'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted is He: ﴿That is because they said: 'There is no blame upon us concerning the unlettered.' And they speak untruth about Allah while they know.﴾ [Al-Imran: 75] ﴿Yes, whoever fulfills his commitment and fears Allah, then indeed, Allah loves the righteous.﴾ ﴿Indeed, those who exchange the covenant of Allah and their oaths for a small price, those will have no share in the Hereafter, and Allah will not speak to them or look at them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them, and they will have a painful punishment.﴾. The reference in 'That is' is to their not fulfilling the trust in a dinar or more, according to one of the interpretations. The pronoun in 'they said' refers to a group of the Children of Israel, because they used to say: 'We are the people of the Book, and the Arabs are unlettered idolaters. Their wealth is lawful for us whenever we can take something from it; there is no proof against us in that, nor is there a way for a critic or a refuter to us in that.' The unlettered are the people who do not write because they do not know how to write, and the derivation of the term has been mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah. The borrowing of the term 'way' here in the argument is in the manner of the saying of Humayd ibn Thawr: 'And am I, if I reason with myself about a pasture, to find a way present for me?' And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿So those are not upon anything.﴾ [Ash-Shura: 41] is of this meaning, and it is frequent in the Quran and the speech of the Arabs. It has been narrated that a man said to Ibn Abbas: 'We pass in the raids by the wealth of the People of the Covenant and take from it a sheep and a chicken and the like.' He said: 'And what do you say?' He said: 'We say: There is no blame upon us.' Ibn Abbas said: 'This is as the people of the Book said: ﴿There is no blame upon us concerning the unlettered.﴾ [Al-Imran: 75] Indeed, if they fulfill the tribute, their wealth is not lawful for you except with their good will. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And they speak untruth about Allah while they know.﴾ [Al-Imran: 75] is a condemnation of the Children of Israel for their lying about Allah, exalted is He, in matters other than that, while they are knowledgeable of the places of truth if they intended them. Among the most serious of that is the matter of Muhammad ﷺ. This is the saying of a group of the interpreters. It has been narrated from Al-Suddi and Ibn Jurayj and others that a group of the People of the Book claimed that in the Torah is the permissibility of Allah for them to take the wealth of the unlettered, lying about it while they are knowledgeable of their lie in that. And they said: 'And the reference in this verse is to that specific lie in this section.'

Then Allah, the Most High, responded in the context of their saying: "There is no obligation upon us" with His saying: "Yes indeed," meaning: there is a way and a proof and a following upon them. Then He informed, in the context of the condition, that whoever fulfills the covenant and fears the punishment of Allah for breaking it, then he is beloved to Allah. The Arabs say: he fulfilled the covenant, and he fulfilled it, meaning the same, and 'fulfilled' is the dialect of Hijaz. Al-Tabari and others explained that the pronoun in His saying: "by his covenant" refers back to Allah, the Most High. Some of the interpreters said it refers back to "whoever." Both statements return to one meaning, as the command of Allah, the Most High, to fulfill is associated with the covenant of every person. Ibn Abbas said: "fears" in this verse means: fears polytheism. Then the answer to the condition came generalizing the righteous, honoring righteousness and encouraging it.

And His saying, the Most High: "Those who exchange the covenant of Allah..." the verse is a warning to whoever does these deeds until the Day of Resurrection. It is a verse that includes disbelief and what is less than it from denying rights and breaking covenants. And everyone takes from the warning of the verse according to the extent of his crime.

The interpreters differed regarding the reason for its revelation. Ikrimah said: It was revealed concerning the Jewish scholars, Abi Rafi' and Kinana ibn Abi al-Haqiq and Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf and Huyayy ibn Akhtab, who abandoned the covenant of Allah in the Torah for the sake of gains and leadership which they were pursuing. It has been narrated that it was revealed due to the dispute of al-Ash'ath ibn Qays with a man from the Jews over land, and the oath was obligatory upon the Jew. Al-Ash'ath said: Then he will swear, O Messenger of Allah, and take my money, so the verse was revealed. It has been narrated that al-Ash'ath ibn Qays disputed over land with a man from his relatives, and the oath was obligatory upon al-Ash'ath, and he was actually in the wrong, having usurped that land in his ignorance, so the verse was revealed. Al-Ash'ath refrained from the oath, hesitated, and gave the land and added another piece of land from his own.

It has been narrated that the verse was revealed due to a dispute not involving al-Ash'ath ibn Qays. Al-Sha'bi said: The verse was revealed concerning a man who set up goods in the market from the beginning of the day, and when it was the end of it, a man came to him and negotiated with him, and he swore falsely: I have prevented it at the beginning of the day from such and such, and if it were not for the evening, I would not have sold it, so the verse was revealed because of him. And Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said: The false oath is one of the major sins, then he recited this verse. Ibn Mas'ud said: We used to see, while we were with our Prophet, that among the sins which are not forgiven is the oath of falsehood if its owner is untruthful in it. And Allah has made oaths in these words a commodity, so they are also considered binding. And al-khalq means: luck, share, and portion, and it is used in recommended matters.

Al-Tabari said: "And Allah will not speak to them" means: with what pleases them. Others said: The Exalted has denied that He will speak to them altogether because He speaks to His believing, pious servants. A group of scholars said: It is an expression of anger; the meaning is: He does not care for them and is not pleased with them. "And He will not purify them" has two meanings. One of them is: He purifies them from sins and their filth, and the other is: He increases their deeds. So it is an increase for them, and both aspects are denied for them in the Hereafter. And "Aleem" is a form that means causing pain; the meaning is: painful.