ﲱ ﲲ ﲳ ﲴ ﲵ ﲶ ﲷ ﲸ ﲹ ﲺ ﲻ ﲼ ﲽ ﲾ ﲿ ﳀ ﳁ ﳂ ﳃ ﳄ
Do you covet [the hope, O believers], that they would believe for you while a party of them used to hear the words of Allah and then distort the Torah after they had understood it while they were knowing?
Tafsir
Verse range: 2:75
"Do you then covet..."
[Do you then covet] The address is to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and the believers.
[that they should believe you] That they should produce faith because of your invitation and respond to you, as in His saying: "So Lot believed him" (Al-Ankabut: 26). This refers to the Jews.
[And a party of them had been] A group among those who preceded them.
[hearing the word of Allah] Which is what they recite from the Torah.
[then they would distort it] Just as they distorted the description of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and the verse of stoning. It is said that a group from the seventy chosen ones heard the word of Allah when He spoke to Moses on the Mount and commanded and forbade him. Then they said: "We heard Allah say at the end: 'If you are able to do these things, then do them; and if you wish not to, then there is no harm.'" It is also read as kallama Allahu (Allah spoke).
[after they had understood it] After they had comprehended it and grasped it with their intellects, leaving them no doubt as to its authenticity.
[while they know] That they are liars and fabricators. The meaning is: if these people disbelieve and distort, they have a precedent for that.
[And when they meet] Meaning the Jews.
[they say] Their hypocrites say:
["We have believed"] That you are upon the truth and that Muhammad is the Messenger foretold.
[And when they go apart] Those who did not practice hypocrisy.
[to one another] Those who did practice hypocrisy.
[they say] Reproaching them:
["Do you speak to them about what Allah has disclosed to you?"] About what He clarified to you in the Torah regarding the description of Muhammad. Or, the hypocrites said to their followers—showing them firmness in their religion—"Do you speak to them?"—denying that they should disclose anything from their book. Thus, they act hypocritically toward the believers and hypocritically toward the Jews.
["so that they may argue with you about it before your Lord?"] So that they may use against you what your Lord revealed in His Book. They considered their arguing with them and saying, "It is in your book like this," as an argument before Allah. Do you not see that you say, "It is in the Book of Allah like this," and "It is with Allah like this"—they are one and the same meaning.
[He knows] All of
[what they conceal and what they declare] Including their concealment of disbelief and their declaration of faith.
"And among them are unlettered ones who do not know the Scripture except in wishful thinking, and they are but assuming. So woe to those who write the 'scripture' with their own hands, then say, 'This is from Allah,' in order to exchange it for a small price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn." (78-79)
