Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Surah Al-Baqarah
Surah 2 · Al-Baqarah · verse 113 of 286

Quran 2:113 · Al-Baqarah

وَقَالَتِ ٱلۡيَهُودُ لَيۡسَتِ ٱلنَّصَٰرَىٰ عَلَىٰ شَيۡءٖ وَقَالَتِ ٱلنَّصَٰرَىٰ لَيۡسَتِ ٱلۡيَهُودُ عَلَىٰ شَيۡءٖ وَهُمۡ يَتۡلُونَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبَۗ كَذَٰلِكَ قَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَ مِثۡلَ قَوۡلِهِمۡۚ فَٱللَّهُ يَحۡكُمُ بَيۡنَهُمۡ يَوۡمَ ٱلۡقِيَٰمَةِ فِيمَا كَانُواْ فِيهِ يَخۡتَلِفُونَ

The Jews say "The Christians have nothing [true] to stand on," and the Christians say, "The Jews have nothing to stand on," although they [both] recite the Scripture. Thus the polytheists speak the same as their words. But Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they used to differ

Translation: Sahih International
Maulana’s commentary · Tazkirul Quran

To the Israelites the criterion of truth was their association with the prophets and saints. That was why they believed that their community was in the right while other communities were in the wrong. As for the Christians, they considered themselves unique in that God’s ‘beloved son’ had been sent to them. Even the polytheists of Makkah thought of themselves as superior to others, basing their claim on the fact that they were the guardians of God’s Sacred House. Thus every nation had set its own self-styled religious standards, according to which they themselves inevitably appeared to be in the right, and everyone else in the wrong. Their actions, however, did not substantiate their claims. For one thing, they had become divided into sects, though all of them swore allegiance to the divine scriptures. They took every opportunity to deny others the right to enter places of worship, though they would say that they were doing this to protect the sanctity of these places. In fact they were ruining them, for places of worship become derelict when people are denied the right of worship there. If a worshipper has the correct attitude, he will never deny the right to worship to those who come to do so; he will never persecute those who come to serve the Lord. When one is truly conscious of God’s greatness and one’s own helplessness before Him, one’s humility will show in one’s dealings with others: one will not seek to harm one’s fellow men in any way, let alone deny them their fundamental right to worship God.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Tazkirul Quran

In the lectures

Maulana does not cite this verse in the lectures indexed so far. The verses of this surah Maulana does cite →