Another shift of philological taxonomy occurs in this, the third verse that presents itself for consideration. While sūrat at-baqarah (2):62 made unequivocal reference to the Christians, the allusion was somewhat less direct in sūrah Āl ʿImrān (3): 5 5 with its mention of those who follow Jesus. In the verse to be discussed now the classificatory phrase is yet more amorphous and partitive. A critical phrase is people of the book (ahl al-kitāb), a designation whose range of signification is not constant within either the domain of Qurʾānic tafsīr or the Islamic religious sciences generally. Identification in this context with those known as Christians is less a function of direct verbal apprehension than of recourse to the exegetical tradition on the verse. The verse itself is the penultimate entry in the same sūrah from which the one treated in the previous chapter was drawn. A possible translation of sūrah Āl ʿImrān (3): 199 would be:

OPTING FOR INCLUSIVITY

Muslim commentators have discerned a multiplicity of issues within these few brief lines, but the preeminent consideration has clearly been that of ascertaining what circumstances occasioned this revelation, a hermeneutical procedure called sabab al-nuzūl. Once again al-Ṭabarī charts the course along which many of the later commentators travel.