Āl ‘Imrān

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ وَيَقْتُلُونَ الِّذِينَ يَأْمُرُونَ بِالْقِسْطِ مِنَ النَّاسِ فَبَشِّرْهُم بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

أُولَـئِكَ الَّذِينَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ وَمَا لَهُم مِّن نَّاصِرِينَ

21. " Verily, those who disbelieve in the Signs of Allah and slay the prophets unjustly and slay those, of people, who enjoin equity, give tidings to them of a painful chastisement."

22. "They are those whose works come to nothing in this world and in the next, and they will have no helpers."

"Verily, those who disbelieve in the Signs of Allah ..."

These people are the Jews, the people of the Book, the formers of whom slew both the prophets and their followers, those who were among the worshippers of the Children of Israel. The reason why, at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an, Allah gave the Jews the glad tidings of punishment was that they were pleased and content with the deeds of their ancestors. Besides that, they tried to slay and were in thought of killing the Prophet (S) as well as the believers. If there were not the support of Allah, they would accomplish their evil intention.

Here, the meaning of the term 'unjustly' is not that it is possible to kill prophets justly, but the purpose is that the slaying of prophets has always been done unjustly and oppressively."

The purpose of the nullification of deeds that the verse says: 'Their works come to nothing in this world ' is that, by following the Torah, their blood and wealth would not remain safe and, they could not succeed to be praised in this world. And also their deeds will come to naught in the next world, since they will deserve no reward. Therefore, it seems that they have had no good deeds; and this is the very reality of the Qur’anic term /hubut/, 'unfruitfulness & destruction'.

"... and they will have no helpers."