User:Mustafaa/Judaism in the Quran

Surat al-Baqarah

In this Surah, the Children of Israel are addressed directly. They are reminded of the Covenant between them and God and the favor they enjoyed with Him, who "preferred them above the worlds" and saved them from the Pharaoh, and urged to fulfill it by accepting His latest revelation, the Quran, and praying and giving zakat and practicing righteousness in preparation for the Day of Judgement. It then goes on to retell the story of Moses, emphasising his people's stubbornness in the face of Moses' miracles, worshipping the Golden Calf and asking for food better than manna:

"They drew on themselves the wrath of Allah. This because they went on rejecting the Signs of Allah and slaying His Messengers without just cause. This because they rebelled and went on transgressing." (61)

It emphasises that those who truly held to the Jewish scriptures shall have their reward from God (62); "upon them shall be no fear, neither shall they grieve". But it then goes on to remind them of more instances of past backsliding, such as their evasions when Moses commanded them to sacrifice a certain heifer, and a certain community among them who had broken the Sabbath, and were therefore told by God "Be ye apes, despised and rejected"; after all these, it says, "were your hearts hardened".

It then (75 on) speaks to the Muslims about the Children of Israel of the Prophet's own time and place, accusing a party among them of knowingly perverting the Word of God and of hypocritically pretending to believe in public but attempting to conceal the Scriptures, or in some cases being ignorant of them and yet conjecturing. Finally, it curses those who "write the Book with their own hands, and then say "This is from Allah", to traffic with it for a miserable price!" and warns those who imagine that "the Fire shall not touch us but for a few numbered days", no matter what they do.

It then addresses the Children of Israel again, reminding them again of the original Covenant and of a specific covenant between the Jews of Madina and the Muslim state (text given in Ibn Hisham's Sirat-ar-rasul) and accusing them of violating it by fighting each other and demanding ransoms from each other; those who behave thus, it warns, will be punished in the Hereafter.