وصدها ما كانت تعبد من دون الله انها كانت من قوم كافرين

وَصَدَّهَا مَا كَانَت تَّعْبُدُ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّهَا كَانَتْ مِن قَوْمٍ كَـٰفِرِينَ

تأملت في قوله تعالى: 'وصدها ما كانت تعبد من دون الله ...' فتساءلت ، وأنا أعلم أن ملكة سبأ كانت تعبد الشمس كما قال الهدهد ، كيف للشمس أن تصد من يعبدها عن الإيمان؟ 
والحقيقة أن الشمس نفسها لا تنفع ولا تضر ولا تهدي ولا تضل ، وبالتالي لا تصد! 
انما ما صد هذه الملكة الذكية عن الإيمان وقد رأت من الايات بأعينها ، ليست الشمس ، ولكن 'عبادتها' للشمس.
فإن الإنسان يقنع نفسه بأن ما يؤمن به هو الحق ، ويطارد أي فكرة تحول بينه وبين تلك القناعة ، ويصبح عقلا وقلبا منقادا انقيادا تاما لما يؤمن به ، ويصبح ذلك حاجزا منيعا وحجابا عن رؤية الحق إذا كان مخالفا. 
والحكم التي تعلمتها من ذلك: 
1- ألا يعقد قلبه على شيء (فيصبح عقيدة) إلا بعد بحث وطلب حق وتمحيص حقائق 
2- إن يدعو الله دائما بأن يريه الحق وأن يخرجه من الظلمات إلى النور 
3- أن يشفق على من يعتقد الباطل ، فيرفق به في دعوته إلى

Towards the end of Ramadan, I began to share my thoughts on the description of the muttaqeen at the beginning of Suratul-Baqarah. Allah willing, I wanted to continue on from there and look to the descriptions of disbelief and hypocrisy. Like the description of the muttaqeen, their descriptions can tell us much, except this time about the characteristics we should be wary of within ourselves.

We begin to recite once again, we look to how Allah describes the one who disbelieves,
- As for those who persist in disbelief, it is the same whether you warn them or not—they will never believe. - (2:6)

Allah guides and leaves to stray whoever He wills. What’s worth reminding ourselves of though is Allah guides whom He wills and so too does Allah describe the characteristics behind those who are guided. When it was said that those who disbelieve will never believe whether you warn them or not, what if we were to see this in a similar way, i.e. as a characteristic of disbelief? In other words, what if what leads someone into disbelief is that they make the deliberate decision to tell themselves they would never believe, even before the message was ever made clear to them? Think of the one too deep in his argument to lose face, those who find themselves in disgust simply considering the possibility of having to abandon the life they have for one that worships Allah, having to accept a truth they may not like because Allah would make it clear to them.

The concept that disbelief can be associated with the intent never to believe as a characteristic can be found elsewhere in the Qur’an too, for example
- And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it,
And inspired it its wickedness and its righteousness,
He has succeeded who purifies it,
And he has failed who buries it. - (91:7-10)

Allah inspires within every soul its taqwa, but there are those who bury it.

We begin to see the nuances that make belief distinct from disbelief. Whereas those who believe open themselves to Allah’s guidance and are willing to strive in that path in hope for His mercy, those who disbelieve close their hearts to it.

This helps us to see how it is people switch between belief and disbelief, it helps us to see the significance of making the truth clear to those around us. Those who disbelieve may disbelieve because they knew no better, but their hearts were open to the truth under the right conditions. Those who believe may yet disbelieve because they had a set perception of life that no one should be allowed to challenge, not even the One who created them, na’udhibillah. You hear of those stories of people who studied Islam to disprove it because they believed it was false, only to find its truth and accept it. That makes sense now; they didn’t know any better. They came with a pure heart and so they believed. This was the case with the Queen of Sheba,

- So when she arrived, it was said, 'Is your throne like this?' She said, 'As though it was it.' [Solomon said], 'And we were given knowledge before her, and we have been Muslims.
And that which she was worshipping other than Allah had averted her. Indeed, she was from a disbelieving people.' - (27:42-43)

Sulaiman (peace be upon him) saw the good she possessed, a good she hadn’t buried. He could see that the only difference between her and those who believed was that the Muslims were given knowledge before her while she was brought up with a disbelieving people, so her worship of those she was brought up to believe were beside Allah hindered her. Then, upon making the truth clear to her, she believed,

- […] She said, 'My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to Allah, Lord of the worlds.' - (27:44)

We ask ourselves, are we closing our hearts to His guidance or do we open ourselves to it? Do we unfairly take our belief hostage at times by questioning our faith when life doesn’t go our way? Are we striving to ponder, hear and see this life as Allah describes it?

May Allah open our hearts to His guidance, may our hearts never be closed to it.

Ameen. If my reflections are encouraging others to reflect too then I’m glad. Alhamdulillah, it’s a pleasure to hear from others alongside how what reflections they’ve taken from the Qur’an.