3. Aal-i-Imraan

Surely those who disbelieve, and die disbelieving, the whole earth full, the amount needed to fill it up, of gold shall not be accepted from any one of them (the fā’ [of fa-lan yuqbala, ‘it shall not be accepted’] has been included in the predicate of the inna clause, because the statement about alladhīna, ‘those [who disbelieve]’, resembles a conditional statement; and as a declaration of the reason for it [repentance] not being acceptable in the case of one who dies in unbelief) if he would ransom himself thereby; for them awaits a painful chastisement (alīm is [the same as] mu’lim, ‘painful’), and they shall have no helpers, to protect them from it.

When the Jews said to the Prophet, ‘You claim that you follow the creed of Abraham, but Abraham did not eat camel’s meat nor drink its milk’, the following was revealed: All food was lawful to the Children of Israel save what Israel, Jacob, forbade for himself, namely, camels: when he was afflicted with sciatica (‘irq al-nasā), he made a vow that if he were cured he would not eat of it again, and so it was forbidden him; before the Torah was revealed, which was after the time of Abraham, as it was not unlawful in his time, as they claimed. Say, to them: ‘Bring the Torah now, and recite it, so that the truth of what you say may become clear, if you are truthful’, in what you say; they were stupified and did not bring it [the Torah]. God, exalted be He, then said:

Whoever invents falsehood against God after that, that is, after the proof has become manifest that the prohibition was made by Jacob, and not during the time of Abraham, those are the evildoers, that transgress the truth into falsehood.

Say: ‘God has spoken the truth, in this matter, just as He has in all that He has related; therefore follow the creed of Abraham, the one which I follow, a hanīf, inclining away from all religions towards submission (islām), and he was not an idolater’.

When they said, ‘Our direction of prayer (qibla) came before yours’, the following was revealed: The first house, for worship, established for the people, on earth, was that at Bakka (a variant of Makka [Mecca], so called because it ‘crushes’ [tabukku] the necks of tyrants); it was built by the angels before the creation of Adam, and after it the Aqsā [in Jerusalem] was built, a period of forty years separating them, as reported in the hadīth of the two Sahīhs [sc. of al-Bukhārī and Muslim], and in the hadīth [that states]: ‘The first thing to appear on the surface of the water, at the creation of the heavens and the earth, was a white foam, underneath which the earth was unrolled’; a blessed place (mubārakan, a circumstantial qualifier referring to la’lladhī, ‘that’) meaning a place of blessings, and a guidance to all worlds, because it is their qibla.

Therein are clear signs, among which is, the station of Abraham, that is, the stone upon which he stood to build the House, and on which his footprints remain; and it [the House] has endured all this length of time and the constant passing of hands over it. Among these [signs] are the fact that the reward for good deeds is multiplied in it and that birds never fly over it; and whoever enters it is in security, not liable therein to be killed or oppressed or otherwise. It is the duty of people towards God to make the pilgrimage to the House (read either as hijj al-bayt or hajj al-bayt, as two variants of the verbal noun from hajj, meaning ‘the intention [to journey there]’), if he is able to make his way there (man istatā‘a ilayhi sabīlan substitutes for al-nās, ‘people’). The Prophet (s) explained this [ability] as having provisions and a ride, as reported by al-Hākim [al-Naysābūrī] and others. As for the one who disbelieves, in God or in what He has made obligatory with regard to the Pilgrimage, God is Independent of all worlds, the humans, the jinn and the angels, and [is Independent of] their devotions.

Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, why do you disbelieve in God’s verses, that is, the Qur’ān, when God is Witness of what you do?’, and will requite you for it?

Say: ‘O People of the Scripture, why do you bar believers, causing them to turn away, from God’s way, His religion, by denying the truth of the Prophet and concealing His graces, desiring to make it crooked (‘iwajan is the verbal noun, meaning mu‘awwajatan, ‘made crooked’), inclining away from the truth, while you yourselves are witnesses, [while] you know that the religion which is upright and pleasing [to God] is that of Islam, as stated in your Book? God is not heedless of what you do’, in the way of unbelief and mendacity; instead He gives you respite until your appointed time and then requites you.

The following was revealed when the Jews passed by the Aws and the Khazraj and were infuriated by their comradeship, and set about reminding them of their mutual hostility in the days before Islam, such that they caused them to quarrel and the two [tribes] were on the verge of fighting one another: O you who believe, if you obey a party of those who have been given the Scripture, they will turn you, after you have believed, into disbelievers.