سورة البقرة

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): Allah the Exalted said, "And they said", meaning the Jews to whom the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) showed the miracles mentioned [in the Quran]. When they heard the verse "فَهِیَ کَالْحِجارَةِ [So they are like stones] ...", they replied: "قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌ [Our hearts are wrapped in covers]".

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): What Allah says in this verse about their hearts is similar to what He says in Surah al-Nisa: "أَمْ لَهُمْ نَصِیبٌ مِنَ الْمُلْکِ فَإِذاً لَا یُؤْتُونَ النَّاسَ نَقِیراً [Or have they a share in the kingdom? Then in that case they would not give men even the speck on a date stone]" - [meaning] if power had been in their hands, they would not have given people even the weight of a speck. And the description given in this verse about the stones is similar to the description in this verse: "لَوْ أَنْزَلْنَا هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَی جَبَلٍ لَرَأَیْتَهُ خَاشِعاً مُتَصَدِّعاً مِنْ خَشْیَةِ اللَّهِ [If We had sent down this Quran on a mountain, you would have seen it humbled, split asunder from the fear of Allah]". This rebuke concerns the Jews and the Nasibis [those hostile to the Imams]. The Jews combined both faults and committed both wrongs, and so they were dealt with severely, to the point that the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) rebuked them. A group of their leaders and eloquent speakers said, "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! You blame us and tell us things about our hearts that Allah knows are not true - [rather] our hearts are a source of much good. We fast, we give charity, and we support the poor". The Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said, "Good is only good when it is intended for Allah's sake and done as Allah has commanded. But when its purpose is showing off, seeking reputation, hostility to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), and displaying defiance and superiority toward him through wealth, that is not good - it is pure evil, a burden on the one who does it, for which Allah will punish him with the severest punishment". They said, "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! You say this, but we say that what we spend is only to defeat your cause, put an end to your leadership, and scatter your companions from you - this is, for us, the greatest struggle, and through it we hope for the grandest and greatest reward from Allah. And at the very least, we are equal to you in this claim - so what merit do you have over us?" The Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said, "O brothers of the Jews! At the outset, when a claim is made, both sides [in the validity and acceptance of their claim] are equal - the one who claims truthfully and the one who claims falsely are equal in the mere claiming. But Allah's proofs and evidences distinguish between them: they expose the deception of the false claimant and make clear the truth of the true claimant. Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), the Messenger of Allah, does not exploit your ignorance to make you accept his word without proof; rather he presents you with such an argument that you cannot refuse it and cannot escape it. If Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) were to perform a miracle of his own choosing, you would say, "This is contrived and a trick" or "He learned it beforehand". But if you yourselves request and choose it, you can no longer claim that the miracle he brings is something rehearsed, contrived, a trick, or achieved through devices. So what miracle do you want now? Allah has informed me that He will do whatever you choose, to cut off the excuse of your disbelief and increase the insight of the believers among you". They said, "You have dealt with us fairly. If you fulfil this very promise you have made regarding yourself, you will have acted fairly; otherwise, you must be the first to withdraw your claim to prophethood, become like ordinary people, and submit to the ruling of the Torah - since you were unable to do what we asked, and your claim has proven false". The Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said, "The truth and reality will judge between us and you, not threats. Now choose whatever miracle you wish, so that your excuse may be removed ..."

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Do not talk excessively without remembering Allah, for excessive talk without the remembrance of Allah hardens the heart, and the person furthest from Allah is the one whose heart is hard.

Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him): [Allah says:] Refraining from My remembrance hardens hearts.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): O Ali (peace be upon him)! Three things harden the heart: listening to idle amusement, hunting, and going to the ruler's court.

Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him): Do not let your hopes stretch long, for that hardens your hearts.

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): That is, O company of Jews! Your hearts have become dense and dry, and good and mercy have departed from them.

Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him): Tears do not dry up except from the hardness of the heart, and hearts do not harden except from an abundance of sins.

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): Allah, [in this part of the verse,] directs the rebuke at the Jews, who are mentioned in His words "أَ فَکُلَّمَا جَاءَکُمْ رَسُولٌ بِمَا لَا تَهْوَی أَنْفُسُکُمُ [Is it that whenever a messenger came to you with what your souls did not desire]". Allah took from you (the Jews) your covenants and pledges regarding what you disliked, which was obedience to the friends of Allah, namely His most excellent and chosen servants, Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure household (peace be upon them) - meaning that what the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) brought you, and which you found disagreeable, was the taking of a covenant and pledge from you to obey the friends of Allah. And you were told the very thing that your forefathers had conveyed to you - those same fathers of yours who were told, "The guardianship (walayah) of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his household (peace be upon them) is the ultimate goal and the highest aim". Allah did not create any creature nor send any messenger except to call them to the walayah of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), Ali (peace be upon him) and his successors (peace be upon them), taking from them a covenant to remain firm upon it, so that the common people of other nations would act upon it too.

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): 'After that' - after the dazzling signs I made manifest in the time of Musa (peace be upon him), and the miraculous signs you witnessed from Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family).

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): It is like a dry rock that seeps no moisture and yields nothing of benefit - that is, you neither give Allah His due, nor give charity from your wealth or its surplus, nor act generously and kindly, nor extend hospitality to a guest, nor come to the aid of one in distress, nor deal and interact with people with even the least trace of humanity.

Imam al-Askari (peace be upon him): In hardness, your hearts became like solid rocks or harder than rock. [Allah] states this ambiguously and does not clarify it - like someone who tells another, "I ate bread or meat". He does not mean that he does not know what he ate; rather, he wants to leave the listener uncertain, so that the listener does not know exactly what he ate, though he wants the listener to understand that he ate something regardless. The meaning of the verse is not "rather, harder than rock", because istidrak (stating something incorrectly at first and then correcting it) is itself a kind of error, and it is impossible to attribute to Allah that He would state something incorrectly and then correct Himself, since He has knowledge of the past, the present and the future, and [knows] how anything that comes to exist in the future will be. This kind of correction belongs only to imperfect creatures. Nor does it mean "your hearts are like rock and harder than rock", because [if it said your hearts are hard like rock, then said harder than rock] the second statement would contradict the first, since the first statement says their hearts are equal to rock in hardness, neither harder nor softer than it. And if, after that, the next statement said "rather, harder than rock", it would nullify the previous statement and retract the first statement, since the first statement says their hearts are not harder than rock. This is a parable for one who means to convey that "your hearts are not a source of any good, neither little nor much". In the first clause it is stated ambiguously, since He says "أَوْ أَشَدُّ [or harder]", but in the second clause it is made clear that they are harder than rock. This clarification is not through the words "أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً [or harder in hardness]", but through this [following] verse. They used to say, "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! You imagine that our hearts have no inclination to support the destitute, help the helpless, and spend money to defeat falsehood and eliminate it, and to aid and revive the truth. In short, [you imagine] there is nothing of human qualities in these hearts, and that these hard rocks are, by far, softer than these hearts and more submissive to Allah's command! Look - here are the mountains before us; let us go near them together and ask them to bear witness to your truthfulness and our falsehood. If they speak and, in eloquent language, confirm you, then you are indeed right and we will necessarily follow you and submit. But if they deny you, or remain silent and give no answer, then know that you have erred in your claim and that you are following the path of stubbornness and hostility out of caprice". The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said, "There is no difficulty in that; let us go to whichever of these mountains you wish, so that I may call it to witness, and it will testify in my favour and against you". They set out and chose the hardest rock they could see, and said [to the Prophet, peace be upon him and his family], "Here is the mountain - call it to witness". The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) turned to the mountain and said, "O mountain! I ask you, by the greatness of the station of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and the pure ones of his household, for whose sake, when their names were mentioned in respect, Allah accepted the repentance of Adam (peace be upon him) ... and raised Idris (peace be upon him) to a lofty station in Paradise - I ask you to bear, for these Jews, the witness that Allah has entrusted to you, concerning the hardness of their hearts and their denial of what Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), has said". The mountain moved, water flowed from it, and it cried out, "O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)! I bear witness that you are the Messenger of the Lord of the worlds and the best of all people, and I bear witness that the hearts of these Jews, as you have described, are harder than rock, and nothing comes out of them - just as water gushes forth in a flood or bursts out from the heart of a rock [yet these people's hearts show no such softening] - and I bear witness that they are lying in the false accusation they bring against you, concerning the Lord of the worlds".

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): Then your hearts hardened. The Jews said: "[O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family)!] Do you claim that stones are softer than our hearts, and more obedient to Allah than we are? Then call upon this mountain to bear witness to your truthfulness." So [the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family)] commanded it; the mountain moved, shook, and water flowed out of it, and it called out: "I bear witness that you are the messenger of the Lord of the worlds and the master of all creation." Then [the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family)] commanded it to split in two from the middle — the lower half to rise and the upper half to descend, and to move apart from one another into a wide open space. Then he called out: "O mountain, I adjure you by the truth of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure household (peace be upon them)," in words of his own. The mountain shook and moved like a spirited, smooth-gaited young horse until it stood before him. So they said: "He is a most fortunate man."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): A stone used to greet me continually during the Age of Ignorance, and I recognize it even now.

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): Their hearts are not such that good things and blessings gush forth and issue from them; nor are they even such that they crack open even slightly so that a little good — let alone abundant good — comes out of them.

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): Some stones split open and water seeps out of them, but from their (the Jews') hearts, because of their extreme hardness, no good seeps out at all; yet there are stones that split open and from which water and good things flow, coming to the aid of thirsty people.

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): Some stones, apart from those rivers that flow from within the mountains, split open and water seeps from them, which is a source of good. But their hearts are not such that good things and blessings gush forth and issue from them; nor are they even such that they crack open even slightly so that a little good — let alone abundant good — comes out of them.

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): Out of fear of Allah, some of these stones come down when they are adjured by Allah and by the names of Allah's chosen ones — Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), Ali (peace be upon him), Fatima (peace be upon her), Hasan (peace be upon him), Husayn (peace be upon him), and their pure offspring (peace be upon them); but no trace of this exists in your hearts.

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): [Allah] is not heedless; rather, He knows it, and He rewards and punishes you according to what you deserve. He will never wrong you; He takes a strict account and metes out a severe punishment.