Al-Furqaan (The Criterion)

51. “And if We had pleased certainly We would have raised up a warner in every town.”

52. “So do not follow the infidels, and strive against them with it (the Qur’an) a strenuous strife.”

This verse somehow speaks about the Prophet (S) as the seal of prophets and about the comprehensiveness of his religion, for it implies that no prophet was appointed anywhere with him, since he can control the entire society and no body else is needed. He has such a rank and state that prophethood is closed with his existence.

It is also possible that some polytheists used this pretext along with other ones that it was better that Allah appointed a prophet in every village and city.

But, in answer to them, the Qur’an says:

“And if We had pleased certainly We would have raised up a warner in every town.”

Anyway, this verse is a reason for magnificence of the Prophet’s rank and it shows also the necessity of unity of leadership and heaviness of his duty.

For this reason, in the next holy verse, two important commandments that are the main programs of prophets are stated.

So, addressing the Prophet (S), it says:

“So do not follow the infidels...”

Do not conciliate with the deviated persons in any step you take, for conciliation with them is the malady of the call to Allah. Stand fast against them and try to reform them, but be careful not to yield to their low desires and superstitions.

The second commandment is as follows:

“...and strive against them with it (the Qur’an) a strenuous strife.”

That is, his strife must be like magnificence of his mission and the magnificence of all former prophets’ endeavour, an endeavour that includes all dimensions of people’s soul and intellect, and it includes all spiritual and materialistic aspects.

Undoubtedly the purpose of Jihad (strife), here, is only intellectual, cultural, and propagation endeavour. Its purpose is not Holy war with weapon, for this Surah is a Meccan Surah and we know that the command of armed war was not issued in Mecca.

As the deceased Tabarsi says in Majma‘ul-Bayan, this verse is a clear reason for this fact that the intellectual effort and the struggle of propagation against temptations of the deviated people and the enemies of the Truth is of the greatest Jihad (strife).

Even it is possible that the famous tradition of the Prophet (S) refers to this Jihad and the magnificence of the learned and scientists’ job in propagation of religion, when he (S) says:

“We returned from small Jihad to the greater Jihad.”

This shows the greatness of the rank of the Qur’an, too, for it is a means for the greater warfare and it is an effective weapon whose power of explanation and argumentation, deep effect and attraction is beyond men's imagination and power.

It is an effective means that is as shining as the sun, as brightening as the day, as canning as curtains of night, as motion-imparting as winds, as great as clouds, and as enlivening as drops of rain, the qualities of which were referred to in the previous verses.