(49, 50) “Have you not seen those who claim purity for themselves? Rather, Allah purifies whom He wills, and they will not be wronged by so much as a filament. * See how they fabricate lies against Allah. That alone is sufficient as a manifest sin.”

Here Allah calls His servants to marvel and rebukes those among the Jews and Christians who claim purity for themselves, as well as everyone who follows their way by ascribing to himself a virtue he does not possess. The Jews and Christians say, “We are Allah’s children and His beloved,” and, “None will enter Paradise unless he is a Jew or a Christian.” This is merely a claim for which there is no proof. The true proof is what He has stated in the Quran: “Rather, whoever submits himself wholly to Allah and is a doer of good will have his reward with his Lord. No fear will be upon them, nor will they grieve.” These are the people whom Allah has purified. He therefore says here, “Rather, Allah purifies whom He wills”—through faith and righteous deeds, by ridding them of base character traits and adorning them with noble qualities.

As for these people, although they declare themselves pure—claiming that their beliefs have merit and that reward belongs exclusively to them—they are lying. They possess none of the qualities of those who are pure, because of their wrongdoing and disbelief, not because Allah has wronged them. He therefore says, “And they will not be wronged by so much as a filament.” This establishes the statement’s absolute scope: they will not be wronged in the least—not even by the measure of the filament in the cleft of a date stone, or the tiny thread that can be twisted from grime on the hand or elsewhere.

The Exalted says, “See how they fabricate lies against Allah”; that is, by claiming purity for themselves, for this is among the gravest fabrications against Allah. Their claim to purity implies that Allah has made what they follow true and what the believing Muslims follow false. This is the gravest lie and an inversion of realities, making truth false and falsehood true. He therefore says, “That alone is sufficient as a manifest sin”; that is, a clear and evident sin warranting severe punishment and painful torment.