Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:41

(And believe in what I have sent down, confirming that which is with you.) This is a conjunctive phrase following the preceding one. Its apparent meaning is that it is a command to the Children of Israel. It is said: It was revealed regarding Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf and his companions, the scholars and leaders of the Jews, so it is a command specifically to them. The Glorious One singled out "belief" here—after it was already included within "(fulfill My covenant)" through the collective command to obey and the exhortation towards it—to signal that it is the primary intended goal and the cornerstone for fulfilling covenants.

(Ma) (what) is a relative pronoun, (anzaltu) (I have sent down) is its conjunctive clause, and the referent pronoun is elided; that is: anzaltuhu (I have sent it down). (Musaddiqan) (confirming) is a state (hal) referring either to the relative pronoun or its elided referent. The lam in (lima) (for that which) is for emphasis. The intent behind "what I have sent down" is the Quran, and referring to it in this way signifies the greatness of its status. The intent behind "what is with you" is the Torah, and referring to it in this way serves to indicate their knowledge that [the Quran] confirms it, for "being with" (the Torah) is a harbinger of repeated consultation of it and scrutinizing its depths, which leads to the knowledge that [the Quran] confirms it.

The meaning of its confirming the Torah is that it was revealed according to how it was described therein, or that it corresponds to it in the foundations of the religion and the creed, or [that it confirms] what has not been abrogated, such as the stories, the exhortations, and some prohibitions like lying, adultery, and usury. Or it refers to everything within it. The disagreement in some secondary rulings—which are like medical remedies for spiritual ailments, varying according to times and individuals just as physical remedies vary—is not a contradiction in reality. Rather, it is a conformity to it, in the sense that each of them was the truth in its own era, containing the wisdom around which the firmament of legislation revolves. There is nothing in the Torah that indicates the eternity of its abrogated rulings such that what abrogates them would contradict it; rather, its [the Torah's] speech regarding the validity of the Quran, which abrogates it, is itself a declaration of the abrogation of those [former] rulings and the end of the time for which they were legislated for the sake of public interest. This is not "beginning" (bada') [in the sense of a change of mind] at all, as they imagine. Therefore, the difference in those abrogated rulings is merely a difference of era; so much so that if the predecessor’s revelation had been delayed, it would have descended in accordance with the successor, and if the successor’s revelation had been advanced, it would have agreed with the predecessor.

To this points what Imam Ahmad and others narrated from Jabir, that the Prophet—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—said when ‘Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—read something from the Torah in his presence: "If Moses were alive, he would have no choice but to follow me." And in a narration by al-Darimi: "By Him in Whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, if Moses were to appear before you and you followed him, abandoning me, you would stray from the right path. If he were alive and reached the time of my prophethood, he would have followed me."

Restricting the "sent down" to being "a confirmer of what is with them" is to emphasize the obligation of compliance; for their belief in what is with them necessitates, by certainty, belief in what confirms it. Some people have interpreted "the sent down" as the Book and the Messenger—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—and "what is with them" as the Torah and the Gospel, but there is no great distance in this, except that it is far-fetched from one perspective to make musaddiqan a state (hal) of the raised pronoun [in anzaltu], and even further-fetched to make ma an infinitive (masdariyyah) and musaddiqan a state of the second ma, and even further than that to make it a state of the implicit infinitive.

(And be not the first to disbelieve in it.) That is: Do not hasten to disbelieve in it, for it is your duty to be the first to believe in it, given that you know the reality of the matter and its truth, and you used to say before: "We will be the first to follow him." So do not place in the position of expectation [that which is contrary], for what is required of you is the opposite of what is unlikely to come from you, and what is forbidden to you is [the act of] being the first to disbelieve in it.

Awwal (first) is, according to the well-known view, of the af‘al (superlative) pattern, as they say, "This is awwal (more first/prior) than you," but it has no verb [root] because its first and middle letters are waw. Inductive observation has shown the absence of a verb for what is structured thus, and if found, it is rare. [The claim] in the Shafi‘i school that it comes from wala is an explanation of an elided verb. It is said: Its origin is aw’al, from al and awl (resorting/taking refuge), when you take refuge [in something], then it was lightened by changing the hamza into a waw and then assimilating, which is a non-analogical lightening. The etymological appropriateness is that the True First—namely His Essence, the Exalted—is the refuge for all. And if we say aw’al means to hasten, the appropriateness is that hastening is the cause of being first. It is said: aw’al is from ala meaning to return; the etymological appropriateness follows the analogy mentioned previously. It was not pluralized as awa’il because of the heaviness of combining two waws with the pluralization alif between them. Al-Duraydi said: It is faw‘al, so the first waw was changed to a hamza and assimilated, and if it were faw‘al on the pattern of the verb's root, it would be prevented from declension (diptote), which is an apparent prohibition.

It is a predicate for the plural pronoun, and here, according to the majority, the object of comparison must be interpreted by making it singular to fit the meaning of the collective, i.e., "the first group, for example." Or [one may] interpret the subject of comparison, i.e., "it is not possible for each one of you," and the intent is the generality of the negation, as in "Do not obey every habitual swearer." Some people do not require in such cases the agreement between the indefinite noun to which the superlative is added and what it refers to; rather, both perspectives are permissible according to them, as in his [the poet's] saying: "When they are fed, the mother is a feeder, and when they are hungry, they are the worst of the hungry." Those who make the beginning of the verse obligatory like the verse [in question]—and their prohibition from being the first to disbelieve in it, despite the Arab polytheists being prior to them in disbelief—is because the intent is allusion (ta‘rid), so the "first of the disbelievers" is someone else, or [it means] "Do not be the first to disbelieve" among the People of the Book. The address is to those present in his time—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—or rather to the scholars among them. It is sometimes said the pronoun refers to "what is with you," and the meaning is: "Do not be the first to disbelieve in what is with you," meaning: "Do not be the first of those who disbelieve in what is with them." The polytheists of Mecca, although they preceded them in disbelief in what confirms the Quran, in that they preceded in disbelieving in [the Quran itself], which necessitates that [disbelief in the Torah]—yet they are not among those who disbelieved in "what is with them." The difference between the necessity of disbelief and the commitment to it is not clear. However, this interpretation is flawed by the fact that this occurs in opposition to "(Believe in what I have sent down)," which requires a unity in the object of belief and disbelief. It is said: Something like [the word 'first'] is elided in the speech. It is said: One estimates "Do not be the first to disbelieve and the last." It is said: Awwal is redundant. All of these are far-fetched. If one makes the allusion by way of metonymy, the reason for the restriction to "firstness" becomes apparent. It is said: It is an imitation of their saying: "We will be the first to follow him." It is also said: It is in the sense of precedence and not lagging behind, so understand.

(And do not sell My signs for a small price.) "Selling" is a metaphor for replacing, because [selling] is specific to material goods, either by using the restricted for the absolute, like [saying] "the bridle in the nose," or by comparing the aforementioned replacement—in its being something desired—to a literal sale. The speech contains an elision; that is: Do not replace belief in My signs and following them with the vanishing, small, and despised shares of the world, in comparison to the shares of the Hereafter and the great, eternal bliss that Allah—the Exalted—has prepared for the believers. Expressing this as "the price," despite it being the object bought, not the price for it, is to indicate its status as a "price" in terms of its despicability and humiliation. Thus, there is a powerful rebuke and branding of ignorance in it, for they flipped the matter: they made the intended goal the tool, and the tool the intended goal. And there is a subtle wonder in it: the object bought was made the price by applying the term "price" to it, and then the price was made the object bought by substituting it [for the faith] by introducing the ba (particle).

If it is said: "Selling" in the sense of replacing belief in the signs is only valid if they were believers in them, then abandoned that for worldly shares, while they were far from belief [altogether]—it is answered that this is based on the [assumption] that the belief in the Torah which they claim is a belief in the signs, just as disbelief in the signs is disbelief in the Torah; thus the replacement is realized.

Some people have made "the signs" a metonym for the commands and prohibitions which they encountered regarding the matter of the Prophet—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—in the Torah and the divine books, or what they knew of his noble attributes and great character—upon him be peace and blessings. They used to take every year a known amount from the crops, livestock, and money of their followers, and they feared that if they clarified that [truth] to them and followed him—may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him—they would lose that, so they went astray and led others astray. It is said: Their kings used to shower them with money so that they would conceal and distort. It is said other than that. Some scholars have used the verse as evidence for the prohibition of accepting a fee for teaching the Book of Allah and knowledge, and traditions have been narrated regarding that which are not authentic. It is authentic that they said: "O Messenger of Allah, do we take a fee for teaching?" He replied: "The best [thing] for which you take a fee is the Book of Allah." The sayings of the scholars have converged on the permissibility of that, even if disapproval is narrated from some of them. There is no evidence in the verse for what this claimant has alleged, as is not hidden. The matter is detailed in the [books of] branches (furu‘).

(And Me alone, so fear Me.) [Meaning:] through belief and following the truth and turning away from selling the signs of Allah for a small price and vanishing enjoyment. The reason it was mentioned in the first verse (farhabun - fear Me/revere Me) and here (fattaqun - fear/revere Me) is that fear (rahbah) is lower than piety (taqwa). Thus, wherever He addressed the totality—scholars and laypeople—and exhorted them to remember the blessing in which they all share, He said farhabun. This is why it is said that awe is the anchor of the whole matter. And wherever He intended by the address later the scholars among them, and exhorted them to believe and observe the signs, He commanded them with piety, the beginning of which is the abandonment of forbidden things, and the end of which is to be free of everything other than the ultimate goal; and there is no village beyond Abadan.