Third step
Let us now
concentrate our attention on the third ayah (ayah 104 of Surah Aal-e¬Imran) the
English translation of which reads:
And from among you there must be a party (a group or band of committed Muslims) who invite people to all that is good, and enjoin the doing of all that is right and forbid the doing of all that is wrong. It is they who will attain true success.
An objective and detailed study of the preceding two ayaat of the Surah leaves no ambiguity or doubt in the mind of the reader that both of them call for a collectivity of believers, and that a serious and sincere action on their dictates necessarily demands the formation of a group or party. Now the question arises: what is the objective or goal this group should keep in view and work for? As a matter of fact, all creations and artifacts are made for serving some purpose. Even a small and modest association of people is constituted and organized for achieving certain goals defined in the memorandum of aims and objectives. So the question that quite naturally arises is: what is the purpose or goal of that group which results from collectively dinging to the Qur’an? This exactly is what is explained in the ayah under review.
This ayah has
been translated in two different ways by the translators. For some, the
preposition min of minkum in the ayah is general and descriptive, while for
some others it is of particularizing nature. Leaving aside the technicalities
of the two types of min just mentioned, let us see what difference, if any, is
made in the meaning of the ayah by either use of it.
According to the former the ayah would be translated as: “And you should together form a group that invites people to all that is good…,” whereas according to the latter sense of min the translation would be: “And from among you there must be a group or party that invites people to all that is good ….“ Now in my view both these translations of the ayah are entirely correct, and the logical import of the meaning of the ayah is hardly changed by the minor linguistic difference of the two translations.
If all the Muslims of the world unite and together constitute an ideological fraternity (i.e., the Muslim Ummah) that performs the duties of inviting people to all that is good, enjoin the doing of all right actions and forbid the doing of all that is wrong —this would be the import of the ayah according to the descriptive or indicative use of min. But since this descriptive function of the whole of Muslim Ummah is repeated a little further on in ayah 110 of this very Surah, a large majority of Qur’anic scholars take min in the particularizing sense and interpret the ayah by maintaining that it demands the formation of a group comprising of committed and motivated Muslims from among the vast Muslim fraternity of less motivated believers. That is to say, this ayah provides answer to the question: what should be done when, by and large, the Ummah neglects its religious obligations and thus pays no heed to its Divinely ordained duties.
According to the former the ayah would be translated as: “And you should together form a group that invites people to all that is good…,” whereas according to the latter sense of min the translation would be: “And from among you there must be a group or party that invites people to all that is good ….“ Now in my view both these translations of the ayah are entirely correct, and the logical import of the meaning of the ayah is hardly changed by the minor linguistic difference of the two translations.
If all the Muslims of the world unite and together constitute an ideological fraternity (i.e., the Muslim Ummah) that performs the duties of inviting people to all that is good, enjoin the doing of all right actions and forbid the doing of all that is wrong —this would be the import of the ayah according to the descriptive or indicative use of min. But since this descriptive function of the whole of Muslim Ummah is repeated a little further on in ayah 110 of this very Surah, a large majority of Qur’anic scholars take min in the particularizing sense and interpret the ayah by maintaining that it demands the formation of a group comprising of committed and motivated Muslims from among the vast Muslim fraternity of less motivated believers. That is to say, this ayah provides answer to the question: what should be done when, by and large, the Ummah neglects its religious obligations and thus pays no heed to its Divinely ordained duties.
to be continued....
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