Translation:

They say: ‘Accept the Jewish or the Christian faith and you shall be rightly guided.’ Say: ‘By no means! We believe in the faith of Abraham, the upright one. He was no polytheist.’ Say: ‘We believe in God and that which was revealed to us, and in what was revealed to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes; to Moses and Jesus and the other prophets by their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to God we have surrendered ourselves.’ If they believe as you have done, they shall be rightly guided; if they reject your faith, they shall surely be in schism. Against them, God is your all-sufficient defender. He hears all and knows all. We take on God’s own dye. And who has a better dye than God’s. And we are His worshippers. Say: ‘Would you dispute with us about God, Who is our Lord and your Lord? We shall both be judged by our actions. To Him alone we are devoted. Or do you claim that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob and the tribes, were all Jews or Christians? Say: ‘Who knows better, you or God? And who is more unjust than one who hides a testimony which he has received from God? He is watching over your actions.’ That nation has passed away. Theirs is what they earned and yours what you have earned. You shall not be questioned about what they did.

Tafsir (Commentary):

The religion that the Prophet Muhammad taught was the religion of the Prophet Abraham, the very religion to which the Jews and the Christians claimed allegiance. Why was it, then, that they turned away from the Prophet Muhammad? The reason for this was that the religion taught by Muhammad, on whom be peace, taught people to take on the hue of God; to devote themselves to Him entirely. With the People of the Book, (i.e., Jews and Christians) religion had a different meaning. For them religion was a symbol of national pride. The message brought by the Arab prophet hurt their pride, so they turned against him.

Those who consider their own race superior to others cannot accept the truth when it manifests itself in some nation other than their own. They believe in prophets who come among their own people, but not in those from far-off places who come among other peoples. The only religion that they are acquainted with is communal religion. The only personalities that they acknowledge are those who belong to their own race. Those who look at religion as worship of God, on the other hand, recognize the truth of every piece of wisdom that God sends down, no matter who teaches it. For Jewish theologians to realize that Muhammad was God’s final messenger was not a matter of insuperable difficulty. There was nothing to prevent them from seeing the truth of his religion. They should have proclaimed what, deep down in their hearts, they knew to be true. But they did not accept him as the final prophet, as enjoined by God, for the simple reason that they were more concerned about their own position and prestige.

Just as the people of old received their just deserts as individuals, so will latter-day generations receive what they merit on their own account, for truth is an individual, not an ancestral matter. The mistake of the Jews was to think that contemporary and succeeding generations would be rewarded for the good deeds of their ancestors. The Christians had done the same. Their idea of original sin implied that sins were handed down from one generation to the next. Such beliefs have no basis in truth. Everyone will be rewarded by God according to his or her own personal actions; no one can be held responsible for the deeds of others. 

If faith is to be of the kind which pleases God, it must be identical with the faith as believed by the Companions of the Prophet. What was so special about that faith was that it amounted to acceptance of the truth on an abstract level; it was belief in truth for the sake of truth. This had become a rarity in a society which, revering the words of the ancient prophets, regarded as truth whatever had been sanctified by centuries-old tradition. Continued belief in such “truth”, embellished as it was by myth and legend, became a matter of national pride; to regard it in any other light would have been to deny a great legacy from the past. Unlike the ancient prophets, who were great figures, enshrined in their nations’ history, the Prophet Muhammad came afresh to the world with no accumulation of tradition behind him to lend weight to his words. When truth stands on its own, unsupported by history or tradition, as it was in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, those who accept it do so for the pure and simple reason that it is the truth. This is the kind of belief that God recognizes and accepts. This is true faith; only faith of such strength and purity is acceptable to God.

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