into portions." Al-Hasan said: It means, We sent down the Quran upon you just as We sent it down upon the dividers, meaning the people of the two scriptures who divided it, making it into books after it had been one book, and they corrupted it, making it like separate limbs.

Muhammad [Ibn Abi Zamanin] said: The meaning is: they believed in some of it and disbelieved in some of it. The Arabs say, 'Addaita al-shay' (I divided the thing) when you distribute it, and 'Addayta al-dhabihah' (you divided the slaughtered animal) when you cut it into limbs, and 'al-'idah' is a piece of it. The plural is 'idun' in the nominative case, and 'idina' in the accusative and genitive cases. Ru'bah said: 'And the religion of Allah is not something to be divided...'