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).