Tafsir of Al Imran 3:77-78

"Those who purchase..."

• "Purchase" (يَشْتَرُونَ): They exchange.
• "For the covenant of Allah" (بِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ): For that which they covenanted with Him, namely, belief in the Messenger who confirms what is with them.
• "And their oaths" (وَأَيْمَانِهِمْ): And for that which they swore by, saying: "By Allah, we shall surely believe in him and we shall surely support him."
• "A small price" (ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا): The fleeting goods of this world, such as leadership, taking bribes, and the like.

It is said this was revealed regarding Abu Rafi‘, Lubaba ibn Abi al-Haqiq, and Huyayy ibn Akhtab, who distorted the Torah, altered the description of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and took bribes for doing so.

It is also said that a group of Jews came to Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf during a year of famine, seeking provisions. He asked them, "Do you know that this man is the Messenger of Allah?" They replied, "Yes." He said, "I intended to provide for you and clothe you, but Allah has deprived you of much good." They said, "Perhaps it is a confusion for us; let us wait until we meet him." They went and wrote a description other than his, then returned to him and said, "We were mistaken; he is not the one described to us." He then rejoiced and provided for them.

Regarding Al-Ash‘ath ibn Qays: It was revealed when I had a dispute with a man over a well. We took it to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), who said: "Your two witnesses or his oath." I said, "Then he will swear and not care!" He (ﷺ) replied: "Whoever swears an oath to unjustly claim property, he will meet Allah while He is angry with him."

It is also said it was revealed regarding a man who displayed goods in the market and swore he had been offered a price he was never actually offered. However, the most sound view is that it was revealed regarding the People of the Book.

• "For the covenant of Allah" (بِعَهْدِ اللَّهِ): This strengthens the view that the pronoun in "His covenant" (بِعَهْدِهِ) refers back to Allah.
• "And He will not look at them" (وَلَا يَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِمْ): A metaphor for disdain and wrath toward them. You say, "So-and-so does not look at so-and-so," meaning he does not regard him or show him kindness.
• "And He will not purify them" (وَلَا يُزَكِّيهِمْ): He will not praise them. If you ask, "What is the difference between using this for one who can literally look and one who cannot?" I say: Its origin for one who can look is metonymy, because one who regards a person turns toward him and fixes his gaze upon him. It then became common usage to mean "regard and kindness," even without a literal gaze. Then, it was applied to the One for whom a literal gaze is impossible, as a metaphor for the kindness that was originally implied by the metonymy used for those who can look.
• "A party" (لَفَرِيقًا): They are Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf, Malik ibn al-Sayf, Huyayy ibn Akhtab, and others.
• "They twist their tongues with the Book" (يَلْوُونَ أَلْسِنَتَهُمْ بِالْكِتَابِ): They distort it by reading it from the authentic to the corrupted. The people of Medina read it as yulawwuna (with tashdid), like the verse: "They twist their heads" (lawwaw ru'usahum). Mujahid and Ibn Kathir read it as yaluna; the explanation is that they changed the damma-voweled waw into a hamza, then lightened it by deleting it and transferring its vowel to the preceding silent letter.
• "So that you may think it" (لِتَحْسَبُوهُ): If you ask to what the pronoun refers, I say: To that which "twisting their tongues with the Book" points to, which is the corrupted text. It is also possible that it means they bend their tongues with something resembling the Book so that you might think that resemblance is from the Book. It is also read as liyahsabuhu (with a ya), meaning they do that so the Muslims might think it is from the Book.
• "And they say, 'It is from Allah'" (وَيَقُولُونَ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ): This is an emphasis on their saying "It is from the Book," an increase in their vilification, a recording of their lies, and an indication that they do not merely hint or imply, but explicitly state that it is in the Torah as such and that Allah revealed it to Moses in that way, due to their extreme audacity toward Allah, the hardness of their hearts, and their despair of the Hereafter.

According to Ibn Abbas, they are the Jews who came to Ka‘b ibn al-Ashraf, altered the Torah, and wrote a book in which they changed the description of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). Then the Banu Qurayza took what they had written and mixed it with the Book they possessed.