The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

74
The Quran 5: 61
distanced from Himself, was angry with, and condemned as apes and
pigs, a and those who worship idols: they are worse in rank and have
strayed further from the right path.
61 When they come to you [believers], they say, ‘We believe,’ but
they come disbelieving and leave disbelieving – God knows best
what they are hiding. 62 You [Prophet] see many of them rushing into
sin and hostility and consuming what is unlawful. How evil their
practices are! 63 Why do their rabbis and scholars not forbid them to
speak sinfully and consume what is unlawful? How evil their
deeds are! 64 The Jews have said, ‘God is tight-fisted,’ but it is they
who are tight-fisted, and they are rejected for what they have said.
Truly, God’s hands are open wide: He gives as He pleases. What has
been sent down to you from your Lord is sure to increase insolence
and defiance in many of them. We have sown enmity and hatred
amongst them till the Day of Resurrection. Whenever they kindle
the fire of war, God will put it out. They try to spread corruption in
the land, but God does not love those who corrupt. 65 If only the
People of the Book would believe and be mindful of God, We would
take away their sins and bring them into the Gardens of Delight. 66 If
they had upheld the Torah and the Gospel and what was sent down
to them from their Lord, they would have been given abundance
from above and from below: some of them are on the right course,
but many of them do evil.
67 Messenger, proclaim everything that has been sent down to you
from your Lord – if you do not, then you will not have communicated
His message – and God will protect you from people. God does not
guide those who defy Him. 68 Say, ‘People of the Book, you have no
true basis [for your religion] unless you uphold the Torah, the Gospel,
and that which has been sent down to you from your Lord,’ but what
has been sent down to you [Prophet] from your Lord is sure to
increase many of them in their insolence and defiance: do not worry
about those who defy [God]. 69 For the [Muslim] believers, the Jews,
the Sabians, b and the Christians – those who believe in God and the
Last Day and do good deeds – there is no fear: they will not grieve.
70 We took a pledge from the Children of Israel, and sent
a Tabari (in his commentary on 2: 65) regards this as metaphorical in the sense of ‘like
apes, pigs’. Compare the metaphorical use of ‘blind, deaf, dumb’– 2: 18; 5: 71; 8: 22;
43: 40; etc.
b See note to 2: 62.