2/135-137 — "No, the religion of Abraham"
"They said, 'Be Jews or Christians and you will be guided.' Say: 'No! We follow the way of Abraham, a ḥanīf; and he was not of the mushrikūn.' Say: 'We believe in God and in what has been sent down to us; and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and his descendants; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus; and in what was given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them. And to Him we are submitted.' If they believe as you have believed, they are guided. If they turn away, they are only in a breach. God will suffice you against them. He is the hearing, the knowing."
The structure of the call is striking: guidance is placed behind an identity. First be this, then you will have found the way. The order, that is, begins not with conduct but with membership.
This is exactly the understanding dismantled at verses 62 and 111 of the sūra. There too salvation had been reserved to a group; here the same understanding meets us in the form of an invitation.
That the answer begins with بَلْ matters: in Arabic bal is a particle correcting the preceding sentence — it says "no, not that; this". The offer is refused, but no third identity is put in its place. What is put there is an older line.
مِلَّة — root م-ل-ل. The lexicographers relate the word to the sense "to dictate, to have written down" (imlāʾ): a milla is a way conveyed by a prophet, spoken and set down. The word differs slightly from "religion": dīn is more the road a person keeps, while milla is the conveyed whole of that road. This distinction is transmitted as the lexicographers record it.
حَنِيف — root ح-ن-ف: to bend, to incline in one direction. The lexicographers attach the word to a concrete use having to do with the foot: an aḥnaf is a person whose feet turn inward. The idea that follows is this — a ḥanīf is one who departs from what is common and inclines in another direction.
The word's function here is exactly that. What is described is a person who turns alone in another direction while everyone around him goes one way. And the description is given to Abraham as an attribute: what distinguishes him is not that he joined a group but that he joined none of them.
وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ — "and he was not of the mushrikūn." This clause placed at the end of the sentence may look superfluous; but it has a function. Being a ḥanīf, that is, departing from the majority, is no value on its own — one who departs may fall into another error. The clause fixes the direction of the departure.
What is listed: God, what was sent down to us, what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, his descendants, what was given to Moses, what was given to Jesus, and what was given to all the prophets.
The declaration, then, begins with one's own book and does not stop there. And the list is not closed: by saying "and in what was given to the prophets from their Lord", a nameless field is left open.
لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّنْهُمْ — "we make no distinction between any of them." The root f-r-q: to separate, to divide; tafrīq — to set a distinction, to open a gap between.
This sentence is the direct counterpart of the criticism at verse 85 of the sūra: there it was said "do you believe in part of the Book and reject part of it?" Here the opposite stance is formulated. And the same sentence will occur once more in the last verses of the sūra (2/285) — the text repeats this expression both in the middle of the section and at the sūra's close.
A grammatical detail: the word bayna (between) normally requires at least two things; here it is used with aḥadin (one person). The lexicographers explain it thus: aḥad acquires an inclusive sense in a negative context — "none of them". The sentence therefore does not mean "we do not separate two of them" but "we make no distinction among any of them".
And note: the sentence does not say "they are all the same." The Qurʾān says plainly that there is a difference of degree among the prophets (2/253). What is refused is not degree but accepting one and rejecting another by discrimination. The two are different works.
Verse 137 applies the measure to the other side too: "if they believe as you have believed, they are guided."
What is offered, then, is not joining a group but believing with the same scope. The measure differs from the form of the offer at verse 135: there it was "be this", here it is "believe this". One asks for membership, the other for content.
شِقَاق — root ش-ق-ق: to split, to divide in two. This root was treated in the discussions of ʿAbasa and al-Ṭāriq; the finding there holds here too: shiqq — a half, a piece; mashaqqa — the hardship the lexicographers attach to the idea of "what splits a person in two".
The pattern shiqāq (mufāʿala) conveys reciprocity, and its picture is very concrete: each standing on one side of the split. The division here, that is, is not a difference of opinion but the two sides' falling on opposite banks.
The word will come once more in the sūra with a still harder adjective: shiqāqin baʿīd — a far-off breach (2/176).
فَسَيَكْفِيكَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ — "God will suffice you against them." The root k-f-y: to be enough, to take a matter upon oneself and exempt the person from it.
The placing of the sentence is worth recording. After the breach is established, nothing is said about what is to be done — no strategy, no counter-move is given. The one thing said is that the matter does not rest on the shoulders of the one addressed. This looks the same way as the clause "you are not answerable for the companions of the blaze" at verse 119.
وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ — "He is the hearing, the knowing." The choice of these two attributes here fits the context: throughout the section words spoken had been reported — "be Jews", "we believe in what was sent down to us", "were you present". The closing records that all these words are heard.