Tazkirul Quran, Qur’an 2:91–96

Translation

(91) When they are told, ‘Believe in what God has revealed,’ they say, ‘We believe in what was revealed to us,’ while they deny the truth in what has been sent down after that, even though it is the Truth, confirming that which they already have. Say, ‘Why did you kill God’s prophets in the past, if you were true believers? (92) Moses came to you with clear signs, but in his absence you worshipped the calf and became wrongdoers.’ (93) When We made a covenant with you and raised the mountain above you saying, ‘Hold firmly to what We have given you and listen,’ you said, ‘We hear, but we disobey,’ and their hearts were filled with the love of the calf, because of their refusal to acknowledge the truth. Say, ‘Evil is that to which your faith enjoins you if you are indeed believers.’ (94) Say, ‘If God’s abode of the Hereafter is for you alone, to the exclusion of all others, then wish for death, if you are truthful.’ (95) But they will never wish for death, because of what their own hands have sent on before them; God is fully aware of the wrongdoers. (96) You will find them clinging to life more eagerly than any other people, even the polytheists. Any of them would wish to be given a life of a thousand years, though even such a long life would not save them from [Our] punishment; and God sees all that they do.

Commentary

(a) The Jews were not ready to accept the Quran, because they thought they were already rightly guided. They were sure that the very fact that they belonged to the largest group of the followers of truth, that is, the Israelites, that would be enough to earn them salvation. But, in fact, this was a feeling of ethnic superiority which they mistook for love of truth.

The communal values of their group came to occupy the position of pure truth. That was why, when the truth appeared in its original form, they failed to accept it. Had their aim been to find pure truth, they would not have found it difficult, since predictions about it had appeared in their own sacred book, (the Torah) to the effect that now it was the Quran that was the Book of Truth to be followed and not the religion of their own group.

(a) The fact that the Israelites were not really concerned with truth is proved by their own history. It was they who had slain their own prophets, such as Zachariah and John the Baptist, the only reason for these actions being that these prophets had criticized the Israelites’ mode of living, and sought to bring them back to the divine way (Nehemiah, 9:26). They had seen Moses perform undeniable miracles, but when he was not with them in person, having left them to spend forty days on Mount Sinai, they started worshipping the golden calf; it had only been his personal authority which had kept them under control. When the Mount was raised threateningly above their heads, they temporarily agreed to do ‘all that the Lord hath spoken’ (Exodus, 19:5, 8, 16, 18), but, after that, most of them returned to their disobedient ways. If they had really been seeking God, their attention would have been entirely focused on the life after death; but, in fact, they, more than all the others, were obsessed with the love of the present world.