The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 525
CH. 16 PT. 14 AN-NAHL 119. And to those also who are Jews, We forbade before this all وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا مَا قَصَصْنَا E عَلَيْكَ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَمَا ظَلَمُنْهُمْ وَلكِنْ that We have related to thee كَانُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ they used to selves. 1919 And "We wronged them not, but wrong them- 120. Then surely, 'thy Lord-to those who do evil in ignorance ثُمَّ اِنَّ رَبَّكَ لِلَّذِينَ عَمِلُوا السُّوءَ بِجَهَالَةٍ ثُمَّ تَابُوا مِنْ بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ وَأَصْلَحُوا and repent thereafter and make amends aye, surely, after that thy Lord is Most Forgiving, Merciful. 1920 10 اِنَّ رَبَّكَ مِنْ بَعْدِهَا لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمُن a11:102; 16:34. 4:18; 6:55. which the Holy Prophet lived after he The present verse says if even now laid claim to prophethood. 1919. Commentary: The verse warns Muslims that, like idolaters, the Jews also made lawful things unlawful and vice versa, and for this unlawful act they were punished by God, so they (the Muslims) should be on their guard against following their bad example. The word "before" in the sentence We forbade before this all. . . refers to v. 116 above. The words, but they used to wrong themselves, signify that some other things such as the flesh of the cow and the fat of the goat were forbidden to them. But the prohibition was temporary and was prescribed as a punishment to the Jews for having made lawful for themselves things which God had made unlawful for them. 1920. Commentary: The preceding verse said that Jews were punished for their disobedience. they repent and reform themselves, God will forgive them their past sins and once again shower upon them spiritual blessings of which they had become deprived on account of their disobedience. The expression as means both lack of knowledge and used in the second sense because lack of spiritual realization. Here it is there is no justification in punishing a person who does not possess knowledge of a commandment for the non-observance of which he is punished. The verse means to say that the Jews possessed requisite knowledge of the commandments which they were expected to observe but they broke those commandments not because of lack of knowledge, but because they did not fear God and were devoid of spiritual realization. This shows that the possession of both knowledge and spiritual realization is essential, for knowledge alone is no great help. 1733