'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "And indeed, among them is a group that twists their tongues with the Book so that you may think it is from the Book, while it is not from the Book. And they say, 'It is from Allah,' while it is not from Allah. And they say lies about Allah while they know." "It is not for a human that Allah should give him the Book, the judgment, and the prophethood, then he says to the people, 'Be servants to me instead of Allah.'" The pronoun in "among them" refers to the people of the Book. The group refers to a gathering of people, taken from the root meaning of separating and distinguishing something from something else. And "twisting" means: they distort and trick by altering the meanings due to the similarity of the words and their overlap, and the branching of interpretations in them. An example of this is their saying: "We have heard and disobeyed, and hear, but may you not be heard" [An-Nisa: 46], and similar to that. And it is not mere alteration by twisting. The reality of twisting in clothing and ropes and similar things is to twist and bend them. From this is the twisting of the neck. Then this was used in arguments, disputes, and debates, likening it to that bending which occurs in physical objects. From this is their saying: a disputant who twists. And from this is the poet's saying: If there were a scent of dispute in Layla, I would twist the necks of the disputants. And another said: You found me twisting, far from the continuous. The majority of people read: "twisting" in the present tense, on the pattern of fa'ala with the lightening of the root letter. Abu Ja'far ibn al-Qaqa' and Shaiba ibn Nisah read: "they twist" with the emphasis on the waw and the opening of the lam from lawwa, on the pattern of fa'ala with the emphasis on the root letter, which is a strengthening of exaggeration, not a strengthening of transitivity. Hamid read: "they twist" with the opening of the lam and the stopping of the waw, which is originally: "they twist" similar to the reading of the majority. The waw with the damma was emphasized because it is customary in some languages, so it came to be "they twist" and the damma of the hamzah was transferred to the lam, thus it became "they twist." The Book in this context refers to the Torah, and the pronoun of the subject in his saying: "so that you may think it is from the Book" refers to the Muslims. And His saying: "and it is not from Allah" negates that it is revealed as they claimed, while it is from Allah in terms of creation, invention, and existence, and from them in terms of earning. The verse only concerns the meaning of revelation, thus the claim of the Qadariyyah based on the apparent meaning of His saying: "and it is not from Allah" is invalidated. And a similar statement has preceded in His saying, exalted and glorified is He: "and they say lies about Allah while they know."

And His saying, exalted is He: "It was not for a human being" means: for any one of the people. And 'human being' is a term that applies to many and to one, and there is no singular form for it in its wording. This statement is in the form of complete negation, like the saying of Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him: "It was not for the son of Abu Quhafah to pray in front of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him." The extent of this negation is known by the context of the words in which it is found, like His saying, exalted is He: "And it is not for a soul to die except by permission of Allah" [Aal 'Imran: 145] and His saying, exalted is He: "And it was not for you to plant its trees" [An-Naml: 60]. This is logically negated, and as for our verse, the negation is complete because we assert that Allah, exalted is He, does not grant prophethood to liars and claimants. And "the Book" in this verse is a term that encompasses all, and "the Judgment" means: wisdom. From it is the saying of the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him: "Indeed, among poetry is wisdom." And "then" in His saying, exalted is He: "then he will say" indicates the magnification of the sin in the saying, after a delay from this blessing.

And His saying "servants" is the plural of "servant," and among its plurals are "slaves" and "abid." Some linguists have said: these plurals have the same meaning. And some have said: "the servants" are for Allah, while "the slaves" and "abid" are for humans. And some have said: "abid" is only said for the slaves of the sons of slaves, as if it is a form of exaggeration that implies immersion in servitude. What I have deduced regarding the term "servants" is that it is the plural of "servant" whenever the term is used in the context of elevation and indication of obedience without being accompanied by a meaning of belittlement or diminishment of status. And look at His saying, exalted is He: "And Allah is Kind to the servants" [Aal 'Imran: 30] and "Honorable servants" [Ya 'Ibaadiyalladheena Asrafu 'ala Anfusihim, la taqnatu min Rahmatillah] [Az-Zumar: 53] and the saying of 'Isa regarding intercession and alluding to the mercy of Allah: "If You punish them, indeed they are Your servants" [Al-Ma'idah: 118], thus he praised them.

And some linguists have said: when the Christians of Hira, who are Arabs, obeyed Khosrow and came under his command, the Arabs called them "the servants," and they were not referred to as "the slaves." And some have said: rather, they are a group of Arabs from various tribes who gathered and became Christians and called themselves "the servants," as if it is a lineage to the worship of Allah. As for "the slaves," it is used in a derogatory sense, and from it is the saying of Imru' al-Qais:

"Say to the people of Dudan, the slaves of the staff, What has deceived you with the valiant lion?"

And from it is the saying of Hamzah ibn Abd al-Muttalib: "And are you not but slaves to my father?" And from it is the saying of Allah, exalted is He: "And your Lord is not unjust to the servants" [Fussilat: 46], because it is a place of compassion and an indication of their lack of support and ability, and that He, exalted is He, is not unjust to them despite that. And since the term "servants" implies obedience, it does not occur here, and for this reason it is mentioned in His saying, exalted is He: "Say, O My servants who have believed" [Az-Zumar: 53]. This type of consideration leads to the paths of wonders in distinguishing the eloquence of the Noble Qur'an according to the correct Arabic method.

And the meaning of His saying: ﴿Be My servants, apart from Allah﴾ is: worship Me and make Me a deity.

The interpreters have differed regarding to whom the reference is in His saying, the Exalted: ﴿It was not for a human﴾. Al-Naqqash and others said: the reference is to Jesus, peace be upon him, and the verse is a refutation of the Christians who said: Jesus is a deity, and they claimed that his worship is a law and based on his commands. Ibn Abbas, Al-Rabi, Ibn Jurayj, and a group of the interpreters said: rather, the reference is to Muhammad, peace be upon him. The reason for the revelation of the verse is that Abu Rafi' Al-Qurazi said to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, when the rabbis from the Jews and the delegation from the Christians of Najran gathered: O Muhammad, you only want us to worship you and take you as a deity just as the Christians worshiped Jesus. The leader of the Christians of Najran said: Is that what you want, O Muhammad, and to him you call us? The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "Far from it! I was not commanded with that, nor did I call to it." So the verse was revealed regarding that. Some scholars said: The rabbis wanted to impose this saying on Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, when he recited to them: ﴿Say, If you truly love Allah, then follow me﴾ [Al-Imran: 31]. The meaning of the verse is: follow me in what I call you to of obedience to Allah. They distorted it with their interpretation, and this is a type of twisting the Book with their tongues.

And the majority of the reciters read: "Then he will say" with the accusative case, and Shibl narrated from Ibn Kathir, and Mahbub from Abu Amr: "Then he will say" with the nominative case. This is based on the cutting off and implying a subject. And Isa ibn Umar read: "My servants to Me" with the vowel of the 'ya' being open.