Tafsir of Al-Baqarah 2:4

If you ask: Are "those who believe" (in verse 4) a different group from the first ones (in verse 3), or are they the same, with the conjunction (wa) inserted between them just as it is inserted between attributes in your saying, "He is the brave and the generous," or as in the poetry: To the noble king, son of the brave, and the lion of the battalion in the thick of battle. And the saying: Oh, the grief of Zi'aba for Al-Harith, the morning-comer, the victor, the returner.

I say: It is possible that this refers to the believers among the People of the Book, such as Abdullah ibn Salam and his peers. Their faith encompassed every revelation sent down from God, and they attained certainty regarding the Hereafter—a certainty that dispelled their previous beliefs that "none shall enter Paradise except those who are Jews or Christians" and that "the Fire will not touch us except for a few numbered days." They were united in affirming the resurrection and the return of souls to bodies, though they differed on the nature of the afterlife (whether it involves physical pleasures or purely spiritual ones) and on its duration. In this case, the conjoined group is different from the one it is conjoined to.

It is also possible that it describes the first group, with the conjunction inserted to signify that they combine both sets of attributes.

If you ask: If they are a different group, are they included in the category of the "righteous" (al-muttaqin) or not?

I say: If you conjoin them to "those who believe in the unseen," they are included, and the attribute of righteousness encompasses both groups: the believers from the People of the Book and others. If you conjoin them to "the righteous," they are not included; it would be as if it were said: "Guidance for the righteous, and guidance for those who believe in what was revealed to you."

If you ask: Regarding the phrase "what was revealed to you," if it means the entire Quran and the complete Sharia, then it had not all been revealed at the time of their belief. How then is it expressed in the past tense? And if it means only the amount revealed up to that point, then it is belief in only part of the revelation, whereas faith must encompass all that has passed and all that is to come.

I say: It refers to the entire revelation. It is expressed in the past tense—even if some of it is yet to come—by way of taghlib (giving precedence to the existing over the non-existing), just as the speaker takes precedence over the addressee, and the addressee over the absent (e.g., "I and you did," "You and Zayd do"). Furthermore, when some has been revealed and some is awaited, it is treated as if the whole has been revealed and completed. This is evidenced by the verse: "We have heard a Book revealed after Moses" (Al-Ahqaf: 30). They had not heard the entire Book, nor had it all been revealed, but it follows the same principle. It is like saying, "Everything he has spoken is eloquent," or "He has not spoken a word but that it is rare," without intending only the past speech to the exclusion of the future, because the parts are bound together. Yazid ibn Qutaib read it as ma unzila (passive voice).

Regarding the placement of "and in the Hereafter" and the construction of "they are certain" (yuqinun) with the pronoun "they" (hum): This is an insinuation against the People of the Book and their false claims regarding the Hereafter. It implies that their claims do not stem from true certainty, and that true certainty belongs only to those who believe in what was revealed to you and what was revealed before you.

• Certainty (Iqan): The perfection of knowledge, with all doubt and suspicion removed.
• The Hereafter (al-Akhirah): The feminine form of al-akhir (the last), the opposite of al-awwal (the first). It is an attribute of "the Abode" (ad-dar), as in: "That is the final Abode" (Al-Qasas: 77). It is a substantive adjective, as is ad-dunya (the world).
• Nafi' read it with a lightened hamza (dropping it and transferring its vowel to the lam), like dabbat al-ard.
• Abu Hayya al-Numayri read it as yu'qinun (with a hamza), treating the damma on the waw as if it were on the letter itself, turning it into a hamza, similar to wujuh and wuqtat.