they had understood it, knowing full well what they were doing?” up to His words:

“Will you not then understand?”

This is one of the two groups. Then Allah, Most High, said:

“And among them are unlettered people who know nothing of the Scripture beyond its recitation”—that is, merely reciting it—“and they do nothing but conjecture.”

Then He censured those who fabricate writings, claiming that they are from Allah when they are not. He said:

“So woe to those who write the Scripture with their own hands,” up to His words: “they earn.”

These three categories encompass the people of misguidance and religious innovation. For the people of innovation whom Allah and His Messenger censured are of two types:

The first knows the truth but deliberately opposes it.

The second is ignorant and follows others.

The first group invent things that contradict the Book of Allah and claim that they are from Allah: either fabricated hadiths or false explanations and interpretations of the revealed texts. They bolster these with their appeals to opinion and reason, seeking leadership and material gain. These people write the Scripture with their own hands to exchange it for a paltry price. Woe to them for the falsehood their hands have written, and woe to them for the money they earn from it.

When confronted with passages from the divine scriptures and told, “These contradict your views,” they distort the words from their proper places through corrupt interpretations. Allah, Most High, said:

“Do you then hope that they will believe you, when a group of them used to hear the words of Allah and then distort them after they had understood them, knowing full well what they were doing?”