Transposition Of Words Of God

LESSON # 86 HOLY QUR’AAN

BAQARAH – 2 (The Cow)

Transposition Of Words Of God

Verse –75 of 286, Section - 9

Have ye any hope that they will be true to you when a party of them used to listen to the word of Allah, then used to change it, after they had understood it, knowingly

‘Afa-tatma-‘uuna  ‘any-yu’-minuu  lakum  wa qad kaana fariiqum-minhum yasma-‘uuna  Kalaamallaahi summa yuharri-fuunahuu mim-ba’-di maa ‘aqaluuhu wa hum ya’-lamuun.

Lesson

Tatma-‘uuna – (you have any hope) this word is derived from Tama’a. Usual meanings of Tama’a are ‘to long for’, ‘to have greed’ and also it means ‘to hope’, ‘to expect’. Here it aims towards the last meanings.   

Yuharri-fuunahuu – (they used to change it) matter of this word is harafa and infinitive mood is tahriif, that means ‘change’. There are two ways of the change:

·       Literal change (to change the words, to change its pronunciation so that reality of the word may be changed. For instance the Jews used to speak the words ‘hintatun’ instead of ‘hittatun’ and ‘ra-iina’ instead of ‘raa-‘ina’).

·       Significant change (to change the meanings of the words – in translation and explanation).

God Almighty after telling the important happenings in the history of the children of Israel commands in the previous verse that these people will not admit/recognize any warning from these speeches because their hearts have become harder than rocks. Exemplary happenings have no effects on their hearts.

In this verse God Almighty admonishes the Muslims, “Do you wish that they will agree upon your talk whereas out of their elders during the time of Prophet Moses (peace be upon Him) and after them also there was a party used to change intentionally after listen the speech of God Almighty. While it was the condition of their elders then; Have you any hope that they will be true to you? How can you expect from them for goodness? They are ill-disposed people. They will never believe.

It appears from the God Almighty’s this proclamation that the Muslims should not have much expectation of accepting Islam by the Jews.  

Transliteration in Roman Script & English Translation by Marmaduke Pickthall, Published by Paak Company, 17-Urdu Bazar, Lahore and Paraphrase collected from Dars e Qur’aan published By Idara Islah wa Tableegh, Lahore (translated by Muhammad Sharif)