Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:19
Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam. And those who were given the Scripture did not differ except after knowledge had come to them - out of jealous animosity between themselves. And whoever disbelieves in the verses of Allah, then indeed, Allah is swift in [taking] account.
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 His word: إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ الإِسْلامُ ("Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam") (3:19)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of "al-dīn" (the religion) in this place is: obedience and submission. This is derived from the word of the poet:
"And the day of al-Ḥazn, when Maʿadd gathered themselves, and the people — except us — were in submission (dīnā)."
By this he means: those subjected in the manner of humiliation. To this also belongs the word of al-Qaṭāmī:
"Nawār used to bring you into submission (tadīnuka al-adyāna)."
He means: she humiliated you. And the word of al-Aʿshā Maymūn ibn Qays:
"He subjected (dāna) the Ribāb when they were averse to submission (al-dīn), time after time, by raid and assault."
By his word "dāna" he means: he humiliated — and by his word "they were averse to al-dīn" (the religion): obedience.
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And likewise "al-islām": that is surrender through submission and humility. Its verb is "aslama," in the meaning of: he entered into peace (al-silm), as one says: "aqḥaṭa al-qawm" (the people fell into drought) when they have entered into drought, and "arbaʿū" when they have entered into spring. Likewise "aslamū" when they have entered into peace (al-silm) — that is submission through humility and the abandonment of resistance.
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Since that is so, the explanation of His word "Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam" is: that the obedience which with Him is the real obedience is obedience to Him, and acknowledgement with the tongues and the hearts of servitude and submission to Him, and their submission to Him in obedience in what He commanded and forbade, and their humbling themselves before Him thereby, without arrogance toward Him and without deviation from Him, without associating any other of His creatures with Him in servitude and divinity.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, a group of the people of exegesis have spoken.
Mention of who said that:
6763 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word "Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam": and Islam is the testimony that there is no god but Allah, and the acknowledgement of that with which he (the Prophet ﷺ) came from Allah. And that is the religion of Allah which He has prescribed for Himself, with which He sent His messengers and to which He guided His close friends; He accepts no other religion and He rewards only for it.
6764 — 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, he said: Abū al-ʿĀliya related to us concerning His word "Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam": he said: "Al-islām" is sincere devotion (ikhlāṣ) to Allah alone, and worshipping Him without associating any partner with Him, and the performance of the ritual prayer (ṣalāh) and the giving of the obligatory alms (zakāh); and all the remaining obligatory duties are subordinate to this.
6765 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word أَسْلَمْنَا ("We have surrendered") (sūra al-Ḥujurāt: 14), he said: we have entered into peace (al-silm) and we have left off war.
6766 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: "Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam," that is to say: that upon which you stand, O Muḥammad, of professing the oneness of the Lord and holding the messengers to be true.
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The explanation of His word: وَمَا اخْتَلَفَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ إِلا مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا جَاءَهُمُ الْعِلْمُ بَغْيًا بَيْنَهُمْ ("And those who were given the Book did not become divided among themselves except after the knowledge had come to them, out of mutual envy")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by this: and those who were given the Gospel (Injīl) — and that is "the Book" which Allah has mentioned in this verse — became divided concerning the matter of ʿĪsā, and they fabricated lies against Allah with the statements they made about him, whereby their mutual division grew great, their unity fell apart and they fought one another; to the point that some of them thereby held the blood of others to be permissible — "only after the knowledge had come to them, out of mutual envy," that is to say: only after they knew the truth in that over which they were divided in his matter, and were certain that they, in what they claimed of great fabrications, were in error. Thus Allah informed His servants that they did that which they perpetrated of falsehood, and the statement that constitutes disbelief (kufr) in Allah, while they knew that what they said was untrue, and that they did not say it out of ignorance of its falsehood, but that they said it and became divided over it in the manner in which they are divided, out of the transgression of one against another, and out of the pursuit of leadership, kingship and dominion, as in:
6767 — 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 concerning His word "And those who were given the Book did not become divided among themselves except after the knowledge had come to them, out of mutual envy," he said: Abū al-ʿĀliya said: only after the Book and the knowledge had come to them — "out of mutual envy," he says: out of envy over the world and the pursuit of its kingship and its dominion, so that they killed one another for the sake of the world, after they had been the scholars among the people.
6768 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar: that he used to recite this verse frequently: "Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam, and those who were given the Book did not become divided among themselves except after the knowledge had come to them, out of mutual envy," he says: out of envy over the world and the pursuit of its kingship and its dominion. On account of it, by Allah, there befell us what befell us! It would not have harmed us whoever was set over us, so long as he applied among us the Book of Allah and the sunna of His Prophet; but on account of it there befell us what befell us.
6769 — 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, he said: When death drew near to Mūsā, he summoned seventy rabbis of the rabbis of the Banū Isrāʾīl, and he entrusted to them the Torah and appointed them as its guardians, each rabbi a portion of it. And Mūsā appointed Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn as successor. When the first generation had passed away, and the second had passed away, and the third had passed away, division arose among them — and they were those to whom the knowledge had been given, the sons of those seventy — until they shed one another's blood among themselves, and evil and division entered in. And all of that came about on account of those to whom the knowledge had been given, out of mutual envy over the world, out of the pursuit of its dominion, its kingship, its treasuries and its adornment. Thereupon Allah gave their tyrants mastery over them. Thus Allah said: إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ الإِسْلامُ ("Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam"), up to His word: وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ ("and Allah is All-Seeing of the servants").
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This statement of al-Rabīʿ ibn Anas indicates that it was established with him that by His word "And those who were given the Book became divided" the Jews of the Banū Isrāʾīl are meant, and not the Christians among them, nor others.
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Another than he, however, directed that to the meaning that by it the Christians are meant, to whom the Gospel (Injīl) was given.
Mention of who said that:
6770 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: "And those who were given the Book did not become divided among themselves except after the knowledge had come to them" which has come to you, that is to say: that Allah is the One who has no partner — "out of mutual envy," by this he means the Christians.
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The explanation of His word: وَمَنْ يَكْفُرْ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ ("And whoever disbelieves in the signs of Allah — then indeed, Allah is swift in the reckoning") (3:19)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means: and whoever denies the proofs of Allah and His signs which He has set up as an admonition for whoever has understanding and as indications for whoever takes a lesson and lets himself be admonished — indeed, Allah scrupulously keeps account against him of the deeds which he used to perform in the world, and will requite him for them in the hereafter, for He, exalted is His praise, is "swift in the reckoning," that is to say: swift in the tallying. The meaning of that is only that He preserves against every acting person his deed; He has no need to count on the fingers as His creatures count upon their palms, or to commit to memory with their hearts; rather, He preserves that against them without difficulty, without effort and without the burden that another encounters in reckoning.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning the meaning of "swift in the reckoning," Mujāhid used to say:
6771 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning the word of Allah, Mighty and Exalted is He: "And whoever disbelieves in the signs of Allah — then indeed, Allah is swift in the reckoning," he said: His tallying of them against them.
6772 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "And whoever disbelieves in the signs of Allah — then indeed, Allah is swift in the reckoning": His tallying of them.