The Qur'an

170	THE MADINA PERIOD

concerned with the submission of Christian and Jewish communities, may be fairly taken as his final and deliberate opinion as to the future relation of Islam to these creeds and people.

The last Sura, Sura Al-Ma'idah (v), contains a verse (56) similar in tone to those just quoted, but it is probably an interpolation in this Sura and its date is said to be just after the battle of Uhud.¹ If this is so, it simply shows that the final injunction in the ninth Sura regarding Jews and Christians was no hasty opinion, called forth by special circumstances, but the development of a principle settled some years before. The verse is:—

O ye who believe, take not the Jews and Christians as your friends, for they are but one another's friends;

[Footnote continued from previous page]
As regards Ezra ('Uzair) Husain relates a Tradition to the effect that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed all the copies of the Pentateuch, but that Ezra had committed it to memory and, on his way back from captivity, he died, and then, after a hundred years, he rose from the dead and dictated the Pentateuch. The Jews marvelled and said, this was because he was a son of God. There is no Jewish authority for this Tradition, and so the charge against the Jews is not proved and may be dismissed as a pure invention.
This Tradition is referred to in another form in the Sura Al-Baqarah (ii) 261:—

Like him who passed by a city which had been laid in ruins, and said, 'How will God revive this after death?' And God made him die for a hundred years, then He raised him and said, 'How long hast thou tarried?' He replied, 'I have tarried a day, or some part of a day.' He said, ' Nay thou hast tarried a hundred years: look at thy food and drink, they are not spoiled, and look at thine ass; for we will make thee a sign to men, and look at the bones how we scatter them, and then clothe them with flesh.'

The commentators refer this to Ezra, who is said to have passed by the ruins of Jerusalem and to have doubted whether it could ever be rebuilt. God then performed this miracle as a 'sign to men.' (See Tafsir-i-Husaini, vol. i, p. 50.) Baidawi says it is Ezra or Elias (al-Khidr). Muhammad has here confused Ezra with Nehemiah. The fable has its origin probably in some inaccurate account given to the Prophet of Nehemiah's ride round the ruined city. Nehemiah, ii. 11-16.
¹ Ibn Kathir says this verse came down at the time when the Bani Quraiza, (ante, p, 101) were rendered helpless, a proof of the earlier date of the verse. See Khalasatu't-Tafasir, vol. i, p. 535.

CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS

171

whoso amongst you taketh them for friends, verily he is one of them,¹ and verily God guideth not unjust people. Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 56.²

Thus did Muhammad finally part company with those for whom, in the earlier stages of his career, he had professed respect, whose sacred books he had referred to with reverence, and

¹ Husain in his comment on these words says that this is 'a very strong injunction in the matter of friendship with Jews and Christians.'

اين سخن غايت تهديد در موالات يهود ونصارى

Tafsir-i-Husaini, vol. 1, p. 149.
² This verse seems to contradict the apparently more liberal view in:—

To thee have we sent down the Book with truth, confirmatory of previous Scriptures and their safeguard. Judge therefore between them by what God hath sent down, and follow not their desires by deserting the truth which hath come unto them. For each one of you have we given a law and an open path,
And if God had pleased He had surely made you one people, but He would test you by what He hath given to each. Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 52-3.

The testing is said to be by 'divers laws, suitable for each member, and each period of time, or age, so that the obedient may be distinguished from the disobedient.'

از شرائع مخلفة مناسب هر عضوى وزمانى قا مطيع از عامى متميز شود

Tafsir-i-Husaini, vol. i, p. 148.
These two verses have sorely troubled the commentators, for they seem to show that the differences of religion were by God's appointment, whereas from the context we should have expected them to be the result of human sin and waywardness. The orthodox explanation is that the words لِكُلِّ 'for each one' do not apply to each individual, each period or each tribe, but to each prophet to whom a law has been sent down: so that the meaning of the whole passage is, that God has given to each prophet a law which the people of that age, until such law is abrogated, should obey, and so it goes on with successive prophets and religions. Now, Jews and Christians can no longer follow their distinctive laws, for both are abrogated and Islam is now the law of this age. Khalasatu't-Tafasir, vol. i, p. 530.
'Abdu'llah ibn 'Abbas says لِكُلِّ means 'each Prophet,' and explains it as لِكُلِّ نبى منكم 'each prophet from amongst you.' The commentators Shah Wali Ullah Muhaddath and Husain translate لِكُلِّ by هر كروة each tribe.'

Go To Start: WWW.BIBLE.CA