His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿Allah has legislated for you in religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you and what We enjoined upon Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, that you establish the religion and do not divide therein. It has become great upon the polytheists that to which you invite them. Allah selects for Himself whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back﴾

﴿And they did not divide except after knowledge had come to them, out of transgression among themselves. And if it had not been for a word that had preceded from your Lord to an appointed term, it would have been judged between them. And indeed, those who inherited the Scripture after them are in doubt concerning it, disturbing﴾

The meaning: Allah, the Exalted, has legislated for you and clarified from the beliefs and the oneness of Allah what He enjoined upon Noah before. His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿ " , "﴾ is a conjunction to " : " and likewise what was mentioned afterward about establishing the religion is a legislation upon which the prophethood has agreed. This is in the beliefs or in the entirety of its matter, that every prophethood indeed contains beliefs and rulings. The meaning comes out as follows: He has legislated for you a legislation that is like the legislation of Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, peace be upon them, in that it contains the well-known beliefs that are in every prophethood, and it contains rulings as those all did. And upon this, what Al-Tabari narrated from Qatadah can be understood, as he said: ﴿what He enjoined upon Noah﴾ means: the lawful and the unlawful. And it has been narrated that Noah, peace be upon him, was the first to prohibit the daughters and mothers. As for the rulings in isolation, they differ in the legislations, and this is what is meant in His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿For every one of you We have made a law and a method﴾ [Al-Ma'idah: 48]. And " , " in His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿that you establish the religion﴾ can be in the position of a substitute for " : " or it can be in the position of a preposition substitute for the pronoun in " , " or it can be in the position of a nominative on the news of a subject, the estimation of which is: that (p-506) that you establish the religion. And [it is possible] that it is an explanatory meaning: " : " there is no position for it in the grammar. And " , " is the oneness of Allah, the Exalted, and rejecting what is besides Him.

And His saying, exalted and glorified is He: ﴿and do not divide﴾ is a prohibition against the destruction from the division of sects and doctrines. All goodness is in unity and agreement of the word. Then Allah, the Exalted, informed His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, of the difficulty of the position of this call to establish the religion upon the polytheists who worship idols. Qatadah said: It has become great upon them: " : " and Allah, the Exalted, has refused except to support it and make it manifest. Then He comforted him, the Exalted, about them with His saying: ﴿Allah selects﴾ meaning: He chooses and selects. This was said by Mujahid and others. And " , " means: he returns from disbelief and strives for goodness and seeks it.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And do not divide﴾: This phrase encompasses the address to the disbelievers of the Arabs, the Jews, the Christians, and all those invited to Islam. Therefore, it is appropriate to say: 'They did not divide,' meaning by this: the early Jews and Christians. The knowledge that came to them is what had occurred in their souls from the knowledge of the Books of Allah, exalted is He. Some of them wronged others, and this led them to differing opinions. The 'previous word' that the commentators mentioned is His decree, exalted is He, that their recompense will occur in the Hereafter. If it were not for that, He would have separated between them in this world, and the truth would have prevailed over falsehood.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿And indeed those who were made to inherit the Book﴾ is a reference to the contemporaries of Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, from the Jews and Christians. It is said that it refers to the Arabs. And 'the Book' is the Qur'an. The pronoun in His saying, exalted is He: ﴿is in doubt﴾ may refer to 'the Book,' or to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, or to 'the appointed term,' meaning: in doubt about the resurrection according to the view of those who see the reference to the Arabs. And the description of doubt as 'disturbing' is an exaggeration in it.