God has indeed heard the words of those who said: "God is a pauper whereas we are rich." We shall make a note of their words, and the murders of the prophets they committed unjustly, and say to them: "Now taste the agony of burning."
181
Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : then allah mentioned the jews, finhas ibn 'azura' and his friends when they said: “o muhammad! allah is poor: he is asking us to give him a loan”, saying (verily allah heard the saying of those) finhas ibn 'azura' and his fellows (who said, (when asked for contributions to the war): “allah, forsooth, is poor) he needs us to give him a loan, (and we are rich!”) and we do not need a loan from him. (we shall record their saying) we shall preserve for them what they have said in the hereafter (with their slaying of the prophets) just as we shall record for them their slaying of the prophets (wrongfully) without them having committed any crime (and we shall say: taste ye the punishment of burning!) which is very severe.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : verily god has heard the saying of those, namely the jews, who said, ‘indeed god is poor, and we are rich’: they said this when the verse, who is he that will lend god a good loan [q. 2:245] was revealed, adding that, ‘if god were [truly] rich, he would not be asking us for loans’. we shall write down, we shall order that it be written, what they have said, in the scrolls containing their deeds so that they will be requited for it (a variant reading [for active naktubu, ‘we shall write’] has the passive yuktabu, ‘it shall be written’) and, we shall write down, their slaying (read accusative qatlahum or nominative qatluhum) the prophets without right, and we shall say (naqūlu, also read yaqūlu, meaning god [shall say]) to them by the tongue of the angels in the hereafter, ‘taste the chastisement of the burning, the fire.
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi
تفسير : (verily allah heard the saying of those who said…) [3:181].
‘ikrimah, al-suddi and muqatil ibn ishaq related that, one day, abu bakr al-siddiq entered a jewish place of study and found a group of jewish people gathered around one of them called finhas ibn ‘azura, who was one of their doctors. abu bakr said to finhas: “fear allah and embrace islam, for by allah you know well that muhammad is the messenger of allah who has brought the truth to you from allah. he is mentioned in your torah; so believe and accept the truth and grant allah a goodly offering and he will make you enter the garden and multiply your reward”. finhas responded: “o abu bakr, you claim that our lord is asking us to lend him our wealth. yet, it is only the poor who borrow from the rich. and if what you say is true, it follows that allah is poor and we are rich, for if he were rich he would not ask us to lend him our wealth”. abu bakr al-siddiq, may allah be well pleased with him, became very angry and struck the face of finhas with a mighty blow. he then said to him: “by him in whose hand is my soul, if it were not for the treaty between us, o enemy of allah, i would have killed you”. finhas went to the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, and said: “o muhammad! look at what your companion has done to me”. the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, asked abu bakr: “what has driven you to do what you have done?” he said: “o messenger of allah, this enemy of allah has said something very serious. he claimed that allah is poor and they are rich. i therefore got angry for the sake of allah and hit his face”. but finhas denied that he ever uttered those words, and so allah, exalted is he, revealed this verse (verily allah heard the saying of those who said…) to give the lie to finhas and to confirm that abu bakr al-siddiq said the truth.
‘abd al-qahir ibn tahir informed us> abu ‘amr ibn matar> ja‘far ibn al-layth al-ziyadi> hudhayfah musa ibn mas‘ud> shibl> ibn abi najih> mujahid who said: “this verse was revealed about the jews; abu bakr, may allah be well pleased with him, had struck the face of one of their men who said ‘allah is poor and we are rich’ ”. shibl commented: “i was informed that this man was finhas the jew, and it is also this man who said: (allah’s hand is fettered) [5:64]”.
