The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 119
PT. 1 AL-BAQARAH CH. 2 وَلَا تَلْبِسُوا الْحَقَّ بِالْبَاطِلِ وَتَكْتُمُوا And confound not truth. 43 الْحَقَّ وَانْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ ) with falsehood nor hide the truth, knowingly. 4 49 a3:72. 2:147, 160; 6:92. which gives a much wider significance than the former. For an explanation of the word see under 2:3 above. Before we pass on to the next verse, it is necessary to remove one possible misunderstanding. The Quran declares itself to be d of the Jewish scriptures and we have explained this expression as meaning that the Quran came in fulfilment of what was prophesied in the previous Scriptures not that the Quran holds the previous Scriptures to be true. This should not give rise to the misunderstanding that the Quran does not accept the Divine origin of the previous Scriptures. As a matter of fact, the Quran itself says that God's Messengers have appeared among all the different peoples of the world calls (35:25). It also upon its followers to believe in all the previous revelations but this belief should be through the Holy Prophet and not independently of him (2:5). At the same time, the Quran criticizes claims to have come in fulfilment of their prophecies. (2) Nevertheless the Quran accepts the Divine origin of all the revealed Books that were sent by God before Islam. (3) But it does not look upon all their present teachings to be true; for much has been tampered with and much that was meant for a specific period has now become obsolete. 49. Important Words: (confound) is derived from which means, he put on a clothing. And as a clothing serves to cover or hide the body of the person clothed, the word has also come to mean, to cover up or to hide or to confound or to make a thing mixed up or doubtful (Aqrab). بطل falsehood) is derived from) الباطل which means: (1) it became corrupt, or (2) it became inoperative, or (3) it went waste and served no useful purpose. The Arabs use the expression of a murdered person whose بطل دمه and denies several teachings ascribed to the previous Scriptures and claims that these teachings have been tampered with (19:89-92; 9:30; 4:47). Thus the position may be summed up as follows: (1) Wherever the Quran speaks of itself as being of the previous Scriptures, it does not mean that it confirms their teachings but that it 119 blood is not avenged. The word b means: (1) anything opposed to (truth) i. e. falsehood; (2) anything that goes waste and serves no useful commandment which is no longer purpose; (3) an obsolete edict or operative (Aqrab & Mufradāt). Commentary: Here the Jews are forbidden (1) to mingle the true with the false, by