75 So can you [believers] hope that such people will believe you, when some of them used to hear the words of God and then deliberately twist them, even when they understood them? 76 When they meet the believers, they say, ‘We too believe.’ But when they are alone with each other they say, ‘How could you tell them about God’s revelation [to us]? They will be able to use it to argue against you before your Lord! Have you no sense?’ 77 Do they not know that God is well aware of what they conceal and what they reveal? 78 Some of them are uneducated, and know the Scripture only through wishful thinking. They rely on guesswork. 79 So woe to those who write something down with their own hands and then claim, ‘This is from God,’ in order to make some small gain. Woe to them for what their hands have written! Woe to them for all that they have earned! 80 They say, ‘The Fire will only touch us for a few days.’ Say to them, ‘Have you received a promise from God– for God never breaks His promise– or are you saying things about Him of which you have no real knowledge?’ 81 Truly those who do evil and are surrounded by their sins will be the inhabitants of the Fire, there to remain, 82 while those who believe and do good deeds will be the inhabitants of the Garden, there to remain.
83 Remember when We took a pledge from the Children of Israel: ‘Worship none but God; be good to your parents and kinsfolk, to orphans and the poor; speak good words to all people; keep up the prayer and pay the prescribed alms.’ Then all but a few of you turned away and paid no heed. 84 We took a pledge from you, ‘Do not shed one another’s blood or drive one another from your homelands.’ You acknowledged it at the time, and you can testify to this. 85 Yet here you are, killing one another and driving some of your own people from their homes, helping one another in sin and aggression against them. If they come to you as captives, you still pay to set them free, although you had no right to drive them out. [a] So do you believe in some parts of the Scripture and not in others? The punishment for those of you who do this will be nothing but disgrace in this life, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be condemned to the harshest torment: God is not unaware of what you do. 86 These are the people who buy the life of this world at the price of the Hereafter: their torment will not be lightened, nor will they be helped.
87 We gave Moses the Scripture and We sent messengers after him in succession. We gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit. So how is it that, whenever a messenger brings you something you do not like, you become arrogant, calling some impostors and killing others? 88 They say, ‘Our hearts are impenetrably wrapped [against whatever you say],’ but God has rejected [b] them for their disbelief: they have little faith. 89 When a Scripture came to them from God confirming what they already had, and when they had been praying for victory against the disbelievers, even when there came to them something they knew [to be true], they disbelieved in it: God rejects those who disbelieve. 90 Low indeed is the price for which they have sold their souls by denying the God-sent truth, out of envy that God should send His bounty to any of His servants He pleases. The disbelievers have ended up with wrath upon wrath, and a humiliating torment awaits them. 91 When it is said to them, ‘Believe in God’s revelations,’ they reply, ‘We believe in what was revealed to us,’ but they do not believe in what came afterwards, though it is the truth confirming what they already have. Say [Muhammad], ‘Why did you kill God’s prophets in the past if you were true believers? 92 Moses brought you clear signs, but then, while he was away, you chose to worship the calf– you did wrong.’ 93 Remember when We took your pledge, making the mountain tower above you, and said, ‘Hold on firmly to what We have given you, and listen to [what We say].’ They said, ‘We hear and we disobey,’ and through their disbelief they were made to drink [the love of] the calf deep into their hearts.
Footnotes
a. Razi: although the Jews fought each other in alliance with different Arab tribes, when their side captured a Jew from another side, they would pay to have them released, as they said this was required by the Torah.
b. La'ana in Arabic dictionaries gives the meaning of tarada ‘to reject’, ‘to drive away’ rather than ‘to curse’.
The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)
The Qur'an / a new translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, copyright © 2004 Oxford World's Classics (Oxford University Press). Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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