Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 4 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:4

وَٱلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلِكَ وَبِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ هُمْ يُوقِنُونَ

“And who believe in what has been revealed to you, [O Muḥammad], and what was revealed before you, and of the Hereafter they are certain [in faith].”

Saheeh International

Essence

The God-conscious receive this revelation as the latest link in one long chain, and they are certain of the life that comes last.

A reflection

The neighbour who asked about Moses

A retired vicar and a young Muslim family have shared a garden fence for three years. They swap tomatoes and parcels. One summer evening he asks, a little hesitantly, what Muslims actually think of Moses and Jesus. He expects a polite dodge. Instead the mother tells him that believing in what was revealed to them is part of her own faith. It is written in the fourth ayah of the Quran's longest surah.

The God-conscious, this ayah says, believe in what was sent down to you, O Prophet, and in what was sent down before you. The concise commentaries name the Torah, the Gospel and the other scriptures given to earlier messengers. An early explanation adds a phrase that matters: they make no distinction between the messengers. They do not deny what any of them brought from their Lord.

So a Muslim does not see Islam as a new religion that began in the seventh century and cancelled everything before it. The Quran presents itself as the latest and final link in one chain. Nūḥ, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā, ʿĪsā and Muhammad, peace be upon them all, carried one message about one God. One commentary cites another ayah to make the point. Argue with the People of the Book only in the best way, it says. Tell them: we believe in what was sent down to us and to you; our God and your God is one (29:46).

That changes how a Muslim meets a Jewish or Christian neighbour. There is real disagreement, and the Quran does not hide it. But the conversation does not start from zero. It starts from shared names, shared stories and a shared belief that God speaks to humanity.

The vicar goes quiet for a moment, then laughs. He says he has been a Christian for seventy years, and nobody ever told him Muslims were obliged to believe in Moses. The tomatoes keep coming over the fence. The conversations get longer.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.