Tafsir Al-Jalalayn: An-Nisaa, Ayah 47
Common Words
Other Scholars on This Ayah
Tafsir
(O ye unto whom the Scripture hath been given!) O you to whom knowledge of the traits and description of Muhammad in the Torah has been given. (Believe in what We have revealed) the Qur'an (concerning that which) confirms what (ye possess) in terms of Allah's divine Oneness and the traits and description of Muhammad (pbuh) (before We destroy countenances) before We change your hearts (so as to confound them) so as to turn them away from the lights of guidance and transform their faces to the back of their heads, (or curse them) turn them into animals (as We cursed the Sabbath-breakers (of old time)) by turning them into apes. (And the commandment of Allah is always executed) after the revelation of this verse 'Abdullah Ibn Salam and his companions embraced Islam.
Al-Jalalayn Commentary
O you who have been given the Scripture believe in what We have revealed of the Qur’ān confirming what is with you of the Torah before We obliterate faces erasing the eyes noses and eyebrows in them and turn them inside out and make them like the napes of the neck a flat plate or curse them by transforming them into apes as We cursed as We transformed those of the Sabbath among them and God’s command His decree is done after this was revealed ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām converted to Islam and so it was said that this had been a conditional threat of punishment so that when some of them converted to Islam it the threat was lifted. It is also said that obliteration and transformation will take place before the rising of the Hour.