The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 91
PT. 11 YŪNUS CH. 10 وَمَا كَانَ لِنَفْسِ أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللهِ And no soul can believe. 101 except by the permission of وَيَجْعَلُ الرِّجْسَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ Allah. And He makes His wrath descend on those who would not use their reason. 1372 "6:126. would not have confined His compulsion to one people but would have guided all who are in the earth. But He does not resort to compulsion and has left the matter of faith to the option of individuals, although He desires all His creatures to follow guidance and rise spiritually. The clause, Wilt thou then force men to become believers?, is capable of two interpretations: (1) It may be taken as an argument in support of the statement made in the first part of the verse. In this case it would mean that God cannot resort to compulsion in the matter of faith, for to compel a person to accept a certain religion can serve no useful purpose. The Quran thus asks the Holy Prophet if he would like to force men to accept his faith against their will and, implying an answer in the negative, for the Prophet would never countenance compulsion the verse declares that God, Who knows the secrets of all hearts, cannot have recourse to compulsion. (2) The verse may also has any right to do so. Whichever of these two interpretations may be put upon this verse, it is clear beyond any shadow of doubt that Islam does not allow the use of force for its propagation. 1372. Commentary: The subject matter of the preceding verse is continued here. The words, And no soul can believe except by the permission of Allah, provide the reason why compulsion should not be resorted to in matters of faith. The to attain true belief by the mere verse points out that it is not possible profession of certain doctrines with the tongue but by the permission of God i. e. by the observance of certain definite and fixed laws of God. Hence it is inconceivable that a person can be made a true believer by compulsion. You cannot intimidate or compel a person into believing a certain thing against his will. It is against the law of nature and against all known workings of the human mind. be taken to be addressed to each and The expression, He makes His every believer and to say to him that wrath descend on those who would the denial of truth by disbelievers not use their reason, means that mere should not so enrage anyone as to lip-profession of those who accept a make him resort to compelling men thing without reason is of no value to accept it, arguing that when God, whatever. On the contrary, such men Who is the Lord and Master of all earn only the wrath of God for their beings, does not use force, no mortal | insincere and hypocritical professions. 1299