'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (o messenger!) o muhammad (let not them grieve you who vie one with another in the race to disbelief) in allying themselves with the disbelievers in this world and in the hereafter, (of such as say with their mouths) with their tongues: (“we believe,”) in our hearts (but their hearts believe not) i.e. the hearts of the hypocrites, 'abdullah ibn ubayy and his followers, (and of the jews) i.e. the jews of the banu qurayzah, ka'b and his followers: (listeners for the sake of falsehood) listeners of untruth, (listeners on behalf of other folk) the people of khaybar (who come not unto thee) regarding what happened among them, but banu qurayzah asked about them, (changing words) changing the traits and description of muhammad and the legal ruling on the stoning of married people who commit adultery (from their context) after being exposited in the torah (and saying) i.e. the leaders to their followers; it is also said: the hypocrites 'abdullah ibn ubayy and his followers: (if this be given unto you) if muhammad (pbuh) command you to whip [married people who committed adultery], (receive it) accept it from him and act according to it (but if this be not given unto you) if muhammad does not command you to whip them and instead commands you to stone them, (then beware!) i.e. beware of following him if does not command you to whip them and, instead, commands you to stone them. allah said: (he whom allah doometh unto sin) he whom allah wants to persist in his disbelief and idolatry; it is also said: he whom allah wants to expose; and it is also said that this means: he whom allah wants to test, (thou (by thine efforts) will avail him naught against allah) against allah's punishment. (those are) the jews and the hypocrites (they for whom the will of allah is that he cleanse not their hearts) from scheming, treachery and persistence in disbelief. (theirs in the world will be ignominy) punishment through killing and expulsion, (and in the hereafter an awful doom) more severe than the punishment they suffer in this world;
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : o messenger, let them not grieve you, the actions of, those who vie with one another in disbelief, falling headlong into it, in other words, they [who] manifest it at every opportunity, of (min here is explicative) such as say with their mouths, with their tongues (bi-alsinatihim is semantically connected to qālū, ‘[such] as say’), ‘we believe’ but their hearts do not believe, and these are the hypocrites; and from among those of jewry, there is a folk, who listen to calumny, fabricated by their rabbis, listening acceptingly, listening to, you, on behalf of some, other folk, from among the jews, who have not come to you: these were the inhabitants of khaybar, among whom two married persons committed adultery, but whom they did not want to stone. and so they dispatched [men from] qurayza to ask the prophet (s) about the ruling concerning the two; perverting words, that are in the torah, such as the ‘stoning’ verse, from their contexts, [the contexts] in which god had placed them, that is to say, substituting them, saying, to the ones they dispatched: ‘if you are given this, distorted ruling, that is, flogging, which muhammad (s) has pronounced for you as a ruling, then take it, accept it; but if you are not given it, and he pronounces some other ruling for you, then beware!’, of accepting it! whomever god desires to try, to lead astray, you cannot avail him anything against god, by preventing such [a trial]. those are they whose hearts god did not desire to purify, of unbelief, for had he desired it, you would have [been able to do something for them]; theirs shall be degradation in this world, humiliation, by being disgraced and subjected to the jizya, and in the hereafter theirs shall be a great chastisement.
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi
تفسير : (o messenger! let not them grieve thee who vie one with another in the race to disbelief…) [5:41-47].
abu bakr ahmad ibn al-hasan al-hiri informed us by dictation> abu muhammad, the chamberlain of ibn ahmad al-tusi> muhammad ibn hammad al-abiwardi> abu mu'awiyah> al-a'mash> 'abd allah ibn murrah> al-bara' ibn 'azib who said: “one day, the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, passed by a jewish man who had just been flogged and had his face darkened with coal. he summoned the jews and asked them: 'is this what your scripture decrees as punishment for the adulterer?' 'yes!' they replied. he then summoned one of their doctors and asked him: 'i implore you by allah who has sent the torah to moses, is this what your scripture decrees as punishment for the adulterer'. he said: 'no! and if you had not implored me by allah, i would not tell you. our scripture rules that the punishment of the adulterer is stoning. but it became widespread among our notables. initially, when one of the notables committed adultery, we left him unpunished while we applied stoning on the communality in cases of adultery. then we decided to look for a punishment that was applied on both the notables and communality of people. and so we agreed on darkening the face with coal and flogging to replace stoning'. the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, said: 'o allah! i am the first to reapply your command after they had suspended it'. and he ordered that the jewish man be stoned. allah, exalted is he, then revealed (o messenger! let not them grieve thee who vie one with another in the race to disbelief) up to his words (if this be given unto you, receive it…), they said: 'go to muhammad; if he directs you to flog the adulterer and darken his face with coal and apply flogging, then follow him. but do not follow him if he directs you to apply stoning on him'. up to his words (whoso judgeth not by that which allah hath revealed: such are disbelievers) [5:44]. he said: 'this relates to the jews'. up to his words (whoso judgeth not by that which allah hath revealed: such are wrong-doers) [5:45]. he said: 'this relates to the christians'. up to his words (whoso judgeth not by that which allah hath revealed: such are evil-livers) [5:47]. he said: 'this relates to all disbelievers'. narrated by muslim from yahya ibn yahya from abu mu'awiyah”.
abu 'abd allah ibn abi ishaq informed us> abu'l-haytham ahmad ibn muhammad ibn ghawth al-kindi> muhammad ibn 'abd allah ibn sulayman al-hadrami> abu bakr ibn abi shaybah> abu mu'awiyah> al-a'mash> 'abd allah ibn murrah> al-bara' ibn 'azib who related that the prophet, allah bless him and give him peace, stoned a jewish man and a jewish woman and said afterwards: “(whoso judgeth not by that which allah hath revealed: such are disbelievers) [5:44], (whoso judgeth not by that which allah hath revealed: such are wrong-doers) [5:45], (whoso judgeth not by that which allah hath revealed: such are evil-livers) [5:47]. all these three verses were revealed about the disbelievers”. this was narrated by muslim from abu bakr ibn abi shaybah.
