seeking to make it crooked”—that is, why do you turn people away from Allah’s path, seeking to render it crooked? Abu Ubaydah said: Crookedness (ʿiwaj, with a kasrah) applies to religion, speech, and actions, whereas crookedness (ʿawaj, with a fathah) applies to a wall and to every upright physical object. “While you are witnesses; and Allah is not unaware of what you do”—that is, while you bear witness that the description of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is written in the Torah, and that Allah’s religion, which He accepts to the exclusion of all others, is Islam. (1)

“O you who believe, if you obey a party of those who were given the Scripture, they will turn you back to disbelief after your faith.” (100)

“O you who believe, if you obey a party of those who were given the Scripture”: Zayd ibn Aslam said: Shas ibn Qays, a Jew—an aged man, deeply steeped in disbelief and relentless in his attacks against the Muslims—passed by a group of the Aws and Khazraj who were sitting together and conversing. What he saw of their mutual affection and the reconciliation between them through Islam, after the enmity that had existed between them in the Age of Ignorance, enraged him. He said, “The leading men of Banu Qaylah have gathered together in this land. By Allah, if they unite here, we shall have no place among them.”

He therefore ordered a young Jew who was with him, saying, “Go to them and sit with them. Then remind them of the Day of Bu'ath and what took place before it, and recite to them some of the poetry they had exchanged on that occasion.” Bu'ath was a day on which the Aws fought the Khazraj, and the Aws prevailed over the Khazraj. The young man did so and spoke of it. Thereupon, the people began to speak, dispute, and boast of their respective merits, until two men from the two clans sprang to their feet: Aws ibn Qayzi, one of the Banu Harithah of the Aws, and Jabbar ibn Sakhr, one of the Banu Salamah of the Khazraj. They exchanged words, until one of them said to the other, “By Allah, if you wish, I shall renew it now as a fresh conflict.”

Both parties became angry and cried, “To arms! To arms! Our meeting place is al-Zahirah”—a lava field. They went out to it, and the Aws and Khazraj rallied under the tribal calls by which they had lived in the Age of Ignorance. When this reached the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, he went out to them with those Muhajirun who were with him, until he came to them. He said, “O company of Muslims, do you invoke the call of the Age of Ignorance while I am still among you, after Allah has honored you with Islam, severed from you the ways (2) of the Age of Ignorance, and joined your hearts together? Are you returning to what you were upon as disbelievers? Fear Allah! Fear Allah!”

The people then realized that it was an incitement ⦗64/b⦘ from Satan and a plot of their enemy. So they cast the weapons from their hands, wept, and embraced one another. Then they departed with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, heeding and obeying. Thereupon Allah the Exalted revealed concerning them this