Surah Al-Baqara (2) — Ayah 102

(Ayah 102) ➊ When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) arrived, the Jews, despite recognizing and knowing him, refused to follow him out of jealousy and stubbornness. They could not confront him in the field, because the belief in and practice of truth is the foundation of strength, which they lacked. Thus, like every nation that is devoid of the strength of belief and action, they turned to magic, sorcery, and occult practices, and began to seek such schemes by which all their tasks could be accomplished without any effort or struggle. When nothing else worked, they performed magic on the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The one who did this magic was a Jew named Labeed bin A'sam, who performed magic on the Prophet’s comb and the hair that came out of it, which he placed in the sheath of a male date palm cluster, and buried it under a large stone at the bottom of a well called Dhi Arwan. Its effect on you was that you would think you were going to your family, but you could not go. (As if this was a form of { ”مَا يُفَرِّقُوْنَ بِهٖ بَيْنَ الْمَرْءِ وَ زَوْجِهٖ“ }) You repeatedly prayed to Allah Almighty, so Allah informed you through revelation, and you had all of it removed and destroyed, and the well was also filled in, and Allah granted you healing. [ بخاری، باب قول اللّٰہ تعالٰی : «{ إن اللہ یأمر بالعدل … }» : ۶۰۶۳، ۵۷۶۳۔ مسلم: ۲۱۸۹، عن عائشہ رضی اللہ عنھا ] Unfortunately, when Muslims also fell into the pit of humiliation and decline due to being involved in shirk and innovation, the majority of them too began to pursue magic, sorcery, and occult sciences.

➋ {وَ مَا كَفَرَ سُلَيْمٰنُ......:} The Jews had made it famous that Solomon (peace be upon him) (God forbid) was a magician and that his kingdom was based on magic. Allah Almighty refuted this and explained that magic is disbelief; Solomon (peace be upon him) was a miracle-working prophet, he did not disbelieve, rather it was the devils who, during his time, committed this act of disbelief: they themselves practiced magic and taught it to people. The Jews, on one hand, pursued this knowledge of magic, and on the other hand, pursued the knowledge that was sent down to the two angels Harut and Marut in Babylon, which was a knowledge separate from magic and whose practice was sometimes disbelief. Those angels would not teach anyone that knowledge until they had thoroughly warned him that "We are only a trial, so do not use this practice for disbelief," but the moral decline of the Jews was such that they would still learn that knowledge from them, and from it, they would learn things that were purely harmful and whose practice is disbelief and which pleases Satan the most, i.e., such practices by which they would create separation between a husband and wife. The sending of angels as a trial is not surprising. Unfortunately, when Muslims also fell into decline, they too began to pursue magic. In addition, they began to use Quranic verses such as: «{ وَ اَلْقَيْنَا بَيْنَهُمُ الْعَدَاوَةَ وَ الْبَغْضَآءَ }» etc., to create enmity between brothers and between husband and wife, even though the Jews knew and these Muslims also know that this act is disbelief and for such a person there is no share in the Hereafter.

➌ Ustadh Muhammad Abduh Al-Falah (may Allah have mercy on him) writes that at this point, some commentators have narrated strange and astonishing tales regarding Harut and Marut, including their love affair with a woman named Zuhrah and then the incident of Zuhrah becoming a star. The scholarly researchers have declared these stories to be fabrications of the Jews. Hafiz Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) says that such narrations are reported from some Companions and Followers, but at most, we can consider them to be the statement of the newly converted Jewish scholar Ka'b al-Ahbar. (Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidayah) Hafiz Mundhiri (Al-Targhib wa Al-Tarhib: 2/102) and Allama Ahmad Shakir Misri (Commentary on Musnad Ahmad: 9/35) have also supported this, that this is the statement of Ka'b al-Ahbar.

➍ In Ahsan al-Bayan, it is stated that some commentators have taken {”وَ مَاۤ اُنْزِلَ“} in { ”مَا“ } as negative (nafiya), and have denied that anything was sent down upon Harut and Marut, but the context of the Holy Quran does not support this, which is why Ibn Jarir and others have refuted it. (Ibn Kathir)