al-Baqara 2:120 — "They will not be satisfied"

"Neither the Jews nor the Christians will be satisfied with you until you follow their religion."

This verse requires care, because it can easily be turned into a general declaration of enmity.

What the sentence says is that an expectation is unrealistic: that the search for agreement cannot be tied to the aim of satisfying the other side completely. For the condition of complete satisfaction is to give up one's own position entirely.

What the sentence does not say is this: that no relationship can be established with them, that no good can be done to them, that one cannot deal justly with them. The Qurʾān regulates all of this plainly elsewhere: "God does not forbid you to be good and to deal justly with those who have not fought you over religion and have not driven you from your homes" (al-Mumtaḥina 60/8). And the same sūra does not neglect to distinguish those who are good (Āl ʿImrān 3/113).

The verse, then, is a warning about strategy, not a rule of conduct: one's position cannot be determined by chasing approval. The relationship itself is a separate subject and is regulated by other verses.