3. Aal-i-Imraan

Those who disbelieve in the signs of God and slay (yaqtulūna, is also read as yuqātilūna, ‘they fight against’) the prophets without right, and slay those who enjoin to equity, to justice, and these are the Jews, who are reported to have killed forty–three prophets and to have been forbidden this by a hundred and seventy devout worshippers among them, each of whom was killed immediately. So give them good tidings, let them know, of a painful chastisement. The use of ‘good tidings’ here is meant as a sarcastic ridicule of them (the fā’ [of fa-bashshirhum, so give them good tidings] is considered part of the predicate of inna because its noun, that is, its relative clause, resembles a conditional [sc. in yakfurūna, ‘if they disbelieve…’, fa-bashshirhum, ‘then, give them good tidings…’]).

Those are the ones whose works, what good they did in the way of charity and kindness to kin, have failed, [whose works] are invalid, in this world and the Hereafter, and so they have nothing to reckon with, since these [works] are of no consequence; they have no helpers, [no] protectors from the chastisement.

Have you not seen those who were given a portion, a share, of the Book, the Torah, being called to the Book of God (yud‘awna, ‘being called’, is a circumstantial qualifier), that it might decide between them, and then a party of them turned away, opposed? to the acceptance of its rulings. This was revealed concerning the Jews: two of them fornicated and they [the Jews] asked the Prophet (s) to adjudicate the case. He ruled that they be stoned, but they [the Jews] refused to do so. When the Torah was brought and consulted, the same verdict was found, and so the two were stoned, but they [the Jews] became wrathful.

That, turning away and rejection was, because they said, ‘the Fire shall not touch us, except for a number of days’, that is, for forty days [only], the length of time their forefathers worshipped the calf, after which it would end; and the lies they used to invent, in their saying this, have deluded them in their religion (wa-gharrahum fī dīnihim, ‘it has deluded them in their religion’, is semantically connected to mā kānū yaftarūna, ‘the lies which they used to invent’).

When the Prophet (s) promised his community sovereignty over the lands of Persia and Byzantium, the hypocrites said, ‘How preposterous!’, and so the following was revealed, Say: ‘O God, Master of the Kingdom, you give the Kingdom to whom You will, from among your creatures, and seize the Kingdom from whom You will; You exalt whom You will, by giving it [the kingdom] to him, and You abase whom You will, by seizing it from him; in Your hand, in Your power, is good, that is, as well as evil. You are Able to do all things.

You make the night to pass, to enter, into the day and You make the day to pass, to enter, into the night, each of them increasing by the amount by which the other decreases; You bring forth the living from the dead, such as humans and birds, from sperm-drops and eggs [respectively]; and You bring forth the dead, the sperm-drop and the egg, from the living, and You provide, with abundant provision, whom You will without reckoning’.

Let not the believers take the disbelievers as patrons, rather than, that is, instead of, the believers — for whoever does that, that is, [whoever] takes them as patrons, does not belong to, the religion of, God in anyway — unless you protect yourselves against them, as a safeguard (tuqātan, ‘as a safeguard’, is the verbal noun from taqiyyatan), that is to say, [unless] you fear something, in which case you may show patronage to them through words, but not in your hearts: this was before the hegemony of Islam and [the dispensation] applies to any individual residing in a land with no say in it. God warns you, He instills fear in you, of His Self, [warning] that He may be wrathful with you if you take them as patrons; and to God is the journey’s end, the return, and He will requite you.

Say, to them: ‘Whether you hide what is in your breasts, in your hearts, of patronage to them, or disclose it, manifest it, God knows it and, He, knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth; and God is Able to do all things, and this includes punishing those who patronise them.

And remember, the day every soul shall find what it has done of good present before it, and what it has done of evil (the [last statement constitutes the] subject, the predicate of which is [what follows]), it will wish that between it and that there were a great distance, an extremely lengthy distance so that it [the evil] could never reach it. God warns you of His Self (this is repeated for emphasis), and God is Kind to His servants.