The Light of the Holy Qur'an — Page 111
T H e J O u r NA l—F AT e H M A S IH T H e J O u r NA l—F AT e H M A S IH 111 1 اَّلِا ْنَم َهِرْكُا َو ٗهُبْلَق َو ٌّۢنِٕىَمْطُم ِناَمْيِاْلاِب Meaning: ‘Whoever disbelieves in Allah shall have a severe pun- ishment; save him who is coerced thereto—that is, he is prevented from performing the tenets of faith due to some tyranny that is beyond the limit of his tolerance—while his heart finds peace in his faith, such a person is excusable in the estimation of God. ’ The purport of this verse is that if a tyrant inflicts some very painful and unbearable wounds on a Muslim, and in this agony, he utters some words that are tantamount to disbelief in the eye of the disbeliever, while the Muslim did not intend to utter words of disbelief—rather his heart brims with faith and his only inten- tion is to conceal his faith due to the unbearable torture—and it is not wilfully but unwittingly when he is out of his senses and is almost delirious due to the unbearable torture to which he has been subjected; then, in this state, upon seeking forgiveness, God shall forgive him with the stipulations recorded in the following verse, because God is Most Forgiving and Merciful: َّمُث َّنِا َكَّبَر َنْيِذَّلِل اْوُرَجاَه ْۢنِم ِدْعَب اَم اْوُنِتُف َّمُث اْوُدَهٰج َو اْۤوُرَبَص١ۙ َّنِا َكَّبَر ْۢنِم اَهِدْعَب ٌرْوُفَغَل 2 ٌمْيِحَّر ۰۰ Meaning: ‘Those who hide their Islam during unbearable torture, their sin shall be forgiven on the condition that they migrate after having suffered this torture—that is, they should move away from such an environment or such a country wherein faith is being 1. S u rah an-Na h l, 16:107 [Publisher] 2. S u rah an-Na h l, 16:111 [Publisher]