An-Nisaa (The Women)

Verse 97

Table of Contents

    Too weak to fly to their homes - those who fly to their homes not to fear strait ness:

    97. "Verily (as for) those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their own selves, they (the angels) will ask: 'In what state were you?' They will reply: 'We were oppressed in the land'. (The angels) will say: 'Was not Allah's land vast so that you could have migrated therein?' So these (are those) whose abode is Hell, and an evil destination it is! "

    Before the occurrence of the Battle of Badr, the pagans of Mecca called the citizens of Mecca to fight against the Muslims. They ordered that all men should participate in the war.

    They threatened people that the houses of those who might offend the issue would be ruined and their property could be confiscated. Some of the Muslims, who were still living in Mecca and had not immigrated to Medina, for the fear of their lives, accompanied the pagans in the war against the Muslims in the Battle of Badr, where they were killed.

    The verse was revealed and counted guilty those who did not migrate and stayed in the environment of infidelity. The verse blamed them because they had wronged against themselves. Thus, it is obligatory to migrate from the centre of infidelity, and staying there to be a multitude of the soldiers of disbelievers, is unlawful.

    If you can change the circumstances of the environment, do it, else you should migrate from there in order not to be called to account, because justification of faults will not be accepted.

    "...We were oppressed ..."

    We should know that the principle is the goal and belief, not the life and the house. Or, in other words, we must be careful that theism is the principle, not patriotism.

    By the way, according to the Islamic literature, an oppressed person is he who cannot recognize the path of responsibility and the difference between right and wrong.1

    Some Islamic traditions denote that he who migrates a distance, even as long as a span, in order to protect the religion, will be admitted to Heaven and will be companion of the holy Prophet (S) and Abraham (as).2

    "Verily (as for) those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to their own selves, they (the angels) will ask: 'In what state were you?' They will reply: 'We were oppressed in the land'. (The angels) will say: 'Was not Allah's land vast so that you could have migrated therein?' So these (are those) whose abode is Hell, and an evil destination it is! "


    Footnotes

    1. Tafsir-us-Safi, vol. 1, p. 153.

    2. Nur-uth-Thaqalayn. vol. 1, p. 541.