believe at the opening, disbelieve at the end

[Ahmad Tebbal]

“And a party of the People of the Scripture say: Believe in that which has been revealed unto those who believe at the opening of the day, and disbelieve at the end thereof, in order that they may return;”  3:72  Al Imraan.


I have not been able to follow the interpretation of this verse.  Can you kindly paraphrase the explanation?

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Yes of course, InshAllah.

The rabbis and certain other leaders of the ahl-e-kitab (people of the Book) in Medinah were up to various manipulations to discredit the Message of Allah Almighty delivered by the Final Messenger (pbuh).  Their goal was to weaken the Islamic Movement in Medinah.  They encouraged people to feign an interest in Islam, pretend to be people who have gotten acquainted with the laws of Islam and then raise questions and arguments in support of traditional disbelief as challenges to discredit Islam, dishearten its followers and distance them from the Quranic teachings demonstrated by the Prophet (pbuh).  For this purpose they sent their people to profess Islam publicly and then turn into apostates proclaiming they had left Islam because of its “wrong teachings.” 

Thus, Allah explains this evil plan of disbelievers who would instruct their agents to initially pretend they have embraced Islam, then show interest in trying to understand it, and then quit claiming they were disappointed with the teachings of Islam and in the process also discourage other followers of Islam. 

This is exactly what many are doing now as well, calling themselves “ex Muslims” or “former Muslims” claiming they witnessed the “false teachings” of Islam so they left.  Some of these people are secular Muslims who were never close to the Faith, others are non-Muslim Islamophobes pretending to be "ex-Muslims".  All are in the payroll of CIA, Mossad or Hasbara.

[Ahmad Tebbal]

JazekAllah khair for this explanation sister.  Helpful Alhamdulilah.