يَسْـَٔلُكَ أَهْلُ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ أَن تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْهِمْ كِتَٰبًۭا مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ ۚ فَقَدْ سَأَلُوا۟ مُوسَىٰٓ أَكْبَرَ مِن ذَٰلِكَ فَقَالُوٓا۟ أَرِنَا ٱللَّهَ جَهْرَةًۭ فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ ٱلصَّٰعِقَةُ بِظُلْمِهِمْ ۚ ثُمَّ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ ٱلْعِجْلَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا جَآءَتْهُمُ ٱلْبَيِّنَٰتُ فَعَفَوْنَا عَن ذَٰلِكَ ۚ وَءَاتَيْنَا مُوسَىٰ سُلْطَٰنًۭا مُّبِينًۭا
The People of the Book ask you to bring down for them a Book from the sky. Certainly they asked Moses for [something] greater than that, for they said, ‘Show us Allah visibly,’ whereat a thunderbolt seized them for their wrongdoing. Then they took up the Calf [for worship], after all the manifest proofs that had come to them. Yet We excused that, and We gave Moses a manifest authority.
وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَهُمُ ٱلطُّورَ بِمِيثَٰقِهِمْ وَقُلْنَا لَهُمُ ٱدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْبَابَ سُجَّدًۭا وَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ لَا تَعْدُوا۟ فِى ٱلسَّبْتِ وَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُم مِّيثَٰقًا غَلِيظًۭا
And We raised the Mount above them for the sake of their covenant, and We said to them, ‘Enter the gate prostrating’ and We said to them, ‘Do not violate the Sabbath,’ and We took from them a solemn covenant.
فَبِمَا نَقْضِهِم مِّيثَٰقَهُمْ وَكُفْرِهِم بِـَٔايَٰتِ ٱللَّهِ وَقَتْلِهِمُ ٱلْأَنۢبِيَآءَ بِغَيْرِ حَقٍّۢ وَقَوْلِهِمْ قُلُوبُنَا غُلْفٌۢ ۚ بَلْ طَبَعَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهَا بِكُفْرِهِمْ فَلَا يُؤْمِنُونَ إِلَّا قَلِيلًۭا
Then because of their breaking their covenant, their defiance of Allah’s signs, their killing of the prophets unjustly and for their saying, ‘Our hearts are uncircumcised’… Indeed, Allah has set a seal on them for their unfaith, so they do not have faith except a few.
وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَٰنًا عَظِيمًۭا
And for their faithlessness, and their uttering a monstrous calumny against Mary,
وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّا قَتَلْنَا ٱلْمَسِيحَ عِيسَى ٱبْنَ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولَ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَٰكِن شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ ۚ وَإِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱخْتَلَفُوا۟ فِيهِ لَفِى شَكٍّۢ مِّنْهُ ۚ مَا لَهُم بِهِۦ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلَّا ٱتِّبَاعَ ٱلظَّنِّ ۚ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًۢا
and for their saying, ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the apostle of Allah’—though they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but so it was made to appear to them. Indeed those who differ concerning him are surely in doubt about him: they do not have any knowledge of that beyond following conjectures, and certainly, they did not kill him.
بَل رَّفَعَهُ ٱللَّهُ إِلَيْهِ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًۭا
Indeed, Allah raised him up toward Himself, and Allah is all-mighty, all-wise.
وَإِن مِّنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ إِلَّا لَيُؤْمِنَنَّ بِهِۦ قَبْلَ مَوْتِهِۦ ۖ وَيَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ يَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًۭا
There is none among the People of the Book but will surely believe in him before his death; and on the Day of Resurrection, he will be a witness against them.
فَبِظُلْمٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلَّذِينَ هَادُوا۟ حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ طَيِّبَٰتٍ أُحِلَّتْ لَهُمْ وَبِصَدِّهِمْ عَن سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ كَثِيرًۭا
Due to the wrongdoing of the Jews, We prohibited them certain good things that were permitted to them [earlier], and for their barring many [people] from the way of Allah,
وَأَخْذِهِمُ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ وَقَدْ نُهُوا۟ عَنْهُ وَأَكْلِهِمْ أَمْوَٰلَ ٱلنَّاسِ بِٱلْبَٰطِلِ ۚ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَٰفِرِينَ مِنْهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًۭا
and for their taking usury—though they had been forbidden from it—and for eating up the wealth of the people wrongfully. And We have prepared for the faithless among them a painful punishment.
لَّٰكِنِ ٱلرَّٰسِخُونَ فِى ٱلْعِلْمِ مِنْهُمْ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ ۚ وَٱلْمُقِيمِينَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ ۚ وَٱلْمُؤْتُونَ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْءَاخِرِ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ سَنُؤْتِيهِمْ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا
But as for those who are firmly grounded in knowledge from among them, and the faithful, they believe in what has been sent down to you, and what was sent down before you—those who maintain the prayer, give the zakat, and believe in Allah and the Last Day—them We shall give a great reward.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Sources triangulated: Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan]; Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; al-Qummī [qummi]; Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan]; An Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary]. All six are present (non-silent).
The passage answers the Jews' demand for a heavenly book by recalling their forefathers' graver obstinacy (vv.153–154), then catalogues the sins for which they were cursed — covenant-breaking, prophet-killing, the slander of Mary (vv.155–156), and the boast of having killed the Messiah, which the Qurʾān emphatically denies: they neither killed nor crucified him, 'it was made to appear so,' and God raised him (vv.157–158); it foretells that every Scriptuary will believe in him before death (v.159), names the good things forbidden the Jews for their wrongdoing (vv.160–161), and sets against them the firmly-rooted in knowledge who believe in all revelation (v.162).
1. The catalogue of sins (vv.155–156). All sources read the same litany — covenant-breaking, disbelief, prophet-killing, 'our hearts are wrapped,' and the calumny against Mary (her accusation of fornication). [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi] [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]
2. The crucifixion denied (vv.157–158). All six affirm the cardinal Qurʾānic doctrine: the Jews did NOT kill or crucify Jesus; 'it was made to appear so' by a cast likeness; and God raised him to Himself. Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī rehearse the same divergent narratives of the substitution and resolve the objection that so many could not have erred. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi] [bahrani_al_burhan] [tabatabai_al_mizan] [enlightening_commentary]
3. The good things forbidden (vv.160–161). All read the prohibition of formerly-lawful good things as bound up with the Jews' wrongdoing, usury and unlawful gain. [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] [qummi] [tabatabai_al_mizan]
This passage of shared Islamic doctrine runs largely in harmony; the Imāmī colouring is in framing details. On v.159, al-Qummī and al-Burhān anchor the 'before his death' in al-Bāqir's report that Jesus descends at the end of time and PRAYS BEHIND THE MAHDĪ — a reading Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī report among the views (alongside belief-at-one's-own-death and belief in Muḥammad). [qummi] [bahrani_al_burhan] [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] [tusi_al_tibyan] On v.157, Ṭūsī adds that God's casting of a likeness could be a miracle or a karāma for an infallible IMĀM, not only a prophet (against the Muʿtazila). [tusi_al_tibyan] On v.160, al-Qummī and al-Burhān press al-Ṣādiq's principle that God does not make-lawful-then-forbid, tying the prohibition to the Jews' own wrong. [qummi] [bahrani_al_burhan] And al-Qummī alone foregrounds the 'consent-to-the-deed' reasoning by which the later Jews bear their forefathers' prophet-killing (v.155). [qummi] These readings are recorded as what the sources transmit, not as endorsed interpretation.