Tazkirul Quran, Qur’an 2:97–101

Translation

(97) Say, ‘Anyone who is an enemy of Gabriel—who by God’s leave has brought down to your heart [the Quran] fulfilling that [predictions about the last prophet in the earlier revelations] which precedes it, and is a guidance and good news for the faithful— (98) whoever is an enemy of God, His angels, or His messengers, or of Gabriel or Michael, will surely find that God too is the enemy of those who deny the truth.’ (99) We have sent down clear signs to you and no one will reject them except the wicked. (100) Why is it that, whenever they make a covenant, some of them cast it aside?Most of them do not believe. (101) Whenever a messenger from God has come to them, fulfilling that [predictions] which they already had, some of those to whom the Book was given have cast off the Book of God behind their backs as if they had no knowledge.

Commentary

(a) Owing to their own rebelliousness, the Israelites had severe punishments meted out to them in ancient times. It was God’s way to warn them of these impending punishments beforehand, and such warnings came to them through the prophets, who were acting on the words of the Archangel Gabriel. The moral was that people had to follow God’s commandments; if they persisted in a sinful life, they would be exposing themselves to His wrath. But, instead of heeding these admonitions, the Israelites came to regard Gabriel as their enemy, because it had always been he who gave prior warning through the prophets about impending doom. Consequently, when the Prophet Muhammad proclaimed that he was receiving his revelation through Gabriel, they said, ‘So, it is our old enemy Gabriel, who always brings commands from heaven against us! That explains why the scriptures, the birthright of the Israelites, are being conveyed to one who belongs to another tribe.’

Now angels, being the rarefied creatures that they are, do not hold grudges against ordinary mortals; they descend to earth only by divine command in order to carry out the tasks assigned to them by their Creator—in this case, the revelation of the Scriptures to the prophet whom God Himself had chosen. Given the clear proofs that the Arab Prophet had had the same revelation communicated to him as had been received by Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and that it tallied with the previous divine scriptures, there were no grounds for the Israelites to reject the divine message. Their negative reaction was the result of their having lead insincere, unrestricted lives, which had become dominated by self-interest, empty convention and racial prejudice. Religion had been adhered to only on a superficial level, just to keep up the pretence that the Israelites were, in fact, faithfully treading the path of God.

(a) Perversion sets in in the People of the Book for just one reason. They come to believe that by uttering mere words, or by performing lifeless rituals, they will be able to earn salvation, but salvation can be earned only by performing righteous actions.

During this stage of decline, superstition comes to be more highly regarded than actual good deeds. People begin to expect mysterious kinds of results or benefits by performing senseless rituals. This thinking, initially centreing on salvation, later comes to dominate the entire national policy of the group. A realistic approach is thus replaced by a superstitious approach.

Now those who merely make an outward show of following their religion are inevitably averse to responding in earnest to the proclamation of true, unadulterated religion. For such people, the call is seen as a threat to the worldly honour and status that they enjoy owing to their worldly interpretation of religion. Due to their negativism, they begin to make such representations as are outwardly correct but which, in terms of the inner reality, are totally meaningless. There is no doubt about it that the coming of the angels and messengers was entirely a part of the divine plan. All arguments point to the fact that the Arab Prophet received the same message as was sent down to Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and that the revelation received by the Arab Prophet tallied exactly with the predictions made in previous divine scriptures. This proves beyond all doubt that it was sent by God Himself. People make many protestation of their faith, but all these mouthings being hollow and meaningless, they bear no relation to true faith and piety.