Translation:

Do you then hope that they will believe in what you say, when some of them have already heard the Word of God and knowingly perverted it, though they understood its meaning? When they meet the faithful they declare: ‘We, too, are believers.’ But when alone they say to each other: ‘Must you preach to them what God has revealed to you? They will only dispute with you about it in the Lord’s presence. Have you no sense?’ Do they not know that God has knowledge of all they hide and all that they reveal?

Tafsir (Commentary):

One of the reasons for the promptness with which the people of Medina recognized the Prophet Muhammad, and believed in him, was that they had often heard from their Jewish neighbours of the coming of a final prophet. They had, therefore, been expecting his arrival. The Jews, then were responsible for the Muslims’ initial fervour for Islam. It was only natural that the Muslims, in their turn, should hope that the Jews would unhesitatingly accept the prophethood of Muhammad. With every hope of a positive response, it was with the sublimest of emotion that they called on the Jews to join them in their belief in the prophet of Islam.

How shocked the Muslims were, then, when they found that, contrary to their expectations, the Jews were not ready to accept their invitation to Islam. Rather, their efforts had the opposite of the intended effect, for the Prophet’s opponents took the opportunity to ask the Muslims: “How are you so sure about the prophethood of Muhammad? If he were truly a prophet, the Jews would have been the first to believe in him, for their knowledge of what is written in the scriptures is greater than yours.”

But religious acceptance is not dependent upon knowledge alone; one has also to be well-intentioned. As for the Jews, they had already altered their own Scriptures, though they knew them to be the word of God. Seeking out loopholes in any part of the Holy Scriptures that did not conform to their wishes, they altered the Word of God at will; religion was subordinated to their worldly interests. People who act in this manner are ill-intentioned, and it is only the truly sincere who can bring themselves to accept the truth when it lies beyond the confines of their own group.

However true something may be, if one is bent on denial then one is sure to find some justification for it. Such perverse attitude finally leads to actual falsification of the true word of God. One who has such an irreverent attitude towards the divine Scriptures can never appreciate the gravity of matters concerning God: he hears the word of God, but excuses himself from being bound by it; he believes in God, but remains insensitive to his responsibilities to Him, committing acts of flagrant rebellion against Him which no one who really believes that God is watching over him, and hearing what he says, would ever dare to perpetrate.

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