Surah Al-Maaida (5) — Ayah 13

(Ayah 13) ➊ {فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِمْ مِّيْثَاقَهُمْ لَعَنّٰهُمْ …… :} That is, instead of upholding their covenant and pledge, they broke the pledge of hearing and obeying, began to neglect prayer, and followed their desires. (See Maryam: 59) Instead of zakat and a goodly loan (charity, etc.), they reached the extreme of miserliness and stinginess and began to take usury; instead of believing in the messengers and their books and strengthening them through jihad, they altered the books and outright refused to go for jihad, abandoning the practice of much of the Torah, as a result of which Allah cursed them and filled their hearts with hypocrisy. {’’ قَسِيَّةٌ ‘‘} or {’’ قَاسِيَةٌ‘‘} originally refers to a coin that is adulterated; it is from {’’قَسْوَةٌ ‘‘}, which means intensity and hardness. Pure gold and silver are soft, and the more they are adulterated, the harder they become; in keeping with this analogy, they were called {’’ قَاسِيَةٌ ‘‘}.

➋ {يُحَرِّفُوْنَ الْكَلِمَ عَنْ مَّوَاضِعِهٖ:} That is, they would substitute one word for another, or derive a false meaning instead of the original meaning, which is called false interpretation (ta’wil batil); due to this very baseness, they altered the attributes of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that were mentioned in the Torah. (Qurtubi)

➌ {وَ نَسُوْا حَظًّا مِّمَّا ذُكِّرُوْا بِهٖ:} That is, they abandoned the practice of much of the Torah, such as believing in the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), stoning the adulterer, considering usury forbidden, etc. Regrettably, like the People of the Book, the majority of Muslims also abandoned hearing and obeying, neglected prayers, began consuming usury, abandoned jihad, split into sects, and began making interpretations of Allah’s Book to the extent of distortion; so the result is the same as that of the former people. However, the hopeful thing is that, according to the statement of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), there will always remain in the Muslim Ummah people who will remain steadfast on the truth and will continue to fight for the truth; these are the ones referred to as {’’عَلَي الْحَقِّ مَنْصُوْرِيْنَ‘‘}. [ مسلم، الإمارۃ، باب قولہ لا تزال طائفۃ…… : ۱۰۳۷، بعد ح : ۱۹۲۳۔ ابن ماجہ : ۱۰ ]

➍ {’’ خَآىِٕنَةٍ ‘‘} is a verbal noun on the pattern of {’’ عَافِيَةٌ ‘‘} meaning betrayal, that is, from them, day by day, some form of betrayal and breach of trust will continue to appear, or it is an active participle, meaning a group or individual who betrays, that is, there will always be among them those who commit betrayal and breach of trust, and you will never find security from their side. « اِلَّا قَلِيْلًا مِّنْهُمْ» That is, among them are a few people who will not display any betrayal or breach of trust. By this, specifically, Abdullah bin Salam (may Allah be pleased with him) and his companions are meant, or those who, despite disbelief, did not commit any kind of betrayal or breach of trust. (Kabir)

➎ {فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَ اصْفَحْ :} That is, overlook their individual betrayals and breaches of trust, not those breaches which are collective (or considered collective), because in that case, they would be considered clear enemies (those in a state of war), who must be dealt with firmly. (Al-Manar) Or, those among them who do not commit betrayal and remain true to their pledge, overlook their other slips. (Razi) In both cases, this verse remains established; otherwise, it would be considered abrogated by the verse commanding fighting. See Surah Tawbah (29).

13. 1. That is, despite so many arrangements and the covenant, the Children of Israel broke the covenant, due to which they became deserving of the curse of Allah. The worldly consequences of this curse appeared as follows: first, their hearts were hardened, which deprived their hearts of receptivity, and the admonitions and advice of the prophets became useless for them; second, they began to alter the words of Allah. In the same way, for the affirmation of their evil innovations, self-made notions, and false interpretations, they would alter the word of Allah.

13. 2. This is the third consequence, and it means that they no longer had any inclination or interest in acting upon the commands of Allah; rather, inaction and misconduct became their hallmark, and they reached such a low point that neither their hearts remained sound nor their nature upright.

13. 3. That is, deceit and treachery became a part of their character, examples of which would constantly appear before you.

13. 4. These few people are those among the Jews who became Muslim, and their number was less than ten.

13. 5. This command of forgiveness and forbearance was given at a time when permission to fight had not been granted. Later, in its place, the command was given (قَاتِلُوا الَّذِيْنَ لَا يُؤْمِنُوْنَ باللّٰهِ وَلَا بالْيَوْمِ الْاٰخِرِ) 9:29 "Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day." According to some, the command of forgiveness and forbearance has not been abrogated. This is, in itself, an important command; according to circumstances, it can also be adopted, and sometimes it yields the same results for which the command of fighting was given.

13. Then, because they broke their [37] covenant, We cursed them and made their hearts hard. They distort the words of Allah from their proper places [38] and have forgotten a good part of what they were reminded of. And you will not cease to discover their betrayals, except for a few of them [39]. So pardon them and overlook (their faults). Surely, Allah loves those who do good.

[37]
The Violation of Every Clause of Their Covenant by Bani Israel:

Bani Israel paid little heed to their firm covenant. They were negligent in establishing prayer and giving zakat. Instead of zakat, they chose the path of miserliness, and instead of giving a goodly loan, they began indulging in usury and unlawful earnings. Far from believing in the messengers of Allah, they vehemently opposed them, and even unjustly killed some of the prophets. In short, they left no stone unturned in breaking every clause of that covenant, as a result of which We cursed them and distanced them from Our mercy. The second punishment We gave them was that We made their hearts hard, due to which, firstly, they became incapable of accepting the path of truth, and secondly, instead of feelings of love and affection among themselves, selfishness, hard-heartedness, and mutual enmity took root within them.

[38] The further consequences of these two punishments were that these people began to alter the Book of Allah. Through philosophical hair-splitting and self-serving interpretations, they changed the meaning of most of the verses of the Book and turned it into something else entirely. The second result was that, although they had been told to take admonition and lesson from the Book of Allah, they completely abandoned this, and instead devoted all their efforts to unraveling the complexities of words and began to derive meanings that suited their desires. [See also footnote no. 77 of Surah An-Nisa.]

[39] These few people were Abdullah bin Salam and some of his companions who possessed a similarly upright mindset. Apart from them, all the Jews were conspiratorial, treacherous, and deceitful people, and from time to time, the Muslims themselves would become aware of their conspiracies, misdeeds, breaches of trust, and betrayals. Then, since the majority of the Jews consisted of such treacherous and deceitful people, Allah Almighty said to His Prophet ﷺ that if you become distressed by every objectionable thing they say, it will cause you a separate worry, so stop considering their words worthy of attention, and do not hold them accountable for every betrayal you become aware of. Allah Himself will deal with them. You should adopt the path of forgiveness and kindness, for this is the path Allah likes.