3. Aal-i-Imraan

O People of the Scripture! Why do you confound why do you mix truth with falsehood by distorting and falsifying scripture and conceal the truth the descriptions of the Prophet while you know? that it is the truth?

A party of the People of the Scripture the Jews say to some among them ‘Believe in what has been revealed to those who believe that is the Qur’ān at the beginning of the day and disbelieve in it at the end of it so that they the believers might then turn back from his Muhammad’s religion and that they the believers will then say these Jews are knowledgeable and they could only have turned away from it after accepting it because they know it to be false.

And they also said And do not believe except in one who the lām of li-man ‘in one who’ is extra follows accords with your religion’. God exalted be He says Say to them O Muhammad (s) ‘True guidance is God’s guidance that is Islam everything else being error this statement is parenthetical — that an and what follows is the direct object of the verb wa-lā tu’minū ‘do not believe’ anyone should be given the like of what you have been given of the Book wisdom and of the virtues the term ahad ‘anyone’ from whom the exclusion is being made precedes that which is being excluded ‘the like of what you have been given’ the meaning being ‘Do not affirm that anyone should be given this unless they follow your religion’; or that they the believers should dispute with you that they should prevail over you before your Lord’ on the Day of Resurrection for you have the sounder religion a variant reading has a-an ‘such that’ the extra hamza denoting rebuke in other words the Jews say do not believe that another has been given the like of it such that you might affirm it. God exalted be He says Say ‘Surely bounty is in God’s Hand; He gives it to whomever He will so how can you say that no one else will be given what you have been given? God is Embracing of ample bounty Knowing those who deserve it.

And of the People of the Scripture is he who if you trust him with a hundredweight that is with much money he will return it to you on account of his trustworthiness the like of ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām to whom a man entrusted 1200 plates of gold which he then returned to him; and of them is he who if you trust him with one dinar will not return it to you on account of his treachery; unless you keep standing over him not leaving him for one minute for as soon as you leave him he will deny it as was the case with Ka‘b b. al-Ashraf to whom a man from Quraysh entrusted a dinar and later denied it. That refusal to return things is because they say ‘We have no duty towards namely no possibility of acquiring sin because of the Gentiles’ the Arabs; for they considered it lawful to be unjust towards any person of a different religion and they attributed the source of this conviction to God exalted be He. God exalted be He says They speak falsehood against God by attributing such things to Him while they are aware that they are liars.

Nay there is a duty incumbent over them in this regard; but whoever fulfils his covenant the one he has made or the covenant of God by restoring a trust and other such things and has fear of God by refraining from disobedience and performing deeds of obedience for truly God loves the God-fearing ‘He loves them’ means that He will reward them the overt noun al-muttaqīn ‘the God-fearing’ has replaced the third person pronominalisation.

The following was revealed with regard to the Jews when they distorted the descriptions of the Prophet s and God’s covenant with them in the Torah and God’s covenant with them regarding one that swears an oath to a falsehood when bearing witness or when selling merchandise Those that sell exchange God’s covenant with them that they believe in the Prophet and return faithfully what has been entrusted to them and their own oaths their invoking God’s name in mendacity for a small price of this world there shall be no share no lot for them in the Hereafter; and God shall not speak to them out of wrath against them nor look upon them nor have mercy upon them on the Day of Resurrection nor will He purify them cleanse them and theirs will be a painful chastisement.

And there is a group a party of them the People of the Scripture like Ka‘b b. al-Ashraf who twist their tongues with the Book altering it by reciting it not according to the way in which it was revealed but according to the way in which they have distorted it as in the case of the descriptions of the Prophet s and other similar matters; so that you may suppose it such distortion as part of the Book that God revealed; yet it is not part of the Book; and they say ‘It is from God’ yet it is not from God and they speak falsehood against God while they know that they are liars.

When the Christians of Najrān claimed that Jesus had commanded them to take him as a Divinity and some Muslims asked that they should be permitted to prostrate themselves before him the Prophet s the following was revealed It belongs not to any mortal that God should give him the Book the Judgement the understanding of the Divine Law prophethood then that he should say to men ‘Be servants to me instead of God.’ Rather he should say ‘Be masters scholars labouring rabbāniyyūn ‘those of the Lord’ is derived from rabb ‘lord’ with the extra alif and nūn as a superlative of rabbiyyūn by virtue of what you know ta‘lamūn also read as tu‘allimūn ‘you teach’ of the Book and in what you study’ that is on account of the fact that you used to do this for its benefit is that you engage in action.

He would never order you read lā ya’murukum to denote a new clause meaning ‘God would not order you’; or if read lā ya’murakum it would be a supplement to yaqūla ‘he should say’ meaning ‘it belongs not that… a mortal should order you’; to take the angels and the prophets as lords in the way that the Sabaeans have taken the angels the Jews Ezra and the Christians Jesus. Would He order you to disbelieve after you have submitted? He would not do this.