Appearance
Verses 98–101
The verses as is evident from thematic continuity, indicate that the People of the Book (a group of them—that is, the Jews—or a group of the Jews) disbelieved in the Divine Revelation, and hindered the believers from the way of God by trying to show that it was a crooked and unright way, and presenting to them the actually crooked misleading way as the way of God. They did so by creating doubts in the believers’ minds, in order that the believers would see the truth as falsehood and the falsehood (to which they invited them) as truth. The preceding verses had pointed to the Jews’ deviations, for example, their denial of the fact that all food was lawful to them before the revelation of the Torah, and their rejection of the abrogation of the previous qiblah, that is, Bayt al-Maqdis.
These verses therefore put the finishing touches to the preceding ones which had described the lawfulness of all food before the Torah and declared that the Kaʿbah was the first House appointed for the men. Now these verses admonish the Jews because they were constantly trying to create doubts and mislead the believers; also the verses warn the believers against following the advice of those unbelievers, because if they listened to their call, they would themselves become unbelievers; then they exhort and encourage them to hold fast to God so that they would be guided to the path of true faith and their guidance would continue for ever.
It has been narrated by Zayd b. Aslam (as al-Suyūṭī has reportedly written in Lubāb al-nuqūl) as follows:
Shāsh b. Qays, a Jew, saw some people of the tribes of Aws and Khazraj engaged in (friendly) talk, and he was incensed by what he saw of their friendship and unity after their (hereditary) enmity. Therefore, he ordered a young Jew (who was with him) to sit with them and remind them of the Battle of Buʿāth. He did and they started boasting and quarrelling with each other. The argument continued until two men—Aws b. Quraẓī from the Aws and Jabbār b. Sakhr from the Khazraj—jumped up and abused each other; the two groups were enraged and stood against each other for fighting. The news reached the Messenger of God; he came and admonished them and established peace between them. They heeded his call and obeyed. Then God revealed about Aws and Jabbār: O you who believe! if you obey a party from among those who were given the Book …; and about Shāsh b. Qays: Say: O People of the Book! why do you hinder him who believes from the way of Allah?
This tradition is abridged from the one narrated (by al-Suyūṭī) in al-Durr al-manthūr in detailed form from Zayd b. Aslam; he has narrated nearly similar traditions from Ibn ʿAbbās and others.
However, these verses obviously fit more properly on the explanation given by us than on this tradition. Moreover, they speak about disbelief and belief, and also about testimony of the Jews, recitation of the revealed verses to the believers, and things like that; and all these matters are more relevant to the explanation given by us. It is also supported by the words of God: Many of the People of the Book wish that they could turn you back into unbelievers after your faith, out of envy on their part, (even) after the truth has become manifest to them (). Therefore, the fact is, as we have said, that these verses are a sort of prologue to the preceding ones.
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَاللَّهُ شَهِيدٌ عَلَىٰ مَا تَعْمَلُونَ ٩٨
(3:98) Say: O People of the Book! why do you disbelieve in the communications of Allah? and Allah is a witness of what you do.
The continuation of the context indicates that “the communications” refers to the lawfulness of food before the revelation of the Torah and to the Kaʿbah being the qiblah in Islam.
قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تَصُدُّونَ عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ مَنْ آمَنَ تَبْغُونَهَا عِوَجًا وَأَنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءُ ۗ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ٩٩
(3:99) Say: O People of the Book! why do you hinder him who believes from the way of Allah? You seek (to make) it crooked, while you are witnesses, and Allah is not heedless of what you do.
al-Ṣadd (to hinder; to divert); “you seek it,” that is, you want this way to be crooked; iwajan (crooked, perverted); it refers to the fact that they wanted the way of God to be deviated, not straight.
... while you are witnesses, and Allah is not heedless of what you do: You know very well that all food was lawful before the revelation of the Torah, and that one of the signs of the promised prophet was that he would change the qiblah to the Kaʿbah. The Jews have been counted as witnesses in this verse, while the preceding verse declared God to be a witness of their activities and disbelief. The implication of this fine juxtaposition cannot be lost on a man of literary taste. They are witnesses of the truth of what they deny; and God is a witness of their denial and disbelief. As “witnessing” was ascribe to them in this verse, the ending clause of the preceding verse (And Allah is a witness of what you do) was changed here to: “And God is not heedless of what you do”. The implication is that they are witnesses for the truth of the Prophet’s claim while God is a witness for everyone and everything.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِنْ تُطِيعُوا فَرِيقًا مِنَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ يَرُدُّوكُمْ بَعْدَ إِيمَانِكُمْ كَافِرِينَ ١٠٠ وَكَيْفَ تَكْفُرُونَ وَأَنْتُمْ تُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ وَفِيكُمْ رَسُولُهُ ۗ وَمَنْ يَعْتَصِمْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ هُدِيَ إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ١٠١
(3:100–101) O you who believe! if you obey a party from among those who were given the Book, they will turn you back as unbelievers after you have believed. But how can you disbelieve while it is you to whom the communications of Allah are recited, and among you is His Messenger? And whoever holds fast to Allah, he indeed is guided to the straight path.
As mentioned earlier, “A party,” refers to the Jews or a Jewish group. “while it is you to whom the communications of God are recited, and among you is His Messenger”: It is possible and easy for you to hold fast to the truth (which has been sent and explained to you) if you just listen to the verses recited to you and then meditate on them; then if you encounter any difficulty because of faulty meditation, you may to the Messenger of God for clarification; you may refer to the Messenger even before meditating on the verses to explain it to you: he is present among you, it is not difficult for you to approach him because he is neither hidden nor far away from you; you may easily find the reality by referring to him, then you may clear the doubts which the Jews try to create in your minds. To hold fast to the Messenger of God and the Divine Communications is to hold fast to God; “And whoever holds fast to God, he indeed is guided to the straight path.”
The disbelief, mentioned in the clause, “But how can you disbelieve” refers to disbelieving after believing; the clause, “while it is you to whom the communications of God are recited,” points to the possibility of holding fast to the communications of God and the Messenger of God in order to protect oneself from disbelief; the clause, “And whoever holds fast to God,” is a sort of the major premise of a syllogism, (the full form of which has been given above). The guidance to the straight path means being guided to the firmly-rooted true belief; it is the path that does not deviate nor does it fail to reach the destination; it keeps all those who proceed on it in proper line without letting them deviate hither or thither lest they go astray.
The Arabic word translated here as, “is guided,” is a past tense in passive voice; it implies that they have been guided without realizing who has guided them.
The verse () shows that the Book of God and the verbal and practical guidance given by the Messenger of God are sufficient to guide a man to every truth and reality in which he could possibly go astray.
Vide Tafsīr al-Manār, vol. 4, Commentary of this verse. (Auth.) ↩︎