3:72 Aal-i-Imraan (The Family of Imraan)

ثم أخبر تعالى عن ما همت به هذه الطائفة الخبيثة، وإرادة المكر بالمؤمنين، فقال { وقالت طائفة من أهل الكتاب آمنوا بالذي أنزل على الذين آمنوا وجه النهار واكفروا آخره } أي: ادخلوا في دينهم على وجه المكر والكيد أول النهار، فإذا كان آخر النهار فاخرجوا منه { لعلهم يرجعون } عن دينهم، فيقولون لو كان صحيحا لما خرج منه أهل العلم والكتاب، هذا الذي أرادوه عجبا بأنفهسم وظنا أن الناس سيحسنون ظنهم بهم ويتابعونهم على ما يقولونه ويفعلونه، ولكن يأبى الله إلا أن يتم نوره ولو كره الكافرون.

"وقالت طائفة من أهل الكتاب آمنوا بالذي أنزل على الذين آمنوا وجه النهار واكفروا آخره لعلهم يرجعون" الآية. هذه مكيدة أرادوها ليلبسوا على الضعفاء من الناس أمر دينهم وهو أنهم اشتوروا بينهم أن يظهروا الإيمان أول النهار ويصلوا مع المسلمين صلاة الصبح فإذا جاء آخر النهار ارتدوا إلى دينهم ليقول الجهلة من الناس إنما ردهم إلى دينهم اطلاعهم على نقيصة وعيب في دين المسلمين ولهذا قالوا "لعلهم يرجعون" وقال ابن أبي نجيح: عن مجاهد في قوله تعالى إخبارا عن اليهود بهذه الآية يعني يهودا صلت مع النبي صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم صلاة الصبح وكفروا آخر النهار مكرا منهم ليروا الناس أن قد بدت لهم الضلالة منه بعد أن كانوا اتبعوه. وقال العوفي عن ابن عباس: قالت طائفة من أهل الكتاب إذا لقيتم أصحاب محمد أول النهار فآمنوا وإذا كان آخره فصلوا صلاتكم لعلهم يقولون هؤلاء أهل الكتاب وهم أعلم منا وهكذا روى عن قتادة والسدي والربيع وأبي مالك.

The Envy the Jews Feel Towards Muslims; Their Wicked Plots Against Muslims

Allah states that the Jews envy the faithful and wish they could misguide them. Allah states that the punishment of this behavior will fall back upon them, while they are unaware. Allah criticizes them,

يأَهْلَ الْكِتَـبِ لِمَ تَكْفُرُونَ بِأَيَـتِ اللَّهِ وَأَنتُمْ تَشْهَدُونَ

(O People of the Scripture!: Why do you disbelieve in the Ayat of Allah, while you bear witness.)

You know for certain that Allah's Ayat are true and authentic,

يأَهْلَ الْكِتَـبِ لِمَ تَلْبِسُونَ الْحَقَّ بِالْبَـطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُونَ الْحَقَّ وَأَنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

(O People of the Scripture: Why do you mix truth with falsehood and conceal the truth while you know) by hiding what is in your Books about the description of Muhammad , while you know what you do.

وَقَالَت طَّآئِفَةٌ مِّنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَـبِ ءَامِنُواْ بِالَّذِي أُنزِلَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَجْهَ النَّهَارِ وَاكْفُرُواْ ءَاخِرَهُ

(And a party of the People of the Scripture say: "Believe in the morning in that which is revealed to the believers, and reject it at the end of the day,)

This is a wicked plan from the People of the Book to deceive Muslims who are weak in the religion. They decided that they would pretend to be believers in the beginning of the day, by attending the dawn prayer with the Muslims. However, when the day ended, they would revert to their old religion so that the ignorant people would say, "They reverted to their old religion because they uncovered some shortcomings in the Islamic religion." This is why they said next.

لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

(so that they may turn back.) Ibn Abi Najih said that Mujahid commented about this Ayah, which refers to the Jews, "They attended the dawn prayer with the Prophet and disbelieved in the end of the day in order to misguide the people. This way, people would think that they have uncovered shortcomings in the religion that they briefly followed."

وَلاَ تُؤْمِنُواْ إِلاَّ لِمَن تَبِعَ دِينَكُمْ

("And believe no one except the one who follows your religion.")

They said, do not trust anyone with your secret knowledge, except those who follow your religion. Therefore, they say, do not expose your knowledge to Muslims in order to prevent them from believing in it and, thus, use it as proof against you. Allah replied,

قُلْ إِنَّ الْهُدَى هُدَى اللَّهِ

(Say: (O Prophet) "Verily, right guidance is the guidance of Allah.")

Allah guides the hearts of the faithful to the perfect faith through the clear Ayat, plain proofs and unequivocal evidence that He has sent down to His servant and Messenger Muhammad ﷺ. This occurs, O you Jews, even though you hide the description of Muhammad . the unlettered Prophet whom you find in your Books that you received from the earlier Prophets. Allah's statement;

أَن يُؤْتَى أَحَدٌ مِّثْلَ مَآ أُوتِيتُمْ أَوْ يُحَآجُّوكُمْ عِندَ رَبِّكُمْ

((And they say: ) "Do not believe that anyone can receive like that which you have received, otherwise they would engage you in argument before your Lord.")

They say, "Do not disclose the knowledge that you have to the Muslims, to prevent them from learning it and thus becoming your equals. They will be even better because they will believe in it or will use it against you as evidence with your Lord, and thus establish Allah's proof against you in this life and the Hereafter." Allah said,

قُلْ إِنَّ الْفَضْلَ بِيَدِ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَن يَشَآءُ

(Say: "All the bounty is in the Hand of Allah; He grants to whom He wills.) meaning, all affairs are under His control, and He gives and takes. Verily, Allah gives faith, knowledge and sound comprehension to whomever He wills. He also misguides whomever He wills by blinding his sight, mind, sealing his heart, hearing and stamping his eyes closed. Allah has the perfect wisdom and the unequivocal proofs.

وَاللَّهُ وَسِعٌ عَلِيمٌيَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِ مَن يَشَآءُ وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ

(And Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures' needs, All-Knower." He selects for His mercy whom He wills and Allah is the Owner of great bounty.) meaning, He has endowed you, O believers, with tremendous virtue, in that He honored your Prophet Muhammad ﷺ over all other prophets, and by directing you to the best Shari`ah there is.

A party of the People of the Scripture the Jews say to some among them ‘Believe in what has been revealed to those who believe that is the Qur’ān at the beginning of the day and disbelieve in it at the end of it so that they the believers might then turn back from his Muhammad’s religion and that they the believers will then say these Jews are knowledgeable and they could only have turned away from it after accepting it because they know it to be false.

Some from among the people of the Book chose a strategy of deception in order to mislead Muslims. According to their agreed plan, they would declare their belief in the Qur'an in the morning and then reject it in the evening. They thought that this quick about-turn would create doubts in the minds of Muslims about Qur'an and Islam and they might turn away from their faith thinking that there must be something wrong with Islam visible to such learned people who were open-minded enough to accept it first. They also made it a point to re-serve their feinted declaration of belief in Islam to hoodwink Muslims only! Their true belief, they planned, would be affirmed before none but only those who follow their own creed. The rule was: Sincerity with the later, expediency with the former!

That these tricks are low is proved later in Verse 73 when the Holy Prophet ﷺ has been asked to declare that their clever moves are not going to work for them since Guidance given to servants of Allah is certainly from Allah. So, it is He who, with Guidance in His control, can make whoever He will steadfast on that Guidance. No one can succeed in weaning such a person away from it with any trick, plan or enticement whatsoever.

The reason why they act in the way they do is envy, that is, they envy Muslims as to why they were given the Scripture, or they envy their supremacy in religious argument. It is because of this envy that they keep working to bring about the downfall of Islam and of the community that adheres to it.

That this envy is based on not knowing the nature, timing and wisdom of Allah's grace and mercy is explained in the later part of verse 73 and in verse 74.

(And a party of the People of the Scripture say: Believe in that which hath been revealed unto those who believe�) [3:72]. Al-Hasan and al-Suddi said: �Twelve rabbis from the Jews of Khaybar and the town of �Uraynah conspired with each other, saying: �Pretend to join the religion of Muhammad at the beginning of the day and declare your disbelief in it at the end of the day. Say: �We have looked in our Scriptures and consulted our scholars and found that Muhammad is not genuine; it is clear to us now that he is lying and that his religion is false�. If you do this, his Companions will doubt their religion. They will say: these are people of the Book and they are more knowledgeable than us. They will then abandon their religion and embrace yours�. And so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse, thus informing His Prophet Muhammad, Allah bless him and give him peace, and the rest of the believers�. Mujahid, Muqatil and al-Kalbi said: �This was revealed regarding the qiblah when it was changed toward the Ka�bah. The Jews found it hard to accept that they were opposed, and so Ka�b ibn al-Ashraf and his companions said: �Believe in that which was revealed to Muhammad regarding the matter of the Ka�bah, pray toward it at the beginning of the day and then disbelieve in the Ka�bah and return toward your qiblah at the end of the day. They might then say: these are people of the Book and they know better than us. They might then return to our qiblah�. Allah, exalted is He, warned His Prophet from the scheming of these people and informed him about what they were conspiring; He revealed (And a party of the People of the Scripture say�)�.