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Sura 6
Aya 91
91
وَما قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدرِهِ إِذ قالوا ما أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلىٰ بَشَرٍ مِن شَيءٍ ۗ قُل مَن أَنزَلَ الكِتابَ الَّذي جاءَ بِهِ موسىٰ نورًا وَهُدًى لِلنّاسِ ۖ تَجعَلونَهُ قَراطيسَ تُبدونَها وَتُخفونَ كَثيرًا ۖ وَعُلِّمتُم ما لَم تَعلَموا أَنتُم وَلا آباؤُكُم ۖ قُلِ اللَّهُ ۖ ثُمَّ ذَرهُم في خَوضِهِم يَلعَبونَ

Muhammad Asad

For, no true understanding of God have they when they say, "Never has God revealed anything unto man." Say: "Who has bestowed from on high the divine writ which Moses brought unto men as a light and a guidance, [and] which you treat as1 [mere] leaves of paper, making a show of them the while you conceal [so] much - although you have been taught [by it] what neither you nor your forefathers had ever known?"2 Say: "God [has revealed that divine writ]!" - and then leave them to play at their vain talk.
  • Lit., "which you make into": but it should be remembered that the verb ja'lahu has also the abstract meaning of "he considered it to be" or "regarded it as" or "treated it as" (Jawhari, Raghib, et al.): a significance often met with in the Qur'an.
  • This passage is obviously addressed to those followers of the Bible who pay lip-service to its sacred character as a revealed scripture but, in reality, treat it as "mere leaves of paper" - that is, as something that is of little consequence to their own conduct: for, although they pretend to admire the moral truths which it contains, they conceal from themselves the fact that their own lives have remained empty of those truths.