The Quran

Preface

وَإِذا لَقُوا الَّذينَ آمَنوا قالوا آمَنّا وَإِذا خَلا بَعضُهُم إِلىٰ بَعضٍ قالوا أَتُحَدِّثونَهُم بِما فَتَحَ اللَّهُ عَلَيكُم لِيُحاجّوكُم بِهِ عِندَ رَبِّكُم ۚ أَفَلا تَعقِلونَ

Yusuf Ali

Behold! when they meet¹ the men of Faith, they say: “We believe”: But when they meet each other in private, they say: “Shall you tell them what God hath revealed to you, that they may engage you in argument about it before your Lord?”- Do ye not understand (their aim)?

The immediate argument applies to the Jews of Medīna, but the more general argument applies to the people of Faith and the people without Faith, as we shall see below. If the Muslims of Medīna ever entertained the hope that the Jews in their city would, as a body, welcome Muḥammad Muṣṭafā as the Prophet prophesied in their own books, they were mistaken. In Deut. 18:18, they read: “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like onto thee,” (i.e., like unto Moses); which was interpreted by some of their doctors as referring to Muḥammad, and they came into Islam. The Arabs are a kindred branch of the Semitic family, and are correctly described in relation to the Jews as, “their brethren”; and there is no question that there was not another Prophet “like unto Moses” until Muḥammad came; in fact the postscript of Deuteronomy, which was written many centuries after Moses, says: “There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord Knew face to face.” But the Jews as a body were jealous of Muḥammad, and played a double part. When the Muslim community began to grow stronger they pretended to be of them, but really tried to keep back any knowledge of their own Scriptures from them, lest they should be beaten by their own arguments.
The more general interpretation holds good in all ages, Faith and Unfaith are pitted against each other. Faith has to struggle against power, position, organization, and privilege. When it gains ground, Unfaith comes forward insincerely and claims fellowship. But in its own mind it is jealous of the armoury of science and knowledge which Faith brings into the service of God. But God knows all, and if the people of Faith will only seek knowledge sincerely wherever they can find it, - even as far afield as China, as Muḥammad said, they can defeat Unfaith on its own ground.