Surah An-Nisa, Ayah 156

The Crimes of the Jews

The sins mentioned here are among the many sins that the Jews committed, which caused them to be cursed and removed far away from right guidance. The Jews broke the promises and vows that Allah took from them, and also rejected Allah's Ayat, meaning His signs and proofs, and the miracles that they witnessed at the hands of their Prophets. Allah said,

وَقَتْلِهِمُ الاٌّنْبِيَآءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّ

(and their killing the Prophets unjustly,) because their many crimes and offenses against the Prophets of Allah, for they killed many Prophets, may Allah's peace be upon them Their saying:

قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌ

("Our hearts are Ghulf,") meaning, wrapped with covering, according to Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, Sa`id bin Jubayr, `Ikrimah, As-Suddi and Qatadah. This is similar to the what the idolators said,

Like the earlier verses, the censure of Jews continues through the present ones. As a thematically coherent subject, their false ideas have also been refuted which have been discussed in detail in the following commentary.

The Jews had Scriptures revealed to them in which they were asked to surrender to the will of God in this world, in return for which God would grant them Paradise in the next. They forgot the first part and came to regard the second part as their birthright. All kinds of rot set in among the Jewish community. Moreover, they were so greatly convinced of the notion that salvation was their birthright that they considered it unnecessary to acknowledge the new Prophet. They would say ironically, ‘Our hearts are sealed.’ This not only showed their inability to acknowledge the new Prophet, but also their conviction that, whatever their misconduct with the Prophet, their salvation was not going to be endangered.