Al-Baqarah: 213
"Mankind was [of] one religion..."
"So Allah sent the prophets..."
He means: "So they differed, and [then] Allah sent [the prophets]." The omission is justified by the indication of His saying: "To judge between the people in that wherein they differed."
In the reading of ‘Abdullah [ibn Mas‘ud], it is: "Mankind was one religion, so they differed, and Allah sent..." The evidence for this is His saying, Mighty and Majestic is He: "And mankind was not but one community, then they differed" (Yunus: 19). It is also said: "Mankind was one community of disbelievers, so Allah sent the prophets, and they differed regarding them." The first [interpretation] is the correct one.
If you ask: "When were mankind one community, agreed upon the truth?" I say: It is narrated from Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that it was the ten generations between Adam and Noah, who were upon the law of truth, then they differed. It is also said: They were Noah and those who were with him in the Ark.
"And He sent down with them the Scripture..."
He means the category [of Scripture], or that He sent with each one of them his own Scripture.
"To judge..."
[Meaning] Allah, or the Scripture, or the Prophet to whom it was sent down.
"In that wherein they differed..."
[Meaning] regarding the truth and the religion of Islam, in which they differed after having been in agreement.
"And none differed over it [the truth] except those who were given it..."
Except those who were given the Scripture that was sent down to remove the difference. That is, they increased in difference when the Scripture was sent down to them, and they made the revelation of the Scripture a cause for the intensification and entrenchment of their disagreement.
"Out of jealous animosity among themselves..."
[Meaning] out of envy among themselves and oppression, due to their greed for the world and their lack of fairness.
"From the truth..."
This is an explanation of what they differed in. That is: So Allah guided those who believed to the truth regarding which those who differed had differed.
