Surah Al-Baqarah 2:87-96 - Quran Translation Commentary

(2:87) Verily, We gave Musa the Book and sent after him Prophets one after another.¹⁸² We (also) gave ‘Isa the son of Maryam, clear signs¹⁸³ and strengthened him with the Ruh al-Qudus.¹⁸⁴ But, is it that whenever a Prophet came to you with that which did not conform with your desires, you stiffened?¹⁸⁵ So, you laid the lie against some of them, while others you slew.

(2:88) They say, ‘Our hearts are insulated.'¹⁸⁶ Nay, Allah has rather cursed them for their unbelief,¹⁸⁷ so little do they believe.¹⁸⁸

(2:89) And (now) when a Book came to them from Allah, conforming that which is in their possession while earlier they sought (Allah's) help against the pagans but when it came to them with what they knew (as from their Lord), they rejected it.¹⁸⁹ So Allah's curse be upon the rejecters.

(2:90) Evil is that for which they barter themselves by rejecting that which has been revealed by Allah in grudge that Allah should reveal it in His mercy unto whom He will of His slaves. Thus they piled (upon themselves) anger upon anger.¹⁹⁰ Therefore a humiliating punishment awaits the unbelievers.¹⁹¹

(2:91) And when they are told, ‘Believe in that which Allah has revealed,' they say: ‘We shall believe (only) in that which has been revealed unto us.' And they reject that which came after, while it is the Truth which confirms that which is in their hands.¹⁹² Ask them: ‘Why is it then that you slew the Messengers of Allah afore, if you were believers?'¹⁹³

(2:92: Verily Musa had come to you with clear signs, yet while he was away, you took the calf (for worship) and you were transgressing.¹⁹⁴

(2:93) And (recall) when We took compact with you and then raised the Tur over you¹⁹⁵ (saying): ‘Hold fast unto what We have given you, and listen.' They said: ‘We have heard but we shall disobey!' They were drunk with (the love of) the calf in their hearts because of their unbelief. Tell them, ‘Evil is that which your faith dictates to you if you are truly

(2:94: Tell them: `If the last abode with Allah is for you alone, to the exclusion of all others, then long for death if you are true.

(2:95) But they will never long for it because of what their hands have forwarded. And Allah is well aware of the transgressors.¹⁹⁶

(2:96) You will find them the most greedy of this life even greedier than the pagans;¹⁹⁷ Every one of them wishes that he be granted life of a thousand years, although, granted such prolongation, it will by no means save him from the chastisement. And Allah is well aware of all that they do.

Commentary

182. Such as Yusha` (Joshua), Shamwil (Samuel), Sham`un (Simon), Da'ud (David), Sulayman (Solomon), Sha`ya (Isaiah?), Ariyah (Jeremiah), `Uzayr (Ezra), Hizqil (Ezekiel), Ilyas (Elias), Yunus (Jonah), Zakariyyah (Zechariah), Yahya (John the Baptist), and others (Razi).

183. The clear signs referred to here are quickening of the dead, curing of the blind and the deaf, making of birds from clay and blowing life into them, etc., all by Allah's will. Being the last of the series of prophets sent to the Israelites, he was given very powerful and irrefutable signs (Au.).

184. According to most early commentators such as Ibn Mas`ud, Ibn `Abbas, Suddi, Qatadah and others, the allusion by the words "al-Ruh al Qudus," is to Jibril. This is confirmed by a hadith (which we pick up from Muslim) which says that the Prophet told Hassan b. Thabit:

إِنَّ رُوحَ الْقُدُسِ لا يَزَالُ يُؤَيِّدُكَ مَا نَافَحْتَ عَنْ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ

"Surely, Ruh al Qudus will remain helping you (in your satires) so long as you remain defending Allah and His Messenger" (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

Ibn Kathir further adds: In another hadith the Prophet (saws) named specifically Jibril while praying to Allah to help Hassan in his satires. The term has been used in other reports also. In one hadith the Prophet (saws) said: إن روح القدس نفث في روعي : أن نفسا لن تموت حتى تستوفي رزقها ، فأجملوا في الطلب "Al-Ruh al Qudus has inspired into me that no one will die without receiving his share of the provision and without completing the term allotted to him. Therefore, be graceful while seeking your share of the world."

(The above report is from Kanz which Haythami declared as trustworthy but for a minor problem in evaluation: Au.)

Thanwi writes: The Jews were sworn enemies of Jesus and would have all but murdered him. It was Jibril who guarded him against them.

Nevertheless, a minority opinion is that the term alludes either to the Gospels, or, the Great Name (Al Ism al A`zam) which `Isa b. Maryam used to spell before blowing the spirit into shapes of clay.

Majid adds: "This 'holy spirit' of Islam has nothing, save name, in common with the 'Holy Ghost' of Christianity, who is 'the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity ... the Spirit of the Father and of the Son' proceeding `alike from both as from one common principle.' (Pallen and Wynne's `New Catholic Dictionary', p. 451) Islam has no such preposterous proposition to support as that `the Holy Spirit is rightly included in the Godhead, and to be worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son as divine' (Everyman's Encycl. vol. XI, p. 635)."

185. Majid's quotation while dealing with verse 83, applies very well here also: "'I have seen this people, and behold! it is a stiff necked people.' (Ex. 32:9) 'Thou are a stiff necked people ... from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord' (Dt. 9: 6&7)."

Thanwi comments: There is indication in the verse that pride is the root of all sins.

186. That is, insulated from any outside influence (Ibn `Abbas, `Ikrimah, Ata', Qatadah Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

Another interpretation of the term "ghulf" rendered here as "insulated" is that our hearts are repositories of knowledge and wisdom and therefore in no need of that which is now being preached by the new Prophet (Ibn `Abbas and `Atiyyah Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir, in the words of Asad).

Yusuf Ali writes: "How many people at all times and among all nations close their hearts to any extension of knowledge or spiritual influence because of some little fragment which they got and which they think is the whole of God's Truth?"

187. "For 'curses' compare the OT: 'A curse if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God.' (Dt. 11:27) 'If thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God ... all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee; cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Curse shalt be thy basket and thy land, the increase of thy kind, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt be thou when thou comest in, and cursed shalt be thou when thou goest out' (Dt, 28: 15 19)" Majid.

188. Another rendering could be "so believe not but a few of them" (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

189. This refers to the situation before the advent of the Prophet (saws) when, defeated in the battles (or in arguments) by the pagans, the Jews of Madinah would say that even if they had suffered defeat, it was of a temporary nature. Soon they would square up with them once the Promised Messiah whose time of appearance had come close made his advent. It is with him on their side that they would wage a final battle against the non Jews of the world and regain their supremacy. But when the Prophet appeared, they refused to acknowledge him because it was impossible in their thought that God should send a Messenger among a people they esteemed low such as the Ishmaelites. In one gathering, Mu`adh b. Jabal, Bishr b. Bara', and Da`ud b. Salamah reproached the Jews and told them: "Fear God, and believe in Him. Aren't you the ones that used to predict his appearance?" To that Sallam b. Mishkam replied: "He has not brought anything that we could recognize as from God, neither is he the 'one' we predicted" (Ibn Kathir).

190. The two fold anger is because of their disbelief in two major Prophets: Jesus and Muhammad (asws). A hadith says that whosoever believes in Jesus and also in Muhammad (asws), will have two fold rewards. There have been other explanations too (Ibn Jarir).

191. This "humiliating" nature of the punishment is specific to the unbelievers. The sinning believers will undergo a punishment that will be for cleansing them and not for humiliating them (Ma`arif).

192. The allusion is to the Jews of Madinah who, when told to believe in the new Revelation the Qur'an replied that they will not believe in anything after the Tawrah. What they failed to understand was that their rejection of the Qur'an was tantamount to the rejection of their own holy Scriptures, since the Qur'an confirmed the Tawrah as a revelation of Allah (Au.).

193. While rejecting the Qur'an, the Jews asserted their faith in the Tawrah. But, it is a fact of their history that they murdered Prophets sent to them. The Qur'an, therefore, rejects the claim to faith: both of those who committed those heinous crimes in earlier times, as well as the contemporaries of the Prophet (saws), who became equal in crime by not disowning those murders and murderers. Whoever assents to a crime is a criminal himself (Au.).

194. In this verse the Qur'an takes the case a little further to point out that the tendencies of disbelief in the Israelites were not peculiar to the generations posterior to Musa (asws). As early as during Musa's period, the Israelites had betrayed their inclinations toward false gods despite all the signs that were made manifest to them: their calf worship during a short absence of Musa, is a case in point (Au.).

195. For explanation see verse 63 above.faithful.'

196. It is reported that the Prophet (saws) said, as in a report in Ahmad declared as of trustworthy narrators by Haythami: َلَوْ أَنَّ الْيَهُودَ تَمَنَّوْا الْمَوْتَ لَمَاتُوا وَرَأَوْا مَقَاعِدَهُمْ فِي النَّار "Had the Jews (sincerely) wished for death, they would have all died and seen their places in the Fire" (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir, Qurtubi).

Alusi adds: Wishing for death can be of two kinds. One in which a person wishes to die soon in order to be closer to Allah, His chosen slaves, and to hasten to the blessings of the Hereafter. Wishing death for such reasons is not prohibited in Islam. It is this kind of wish that the Jews were incapable of, which proved that they were not true in their claim that the pleasures of the Hereafter have been prepared for them alone. The second kind is that which arises out of the unbearableness of tribulations. To wish death for such reasons reveals a man's weakness in faith and his complete despair. This kind of longing for death is prohibited. A hadith (of Muslim: Au.) says: عَنْ أَنَسٍ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم: "لاَ يَتَمَنّيَنّ أَحَدُكُمُ الْمَوْتَ لِضُرَ نَزَلَ بِهِ. فَإِنْ كَانَ لاَ بُدّ مُتَمَنّياً فَلْيَقُلِ: اللّهُمّ أَحْيِني مَا كَانَتِ الْحَيَاةُ خَيْراً لِي، وَتَوَفّنِي إِذَا كَانَتِ الْوَفَاةُ خَيْراً لِي". "Let none of you wish for death because of a misfortune that has struck him. If he has to say it at all, let him say: 'O Lord! Keep me alive if my staying alive is good for me; and let me die if death is better for me.'"

It is reported by Nafi` (continues Alusi) that there was a Jew who used to go about boasting, 'Here I am longing for death. Why doesn't death overtake me?' When `Abdullah ibn `Umar heard him, he went after him with a naked sword. The Jew fled. Ibn `Umar said: 'By God! Had I got hold of him, I would have beheaded him.'

197. Some pagans of the Prophet's time used to say to one who sneezed: "May you live for ten thousand years" (Ibn `Abbas Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).