Verses · a Light

The verse after the Throne verse forbids compelling belief

Verse 255 of Surah al-Baqarah is the fullest description of God in the Qur'an. Verse 256, immediately after it, opens with the words there is no compulsion in religion, and continues that right guidance has become clear from error. The placement has been noticed by commentators since the earliest period. The largest possible statement of divine power is followed at once by a limit on what human beings may do to each other about belief. The classical discussion of what the verse forbids and whom it addresses is long, and it works from a reported occasion of revelation involving families in Madinah whose sons had been brought up in another faith.

Surah al-Baqarah, verses 255 and 256

Source · Qur'an 2:256