لَيْسُوا۟ سَوَآءً مِّنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ أُمَّةٌ قَآئِمَةٌ يَتْلُونَ ءَايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ءَانَآءَ ٱلَّيْلِ وَهُمْ يَسْجُدُونَ
Laysū sawāʾan min ahli'l-kitābi ummatun qāʾimatun yatlūna āyāti'llāhi ānāʾa'l-layli wa hum yasjudūn · Yuʾminūna bi'llāhi wa'l-yawmi'l-ākhiri wa yaʾmurūna bi'l-maʿrūfi wa yanhawna ʿani'l-munkari wa yusāriʿūna fi'l-khayrāt, wa ulāʾika mina'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn · Wa mā yafʿalū min khayrin fa-lan yukfarūh, wa'llāhu ʿalīmun bi'l-muttaqīn
"They are not all alike. Among the People of the Book there is a community that stands upright: they recite the signs of God through the watches of the night, prostrating themselves. · They believe in God and the Last Day, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and hasten to good works. Those are among the righteous. · No good they do will go unrewarded; and God knows those who guard themselves."
This verse is singled out in this commentary and is the note under which all the sūra's statements about the People of the Book are to be read. The note was entered in the introduction to the sūra; here its ground is shown from the text.
سَوَآء — root س-و-ي: to be equal, to be even. The word was analysed at verse 64: kalimatin sawāʾin baynanā wa baynakum. What was recorded there: at the centre of the root stands the absence of tilt — what does not lean to one side.
| Verse | Wording | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 64 | Kalimatin sawāʾin baynanā wa baynakum | Common ground — the two sides are equal |
| 113 | Laysū sawāʾan | "They are not all alike" — a set is not uniform |
The same word, at two different pieces of work. This is a repetition verifiable within the sūra and was recorded in the table in the introduction.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the two occurrences of the word: the sūra settles two separate questions of equality with the same word. In one place it says that the ground between two sides is equal; in the other that one side is not uniform within itself. Both are the work of the same root: measuring.
Ummatun qāʾima — a community that stands upright. The root ق-و-م was treated at verses 96-97 (maqāmu Ibrāhīm), occurred at verse 18 as qāʾiman bi'l-qisṭ and at verse 75 as qāʾimā. The fourth occurrence is here.
And the attributes given to this community must be counted, because they can be compared with the attributes the sūra gives to its own community:
| # | Attribute (113-114) | Elsewhere in the sūra |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yatlūna āyāti'llāhi ānāʾa'l-layl | Cf. 17: al-mustaghfirīna bi'l-asḥār |
| 2 | Wa hum yasjudūn | — |
| 3 | Yuʾminūna bi'llāhi wa'l-yawmi'l-ākhir | Cf. 110: wa tuʾminūna bi'llāh |
| 4 | Wa yaʾmurūna bi'l-maʿrūf | The same as 110 and 104 |
| 5 | Wa yanhawna ʿani'l-munkar | The same as 110 and 104 |
| 6 | Wa yusāriʿūna fi'l-khayrāt | Cf. 133: wa sāriʿū ilā maghfiratin |
| The ruling | Wa ulāʾika mina'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn | — |
And what the table shows is a fact verifiable from the text: all three of the attributes given to the community addressed in verse 110 are given here to a community from among the People of the Book.
I record this as an observation, and it is the sūra's own method: the attributes are named together with whoever carries them. The same three verbs occur, for two separate communities, within the same group of verses. That is, the sūra shows three verses apart that the attribute is not proper to one group.
I now give all the sūra's statements about the People of the Book together. The purpose of the table is to show the note of extent of each statement. The notes of extent are taken from the wording of the verses themselves.
| Verse | Statement | Note of extent — from the verse's own wording |
|---|---|---|
| 64 | Taʿālaw ilā kalimatin sawāʾin | A call — not a ruling; and with fa-in tawallaw the possibility of refusal is taken into account from the start |
| 65-68 | Lima tuḥājjūna fī Ibrāhīm | To those who dispute — and the answer is given by an attribute (ḥanīfan musliman) |
| 69 | Waddat ṭāʾifatun min ahli'l-kitāb | Min — a party |
| 70-71 | Lima takfurūn / lima talbisūn | To those who do the act — in the interrogative |
| 72 | Wa qālat ṭāʾifatun min ahli'l-kitāb | Min — a party |
| 75 | Wa min ahli'l-kitāb… wa minhum | An open division — and the favourable one first |
| 78 | Wa inna minhum la-farīqan | Min — a part |
| 98-99 | Lima takfurūn / lima taṣuddūn | To those who do the act — in the interrogative |
| 100 | In tuṭīʿū farīqan mina'lladhīna ūtu'l-kitāb | Min — a group |
| 110 | La-kāna khayran lahum | A division within the sentence itself: minhumu'l-muʾminūn |
| 112 | Ḍuribat ʿalayhimu'dh-dhilla | An exception within the sentence: illā bi-ḥablin mina'llāh; and the ground counted by verbs |
| 113-115 | Laysū sawāʾan… ummatun qāʾima | An open note — the attributes counted, and mina'ṣ-ṣāliḥīn said |
| 199 | Wa inna min ahli'l-kitābi la-man yuʾmin | Min — and lahum ajruhum ʿinda rabbihim |
One. There is not a single unfavourable sentence of ruling in the sūra built about the whole of the People of the Book. Every statement carries either a particle min, or an exception, or a division, or the note of the interrogative mood.
Two. The sūra builds a favourable ruling plainly in two places: 113-115 and 199. And both come after the sūra's heaviest statements — 113 immediately after 112; 199 at the end of the sūra.
I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: the placing of the note immediately after the heavy statement can be read as a method of the sūra. The text meets the generalising of its own sentence within itself.
And per the method (Method) I record this: in this commentary no blanket ruling about any religious or ethnic group has been drawn from any statement of the sūra. This is the note the sūra itself sets down.
The concrete sense of the root ك-ف-ر is to cover. And here the verb is passive and negative: lan yukfarūh — "it will not be covered", that is, it will not be left unrewarded.
I record this as an observation about the word: the same root had been used throughout the sūra for denial; here it is used for a deed's not being covered up. That is, the root conveys denial, ingratitude and the concealing of a work alike.
And the subject of the sentence must be recorded: wa mā yafʿalū min khayrin — a conditional sentence, and the subject of the condition is not tied to any group. The sentence holds whoever it is that does the good.