The Quran

Preface

فَإِن حاجّوكَ فَقُل أَسلَمتُ وَجهِيَ لِلَّهِ وَمَنِ اتَّبَعَنِ ۗ وَقُل لِلَّذينَ أوتُوا الكِتابَ وَالأُمِّيّينَ أَأَسلَمتُم ۚ فَإِن أَسلَموا فَقَدِ اهتَدَوا ۖ وَإِن تَوَلَّوا فَإِنَّما عَلَيكَ البَلاغُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ بَصيرٌ بِالعِبادِ

Yusuf Ali

So if they dispute with thee, say: “I have submitted My whole self¹ to God and so have those who follow me.” And say to the People of the Book and to those who are unlearned²: “Do ye (also) submit yourselves?” If they do, they are in right guidance, but if they turn back, Thy duty is to convey the Message; and in God’s sight are (all) His servants³.

Wajh: whole self. See n. 114 to 2:112.
The People of the Book may be supposed to know something about the previous religious history of mankind. To them the appeal should be easy and intelligible, as all religion is one, and it is only being renewed in Islam. But the appeal is also made to the pagan Arabs, who are unlearned, and who can well be expected to follow the example of one of their own, who received divine enlightenment, and was able to bring new knowledge to them. A great many of both these classes did so. But the few who resisted God’s grace, and actually threatened and persecuted those who believed, are told that God will look after His own.
Note the literary skill in the argument as it proceeds. The mystery of birth faintly suggests that we are coming to the story of Jesus. The exposition of the Book suggests that Islam is the same religion as that of the People of the Book. Next we are told that the People of the Book made their religion one-sided, and through the priesthood of the family of ‘Imrān, we are brought to the story of Jesus, who was rejected by a body of the Jews as Muḥammad was rejected by a body of both Jews and Christians.