2/38-39 — The descent and the promise
"We said, 'Go down from it, all of you.' 'When guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance — no fear shall be upon them, nor shall they grieve.'"
This sentence is the starting point of the chain of revelation. The human being is not abandoned to the earth; he is sent to the earth, and it is said to him that a guide will be sent after him. The Qurʾān positions itself as the last link of this promise.
And here a circle closes back to al-Fātiḥa. In al-Fātiḥa the servant had asked "guide us to the straight path". In this verse of al-Baqara it is said that the answer to that request was promised from the very beginning. The request is not new; nor is the answer.
This formula, repeated across the Qurʾān, names the human being's two basic pains, and the two look to different times:
| Direction | Subject | |
|---|---|---|
| Khawf (fear) | The future | What has not yet happened, but might |
| Ḥuzn (grief) | The past | What has happened and cannot be taken back |
The human being's unease comes from these two directions: either he grieves for what he has lost or he fears for what he will lose. The present moment, meanwhile, is mostly squeezed between the two and passes unlived.
What is promised is not that events will change — the person will lose again, will meet danger again. What is promised is the knowledge that both these directions have an owner. If the past can be forgiven, grief loses its ground; if the future is in the hands of a Lord, fear loses its ground.
In ten verses the following has been said about the human being: he holds authority on the earth; he has a capacity for corruption and bloodshed; he has a capacity for naming and learning; he can transgress a boundary; but he can return, and his return is accepted; and he will not be left without a guide.
This is not praise or blame — it is a description. And the rest of the sūra is the long history of communities that have and have not matched that description.
From here the sūra enters a long section. For some eighty verses one single community will be addressed: those who had been given a book before.
Why is this section so long? Because what is recounted is not the story of a foreign nation. It is the earlier link of the same chain — in the fourth verse of the sūra it was said "they believe in what was sent down before you". And more importantly: what is recounted here is the list of what can happen to a community that has received a book. A community receiving a new book is reading what a community that received a book before it went through.
This has to be said at the outset, because the most widespread misreading of this section is to suppose it to be about somebody else. The Qurʾān's own record prevents this: "They are not all alike; among the People of the Book there is … an upright community" (Āl ʿImrān 3/113). Attributes are being enumerated, not an identity — and whoever carries the attribute, the ruling looks to him.