(110–112) “You are the best community ever brought forth for mankind: you enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and believe in Allah. Had the People of the Scripture believed, it would have been better for them. Some of them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient. * They will not harm you except through verbal abuse. If they fight you, they will turn their backs in flight, and then they will receive no support. * Humiliation has been imposed upon them wherever they are found, except through a covenant from Allah and a covenant from people. They have incurred wrath from Allah, and destitution has been imposed upon them. That is because they disbelieved in Allah’s signs and killed the prophets without right. That is because they disobeyed and habitually transgressed.”
Allah Most High praises this community and declares it the best of all communities that Allah has brought forth for mankind. This is because they perfect themselves through faith—which entails fulfilling everything Allah has commanded—and help others attain perfection by enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong. This includes calling people to Allah, striving against them for that purpose, and doing everything within their power to turn them away from their error, waywardness, and disobedience. It was through this that they became the best community ever brought forth for mankind.
The preceding verse—“Let there be among you a community that calls to goodness, enjoins what is right, and forbids what is wrong”—was a command from Allah Most High to this community. Those who receive a command may either obey and carry it out or fail to do so. In this verse, however, He declares that the community has fulfilled what Allah commanded it to undertake, obeyed its Lord’s command, and thereby merited precedence over all other communities.
“Had the People of the Scripture believed, it would have been better for them.” In this, He invites them to faith through gracious words. Yet only a few of them believed, while most were defiantly disobedient, departing from obedience to Allah and displaying every kind of hostility toward Allah’s allies. Nevertheless, out of Allah’s kindness to His believing servants, He turned their schemes back upon themselves. They can therefore inflict no harm upon the believers in either their faith or their persons. The furthest their abuse can go is verbal abuse, something no one can entirely escape at the hands of an enemy. Were they to fight the believers, they would turn their backs and flee; thereafter, their defeat would persist, their humiliation would endure, and they would never receive support at any time.
Allah Most High therefore declares that He has punished them with inward humiliation and outward destitution. They can find neither stability nor security “except through a covenant”—that is, a pledge—“from Allah and a covenant from people.” Thus, the Jews can exist only under Muslim rule and covenant, with the jizya taken from them and humiliation imposed upon them, or under Christian rule. Even so, they “have incurred wrath from Allah,” and this is the gravest punishment.
Allah states the reason that brought them to this condition: “That is because they disbelieved in Allah’s signs,” which Allah revealed to His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and which demand certainty and faith. Yet they rejected them out of transgression and obstinacy, “and killed the prophets without right.” In other words, they repaid Allah’s prophets—who showed them the greatest kindness—with the worst possible response: killing them. Is there any audacity or crime greater than this? All of that resulted from their disobedience and transgression, which emboldened them to disbelieve in Allah and kill His prophets. Then Allah Most High says: