Al Baqarah

أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَن يُؤْمِنُواْ لَكُمْ وَقَدْ كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلاَمَ اللّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُ مِن بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ

What! Do you then hope that they would believe in you (in Faith), and a party among them indeed used to hear the Word of Allah, then perverted it after they had understood it, and they know (this) (2:75)

وَإِذَا لَقُواْ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ قَالُواْ آمَنَّا وَإِذَا خَلاَ بَعْضُهُمْ إِلَىَ بَعْضٍ قَالُواْ أَتُحَدِّثُونَهُم بِمَا فَتَحَ اللّهُ عَلَيْكُمْ لِيُحَآجُّوكُم بِهِ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ أَفَلاَ تَعْقِلُونَ

And when they meet those who have Faith, they say: ‘We believe’, but when they are alone with one another, they say: ‘Do you speak to them of what Allah has revealed to you, that they may thereby dispute with you about this before your Lord? Have you then no sense?’ (2:76)

أَوَلاَ يَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّ اللّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ

Do they not know that Allah knows what they hide and what they make known? (2:77)

Occasion of Revelation

Upon the occasion of the revelation of these first two verses, some of the commentators have narrated from Imam al-Baqir (‘a) who has said: “A group of the Jews, who had not enmity with the truth, when they met the Muslims, they would tell them of what had been mentioned in the Torah about the specialties of Prophet Muhammad (S). The leaders of the Jews understood the matter and told them to avoid informing Muslims of what was cited in the Torah about the epithets of Prophet Muhammad (S) lest they would argue with the Jews about it before their Lord. Then this verse was revealed.”¹

A Futile Expectation!

As noted from these verses, the Qur’an has discontinued the story of the Israelites and, with an instructive conclusion, has turned to the Muslim believers, saying:

What! Do you then hope that they would believe in you (in Faith), and a party among them indeed used to hear the Word of Allah, then perverted it after they had understood it, and they know (this) (2:75)

Therefore, when you see that they reject the inspiring words of the Qur’an and the miracles of the Holy Prophet of Islam (S), you should not be annoyed. They are the children of the same people who, as the elected members of the tribe, went to Mount Sinai, heard the words of Allah, and understood His instructions, but when they returned they altered them. It is perceived from the phrase:

…and a party among them indeed… (2:75)

that not all of them but a party, who probably formed the majority of them, were of those who perverted Allah’s Words. It is cited in ‘Asbab-un-Nuzul’ that when some of the Jews returned from Mount Sinai, they told their people: ‘We heard that Allah ordered Moses,’ whenever you can do My instructions do them, but when you cannot, leave them’, and this was the first perversion. However, at the advent of the Prophet of Islam (S), it was expected that the Jews would accept this religion before others embraced it, because they were the followers of the Book, whereas the pagans were not. Besides that, they had learnt the epithets of the Prophet of Islam (S) from their own books.

But the Holy Qur’an says that, considering their previous bad reputation, your hope is of no avail. The reason is that some deviated characteristics which dominated the spirits of this group caused them to separate from truth, though it was well within the realm of their ability to embrace it. The next verse uncovers another bitter fact about this deceitful hypocritical group. It says:

And when they meet those who have Faith, they say: ‘We believe’ but when they are alone with one another, they say: ‘Do you speak to them of what Allah has revealed to you, that they may thereby dispute with you about this before your Lord? Have you then no sense? (2:76).

In commenting on this very verse, this probability also exists that the initial words of the verse are about the hypocritical Jews who pretended to be believers in the presence of the Muslims but in their absence, they denied it. They even scorned those pure-hearted Jews who had conveyed the secrets of the Torah to the Muslims. At any rate, this is a confirmation to what was said in the previous verse that a group with such attributes governing their spirits should not be expected to become faithful.

The phrase: / fataha Allahu ‘alaykum / ‘what Allah has revealed to you’ may mean: ‘the Divine command which was in the authority of the Children of Israel’. Or the phrase may refer to the idea that Allah had opened the doors of the divine secrets and the prophecies about the coming religion unto them. It is noteworthy that this verse clearly shows that the Faith of this hypocritical group in Allah was so weak and hollow that they considered Him as an ordinary person and imagined that if they could conceal a fact from the Muslims, it would be concealed from Allah, too.

Then, in the next verse, it frankly says:

Do they not know that Allah knows what they hide and what they make known? (2:77)

Footnotes

1. 1. Majma’ al-Bayan, Vol. 1, p. 142.