فَإِنْ حَآجُّوكَ فَقُلْ أَسْلَمْتُ وَجْهِىَ لِلَّهِ وَمَنِ ٱتَّبَعَنِ … أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ نَصِيبًا مِّنَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ
Fa-in ḥājjūka fa-qul aslamtu wajhiya li'llāhi wa mani'ttabaʿan, wa qul li'lladhīna ūtu'l-kitāba wa'l-ummiyyīna a-aslamtum, fa-in aslamū fa-qadi'htadaw, wa in tawallaw fa-innamā ʿalayka'l-balāgh, wa'llāhu baṣīrun bi'l-ʿibād
"If they dispute with you, say: I have handed my face over to God, and so have those who follow me. Say to those who were given the Book and to the ummiyyūn: 'Have you handed yourselves over too?' If they hand themselves over they have found the way; if they turn away, your part is only to convey."
And its object must be recorded: wajhiya — "my face". The root و-ج-ه: direction, face, the side of a thing towards which one turns. The root was treated at 2/112 and 2/115 in al-Baqara.
In Arabic wajh is used for the whole of a thing — because the face is the side of a person that stands foremost and is recognised. And the idiom occurs in the same form at al-Baqara 2/112: balā man aslama wajhahū li'llāhi wa huwa muḥsin.
I record this as an observation: the nineteenth verse had named the religion; the twentieth turns that name into a verb and puts the verb in the first person. That is, the definition is first shown on the speaker himself; then it is asked.
And the form of the question must be recorded: a-aslamtum — a question. Not a command, not an imposition; a question. And its answer is met with two possibilities, the second of which sets the limit of conveying: fa-innamā ʿalayka'l-balāgh.
ٱلْبَلَٰغ — a table of the limit of responsibility was drawn up in Muḥammad, at 42/48 in al-Shūrā, at 46/35 in al-Aḥqāf and at 28/56 in al-Qaṣaṣ. I rely on that treatment. In summary: balāgh is to convey — not to make accepted.
ٱلْأُمِّيِّۦنَ — from the root أ-م-م: those who are not people of a book. The word was treated at 62/2 in al-Jumuʿa. Per the method (Method) I record this: the word here is not a disparagement but a term of distinction — those who have not been given a book.
The twenty-first verse makes a severe statement: inna'lladhīna yakfurūna bi-āyāti'llāhi wa yaqtulūna'n-nabiyyīna bi-ghayri ḥaqqin wa yaqtulūna'lladhīna yaʾmurūna bi'l-qisṭi mina'n-nās — "those who deny the signs of God, who kill the prophets without right, and who kill those among the people who enjoin justice…"
Per the method (Method) I record this: the sentence is built with alladhīna — that is, it is tied to an attribute, not to a community. No group is named in the sentence. Whoever does these three things, the verse speaks of him.
And the third verb is worth recording, and it is usually passed over: wa yaqtulūna'lladhīna yaʾmurūna bi'l-qisṭi mina'n-nās — "those who kill those among the people who enjoin justice."
I record this as an observation: the verse puts non-prophets into the same sentence. That is, it is not required that the one killed be a prophet; it is enough that he enjoined justice. And this is the first link in the line of "enjoining what is right" that will be built in verses 104 and 110 of the sūra.
حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَٰلُهُمْ (22) — root ح-ب-ط. The concrete sense of the root was treated in Muḥammad: an animal's eating a harmful plant and swelling, and that swelling ending in death. That is, ḥabṭ is a swelling that deflates — full from outside, empty within. I do not repeat it here.
The twenty-third verse describes how, when those given a portion of the Book are called to the arbitration of their own book, a group of them turns away: thumma yatawallā farīqun minhum wa hum muʿriḍūn.
Per the method (Method) I record this, and it is a rule of reading that will be kept throughout the sūra: the verse says farīqun minhum — "a group of them". There is no blanket ruling. This note is directly connected with verse 113 of the sūra (laysū sawāʾ), and it will be shown there in a table.
The twenty-fourth verse gives the cause: dhālika bi-annahum qālū lan tamassana'n-nāru illā ayyāman maʿdūdāt — "because they said, the Fire will touch us only for a counted number of days."
This sentence occurred word for word at 2/80 in al-Baqara and was treated there. I rely on that treatment. In summary: the claim reduces not the existence of the punishment but its duration — and this is a more insidious operation than a denial, because it goes on believing while rendering the outcome ineffective.
غَرَّهُمْ فِى دِينِهِم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ — root غ-ر-ر: to deceive; the concrete sense of the root is a thing's outer face being bright and its inside empty. The root was treated at 31/33 in Luqmān and at 57/14 in al-Ḥadīd.
And the word order of the sentence must be recorded: the thing that deceives is not an enemy coming from outside — mā kānū yaftarūn, "what they themselves invented". That is, the verse ties the source of the deception to the one deceived.