لَتَجِدَنَّ أَشَدَّ ٱلنَّاسِ عَدَٰوَةً لِّلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱلْيَهُودَ وَٱلَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا۟ ۖ وَلَتَجِدَنَّ أَقْرَبَهُم مَّوَدَّةً لِّلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّا نَصَٰرَىٰ
"You will find the most violent of people in enmity towards the believers … And you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers to be those who say 'we are Christians'. That is because among them are priests and monks, and because they are not arrogant."
Per the method (Method) the plainest qualification must be laid down here, and its ground is the verse itself: the sentence states a cause — dhālika bi-anna minhum qissīsīna wa ruhbānan wa annahum lā yastakbirūn.
| The ground given | What kind of thing it is |
|---|---|
| Minhum qissīsīna wa ruhbānan | That there are people of learning and of worship among them |
| Wa annahum lā yastakbirūn | Their not showing istikbār — a disposition* |
That is, the cause of the nearness is not a name or an affiliation but the attributes enumerated. And the verse says so openly with bi-anna (because).
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is this sentence of reasoning: the verse declares within itself that the measure is an attribute. The same measure holds for the first half of the verse as well — and indeed the sūra had laid down the qualifications kathīrun minhum / minhum ummatun muqtaṣida in five separate places about these same communities (5/62, 64, 66, 71, 80).
No ruling is issued in this commentary by this verse about the whole of any community as it stands today. This is what following the text's own qualifications requires.
The root ك-ب-ر, in Form X (istikbār): to think oneself great, to give oneself airs of greatness. The root was treated at al-Aʿrāf 7/13 and at Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40/56.
وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا۟ مَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَى ٱلرَّسُولِ تَرَىٰٓ أَعْيُنَهُمْ تَفِيضُ مِنَ ٱلدَّمْعِ مِمَّا عَرَفُوا۟ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ (83)
Fayḍ (ف-ي-ض): a vessel's filling and overflowing. The word was treated at al-Tawba 9/92 (tafīḍu mina'd-damʿi ḥazanan); I rely on that treatment. In both verses the same verb, with the same object.
مِمَّا عَرَفُوا۟ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ — and the cause is given: ʿarafū — because they recognised it. That is, the tears are recounted not as an emotional reaction but as the consequence of a recognition.
رَبَّنَآ ءَامَنَّا فَٱكْتُبْنَا مَعَ ٱلشَّٰهِدِينَ — and the prayer is built with maʿa (together with). The same pattern was treated at al-Tawba 9/119 (kūnū maʿa'ṣ-ṣādiqīn).
فَأَثَٰبَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ بِمَا قَالُوا۟ (85) — bimā qālū — "for what they said". And what they said had been transmitted at 83-84.