Verse. 540

٤ - ٱلنِّسَاء

4 - An-Nisa

يٰۗاَيُّھَا الَّذِيْنَ اُوْتُوا الْكِتٰبَ اٰمِنُوْا بِمَا نَزَّلْنَا مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا مَعَكُمْ مِّنْ قَبْلِ اَنْ نَّطْمِسَ وُجُوْہًا فَنَرُدَّھَا عَلٰۗي اَدْبَارِھَاۗ اَوْ نَلْعَنَھُمْ كَـمَا لَعَنَّاۗ اَصْحٰبَ السَّبْتِ۝۰ۭ وَكَانَ اَمْرُ اللہِ مَفْعُوْلًا۝۴۷
Ya ayyuha allatheena ootoo alkitaba aminoo bima nazzalna musaddiqan lima maAAakum min qabli an natmisa wujoohan fanaruddaha AAala adbariha aw nalAAanahum kama laAAanna ashaba alssabti wakana amru Allahi mafAAoolan

English

Ahmed Ali

O people of the Book, believe in what We have revealed, which confirms what is already with you before We disfigure your visages and turn your faces about and curse you, as We did with those who had broken the Sabbath; and what God decrees comes to pass.

47

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (o ye unto whom the scripture hath been given!) o you to whom knowledge of the traits and description of muhammad in the torah has been given. (believe in what we have revealed) the qur'an (concerning that which) confirms what (ye possess) in terms of allah's divine oneness and the traits and description of muhammad (pbuh) (before we destroy countenances) before we change your hearts (so as to confound them) so as to turn them away from the lights of guidance and transform their faces to the back of their heads, (or curse them) turn them into animals (as we cursed the sabbath-breakers (of old time)) by turning them into apes. (and the commandment of allah is always executed) after the revelation of this verse 'abdullah ibn salam and his companions embraced islam.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : o you who have been given the scripture, believe in what we have revealed, of the qur’ān, confirming what is with you, of the torah, before we obliterate faces, erasing the eyes, noses and eyebrows in them, and turn them inside out, and make them like the napes of the neck, a flat plate, or curse them, by transforming them into apes, as we cursed, [as] we transformed, those of the sabbath, among them, and god’s command, his decree, is done: after this was revealed, ‘abd allāh b. salām converted to islam, and so it was said that this had been a conditional threat of punishment, so that when some of them converted to islam, it [the threat] was lifted. it is also said that obliteration and transformation will take place before the rising of the hour.

Sahl al-Tustari

تفسير : …before we obliterate faces…this means that god turns them back from guidance and insight to their natural disposition (ṭabʿ al-jibilla). his words, exalted is he: