إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَا ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ فِيهَا هُدًى وَنُورٌ … وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْكَٰفِرُونَ
In three verses the same sentence is repeated with three different endings, and this repetition is one of the most discussed places in the sūra.
| Verse | Context | The close |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | The Torah — the prophets, the rabbis and the scholars judged by it | Fa-ulāʾika humu'l-kāfirūn |
| 45 | The verses of retaliation — a life for a life, an eye for an eye | Fa-ulāʾika humu'ẓ-ẓālimūn |
| 47 | Let the people of the Gospel judge by what was sent down to them | Fa-ulāʾika humu'l-fāsiqūn |
| View | Content |
|---|---|
| A | All three words belong to the same group, and the repetition is for emphasis |
| B | The three words indicate three distinct degrees — denial, wrongdoing, departing from the way |
| C | One who abandons the ruling by denying it is distinguished from one who abandons it while accepting it, following his own desire; the first falls under the first word, the second under the others |
| D | Restricting the verses to their own context (the People of the Book's not judging by the Book in their hands) |
No preference is adopted in this commentary, no ruling is issued, and no attribute is assigned to any person or community by these verses. Per the method (Method): a verse describes an attribute; determining who falls under that attribute is not this commentary's business.
| Note | Where |
|---|---|
| Each of the three verses addresses, in context, the people of a different book | 44 (the Torah), 45 (retaliation in the Torah), 47 (the Gospel) |
| The closing words are different | Kāfirūn / ẓālimūn / fāsiqūn |
| In the middle of the three verses stands a call to pardon | 45: fa-man taṣaddaqa bihī fa-huwa kaffāratun lah |
Five pairings are counted: nafs–nafs, ʿayn–ʿayn, anf–anf, udhun–udhun, sinn–sinn — and a sixth, al-jurūḥu qiṣāṣ.
I record this as an observation about the language: the sentence is built with the preposition ب — an-nafsa bi'n-nafs — and this preposition conveys requital, an equivalent. That is, the list is a list of equivalences; not an encouragement but an upper limit.
And immediately after: fa-man taṣaddaqa bihī fa-huwa kaffāratun lah — "whoever remits it as charity, it is an expiation for him".
The same structure was treated at al-Baqara 2/178 (fa-man ʿufiya lahū min akhīhi shayʾun fa'ttibāʿun bi'l-maʿrūf); I rely on that treatment. Both verses fix the requital and then immediately bring pardon to the front.
Taqfiya (ق-ف-و): to follow behind someone, in his tracks; qafā — the nape of the neck. That is, "We sent one after another behind them".
And the Gospel is qualified by the same two words: fīhi hudan wa nūr — the same phrase used of the Torah at 44. This repetition can be verified from the text.