مَثَلُ الَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا التَّوْرَاةَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ الْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًا ۚ بِئْسَ مَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ (5)
(62:5) The parable of those who were charged with the Torah and then they failed to live up to it *7 is that of a donkey *8 laden with books. Even more evil is the parable of the people who gave the lie to the Signs of Allah. *9 Allah does not direct such wrong-doers to the Right Way.
*7) This sentence has two meanings, a general meaning and a special meaning. The general meaning is that the people who were entrusted with the knowledge and practice of the Torah and with the responsibility of guiding the world according to it, neither understood this reapon:ibility nor discharged it as they should have. The special meaning is Being the bearers of the Torah these people should have been fore-most to join hands with the Messenger, good news about whose advent had been already given in the Torah, but, instead, they have been in the forefront to oppose him and have thus failed to fulfil the demand of the teaching of the Torah.
*8) That is, just as a donkey loaded with books does not know what it i8 loaded with, so are these people loaded with the Torah and they do not know what this Book was sent for and what are its demands.
*9) That is, they arc even worst than a donkey, who is without sense and therefore excusable. But these people have intelligence they read and teach the Torah and are fully aware of its meaning Yet they are turning away from its guidance and refusing wilfully to acknowledge and believe in the Prophet who even according to the Torah teaches the truth. They arc guilty not because of ignorance but because of denying Allah's Revelation deliberately.