Tafseer of The Family of Imraan · Aal-i-Imraan · 3:78
And indeed, there is among them a party who alter the Scripture with their tongues so you may think it is from the Scripture, but it is not from the Scripture. And they say, "This is from Allah," but it is not from Allah. And they speak untruth about Allah while they know.
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: "And indeed, among them is a group who twist their tongues with the Book, so that you would suppose it to be part of the Book, while it is not part of the Book; and they say, 'It is from Allah,' while it is not from Allah; and they speak the lie about Allah, while they know" (3:78).
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, exalted be His praise, means thereby: And indeed, among the People of the Book = and they are the Jews who in the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dwelt around his city, from the Children of Israel.
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And the "hāʾ and mīm" in His word "among them" refer back to the People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb) whom He mentioned in His word: "And among the People of the Book is he who, if you entrust him with a treasure (qinṭār), will return it to you" (3:75).
And His word = "a group (farīq)", means: a community = "who twist", means: who falsify = "their tongues with the Book, so that you would suppose it to be part of the Book", means: so that you would think that what they falsify with their speech is part of the Book of Allah and His revelation. Allah, mighty and exalted, says: But that which they twisted with their tongues and falsified and invented thereby is not part of the Book of Allah, and they claim that what they twisted with their tongues of falsification, lie and falsehood, and what they added thereto in the Book of Allah = comes "from Allah", that is to say: it belongs to what Allah sent down to His prophets = "while it is not from Allah", that is to say: that which they twisted with their tongues and invented does not belong to what Allah sent down to any of His prophets, but it belongs to what they themselves invented as a fabrication about Allah.
= Allah, mighty and exalted, says: "and they speak the lie about Allah, while they know", whereby it is meant: that they deliberately speak a lie about Allah, give false testimony against Him, and add to the Book of Allah what is not part of it, out of craving for leadership and for the worthless transient goods of this world.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning the meaning of "who twist their tongues with the Book", the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have spoken.
Mention of who said that:
7290 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "And indeed, among them is a group who twist their tongues with the Book", he said: they falsify it.
7291 - 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, the like of it.
7292 - Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "And indeed, among them is a group who twist their tongues with the Book", up to: "while they know", they are the enemies of Allah, the Jews; they falsified the Book of Allah, introduced innovations into it, and claimed that it is from Allah.
7293 - 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, the like of it.
7294 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his word: "And indeed, among them is a group who twist their tongues with the Book, so that you would suppose it to be part of the Book", and they are the Jews; they added to the Book of Allah what Allah had not sent down.
7295 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: "And indeed, among them is a group who twist their tongues with the Book", he said: a group of the People of the Book = "who twist their tongues", and that is their falsification of it, away from its proper place.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the root meaning of "al-layy" (the twisting) is the turning and the inverting. It comes from the saying of the speaker: "So-and-so twisted (lawā) the hand of so-and-so", when he turned it about and inverted it; and from that is the word of the poet:
"Allah, Who overcomes him, has twisted his hand."
One says of that: "He twisted his hand and his tongue, he twists, a twisting (layyan)" = "and no one twisted the back of so-and-so", when no one felled him and no man turned his back about = "and indeed, he is alwā, far advanced in perseverance", when he is fierce in disputation, persevering therein, and is not overcome in it; the poet said:
"If in Laylā there were any sharpness of dispute, I would have twisted the necks of the disputants, turning them about (al-malāwiyā)."
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Footnotes:
(1) See the explanation of "farīq" in what has gone before, 2:244, 245, then 402 / 3:549.
(2) In the printed edition it reads "li-kalāmihim" with the lām, and the manuscript was not read correctly.
(3) His word: "and that... from the Book of Allah": it is not... from the Book of Allah; this is the correct reading.
(4) He is Furʿān ibn al-Aʿraf al-Saʿdī al-Tamīmī, and it is said: Furʿān ibn Aṣbaḥ ibn al-Aʿraf.
(5) The Kitāb al-ʿAqaqa of Abū ʿUbayda (Nawādir al-Makhṭūṭāt: 7) p. 360; al-Ḥamāsa 3:10; Muʿjam al-Shuʿarāʾ: 317; al-ʿAynī in the margin of al-Khizāna 2:398; and al-Lisān (lawā); and it will come in full in the tafsīr 15:160 (Būlāq) and elsewhere. They are verses which Furʿān ibn al-Aʿraf says about his son Manāzil, who was disobedient to his father and struck him, because the latter married a young woman over his mother, whereupon he became enraged on behalf of his mother; then he drove off his father's property and secluded himself with his mother, and he said about him:
"May the kinship between me and Manāzil be repaid with a repayment, as the creditor demands the debt. And I did not fear that Manāzil would become my enemy, and the nearest enemy of whom I am wary. I carried him on my back and offered sacrifices for my companion when he was small, until his moustache began to grow; and I nourished him, until, when he became a tall youth, whose withers nearly equalled those of the stallion, he squandered my property as a wrongdoer, and twisted my hand! Allah, Who overcomes him, has twisted his hand."
It belongs to many verses; and it is said: that Manāzil awoke in the morning with Allah having twisted his hand. Then Allah afflicted him with another son who was disobedient to him as he had been disobedient to his father, and who drove off his property, and he said about him:
"Khalīj wronged me concerning my property and was disobedient to me at a time when my bones were like the bent bough"
in other verses. And Abū Jaʿfar completed the verse later in the tafsīr, and the first half of it reads there: "Tazallamanī mālī kadhā, wa-lawā yadī." It is one of the transmitted versions thereof.
(6) He is Majnūn Banī ʿĀmir.
(7) It is not in his dīwān, and it is in al-Aghānī 2:38, with other verses, and in al-Lisān (shadā), (shadhā), (lawā) and elsewhere, and before it:
"People say: perhaps Majnūn ʿĀmir desires deliverance! I said: indeed, I abide by what befalls me. And my kinsmen have blamed me for my love of Laylā, my brother, my paternal cousin, my maternal cousin, and my maternal uncle; they say: Laylā belongs to a house of enmity!! By my soul, Laylā is dearer to me than an enemy and than my property."
And the reading of al-Lisān and others is: "the necks of the mounts (al-maṭā)", and the reading of the author of al-Aghānī is "the necks of the disputants (al-khuṣūm)", as Abū Jaʿfar transmits it; but through the bad conduct of the editors of al-Aghānī they violated all the foundations of al-Aghānī in favour of another reading, despite the correctness of the reading they rejected, namely the reading of Abū Jaʿfar and Abū al-Faraj. And his word "shadan min khuṣūma" (sharpness of dispute) is also transmitted as "shadhan min khuṣūma". And al-shadhā is the sharp edge of every thing; and among its meanings is also: an end of a thing, or a remnant of it. And "al-malāwī" is the plural of "malwā", a mīm-verbal noun from "lawā". He says: if they were to dispute with me over Laylā with a sharp dispute, I would twist their necks so that I would make their souls depart. And as for the reading "al-maṭā" instead of "al-khuṣūm", which is the reading of Ibn al-Aʿrābī, it is as though he says: if I were to hear concerning Laylā something of what they say of dispute and enmity toward my family and my tribe, I would turn away from her as one who exalts himself for his tribe and rises up in anger and bitterness on its behalf, and I would part from her.
