Muhammad Asad, The Message of the Qur’ān; Translated and Explained by Muhammad Asad (1980)
and do righteous deeds – they are destined for paradise, therein to abide.
(83) And Lo! We accepted this solemn pledge from [you,] the children of Israel:66 “You shall worship none but God; and you shall do good unto your parents and kinsfolk, and the orphans, and the poor; and you shall speak unto all people in a kindly way; and you shall be constant in prayer; and you shall spend in charity.”67
And yet, save for a few of you, you turned away: for you are obstinate folk!68
(84) And lo! We accepted your solemn pledge that you would not shed one another’s blood, and would not drive one another from your homelands – whereupon you acknowledged it; and thereto you bear witness [even now]. (85) And yet, it is you who slay one another and drive some of your own people from their homelands, aiding one another against them in sin and hatred; but if they come to you as captives, you ransom them – although the very [act of] driving them away has been made unlawful to you!69
Do you, then, believe in some parts of the divine writ and deny the truth of other parts? What, then, could be the reward of those among you who do such things but ignominy in the life of this world and, on the Day of Resurrection, commitment to most grievous suffering? For God is not unmindful of what you do.
(86) All who buy the life of this world at the price of the life to come – their suffering shall not be lightened, nor shall they be succoured!
(87) For, indeed, We vouchsafed unto Moses the divine writ and caused apostle after apostle to follow him;70 and We vouchsafed unto Jesus, the son of
66 In the preceding passages, the children of Israel have been reminded of the favours that were bestowed on them. Now, however, the Qurʾān reminds them of the fact that the way of righteousness has indeed been shown to them by means of explicit social and moral injunctions: and this reminder flows directly from the statement that the human condition in the life to come depends exclusively on the manner of one’s life in this world, and not on one’s descent.
67 See note 34 above.
68 The Old Testament contains many allusions to the waywardness and stubborn rebelliousness of the children of Israel – e.g., Exodus xxxii, 9, xxxiii, 3, xxxiv, 9; Deuteronomy ix, 6–8, 23–24, 27.
69 This is a reference to the conditions prevailing at Medina at the time of the Prophet’s hijrah. The two Arab tribes of Medina – Al-Aws and Khazraj – were in pre-Islamic times permanently at war with one another; and out of the three Jewish tribes living there – the Banū Qaynuqāʿ, Banu ’n-Naḍīr and Banū Qurayẓah – the first-named two were allied with Khazraj, while the third was allied with Al-Aws. Thus, in the course of their warfare, Jew would kill Jew in alliance with pagans (“aiding one another in sin and hatred”): a twofold crime from the viewpoint of Mosaic Law. Nevertheless, they would subsequently ransom their mutual captives in obedience to that very same Law – and it is this glaring inconsistency to which the Qurʾān alludes in the next sentence.
70 Lit., “We caused him to be followed, after his time, by [all] the other apostles”: a stress upon
