وَدَّت طَّآئِفَةٌ مِّنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لَوْ يُضِلُّونَكُمْ … يَٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لِمَ تَلْبِسُونَ ٱلْحَقَّ بِٱلْبَٰطِلِ
Waddat ṭāʾifatun min ahli'l-kitābi law yuḍillūnakum wa mā yuḍillūna illā anfusahum wa mā yashʿurūn · Yā ahla'l-kitābi lima takfurūna bi-āyāti'llāhi wa antum tashhadūn · Yā ahla'l-kitābi lima talbisūna'l-ḥaqqa bi'l-bāṭili wa taktumūna'l-ḥaqqa wa antum taʿlamūn
"A party of the People of the Book wished to lead you astray; yet they lead none astray but themselves, and they do not perceive it. · People of the Book! Why do you deny the signs of God — and you yourselves bearing witness? · People of the Book! Why do you dress truth up in falsehood and conceal the truth knowingly?"
And this is a fact of word order to be underlined in this commentary: the sentence does not say ahlu'l-kitāb; it says ṭāʾifatun min ahli'l-kitāb — "a party of the People of the Book".
Min is here the particle of tabʿīḍ in Arabic (indicating a part of a whole). That is, the subject is not the whole of the set but a part of it.
The same caveat is there in the next verse too: wa qālat ṭāʾifatun min ahli'l-kitāb (72). And at verse 75 it will come once more, this time in both directions.
| Verse | Subject | Extent |
|---|---|---|
| 69 | Ṭāʾifatun min ahli'l-kitāb | A party |
| 72 | Ṭāʾifatun min ahli'l-kitāb | A party |
| 75 | Wa min ahli'l-kitāb… wa minhum | Two parties, set against each other |
| 113 | Min ahli'l-kitābi ummatun qāʾima | A party — favourable |
| 199 | Wa inna min ahli'l-kitābi la-man yuʾmin | A party — favourable |
The same particle in all five verses: min. This is a fact verifiable within the sūra, and it settles how every statement of the sūra about the People of the Book is to be read.
The root ل-ب-س: to clothe, to cover over; and from this, to confuse, to make indistinct by covering. Libās — a garment. Labs — confusion, iltibās.
And the picture of the root must be recorded: one thing is put on over another; what is put on does not destroy what is beneath — it makes it invisible.
I give this as an observation about the word: the verse does not say "you destroy the truth". It says you clothe it. That is, the truth stands where it is, but because something has been drawn over it, it is not recognised.
| Verb | The operation | What becomes of the truth |
|---|---|---|
| Talbisūn | Mixing | It stands, but is not recognised |
| Taktumūn | Concealing | It is not there at all |
Two separate operations, in one sentence. In the first something is added, in the second something is taken away.
And it must be recorded that both sentences end with the same note: wa antum tashhadūn (70) — wa antum taʿlamūn (71). Both are notes of "knowingly". That is, the subject of the verses is not ignorance; it is what is done despite the presence of knowledge. This is the very note set up in the nineteenth verse: min baʿdi mā jāʾahumu'l-ʿilm.
"'At the beginning of the day believe in what has been sent down to those who believe, and at the end of it disbelieve; perhaps they will turn back.'"
وَجْهَ ٱلنَّهَارِ — "the face of the day", that is, its beginning. In Arabic the wajh of a thing is the side of it that appears first.
And the verse describes a method: belief is used as an instrument. To join in the morning and to part in the evening — and the calculated result of this is that the others should fall into indecision (laʿallahum yarjiʿūn).
I record this as an observation and I draw a boundary: the verse describes a tactic and limits the speaker to one party (ṭāʾifatun min). No blanket attribute of any community is drawn from this in this commentary; what is drawn is the naming of a form of conduct.
وَلَا تُؤْمِنُوٓا۟ إِلَّا لِمَن تَبِعَ دِينَكُمْ (73) — "believe none but him who follows your religion". And the work of the sentence must be recorded: the measure of truth is tied not to what is said but to the affiliation of the one who says it.
And the answer comes at once: qul inna'l-hudā huda'llāh — "Say: guidance is the guidance of God." That is, the measure is not the side but the source.
Qul inna'l-faḍla bi-yadi'llāh (73) and yakhtaṣṣu bi-raḥmatihī man yashāʾ (74) — the section closes by saying to whom the choosing belongs. And this does the same work as the verse mālika'l-mulk at verse 26: there dominion, here faḍl. Both verses close a dispute by saying in whose hand a thing is. This is a weave verifiable within the sūra.