Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:20
So if they argue with you, say, "I have submitted myself to Allah [in Islam], and [so have] those who follow me." And say to those who were given the Scripture and [to] the unlearned, "Have you submitted yourselves?" And if they submit [in Islam], they are rightly guided; but if they turn away - then upon you is only the [duty of] notification. And Allah is Seeing of [His] servants.
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: فَإِنْ حَاجُّوكَ فَقُلْ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّهِ وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِ ("And if they dispute with you, then say: I have submitted my face to Allah, and so has whoever follows me") (3:20).
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He, exalted is His praise, means: And if they dispute with you, O Muḥammad — the group of Christians among the People of Najrān concerning the matter of ʿĪsā, the blessings of Allah be upon him — and they contend with you about that with falsehood, then say: I have submitted myself to Allah alone, with my tongue, my heart, and all my limbs. He, exalted is His mention, specifically designated in His command that he should say: "I have submitted my face to Allah," because the face is the most honored of the limbs of the son of Adam to him; in it lies his splendor and his eminence. So when he humbles his face before something, then that which is lower in honor to him than the face — namely the rest of the limbs of his body — has already humbled itself before that thing.
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As for His word: "and whoever follows me" — it means: and also whoever follows me has, together with me, submitted his face to Allah. The word "whoever" (man) is here, in the sentence structure, coupled to the "tāʾ" (the ending of the first person) in "I have submitted" (aslamtu), as in:
6773 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: "and if they dispute with you" — that is to say: with the falsehood that they put before you, with their statements: "we have created, we have done, we have made, we have commanded" — these are merely false sophistries, while they already know the truth that lies therein — "then say: I have submitted my face to Allah, and so has whoever follows me."
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The explanation of His word: وَقُلْ لِلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ وَالأُمِّيِّينَ أَأَسْلَمْتُمْ فَإِنْ أَسْلَمُوا فَقَدِ اهْتَدَوْا ("And say to those who have been given the Book and to the unlettered ones: Have you submitted? And if they submit, then they are indeed rightly guided") (3:20).
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He, exalted is His praise, means: "and say," O Muḥammad, "to those who have been given the Book" — among the Jews and the Christians — "and the unlettered ones" — those who have no Book, among the polytheists (mushrikīn) among the Arabs — "have you submitted?" — He says: say to them: have you set apart the acknowledgment of the Oneness and devoted your worship and divine veneration sincerely to the Lord of the worlds, to the exclusion of all the other associate-gods and partners that you ascribe to Him in your worship of them and in your acknowledgment of their lordship, while you know that there is no lord besides Him and no god except He? — "and if they submit" — He says: and if they submit to setting apart the oneness for Allah and sincerely devoting worship and divine veneration to Him — "then they are indeed rightly guided" — that is to say: then they have found the path of truth and have walked the way of right guidance.
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If someone were to ask: how is it said "and if they submit, then they are indeed rightly guided" immediately after a question? Is it, according to this, permissible in speech to say to a man: "do you stand up? and if you stand up, I will honor you"?
Then it is answered: that is permissible when by the statement a command is intended, even though it appears in the form of a question, as He, exalted is His praise, said: وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَنْ ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَعَنِ الصَّلاةِ فَهَلْ أَنْتُمْ مُنْتَهُونَ ("and he keeps you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer; will you then desist?") [Sūrat al-Māʾida: 91], that is to say: desist; and as He, exalted is His praise, said, reporting about the disciples, that they said to ʿĪsā: يَا عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ هَلْ يَسْتَطِيعُ رَبُّكَ أَنْ يُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا مَائِدَةً مِنَ السَّمَاءِ ("O ʿĪsā, son of Maryam, can your Lord send down upon us a table from heaven?") [Sūrat al-Māʾida: 112], while it is merely a request, as the man says: "are you one who refrains from us?", in the meaning of: refrain from us; and as the man says to the man: "where, where?", in the meaning of: stand still and do not move away. And for this reason, in the question form a conditional answer is given just as it is given in the command form, in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh: ( هَلْ أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَى تِجَارَةٍ تُنْجِيكُمْ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ آمِنُوا ) ("shall I direct you to a commerce that will save you from a painful punishment? Believe!") [Sūrat al-Ṣaff: 10, 11], whereby he explained it with the command, while in our reading it stands in the reporting form. The conditional answer in our reading is grounded on His word "shall I direct you," and in the reading of ʿAbd Allāh on His word "believe," in the command form, because that is the explanation.
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In accordance with the meaning that we have stated concerning this, some of the scholars of exegesis have spoken:
6774 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr: "and say to those who have been given the Book and the unlettered ones" — those who have no Book — "have you submitted? and if they submit, then they are indeed rightly guided," the entire āya.
6775 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said: "and say to those who have been given the Book and the unlettered ones," he said: the unlettered ones are those who do not write.
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The explanation of His word: وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا عَلَيْكَ الْبَلاغُ وَاللَّهُ بَصِيرٌ بِالْعِبَادِ ("And if they turn away, then upon you rests only the conveying, and Allah is All-Seeing of the servants") (3:20).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by His word "and if they turn away": and if they turn away in aversion from that to which you invite them — Islam and sincerely devoting the oneness to Allah, the Lord of the worlds — then you are merely a messenger who conveys, and upon you rests nothing other than the conveying of the message to the one to whom I have sent you among My creatures, and the fulfilling of that with which I have charged you in obedience to Me — "and Allah is All-Seeing of the servants" — by this He means: and Allah possesses knowledge of which of His servants accepts that with which I have sent you to him and thus obeys you through Islam, and of which of them turns away in aversion from him and rejects that with which I have sent you to him, and thus disobeys you through his refusal of Islam.
