Hard Tests and False Temptation.

A commentary by Sayyid Qutb

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Beneficent

Among people, there are those who say: “We believe in God,” yet when any of them is made to suffer in God’s cause, he thinks that oppression by man is as grievous as God’s punishment. However, should help from your Lord be forthcoming, he is sure to say: “We have always been with you!” Is not God fully aware of what is in the hearts of all creatures?

Most certainly God knows those who truly believe and most certainly He knows those who are hypocrites.

The unbelievers say to those who believe: “Follow our way and we shall indeed take your sins upon ourselves.” But never will they take upon themselves any of their sins. Liars indeed they are.

Yet most certainly will they bear their own burdens and other burdens besides their own; and most certainly will they be called to account on the Day of Resurrection for all their false assertion.

[The Spider, Al-Ankaboot: 29:10-13]

In these verses, the surah gives us an image of people who yield abjectly when they face oppression and injustice. Yet, when the going is easy, they make boastful claims. Such people declare their belief when things look bright and the future rosy. They think that accepting God’s faith is easy and that it does not constitute more than making the briefest of declarations. Yet, “when any of them is made to suffer in God’s cause,” on account of the declaration they made when everything seemed easy “he thinks that oppression by man is as grievous as God’s punishment.” Thus, they panic and their standards and values become confused. Their very faith is shaken. They imagine that nothing could be worse than the oppression they are suffering, not even God’s punishment in the life to come. They wonder why they should endure such endless suffering when God’s punishment could not be any worse. Thus do they equate hardship caused by man with God’s punishment; yet the latter is something that no one can estimate.

Such is the attitude of this type of person to the test when it takes the form of physical suffering. Nevertheless, when the situation alters somewhat in their favor, their fickleness is revealed for all to see: “Should help from your Lord be forthcoming, he is sure to say: We have always been with you!” They claim to have always been with the believers despite their earlier desertion, cowardly betrayal and wrong judgment. When better prospects arrive, everyone can make such boastful claims. Yet they are only yesterday’s cowards speaking about false heroics, saying to those who remained steadfast throughout:

“We have always been with you.”

“Is not God fully aware of what is in the hearts of all creatures?”

He certainly knows what everyone harbors in their hearts and their innermost thoughts. He knows who is a true believer and who is a hypocrite. Who can deceive God or project a false image to Him? “Most certainly God knows those who truly believe and most certainly He knows those who are hypocrites.” [Verse 11] He will certainly expose them. After all, the test aimed to separate true believers from hypocrites.

We need to reflect a little on the accurate Qur’anic description of the error such people make. It says that “He thinks that oppression by man is as grievous as God’s punishment.” [Verse 10] Such error is not that they weaken and find themselves unable to endure any more. True believers may indeed weaken at some point, because human endurance has its limits. They do not, however, lose sight of the great gulf that separates what their tormentors can inflict on them and God’s grievous punishment. They never confuse this transitory world with that of immortality, not even when the torture and hardship visited upon them exceeds human endurance. A believer never loses the sense that God overpowers everything in the universe, not even when he is under the greatest pressure. This is the point that separates true believers from hypocrites.

The last image of such testing is that of temptation. This is presented alongside the unbelievers’ false concept of responsibility and reward. The surah confirms that both responsibility and reward are personal and individual. This is a fundamental Islamic principle that ensures the best and clearest form of justice for all:

“The unbelievers say to those who believe: ‘Follow our way and we shall indeed take your sins upon ourselves.’ But never will they take upon themselves any of their sins. Liars indeed they are. Yet most certainly will they bear their own burdens and other burdens besides their own; and most certainly will they be called to account on the Day of Resurrection for all their false assertions.” [Verses 12-13]

The Arab unbelievers at the time of the Qur’anic revelations used to say this. Furthermore, it accords with their own traditions under which a clan or tribe was held collectively responsible for the payment of blood money in cases of accidental killing, and collective responsibility was an established social value. Hence, they imagined that they could bear the responsibility for other people’s disbelief, exempting them from God’s punishment. On the other hand, they derided the concept of reward in the hereafter. Thus they said to the believers: “Follow our way and we shall indeed take your sins upon ourselves.” [Verse 12]

The surah, however, gives a decisive reply, making it clear that all creatures return to their Lord as individuals. Everyone is accountable for their deeds. No one bears responsibility for anyone else: “But never will they take upon themselves any of their sins.” [Verse 12] The surah confronts them with the reality of their claims: “Liars indeed they are.” [Verse 12]

Furthermore, not only will they be made to bear the burden of their own errors, disbelief and false claims; they will also bear the burden of causing others to go astray. The latter who were thus led astray, however, are not exempt from bearing the burden of their own error that led them into such disbelief: “Yet most certainly will they bear their own burdens, and other burdens besides their own; and most certainly will they be called to account on the Day of Resurrection for all their false assertions.” [Verse 13]

Thus this aspect of the testing is closed as people are made to know that God will not hold them accountable as communities. Instead, He holds everyone to account as an individual. Everyone will be held in pledge for whatever they have earned.

End.