وَلَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَا بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ وَٱلْحُكْمَ وَٱلنُّبُوَّةَ … فَمَا ٱخْتَلَفُوٓا۟ إِلَّا مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا جَآءَهُمُ ٱلْعِلْمُ بَغْيًۢا بَيْنَهُمْ
"We gave the Children of Israel the Book, the judgement and prophethood… They fell into disagreement only after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves."
This expression has already been treated in two places in this series: al-Baqara 2/213 and 2/253. In all three the same thing is said: disagreement arises not from the absence of proof, but after it has come.
| Place | Expression |
|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/213 | Min baʿdi mā jāʾathumu'l-bayyināt — baghyan baynahum |
| al-Baqara 2/253 | Min baʿdi mā jāʾathumu'l-bayyināt |
| al-Jāthiya 45/17 | Min baʿdi mā jāʾahumu'l-ʿilm — baghyan baynahum |
The difference lies in a single word: in al-Baqara bayyināt (clear proofs), here ʿilm (knowledge). This is a choice in keeping with the sūra's axis of knowledge, and it can be verified from the text.
بَغْي — root ب-غ-ي: to overstep the bound, to begrudge. The root was treated in al-Ḥujurāt at 49/9.
شَرِيعَة — root ش-ر-ع. The concrete sense recorded by the lexicographers is worth recording: sharīʿa is the path down which one goes to a river or a water source, the opening at which water is reached. Shāriʿ — an open road.
That the word carries this picture also describes the concept itself: before it is a body of regulations, it is a path opened in order to arrive somewhere. And the place it arrives at is named with water, that is, with life.
وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَآءَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ — and what is set opposite it: the hawā of those who do not know.
The opposition should be recorded: sharīʿa / ahwāʾ. One is an opened path, the other an inclination. And the attribute of the second group is lā yaʿlamūn — those who do not know. Once again the sūra ties the measure to knowledge.
هَٰذَا بَصَٰٓئِرُ لِلنَّاسِ — baṣāʾir is the plural of baṣīra: sight, insight. The Book is named not as "rules" but as "instruments of seeing".