al-Māʾida 5:57-63

"O you who believe! Do not take as protectors those who make a mockery and a game of your religion — from among those who were given the Book before you — nor the deniers."

This verse shows within the text itself how verse fifty-one is to be read.

Alladhīna'ttakhadhū dīnakum huzuwan wa laʿiban min alladhīna ūtu'l-kitāba min qablikum.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the preposition: min here is partitive (separating a part from a whole) — "those of those who were given the Book", that is, not the whole of that community but those among them who carry this quality.

And the subject of the prohibition is not an affiliation but a behaviour: ittakhadhū dīnakum huzuwan wa laʿibā.

The same use of min was treated at al-Tawba 9/97-99 (wa mina'l-aʿrābi man…) and was recorded there too as the element that blocks a blanket verdict.

وَإِذَا نَادَيْتُمْ إِلَى ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ ٱتَّخَذُوهَا هُزُوًا وَلَعِبًا (58) — and a concrete instance is given: the attitude towards the call to prayer. Dhālika bi-annahum qawmun lā yaʿqilūn — the ground is tied to a failure to reason.

The root ن-ق-م: to find a thing offensive and take a stand against it, to vent one's spite.

And the construction of the question is worth recording: hal tanqimūna minnā illā an āmannā… — "is there any reason for your stand against us other than that we have believed?"

I record this as an observation: the sentence gives the list of what is objected to, and on the list stands belief in what came before as well (wa mā unzila min qabl). That is, what is put forward as the point of division is presented as a point of union.

On what the expressions in the verse (al-qirada wa'l-khanāzīr) point to there is the discussion treated at al-Baqara 2/65 and at al-Aʿrāf 7/166 — whether it is a real transformation or a figure has been debated in classical exegesis. No preference is adopted.

Per the method (Method) it is recorded plainly here: these expressions are not a quality of the whole of a community. The verse itself says wa jaʿala minhum — again min, again partitive. And the verbs are in the past tense: a particular event is being recounted.

No attribute is assigned to any community by this verse in this commentary — and this qualification follows from the verse's own wording.

And again the qualification: kathīran minhum — "many of them". Not all of them.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the subject of the sentence: the last verse turns the reproach away from those who do the thing and towards those who do not prevent it — and those expected to prevent it are that same community's scholars (al-rabbāniyyūn wa'l-aḥbār, the two groups named at verse 44 as those entrusted with the Torah).

And the one-letter difference between the closings of the two verses should be recorded:

The root of ṣunʿ (ص-ن-ع), unlike ʿamal, conveys doing something with craft, in an orderly way. The lexicographers record this difference.

I record this as an observation about the language, and it is not binding: ʿamal is used of the one who commits the evil, ṣunʿ of the one who says nothing about it — keeping silent is not a thing done once but an order maintained.