Al-Maaida (The Table)
Verse 7
Table of Contents
7. "And remember Allah's favour on you and His covenant with which He has bound you, when you said: 'We heard and we obeyed '. And be in awe of Allah, surely Allah is aware of what is in the breasts."
Divine Convictions
In this verse, the Qur'an attracts the attention of the Muslims to the importance o the endless bounties of Allah, the most magnificent of which is faith and guidance. It says:
"And remember Allah's favour on you ..."
What favour is greater than that Muslims obtained all kinds of merits, honours and effective possibilities owing to Islam? Islam caused a group of people who had been before dispersed, ignorant, blood-thirsty immoral, and corrupter to change into a society who became organized, united, and intelligent, with abundant material and spiritual privileges and possibilities.
Then, the holy verse reminds them the covenant that they have compacted with Allah, and says:
"...and His covenant with which He has bound you, when you said: ' We heard and we obeyed..."
This verse can be a hint to, all the genetic and divine covenants, (the covenants that Allah has bound Man through primordial nature, or those- that the holy Prophet (S) has bound Muslims with in different circumstances.
Basing on many Islamic authentic traditions, the objective meaning of 'covenant', mentioned in the verse under discussion, is the master ship of Amir-ul-Mu'mineen Ali (as). It is the covenant that the Prophet (S) took from them in Ghadeer Khumm, on the day of Farewell Pilgrimage, and they accepted it, too.1
To emphasize on this meaning, at the end of the verse, the Holy Qur'an says:
"...and be in awe of Allah, surely Allah is aware of what is in the breasts."
It is also narrated from Imam Baqir (as) who said that the holy Prophet (S) stated both the prohibited things and the essentiality of master ship of Ali (as) during Farewell Pilgrimage.2