The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 173
PT. 1 AL-BAQARAH CH. 2 وَقَالُوا لَنْ تَمَسَّنَا النَّارُ إِلَّا اَيَّامًا And they say, “The Fire. 81 shall not touch us except for a Say مَّعْدُودَةٌ قُلْ اَتَّخَذْتُمْ عِنْدَ اللهِ عَهْدًا small number of days. b‘Have you taken a promise فَلَن يُخْلِفَ اللهُ عَهْدَة أَمْ تَقُولُونَ عَلَى from Allah? Then, Allah will اللهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ never break His promise. Or, do you say of Allah what you know not?'87 "3:25; 5:19. 54:44. absolutely unjustified. For tampering with the text does not necessarily mean tampering with a genuine text. One who tampers with a version of a false book which he believes to be true is as liable to blame as the one who tampers with a genuine scripture. Hence, the warning to the People of the Book against tampering with the Bible cannot be cited as proof of the existence of the true Bible at the time of the Holy Prophet. The words, paltry price, do not mean that the taking of a good price would be lawful. The words have been used to point out that whatever price they may take would be paltry in view of the great loss they would be suffering thereby. Elsewhere, the Quran says: the benefit of this world is little (4:78). In the last clause the Quran repeats the words, Woe to them, twice, saying: Woe, then, to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earn. This is to point out that by so doing the Israelites are committing two offences: (1) writing down a thing falsely and (2) doing it with the 173 intention of earning some worldly benefit. As the offence is double, the punishment also will be double. 87. Important Words: (the Fire) means fire both as a source of light and of heat, the latter aspect being more dominant. Another word derived from the same root is meaning light, which is used without reference to the element of heat. The word (the Fire) has come to be used about "Hell", the punishment of which will consist of fire (Aqrab). It is significant that whereas blessings of Heaven have been metaphorically spoken of as "streams of water", the punishment of Hell has been called "fire". Commentary: the After recounting some malpractices of the Jews, the Quran proceeds to explain the root cause of their arrogance and hard-heartedness. These evil practices of the Jews, the Quran points out, are due to the wrong notion that they were immune from punishment (Jew. Enc. under Gehenna), or if they will at all be punished, the punishment will be