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Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi translation for Surah Al-'Ankabut — Ayah 46

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29:46

۞ وَلَا تُجَٰدِلُوٓاْ أَهۡلَ ٱلۡكِتَٰبِ إِلَّا بِٱلَّتِي هِيَ أَحۡسَنُ إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ مِنۡهُمۡۖ وَقُولُوٓاْ ءَامَنَّا بِٱلَّذِيٓ أُنزِلَ إِلَيۡنَا وَأُنزِلَ إِلَيۡكُمۡ وَإِلَٰهُنَا وَإِلَٰهُكُمۡ وَٰحِدٞ وَنَحۡنُ لَهُۥ مُسۡلِمُونَ ٤٦

Argue not¹ with the People of the Book except in the fairest manner,² unless it be those of them that are utterly unjust.³ Say to them: “We believe in what was revealed to us and what was revealed to you. One is our God and your God; and we are those who submit⁴ ourselves to Him.”

Footnotes

[1] The Arabic word used for support isnasr which also means ‘victory’.
[2] Qira’at: All except for Hafs, Hamza, Ibn ʻAmer and Abu Jaʻfar read it as: “And do not think that the deniers are ahead.”
[3] Qira’at: Roways read it as: “. . . to strongly terrify . . .”
[4] Qira’at: ^b Ibn ʻAmer read it as: “. . . as the angels take those who denied at death . . .”
[5] It should be noted that a little below in this Surah the people are being exhorted to migrate. At that time Habash was the only place of safety to which the Muslims could migrate, and Habash in those days was under the domination of the Christians. Therefore, in these verses the Muslims are being instructed as to how they should argue and discuss matters concerning religion with the people of the Book when such an occasion arises.
[6] That is, with those who adopt an attitude of wickedness a different attitude may also be adopted according to the nature and extent of their wickedness. In other words, one cannot, and should not adopt a soft and gentle attitude towards all sorts of the people under all circumstances at all time, which might be mistaken for the weakness and meekness of the inviter to the truth. Islam does teach its followers to be polite, gentle and reasonable, but it does not teach them to be unduly humble and meek so that they are not taken for granted by every cruel and wicked person.
[7] In these sentences Allah has provided guidance to the best method of discussion, which the inviters to the truth should adopt. The method is this: “Do not make the error or deviation of the other person the basis and starting point of the discussion, but begin the discussion with those points of truth and justice which are common between you and your opponent. That is, the discussion should start from the points of agreement and not from the points of difference. Then, arguing from the agreed points, the addressee should be made to understand that, in the matter of the things in which you differ, your stand is in conformity with the agreed points whereas his stand is contradictory to them.
[8] That is, the discussion should be conducted rationally, in a civilized and decent language, so that the ideas of the other person may be reformed. The preacher’s main aim should be to appeal to the addressee’s heart, convey the truth to him and bring him to the right path. He should not fight like a wrestler whose only object is to defeat his opponent. He should rather conduct himself like a physician who is ever cautious not to cause the patient’s ailment to worsen by any of his own mistakes, and tries to cure him with the least possible trouble. This instruction bas been given here especially in connection with the conduct of a discussion with the people of the Book, but is a general instruction pertaining to the preaching of the religion and it has been given at several places in the Quran. For example, “O Prophet, invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and excellent admonition and discuss things with the people in the best manner.” (Surah AnNahl: Ayat 125). “O Prophet, goodness and evil are not alike, repel evil with what is best. You will see that he, with whom you had enmity, has become your closest friend.” (Surah Ha Mim As-Sajdah: Ayat 34). “O Prophet, repel evil with what is best: We are fully aware of what they utter against you.” (Surah Al-Muminun: Ayat 96). “O Prophet, adopt the way of leniency and forbearance; enjoin what is good and avoid useless discussions with the ignorant people. If Satan ever excites you to anger, seek refuge in Allah.” (Surah Al-Aaraf: Ayat 199-200).

Translations are available in both JSON and SQLite database formats. Some translation has footnotes as well, footnotes are embedded in the translation text using sup HTML tag. To support a wide range of applications, including websites, mobile apps, and desktop tools, we provide multiple export formats for translations.

Available export formats:

1. Nested Array Structure

Translations are grouped by Surah. Each Surah is an array containing translations for each Ayah in order. This format export translations as simple text, no formatting, no footnotes.

[
  ["translation of 1:1", "translation of 1:2"], ...
  ["translation of 2:1", "translation of 2:2"]
]

2. Key-Value Structure

Each translation is stored with the Ayah reference (e.g. 1:1) as the key and the translated text as the value. This format also exports translations as simple text, no formatting, no footnotes etc.

{
  "1:1": "translation of 1:1",
  "1:2": "translation of 1:2",
  ...
  "114:6": "translation of 114:6"
}

Translations with Footnotes

Translations with footnotes are available in three more formats:

1. Footnotes as Tags Format

Footnotes are embedded using a <sup> tag with a foot_note attribute. Footnote contents are stored separately under f key.

{
  "88:17": {
    "t": "Do the disbelievers not see how rain clouds are formed <sup foot_note=\"77646\">1</sup>",
    "f": {
      "77646": "The word ibl can mean 'camel' as well as 'rain cloud'..."
    }
  }
}

2. Inline Footnote Format

Footnotes are inserted directly using double square brackets e.g([[this is footnote]])

{
  "88:17": "Do the disbelievers not see how rain clouds are formed [[The word ibl can mean 'camel' as well as 'rain cloud'...]]"
}

3. Text Chunks Format

In chunks export format, text is divided into chunks. Each chunk could be a simple text or an object. Object can be either footnote or a formatting tag. This format is useful for applications can't directly render the HTML tags. Here is an example of Bridges` translation for Surah An-Nas , Ayah 6:

Above translation will be exported in chunks as:

<i class="s">(from the whisperers)</i>among the race of unseen beings<sup foot_note="81506">1</sup>and mankind.”


      [
      {"type":"i","text":"(from the whisperers)"}, // first chunk, should be formatted as italic
      "among the race of unseen beings", //second chunk in simple text
      {"type":"f","f":"81506","text":"1"}, // third chunk is a footnote,
      "and mankind.”"
      ]