(51–56) “O messengers, eat of the good and lawful things and do righteous deeds. Indeed, I know well what you do. This community of yours is indeed one community, and I am your Lord, so fear Me. But they divided their religion among themselves into fragments, each faction rejoicing in what it had. So leave them immersed in their heedlessness for a time. Do they think that, by granting them wealth and children, We are hastening good things to them? No! But they do not perceive.”
This is a command from Him Most High to His messengers to eat of the good things—wholesome, lawful provision—and to thank Allah by performing righteous deeds, through which the heart and body, this world and the Hereafter, are set aright. He informs them that He knows all that they do. Every deed they perform and every endeavor they undertake is known to Allah, and He will reward them for it with the fullest and finest reward. This demonstrates that all the messengers agreed that wholesome foods are lawful and foul foods are forbidden. They also agreed upon every righteous deed, even though some categories of commands varied and the revealed laws consequently differed. All of them were righteous deeds, though they varied according to the times.
Thus, the righteous deeds that remain beneficial throughout all ages were unanimously affirmed by the prophets and the revealed laws. These include the command to affirm Allah’s oneness, devote religion sincerely to Him, love Him, fear Him, and place hope in Him; and to uphold righteousness, truthfulness, fidelity to covenants, family ties, dutifulness to parents, kindness toward the weak, the needy, and orphans, and tenderness and benevolence toward people, along with other righteous deeds. For this reason, when Allah sent Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—people of knowledge, possessors of the earlier Scriptures, and people of sound reason inferred his prophethood from the general character of what he commanded and prohibited, as occurred with Heraclius and others. When he commanded what the prophets before him had commanded and prohibited what they had prohibited, this demonstrated that he was one of their kind. A liar, by contrast, will inevitably command evil and prohibit good.
For this reason, Allah Most High said to the messengers: “This community of yours is indeed one community,” meaning: Your fellowship, O company of messengers, is a single fellowship, united upon one religion, and your Lord is One.
“So fear Me” by obeying My commands and avoiding My prohibitions. Allah commanded the believers to do what He commanded the messengers, for the believers take them as their examples and follow in their footsteps. He said: “O you who believe, eat of the good things We have provided for you, and give thanks to Allah, if it is truly Him that you worship.” It is therefore incumbent upon all who claim affiliation with the prophets—as well as everyone else—to comply with this and act upon it. Yet the wrongdoing sectarians would accept nothing but disobedience. Hence He said: “But they divided their religion among themselves into fragments.” That is, those who claimed to follow the prophets divided “their religion among themselves into fragments”—that is, into pieces—“each faction rejoicing in what it had” ⦗554⦘ of knowledge and religion. They claim that they alone are upon the truth and that everyone else is not. Yet those among them who are upon the truth are the ones who follow the path of the messengers by eating of the good things and performing righteous deeds; everyone else follows falsehood.
“So leave them immersed in their heedlessness,” meaning: in the depths of their ignorance of the truth and their claim that they themselves (1) are upon the truth, “for a time”—that is, until the punishment descends upon them. Admonition will not benefit them, nor will rebuke deter them. How could either benefit someone who claims to be upon the truth and even aspires to call others to the path he follows?
“Do they think that, by granting them wealth and children, We are hastening good things to them?” That is, do they think that Our increasing them in wealth and children proves that they are among the people of goodness and felicity, and that the good of this world and the Hereafter belongs to them? This is merely something being granted to them in advance; the matter is not as they suppose.
“No! But they do not perceive” that We are merely granting them respite, allowing them time, and extending blessings to them so that they may increase in sin, so that their punishment in the Hereafter may become full, and so that they may revel in what they have been given: “Until, when they rejoiced in what they had been given, We seized them suddenly.”