A Comparative Exegesis of “you shall come back into our religion” (Ibrahim: 13) with Emphasis on the Infallibility of the Prophets

The infallibility of prophets is one of the basic beliefs of Muslims, but its scope is a matter of dispute. One of the disputed verses in this regard is Prophet Shoaib’s threat in the verse “or else you shall come back into our religion” (Ibrahim: 13), the interpretation of which to mean return to the religion of the disbelievers is a challenge to Shiite beliefs and requires serious analysis because the general Shiites believe that the prophets were infallible in all periods of their lives. In this study, the exegetive viewpoints have been examined through a comparative method and it becomes clear that in the analysis and justification of the aforementioned challenge, the exegetes have said that the meaning of return (ʿowd) in the verse in question is Prophet Shoaib entering the religion of the disbelievers and agreeing with them, is an explanation of the illusion of the disbelievers, and the domination and generalization of the ruling of the majority for the general and transformation. ʿOwd, meaning transformation, can be acceptable despite some caveats. Most of the exegetes have taken ʿowd to mean return, however, they have refused to accept such a meaning. From the point of view of this article, ʿowd is acceptable in the sense of return, with the explanation that Prophet Shoaib followed the religion of the previous Prophet along with his people in the period before his prophethood. Only Ibn Taymiyyah, in contrast to Sunni and Shiite exegetes, has insisted on the committing of sins by the prophets without citing the text of the verse.