2. Al-Baqara

And when it was said to them, ‘Believe in what God has revealed, that is, the Qur’ān and other [Books], they said, ‘We believe in what was revealed to us’, that is, the Torah; and (wā, here indicates a circumstantial qualifier) they disbelieve in what is beyond that, what is other than that or what came afterwards, such as the Qur’ān; yet it is the truth (wa-huwa’l-haqqu is a circumstantial qualifier) confirming (musaddiqan, a second circumstantial qualifier for emphasis) what is with them. Say, to them: ‘Why then were you slaying the prophets of God formerly, if you were believers?’ in the Torah and in it you were forbidden to kill them: this address, concerning what their forefathers did, is directed towards those present at the time of our Prophet, on account of their approval of it [that is, of what the forefathers had done].

And Moses came to you with clear proofs, miracles, such as the staff, his hand, and the parting of the sea; then you took to yourselves the calf, as a god, after him, after he had gone to the appointment, and you were evildoers, for taking it [in worship].

And when We made a covenant with you, to act according to what is in the Torah, and raised over you the Mount, to drop it on you, when you had refused to accept it; We said, ‘Take forcefully, seriously and with effort, what We have given you, and listen’, to what you have been commanded, and be prepared to accept it, They said, ‘We hear, your words, and disobey’, your command; and they were made to drink the calf in their hearts, that is to say, the love of it [the golden calf] intoxicated their hearts in the way that wine does, on account of their unbelief. Say, to them: ‘Evil is that, thing, which your belief, in the Torah, enjoins on you, [in the way of] the worship of the [golden] calf, if you are believers’, in it, as you claim; meaning, you are not believers, for faith does not command that you worship the calf — their forefathers are meant here. Likewise, you do not believe in the Torah, because you have denied [the prophethood of] Muhammad (s), whereas faith in it does not command you to reject him.

But they will never long for it, because of that which their own hands have sent before them, as a result of their rejection of the Prophet (s), the consequence of their mendacity. God knows the evildoers, the disbelievers and He will requite them.

And you shall find them (the lām of la-tajidannahum is for oaths) the people most covetous of life, and, more covetous of it than, the idolaters, who reject the [idea of the] Resurrection, for the former know that their journey’s end will be the Fire, while the idolaters do not believe even in this; any one of them would love, wishes, that he might be given life for a thousand years (law yu‘ammar, ‘[if only] he might be given life’: the particle law, ‘if only’, relates to the verbal noun and functions with the sense of an, ‘that’, and together with its relative clause explains the [implicit] verbal noun in the object of the verb yawaddu, ‘he would love’); yet, any one of them, his being given life (an yu‘ammara, ‘that he should be given life’, constitutes the subject of the verb muzahzihihi, ‘that it should budge him’ [this verb comes later], as though it were ta‘mīruhu, ‘the giving of life to him’) shall not budge, remove, him from the chastisement, of the Fire. God sees what they do (ya‘malūna may be alternatively read ta‘malūna, ‘you do’), and will requite them. [‘Abd Allāh] Ibn Sūryā asked the Prophet (s), or ‘Umar [b. al-Khattāb], about which angel brings down the revelation, and he replied that it was Gabriel; he [Ibn Sūryā] then said, ‘He is our enemy, because he brings chastisement with him; had it been Michael, we would have believed in him, because he brings fertility and security.’ Then, the following was revealed:

Say, to them: ‘Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel, let him die in exasperation — he it was that brought it, the Qur’ān, down upon your heart by the leave, by the command, of God, confirming what was before it, of scriptures, a guidance, from error, and good tidings, of Paradise, for the believers.

Whoever is an enemy to God and His angels and His messengers, and Gabriel (read Jibrīl or Jabrīl, Jibra’il or Jabra’il, Jibra’īl or Jabra’īl), and Michael (Mīkāl, also read Mīkā’īl, or Mīkā’il; a supplement to malā’ikatihi, ‘His angels’, an example of the specific being supplemented to the collective) — then surely God is an enemy to the disbelievers’ (He says ‘to the disbelievers’ instead of ‘to them’ in order to point out their status).

And We have revealed to you, O Muhammad (s), clear proofs, lucid [ones] (bayyinātin, ‘clear proofs’, is a circumstantial qualifier; this was in response to Ibn Sūryā saying to the Prophet (s), ‘You have not brought us anything’); and none disbelieves in them except the wicked, these have disbelieved in them.

Why, whenever they make a covenant, with God that they will believe in the Prophet (s) when he appears, or that they will not give assistance to the idolaters against the Prophet (s), does a party of them reject it?, cast it away repudiating it (this is the response to the clause beginning with kullamā, the interrogative of rebuke). Nay (bal indicates a transition), but most of them are disbelievers.