Tafsir of Al-Ma'idah 5:49

"And that you judge between them..."

If you ask: To what is "and that you judge" (wa-an iḥkum) conjoined?

I say: It is conjoined to "the Book" (al-kitāb) in His saying: "And We have revealed to you the Book" (wa-anzalnā ilayka al-kitāb). It is as if it were said: "And We have revealed to you that you should judge," given that "that" (an) is connected to the command, for it is a verb like all other verbs. It is also permissible that it be conjoined to "with the truth" (bi-al-ḥaqq), meaning: "We revealed it with the truth, and [we revealed it] that you should judge."

"Lest they tempt you away from some of what Allah has revealed to you"

Meaning: Lest they lead you astray from it and cause you to slip. This is because Ka‘b ibn Usayd, ‘Abdullah ibn Ṣūriyā, and Shās ibn Qays—among the Jewish rabbis—said: "Let us go to Muhammad and tempt him away from his religion." They said: "O Muhammad, you know that we are the rabbis of the Jews. If we follow you, all the Jews will follow us and will not oppose us. There is a dispute between us and our people, so we will seek your judgment, and you will judge in our favor against them, and we will believe in you and trust you." But the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) refused that.

[Weak narration] So, this was revealed:

"But if they turn away"

From judging by what Allah has revealed to you, and they desire something else.

"Then know that Allah only intends to afflict them with some of their sins"

Meaning: With the sin of turning away from Allah’s judgment and desiring the opposite. He placed "with some of their sins" in place of that, intending that they have numerous, vast sins, and that this sin—despite its magnitude—is only a portion of them, a single one among them. This ambiguity is to emphasize the gravity of turning away and their excessiveness in committing it.

The use of "some" (ba‘ḍ) in this speech is like the saying of Labīd: "Or the fate of some souls shall be bound." He meant his own soul, but he intended to magnify its status through this ambiguity, as if he said: "a great soul," or "a soul of such and such a nature." Just as the indefinite article (tankīr) conveys the meaning of magnification—which is the meaning of "partitive" (ba‘ḍiyyah)—so too does it function when "some" is explicitly stated.

"The disobedient" (al-fāsiqūn)

Those who are rebellious in their disbelief, transgressing within it. This means that turning away from the judgment of Allah is a form of great rebellion and transgression in disbelief.