in God amid the storm of opposition, what generates a cooling sense of patience, calm, and tranquility in the believer’s heart is the certainty that God is not unaware. He knows what we are doing, and He is also aware of what is being done to us. He hears everything we and our opponents say, and He sees the conduct of both sides, whatever it may be. It is on the strength of this confidence that the believing servant, having entrusted his own affair and that of the enemies of truth to God, becomes fully at peace.

This is the fifth occasion on which the Prophet (peace be upon him), and through him the believers, are taught this wisdom regarding calling people to the faith and reforming mankind. For the four earlier occasions, see Tafhim al-Qur’an, vol. 2, pp. 110–114, 581–582; vol. 3, pp. 299, 708–709.

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 40

Satan becomes deeply troubled when he sees that, in the war between truth and falsehood, baseness is being met with decency and evil with goodness. He wants, if only once, to somehow provoke those fighting for the truth—and especially their prominent figures, and above all their leader—into some mistake, so that it could be said to the common people: “Look, evil is not one-sided; if base acts are being committed on one side, the people on the other side aren’t such lofty individuals either—after all, they too did such-and-such disgraceful thing.” Ordinary people lack the ability to fairly weigh, on one hand, the excesses of the opponents against, on the other, a retaliatory response. As long as they keep seeing that the opponents are committing every kind of vile act while these people do not budge an inch from the path of decency, honor, goodness, and righteousness, they continue to be deeply impressed. But if these people commit even one improper act, or an act beneath their station—even if only in response to some great wrong—then in the eyes of the people, the two sides become equal, and the opponents also get an excuse to answer a single harsh word with a thousand insults. It is on this basis that the instruction was given to be wary of Satan’s deception. He will pose as a deeply sympathetic well-wisher and incite you, saying: “Such-and-such excess should never be tolerated,” “such-and-such remark deserves a crushing reply,” “you must fight back against this attack, or else you will be thought a coward and lose your standing.” Whenever you feel such improper provocation stirring within you, be alert that this is Satan’s instigation, wanting to anger you into some mistake. And having become alert to this, do not fall into the further conceit of thinking, “I have control over my temper; Satan cannot make me err”—for this very pride in one’s own power of judgment and will is Satan’s second and more dangerous deception. Instead, you should seek refuge in God, for it is only through His enabling grace and protection that a person can be saved from mistakes.

The best illustration of this point is an incident that Imam Ahmad recorded in his Musnad from Abu Hurairah. He relates that once, in the presence of the Prophet (peace be upon him), a man began hurling relentless insults at Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. Abu Bakr bore his insults in silence, while the Prophet sat watching and smiling. Eventually Abu Bakr’s patience reached its limit, and he answered the man back with a harsh word of his own. The moment those words left his tongue, a visible displeasure came over the Prophet’s blessed face, and he immediately got up and left. Abu Bakr got up and followed him, and asked along the way what had happened—that the man had kept insulting him while the Prophet sat silently smiling, but as soon as he answered back, the Prophet became displeased. The Prophet said: “As long as you remained silent, an angel was with you, answering on your behalf; but once you spoke, the angel left and Satan took his place. I could not sit together with Satan.”

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 38

That is, this remedy is indeed highly effective, but putting it into practice is no light matter. It requires great courage of heart. It demands strong resolve, great fortitude, immense capacity to endure, and firm mastery over one’s own self. A person can, momentarily, display great goodness in the face of some particular evil—that is nothing extraordinary. But where someone must struggle for years on end, for the sake of truth, against wicked devotees of falsehood who hesitate at no bound of morality, and who, moreover, are intoxicated with the arrogance of power and authority—there, to keep meeting evil with goodness, and goodness of the highest order at that, without ever once letting go of the reins of self-control, is not within the capacity of any ordinary person. This can only be achieved by someone who has made a firm, level-headed resolve to work for the supremacy of truth, who has brought his own self fully under the command of reason and awareness, and in whom goodness and righteousness have taken root so deeply that no mischief or malice of his opponents can ever succeed in dragging him down from that lofty station.

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 37

To fully understand the significance of this statement as well, one must keep in view the circumstances in which this guidance was given to the Prophet (peace be upon him), and through him to his followers. The situation was that the call to truth was being met with extreme obstinacy and fierce, aggressive opposition, in which every bound of human decency and honor had been broken. Every kind of lie was being told against the Prophet and his companions. All manner of tactics were being used to defame him and to turn people’s opinions against him. Various accusations were being pinned on him, and an army of hostile propagandists was busy planting doubts in people’s hearts against him. Every kind of persecution was being inflicted on him and his companions, to the point that a considerable number of Muslims were forced to leave the country. Furthermore, a scheme had been devised to stop his preaching: a group of troublemakers would constantly lie in wait, and whenever he opened his mouth to call people to the truth, they would raise such an uproar that no one could hear him. These were such discouraging circumstances that all paths of outreach appeared, on the surface, to be blocked. It was at this point that the Prophet was given this remedy for overcoming opposition.

First, it is stated that good and evil are not equal. That is, however terrifying a storm of evil your opponents may raise, against which goodness may seem utterly helpless and powerless, evil nevertheless carries within itself an inherent weakness that eventually brings about its own ruin. For as long as a human being remains human, his nature cannot help but feel revulsion toward evil. Not only the associates of evil, but even its own standard-bearers know in their hearts that they are lying, that they are being unjust, and that they are being obstinate for the sake of their own interests. This fact, far from earning them respect in others’ hearts, lowers them even in their own eyes, and plants within them an inner unease that undermines their resolve and courage at every hostile move they make. Against such evil, if that very goodness which appears utterly powerless keeps working steadily, it eventually prevails. For, in the first place, goodness by its very nature wins over hearts, and no matter how corrupted a person may be, he cannot help but feel its worth in his heart. Then, when good and evil stand face to face in open struggle, with the true character of both fully exposed, few people, after a period of such contention, remain unmoved—unrepelled by evil and unwon by good.

Second, it is stated that evil should not be met with mere goodness, but with goodness of the very highest order—that is, if someone wrongs you and you forgive him, that is simply goodness. Goodness of the highest order is that, when the opportunity arises, you do good to the very one who has treated you badly.

The result of this, it is stated, is that even the worst enemy will eventually become a close friend. For this is simply human nature. If you remain silent in response to an insult, that is certainly a virtue, but it will not silence the one who insulted you. But if you respond to an insult with a prayer for that person’s good, even the most shameless opponent will be left ashamed, and thereafter will rarely be able to open his mouth against you again. Someone who lets no opportunity to harm you slip by, if you simply keep enduring his excesses, may only grow bolder in his mischief. But if, on some occasion, he is in danger of harm and you save him, he will come and fall at your feet, for scarcely any mischief can stand its ground against such goodness. Even so, it would be wrong to take this general principle to mean that every enemy will necessarily become a close friend through such supreme goodness. There are indeed some people of such wicked disposition in the world that no matter how far you go in overlooking their excesses and answering their evil with kindness and good, the venom of their sting does not diminish in the slightest. But such utterly wicked human beings are about as rare as their opposite—people of pure goodness.

Surah Ha-Mim as-Sajdah, Footnote 36

Having comforted the believers and strengthened their resolve, they are now being encouraged toward their actual task. The previous verse had told them that standing firm in servitude to God, and not deviating from that path once adopted, is itself the fundamental virtue that makes a person a friend of the angels and deserving of Paradise. Now they are being told that the next rank—than which there is no higher rank for a human being—is this: that you do good deeds, call others toward servitude to God, and, even in an atmosphere of fierce opposition, where declaring and proclaiming Islam is to invite calamity upon oneself, stand firm and say: “I am a Muslim.” To fully grasp the significance of this statement, it is necessary to keep in view the environment in which it was revealed. At that time, the situation was such that anyone who declared himself a Muslim immediately felt as though he had stepped into a jungle of wild beasts, with everyone rushing to tear him apart. And beyond that, whoever opened his mouth to preach Islam had, as it were, called out to the beasts: “Come and devour me.” In these circumstances, it is stated that for a person to accept God as his Lord, adopt the straight path, and not turn away from it, is undoubtedly in itself a great and fundamental virtue—but the highest degree of virtue is this: to say “I am a Muslim,” and, heedless of the consequences, to call God’s creatures toward servitude to Him, and, while doing so, to keep one’s own conduct so pure that no one finds any opening to find fault with Islam or with those who bear its banner.