Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:84

This is according to the same pattern as mentioned previously regarding {You shall not worship [except Allah]}. The intent is that you shall not assault one another with killing or expulsion. Making the killing of a man by another equivalent to killing one’s own self is due to their connection through lineage or religion, or because it necessitates retaliation (qisas). Thus, there is a metaphor in the verse: either in the pronoun "yourselves" (anfusakum), where it is used to express those connected to the speaker, or in the word "shed" (tasfikuna), where it is intended to mean that which causes the shedding.

It has been said: The meaning is, do not commit that which makes the shedding of your blood and your expulsion from your homes permissible. Or, do not do what causes you to be driven away and diverted from the pleasures of eternal life, for that is the true killing, and do not commit what keeps you from Paradise, which is your true home. The "exile" intended here is not truly the eviction from homelands, but rather being distant from the gardens of Paradise. Perhaps what the context of the noble arrangement supports is the first interpretation.

Al-dima’ (blood) is the plural of dam, a well-known word. Its suffix is elided due to the definite article (al-); it is a ya according to some, due to the saying: "The two bloods (damiyan) flowed with certain news." It is a waw according to others, due to their saying damwan. Its measure is fa‘l or fi‘l, and it has been heard shortened (maqsur) and also geminated (mushaddad). Talha and Shu‘aib recited it as taskufuna with a damma on the fa; Abu Nuhaik recited it with a damma on the ta, a fatha on the sin, and a kasra on the fa with tashdid; Ibn Abi Ishaq recited it likewise, except that he made the sin quiescent and the fa light (mukhaffaf).

{Then you acknowledged}—that is, the covenant—{and you witnessed}—meaning, you attested to its binding nature, successor after predecessor. Iqrar (acknowledgment) is the opposite of denial, and it takes the preposition ba’. It has been said that it might mean "to keep a thing in its state without acknowledging it," but this is baseless, as it does not harmonize with {and you witnessed}.

{And you were witnessing} is a corroborative state (hal) that removes the possibility that the acknowledgment referred to some other matter, even if the [context] might require it. Conjunction is not permissible due to the completeness of the connection, nor is it an interpolation (i‘tirad), for the meaning is not "it is your habit to witness," but rather the meaning is based on restriction. It has been said: "While you—O present ones—witness the acknowledgment of your predecessors," making the attribution of the acknowledgment to them metaphorical. This is weak because it would make the condemnation of the killing and expulsion from them problematic, even though the taking of the covenant and the acknowledgment were from their predecessors due to their connection through lineage and religion. This is unlike when the attribution of the acknowledgment to them is considered literal, for then it is because of their own acknowledgment and witnessing, which is more eloquent in explaining the ugliness of their deeds.

Some claimed that the "most apparent" interpretation is that the meaning is "you acknowledged while you were witnesses to your own acknowledgment," just as everyone witnesses the acknowledgment of another, as is the procedure of witnessing. It is not hidden that the level of eloquence in that case is diminished.