Surah 29. Al-Ankabut, Ayah 47

I.e., "they to whom We grant the ability to understand this divine writ".

This rendering of the verb jahada - in the present instance and in verse {49} below (as well as in 31:32 , 40:63 or 41:28 ) - in the sense of a person's denying or rejecting something which he knows to be true is based on the authority of Zamakhshari's Asas.

I.e., "in this spirit": a reference to the sameness of the fundamental truths in all revealed religions.

The sincere Jews and Christians found in the holy Prophet a fulfillment of their own religion. For the names of some Jews who recognized and embraced Islam, see n. 3227 to xxvi. 197. Among the Christians, too, the Faith slowly won ground. Embassies were sent by the holy Prophet in the 6th and 7th years of the Hijrat to all the principal countries round Arabia, viz., the capital of the Byzantine Empire (Constantinople), the capital of the Persian Empire (Madain), the Sasanian capital known to the West by the Greek name of Ctesiphon, (about thirty miles south of modern Bagdad), Syria, Abyssinia, and Egypt. All these (except Persia) were Christian countries. In the same connection an embassy was also sent to Yamama in Arabia itself (east of the Hijaz) where the Banu Hanifa tribe was Christian, like the Harith tribe of Najran who voluntarily sent an embassy to Madinah. All these countries except Abyssinia eventually became Muslim, and Abyssinia itself has a considerable Muslim population now and sent some Muslim converts to Madinah in the time of the Prophet himself. As a generalization it is true that the Jewish and the Christian peoples as they existed in the seventh century of the Christian era have been mainly absorbed by Islam, as well as the lands in which they predominated. Remnants of them built up new nuclei. The Roman Catholic Church conquered new lands among the northern (Germanic) Pagans and the Byzantine Church among the eastern (Slavonic) Pagans, and the Protestantism of the 16th century gave a fresh stimulus to the main ideas for which Islam stands, viz., the abolition of priest craft, the right of private judgment, the simplification of ritual, and the insistence upon the simple, practical, everyday duties of life.

The Pagan Arabs also gradually came in until they were all absorbed in Islam.

It is in this spirit that all true Revelation comes from Allah. Allah is One, and His Message cannot come in one place or at one time to contradict His Message in another place or at another time in spirit, though there may be local variations according to the needs or understanding of men at any given time or place.