Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 10 Yunus, Ayat 19-19

وَمَا كَانَ النَّاسُ اِلَّاۤ اُمَّةً وَّاحِدَةً فَاخۡتَلَفُوۡا​ ؕ وَلَوۡلَا كَلِمَةٌ سَبَقَتۡ مِنۡ رَّبِّكَ لَـقُضِىَ بَيۡنَهُمۡ فِيۡمَا فِيۡهِ يَخۡتَلِفُوۡنَ‏  ﴿10:19﴾

(10:19) Once all men were but a single community; then they disagreed (and formulated different beliefs and rites).25 Had it not been that your Lord had already so ordained, a decisive judgement would have been made regarding their disagreements.26


Notes

25. See (E.N. 230 of Surah Al-Baqarah) and (E.N. 24 of Surah Al-Anaam).

26. The decree that Allah has ordained is that the reality that shall be kept hidden from man’s senses in order to test whether he recognizes this by using his common sense, intelligence, conscience and intuition, and if he does not, he shall be allowed to tread the wrong ways he chooses. That is why their differences about the reality are not being resolved by uncovering it today.

This thing has been stated here to remove a common misunderstanding about the diversity of religions in the world.

At that time, there was a confusion in the minds of the people (and is even today) concerning this. They said: Different people profess different religions, and the followers of each religion claim that their religion alone is the true one. How may then a seeker of truth judge which one of these is the true religion? The answer is: In the beginning all mankind had only one religion, and that was the true religion. Then people strayed away from it and invented different religions of their own with different creeds and ways. Now if you desire that Allah Himself should uncover the truth and present it to you to enable you to decide which religion is the true one, you should know that this will not be done in this life, because you are required to decide this by using your common sense and intelligence. This worldly lift is a trial to see whether or not you yourselves recognize the truth by using your common sense and intelligence.