Tafsir

Among other perversities, some of the Jews invented a new mischief. When they presented themselves before the Holy Prophet ﷺ they would address him with the word Ra` ina رَ‌اعِنَا ، which, in Arabic, means "be mindful of us", but is, in Hebrew, a curse. The latter is what they intended, but the Arabs, not knowing Hebrew, could not see the point, and some Muslims too, with the Arabic sense of the word in mind, began to address the Holy Prophet ﷺ in the same manner to the great glee of the Jews who had thus found a way of insulting him openly, and had even tricked the Muslims into joining them. In order to frustrate the design of the Jews, the Holy Qur'an commands the Muslims to use the word Unzurna انظُرْ‌نَا instead of Ra'ina رَ‌اعِنَا ، for the meanings of the two words are the same in Arabic. The verse also announces a dire punishment to the Jews for showing disrespect to the Holy Prophet ﷺ and for trying to be clever with him.

The verse describes the insolent Jews as Kafirin کافرون (infidels), which means that being intentionally disrespectful towards a prophet even in an indirect manner constitutes infidelity.

The verse shows that if a perfectly legitimate action on one's part provides room for others to commit illegitimate actions, even the legitimate action no longer remains lawful for one. For example, if a permissible action on the part of a scholar is likely to lead the ignorant into error and to induce them to do impermissible things, that permissible action will then become forbidden for him, provided that the action concerned is not essential according to the Shari'ah and is not included among its objects. The Holy Qur'an and the Hadith provide many instances of this nature. For example, before the advent of Islam the Quraysh قریش had, in rebuilding the Ka'bah کعبہ ، made certain modifications in the design set by Sayyidna Ibrahim (Abraham علیہ السلام). A hadith reports that the Holy Prophet ﷺ wished to demolish the present structure, and to build it again according to the Abrahamic pattern, but he did not do so, for such an action could have led ignorant people into misunderstanding and error.

In the vocabulary of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, such injunctions are described as سدَ الذرایع : Sadd al-Dhara'i: "removing the means (to error) " and are accepted by all the jurists -- those of the Hanbali school being very particular about them. (Qurtubi)