Question:
Who is this man and which hadith are related with this ayah?
What is the lesson we sould take from this ayah and related hadith?
Where can we find true imams/scholars (Turkish) explaining or teaching such important knowledge?
Answer:
salam `alaykum,
The exegesis differed over the identity of 7:175 stating he was – either the Israelite or Canaanite Bal’aam; – or the jinn-familiar, Arab poet and pseudo-prophet Umayya b. Abi al-Salt al-Thaqafi (d. 5/626), who had read the Scriptures and who taught the Quraysh the expression, “bismik Allahumma” (“in Your Name, O Allah our Lord”); – or a priest named Abu ‘Amir (Tafsirs of at-Tabari, al-Baghawi, Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Qurtubi, al-Balansi, al-Biqa’i, etc., sub Q 7:175). His identity, however, is of little consequence since he is an archetype of the one time believer who recants (Razi, Mafatih, verse 7:175) and, more specifically, of the rank and file of learned Christians and Jews—as shown by the context and chronology of the verses—who are individually responsible for lapsing from Divine election into worldliness and unbelief (Habannaka, Ma`arij, verse 7:175). The passage on apostasy in Surat al-A`raf is paradigmatic: it encapsulates the styles of the Qur’an—narrative, sapiential, prescriptive, dialectic, and eschatological—and dramatically contrasts the Divine gifts with human defection followed by Satanic embroilment; uplifting guidance with self-abasing and suicidal misguidance; and humanity with animality: (7:175-179) The recurrent images of animality—first, the snake implied in the skin-sloughing image, then the dog, then cattle—culminating in sub-animality (“nay, but they are worse”) suggests that his doffed existential envelope consists in one’s honorific humanity, as is stated elsewhere in the Qur’an: 17:70; and 95:4-6. Al-Ghazali (450-505/1058-1111) saw this dog-like apostate as a representation of false teachers whom Allah Most High beguiles: > (Ihya’, `Ilm, 6: Aafaat al-`Ilm).
Hajj Gibril Haddad
