The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 111
PT. 1 AL-BAQARAH name given to Jacob by God Himself, has been preferred to the name Jacob which was apparently given him by his parents. Moreover, Israel, being an attributive name meaning "God's warrior", has been chosen to remind the Jews that, being the children of a great soldier of God, they should also behave like brave men and, throwing aside all petty considerations, should come forward and accept the Prophet whom God has raised for their own good. The form ↳ (O ye children of Israel), is similar to addressing a man as ( you the son of a noble man), which expression we use when we wish to appeal to him to show nobility and generosity just as his noble father before him used to do. As to the other name "Jews", it may be noted that both "Israel" and "Jews" are attributive names which have come to be used as proper names. Where the Quran desires to refer to the followers of Moses as a community descended from one common ancestor, it speaks of them as "children of Israel", and where it desires to refer to them as a religious unit it uses the name "Jews", the word > or derived from to meaning a people that turn to God or to the truth with repentance. Or, as some people have thought, is derived from (Judah) who was one of the sons of Jacob. As Judah's descendants together with those of his brother, Benjamin, constituted the kingdom of Judah at Jerusalem, as opposed to that of the remaining ten tribes of Israel, collectively known as Israel, and, as Jerusalem became the religious centre of the Jews, the Jewish religion came 111 CH. 2 to be known as Judaism and the people professing that religion as or Jews (Enc. Brit. under Jews). The "favours" spoken of in the verse include both spiritual and temporal favours, of both of which the Israelites had their share. Says the Quran: And remember when Moses said to his people, 'O my people, call to mind Allah's favour upon you when He appointed Prophets among you and made you kings' (5:21). This verse makes it clear that the highest spiritual favour is prophethood and the highest temporal favour is kingship and both these favours were bestowed on the Israelites. The facts of history bear out that assertion. have اوفوا بعهدی اوف بعهدكم The words been rendered in the text as, fulfil your covenant with Me, I will fulfil My covenant with you, but perhaps a simpler rendering would be, "fulfil My commandments, 1 will fulfil the promise I made to you". As for the covenant spoken of in this verse, we read in the Quran that, when Abraham enquired of God whether the promise which He had made to him about making him an Imām or leader of the people applied to his posterity also, God said, My covenant does not embrace the transgressors (2:125) which implied that the covenant applied only to the righteous children of Abraham. The Bible also refers to this covenant in Gen. 17:4-14 where God says to Abraham, "As for me, behold my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. . . And I will make thee exceeding fruitful and I will make nations of thee and kings shall come