[al-Mā’idah 15]

And He said:

“And who is more unjust than one who conceals a testimony he has from Allah?” [al-Baqarah 140]

“And when Allah took a covenant from those who were given the Scripture: ‘You must make it clear to the people and not conceal it,’ they cast it behind their backs and exchanged it for a small price.” [Āl ‘Imrān 187]

This casting it behind their backs is the opposite of making its contents clear. It is the very conduct Allah described in His words:

“A group of those who were given the Scripture cast the Book of Allah behind their backs, as though they did not know. (101) And they followed what the devils recited during Solomon’s reign.” [al-Baqarah 101–102]

If what they possessed concerning the divine attributes—and such descriptions are exceedingly numerous in the Torah—were falsehood, disbelief and misguidance, they would not have been censured for casting it behind their backs and concealing it. Rather, they should have been censured for its presence in their scripture and their acceptance of it among themselves, just as Allah censured those who write the Scripture with their own hands and then say, “This is from Allah.”

Furthermore, if His words, “O you who believe” [al-Baqarah 208], were addressed to the Jews, and they were the ones awaiting something impossible, then the appropriate wording would address them directly with rebuke and censure. He would say, “What are you waiting for?” using the second person rather than the third person, as in comparable Quranic passages where, when addressing them, He says, “You did this and you did that.”