Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:252
These are the verses of Allah which We recite to you, [O Muhammad], in truth. And indeed, you are from among the messengers.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the words of the Exalted: تِلْكَ آيَاتُ اللَّهِ نَتْلُوهَا عَلَيْكَ بِالْحَقِّ وَإِنَّكَ لَمِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ (252)
(These are the signs of Allah, which We recite to you in truth, and indeed, you are among the messengers.) (252)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, means by His word "These are the signs of Allah" (tilka āyātu llāh): these signs in which Allah has recounted the affair of those who left their dwellings — and they were in their thousands — out of fear of death, and the affair of the notables (al-malaʾ) among the Children of Israel after Mūsā, who asked their prophet to appoint over them Ṭālūt as king, and what follows thereafter of signs up to His word: وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى الْعَالَمِينَ (But Allah is full of bounty toward the worlds).
And He means by His word "signs of Allah" (āyāt Allah): His proofs, His signs, and His indications.
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Allah, whose mention is exalted, says: These proofs which I have proclaimed to you, O Muḥammad, and which I have made known to you — concerning My power to cause those who fled from death to die in a single instant while they were in their thousands, and then to bring them back to life thereafter; and the granting of authority over the Children of Israel to Ṭālūt after he had been a water-carrier or a tanner and did not belong to the house of kingship; and the taking of that away from him on account of his disobedience to My command; and the transferring of his kingship to Dāwūd on account of his obedience to Me; and My aid to the companions of Ṭālūt, despite their small number and their weak striking power, against Jālūt and his armies, despite their great number and their fierce force of violence — these are My proofs against whoever denies My favor, contradicts My command, and does not believe in My messenger, namely the people of the two Books, the Torah and the Gospel, who possess knowledge of the hidden reports that I have recounted to you, of which they know that they are from Me.
You did not fabricate them and did not compose them from yourself, O Muḥammad, for you are unlettered (ummī) and do not belong to those who have read the scriptures — such that your affair would confuse them and they could claim that you had read that and had therefore learned it from some of their books. Rather, they are My proofs against them, which I recite to you, O Muḥammad, in the certain truth as it really was, without any addition therein, without distortion, and without anything of it being altered from how it was.
"And indeed, you" O Muḥammad "are among the messengers" (wa-innaka la-mina l-mursalīn) — He says: You are truly a messenger who is followed in obedience to Me and in preferring My good pleasure over your own desire. You tread therein, in your affair, the path of those who came before you among My messengers, who persevered in My command and preferred My good pleasure over their own desire, and who were not changed by desires and by craving for the worldly, as Ṭālūt was changed by his desire and his preferring of his kingship over what is with Me for the people of My protection. But you prefer My command, as the messengers who came before you preferred it.
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