Al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage)

17. “Verily those who believe (the Muslims) and those who are Jews and the Sabeans and the Christians and the Magians and those who associate (others with Allah), verily, Allah will decide between them on the Day of Resurrection; verily Allah is witness over everything.”

The right invitation to Islam and having good dispute is necessary, but do not expect that they discord between religions to be ended in this world. You should lead a peaceful life in this world and Allah will settle your affair by arbitration on the Hereafter Day.

So in the verse under discussion, the Qur’an has referred to six groups of the followers of different religions, one of whom is Muslim believers and the rest five groups are none-Muslims.

It says:

“Verily those who believe (the Muslims) and those who are Jews and the Sabeans and the Christians and the Magians and those who associate (others with Allah), verily, Allah will decide between them on the Day of Resurrection;…”

On that Day, He will separate right from wrong. One of the names of Hereafter is ‘the Day of Separating’ or ‘the Day of Decision’. Another name of it is /yaum-ul-buruz/ (the day of manifestation of the hidden things).

That Day is the time when all discords will finish. Yes, Allah will put an end to all of the disputes, because He is aware of all things.

The holy verse continues saying:

“…verily Allah is witness over everything.”

Some Points

1- The connection between this verse and the former verses is in this fact that: in the previous verse the words were about the Divine guidance into the fitting hearts; but since all hearts are rarely receptive and usually bigotries, obstinacies and blindly imitations are some strong barriers against the acceptance of guidance, therefore the Qur’an implies that these differences and disputations among a part of people in various groups of religions will rather continue and remain until the advent of Hereafter, and it is on that Day when all the concealed things will be made manifest and discords will wholly disappear.

Moreover, in the former verses the discussion was about three groups, some of whom dispute unreasonably upon Allah and the Resurrection; some others try to tempt people, while the members of the third group are weak in faith and every time they are thrown from one side to another. The verse under discussion points out some examples from these groups who stand against the believers.

Besides them all, the discussion about Resurrection in the former verses propounded this question that: what is the goal of Resurrection? In the verse under discussion one of its goals, which is putting an end to the discords, has been stated.

2- Who Magians Are: The word /majus/ (Magians) is mentioned in the Qur’an only once, and it is in this very verse. Regarding the fact that they are mentioned opposite to polytheists and in the row of those having Heavenly religions, it is understood such that they had had a Divine Faith, Book and Prophet.

No doubt that today the followers of Zoroaster in Arabic are called /majus/, or at least, the followers of Zoroaster form an important part of them, while the history of Zoroaster himself is not clear at all.

It is so ambiguous that some have recorded his advent in the eleventh century B.C. and some others have said that it happened in sixth or seventh century B.C.¹ . This marvelous difference, viz. five centuries, indicates how dark and ambiguous the history of Zoroaster is.

It is known that he had a book by the name of, Awesta which was destroyed in the invasion of Alexander to Iran, and later it was written at the time of one of the Kings of Sasanian Dynasty.²

There have not been available so much matters from their belief, but what is more famous than all today is their belief in two origins of good and evil, or light and darkness. They consider the god of goodness and light as Ahura Mazda, and the god of evil and darkness as Ahriman.

They respect the four elements, and the fire in particular, so much so that they are called ‘Fire Worshippers’ and wherever they live there is also a fire-temple, large or small.

Some philologists believe that the term /majus/ (Magians) is derived from /mug/ which was used as a title for the leaders and clergymen of this religion, and the word /mu’bad/ which is now used for calling their clergymen had originally been derived from /mu‘wad/.

Some Islamic narrations indicate that they had been the followers of one of the Divine prophets but later they deviated from the path of Monotheism and turned to some blasphemous beliefs.

We read in some Islamic narrations that the polytheists of Mecca asked the Prophet (S) to take capitation from them and let them to worship idols. The holy Prophet (S) answered them he would not take capitation from anyone except the people of the Book. The polytheists wrote in answer to him (S).

“How do you speak like that while you have taken capitation from the Magians inhabited the region of Hijr?”

The Prophet (S) said:

“Verily Magians had a prophet, who was killed, and a Book which was burnt.”3

Another tradition from ‘Asbaq-ibn-Nabatah denotes that once Imam Ali (as) went upon a pulpit and said:

“Ask me before you are in lack of me.”

Then ‘Ash‘ath-ibn-Qays, a famous hypocrite, stood up and said: O’ the commander of the believers? How is it that capitation is being taken from Magians while there has not been sent down any Divine Book for them and they had not had any prophet?

Hadrat Ali (as) said:

“Yes, O’ ’Ash‘ath! Allah has sent down a Book unto them, and has appointed a prophet for them.”4

Imam Sajjad, Ali-ibn-il-Husayn (as) in a tradition said that the holy Prophet (S) said:

“Treat with them in the same manner that you treat with the People of the Book, and the purpose of the Messenger of Islam was Magians.”5

By the way, it must be noted that the Qur’anic term /majus/ is a plural form and its singular form in Arabic is /majusi/.³

3- Who The Sabeans Are: It is understood compendiously from the above mentioned verse that they have also been the followers of some heavenly religion, in particular that their name has been located here between the names of the Jews and the Christians.

Some commentators consider them as the followers of Yahy-ibn-i-Zakarriya whom Christians call ‘John the Baptist.’ Some others believe that Sabeans had taken a part of the belief of the Jews and a part of that of the Christians and mixed them, thus they think that their religion is something between those two religions.

Sabeans consider a great importance for water in their belief and, therefore, many of them live by the great streams. It is said that they also respect a few stars, and that is why they have been accused as star worshippers, though the apparent of the verse indicates that they are not in the row of polytheists.

4- Those Deviated from Monotheism: In these verses, five groups of the deviated religions have been referred to whose arrangement here may be according to the amount of their practical deviation from the principle of Monotheism. The Jews have the least deviation in action from Monotheism comparing others, and the Sabeans, who are a moderate group between the Jews and the Christians, are in the second degree.

Then there come the Christians, who, with the acceptance of trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, have a further deviation and throughout the world of existence are located in the Fourth degree. Thus, the polytheists and the idolaters, who are involved with the utmost deviation, have been mentioned at the end.