ٱتْلُ مَآ أُوحِىَ إِلَيْكَ مِنَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ وَأَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ ۖ إِنَّ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ ٱلْفَحْشَآءِ وَٱلْمُنكَرِ ۗ وَلَذِكْرُ ٱللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ
Recite what has been revealed to you of the Book, and maintain the prayer. Indeed the prayer restrains from indecent and wrongful conduct, and the remembrance of Allah is surely greater. And Allah knows whatever [deeds] you do.
۞ وَلَا تُجَٰدِلُوٓا۟ أَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ إِلَّا بِٱلَّتِى هِىَ أَحْسَنُ إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ ۖ وَقُولُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا بِٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَأُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُمْ وَإِلَٰهُنَا وَإِلَٰهُكُمْ وَٰحِدٌۭ وَنَحْنُ لَهُۥ مُسْلِمُونَ
Do not argue with the People of the Book except in a manner which is best, except such of them as are wrongdoers, and say, ‘We believe in what has been sent down to us and in what has been sent down to you; our God and your God is one [and the same], and to Him do we submit.’
وَكَذَٰلِكَ أَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ ۚ فَٱلَّذِينَ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُمُ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِۦ ۖ وَمِنْ هَٰٓؤُلَآءِ مَن يُؤْمِنُ بِهِۦ ۚ وَمَا يَجْحَدُ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ إِلَّا ٱلْكَٰفِرُونَ
Thus We have sent down the Book to you; those to whom We have given the Book believe in it, and of these there are some who believe in it, and none contests Our signs except the faithless.
وَمَا كُنتَ تَتْلُوا۟ مِن قَبْلِهِۦ مِن كِتَٰبٍۢ وَلَا تَخُطُّهُۥ بِيَمِينِكَ ۖ إِذًۭا لَّٱرْتَابَ ٱلْمُبْطِلُونَ
You did not use to recite any scripture before it, nor did you write it with your right hand, for then the impugners would have been skeptical.
بَلْ هُوَ ءَايَٰتٌۢ بَيِّنَٰتٌۭ فِى صُدُورِ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْعِلْمَ ۚ وَمَا يَجْحَدُ بِـَٔايَٰتِنَآ إِلَّا ٱلظَّٰلِمُونَ
Indeed, it is [present as] manifest signs in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge, and none contests Our signs except wrongdoers.
وَقَالُوا۟ لَوْلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ ءَايَٰتٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ ۖ قُلْ إِنَّمَا ٱلْءَايَٰتُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَإِنَّمَآ أَنَا۠ نَذِيرٌۭ مُّبِينٌ
They say, ‘Why has not some sign been sent down to him from his Lord?’ Say, ‘These signs are only from Allah, and I am only a manifest warner.’
أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِهِمْ أَنَّآ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَرَحْمَةًۭ وَذِكْرَىٰ لِقَوْمٍۢ يُؤْمِنُونَ
Does it not suffice them that We have sent down to you the Book which is recited to them? There is indeed in that a mercy and admonition for a people who have faith.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulating five present sources: Ṭabarsī, Majmaʿ al-Bayān [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan]; al-Qummī [qummi]; al-Ṭūsī, al-Tibyān [tusi_al_tibyan]; al-Baḥrānī, al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan]; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan]; plus the published English Enlightening Commentary [enlightening_commentary].
Human-review flags: al-Mīzān [tabatabai_al_mizan] is a coarse unit (covers 41–55); its lexical excursus on dhikr and its list of alternative aqwāl were condensed, so it is marked
needs_human_review.
What the passage says. After the parables of the bygone nations, God turns to the Prophet: recite the revealed Book and establish prayer, for "prayer restrains from indecency and wrong, and the remembrance of God is greater" (45); dispute with the People of the Book only in the best way, save the wrongdoers, professing one God (46); the Book given to others is believed by them and by some here, denied only by the faithless (47); the Prophet recited and wrote no scripture before (48) — refuting the falsifiers — for it is "clear signs in the breasts of those given knowledge" (49); to the demand for a sign, the answer: signs are with God, and the recited Book itself suffices as a mercy and reminder (50–51).
Verse 45 — prayer's restraint and "the remembrance is greater." All four classical sources read the prayer as a divine "kindness" (luṭf) functioning like a verbal prohibition. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] give nearly identical wording and the Ibn ʿAbbās dictum that an unrestraining prayer "only increases distance from God." al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] advances the distinctive thesis that the prayer deters "by way of requiring (iqtiḍāʾ), not complete causation," thereby answering the standard objection that some who pray still sin — the deterrent strengthens with the worshipper's presence of heart. On wa-la-dhikru llāhi akbar, the sources are openly plural: (a) "God's remembrance of you is greater than your remembrance of Him" (Ibn ʿAbbās, Salmān; carried by all four and by al-Qummī's [qummi] report from al-Bāqir); (b) the servant's dhikr surpasses all deeds; al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī's preferred reading takes it as iḍrāb/taraqqī — the heart's remembrance is the prayer's greater effect beyond mere restraint. al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] uniquely records al-Bāqir's esoteric gloss (report 8277): "we are the remembrance of God, and we are the greater; the indecency and the wrong are men" — reported here strictly as the Imām's attributed taʾwīl, not as the verse's plain sense.
Verse 46 — disputing "in the best way" and the abrogation question. This is the clearest cross-source agreement-with-divergence. Both Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] cite Qatāda's claim that the verse is abrogated by the sword-verse and both explicitly reject it: disputation in the best manner is "the obligatory duty that nothing else may replace" (web-verified as the dominant view). al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] reframes the matter through a long narration of al-ʿAskarī/al-Ṣādiq: argument was never forbidden absolutely, only "argument by other than the best way," with a detailed worked example from Sūra Yā Sīn on resurrection. al-Qummī [qummi] and al-Burhān gloss "the best way" tersely as "by the Qurʾān."
Verses 47–49 — the believing recipients and the unlettered Prophet. Here Sunnī-leaning and Shīʿī readings part. Ṭabarsī [tabarsi_majma_al_bayan] and Ṭūsī [tusi_al_tibyan] read "those given the Book" as believing People of the Book (e.g. ʿAbd Allāh b. Salām); al-Qummī [qummi] and al-Burhān [bahrani_al_burhan] report al-Bāqir identifying them as "the family of Muḥammad." On 48, Ṭūsī makes a sharp grammatical point the others lack: the verse does not prove the Prophet could not write — only that it was not his habit before revelation. On 49's "those given knowledge," the split is starkest: Ṭabarsī and Ṭūsī admit "the scholars / the Prophet and believers," while al-Qummī and especially al-Burhān (16+ chains) report the Imāms saying "[it is] us … who else could they be?" al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī [tabatabai_al_mizan] cites the same Imāmī narration but frames it as al-jary — the verse "conforming to its most complete instance" — all reported as-attributed.
Verses 50–51 — the Qurʾān as the sufficient sign. The four classical sources converge: the demanded sensory signs are withheld by divine expediency, since manifesting then disbelieving would entail extirpation, which God has promised to spare this community; the recited Qurʾān is itself the conclusive miracle and "mercy and reminder." Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī, and al-Mīzān each add the report that some Muslims copying earlier scriptures occasioned the rebuke.
Sources present: tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, qummi, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, tabatabai_al_mizan, enlightening_commentary; silent: none.