قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ ٱللَّهَ فَٱتَّبِعُونِى يُحْبِبْكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ
Say, [O Muhammad], "If you should love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."
Introduction
This is āyah 31 of Sūrat Aal-i-Imraan (Family of Imran), the 89th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Medinan period and sits within Juzʾ 3. Medinan verses often address community life, law, and the building of society.
This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.
Revelation & occasion
- Period
- Medinan
- Order revealed
- 89 of 114
- Surah
- Aal-i-Imraan (3)
Say: If you love God, follow me; God will love you and forgive you your sins. In terms of the Haqiqah this verse has another intimation and another taste. He is saying: “Who- ever has fervor in his breast because of these words, say to him: 'Come out in my tracks, for all the work has been made ready in my footsteps. Do not bind your heart to intellect, for intellect is a watchman, not a leader to whom the reins should be given. It is not a road that you should set out in. Do not seek what you are seeking from intellect, seek it from prophethood. Intellect carries the saddle-cloth of the religion's ruling. The exalted magnificence of the religion does not fit into the scales of intellect, nor does it come under the confines of substance and accident.'” Our religion is the same as the religion of the 124,000 prophets and messengers. The testi- mony of the Qur'an contains these words, for He says, “He has set down for you as the religion that with which He counseled Noah” and so on [42:13]. That which holds up the level of our religion is two things: “God said” and “God's Messenger said.” If everything that is the basis of the religion of the innovators-the substances, accidents, and specific differences of the Kalam experts and the determinations of their intellects-suddenly ceased to be in creation, came to nothing, and entered into the concealment of nonexistence, not an iota of deficiency would reach the threshold of the religion's exaltedness or the gate of the Sun- nah's tremendousness. By the decree of good fortune this address has come from the Exalted Lord to the folk of the Sunnah: “Today I have perfected your religion for you and I have completed My blessings upon you” [5:3]. Here there is no room for the Kalam of the theologians and the med- dling of the philosophizers, nor for their explanations of substance and accident. The path of Kalam is the path of shadows, and the worst shadows are the shadows of Kalam. You should take the road of the folk of Hadith- it is enough to have MuṣṬafā as imam. Put away confusion, for this is “the religion of old women.” You should have that, and the religion of servants.
Tafsir
Hafiz Ibn Kathir
Chains of transmission
Oral — isnād
- ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation
Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.
- 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation
Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.
- TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation
Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.
Written — the manuscript record
- ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation
The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).
- 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation
Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.
- Modern printModern printawaiting curation
The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.
A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.
And now — what do you think?
The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.
Community resources
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