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Those to whom We have given the Book recite it as it deserves to be recited; those are the ones who believe in it. And whoever rejects it—those are the ones who lose.
Sometimes we open the Book looking for an answer, yet we are already so attached to the answer we want that whatever we read, we hear that answer in the text. We show others the verse that confirms our position and pass over the one that asks us to change. We have read the Book, but have not yet allowed it to guide us.
Recitation (tilāwah) is connected with following. The same Arabic root, T L W, appears in a verse about the moon: “By the moon when it follows it” (Ash-Shams 91:2). In reciting the Book, we follow its words from one passage to the next; yet our tongues may move with the words while our lives take another course. In Al-Baqarah 2:44, people were reading the Book and calling others to righteousness, but forgetting themselves. In Al-Baqarah 2:113, Jews and Christians were likewise reciting the Book while each denied that the other had any ground in truth. Reading was present in both cases; what was read did not always find its way into the reader’s conduct and judgment.
“To recite it as it deserves to be recited” asks more of us than letting words pass over our tongues. To give any act its due is to carry it out as it deserves. The Qur’an uses the same construction when it speaks of guarding oneself before God “as He deserves” and striving for Him “as He deserves” (Aal ‘Imran 3:102; Al-Hajj 22:78). The Book of guidance, too, must be read correctly and its meaning understood. But how can we say that we have done it justice if, whenever it points us toward another way, we refuse to follow it?
Accepting words that suit our habits and interests is not difficult. The difficulty comes when we have believed something for years and the Book now calls us to reconsider it. Accepting what it says may cost us dearly: people may resent us, or our standing in a community we love may become less secure. This is precisely where the preceding verse’s warning led: do not follow other people’s desires after knowledge has come to you (Al-Baqarah 2:120). What has become clear does not become false because others are displeased. If we keep only the parts of the Book that suit us, the question in Al-Baqarah 2:85 applies to us as well: do you believe in part of the Book and reject another part?
Among those same recipients of the Book were people who gave its recitation its due. Of them the Qur’an says: “Those are the ones who believe in it.” Their faith is evident in the way they follow the Book. They trust its guidance and are willing to accept what they learn from it in their own lives. Their respect for the Book does not end with praising and reading it. In Aal ‘Imran 3:113–114, too, we encounter People of the Book whose recitation is accompanied by prostration, faith in God and the Last Day, and eagerness to do good. The Book’s words have continued into their lives.
Set against this acceptance is “whoever rejects it.” The Arabic root K F R is connected with covering; rejection of the Book (kufr) here means refusing and turning it away, in contrast with believing in it. Such rejection cannot always be attributed to not knowing. Someone who has not yet recognized a truth is not in the same position as someone who has recognized it and does not want to accept it. Al-Baqarah 2:89 speaks of people who received what they recognized and rejected that very thing. Knowledge could not make the choice for them.
The same difficulty appears in Al-Baqarah 2:145–146. First comes the warning not to follow their desires after knowledge has arrived; then the passage speaks of recipients of the Book who recognize, yet a group among them knowingly conceals the truth. The issue, then, is not merely getting the Book into people’s hands. Someone may possess it, read it, and recognize what it says, but when faced with a choice, put personal advantage ahead of what they have understood. We face this danger too: sometimes we refuse something, not because it has failed to become clear to us, but because accepting it would demand a price we are unwilling to pay.
Faith and rejection in this verse are tied to this very relationship with the Book: one accepts its guidance, and the other turns it away. The range of meanings of these two words, and the distinction between rejection and simple ignorance, are examined in detail in the articles on faith in the Qur’an and the Qur’anic meaning of one who rejects truth.
“Those are the ones who lose.” Whoever rejects the Book’s guidance deprives themselves of it before anyone else. Al-An‘am 6:20 also speaks of people who have lost their own selves, alongside recognition and failure to believe. Loss does not always come from having nothing; sometimes we have something that could help us, but will not let it do anything for us. The Book remains in our hands, and may be read often. Yet at the point where it could have corrected a mistaken opinion or wrongful conduct in us, we have refused its words and remained as we were.