An-Nahl (The Bee)

128. “Verily Allah is with those who keep from evil, and those who are good-doers.”

Allah is with those who lead a life of virtue. “Virtue” here signifies the performance of one’s obligatory rituals and the distancing one-self from all those which are prohibited by the religious laws.

Nonetheless, the Qur’anic term ‘virtue’, in all its dimensions and in its broadest sense, includes in the sense of being of virtuous even when one is confronting the opponents.

This means that even against one’s enemies, one must adopt the Islamic ethics; treat with the prisoners and captives according to the rites of Islam; do justice with those who are deviants and in a polite manner; to abstain oneself from lying and falsely accusing of others.

Even in wartime situations and in battlefields, one must observe the principles of wartime, instructions available in Islam and Islamic criteria.

One must avoid attacking the defenseless ones; one must not engage in violating the children and disabled old people; even the four-footed animals must not be hurt, while fields of agriculture must not be destroyed; water supply must not be cut off from the enemy and, in the final analysis, virtue must be observed and principles of justice must be applied to both the friends and enemies in general.

The verse says:

“Verily Allah is with those who keep from evil…”

As the Qur’an says in other verses, at times, one must return and show a positive reaction in exchange for an evil act, by which one can make the enemy shameful about what he has done. This procedure may turn the most hostile of the enemies into kind friends.

Generosity and kindness can serve as the best techniques for conducting a warfare campaign if achieved correctly, and the Islamic history provides plenty of examples in this connection.

The conduct of the Prophet (S) with the pagans of Mecca after its conquest, the way he dealt with Wahshi, the murderer of Hamzah; his conduct with the prisoners of the Battle of Badr, his ways of dealing with those Jews who hurt him in all kinds of way, as well as similar treatments in the biographies of Ali (as) and other religious leader reflect the methods included in the Islamic commandments with regard to this.

Interestingly, we read in Nahj-ul-Balaqah, through the famous sermon of ‘Hammam’ who was a pious, devout, and intelligent man, asking Amir-ul-Mu’mineen (as) for a comprehensive decree with regard to the attributes of the devout people, the Imam confined himself to citing only this verse, saying:

Lead a life of virtue, and act in a decent way for Allah is with those who are pious and act decently.

Although this interrogator was such a truth-loving that was not fully satisfied with this short answer and the Imam was necessarily required to provide a more detailed account and offered the most comprehensive speech concerning the attributes of the pious people, which exceeds a hundred qualities, one may infer from the Imam’s first short answer that this verse reflects, in fact, all the attributes of the pious people.

In conclusion, we know that the calling through wisdom, preaching, and good disputation is no easy matter, for some are being obstinate and do not accept the call, while others engage in conspiracies, and a third group get involved in the counter activities, and, to achieve their vicious goals they do not stop doing any thing short of false accusations, ridiculing, threatening, fabricating rival factions, economic embargo, wars, as well as all kinds of torture and hurt.

Thus, these two verses provide a kind of comfort, compassion and guidelines which the blissful Prophet (S) had so as not to be obstructed by any obstacles in his mission.

Last Words and Remarks on Surah An-Nahl

As we pointed out from the beginning of the Surah, what stands outstanding from among all the verses of the Surah is the explanation of the various blessings, irrespective of the material and spiritual ones; the apparent and the latent ones; and those which are individual and social. The fact that the name of the Surah is selected as the ‘Surah of blessings’ is for this very reason.

A careful study of the verses of the Surah indicates that approximately forty blessings, including the great and the small ones, as well as the spiritual and material ones, have been cited throughout the verses of this Surah.

The objectives of this Surah have been: first, to provide instructions concerning lessons on monotheism and the splendor of the Creator. Secondly, to reinforce the love of the human beings with regard to the Creator of such blessings and the provocation of their sense of gratitude towards Him.