The fourfold listing: whoever trusts and does what is sound
مَنْ ءَامَنَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَعَمِلَ صَٰلِحًا
man āmana bi-llāhi wa-l-yawmi l-ākhirati wa-ʿamila ṣāliḥan — whoever trusts in Allah and the Last Day and does what is sound
Two near-identical verses (2:62, 5:69) list four communities and then subsume them all under a single conditional clause, 'whoever trusts in Allah and the Last Day and does what is sound'. The small differences between them—order of the last two groups, the case of Ṣābi'īn, and the extra clause about recompense in 2:62—track the different argumentative settings.
Both verses open with the same fourfold listing—those who have trusted, those who have become Hādū (2:62) or Judaic (5:69), the Nazarenes/Christians, and the Ṣābi'īn—and then, instead of predicating anything directly of these groups, pivot to a conditional: 'whoever trusts in Allah and the Last Day and does what is sound' (2:62; 5:69). The listing names communities; the conditional names the criterion. The effect is that membership in any listed group is neither sufficient nor excluded: what decides the outcome is the trust and the sound deed.
The differences are small but functional. In 2:62 the Ṣābi'īn come last, in the genitive case (wa-l-ṣābi'īn), following the accusative/genitive pattern of the list; in 5:69 they precede the Christians and stand in the nominative (wa-l-ṣābi'ūn), a case that would allow them to be read as a subject rather than a mere item in the series. 2:62 also adds 'then for them is their recompense with their Lord' before the shared ending 'no fear will be upon them, nor will they grieve'; 5:69 goes straight to the fear/grief clause. In 2:62 the verse follows a verse of sharp reproach against the Children of Israel (2:61), and the added recompense clause frames the conditional as an opening; in 5:69 it follows the declaration that the People of the Scripture 'are upon nothing until they establish the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been sent down to you from your Lord' (5:68), and the leaner form restates the criterion without repeating the reward.
Where it occurs
- 2:62 After the reproach of 2:61, the verse lists four communities and subsumes them under the conditional of trust and sound deed, adding the clause 'for them is their recompense with their Lord' before the fear/grief ending.
- 5:69 After 5:68 declares the People of the Scripture upon nothing until they establish Torah, Gospel, and what was sent down, the verse repeats the listing and conditional in a leaner form, omitting the recompense clause.
All Qur'anic expressions