Thank you for clarifying. My curiosity gets the best of me and I must ask another question even though I thought I was done for today. From where do you get that understanding? I do not find such context in the surrounding verses. Is this one of those verses that is further explained by another verse in the Qur'an?
Don, one of the most difficult hings in trying to understand the Qur'an is to realizwe that you are using a translation. There are reasons why we do not consider translations to be the Qur'an. However, if you use several translations together you can get an approximation of the Arabic meanings.
I notce you mentioned Pickthall so I am assuming you are using his translation.
Here are a few ayyats from Surah 5 which may help clarify your question above.
Since you are using Pickthall I am going to use Yusuf Ali here, compare it with Pickthall and between both you should get a better feeling as to what is meant.
5:72. They do blaspheme who say: "Allah is Christ the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with Allah,- Allah will forbid him the garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help. S P C
5:73. They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them. S P
5:74. Why turn they not to Allah, and seek His forgiveness? For Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. S P
5:75. Christ the son of Mary was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how Allah doth make His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth! S P C
5:76. Say: "Will ye worship, besides Allah, something which hath no power either to harm or benefit you? But Allah,- He it is that heareth and knoweth all things." S P
5:77. Say: "O people of the Book! exceed not in your religion the bounds (of what is proper), trespassing beyond the truth, nor follow the vain desires of people who went wrong in times gone by,- who misled many, and strayed (themselves) from the even way. S P C
5:78. Curses were pronounced on those among the Children of Israel who rejected Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus the son of Mary: because they disobeyed and persisted in excesses. S P C
5:79. Nor did they (usually) forbid one another the iniquities which they committed: evil indeed were the deeds which they did. S P C
5:80. Thou seest many of them turning in friendship to the Unbelievers. Evil indeed are (the works) which their souls have sent forward before them (with the result), that Allah's wrath is on them, and in torment will they abide. S P
5:81. If only they had believed in Allah, in the Prophet, and in what hath been revealed to him, never would they have taken them for friends and protectors, but most of them are rebellious wrong-doers. S P
5:82. Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans; and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, "We are Christians": because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant. S P C
5:83. And when they listen to the revelation received by the Messenger, thou wilt see their eyes overflowing with tears, for they recognise the truth: they pray: "Our Lord! we believe; write us down among the witnesses. S P
5:84. "What cause can we have not to believe in Allah and the truth which has come to us, seeing that we long for our Lord to admit us to the company of the righteous?" S P
Yusuf Ali's Quran Translation
