Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Translated and Explained by Muhammad Asad (1980)
(62) Verily, those who have attained to faith [in this divine writ], as well as those who follow the Jewish faith, and the Christians, and the Sabians 49 – all who believe in God and the Last Day and do righteous deeds-shall have their reward with their Sustainer; and no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve.50
(63) And lo! We accepted your solemn pledge, raising Mount Sinai high above you,51 [and saying,] “Hold fast with [all your] strength unto what We have vouchsafed you, and bear in mind all that is therein, so that you might remain conscious of God!”
(64) And you turned away after that! And had it not been for God’s favour upon you and His grace, you would surely have found yourselves among the lost; (65) for you are well aware of those from among you who profaned the Sabbath, whereupon We said unto them, “Be as apes despicable!” – (66) and set them up as a warning example for their time and for all times to come, as well as an admonition to all who are conscious of God.52
(67) And lo! Moses said unto his people: “Behold, God
some of their prophets is evidenced, for instance, in the story of John the Baptist, as well as in the more general accusation uttered, according to the Gospel, by Jesus: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee” (Matthew xxiii. 37). See also Matthew xxiii, 34–35, Luke xi, 51 – both of which refer to the murder of Zachariah – and I Thessalonians ii, 15. The implication of continuity in, or persistent repetition of, their wrongdoing transpires from the use of the auxiliary verb kānū in this context.
49 The Sabians seem to have been a monotheistic religious group intermediate between Judaism and Christianity. Their name (probably derived from the Aramaic verb tsēbhaʿ, “he immersed himself [in water]”) would indicate that they were followers of John the Baptist – in which case they could be identified with the Mandaeans, a community which to this day is to be found in ʿIrāq. They are not to be confused with the so-called “Sabians of Ḥarrān”, a gnostic sect which still existed in the early centuries of Islam, and which may have deliberately adopted the name of the true Sabians in order to obtain the advantages accorded by the Muslims to the followers of every monotheistic faith.
50 The above passage – which recurs in the Qurʾān several times-lays down a fundamental doctrine of Islam. With a breadth of vision unparalleled in any other religious faith, the idea of “salvation” is here made conditional upon three elements only: belief in God, belief in the Day of Judgment, and righteous action in life. The statement of this doctrine at this juncture – that is, in the midst of an appeal to the children of Israel – is warranted by the false Jewish belief that their descent from Abraham entitles them to be regarded as “God’s chosen people”.
51 Lit., “and We raised the mountain (aṭ-ṭūr) above you": i.e., letting the lofty mountain bear witness, as it were, to their solemn pledge, spelled out in verse 83 below. Throughout my translation of the Qurʾān, I am rendering the expression aṭ-ṭūr as “Mount Sinai”, since it is invariably used in this sense alone.
52 For the full story of the Sabbath-breakers, and the metaphorical allusion to “apes”, see 7:163–166. The expression mā bayna yadayhā, rendered here as “their time”, is explained in sūrah 3, note 3.
