Al-Mizan: An Exegesis of the Qur'an

www.alhassanain.org/english

Al-Mizan;

An Exegesis of the Qur'an, vol 7

From Ch. 3 [Surah Ale-Imran], vrs. 121-200 to Ch. 4 [Surah An-Nisaa], Verses 7-10

This volume opens with the exposition of the 121st verse of the `Surah Ale 'Imran, which continues till the verse 200 which is the end of the Surah. Then begins the exposition of the Surat al-Nisa' (Women) and 10 verses are explained in this volume. Translated by Allamah Sayyid Sa'eed Akhtar Rizvi.

Author(s): Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba'i

Translator(s): Allamah Sayyid Sa'eed Akhtar Rizvi

Publisher(s): World Organization for Islamic Services [W.O.F.I.S.]

www.alhassanain.org/english

English translation

First edition 1990/ 1410

Translated from the Arabic

al-Mīzān fi tafsīri ’1-Qur’ān,

Beirut, 1393/1973 (3rd ed.)

Published by

World Organization for Islamic Services, P. O. Box No.11365-1545,

Tehran - IRAN

Printed by Offset Press Inc. Tehran Iran

Features of Volume 7:

This volume opens with the exposition of the 121st verse of the `Surah Ale 'Imran, which continues till the verse 200 which is the end of the Surah. Then begins the exposition of the Surat al-Nisa' (Women) and 10 verses are explained in this volume.

Some of the important subjects discussed in this volume are as follows: the teaching of the Qur'an and their role in the reconciliation of knowledge and action; the trial or test and its real meaning; the remission of sins and forgiveness in the Qur'an; the problem of tawakkul (resignation to the Divine Will); with reference to the verse 172 of the Surah Al 'Imran and its preceding and following verses dealing with the Battle of Uhud, a list of the names of the 77 martyrs of Uhud is also given; a philosophical discussion based on a comparative study of the Qur'an and the Old Testament regarding the rights of women; and the Qur'anic view of social relations in Islam - in fifteen sections. This is the most important discussion of this volume and it may be considered to be one of the profoundest and the most original of the discourses of al-Mizan, which brings to light some very sensitive and subtle points about Islamic sociology in the light of the relevant verses of the Surah al-Nisa' (Women) pertaining to the age of human beings, the emergence of the first man, the process of creation and evolution and other related matters.

Afterwards, there is a discussion about marriage from a scientific point of view, divided into three sections. The third section is devoted to the issue of polygamy in Islam with reference to the question of the number of the wives of the Prophet (s.a.w.a.). The philosophical implications of these issues are discussed thoroughly.

In the Name of Allāh,

The All-compassionate, The All-merciful

Praise belongs to Allāh, the Lord of all being;

the All-compassionate, the All-merciful;

the Master of the Day of Judgement;

Thee only we serve, and to Thee alone we pray

for succour:

Guide us in the straight path;

the path of those whom Thou hast blessed,

not of those against whom Thou art wrathful,

nor of those who are astray.

* * * * *

O’ Allāh! send your blessings to the head of

your messengers and the last of

your prophets,

Muhammad and his pure and cleansed progeny.

Also send your blessings to all your

prophets and envoys.

Notice:

This version is published on behalf of www.alhassanain.org/english

The composing errors are not corrected.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TRANSLITERATION 12

FOREWORD [IN ARABIC] 13

FOREWORD 15

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 121-129 17

COMMENTARY 17

TRADITIONS 23

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 130-138 30

COMMENTARY 30

QUR’ĀNIC TEACHING: HOW IT JOINS KNOWLEDGE WITH PRACTICE 31

TRADITIONS 35

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 139-148 39

COMMENTARY 40

TEST AND ITS REALITY 44

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 149-155 54

COMMENTARY 55

PARDON AND FORGIVENESS IN THE QUR’ĀN 64

Volume 7: Ale-Imran, Verses 156-164 67

COMMENTARY 68

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 165-171 72

COMMENTARY 72

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 172-175 77

COMMENTARY 77

TRUST IN ALLAH 79

TRADITIONS 79

THE MARTYRS OF UHUD 88

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 176-180 91

COMMENTARY 91

It is evident from this verse that: - 93

TRADITIONS 95

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 181-189 96

COMMENTARY 97

TRADITIONS 99

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verses 190-199 101

COMMENTARY 102

A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE QUR’ĀN AND THE BIBLE REGARDING TREATMENT OF WOMEN 105

TRADITIONS 105

Volume 7: Surah Ale-Imran, Verse 200 107

COMMENTARY 107

A DISCOURSE ON BELIEVERS’ MUTUAL CONNECTION IN ISLAMIC SOCIETY 107

1. Man and Society 107

2. Man and the Growth of his Society 108

3. Islam and the Attention it gives to Society 109

4. Relationship of Individual and Society in the Eyes of Islam 110

5. Is Islamic social System capable of Implementation and Continuation? 113

6. What is the Basis of Islamic Society? How it lives on? 121

7. Two Logics: Logic of Understanding and Logic of Sensuousness 126

8. What is the Meaning of seeking Reward from Allāh, and turning away from others? Someone might ask: 128

9. What is the Meaning of Freedom according to Islam? 129

10. What is the Way to Change and Perfection in Islamic Society? 130

11. Is Islamic Sharī‘ah competent to bring happiness in the modern Life? 133

12. Who is entitled to rule over the Islamic Society? What Characteristics he should have? 134

13. The Boundary of Islamic State is Ideology and Belief, not physical Landmarks, nor Man-made Borders 137

14. Islam cares for social Order in all its Aspects 138

15. The true Religion will ultimately prevail over the world 143

TRADITIONS 145

Volume 7: Surah An-Nisaa, Verse 1 147

COMMENTARY 147

HOW OLD THE HUMAN SPECIES IS; THE FIRST MAN 152

THE PRESENT HUMAN RACE BEGINS WITH ADAM AND HIS WIFE 153

MANKIND IS AN INDEPENDENT SPECIES, NOT EVOLVED FROM ANY OTHER SPECIES 156

HOW MAN’S SECOND GENERATION PROCREATED 157

TRADITIONS 158

Volume 7: Surah An-Nisaa, Verses 2-6 162

GENERAL COMMENT 162

THE ERA OF IGNORANCE 163

ISLAM ARRIVES ON THE SCENE 166

COMMENTARY 175

ALL THE RICHES BELONG TO THE WHOLE MANKIND 181

TRADITIONS 185

AN ACADEMIC ESSAY IN THREE CHAPTERS 189

1. Marriage is one of the Goals of Nature 189

2. Domination of Males over Females 191

3. Polygamy 192

Objections against Polygamy: 193

ANOTHER RELATED ACADEMIC DISCOURSE ON MANY MARRIAGES OF THE PROPHET 202

Volume 7: Surah An-Nisaa, Verses 7-10 206

COMMENTARY 206

THE DEED RETURNS TO ITS DOER 209

TRADITIONS 211

NOTES 214

DEALT WITH IN THIS VOLUME 219

APPENDIX “A” 223

APPENDIX “B” 225

TRANSLITERATION

FOREWORD [IN ARABIC]

FOREWORD

1. al-‘Allāmah as-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabātabā’ī (1321/1904 - 1402/1981) - may Allāh have mercy upon him - was a famous scholar, thinker and the most celebrated contemporary Islamic philosopher. We have introduced him briefly in the first volume of the English translation of al-Mīzān.

2. al-‘Allāmah at-Tabātabā’ī is well-known for a number of his works of which the most important is his great exegesis al-Mīzān fī tafsīri ’l-Qur’ān which is rightly counted as the fundamental pillar of scholarly work which the ‘Allāmah has achieved in the Islamic world.

3. We felt the necessity of publishing an exegesis of the Holy Qur’ān in English. After a thorough consultation, we came to choose al-Mīzān because.we found that it contained in itself, to a considerable extent, the points which should necessarily be expounded in a perfect exegesis of the Holy Qur’ān and the points which appeal to the mind of the contemporary Muslim reader. Therefore, we proposed to al-Ustādh al-‘Allāmah as-Sayyid Sa‘īd Akhtar ar-Radawī to undertake this task because we were familiar with his intellectual ability to understand the Arabic text of al-Mīzān and his literary capability in expression and translation. So we relied on him for this work and consider him responsible for the English translation as al-‘Allāmah at-Tabātabā’ī was responsible for the Arabic text of al-Mīzān and its discussions.

4. We have now undertaken the publication of the seventh volume of the English translation of al-Mīzān. This volume corresponds with the first half of the third volume of the Arabic text. With the help of Allāh, the Exalted, we hope to provide the complete translation and publication of this voluminous work.

In the first volume, the reader will find two more appendixes included apart from the two which are to appear in all volumes of the English translation of al-Mīzān: One for the authors and the other for the books cited throughout this work.

* * * * *

We implore upon Allāh to effect our work purely for His pleasure, and to help us to complete this work which we have started. May Allāh guide us in this step which we have taken and in the future steps, for He is the best Master and the best Helper.

WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ISLAMIC SERVICES

(Board of Writing, Translation and Publication)

18/12/1410

11/7/1990

Tehran IRAN.

al-Mīzān

Volume Seven

From Ch. 3 [Surah Ale-Imran], vrs. 121-200 to Ch. 4 [Surah An-Nisaa], Verses 7-10

Performance as intervention

Forum theatre

A forum theatre performance represents a kind of code of understanding, but it is a generative code, designed not to explain but to facilitate acts of further explanation. It is based on recognition of a particular type of social arrangement as a problem, although participants in forum theatre would be quite at liberty not to find the particular issue problematic or to steer the interpretative work in another direction. The generative code in a forum theatre piece is necessarily open, and whilst in being researched it may well come to reflect particular biases of understanding, the idea is that it be richly overdetermined and unfinished, so that it can be used to generate interpretations and corresponding paths to social transformation.

Forum theatre performances are preceded by warm-up exercises and games for audience and players alike. The purpose of this is to break down the barriers between spectators and players. If a performance is conducted on a stage the audience is invited onto the stage, across the proscenium, introducing the idea of being both spectator and actor. All are participants and Boal terms this hybrid role, ‘spect-actor’. In this sense forum theatre may be understood as a practical deconstruction of the problematics and politics of the proscenium, the invisible arch that separates the stage from the audience; and by analogy our world from our ability to intervene in its constitutive conventions.

Forum theatre begins with the enactment of a carefully prepared and rehearsed anti-model (problematic situation/scene) in which a protagonist who is one of a group of actors, attempts to overcome a problem or oppression which is relevant to the audience. The play would typically have been researched and developed through image theatre and gradually a generative story would have been constructed. In rehearsing forum theatre the players try to develop a comprehensive understanding of the issues at stake and an appreciation of the societal contingencies through which the performance manifests and comes to be considered as problematic. There is a range of rehearsal methods to enable the actors to analyse and understand the performative possibilities of the play. Actors may be required to switch roles and play each others roles so that they may understand the constituting conventions of their role from the other side: they may interrogate enrolled players about their motives and desires; they might play the roles from the perspective of a particular genre (for example, praise poetry); apply a feature of one part to other parts (‘now all play it as cripples’); or play it in another encompassing context (‘now you are all in prison’). Thus the forum play is layered with understanding so that players know the conventions which enstructure their parts, and are able to respond to whatever the audience (spect-actors) bring in their attempts to undermine the authority of the performance of oppression.

An intermediary (joker) facilitates the audience’s relation to the play and invites them to replace the protagonist (oppressed person) at any point in the play by shouting ‘Stop!’ and then coming in to take over the part of the protagonist to try and reverse the course of oppressive action. The actors having thoroughly researched the scene of oppression are usually adept at finding ways around the new protagonist’s intervention and different members of the audience will in turn try to find solutions, to change the outcome of the play.

The outcome of the forum theatre piece as a whole is to interpret the performance and identify the problematic conventions therein (for example, in a play about rural development a development facilitator’s tendency not to consult with rebellious youth) which the audience will find ways of trying to change, as protagonists. They move towards discovering how and why the performance of the protagonist is unsuccessful, and this usually refers to a social role that is enacted in the protagonist’s interpretative and decision making processes. The break-through is usually achieved through the protagonist rejecting a received role which has enstructured into it the fate of not resisting the oppression.

Often audiences will not notice the ‘oppression constituting’ convention and will repeatedly fail to resist the oppression, until they recognise the underlying mode of engagement of the protagonist as a problem, and having recognised this are suddenly able to construct a range of alternatives. Whilst this may seem to be an individualist approach with the change taking place in the mind of the actor, forum theatre is about social roles and ways of interacting rather than changes of mind per se. This finds its strongest expression in another form of boalian theatre, ‘legislative theatre’ (Jackson, 1997) where the outcomes of the forum theatre piece are translated into suggested legislation, further leading to an understanding of how action is led by regulatory conventions of society, and towards an understanding of how action and social convention are interrelated. Forum theatre in this sense opens up ‘affordances’ or possibilities of action. It strips ‘oppressive acts’ of their authority, the recognition and tacit acceptance of which is performed through subordinate and non-resisting roles in relation to oppression. This opens up the possibility of alternative acts, successful performance of which will reverse the performativity of the oppressive situation.

The modelling of performance in the rarefied context of a forum theatre piece (it is after all not real life) is close to the idea of ‘prefigurative action’ as spelled out by Kagan and Burton (1999). They define prefigurative action research as research which pioneers alternative social relations, ‘redefining, and anticipating the new social forms to which the struggle itself aspires.’ (Kagan and Burton, 1999, p. 4). This is the achievement of forum theatre. It is a practical way of conceiving new social forms through exploring their possibilities and also thereby deconstructing the constituting conventions of action which defined the problem in the first place.

To summarise forum theatre, amongst other things we might say the following: it is a method for identifying a problem, but which presents the problem in an open way which is not finally defined; it short-circuits anti-dialogical participatory dynamics which may hide within more ordered and structured programme development processes; it facilitates critical analysis of social structures and a socio-critical hermeneutics of intentional action; it facilitates a formative process of searching for solutions which is contingent on and procedurally bound to development of understanding of the conventions of action which create and define the problem; and it embodies a concept of transitive learning (cf. Freire, 1972) which has participants actively engaged in problem solving, and mobilisation towards action.

Invisible theatre

In a South African context where there is a strong culture of popular participation in public life, one does not usually have to goad people into taking roles in a forum theatre performance. The authority of the proscenium does not have to be transgressed. People will be involved. But all such theatre is not conducted with ‘the oppressed’, or with people who are strongly motivated to ‘problematise’ and be involved in social transformation. What about situations where vested interests against social transformation need to be problematised, and where the oppressed are not in a position to resist (for example, in non-unionised employment situations)? Boal has developed a method called ‘invisible theatre’ for use in such circumstances.

Invisible theatre consists of rehearsed action, which like forum theatre is designed to generate critical reflection, but it is done with an audience which is not otherwise motivated to deal with the problem as a problem. The scene is rehearsed, played and facilitated by actors but it is not revealed as a performance. The performers respond to spectator responses in such a way as to unpack and accentuate the discourses which are brought to the fore in spectator response and intervention. The performance typically problematises a marginalised or covered-up issue by ‘outing’ it in public space, revealing what is at stake, or what is contested.

A South African example is a performance of actor’s who played a marginalised street music group which set up in the ‘wrong place’ at an arts festival. The performance, played in the foyer of an arts establishment had the effect of sullying the façade of genteel public encounter with the arts. The piece was intended to problematise ideas about the arts and the organisation of the arts, amongst other things. The piece unfurled into a larger drama about public space and how it may be used, strongly overlaid by racial discourses the relevance of which would otherwise have been denied. A remarkable display of public anger and conflict emerged, showing how the management of public space works to cover up underlying tensions, by subtle forms of selection and exclusion.

It is often asked of an invisible theatre performance, ‘Did they know it was a performance?’ and the question is a telling one. For an intended audience to know invisible theatre as a performance would detract from the reality of what it sets in motion. It has to be done ‘invisibly’ because to disclose it as a performance in a context where the issues being addressed are contested, would too easily allow the concerns being addressed to be denounced as artificial. In this sense performance is from the perspective of the intended ‘audience’, the same as action. Invisible theatre is strategised action, designed to ‘force’ reflection in contexts where the possibilities of reflection are otherwise muted or de-activated by the communicative dynamics inherent in the context.

Concluding comments

Perhaps the most important contribution of Boal’s work lies in its affirmation of the value in being inventive in the field of action-reflection, in discovering forms of action which lend themselves to reflection, and forms of reflection which lend themselves to action. This work is about conceptualising and performing new ways of ‘doing things’ in a context of understanding that the meaning of our actions surpasses our own ‘natural’ capacity to know what it is we do. Towards this end we need to think creatively about the procedures and processes which might span the dialectic of action-reflection: forms of social action which are both driven by and drawn to critical understanding of the problems they tackle; forms of reflection which self-consciously prefigure action; forms of action that generate ongoing reflection on social relations even within the context of their own enaction; and forms of action (performances) which are open (porous) and generative rather than fixed and conventional.

References

1-Auslander, P. (1995) Boal, Blau, Brecht: The body. In M. Schutzman & J. Cohen-Cruz (eds), Playing Boal: Theatre, therapy, activism. London: Routledge.

2-Austin, J.L. (1962) How to do things with words. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

3-Boal, A. (1985) Theatre of the oppressed. New York: Theatre Commmunications Group.

4-Boal, A. (1992) Games for actors and non-actors. London: Routledge.

5-Butler, J. (1993)Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of ‘sex’. New York: Routledge.

6-Butler, J. (1995) Burning acts. In A. Parker E.K. Sedgwick (eds), Performativity and performance. London: Routledge.

7-Doyal, L. & Harris, R. (1986) Empiricism, explanation and rationality. London: Routledge.

8-Elsworth, E. (1989) Why doesn’t this feel empowerring? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 59, 297-324.

9-Ermath, M. (1978) Wilhelm Dilthey: The critique of historical reason. University of Chicago Press.

10-Freire P. (1972) Pedagogy of the oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

11-Habermas, J. (1984) Theory of communicative action, Vol-1. Boston: Beacon.

12-Haraway, D. (1991) Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. In Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. London: Free Association.

13-Hope, A. & Timmel, S. (1984) Community Workers’ Handbook (1,2,3) Zimbabwe: Mambo Press.

14-Jackson, A.(1997) Participatory learning and action notes: performance and participation. London: International Institute for Environment and Development.

15-Kagan, C. & Burton, M. (1999) Prefigurative action research: An alternative base for critical psychology. Paper presented at ‘Critical psychology and action research conference’, Manchester, England, 13-16 July.

16-Kelly, K.J. & Van Vlaenderen, H. (1997) Dialogue, inter-subjectivity and the analysis of discourse. In A. Levett, A. Kottler, E. Burman & I. Parker (eds), Culture, power and difference: Discourse analysis in South Africa. London: Zed Books.

17-Parker, A. & Sedgwick, E.K. (1995) Introduction. In A. Parker E.K. Sedgwick (eds), Performativity and performance. London: Routledge.

18-Ricoeur, P. (1992) Oneself as another. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

19-Ricoeur, P. (1970) Freud and philosophy: An essay on interpretation. New Have: Yale University Press.

20-Ricoeur, P. (1979)The model of the text: Meaningful action considered as a text. In P. Rabinow & W.M. Sullivan (eds), Interpretive social science: A Reader Berkeley: University of California Press.

21-Ricoeur, P. (1981a) The hermeneutical function of distanciation. In J. B. Thompson (ed.), Hermeneutics and the human sciences. Cambridge University Press.

22-Ricoeur, P. (1981b) The task of hermeneutics. In J. B. Thompson (ed.), Hermeneutics and the human sciences. Cambridge University Press.

23-Rosenberg, A. (1988) Philosophy of social science. Oxford University Press.

24-Schutzman, M. (1995) Brechtian shamanism: The political therapy of Augusto Boal. In M. Schutzman & J. Cohen-Cruz (eds), Playing Boal: Theatre, therapy, activism. London: Routledge.

25-Thiselton, C.C. (1992) New horizons in hermeneutics. Grand Rapids:Zondervan Publishing House.

Acknowledgement is made for financial aid received from the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

Kevin Kelly is Research Director of a South African NGO, Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation. He works as an action researcher in development and training projects in South Africa and has a particular interest in the relations between critical and participatory methodologies. Address: CADRE, Institute for Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, P.O. Box 94, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa. Email: kelly@imaginet.co.za

When I say ‘Research’ I mean ‘There’s a nice knock-down argument for you’

Why go to the Universe when you’re already there? Or here? Or wherever it is/you are?

I’m here already, but I want to prove it to my own satisfaction

Research is the unsatisfactory satisfaction

Who was that Research I saw you out with last night? That was no Research, that was my life!

Sister Susie sewing Research for Senators

Bare ruined Senators, where late the Research sang

John Rowan