The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 1
CHAPTER 3 ĀL-E-IMRĀN (Revealed after Hijrah) Connection with the Preceding Chapter This chapter has a twofold connection with the preceding chapter, Al-Baqarah, i. e. (1) there is a link between the whole chapter, Āl-e-‘Imrān and the whole chapter, Al-Baqarah, and (2) there is a link between the concluding portion of Al-Baqarah and the opening verses of Āl-e-‘Imrān. In fact, the order in the Quran is of two kinds: either the topic with which one chapter is concluded is continued in the following chapter, or the subject matter of the whole preceding chapter is dealt with in the next. This twofold connection exists between the Surahs-Al-Baqarah and Āl-e-‘Imrān. The connection of the whole subject matter of Āl-e-'Imrān with that of Al-Baqarah mainly consists in a description of the causes that led to the transfer of prophethood from the Mosaic to the Islamic dispensation. This was the main theme of Al-Baqarah, and in explanation the degenerate condition of the Jews was dealt with at some length in that Surah. But in Al-Baqarah, little light was shed on Christianity, which constitutes the culmination of the Mosaic dispensation. This omission could have given rise to doubts in the minds of some people that though Judaism which constituted the beginning of the Mosaic dispensation had become corrupt, its culmination, the Christian Faith, was still pure; and hence, there was no necessity to introduce and establish a new religion Islam. To remove this seemingly legitimate doubt, the hollowness of the current Christian doctrines has been fully exposed in Al-e-Imran. But as the Christian faith seeks to base its superiority as much on the nobility of its detailed practical teaching as on the excellence of its tenets and doctrines, so after Āl-e-‘Imrān this subject has been dealt with in chapter An-Nisa' to which reference will be made at its proper place. Anyhow, the falsity of the Christian doctrines having been established in Āl-e-'Imran, the chapter proceeds to show that, as the Christian faith which had reformed and regenerated Judaism had itself become corrupt and degenerate, it could not prove a bar in the way of the introduction of a new and better dispensation. On the contrary, it constituted a strong testimony to the need for the introduction of a new Law. Consequently, the Divine attributes of "Living" and "Self-Subsisting and All-Sustaining" in the very beginning of Āl-e-'Imrān are intended to repudiate Christian doctrines. The second kind of connection viz. that of the concluding portion of Al-Baqarah with the opening portion of Āl-e-‘Imrān is apparent from the fact 441