Understanding ‘Deen’

In Madarik al-Tanzil, it is stated: “to make it prevail” means “to make it dominant over all religions, over all people of various religions, or to make the religion of truth prevail over every other religion” (Tafsir Madarik al-Tanzil by al-Nasfi, Vol. 1, p. 676). A detailed discussion on the fourth verse will follow, demonstrating that the concept in question cannot accurately be applied to this verse. This discrepancy led the author under review to express contradictory views on two different occasions. Since the author needed to establish a broad and comprehensive meaning of deen in the book under discussion, he claimed in one place that the term “deen” in this verse refers to a complete system of life, encompassing all aspects—doctrinal, intellectual, moral, and practical (p. 94). However, when extracting a revolutionary mission from this verse elsewhere, he realized that deen was linked to the command of fighting to establish it, meaning to bring people to deen through combat. Thus, to make this verse the source of the Revolutionary Therefore, taking this verse as the basis of a political revolutionary mission would imply that matters of faith and ideology are to be imposed through fighting and coercion. However, it is clear that the doctrinal and intellectual aspects of religion cannot be imposed by force but require persuasion and advice.