Surah Al-Bayyina: Verse 5 - وما أمروا إلا ليعبدوا الله... - English

And they have been commanded no more than this: To worship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being true (in faith); to establish regular prayer; and to practise regular charity; and that is the Religion Right and Straight. (5)

Verse [ 5] وَذَٰلِكَ دِينُ الْقَيِّمَةِ (And that is the way of the straight religion.) The word qayyimah [ the straight ] is apparently the qualifier of the noun kutub [ Books ] which occurred earlier. Some treat the adjective as qualifying the noun millah [ religion ]. The verse purports to say that Allah commanded the People of the former Scriptures that they should render full and sincere obedience to Divine commandments, that is, to worship Allah alone. They should also establish the regular prayers and pay the obligatory alms. Then the Qur'an reminds them that this is not their distinctive feature exclusively. All former religions that are upright and received Books from Allah have the same features. This is the true religion of all the Prophets (علیہم السلام) that they preached to their respective people. It would appear that the phrase hutubun qayyimah [(right and) straight writings ], contextually, refers to the Qur'anic ordinances and injunctions. From this point of view, the verse would signify that the ordinances and injunctions of the Shari` ah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ are exactly the same as those that were given to them in their revealed Scriptures. They were not divergent so that they could find a pretext to oppose.

(5)