Sibghata Allahi waman ahsanu mina Allahi sibghatan wanahnu lahu AAabidoona
English
Ahmed Ali
"We have taken the colouring of God; and whose shade is better than God's? Him alone we worship."
138
Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : ((we take our) colour from allah) i.e. follow the religion of allah, (and who is better than allah at colouring) better than the religion of allah. (and we are his worshippers) say: we are monotheists and acknowledge that we worship him and declare that there is only one true god.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : the mark of god (sibghata’llāhi: a verbal noun reaffirming the earlier āmannā, and it is in the accusative, because of the verbal construction implied, that is to say, sabaghanā’llāhu, ‘god has marked us’): this denotes his religion, the one towards which he made human beings naturally inclined, as it leaves its mark on a person, in the same way that a dye leaves its mark on a garment; and who has, that is, none [has], a better mark (sibghatan, ‘marking’, is for specification) than god? and him we worship: the jews said to the muslims, ‘we are the people of the first book and our direction of prayer (qibla) is more ancient, and prophets were never sent from among the arabs; if muhammad were a prophet, he would have been one of us’. thus, the following was revealed:
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi
تفسير : ((we take our) colour from allah, and who is better than allah at colouring…) [2:138].
said ibn ‘abbas: “when a child was born into the christians, they used to baptize him on the seventh day by dipping him in holy water in order to purify him. they claimed that this baptism takes the place of circumcision. upon doing this, they used to say: ‘now the child has become a true christian’, and so allah, exalted is he, revealed this verse”.
