Audio discussion of the summary:
https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/6dc0b7b0-dd5f-4f62-9b6b-52c9d8f36a38/audio
اَفَتَطۡمَعُوۡنَ اَنۡ يُّؤۡمِنُوۡا لَـكُمۡ وَقَدۡ كَانَ فَرِيۡقٌ مِّنۡهُمۡ يَسۡمَعُوۡنَ کَلَامَ اللّٰهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُوۡنَهٗ مِنۡۢ بَعۡدِ مَا عَقَلُوۡهُ وَهُمۡ يَعۡلَمُوۡنَ ﴿2:75﴾ وَاِذَا لَـقُوۡا الَّذِيۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا قَالُوۡآ اٰمَنَّا ۖۚ وَاِذَا خَلَا بَعۡضُهُمۡ اِلٰى بَعۡضٍ قَالُوۡآ اَ تُحَدِّثُوۡنَهُمۡ بِمَا فَتَحَ اللّٰهُ عَلَيۡكُمۡ لِيُحَآجُّوۡكُمۡ بِهٖ عِنۡدَ رَبِّكُمۡؕ اَفَلَا تَعۡقِلُوۡنَ﴿2:76﴾ اَوَلَا يَعۡلَمُوۡنَ اَنَّ اللّٰهَ يَعۡلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّوۡنَ وَمَا يُعۡلِنُوۡنَ ﴿2:77﴾
(2:75) Do you hope that these people will believe in the Message you are preaching,86even though a party of them has been wont to listen to the Word of Allah and after they had fully grasped it, knowingly distorted it?87 (2:76) And when they meet those who believe (in Muhammad) they say: “We too believe in him.” But in their intimate meetings they say to one another: “How foolish! Why should you intimate to them what Allah has revealed to you, for they will use it as argument against you before your Lord?”88 (2:77) Are they unaware that Allah knows all that they hide and all that they disclose?
Notes
86. This is addressed to the converts of Madina, who had then lately embraced the faith of the Arabian Prophet. These people had some vague notions about Prophethood, Heavenly Scriptures, Angels, the After-life, Divine Law and so on, and for this they were indebted to their Jewish neighbours. It was from these same Jewish neighbours that they had heard that another Prophet was about to appear, and that his followers would prevail over the rest of the world.
It was partly because of this background that when the people of Madina heard about the Prophet, they readily turned towards him and embraced Islam in large numbers. They naturally expected that those who already followed Prophets and Divine Scriptures, and who, by introducing them to these ideas had contributed to their embracing the true faith, would not only join the ranks of the true believers, but would even be amongst their vanguard. As a result of these expectations the enthusiastic Muslim converts approached their Jewish friends and neighbours and invited them to embrace Islam. When the Jews flatly declined to do so, this negative reply was exploited by the hypocrites and other enemies of Islam as an argument for creating doubts about the truth of Islam.
If Muhammad was the true Prophet, they argued, how was it conceivable that the Jewish scholars and divines would deliberately turn away from him since, if he was a true Prophet, such a behaviour would be tantamount to ruining their After-life? Here the simple-hearted Muslims learn of the historical record of the Jews, a record which is replete with perversion and corruption. This was designed to make them realize that they ought not to expect too much of a people with so dark a past, for if they were not realistic in their expectations about them they would be utterly disappointed when their call failed to penetrate their hardened and stony hearts. Their chronic decadence had a history of several centuries. For a long time they had treated those verses of the Scriptures which made sincere believers tremble in awe as objects of jest and play. They had tailored religion to suit their base desires and it was around such a perverted view of religion that all their hopes of salvation were centred. It was futile to hope that such people would flock to the call of Truth the moment it was proclaimed.
87. ‘A party of them’ refers to the scholars and religious doctors of the Jewish community. The’ Word of God’ here signifies the Torah, the Psalms (Zabur) and other Scriptures which the Jews had received through the Prophets. ‘Distortion’ denotes the attempt to twist a text in such a manner as to make it signify something different from its real meaning, and may also denote tampering with the text of the Scriptures. The Israelite scholars had subjected the Scriptures to distortions of both kinds.
88. When the Jews talked among themselves they asked their co-religionists to disclose to the Muslims neither the prophesies about the Prophet, nor those verses of the Scriptures on the basis of which they could be reproached for their evil conduct; they thought that the Muslims would make use of scriptural arguments against them before God, and would thus have them pronounced guilty. These were the depths to which Jewish religious decadence had sunk. They were convinced that if they could succeed in concealing their guilt in this world, they would be saved from censure in the Next. For this reason they were asked if they considered God to be unaware of their deeds, either apparent or hidden.
Messages from Quran 