2. Surah Al Baqarah

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

أَتَأْمُرُونَ النَّاسَ بِالْبِرِّ وَتَنسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَتْلُونَ الْكِتَابَ ...

2: 44. Do ye enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (to practice it) yourselves, and yet ye study the Scripture?

... أَفَلاَ تَعْقِلُونَ ﴿٤٤﴾

Will ye not understand?

Other versions:

2: 44

Asad Do you bid other people to be pious, the while you forgot your own selves – and yet you recite the divine writ? Will you not, then, use your reason?

Yusuf Ali Do ye enjoin right conduct on the people and forget (to practice it) yourselves and yet ye study the Scripture? Will ye not understand?

Pickthall Enjoin ye righteousness upon mankind while ye yourselves forget (to practise it)? And ye are readers of the Scripture! Have ye then no sense?

Transliteration Ata'muru_nan na_sa bil birri wa tansauna anfusakum wa antum tatlu_nal kita_b(a), afala_ ta'qilu_n(a).

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[Ruby’s note: God is giving validity to what the Jews were reading at that time which is the Torah or Old Testament as a divine scripture. What it also alludes to is that there must be injunctions in the Torah that still should make all the sense for the Jews to be rightly guided if they sincerely follow it. ]