Transliteration:( yaaa aiyuhal lazeena aamanoo laa tas'aloo 'an ashyaaa'a in tubda lakum tasu'kum wa in tas'aloo 'anhaa heena yunazzalul Qur'aanu tubda lakum; 'afallaahu 'anhaa; wallaahu Ghafoorun Haleem )
272. Reason for its revelation:Â
Some people would ask worthless things from the Holy Prophet like: "Oh Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم lost my camel can you please tell me where it can be found?" etc. This was against the respect of the Holy Prophet Once overcome by their irate questions the Messenger of Allah: said "Ask whatever you want to ask I will give you a reply to all your questions." One asked: "What will be my end?" He replied: "The Fire of Hell!" The second enquired: "Who is my father The reply was "You are an illegitimate. You are not conceived from your fathers sperm." because someone else was his mothers husband. To discourage this type of questioning the above verse was revealed in which it is told that do not make our Beloved Messenger صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم a means of revealing your secrets. From this, we learn that had full صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم the Holy Prophet knowledge of what is, what was and what will be. To have the son is in the present, but whether it will be an inmate of Hell, is its end, is صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم and the Holy Prophet aware of both the beginning and the end, even though he may not reveal this knowledge. In one Hadith it is reported that Hajj is an obligatory act. To this one enquired Oh Messenger of Allah, is it obligatory each year? At this, the Holy Prophet remained silent. When this question this question was repeated several times the Messenger of Allah replied: "Had I said yes, Hajj would have become obligatory upon you annually. Whatever I do not discuss you should not ask."Â
From this emerge two issues:
1. Allah Almighty has left the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم in charge of all duties and laws. His approval and disapproval determine religious duties.
2. Everything is permissible unless it is prohibited by Islamic laws as can be seen from "Allah has already pardoned them."Â
273. This also gives a hint that do not bring about restrictions with regard to pensions, etc pay them without any conditions. It is thus clearly understood that anything which is not made unlawful by Islam is lawful. It is found in a Hadith that whatever is made lawful by Allah Almighty is lawful and whatever He has prohibited is unlawful and on any matter that silence is maintained is pardonable. Thus things like Meelad gatherings and Urs gatherings etc which are not prohibited by the holy prophet are permissible.
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The tafsir of Surah Maidah verse 101 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Maidah ayat 100 which provides the complete commentary from verse 100 through 102.
116. People used to ask the Prophet (peace be on him) many questions which were of no practical relevance to either religious or day-to-day affairs. Once, for instance, a person asked the Prophet (peace be on him) in the presence of a crowd: ‘Who is my real father?’ Likewise, many people used to ask unnecessary questions about legal matters. By these uncalled for inquiries they sought knowledge of matters which had for good reasons, been deliberately left undetermined by the Law-giver. In the Qur’an, for example. Pilgrimage had been declared obligatory. A person who became aware of this came to the Prophet (peace be on him) and inquired: ‘Has it been made obligatory to perform it every year?’ To this the Prophet (peace be on him) made no reply. When he inquired for the second time the Prophet (peace be on him) again stayed silent. On being asked for the third time, he said: ‘Pity on you! Had I uttered “Yes†in reply to your question, it would have become obligatory to perform it every year. And then you would not have been able to observe it and would have been guilty of disobedience.’ (See Bukhari, ‘Riqaq’, 22; ‘Zakah’, 53; I’tisam’, 3; ‘Adab’, 6; Muslim, ‘Aqdiyah’, 10, 11, 13, 14; Darimi, ‘Riqaq’, 38; Muwatta’, ‘Kalam’, 20; Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, vol. 2, pp. 327, 360, 367; vol. 4, pp. 246, 249, 250, 251, 255 – Ed.)
The Prophet (peace be on him) discouraged people from being over-inquisitive and unnecessarily curious about every question. We find in the Hadith the following saying from the Prophet (peace be on him): ‘The worst criminal among the Muslims is the one who inquired about something which had not been made unlawful, and then it was declared so, because of his inquiry.’ (Bukhari, I’tisam’, 3; Muslim, Fada’il’, 132, 133; Abu Da’ud, ‘Sunnah’, 6 – Ed.) According to another tradition the Prophet (peace be on him) said: ‘God has imposed upon you certain obligations, do not neglect them; He has imposed certain prohibitions, do not violate them; He has imposed certain limits, do not even approach them; and He has remained silent about certain matters – and has not done so out of forgetfulness – do not pursue them.’ See (Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 108) note 110.
In both these traditions an important fact has been called to our attention. In matters where the Law-giver has chosen to lay down certain injunctions only broadly, without any elaborate details, or quantitative specifications, He has done so not because of neglect or forgetfulness. Such seeming omissions are deliberate, and the reason thereof is that He does not desire to place limitations upon people, but prefers to allow them latitude and ease in following His commandments. Now there are some people who make unnecessary inquiries, cause elaborately prescribed, inflexibly determined and restrictive regulations to be added to the Law. Some others, in cases where such details are in no way deducible from the text, resort to analogical reasoning, thereby turning a broad general rule into an elaborate law full of restrictive details, and an unspecified into a specified rule. Both sorts of people put Muslims in great danger. For, in the area of belief, the more detailed the doctrines to which people are required to subscribe, the more problematic it becomes to do so. Likewise, in legal matters, the greater the restriction, the greater the likelihood of violation.
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