2/41 — Do not be the first to reject it
"Believe in what I have sent down confirming what is with you; and do not be the first to reject it. And do not trade My verses for a small price."
مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا مَعَكُمْ — "confirming what is with you". The new book is presented not as the rival of the old but as its confirmer. This is the same line as the condition of faith in the fourth verse of the sūra: all the revelations are links of one chain.
أَوَّلَ كَافِرٍۭ بِهِ — "the first to reject it". At first sight this expression looks strange, because historically there had already been those who rejected — the mushrikūn of Mecca.
The classical explanation is this: being "first" is a matter not of sequence but of position. The rejection of one who does not know binds only himself. But the rejection of one who knows sets a precedent — it produces a ground for those who come after. When a person of the Book says "this is not true", the word is carried as though it were a verdict coming from knowledge. Their rejection is therefore first in effect, even if it comes later in sequence.
ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا — "a small price". To sell the verses: to turn knowledge into advantage, to state the ruling according to one's interest, to keep silent where one need not and to speak where one should not.
The adjective "small" is worth dwelling on. The price may not really be small — position, wealth, security are large things. The adjective belongs not to the amount of the price but to the nature of the exchange: anything that can be received in return for what is sold is small in comparison with what is sold. Every price of a thing of infinite worth is low.
The first addressees of this verse are people who possess knowledge. The real warning therefore looks to everyone who holds religious knowledge in his hands — including the Muslim scholar reading this section. Indeed in the classical exegetical tradition this verse has been one of the warnings most often recalled to the people of learning.