Al-Baqara • EN-AL-QUSHAIRI-TAFSIR
﴿ أَمْ كُنتُمْ شُهَدَآءَ إِذْ حَضَرَ يَعْقُوبَ ٱلْمَوْتُ إِذْ قَالَ لِبَنِيهِ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِنۢ بَعْدِى قَالُوا۟ نَعْبُدُ إِلَٰهَكَ وَإِلَٰهَ ءَابَآئِكَ إِبْرَٰهِۦمَ وَإِسْمَٰعِيلَ وَإِسْحَٰقَ إِلَٰهًۭا وَٰحِدًۭا وَنَحْنُ لَهُۥ مُسْلِمُونَ ﴾
“Nay, but you [yourselves, O children of Israel,] bear witness that when death was approaching Jacob, he said unto his sons: "Whom will you worship after I am gone?" They answered: "We will worship thy God, the God of thy forefathers Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac, the One God; and unto Him we surrender ourselves."”
Or were you witnesses when death came to Jacobḍ When he said to his sons �What will you worship after meḍ� They said �We will worship your God All of them ḍ followed one way in declaring [God's] oneness tawḥīd and submission islām. They inherited that one after another from their forefathers and [they] were the people of the house of intimacy deserving of nearness and purified in truth by God. and the God of your fathers Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac One God to Him we submit.� [Jacob's sons] did not say �Our God� out of respect for [Jacob's] special status inasmuch as they accepted his superiority and saw themselves as attached to his station maqām. [Rather] they said of themselves that they were followers of [Abraham Ishmael and Isaac] when they said �and to Him we submit.�