Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:111
They will not harm you except for [some] annoyance. And if they fight you, they will show you their backs; then they will not be aided.
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: وَلَوْ آمَنَ أَهْلُ الْكِتَابِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُمْ مِنْهُمُ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ (110) (And if the People of the Book had believed, it would have been better for them; among them are believers, but most of them are transgressors.) (110)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He — exalted be His remembrance — means the following: if the people of the Torah and the Gospel, of the Jews and the Christians, were to hold the Prophet ﷺ and that which he had brought them from Allah to be true, then that would be better for them with Allah, both in the near affairs of their world and in the future affairs of their Hereafter = "among them are believers," that is to say: among the People of the Book, of the Jews and the Christians, there are believers who hold the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to be true in that which he had brought them from Allah. And they are: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām and his brother, and Thaʿlaba ibn Saʿya and his brother, and their like among those of them who believed in Allah, held His Messenger Muḥammad ﷺ to be true, and followed that which he had brought them from Allah = "and most of them are transgressors (fāsiqūn)," that is to say: those who have departed from their religion. And that is because it belongs to the religion of the Jews to follow that which is in the Torah and to hold the Prophet ﷺ to be true, and it belongs to the religion of the Christians to follow that which is in the Gospel, and to hold that to be true, as well as that which is in the Torah. And in both Books is the description of the Prophet ﷺ, his characteristics, and his mission, and that he is the prophet of Allah. And both groups — I mean the Jews and the Christians — deny this, and that is their transgression (fisq) and their departure from their religion which they claim to profess. That is what He — exalted be His praise — has said: "and most of them are transgressors."
* * *
And Qatāda said, according to that which has been transmitted:
7625 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "among them are believers, but most of them are transgressors" — Allah has censured most people.