(Revealed after Hijrah)
According to Commentators of the Qur’an this Surah belongs to the Medinite period. ‘A’ishah is reported by Hakim and Imam Ahmad to have said that this is the last Surah which was revealed to the Holy Prophet. Taking into consideration all the relevant data one is inevitably led to the conclusion that the Surah was revealed in the last years of the Holy Prophet’s ministry and some of its verses were actually among the last to be revealed. Though Imam Ahmad says on the authority of ‘Asma’, daughter of Yazid, that the whole of this Surah was revealed together, it seems that because a major portion of it was revealed at one time, the whole of it came to be regarded as having been revealed at the same time. This is why perhaps Rodwell has assigned the Surah the last place in order of revelation.
The Surah, like Surahs Al-e-‘Imran and An-Nisa’, deals mainly with Christian doctrines and particularly denounces the doctrine that the Law is a curse. It opens with the injunction that all covenants must be fulfilled and that it was necessary to lay down laws as to what is lawful and what is unlawful. It further claims that the Qur’an has laid down ordinances bearing upon man’s complete moral and spiritual development, and it is in this respect that the Qur’an constitutes the final and irrevocable Divine Law for all mankind. This claim of the Qur’an is embodied in the fourth verse of the Surah, which also implies that because the Law is most essential for the spiritual guidance of man and his moral development, it is wrong to regard it as a curse. The verse further hints that when the eating of meat offered to idols and of blood and of strangled animals was forbidden to Christians and this commandment constituted an ordinance of the Law (The Acts, 15:20, 29), they could not take exception to the Law and condemn it as a curse. The Surah proceeds to lay down Islamic commandments with regard to eatables and enjoins that they should be Halal, i.e. allowed by the Law and Tayyib (pure), i.e. their use should in no way contravene or offend against medical or hygienic regulations. Islam, alone of all religions, while laying down ordinances regarding lawful and unlawful things, has pointed out the nice distinction between what is only lawful and what is both lawful and pure. Next, it is stated that the Jews and the Christians broke God’s covenants and disregarded and defied Divine commandments which led to their moral and spiritual ruin and brought disgrace and humiliation on them. But they could now rehabilitate themselves into Divine favour by accepting the Holy Prophet. Christians are further warned that at first by deifying Jesus they caused the wrath of God to come down upon them and that now they have become jealous of the Holy Prophet because God has chosen him for His favours. This jealous attitude of theirs towards the Holy Prophet resembles that of Cain towards Abel. The Surah proceeds to state that while Jews and Christians lose no opportunity to oppose Islam, they themselves have become so depraved as to have ceased to act upon their own religious Scriptures and are increasingly becoming ignorant of the teachings of their own religions. They are told that if they do not see their way to accepting Islam, they should at least follow their own Scriptures and abide by their own Law. But if, owing to the political supremacy of Islam, they have sometimes to seek the judgment of the Islamic Government, that judgment will and must inevitably be according to the Qur’anic Law. Then attention of the Muslims is drawn to the great change that has come over their political position and they are told that as the power of the infidels has been finally broken and Christians now are to be their principal enemies, and Jews, in spite of their enmity towards Christianity, are to side with Christians, they (Muslims) should be on their guard against both of them. Some light is then shed on the stratagems and machinations employed by the enemies of Islam to turn Muslims away from their Faith and to lower it in their estimation. After this, importance of the preaching of Islam is impressed upon Muslims. They are told that the one real method effectively to defeat the activities of Jews and Christians is to preach the Message of Islam to them and to bring home to them its truth from their own Scriptures. It should also be made clear to them that now their salvation lies in Islam and that their idolatrous beliefs are false, particularly the doctrine that Jesus was son of God. Similarly, mention is made of Jews who, by opposing and persecuting the two great Prophets—David and Jesus—incurred God’s displeasure. Their attention is drawn to their past faults and failings, and Christians being more amenable to accepting the truth than Jews, commandments have been laid down which particularly concern them, viz. commandments about what is lawful and what is unlawful; commandments about oaths; about the use of wine and games of chance and about hunting; and also commandments regarding criticism of religion and ordinances about religious rites and ceremonies and about evidence. Last of all a somewhat detailed mention is made of the particular circumstances of Jesus’s ministry, and it is shown that they closely resemble those of other Prophets of God and that therefore there was nothing of Godhead or Divinity about him and that all material progress of Christian people was due to a prayer of his. But they have made improper use of their material progress and prosperity and have succumbed to polytheistic beliefs and practices. God will, on the Day of Judgment, establish their guilt and put them to shame from the mouth of Jesus himself. The Surah ends with the declaration that to God belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth and He has power over all things, which implies the hint that the belief that the Kingdom of God is only in heaven as the Christians say, has no foundation.