Commentary
If you say: What does His saying "as We have sent down" relate to? I say: There are two aspects. One of them is that it relates to His saying: "And We have certainly given you," meaning: We have sent down upon you something like what We have sent down upon the People of the Book, who are the dividers, those who made the Qur'an into parts, when they said with their obstinacy and aggression that some of it is true and in accordance with the Torah and the Gospel, while some of it is false and contrary to them. They divided it into truth and falsehood, and they made it into parts. It is said that they used to mock it, saying: "Surah Al-Baqarah is mine," and another would say: "Surah Al-Imran is mine." It is also possible that by the Qur'an is meant what they read from their books, and they have divided it through their distortion. The Jews acknowledged some of the Torah and denied some, and the Christians acknowledged some of the Gospel and denied some. This is a consolation for the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding the actions of his people towards the Qur'an and their denial, and their saying it is magic, poetry, and legends, that others among the disbelievers acted similarly towards other books as they did. The second aspect is that it relates to His saying: "And say, indeed, I am the clear warner," meaning: and warn Quraysh like what We have sent down of punishment upon the dividers, meaning the Jews, which is what happened to Banu Qurayzah and Banu Nadir. The expected is made like the actual, and this is from the miraculous, because it is news of what will happen and has happened. It is possible that those who made the Qur'an into parts are intended to be in the accusative case by the warner, meaning: warn those who divide the Qur'an into magic, poetry, and legends, like what We have sent down upon the dividers, who are the twelve who divided the entrances of Mecca during the season, sitting at every entrance, scattered, to turn people away from believing in the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, saying: "Do not be deceived by the one who comes out from among us, for he is a magician." One says: "He is a liar," and another: "He is a poet." So Allah destroyed them on the Day of Badr and before it with calamities, like Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughirah, Al-Aswad ibn Al-Muttalib, and others. Or like what We have sent down upon the group who conspired to spend the night with Salih, peace be upon him, and the division means sharing. If you say: If you relate His saying "as We have sent down" to His saying "And We have certainly given you," what is the meaning of the phrase "do not extend" to the end between them? I say: Since that was a consolation for the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, regarding their denial and enmity, it was interrupted by what is a support for the meaning of consolation. From the prohibition of turning towards their worldly matters and regretting their disbelief, and from the command to accept fully the believers, parts, a plural of 'a'za, the root of which is 'a'za from the sheep when it is made into parts. Ru'bah said: "And the religion of Allah is not divided." It is said that it is a form from 'a'za, meaning to accuse him. And from 'Ikrimah: the division is magic, in the language of Quraysh, they say for the sorceress: 'a'dhah. And the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, cursed the 'a'dhah and the one who seeks it, with the first having a waw and the second a ha.
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