2:135 Al-Baqara (The Cow)

أي: دعا كل من اليهود والنصارى المسلمين إلى الدخول في دينهم, زاعمين أنهم هم المهتدون وغيرهم ضال. قل له مجيبا جوابا شافيا: { بَلْ } نتبع { مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا } أي: مقبلا على الله, معرضا عما سواه, قائما بالتوحيد, تاركا للشرك والتنديد. فهذا الذي في اتباعه الهداية, وفي الإعراض عن ملته الكفر والغواية.

قال محمد بن إسحاق: حدثني محمد بن أبي محمد حدثني سعيد بن جبير أو عكرمة عن ابن عباس قال: قال عبدالله بن صوريا الأعور لرسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: ما الهدى إلا ما نحن عليه فاتبعنا يا محمد تهتد. وقالت النصارى مثل ذلك فأنزل الله عز وجل" وقالوا كونوا هودا أو نصارى تهتدوا" وقوله "قل بل ملة إبراهيم حنيفا" أي لا نريد ما دعوتمونا إليه من اليهودية والنصرانية بل نتبع "ملة إبراهيم حنيفا" أي مستقيما قاله محمد بن كعب القرظي وعيسى ابن جارية وقال خصيف عن مجاهد مخلصا وروى علي بن أبي طلحة عن ابن عباس حاجا وكذا روى عن الحسن والضحاك وعطية والسدي وقال أبو العالية: الحنيف الذي يستقبل البيت بصلاته ويرى أن حجه عليه إن استطاع إليه سبيلا وقال مجاهد والربيع بن أنس: حنيفا أي متبعا وقال أبو قلابة: الحنيف الذي يؤمن بالرسل كلهم من أولهم إلى آخرهم وقال قتادة: الحنيفية شهادة أن لا إله إلا الله يدخل فيها تحريم الأمهات والبنات والخالات والعمات وما حرم الله عز وجل والختان.

Muhammad bin Ishaq reported that Ibn `Abbas said that `Abdullah bin Suriya Al-A`war said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, "The guidance is only what we (Jews) follow. Therefore, follow us, O Muhammad, and you will be rightly guided." Also, the Christians said similarly, so Allah revealed,

وَقَالُواْ كُونُواْ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَـرَى تَهْتَدُواْ

(And they say, "Be Jews or Christians, then you will be guided.") Allah's statement,

قُلْ بَلْ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَهِيمَ حَنِيفًا

(Say (to them O Muhammad ), "Nay, (we follow) only the religion of Ibrahim, Hanif) means, "We do not need the Judaism or Christianity that you call us to, rather,

مِلَّةَ إِبْرَهِيمَ حَنِيفاً

((we follow) only the religion of Ibrahim, Hanif) meaning, on the straight path, as Muhammad bin Ka`b Al-Qurazi and `Isa bin Jariyah stated. Also, Abu Qilabah said, "The Hanif is what the Messengers, from beginning to end, believed in.")

And they say ‘Be Jews or Christians the particle aw is for detail; the first of these is the saying of the Medinan Jews while the second is that of the Christians of Najrān and you shall be guided’. Say to them ‘Nay we follow rather the creed of Abraham a hanīf hanīfan is a circumstantial qualifier referring to Ibrāhīma that is to say one that inclines away from all other religions to the upright religion; and he was not of the idolaters’.

The earlier verses have defined the religion (Millat مِلَّت of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) and established that its present form is Islam. Now, the Jews and the Christians, in spite of their pretension to be his followers, did not in actual fact follow his religion. Each of these two groups, instead of accepting Islam, used to ask the Muslims to accept its own religion in order to find true guidance. No doubt, each of these two religions was, in its own time and for its own time, a genuine religion, but in its present form each had become distorted, and had also been abrogated by Allah. So, in answer to them, Allah asks the Holy Prophet $ to declare on his own behalf and on that of his followers that they are and shall remain steadfast in the religion of Sayyidna Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) who shunned all kinds of association (Shirk شرک), who adored nothing but the One God and obeyed no one but Him, and whose religion, therefore, did not have even a trace of distortion. Then, in the second of these verses Allah asks the Muslims to declare the basic tenets of this religion too, which are as follows:- (1) Muslims believe in Allah and in the guidance which He has sent them through the Holy Prophet ﷺ (2) They also believe in all the prophets sent by Allah from time to time - some of whom have been mentioned in this verse. (3) Some of the prophets may in some ways be superior to others, but it is essential for a Muslim to believe in all the prophets without making any distinction. (4) Muslims believe that the Shari` ah of all the prophets mentioned here were instituted by Allah Himself, but they have now been abrogated. So, Muslims follow the Shari'ah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، for this alone is now valid. (5) Muslims ultimately obey Allah alone, and submit themselves totally to Him.

In the second of these verses the progeny of Sayyidna Ya` qub (علیہ السلام) (Jacob) has been described as Asbat اسباط or "tribes." The reason is that he had twelve sons, and the offspring of each son came to form a tribe. Allah so blessed his seed that in Egypt, Sayyidna Yusuf (علیہ السلام) (Joseph) and his brothers made up a group of twelve men, but their lineage flourished, and when the Israelites left Egypt along with Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) (Moses), their number ran into thousands. Another form of this blessing was that the progeny of Sayyidna Ya` qub (علیہ السلام) included a large number of prophets.

(And they say: Be Jews or Christians, then ye will be rightly guided�) [2:135]. Said Ibn �Abbas: �This was revealed about the Jewish leaders of Medina: Ka�b ibn al-Ashraf, Malik ibn al-Sayf, Wahb ibn Yahudha, Yasir ibn Akhtab, and also about the Christians of Najran. This is because when they argued with the Muslims regarding religion, each one claimed to have a better right to the religion of Allah, exalted is He, than anyone else. The Jews said: �Our Prophet Moses is the best of prophets, and our Scripture is the best of Scriptures and our religion is the best of religions�. They disbelieved in Jesus, the Gospel, Muhammad and the Qur�an. The Christians on the other hand said: �Our Prophet Jesus is the best of prophets, and our Scripture, the Gospel, is the best of Scriptures and our religion is the best of religions�. They disbelieved in Muhammad and the Qur�an. Both the Jews and Christians said to the believers: �Follow our religion, for there is no other true religion except ours�. And they invited the believers to follow their religion�.