The Secret of Guidance and Ignorance

Understanding the background to the revelations is, therefore, extremely important in order to receive guidance from the Quran. If the verses of the Quran are studied without the help of those traditions, each verse will appear to be giving an absolute command (an injunction in the absolute sense). But when we study the Quran in the light of those traditions that give us the background of revelations, we come to know that they had specific application. Whenever any difficult situation arose, during the life time of the Prophet, a revelation would come in relation to it. In such a state of affairs it is not proper to take any given verse of the Quran in an absolute sense and apply it to latter-day situations. It is therefore essential to study the verses of the Quran in the light of the causes of revelation. After learning the background we can apply them to any similar situation produced in later times. According to this principle, taking the verses of the Quran in their proper context is a source of guidance, while doing the reverse is a source of transgression. In short, the Quran is a compendium of various and varied kinds of injunctions. For instance, at one place we find this injunction in the Quran: “Avoid the polytheists” (15:94). At another place we will