The Guiding Light — Page 280
S u rah al-Baqarah, Chapter 2, Verses 285-287 280 The words, lay not on us a responsibility as Thou didst lay upon those before us, do not mean that Muslims have been taught to wish for lighter burdens. The facts of history belie that inference. The words only mean that God may help Muslims to fulfill their responsibilities and to avoid sins as well as the consequences thereof. The previous peoples were entrusted with some responsibilities and given certain commandments which were all for their own good, but many of them failed to fulfill them and also rejected Islam to which they had been invited and thus turned a blissful guidance into a veritable means of incurring God’s displeasure. Thus it was that they were virtually laid under an i s r or a burdensome responsibility. Muslims, being the bearers of the final and universal Shar i ‘ah , have been exhorted to set a better example and pray to God for success in their great task and in the fulfillment of their heavy responsibilities. The laying of burden or burdensome responsibility has been attributed to God just as in the Qur’ a nic idiom ﺿﻼﻟﺔ ( Dh al al ah) misguidance is sometimes attributed to Him for which see 2:7. The clause, lay not on us a responsibility as Thou didst lay on those before us, may also refer to Christians particularly