Verse. 142

٢ - ٱلْبَقَرَة

2 - Al-Baqara

وَقَالُوْا كُوْنُوْا ھُوْدًا اَوْ نَصٰرٰى تَہْتَدُوْا۝۰ۭ قُلْ بَلْ مِلَّۃَ اِبْرٰھٖمَ حَنِيْفًا۝۰ۭ وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِيْنَ۝۱۳۵
Waqaloo koonoo hoodan aw nasara tahtadoo qul bal millata ibraheema haneefan wama kana mina almushrikeena

English

Ahmed Ali

They say: "Become Jews or become Christians, and find the right way." Say: "No. We follow the way of Abraham the upright, who was not an idolater."

135

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : allah mentioned after this the dispute of the jews and christians with the believers, saying: (and they say) i.e. the jews: (be jews) you shall be guided from error (or christians) and the christians also say the same, (then ye will be rightly guided. say) to them, o muhammad: it is not as you claim: (nay, but the religion of abraham, the upright) the muslim; rather follow the religion of abraham, the upright, the muslim, the sincere-only then you will be guided, (and he was not of the idolaters) i.e. he did not follow the religion of the jews or christians.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : and they say, ‘be jews or christians (the particle aw is for detail; the first of these is the saying of the medinan jews, while the second is that of the christians of najrān), and you shall be guided’. say, to them: ‘nay, we follow, rather the creed of abraham, a hanīf (hanīfan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to ibrāhīma, that is to say, one that inclines away from all other religions to the upright religion); and he was not of the idolaters’.

Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi

تفسير : (and they say: be jews or christians, then ye will be rightly guided…) [2:135]. said ibn ‘abbas: “this was revealed about the jewish leaders of medina: ka‘b ibn al-ashraf, malik ibn al-sayf, wahb ibn yahudha, yasir ibn akhtab, and also about the christians of najran. this is because when they argued with the muslims regarding religion, each one claimed to have a better right to the religion of allah, exalted is he, than anyone else. the jews said: ‘our prophet moses is the best of prophets, and our scripture is the best of scriptures and our religion is the best of religions’. they disbelieved in jesus, the gospel, muhammad and the qur’an. the christians on the other hand said: ‘our prophet jesus is the best of prophets, and our scripture, the gospel, is the best of scriptures and our religion is the best of religions’. they disbelieved in muhammad and the qur’an. both the jews and christians said to the believers: ‘follow our religion, for there is no other true religion except ours’. and they invited the believers to follow their religion”.