Transliteration:( Fawailul lillazeena yaktuboonal kitaaba bi aidihim summa yaqooloona haazaa min 'indil laahi liyashtaroo bihee samanan qaleelan fawailul lahum mimmaa katabat aydeehim wa wailul lahum mimmaa yaksiboon )
140. Unlike the case of the QUR'AAN the Tauraat was not accessible to every Jew nor was its recitation a practice of the common them. It was the privilege of the priests only. They were in the position to use it for their ulterior motives. Whenever any wealthy person would commit a crime for which a severe punishment was prescribed in the Tauraat, they would change this to show lighter punishment, for a price. An example of this is the punishment for adultery. The original punishment for this terrible crime was death by stoning but they had changed this to blackening of the face (act of disgrace). Due to the Mercy of Allah Almighty, the Holy QUR'AAN. Is preserved from all such alterations and distortions.
141. It should be remembered that to distort verses on account of bribery is equal to selling. However, mere printing of the Holy QUR'AAN for commercial purposes. receiving salary for Imamat, (duties of Imam) to receive compensation for teaching the QUR'AAN for writing Taweez etc. is not included in this because this payment is not for altering the QUR'AAN but for rendering a service. The Four Righteous Caliphs, Khulafur-e-Rashideen had received payment for rendering the duties of Caliphate.
142. A few important issues emerge from this verse:
1. The earnings from any illegal work is also illegal and unlawful.
2. To write or print and publish misleading and false literature is forbidden.
3. All commentaries of the verses, termination of rukus, etc. must be clearly differentiated from the actual text of the QUR'AAN. Manmade items must not be mixed in any way
The tafsir of Surah Baqarah verse 79 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Baqarah ayat 78 which provides the complete commentary from verse 78 through 79.
(2:79) Woe, then, to those who write out the Scriptures with their own hands and then, in order to make a trifling gain, claim: “This is from Allah.”[90] Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they thus earn.
90. These observations relate to their rabbis. They were not content with misinterpreting the Word of God. They also interjected into it their readings of the Scriptures and their explanatory comments thereof, stories from their national history, superstitious ideas and fancies, philosophical doctrines and legal rules. The result was that the Divine and the human became inextricably mixed. They claimed, nevertheless, that the entire thing was divine! Every historical anecdote, the interpretation of every commentator, the doctrine of every theologian, and the legal deduction of every jurist that managed to find its way into the Bible became the ‘Word of God’. It was thus obligatory to believe in all that, and every deviation from it became tantamount to deviation from the true faith.
[32]- i.e., death and destruction.
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