Surah Aal-i-Imraan (3) — Ayah 64

(Ayah 64) ➊ { قُلْ يٰۤاَهْلَ الْكِتٰبِ …:} In this verse, a command is given to invite the People of the Book to three common matters: (1) That we worship none except Allah. (2) That we do not associate anything with Him. (3) And that none of us take others as lords besides Allah. Despite the distortions in the Torah and the Gospel, the Torah is still filled with monotheism and the prohibition of shirk, and the Gospel also contains this teaching in various places, such as: "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." [متّی : ۴ : ۱۰ ] In fact, it is also stated: "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." [متّی : ۶ : ۱۰ ]

➋ The People of the Book were opposing all three matters: the Jews declared Ezra as the son of Allah and the Christians began worshipping the Messiah as the son of Allah, and both made the lawful and unlawful according to the rulings of their rabbis and monks, thus granting them the status of lordship. For details, see Surah At-Tawbah (30, 31) and their footnotes.

➌ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), according to Allah's command, invited the People of the Book to this common belief; those who were near, he invited directly, and those who were far, he wrote letters to them. Thus, when he wrote a letter to Heraclius, the king of Rome, he invited him to Islam and also wrote the verse under commentary, as mentioned in Sahih Bukhari "Book of Tafsir (4553)."

➍ { فَاِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَقُوْلُوا اشْهَدُوْا بِاَنَّا مُسْلِمُوْنَ:} That is, if the People of the Book turn away from accepting this belief, then you should declare that you remain firm upon this belief from your side. In this, it is indicated that the People of the Book have deviated from this belief, because they declared Ezra and Jesus (peace be upon them) as sons of Allah. In addition, they made the graves of their prophets and righteous people into places of prostration.

64. 1. Do not worship any idol, nor the cross, nor fire, nor anything else, but worship only one Allah, as has been the call of all the prophets.

64. 2. Firstly, this points to the fact that the belief you have established regarding the divinity (being Lord) of Hazrat Isa and Hazrat Uzair (علیہما السلام) is incorrect; they are not Lords, they are humans. Secondly, it points to the fact that you have given your priests and monks the authority to declare things lawful or unlawful, which is also making them lords. The authority to declare lawful and unlawful belongs only to Allah (Ibn Kathir and Fath al-Qadeer).

64. 3. It is in Sahih Bukhari that, in accordance with this command of the Quran, the Prophet ﷺ wrote a letter to Heraclius, the king of Rome, and in it, he invited him to accept Islam with reference to this verse. He said, "If you become Muslim, you will have a double reward, otherwise the sin of all your subjects will be upon you. Accept Islam and you will remain in safety, because you will be the reason for your subjects not accepting Islam." In this mentioned verse, there are three points: 1. Worship only Allah. 2. Do not associate anyone with Him. 3. Do not give anyone the divine position of legislating the Shariah. Therefore, to unite this Ummah, these three points and this common word should be made the primary foundation.

64. Say: "O People of the Book! Come to a word that is equitable between us and you: that we worship none but Allah, and that we associate nothing with Him, and that none of us takes others as lords [57] besides Allah." But if they turn away, then say: "Bear witness that we are Muslims (those who submit to Allah)."

[57] After the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent letters inviting various kings of the non-Arab world to Islam. The letter sent to Heraclius, the Emperor of Rome, included this very verse after the invitation to Islam. At that time, Abu Sufyan, along with some of his companions, was in Syria. Heraclius summoned him and his companions to his court and asked many questions about the Prophet of Islam. Eventually, he became convinced of the truthfulness of the Prophet. Then he called the leaders of his state into a closed room and said, "If you become Muslims, you will attain guidance, and your kingdom will remain with you." But they were agitated by this invitation and tried to rush out. Heraclius called them back and said, "I was only testing you to see how firm you are in your religion." So they prostrated to Heraclius and were pleased with him. (Summary of a lengthy hadith) [بخاری، کتاب التفسیر، زیر آیت : __QUR_0__ ]

The Dialogue Between Heraclius and Abu Sufyan:

Among the questions mentioned in the above hadith, one of the questions Heraclius asked was, "Has there ever been a war between you and this Prophet?" Abu Sufyan replied, "Yes, there has." Then Heraclius asked, "What was the outcome of that war?" Abu Sufyan answered, "al-harb sujal," meaning, "War is like buckets (in a well); sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other." And this is the very phrase Abu Sufyan uttered at the end of the Battle of Uhud. From this, it is understood that these verses were revealed after the Battle of Uhud. Furthermore, this hadith makes it clear that Heraclius had reached the correct conclusion, but he could not prevail before his courtiers, nor did he have enough courage in faith to abandon his kingdom and become Muslim. And this very conclusion that Heraclius reached is the "kalimatun sawaa" (common word) which Allah has mentioned here, and it is found in every revealed book. Later, people introduced various alterations into this "kalimatun sawaa" or the word of monotheism, just as the Christians later invented the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, etc.