﴿ كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِٱلْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ ٱلْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ ۗ وَلَوْ ءَامَنَ أَهْلُ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ لَكَانَ خَيْرًۭا لَّهُم ۚ مِّنْهُمُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمُ ٱلْفَٰسِقُونَ ﴾

“YOU ARE indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for [the good of] mankind: you enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and you believe in God. Now if the followers of earlier revelation had attained to [this kind of] faith, it would have been for their own good; [but only few] among them are believers, while most of them are iniquitous:”

(Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for mankind�) [3:110]. �Ikrimah and Muqatil said: �This was revealed about [�Abd Allah] Ibn Mas�ud, Ubayy ibn Ka�b, Mu�adh ibn Jabal and Salim, the client of Abu Hudhayfah. Malik ibn al-Dayf and Wahb ibn Yahudha, both of them Jews, had said to them: �Our religion is better than that to which you call us; and we are also more virtuous and better than you�. And Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse as a response to them�.