2. Al-Baqara

And mention When his Lord said to him ‘Submit’ obey God and devote your religion purely to Him he said ‘I have submitted to the Lord of the Worlds’.

And Abraham enjoined wassā; may also be read awsā upon his sons this creed and so did Jacob upon his sons saying ‘My sons God has chosen for you the true religion the religion of submission to God islām see that you die not save in submission he forbade them from abandoning this submission to God and enjoined them to adhere firmly to it until death overtook them.

When the Jews said to the Prophet s ‘Do you not know that on the day of his death Jacob charged his sons with Judaism?’ the following was revealed Or were you witnesses present when death came to Jacob? When idh ‘when’ substitutes for the preceding idh he said to his sons ‘What will you worship after me?’ after I die?; They said ‘We will worship your God and the God of your fathers Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac in recognition of the predominant mention of the father figures Ishmael is also counted as a father and also because the status of an uncle is akin to that of a father One God ilāhan wāhidan ‘One God’ substitutes for ilāhaka ‘your God’ to Him we submit’ the initial am of the phrase am kuntum ‘Or were you …’ is similar to the hamza of denial sc. a-kuntum the sense being ‘You were not present at his death so how do you ascribe to him what does not befit him?’.

That tilka is the subject of this sentence and denotes Abraham Jacob and his sons and is feminine because it agrees with the gender of its predicate is a community that has passed away has gone before; theirs is what they have earned the reward for their deeds lahā mā kasabat theirs is what they have earned’ constitutes the commencement of a new sentence and yours the Jews are being addressed here is what you have earned; you shall not be asked about what they did in the same way that they will not be asked about what you did this latter statement being an affirmation of the former.

And they say ‘Be Jews or Christians the particle aw is for detail; the first of these is the saying of the Medinan Jews while the second is that of the Christians of Najrān and you shall be guided’. Say to them ‘Nay we follow rather the creed of Abraham a hanīf hanīfan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to Ibrāhīma that is to say one that inclines away from all other religions to the upright religion; and he was not of the idolaters’.

And if they the Jews and the Christians believe in the like mithl ‘the like’ is extra of what you believe in then they are truly guided; but if they turn away from belief in it then they are clearly in schism in opposition to you; God will suffice you O Muhammad (s) against them and their schisms; He is the Hearer of their sayings the Knower of their circumstances God sufficed him with regard to them by killing Qurayza expelling Nadīr and exacting the jizya from them.

The mark of God sibghata’Llāhi a verbal noun reaffirming the earlier āmannā and it is in the accusative because of the verbal construction implied that is to say sabaghanā’Llāhu ‘God has marked us’ this denotes His religion the one towards which He made human beings naturally inclined as it leaves its mark on a person in the same way that a dye leaves its mark on a garment; and who has that is none has a better mark sibghatan ‘marking’ is for specification than God? And Him we worship the Jews said to the Muslims ‘We are the people of the first Book and our direction of prayer qibla is more ancient and prophets were never sent from among the Arabs; if Muhammad were a prophet he would have been one of us’. Thus the following was revealed

Say to them ‘Would you then dispute with us concerning God that He chose a prophet from among the Arabs and He is our Lord and your Lord? and so it is for Him to choose whom He will Our deeds belong to us for which we will be requited and to you belong your deeds for which you will be requited so that it is not improbable that among our deeds there will be those for which we will deserve to be honoured; and to Him we are sincerely devoted in religion and in deed unlike you hence we are more worthy to be chosen the hamza of a-tuhājjūnanā ‘would you then dispute’ is for rejection and the three clauses that follow it are all circumstantial qualifiers.

Or nay do you say taqūlūna also read yaqūlūna ‘do they say?’ ‘Abraham Ishmael Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes — they were Jews or they were Christians?’ Say to them ‘Have you then greater knowledge or has God? that is God has greater knowledge; He dissociated Abraham from both groups when He said Abraham was not a Jew nor a Christian Q. 367; and those mentioned with him Abraham are his followers in not belonging to either group. And who does greater injustice than he who conceals hides from people a testimony he has received from God? that is there is none more unjust than him these are the Jews for they concealed God’s testimony about Abraham’s pure faith in the Torah; And God is not heedless of what you do’ this is a threat for them.