Tafsir of Al-Qasas 28:53

"And when it is recited" — meaning, the Quran — "to them, they say, 'We have believed in it,'" that is, in the fact that it is the speech of Allah Almighty.

"Indeed, it is the truth from our Lord" — meaning, the truth whose veracity we were already aware of. This is an initiation to explain what necessitated their belief in it. It is also possible that the sentence is an explanation of what preceded it.

Regarding His saying, "Indeed, we, before it, were Muslims [those who submit]," this is an explanation that their belief in it was a matter of long-standing, as they had witnessed its mention in the previous scriptures, and that they were upon the religion of Islam before the descent of the Quran. It suffices, for them to be considered upon the religion of Islam before its descent, that they believed in it in a general sense.

In al-Kashshaf and al-Bahr, it is stated that Islam is the attribute of every monotheist who affirms revelation, and the apparent meaning is that Islam is not exclusively a characteristic of this nation [the Ummah] among all other nations. As-Suyuti—may mercy be upon him—held the view that it is one of the exclusive characteristics [of this nation], and he composed a booklet on the matter. He wrote at its conclusion: "When I finished composing this booklet and laid down on my bed to sleep, the verse of the Almighty came to my mind: 'Those to whom We gave the Scripture before it'—the verse. It was as if a mountain had been cast upon me, because its apparent meaning points to the negation of this exclusivity. I pondered it for a time, and nothing became clear to me regarding it, so I turned to Allah Almighty and hoped that He would open up an answer for me. When I awoke at the time of dawn, the answer had been opened up, and three responses appeared for it:

The First: That "Muslims" (muslimin) is an active participle intended for the future tense, as that is its primary reality, rather than the present or past. Adhering to the literal reality is the origin. Thus, the estimation of the verse is: "We were, before its arrival, intending to submit to it when it came, because of what we found in our books regarding his mission and his description." What supports this is that the context guides toward the fact that their intention was to inform of the veracity of the Quran and that they were intent on submitting to it when the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) brought it. Their intention was not to praise themselves in their own essence by saying they were already in the state of Islam beforehand, as this is irrelevant to the station, as is not hidden.

The Second: That we estimate the verse as: "Indeed, we were, before it, submissive to it (muslimin bihi)." Thus, the description of Islam has its cause in the Quran, not the Torah or the Gospel. Supporting this is the mention of the prepositional object previously, where the Almighty said: "They believe in it," for it indicates that the object is intended here as well, but it was omitted to avoid repetition.

The Third: That this description of them is based upon the doctrine of al-Ash'ari, which holds that whoever Allah has decreed will die as a believer is called a believer in the sight of Allah, even if they are currently in a state of disbelief. We do not apply this description to them only because we lack knowledge of what is with Allah Almighty. Since Allah had decreed that these [individuals] would enter Islam, they spoke of themselves as having been characterized by it beforehand, because the significance of this description lies in the final outcome. Their describing themselves as such is more appropriate than describing a disbeliever—whom Allah knows will die in a state of Islam—in that way, because these [people] were already upon a true religion. This is a subtle meaning we have derived from this verse based on the principles of theology."

[The author remarks]: The weakness of this answer is not hidden, and the same applies to the first answer. As for the second answer, it carries the same meaning as what we have mentioned regarding the verse, and it has been mentioned by al-Baydawi and others.

It is also possible that "Islam" here is intended to mean "submission" (al-inqiyad), meaning: "Indeed, we were, before its descent, submissive to the rulings of Allah Almighty as spoken by the scripture revealed to us, and among those rulings is the obligation to believe in it; therefore, we were believers in it before its descent."