اٰمَنَ الرَّسُوْلُ بِمَاۤ اُنْزِلَ اِلَیْهِ مِنْ رَّبِّهٖ وَ الْمُؤْمِنُوْنَؕ-كُلٌّ اٰمَنَ بِاللّٰهِ وَ مَلٰٓىٕكَتِهٖ وَ كُتُبِهٖ وَ رُسُلِهٖ۫ لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَیْنَ اَحَدٍ مِّنْ رُّسُلِهٖ۫ وَ قَالُوْا سَمِعْنَا وَ اَطَعْنَا غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَ اِلَیْكَ الْمَصِیْرُ (سورة البقرة، الایة:285)
Translation: The Messenger has believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, and the believers as well. All have believed in Allah and His angels and His Books and His Messengers. "We make no division between any of His Messengers," and they have said: "We have listened, and obeyed. Our Lord, Your pardon! And to You is the return."
Mufti Muhammad Shafi’ Usmani Sahab (Rahimahullah) writes in the tafseer of this verse in his book ‘Maariful Quran’:
The first seven words of this verse admire the Holy Prophet ﷺ . It may be noted that the verse does not address him by his name, but, by calling him 'Rasool', his honour and dignity have been made clear. The word, 'the believers' follows immediately after that. It means that just as the Holy Prophet ﷺ firmly believes in the revelation (Wahi) from Allah, so do the true Muslims in general. The style chosen for this sentence is also worth consideration. The major part has been used to describe the state of the 'iman (belief) of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, then, the 'iman (belief) of the general Muslims has been described separately. This indicates that, although the Holy Prophet ﷺ and all Muslims share in the wealth of 'iman as such, still there is a great difference between the two in terms of the relative degrees of 'iman. The knowledge of the Holy Prophet ﷺ is based on seeing and hearing while the knowledge of other Muslims takes the form of 'iman bi l’ghayb or 'believing without seeing' as based on the 'ru'yat or 'seeing' of the Holy Prophet ﷺ .
After that come details of the 'iman (belief) which was common between the Holy Prophet ﷺ and the Muslims in general. This 'iman consisted of the belief that Allah Almighty does exist and that He is One and that He is endued with all the perfect attributes, and that there are angels, and that all Scriptures and all Messengers sent by Allah are true.
After that it was clearly stressed that the 'believers' of this ummah (Muslim community) will do nothing as was done by past communities when they planted seeds of discord among Messengers of Allah by accepting some as Prophets and by denying that status to others. The Jews accepted that Sayyidna Musa (AS) was a prophet, the Christians accepted that Sayyidna Isa (AS) was a Prophet, but that the Last of the Prophets, Sayyidna Muhammad ﷺ was a Prophet who was not accepted by them.
Praised here is the distinction of this ummah which is made of people who do not reject any Prophet. This is followed by words of admiration for what the noble Companions had said when so directed by the Holy Prophet ﷺ:
سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ
Translation: We have listened, and obeyed. Our Lord, Your pardon! And to You is the return.
(Tafsir Ma’arif al-Qur’an, Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayah 285, Vol. 1, p. 787 – Idarat al-Ma’arif, Karachi)
Allah the Almighty knows best.
Darul Ifta Al-Ikhlas, Karachi.