Surah Al-Baqara (2) — Ayah 79

(Ayah 79) ➊ This is the condition of the educated class: they are themselves misguided and keep issuing wrong religious verdicts to misguide others. Merely to earn worldly gains, they fabricate statements according to the desires of the public and, with great audacity and boldness, attribute them to Allah and His Messenger. When asked about a religious issue, instead of quoting the command of Allah and His Messenger, they present their own or some elder’s statement, making people believe that this is exactly the Shariah. Sadly, most Muslims have also adopted this approach: they have declared the statements of followers as Shariah and labeled those who follow the Quran and Hadith as irreligious.

➋ The meaning of {” وَيْلٌ“} is destruction and ruin; the tanween is for emphasis, which is why it is translated as “great destruction.” In the Marfu’ narration of Sunan Tirmidhi in which it is stated: “Wail is the name of a valley in Hell; a disbeliever will keep falling in its depth for seventy years but will not reach its bottom”—this narration is not correct. Allamah Albani (may Allah have mercy on him) has declared it weak in Da’if Tirmidhi (3164).

➌ Those people should especially reflect on this verse who, while interpreting the Quran, leave aside Sahih hadith and take interest in the Torah, Gospel, and Talmud, in which Allah has testified to distortion, and which contain accusations against the Prophets, baseless stories, and mutual contradictions in the verses—clear evidence of verbal distortion. The interpreter of the Quran, Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), said: “Why do you ask the People of the Book about any report, when your Book, which was revealed to Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him), is the newest of all? You read it pure and free from all adulteration, even though Allah has informed you that the People of the Book altered their Book and wrote with their own hands and said, ‘This is from Allah,’ so that they could gain a small amount of worldly wealth through it. Does not the knowledge that has come to you prevent you from asking them? By Allah! We have not seen any of them asking you about what has been revealed to you.” [ بخاری، الاعتصام بالکتاب والسنۃ، باب قول النبی صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم لا تسألوا… : ۷۳۶۳ ]

➍ Some people have declared the sale of the Noble Quran as impermissible, but this is not the meaning of this verse. It refers to those who, for worldly benefit, write false statements from themselves and make people believe it is the word of Allah. See Surah Al-Baqarah (41).

79. 2 This explains the audacity of the Jewish scholars and their disregard for the fear of Allah: they fabricate rulings with their own hands and openly claim that these are from Allah. According to hadith, "Wayl" is also a valley in Hell whose depth is such that it would take a disbeliever forty years to reach its bottom. (Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Ibn Hibban, and Al-Hakim as referenced in Fath al-Qadeer) Some scholars have declared the selling of the Noble Quran to be impermissible based on this verse, but this reasoning is not correct. The verse refers only to those who distort the word of Allah for worldly gain and deceive people in the name of religion.

So woe to those who write the Book (legal rulings, etc.) with their own hands (according to their desires), then say, "This is from Allah," so that they may gain a small price [93] for it. Woe to them for what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn.

[93]
The Earnings from False Fatwas:

The condition of the Jewish scholars was such that they had mixed the commentaries of the Torah and the fatwas of the scholars into the Torah itself. Then they would present it to the common people as if all of it was revealed from Allah. Their sole purpose in this was to acquire worldly wealth and riches, and the interpretations of their commentators, the philosophical ideas of their thinkers, the legal judgments of their jurists, and their national historical events—all these things were included in the Bible. And it was made obligatory to have faith in all of this. From such a collection, they faced no difficulty in issuing or writing any kind of fatwa, and according to the nature of the crimes, they would charge whatever price they wished for their fatwas.