Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:184
Then if they deny you, [O Muhammad] - so were messengers denied before you, who brought clear proofs and written ordinances and the enlightening Scripture.
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 statement concerning the explanation of His word, exalted is His praise: فَإِنْ كَذَّبُوكَ فَقَدْ كُذِّبَ رُسُلٌ مِنْ قَبْلِكَ جَاءُوا بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ وَالزُّبُرِ وَالْكِتَابِ الْمُنِيرِ (184) (So if they deny you, then messengers before you were indeed denied, who came with the clear proofs and the scriptures and the illuminating Book (184)).
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is a consolation from Allah, exalted is His praise, to His Prophet Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning the harm that befell him from the side of the Jews and the people who ascribe partners to Allah (shirk) among the rest of the adherents of the various religious communities. Allah, exalted is He, says to him: let not the lie of these who said: إِنَّ اللَّهَ فَقِيرٌ ("Indeed, Allah is poor"), and who said: إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَهِدَ إِلَيْنَا أَلا نُؤْمِنَ لِرَسُولٍ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَنَا بِقُرْبَانٍ تَأْكُلُهُ النَّارُ ("Indeed, Allah has charged us not to believe in any messenger until he brings us an offering which the fire consumes"), grieve you, O Muḥammad, nor their fabrication against their Lord out of conceit on account of Allah's reprieve granted to them; and let not their denial of you weigh heavily upon you, nor their assertion of falsehoods concerning the covenants of Allah with them; for if they do that with you and deny you and lie against Allah, then their forefathers had indeed denied the messengers of Allah before you, those who came to them with the arguments that cut off all excuse, and the proofs that dumbfound the intellect, and the signs that render creation powerless—and those are the clear proofs (al-bayyināt).
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As for "the scriptures (al-zubur)," it is the plural of "zabūr," and that is the book; every book is a "zabūr." To this belongs the word of Imruʾ al-Qays:
Whose is the ruin that I beheld, so that it grieved me?
like the writing of a zabūr upon a palm-branch from Yemen. (17)
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And by "the Book" He means the Torah and the Gospel. That is because the Jews denied ʿĪsā and what he brought, and they distorted what Mūsā, peace be upon him, brought concerning the description of Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and they altered His covenant with them concerning that; and the Christians denied what is in the Gospel concerning his description, and they changed what He commanded them concerning his affair.
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As for His word: "the illuminating (al-munīr)," by it He means: that which illuminates and thereby makes clear the truth for whom it had become obscure, and renders it plain.
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It is only derived from "the light (al-nūr)" and illuminating; one says: "this matter has become illuminated for you (qad anāra laka hādhā al-amr)," meaning: it has become clarified and made plain for you, "and it illuminates, an illuminating, and the thing is illuminating (munīr)," and indeed:-
8312 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Zuhayr related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: "So if they deny you, then messengers before you were indeed denied," he said: He consoles His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
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8313 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His word: "So if they deny you, then messengers before you were indeed denied," he said: He consoles His Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
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This word stands in the Qurʾānic codices (maṣāḥif) of the people of the Ḥijāz and Iraq as: "وَالزُّبُرِ" without "bāʾ," and it stands in the Qurʾānic codices of the people of Syria (al-Shām) as: "وبالزُّبُرِ" with the "bāʾ," like that which is in "sūrat Fāṭir" [35].
