Quran Garden

Session 429

Chapter 3

Verses 98 & 99

Say, "O People of the Book! Why do you deny the signs of God, while God is witness to all you do?" (Chapter 3: Verse 98)

We had explained before that the word "Say" is proof of the honesty and integrity of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.  You may say to your child, "Son, go to your uncle and say, 'My father will come to visit you tomorrow.'" So, your son goes to his uncle and says, "My father will visit you tomorrow." Isn't that what 99% of us would say?  But if your child were 100% faithful to the message you entrusted him with, he would have said to his uncle, "My father said, 'Say to your uncle that I will visit him tomorrow.'"

Our beloved Muhammad is the trustworthy and the truthful.  These were the names Meccans gave him before Islam.  When he became the Messenger of God, he delivered God's message in the most authentic and accurate form, precisely as he received.  It would have been sufficient for the Prophet to go to the disbelievers and say to them, "O People of the Book!  Why do you deny the signs of God, while God is witness to all you do?" But that would leave room for doubt as to the source of the message.  Is the question from Muhammad or God?  Thus, by delivering the message accurately, the Prophet informed everyone that he was conveying a verse from God.  He passed the entire text verbatim as delivered to him by the Angel Gabriel.

Say, "O People of the Book! Why do you deny the signs of God, while God is witness to all you do?" (Chapter 3: Verse 98)

Another interesting fact is that many verses in the Qur'an address the People of the Book.  Still, not all of them start with the word "say."  This is because, at times, God addresses His creation affectionately and makes them worthy of His direct speech by saying "O People of the Book."  And, on other occasions, He says to His Messenger, "Say to them, O Muhammad," because they did not rise to the level of being addressed directly.  This may be better explained with an example.  If you are sitting in a theatre with a group of friends and one of them is being loud, you may turn to the person next to you and say, "Tell him to keep it down!" This is because you were annoyed by the noisy person, and you did not want to bother speaking to him directly. 

Here we ask, why are the Jews and Christians addressed as the "People of the Book," but Muslims are not addressed as the "People of the Quran"?  We answer that Allah wants to remind the Jews and Christian that all the heavenly rules they violate are written down in their books.  Matters are as clear as black and white, so their calls for polytheism and denial of Prophet Muhammad are a clear contradiction of what is written in the Bible.  Thus, it is foolish for them to violate the scriptures because the Bible will be a witness against their actions on the Day of Judgement. 

This brings us back to the verse.  God asks, "O People of the Book!  Why do you deny the signs of God?" Does denying God's signs mean disbelieving in them from the beginning, or does it mean denying them after belief?  The word "deny" is translated from the Arabic origin تَكْفُرُونَ  (Takfurun), which comes from the root ك ف ر (Ka-fa-ra).  It means "to cover" or "to conceal."  This is interesting because a person can only hide something that already exists.  The Jews and Christians of Medina believed in Prophet Muhammad before his advent, but they denied him when he came.  God says,

When a Scripture came to them from God confirming what they already had, and when they had been praying for victory against 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)

They chose disbelief because Muhammad was a threat to their worldly power.  The new heavenly religion shifted authority away from priests and rabbis, and they could no longer issue rulings that served their interests and exploited their followers.  God says in the next verse of Al-Imran,

Say: "O People of the Book!  Why do you bar from God's way those who believe, seeking to make it appear crooked, when you yourselves are witnesses to the truth?  God is not heedless of what you do." (Chapter 3: Verse 99)

The only thing worse than losing your way is dragging others down with you.  Isn't it enough that you defied your Creator?  Why would you carry the burden of misleading others?  God says,

On the Day of Resurrection, they will bear the full weight of their own burden and some of the burden of those they misled with no true knowledge.  How terrible their burden will be!  (16:25)

In Islam, every person is responsible only for his or her sins, except those who dragged others into sin.  They will be bear the burden of their sins and the burden of every person they misguided.  Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, "Whoever calls for guidance will have a reward equal to the reward of those who follow him or her until the Day of Resurrection, without diminishing anything from their rewards.  And whoever calls for misguidance will carry sins equal to the sins of all those who follow him or her until the Day of Resurrection, without diminishing anything from their sins." 

The word "crooked" is translated from the Arabic عِوج (Iwaj), which is the corruption of morals and values, while عَوَج (Awaj) refers to crookedness in physical matters such as a wall or a stick.  We know from geometry that a straight path is the shortest and easiest link between two points.  On the other hand, bends and curves extend the distance to the destination.  It is as if those who misguide people away from the Lord's straight path no longer seek God or Paradise.  

Such people have committed a compound sin: they deliberately went astray after knowing the truth and then strived to mislead others.  These terrible actions would have been excusable if they were done out of ignorance, but they were not.  The Rabbis of Medina intentionally discarded their books, then worked hard to lead their followers away from the truth.  God says, "You yourselves are witnesses to the truth."