“Why do the devout scholars and rabbis not forbid them from sinful speech and consuming illicit gain?” That is: Why do the scholars who have undertaken to benefit people, and whom Allah has blessed with knowledge and wisdom, not forbid them from the acts of disobedience they commit, so that their ignorance may be dispelled and Allah’s proof established against them? Scholars are responsible for directing people through commands and prohibitions, clarifying the path prescribed by the Sacred Law, encouraging them toward good, and warning them against evil. “Evil indeed is what they used to practice.”
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(64–66) “The Jews say, ‘Allah’s hand is fettered.’ May their hands be fettered, and may they be cursed for what they have said! Rather, both His hands are outstretched; He spends as He wills. What has been sent down to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in defiance and disbelief. We have cast enmity and hatred among them until the Day of Resurrection. Whenever they kindle a fire for war, Allah extinguishes it. They strive to spread corruption throughout the earth, and Allah does not love corrupters.”
Allah Most High tells of the Jews’ abhorrent statement and appalling belief, saying: “The Jews say, ‘Allah’s hand is fettered,’” meaning restrained from goodness, benevolence, and beneficence.
“May their hands be fettered, and may they be cursed for what they have said!” This is an invocation against them corresponding to the nature of their own statement. Their words entail describing Allah, the Most Generous, as miserly and lacking in benevolence, so He requited them by making this description applicable to them.
Thus, they became the most miserly of people, the least benevolent, and those who harbored the worst thoughts of Allah. Allah banished them from His mercy, which encompasses all things and fills every region of the upper and lower worlds. He therefore said: “Rather, both His hands are outstretched; He spends as He wills.” No restriction is placed upon Him, nor can anything prevent Him from doing what He wills. Allah Most High has spread His grace and His benevolence in both religious and worldly matters. He has commanded His servants to avail themselves of the outpourings of His generosity and not to close the gates of His benevolence upon themselves through their sins.
His two hands (1) pour forth bounty by night and day, and His goodness flows abundantly at all times. He relieves distress, dispels sorrow, enriches the poor, frees captives, restores the broken, answers those who ask, provides for the destitute, responds to those in desperate need, and answers those who petition Him. He bestows favors upon those who do not ask Him and grants well-being to those who seek it. He does not withhold His goodness from a sinner; rather, the righteous and the wicked alike partake freely of His bounty.
He is generous to His devoted servants by granting them success in performing righteous deeds. He then praises them for those deeds and attributes them to them, even though they arise from His generosity. He rewards them for those deeds, both immediately and in the Hereafter, with rewards beyond description and beyond anything that could occur to a servant’s mind. He deals gently with them in all their affairs, brings them benevolence, and averts from them afflictions of which they are largely unaware.
Glory be to Him: every blessing His servants possess is from Him, and to Him they cry out for deliverance from adversity. Blessed is He whom no one can praise fully; rather, He is as He has praised Himself. Exalted is He whose servants are never without His generosity for even the blink of an eye; indeed, they have neither existence nor continued life except through His generosity.
May Allah disgrace whoever, in his ignorance, imagines himself independent of his Lord and attributes to Him what is unbefitting His majesty. Indeed, if Allah were to treat the Jews who uttered that statement—and others whose condition resembles theirs—in accordance with even part of what their words imply, they would perish and suffer misery in their worldly lives. Yet they utter such statements while He, Most High, treats them with forbearance, overlooks their offenses, and grants them respite without neglecting them.
Concerning His words, “What has been sent down to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in defiance and disbelief”: this is the greatest of punishments for a servant (2). The Reminder that Allah sent down to His Messenger contains life for the heart and soul, happiness in this world and the Hereafter, and success in both abodes. It is the greatest favor Allah has bestowed upon His servants, requiring them to hasten to accept it, submit to Allah through it, and thank Him for it. Yet for a person such as this, it only adds error to his error, defiance to his defiance, and disbelief to his disbelief. That is because he turns away from it, rejects it, stubbornly opposes it, and counters it with specious doubts.
“We have cast enmity and hatred among them until the Day of Resurrection.” Thus, they neither unite in affection nor support one another, nor do they agree upon any course that would serve their interests. Instead, they have continually harbored hatred for one another in their hearts and treated one another with hostility in their actions, and this will continue until the Day of Resurrection.
“Whenever they kindle a fire for war” in order to plot against Islam and its people—doing so again and again and mustering their cavalry and infantry—“Allah extinguishes it” by withholding His aid from them, scattering their forces, and granting the Muslims victory over them.
“They strive to spread corruption throughout the earth.” That is, they strive and exert themselves, but only to spread corruption throughout the earth by committing sins, calling others to their false religion, and hindering people from entering Islam. “Allah does not love corrupters.” Rather, He detests them intensely and will requite them for that.