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wa-qāla lladhīna kafarū li-rusulihim la-nukhrijannakum min ʾarḍinā ʾaw la-taʿūdunna fī millatinā fa-ʾawḥā ʾilayhim rabbuhum la-nuhlikanna ẓ-ẓālimīna
But the faithless said to their apostles, ‘Surely we will expel you from our land, or you shall revert to our creed.’ Thereat their Lord revealed to them: ‘We will surely destroy the wrongdoers,
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah ‘Ibrahim – Verse 13
13. “And those who disbelieved told their messengers: ‘We will certainly expel you from our land, or else you return to our creed.’ Then their Lord revealed to them: ‘Certainly We will perish the unjust’.”
Question: Were the prophets pagan before the onset of their mission when they were requested by the pagans to return to the previous beliefs of pagans. Answer: Firstly, perhaps the objective in mind of the disbelievers was the return of the prophets to be under to their own control. That is, they used to suggest supposedly you are believers, but you must not stand up against us and you, as well as your companions, deviate from our path. Secondly, the Arabic word /‘aud/ when is followed with /’il a/ it means return to the prior condition. However, now that it is followed by /fi/, it denotes change and not returning to the previous condition, which implies change of ideas into their creed.
Thirdly, the idea of returning to paganism probably implies the return of the prophets’ companions and not of the prophets themselves. Anyway, as is usually the case with the way of life of the illogical people, that they quit the course of reasoning when they become aware of their weaknesses in ideas and in words, abandoning reasoning, they rely on forces and powers. Here, we notice when the prophets demonstrated their sound and explicit way of reasoning, which were discussed in the former verses, the obstinate and pretending pagans told their prophets that they would swear to drive them out of their lands unless they return to pagans’ way of life which was the worshipping of the idols.
The verse says:
“And those who disbelieved told their messengers: ‘We will certainly expel you from our land, or else you return to our creed.’…”
These unaware and arrogant people perhaps considered all of the lands as their own lands and they did not have any regards for their prophets, even they did not consider them as a compatriot, thus they used to say ‘our land’ while Allah has created the land and all its blessings for the sake of the righteous people. Then the Qur’an implies that while at the same time, Allah expressed His compassion to the prophets and reassured them, revealing to them that the tyrants would be perished and, therefore, they should not be scared of such threats and no weakness must appear in the strength of their will.
The verse says:
“…Then their Lord revealed to them: ‘Certainly We will perish the unjust’.”