“And from those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ We took their covenant, but they forgot a portion of that of which they had been reminded. So We stirred up enmity and hatred among them until the Day of Resurrection. And Allah will inform them of what they used to do.” (14)
“Because of their breaking”—that is, because they broke—“their covenant.” The word “ma” is supplementary. Qatadah said: They broke it in various ways: they denied the messengers who came after Moses, killed the prophets of Allah, cast aside His Book, and neglected His obligations.
“We cursed them.” Ata (1) said: We banished them from Our mercy. Al-Hasan and Muqatil said: We punished them by transforming them. “And We made their hearts hard.” Hamzah and al-Kisa’i recited it as qasiyyah, with a doubled ya and without an alif. Both are variant forms, like dhakiyah and dhakiyyah. Ibn Abbas said: “Hard” means dry. It is also said: coarse, not softened. Another interpretation is that their hearts were not sincere in faith; rather, their faith was tainted by disbelief and hypocrisy. From the same usage are qasiyah dirhams: inferior, counterfeit coins.
“They distort words from their proper places.” It is said that this refers to their altering the description of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. It is also said that it refers to their distortion through unsound interpretation. “And they forgot a portion of that of which they had been reminded”: that is, they abandoned their own share of what they had been commanded—faith in Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and clarifying his description.
“And you, O Muhammad (2), will continue to discover treachery from them”: that is, an act of treachery. The form is used here in the sense of a verbal noun, as in words meaning “lying” and “idle talk.” It is also said that it has the sense of an active participle, with the feminine ending serving for intensification, as in “a prolific narrator” (3), “a skilled genealogist,” “a great scholar,” and “a skilled reckoner.” It is also said to mean: a treacherous group.
Ibn Abbas said: “Treachery” means an act of disobedience. Their treachery consisted in breaking the covenant, aiding the polytheists in war against the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, plotting to kill him and poison him, and similar betrayals of theirs that became manifest. “Except for a few of them”: they neither betrayed nor broke the covenant; they were those among the People of the Book who embraced Islam. “So pardon them and overlook them”: that is, turn away from them and do not confront them. “Indeed, Allah loves those who do good.”