Quran Garden

Session 399

Chapter 3

Verses 70, 71 & 72

People of the Book, why do you deny God's revelations when you can see they are true?

(Chapter 3: Verse 70)

In this verse, God questions the Jews and the Christians through the words of Prophet Muhammad, "Why do you disbelieve in the magnificent signs and revelations of God while you were witnesses to their authenticity?" Here you may ask, did the People of the Book see God's signs firsthand at the time of Muhammad?  Yes!  Years before the advent of Muhammad, the Jews of Medina used to boast about the coming of an unlearned prophet in Arabia.  They awaited him so they could fight with him and be granted victory.  They prayed, "Our Lord, we ask you by the right of the illiterate prophet whom you have promised us.  Send him so we may be victorious over our enemies." But when Prophet Muhammad was sent, just as they had asked, they were the first to reject him. God says:

When a scripture came to them from God confirming what they already had –even though before that they were praying for victory over the disbelievers– even when there came to them something they knew to be true, they disbelieved in it: God rejects those who disbelieve. (2:89)

Why would they reject something they dearly prayed for?  Because the new prophet threatened their governing authority and the clergy's power. 

There was no shortage of evidence.  Prophet Muhammad's attributes and detailed description were in the Torah.  Abdullah bin Salam, a leader of Medina's Jewish community, said after he accepted Islam, "I recognized Muhammad the minute I saw him.  I knew him as I know my own son.  In fact, my knowledge of Muhammad was greater."

Sadly, most denied him out of greed for power and went as far as distorting the scriptures to deceive their followers into rejecting Islam.  God says:

So woe to those who write something down with their own hands and then claim, "This is from God," in order to make some small gain. Woe to them for what their hands have written! Woe to them for all that they have earned! (2:79)

God says in the next verse of Al-Imran:

People of the Book, why do you dress the truth with falsehood? Why do you knowingly conceal the truth? (Chapter 3: Verse 71)

Let's start with the verb "dress." It means "to insert something into something else." For example, when you wear a sweater, you enter your body into it, and then your arms and head come out of it.  In essence, your appearance changes because your body and the sweater become intermingled.  That is the description God chose for those who muddy the truth with falsehood to obscure the reality of things. 

Corrupt clergy distorted the Torah and the Gospel by adding their own words to them while omitting God's.  In essence, they mingled the truth Prophets Moses and Jesus brought with falsehoods.  One of their most brazen distortions was removing the good tidings of the advent of Prophet Muhammad from their heavenly books.

But when it comes to faith, you cannot pick and choose what is to your liking.  Moses and Jesus gave glad tidings of Muhammad –the seal of the prophets who would bring the final heavenly message to humanity. Isn't that the worst example of dressing the truth with falsehood and knowingly distorting the truth?  God says in the 85^th verse of Chapter 2:

Do you believe in some parts of the Scripture and not in others? The punishment for those of you who do this will be nothing but disgrace in this life, and on the Day of Resurrection, they will be condemned to the harshest torment: God is not oblivious of what you do.

And in another chapter:

And they denied them out of malice and pride, though in their hearts they believed that they were true. See how those who spread corruption met their end! (27:14)

As if changing God's scriptures was not enough, some of the People of the Book devised new tricks to stop the new heavenly message.  God says:

A group of the People of the Book says, "At the beginning of the day, you should claim to believe in what was sent down to those who believed, and then at the end of the day you should reject it, so that hopefully they will revert." (Chapter 3: Verse 72)

This trick was aimed at sowing doubt in the new Muslim community.  The believers –many of them Arabs from Mecca and Medina– were largely illiterate.  They trusted that the People of the Book had more knowledge about heavenly scriptures.  Moreover, at that time, the Quran had not been revealed in its entirety. 

Some of the Jews and Christians at the time wanted to exploit the Muslims' trust and illiteracy.  They decided to declare their faith in the message of Muhammad and then reject it shortly after.  The aim was to spread suspicion and confusion in the budding Muslim community.  Some illiterate people may say, "The People of the Book have tested the new religion and, through their knowledge of heavenly scriptures, found it lacking." This was yet another form of confounding the truth with falsehood.

The phrase "At the beginning of the day" is translated from the Arabic origin وَجْه (Wajh), which means "the face."  Generally, the morning and noon hours are intended, but the word وَجْه (Wajh) has other connotations.  It is used to describe a storefront where the best goods are displayed to the walking public.  Some sellers put the best and freshest fruits on top while hiding older or even rotten ones underneath.  The customers are tricked into thinking that the seller is offering top-quality fruit.  Likewise, some of the People of the Book tried to deceive the believers by declaring faith early in the day while hiding their rotten intentions beneath.  They could then say, "We are not biased or intolerant because we have accepted Islam but found it incompatible with what was revealed to our messengers."

It is also the opinion of some scholars that the verse under study was revealed regarding changing the direction of prayer (Qibla) for Muslims.  The Prophet, peace be upon him, was commanded to change the Muslim Qibla from the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem to the Ka'aba in Mecca.  The disbelievers from the People of the Book and the hypocrites said, "Let's pretend to listen to Muhammad and face the Ka'aba for the early prayers, then revert back to Jerusalem for the end-of-the-day prayers." The aim was, again, to sow discord among the believers. 

All these tactics were a form of psychological warfare against the Muslims.  Allah revealed their tricks to us and highlighted how such people inadvertently admitted to joining the camp of the disbelievers.  Their own words exposed them: they said, "At the beginning of the day, you should claim to believe in what was sent down to those who believed." They chose disbelief for themselves and labeled the Muslims as believers.