Verse. 140

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : then allah mentioned the dispute among the jews concerning the religion of abraham, saying: (or were ye witnesses) or were you, o assembly of jews, present (when death came to jacob) regarding what he enjoined his children, i.e. whether he enjoined them to follow judaism or islam, (when he said unto his sons: what will ye worship after me?) after i die? (they said: we shall worship thy god) we worship, (the god of your fathers, abraham, ishmael and isaac, one god) i.e. we worship one god, (and unto him we have surrendered) we acknowledge to worship him and declare that there is only one true god.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : when the jews said to the prophet (s), ‘do you not know that on the day of his death jacob charged his sons with judaism?’, the following was revealed: or, were you witnesses, present, when death came to jacob? when (idh, ‘when’, substitutes for the preceding idh) he said to his sons, ‘what will you worship after me?’, after i die?; they said, ‘we will worship your god and the god of your fathers abraham and ishmael and isaac (in recognition of the predominant [mention of the father figures] ishmael is also counted as a father, and also because the status of an uncle is akin to that of a father), one god (ilāhan wāhidan, ‘one god’, substitutes for ilāhaka, ‘your god’), to him we submit’ (the initial am [of the phrase am kuntum, ‘or, were you …’] is similar to the hamza of denial [sc. a-kuntum], the sense being, ‘you were not present at his death, so how do you ascribe to him what does not befit him?’).

Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi

تفسير : (or were ye present when death came to jacob…) [2:133]. this was revealed about the jews when they said: “do you not know that when jacob was about to die he advised his sons to follow judaism?”