Al Furqān

وَالَّذِينَ لاَ يَشْهَدُونَ الزُّورَ وَإِذَا مَرُّوا بِاللَّغْوِ مَرُّوا كِرَامًا

72. “And those who witness no falsehood, and when they pass by what is vain, they pass by nobly.”

Not only committing sin is unlawful, but also attending a sinful gathering and viewing a sin is forbidden. To avoid attending a sinful gathering and being disrespectful to sinners is a kind of prohibition of sin. Following the previous holy verses in which some of the attributes of the servant of the Beneficent are mentioned, this verse explains the 9th outstanding attribute of theirs and says:

Great commentators have cited two various commentaries on this verse: some say that the witness of (‘Zūr’) means ‘false testifying’, for the word ‘Zūr’ means deviation and inclination, and since lie, falsehood and oppression are some deviated affairs, they are called ‘Zūr’. This phrase (Shahadat-uz-Zūr) is mentioned in the book ‘Shahadat’ of our jurisprudence. It is prohibited in various narrations, though in those narrations this verse has not been taken as an evidence.

Another commentary is that the purpose of ‘Shuhūd’ is ‘attending’ and ‘participation’, which means that the special servants of Allah do not attend false gatherings and parties. In some narrations of Imams (as) this word has been interpreted as parties of profane singing, in which frivolous and deviating singers as well as playing musical instruments take place. Undoubtedly the purpose of these narrations is not to limit the extensive concept of the Qur’anic word ‘Zūr’ to profane singing, but one of the clear extensions of it is profane singing.

It also includes all gatherings and parties in which wine is drunk, lie is told, backbiting happens, and such like. Another possibility that does not seem unlikely is that both commentaries are truly applied to the meaning of the verse. Thus, special servants of Allah, or the special servants of the Beneficent, neither bear false witness nor attend sinful and vain parties, for attending such parties is both confirming sin and preparation to defilement of soul and heart.

Then, the 10th attribute of theirs, which is having positive aim in life, is mentioned. It continues saying:

In fact, they neither attend false and vain parties, nor do they get defiled with vanity and falseness. With regard to the matter that the Qur’anic word /laqw/ includes any job that has no rational aim, it is clear that they have always a rational, useful, and good aim in their life and they dislike those who are after vain and futile matters. If they face such vain affairs in their life, they avoid them in a way that their negligence shows that they are inwardly discontented with such deeds. They are so magnanimous that such defiled environments never affect them.

No doubt being heedless to such deeds happens when there is no better way to prohibit evil deeds and to struggle with corruption, otherwise they certainly stand against them and do their duties to the end. Imam Sadiq (as) in a tradition says that the purpose of the Qur’anic word ‘Zūr’ in phrase:

is profane singing.³⁵ In tafsir-i-Majma‘-ul-Bayan, we read that ‘passing by nobly’ is when such believers are helpless to mention the name of an evil thing, they say it ironically, as we read in a narration by Imam Baqir (as) that when they want to say pudendum, they say it implicitly. Of course, this is one of the extensions of dignified behaviour. Imam Sadiq (as) said that Allah enjoined ear to avoid any unlawful things and then he (as) recited this verse.³⁶