Hawzah News Agency (Qom - Iran) - Speaking at the thirteenth session of a series of discussions on the exegesis of the Quran held at Qom’s Hojjatieh Seminary, Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani said the other name of the ninth chapter of the Quran, al-Tawbah, was “al-Fadhihah” which means “The Scandal” and said, “This naming is due to the fact that the plots and conspiracies of the hypocrites have been revealed and have disgraced them.”
The revered source of emulation referred to the verses at the beginning of the Surah al-Baqarah and stated, “One of the hypocrites’ plots was to ridicule the beloved Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims and in appearance, they expressed friendship but inwardly, they were hostile to him.”
He referred to the exegesis of verse 64 of Surah al-Tawbah and said, “God has revealed the secrets of the hypocrites and their conspiracies against the Prophet and the Muslims through the revelation of surahs al-Tawbah and al-Munafiqun and unveiled their conspiracies.”
Ayatollah Sobhani argued that the hypocrites express their friendship but inwardly seek to harm Islam and said, “According to the exegesis of Allamah Muhammad-Husayn Tabatabai on this verse, the hypocrites have always warned against this issue and a chapter was revealed which disgraced them in the eyes of the Prophet.”
The prominent teacher in the Islamic Seminary of Qom said, “Allamah Tabatabai was completely a man of knowledge, jurisprudence, mysticism and ethics. Therefore, wherever Martyr Mortaza Motahhari remembered him in his books, he wrote, ‘may my soul be sacrificed for him’ after his name.”
He explained verse 65 of Surah al-Tawbah and said that man doesn’t have the right to mock the verses of the divine and emphasized, “During the Battle of Tabuk, the hypocrites always tried to infer that the armies of Islam could not resist the enemies’ army and the ridiculed the verses of God. At that time, God revealed their conspiracies to the Prophet so that he could hold them accountable.”
Referring to the differences between din meaning “religion” and maslak meaning “path,” Ayatollah Sobhani stated, “Religion is a category that is related to the heavens and the universe of revelation but the path is created by one’s own hands. For example, Baha’ism is a path and cannot be considered a religion.”
While offering his congratulations on the birthday of Imam al-Hasan al-Mujtaba, His Eminence said that peace and reconciliation were imposed on Imam al-Hasan, and stated, “When Imam al-Hasan saw the lack of unity among his army, he had no choice but peace because if they continued to fight, Islam would be faced with danger. If a commander-in-chief had executives who sell their lofty goals for material motives, they wouldn’t be able to achieve anything.”
Referring to the fact that the army, whose slogan is peace and compromise, isn’t victorious, Ayatollah Sobhani said, “Those who sought worldly gains, those who are undecided and those who were deceived by Mu’awiyah formed the army of Imam al-Hasan and therefore there was no other way than peace.”