Allah chastises those who claim to believe in what Allah has sent down to His Messenger
and to the earlier Prophets, yet they refer to other than the Book of Allah and
the Sunnah of His Messenger for judgment in various disputes. It was reported that
the reason behind revealing this Ayah was that a man from the Ansar and a Jew had
a dispute, and the Jew said, "Let us refer to Muhammad to judge between us.'' However,
the Muslim man said, "Let us refer to Ka`b bin Al-Ashraf (a Jew) to judge between
us.'' It was also reported that the Ayah was revealed about some hypocrites who
pretended to be Muslims, yet they sought to refer to the judgment of Jahiliyyah.
Other reasons were also reported behind the revelation of the Ayah. However, the
Ayah has a general meaning, as it chastises all those who refrain from referring
to the Qur'an and Sunnah for judgment and prefer the judgment of whatever they chose
of falsehood, which befits the description of Taghut here. This is why Allah said,
﴿يُرِيدُونَ أَن يَتَحَاكَمُواْ إِلَى
الطَّـغُوتِ﴾
(and they wish to go for judgment to the Taghut) until the end of the Ayah. Allah's
statement,
﴿يَصُدُّونَ عَنكَ صُدُوداً﴾
(turn away from you with aversion) means, they turn away from you in arrogance,
just as Allah described the polytheists,
﴿وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ اتَّبِعُواْ
مَآ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ قَالُواْ بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ ءَابَآءَنَا﴾
(When it is said to them: "Follow what Allah has sent down.'' They say: "Nay! We
shall follow what we found our fathers following.'') This is different from the
conduct of the faithful believers, whom Allah describes as,
﴿إِنَّمَا كَانَ قَوْلَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
إِذَا دُعُواْ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَهُمْ أَن يَقُولُواْ سَمِعْنَا
وَأَطَعْنَا﴾
(The only saying of the faithful believers, when they are called to Allah and His
Messenger, to judge between them, is that they say: "We hear and we obey.")
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