And when the estimation was: Did they not have a sign of the truth of that, that they should seek those scriptures and look into them, so that they may taste that from them to guide them to the truth of certainty? He followed that with his saying: ﴿Or did they not have﴾.

[And when this method of reasoning necessitated the precedence of the news over the noun in the reading of the majority with masculine and accusative, he said after presenting what was necessitated by the situation]: ﴿A sign﴾ meaning: a mark of the relation to us; then he followed that noun transformed to 'that' and the verb because it is more specific [and known] and clearer than mentioning the source, so he said: ﴿That they may know it﴾ meaning: this which our Prophet brought from us; and Ibn 'Amir made the verb feminine and raised 'sign' as a noun and informed about it with 'that' and the verb ﴿The scholars of the Children of Israel﴾ [so they may acknowledge it] and not deny it, so that they may believe in it and not abandon it. For indeed, the Quraysh often referred to them and relied on them in the divine news, for indeed many of them embraced Islam and mentioned the confirmation of the Torah and the Gospel [and the Psalms and others from the scriptures of the prophets, peace be upon them] for the Qur'an in the description of the Prophet ﷺ, and in that is what supports his truthfulness and affirms his matter. And the mentioned books were translated after that, and many of the scholars of Islam extracted from them [what] they neglected as evidence against them, and there is no difference in that between those who embraced Islam among them and others, for when the Qur'an was revealed, the alteration had already occurred in them by the informing of Allah, the Exalted. [And] from Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, that the people of Mecca were sent to the Jews to ask them about Muhammad ﷺ, and they said: This is his time, and we will find in the Torah his description, so that was obligatory for them by the informing of Allah, the Exalted, and likewise everything extracted from the books will be evidence against their people.