Surah Fatir (The Creator ) 35 : 42

Explanatory Note

The next round speaks about the Arab idolaters and the pledges they made to God, which they then breached, spreading corruption on earth. They are warned that God’s laws will always operate, never fail. The Arabs had Jewish neighbours in the Arabian Peninsula and they realized how far the Jews had deviated from the right path. They had heard much of their history and how they had killed their prophets, turning away from the truth these prophets advocated. The Arabs used to blame the Jews, and to swear most earnestly that “if a warner should ever come to them, they would follow his guidance better than some other community.” They deliberately made their oaths in this way, not mentioning the Jews although clearly referring to them.

Thus were their oaths, which the Qur’ān presents to everyone so as to make them witnesses to what the Arabs used to say in pre-Islamic days. The sūrah then reveals what they did when God gave them what they wished for, sending them a messenger to warn them: “but when a warner did come to them, they turned away with increased aversion, behaving arrogantly in the land and plotting evil.”