Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 110

The Prohibition of following the Ways of the People of the Book

Allah warned His believing servants against following the ways of the People of Book, who publicly and secretly harbor emnity and hatred for the believers, and who envy the believers, while they recognize the virtue of the believers and their Prophet . Allah also commanded His believing servants to forgive them and to be patient with them, until Allah delivers His aid and victory to them. Allah commanded the believers to perform the prayer perfectly, to pay the Zakah and He encouraged them to preserve the practice of these righteous deeds.

Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that `Abdullah bin Ka`b bin Malik said that Ka`b bin Al-Ashraf, who was a Jew and a poet, used to criticize the Prophet in his poems, so Allah revealed,

Some of the Jews, pretending to be the well-wishers of the Muslims, were always inventing new stratagems to make them turn away from Islam, and, in spite of repeated failure in this effort, did not refrain from it. The verse warns the Muslims against their intentions, which are motivated, not by sincerity and friendship, but by envy --which in its turn arises not from anything the Muslims do, but spontaneously from within themselves even after they have come to understand clearly what the truth is. The verse also asks the Muslims not to give way to their justifiable anger at such misconduct, but to forgive the Jews, and wait till Allah sends a new commandment with regard to such matters. Thus, the verse gives an indication that Allah is soon going to lay down a law for the preservation of peace and order on the earth which would guide the Muslims in dealing with mischief-makers -- the law, of course, being the permission to go to war against the enemies of Islam. The Muslims were actually conscious of their own weakness and the strength of their foe, and could have wondered how they would be able to act upon the new law. So, the verse reminds them that Allah's power extends over everything, small or big, ordinary or extraordinary.

One who has discovered the truth by the help of God has to face stiff opposition when he starts to communicate it to others. One reason is that acceptance of truth entails negation of the self. People of high social status always find this hard, and none more so than the People of the Book, who considered prophethood to be their exclusive right. Unable to conceive of a prophet coming amongst people other than them, they tried various ploys to turn people away from the Arab prophet. One of the theological objections that they raised to his teachings was on the subject of abrogation. Some of the Quranic injunctions differ from Mosaic law, so they would say, ‘Does God make mistakes in His revelations, that He sends down one commandment, and then replaces it with another? This shows that what your Prophet Muhammad is teaching is not from God, but is his own creation.’ So intensive had this propaganda campaign become that even some simple-minded Muslims were affected, and started raising the issue with the Prophet.