Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:91
And when it is said to them, "Believe in what Allah has revealed," they say, "We believe [only] in what was revealed to us." And they disbelieve in what came after it, while it is the truth confirming that which is with them. Say, "Then why did you kill the prophets of Allah before, if you are [indeed] believers?"
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 saying of the Exalted: وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا نُؤْمِنُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْنَا
("And when it is said to them: 'Believe in what Allah has sent down,' they say: 'We believe in what was sent down to us.'")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words — exalted is His praise —: "And when it is said to them," He means: and when it is said to the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl — those who found themselves in the midst of the place to which the Messenger of Allah, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him, had emigrated —: "Believe," that is to say: hold to be true, "in what Allah has sent down," namely: in what Allah has sent down of Qurʾān upon Muḥammad, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him, "they say: 'We believe,'" that is to say: we hold to be true, "in what was sent down to us," by which they mean the Torah that Allah sent down upon Mūsā.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَيَكْفُرُونَ بِمَا وَرَاءَهُ
("And they reject what comes after it.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words — exalted is His praise —: "and they reject what comes after it," He means: and they deny, "what comes after it," namely: what comes after the Torah.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The explanation of "after it" (warāʾahu) in this place is "other than/besides" (siwā). Just as one says to a man who has spoken eloquently: "There is nothing beyond these words" — by which is meant: the speaker possesses nothing besides those words. So too is the meaning of His words: "and they reject what comes after it," that is to say: what falls outside the Torah, and what comes after it of the Books of Allah which He sent down to His messengers, as in:
1556 — Bishr related to me, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and they reject what comes after it," he says: what comes after it.
1557 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Ādam related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū l-ʿĀliya: "and they reject what comes after it," that is to say: what comes after it — namely: what comes after the Torah.
1558 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ: "and they reject what comes after it," he says: what comes after it.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَهُوَ الْحَقُّ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا مَعَهُمْ
("While it is the truth, confirming what they already possess.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words — exalted is His praise —: "while it is the truth, confirming," He means: that which is found outside the Book — that was sent down to them of the Books which Allah sent down to His prophets — is the truth. By this He means, exalted is His remembrance, precisely the Qurʾān which He sent down to Muḥammad, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him, as in:
1559 — Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ آمِنُوا بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا نُؤْمِنُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْنَا وَيَكْفُرُونَ بِمَا وَرَاءَهُ — and that is the Qurʾān. Allah, exalted is His praise, says: "while it is the truth, confirming what they already possess." He — exalted is His praise — said precisely "confirming what they already possess," because the Books of Allah mutually confirm one another. For in the Gospel and the Qurʾān there is the command to follow Muḥammad, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him, and to believe in him and in what he brought, equal to that which of it is found in the Torah of Mūsā, peace be upon him. Therefore He — exalted is His praise — said to the Jews, when He informed them about what was found outside their Book, which He had sent down upon Mūsā — Allah's blessings be upon him —, of the Books which He had sent down to His prophets: that it is the truth, confirming the Book which they already possess, that is to say: that it agrees with that which the Jews declare to be a lie.
He said: And that is a notice from Allah that, with respect to denying the Torah, they are in the same condition as they are in denying the Gospel and the Furqān (the Qurʾān), out of obstinacy toward Allah, out of opposition to His command, and out of rebelliousness toward His messengers — Allah's blessings be upon them.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: قُلْ فَلِمَ تَقْتُلُونَ أَنْبِيَاءَ اللَّهِ مِنْ قَبْلُ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُؤْمِنِينَ (91)
("Say: 'Why then did you formerly kill the prophets of Allah, if you are believers?'")
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His words — exalted is His remembrance —: "Say: 'Why do you kill the prophets of Allah,'" He means: say, O Muḥammad, to the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl — those who, when you say to them: "Believe in what Allah has sent down," say: "We believe in what was sent down to us" —: why do you kill — if you, O company of Jews, believe in what Allah has sent down to you — His prophets, while Allah in the Book which He sent down to you has forbidden the killing of them, indeed has therein commanded you precisely to follow them, to obey them, and to hold them to be true? And that is from Allah — exalted is His praise — a refutation of them in their saying: نُؤْمِنُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْنَا ("We believe in what was sent down to us"), and a reproach to them, as in:
1560 — Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, he said: Allah, exalted is His remembrance, said — while He reproaches them, namely the Jews —: "Why then did you formerly kill the prophets of Allah, if you are believers?"
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If someone were to say: How can it have been said to them: "Why then do you formerly kill the prophets of Allah," where the notice begins in the form of the future tense, and then it is reported that it has already passed?
Then the answer is: The scholars of the Arabic language differ concerning its explanation. Some scholars of Basra said: its meaning is: why did you formerly kill the prophets of Allah, just as He — exalted is His praise — said: وَاتَّبَعُوا مَا تَتْلُو الشَّيَاطِينُ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 102], that is to say: what they recited (in the past tense); and just as the poet said:
And indeed, I pass by the base man who reviles me, and I walked away from him and said: he does not mean me.
He means by his words "amurru" (I pass by): "I passed by" (marartu, in the past tense). And he adduced as proof that this is so his words: "and I walked away from him" (fa-maḍaytu, in the past tense), and he did not say: "fa-amḍī" (and I walk away, in the present tense). And he held that "faʿala" (the past tense) and "yafʿalu" (the present/future tense) can sometimes share one and the same meaning, and he cited as witness for that the words of the poet:
And indeed, I come to you in gratitude for what has passed of the matter, and to earn what will be tomorrow.
He means by it: what will be tomorrow. And also the words of al-Ḥuṭayʾa:
Al-Ḥuṭayʾa bears witness — on the day he meets his Lord — that al-Walīd has the greatest right to excuse.
He means: he bears witness (yashhadu, present tense, although expressed with shahida, past tense). And as another said:
For I do not reach a morning, nor did I reach an evening, but that I find myself among you in turmoil and torment.
He said "aḍḥā" (I reach the morning, present tense) and then said: "nor did I reach an evening" (amsaytu, past tense).
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And some grammarians of Kufa said: It was said precisely: "Why then do you formerly kill the prophets of Allah," where He addressed them with the future tense of the verb, while its meaning is the past tense — just as a man rebukes another man for something which the latter did in the past, and says to him: "Woe to you, why do you lie? And why do you make yourself hated by the people?" Just as the poet said:
When we declare our lineage, no contemptible woman has given birth to me, and you cannot but acknowledge this.
The conditional clause stands in the future tense, while the birth has entirely already passed. That is so because the meaning is known, and therefore that is permissible. He said: And a similar case in speech is: "When you consider the conduct of ʿUmar, you will not see him acting badly" — the meaning is: you will not have seen him acting badly (in the past). Since there is no doubt about the affair of ʿUmar that it is past, it did not occur to the mind that it would be the future tense. Therefore "formerly" (min qabl) is fitting with His words: "Why do you formerly kill the prophets of Allah." He said: And those who were addressed with "the killing" are not the murderers themselves; the prophets were in fact killed by their forefathers who have passed away, but they took them as their allies in that and consented to it, and therefore the killing was ascribed to them.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct view concerning that, in our opinion, is that Allah addressed those among the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl who lived in the time of the Messenger of Allah, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him — with that with which He addressed them in Surah Al-Baqarah and in other surahs — concerning the favors which He had in the past bestowed upon their forefathers, and concerning the ingratitude which their forefathers in the past displayed toward His graces, and concerning their committing of sins against Him, and their insolence toward Him and toward His prophets, and He ascribed that to those who were addressed with it — comparable to the saying of the Arabs among themselves: "We did such-and-such to you on such-and-such a day, and you did such-and-such to us on such-and-such a day" — in accordance with what we have set forth in more than one place in this book of ours —, by which they mean that our forefathers did that to your forefathers, and that our predecessors did that to your predecessors. So it is also in His words: "Why do you formerly kill the prophets of Allah," since it has come forth in the form of the notice about those who were addressed with it as a notice from Allah — exalted is His remembrance — about the deed of the predecessors among them — in accordance with what we have set forth —, it was permissible to say "formerly" (min qabl), since its meaning is: say: "Why did your forefathers formerly kill the prophets of Allah?" And it was known that His words: "Why do you formerly kill the prophets of Allah" are merely a notice about the deed of their forefathers.
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And the explanation of His words: "formerly" (min qabl), that is to say: before the day of today.
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As for His words: "if you are believers," by them He means: if you believe in what Allah has sent down to you, as you claim. By this He means precisely the Jews who lived in the time of the Messenger of Allah, Allah's blessing and peace be upon him, as well as their forefathers — if they and you, as you claim, O Jews, were believers. He — exalted is His praise — reproached them concerning the killing of His prophets by their predecessors, on account of their saying when it was said to them: آمِنُوا بِمَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُوا نُؤْمِنُ بِمَا أُنْزِلَ عَلَيْنَا ("Believe in what Allah has sent down — they say: We believe in what was sent down to us"), because they regarded their predecessors — who killed the prophets of Allah, despite their saying: "We believe in what was sent down to us" — as their allies and consented to their deed. So He said to them: if you, as you claim, believe in what was sent down to you, why then do you take the murderers of the prophets of Allah as allies? That is to say: you consent to their deeds.