2/40 — The covenant
"Children of Israel! Remember My favour that I bestowed on you, and fulfil your covenant with Me and I shall fulfil My covenant with you. And fear Me alone."
It is the second name of the prophet Jacob (Yaʿqūb); the Qurʾān plainly intimates this in one place (Āl ʿImrān 3/93). "Banū Isrāʾīl" = the sons of Jacob, that is, the name of a lineage.
The origin of the word is not Arabic. In Islamic sources it is commonly explained as "ʿAbdullāh" — isrā (servant) + īl (God). In the Hebrew tradition another meaning is given to the word. In this commentary I transmit the explanation found in the Islamic sources and make no claim to a settled etymology; that the word is of foreign origin makes a definite solution difficult.
The favours to be counted are many: deliverance, a book, prophets, a land. For all that, the word comes singular. In Arabic this use states the genus — the kind of favour, not its individual items. Elsewhere the Qurʾān says why: "If you tried to count God's favour you could not number it" (Ibrāhīm 14/34). What cannot be counted can only be named in the singular.
Root ʿ-h-d. Its primary sense is to guard, to watch over, to look back at again and again. From the same root come taʿahhud (to undertake), muʿāhada (a treaty) and maʿhad (a known, familiar place).
The sense of "looking back" at the core of the word matters: a covenant is not a word given once and forgotten but a bond that must be continually remembered and watched over. Left untended, it decays.
أَوْفُوا۟ — root w-f-y: to complete, to pay in full. The Arabic wafāʾ comes from it, and Turkish has borrowed the same word as vefâ, "faithfulness". The verse does not say "keep your word", it says "pay your word in full". Partial fulfilment does not count as fulfilment.
A mutual contract is set up here, and it has two parties. This shows that the divine–human relationship is not framed as a mere relation of command and obedience: a bond is described in which both sides have an obligation.
This too must be added: this reciprocity does not mean an equality between the parties. The one who sets the terms of the contract and the one who gives the power to fulfil it are the same party. But that the Qurʾān has chosen this language is meaningful — it addresses the human being with a notion by which he can grasp his obligation: a contract.
وَإِيَّٰىَ فَٱرْهَبُونِ — "fear Me alone". Note: iyyāya has been brought forward. It is the same structure as iyyāka naʿbudu in the fourth verse of al-Fātiḥa: bringing forward conveys restriction.
Fear with رَهْبَة: root r-h-b. This is not sheer terror; it is a shrinking mixed with respect, a keeping of distance. From the same root comes rāhib (monk) — one who has devoted himself and withdrawn.