یٰۤاَیُّهَا O الرَّسُوْلُ Messenger لَا Let not یَحْزُنْكَ grieve you الَّذِیْنَ those who یُسَارِعُوْنَ hasten فِی in (to) الْكُفْرِ [the] disbelief مِنَ of الَّذِیْنَ those who قَالُوْۤا said اٰمَنَّا We believe بِاَفْوَاهِهِمْ with their mouths وَ لَمْ and not تُؤْمِنْ believe قُلُوْبُهُمْ ۛۚ their hearts وَ مِنَ and from الَّذِیْنَ those who هَادُوْا ۛۚ (are) Jews سَمّٰعُوْنَ They (are) listeners لِلْكَذِبِ to falsehood سَمّٰعُوْنَ (and) listeners لِقَوْمٍ for people اٰخَرِیْنَ ۙ other لَمْ (who have) not یَاْتُوْكَ ؕ come to you یُحَرِّفُوْنَ They distort الْكَلِمَ the words مِنْۢ from بَعْدِ after مَوَاضِعِهٖ ۚ their context یَقُوْلُوْنَ saying اِنْ If اُوْتِیْتُمْ you are given هٰذَا this فَخُذُوْهُ [so] take it وَ اِنْ but if لَّمْ not تُؤْتَوْهُ you are given it فَاحْذَرُوْا ؕ then beware وَ مَنْ And (for) whom یُّرِدِ intends اللّٰهُ Allah فِتْنَتَهٗ his trial فَلَنْ then never تَمْلِكَ will you have power لَهٗ for him مِنَ against اللّٰهِ Allah شَیْـًٔا ؕ anything اُولٰٓىِٕكَ Those الَّذِیْنَ (are) the ones لَمْ never یُرِدِ will intend اللّٰهُ Allah اَنْ that یُّطَهِّرَ He purifies قُلُوْبَهُمْ ؕ their hearts لَهُمْ For them فِی in الدُّنْیَا the world خِزْیٌ ۖۚ (is) disgrace وَّ لَهُمْ and for them فِی in الْاٰخِرَةِ the Hereafter عَذَابٌ (is) a punishment عَظِیْمٌ great 5. Al-Ma'idah Page 115 سَمّٰعُوْنَ Listeners لِلْكَذِبِ to [the] falsehood اَكّٰلُوْنَ devourers لِلسُّحْتِ ؕ of the forbidden فَاِنْ So if جَآءُوْكَ they come to you فَاحْكُمْ then judge بَیْنَهُمْ between them اَوْ or اَعْرِضْ turn away عَنْهُمْ ۚ from them وَ اِنْ And if تُعْرِضْ you turn away عَنْهُمْ from them فَلَنْ then never یَّضُرُّوْكَ will they harm you شَیْـًٔا ؕ (in) anything وَ اِنْ And if حَكَمْتَ you judge فَاحْكُمْ then judge بَیْنَهُمْ between them بِالْقِسْطِ ؕ with [the] justice اِنَّ Indeed اللّٰهَ Allah یُحِبُّ loves الْمُقْسِطِیْنَ the ones who are just
(5:41) O Messenger! Do not be grieved on account of those who vie with one another in disbelieving:62 even though they be those who say with their mouths: 'We believe' even though their hearts have no faith; or they be Jews who have their ears eagerly turned to falsehood63 and spy for other people who did not chance to come to you,64 who pervert the words of Allah, taking them out of their proper context in order to distort their meaning.65 They say to people: 'If such and such teaching is given to you, accept it; if you are not given that, then beware!66 You can be of no avail to him whom Allah wills to fall into error.67 Those are the ones whose hearts Allah does not want to purify.68 For them there is degradation in this world and a mighty chastisement in the Next.
(5:42) They are listeners of falsehood and greedy devourers of unlawful earnings.69 If they come to you you may either judge between them or turn away from them. And were you to turn away from them they shall not be able to harm you; and were you to judge between them judge with justice. Surely Allah loves the just.70
62. This verse refers to those who devoted all their capacities and efforts to ensure that the status quo ante of Jahiliyah remained intact, and that the reformative mission of Islam should fail to set right the corruption that had come down to them from the past. Disregarding all moral scruples, these people used the vilest methods against the Prophet (peace be on him). They deliberately suppressed the truth and resorted to lying, deceit, treachery and low cunning in order to frustrate the mission of the Prophet (peace be on him) who was engaged in a tireless struggle actuated by absolute selflessness and benevolence, and who sought the welfare of all human beings, including that of his opponents. All this naturally hurt the Prophet (peace be on him). A sincere person must feel heartbroken when he sees men of low moral character, driven by ignorance, blind selfishness and bigotry, resort to vile methods in opposition to his mission, which is actuated by charity and goodwill towards all men. Hence the purpose of God's directive here is not to ask the Prophet (peace be on him) to abstain from this natural feeling of grief but rather that he should not allow such feelings to undermine his morale and that he should persevere in his task. As for the opponents of the Prophet (peace be on him), in view of their low morals, their mean conduct was not at all contrary to expectations.
63. This has two meanings. First, that since such people are slaves to their desires they cannot have the least interest in the Truth, falsehood alone gratifies them. It is with falsehood alone that they like to fill their ears, for nothing else quenches the thirst of their souls. Second, it is the same love of falsehood which motivates them when they come and spend some time in the company of the Prophet (peace be on him) and the Muslims. They want to distort whatever they see or hear, to taint the facts with their fabrications, and then circulate them among those who have had no contact with the Prophet (peace be on him) and the Muslims in order to scandalize them.
64. This also has two meanings. First, that they socialized with the Prophet (peace be on him) and the Muslims in order to pry into their affairs and communicate them to the enemy. Second, that they went about collecting information to try to slander them. Their objective was to create misgivings about the Prophet (peace be on him) and the Muslims among those who were unacquainted with them.
65. They deliberately tamper with those injunctions of the Torah that do not accord with their desires, and by altering the meanings of the words occurring in the text they deduce laws that suit their interests.
66. This refers to the Jews who went about telling the ignorant masses that they should follow the teachings of the Prophet (peace be on him) only if they conformed to the teachings of the Jews.
67.God's will to put someone to the test means that God confronts one in whom He sees the growth of evil with the opportunities of doing just that, so that he experiences the struggle between good and evil. If the person is not yet fully inclined towards evil, his moral health improves and his latent potentialities for resisting evil are revived. But if he has become excessively inclined towards evil, and goodness has been totally crushed from within his being, then every such test is bound to entangle him still more tightly in evil. The well-wisher is now powerless to rescue him. It might be added that not only individuals but also nations are put to this kind of test.
68. God did not will that their hearts be purified for they themselves did not want them to be purified. It is not God's way to deprive of purity those who love it and strive for it; but God does not wish to purify those who do not seek their own purification.
69. Here pointed reference is made to judges and jurisconsults who accept false evidence and invent reports in order to issue verdicts contrary to justice and in favour of either those who bribe them or with whom their illegitimate interests lie.
70. Until then the Jews had not become full-fledged subjects of the Islamic state. Their relations with that state were based on agreements according to which the Jews were to enjoy internal autonomy, and their disputes were to be decided by their own judges and in accordance with their own laws. They were not legally bound to place their disputes either before the Prophet (peace be on him) for adjudication or before the judges appointed by him. But in cases where it appeared against their interests to have their disputes judged according to their own religious law they approached the Prophet (peace be on him) in the hope that the Prophet might have a different ruling.
The particular case referred to here was that of a woman belonging to a respectable family, who was found to be involved in an unlawful sexual relationship with a man. The punishment for this in the Torah was that both be stoned to death (see Deuteronomy 22: 23-4). But the Jews did not want to enforce this punishment. Hence they deliberated among themselves and decided to put the case before the Prophet (peace be on him), with the reservation that his judgement be accepted only if it was other than stoning. The Prophet (peace be on him) decided that the punishment should, in fact, be stoning. When the Jews declined to accept the judgement, the Prophet (peace be on him) asked their rabbis what punishment had been prescribed for such a case in their religion. They replied that it was to strike the culprit with lashes, to blacken the face and to make the person concerned ride on a donkey. The Prophet (peace be on him) asked them under oath if the Torah had indeed prescribed that as punishment for adultery committed by married men and women. They repeated the same false reply. However, one of them called Ibn Sawriya who, according to the Jews themselves, was the greatest living scholar of the Torah at that time, kept silent. The Prophet (peace be on him) asked him to state on oath in the name of God, Who had emancipated them from Pharaoh and had given them the Law, whether the punishment for adultery provided for in the Torah was what they had mentioned. He replied: 'Had you not put me under such a heavy oath, I would not have volunteered the correct information. The fact is that the prescribed punishment for adultery is indeed stoning, but when adultery became common among us our rulers adopted the rule that when respectable people committed adultery they were left unpunished, whereas when ordinary people were convicted they were punished by stoning. Later on when this caused resentment among the common people we altered the law of the Torah and adopted the rule that adulterers and adulteresses would be lashed, their faces would be blackened, and they would be made to ride on donkeys, seated in a backward-looking position.' This left the Jews with nothing to say and the adulterer and adulteress were, in accordance with the order of the Prophet (peace be on him), stoned to death. (Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, vol. 3, pp. 574-5 - Ed.)