The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 382
CH. 5 AL-MĀ'IDAH PT. 7 يَا يُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا شَهَادَةُ بَيْنِكُمْ إِذَا O ye who believe! the. 107 حَضَرَ أَحَدَكُمُ الْمَوْتُ حِيْنَ الْوَصِيَّةِ اثْتُنِ ذَوَا عَدْلٍ مِّنْكُمْ أَوْ أَخَرُنِ right evidence among you, when death presents itself to one of you, at the time of making a bequest, is of two just مِنْ غَيْرِكُمْ إِنْ أَنْتُمْ ضَرَبْتُمْ فِي men from among you; or of two others not from among you, if الْأَرْضِ فَأَصَابَتْكُمْ مُّصِيبَةُ الْمَوْتِ you be journeying in the land تَحْبِسُونَهُمَا مِنْ بَعْدِ الصَّلوةِ فَيُقْسِمُن and the calamity of death befall you. You shall detain them both body may be sacrificed but not the soul. Christians abandoned some of the fundamental principles of their religion, hoping to win over certain heathen nations to Christianity. But in doing so they lost the truth and struck a very bad bargain. The verse, however, should not be understood to mean that we should not preach the truth to others, and should confine our attention to saving our own souls only and have no thought for others. In fact, the Quran enjoins upon every Muslim to try his utmost to make others see truth, because firstly, it is our duty to propagate truth; and secondly, placed as we are, we cannot properly save ourselves unless we also save those among whom we live. What the verse, therefore, means is that our duty is only to preach truth to others. If they accept it, well and good; but if, in spite of our efforts, they refuse to be weaned from their evil course, their rejection of the truth will do us no harm. But in no circumstances should we compromise principles in order to win others over our 822 to our way of thinking. That would be ruining our own souls to save others. There is a ḥadīth to the effect that once the Holy Prophet explained this verse as meaning that you should preach truth under all circumstances but when you see that the person to whom you preach truth persists in following his own evil inclinations and does not listen to you, then your duty will have ended by your having preached to him the truth, and in this case his evil practices would do you no harm, if only you yourselves follow the truth scrupulously (Tirmidhi, ch. on Tafsir). The words, He who goes astray cannot harm you when you yourselves are rightly guided, may also mean that if you do the right sort of preaching and try to find the right way of approach to a person and even then he does not accept the truth, then his going astray will not harm you and you will not be held responsible for it. In this case, the words, when you yourselves are rightly guided,