Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:100

(Or is it that every time they make a covenant...) It was revealed regarding Malik ibn al-Sayf, who said: "By Allah, no covenant or pledge was taken from us in our Book to believe in Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)." Others say: It concerns the Jews, who covenanted that if he were sent, they would believe in him and be with him against the polytheists of the Arabs; but when he was sent, they disbelieved in him. ‘Ata’ said: It refers to the Jews who made covenants with the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and then broke them, just as the Banu Qurayzah and Banu al-Nadir did.

The hamzah is for denunciation (inkār), meaning: "It was not fitting," and it serves to emphasize the gravity of their repeated covenants and their breaking of them, until this became a nature and habit for them. In this, there is consolation for the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), indicating that he should not be concerned by their affair, nor should their opposition be a burden upon him.

The waw serves as a conjunction to a deleted element: i.e., "Did they disbelieve in the verses, and every time they make a covenant..." It is a conjunction of a verbal sentence to a verbal sentence, because kullamā (every time) is an adverb. The evidence for this deleted element is the Almighty’s saying: (And none disbelieve in them) etc. Some scholars posit that the conjoined part is taken from the preceding discourse, suggesting the hamzah is situated between the conjoined and the conjunction for a purpose specific to the conjoined part. According to them, the implied meaning is: "They broke this covenant and that covenant (or every time they make a covenant)." This, besides committing to that for which there is no necessity, involves a context where the sentences mentioned nearby contain no mention of breaking a covenant.

Al-Akhfash said: It is an extra particle. Al-Kisa’i said: It is the quiescent aw, its waw having been vocalized with a fatha, and it holds the meaning of bal (nay/rather). The weakness of both these assertions is not hidden. Indeed, Ibn al-Sammak al-‘Adawi and others read aw with quiescence (sukūn), and in that case, there is no harm in saying it is for transition/refutation (idrābiyyah), based on the view of the Kufans. They recited: "She appeared like the horn of the sun in the brilliance of the morning, and her image—or rather, you—are more beautiful to the eye."

The conjunction in this view is to the relative pronoun (al-mawsūl)—which is the al (definite article) in "the transgressors" (al-fāsiqūn)—leaning toward the meaning, even if it involves altering the relative al. It is as if it were said: "Except for those who transgressed—nay, every time they make a covenant." The evidence for this is: (But most of them do not believe) etc., which represents an escalation from the severe to the more severe. You may also avoid leaning toward the meaning and instead conjoin to the mawsūl, as the al enters upon the verb by analogy in cases of latitude, much like the Almighty’s saying: "Indeed, the men who practice charity and the women who practice charity and have loaned..." [Al-Hadid: 18], for they allow in the subsequent clauses what is not allowed in the first. Some have permitted this conjunction with both possibilities even for the first reading without needing that deleted element.

Al-Hasan and Abu Raja’ read "‘ūhidū" (passive). The accusative case of ‘ahdan is because it is a verbal noun (masdar) not acting as the primary verb—i.e., "a covenanting." This is supported by the fact that it was read as "‘ahidū" (active). Alternatively, it is an object of the verb by incorporating the meaning of "they were given" into "they covenanted."

"A party of them cast it aside" means they broke it and abandoned acting upon it. The root of nabdh (casting aside) is the throwing away of that which is not valued, like a worn-out sandal, but it became used predominantly for that which is intended to be forgotten due to lack of concern. Attributing nabdh to a covenant is metaphorical; it is usually used for physical objects, such as: "So We seized him and his hosts and cast them into the sea" [Al-Dhariyat: 40]. "Party" (farīq) is a collective noun with no singular, applicable to both few and many. It is said "a party" because there were those among them who did not cast it aside.

‘Abdullah read: "They broke it" (naqdahu). In al-Bahr, it is said: This reading contradicts the script of the Uthmanic Codex, so it is better to consider it an explanation (tafsīr), though this is not strong, as there is no basis for an explanation without mentioning the thing explained during the recitation.

"But most of them do not believe": It is possible that "the most" refers to those who cast it aside, or it refers to those other than them. On the first view, it is a refutation of the assumption that they are a small party, based on the implication that the word usually denotes a small number. On the second, it is a refutation of the assumption that those who do not openly cast it aside believe in it secretly. The conjunction, on both interpretations, is a conjunction of sentences. It is also possible that it is a conjunction of individual terms, where "most of them" is conjoined to "party," and the sentence "do not believe" is a state (hāl) for "most of them," with the governing agent being "cast it aside."