[Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow) – C.2-V.6]

“Indeed, those who disbelieve - it is all the same for them whether you warn them or do not warn them - they will not believe.” 

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَوَاءٌ عَلَيْهِمْ أَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنذِرْهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ

[Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow) – C.2-V.6]

Tabari's Opinion:

At the beginning of this sura, Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta’ala) remonstrated to His Prophet (salAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) against those rabbis of the Children of Israel who were polytheist Jews, and who, despite their knowledge of his prophet hood, denied it, by disclosing to His Prophet what their rabbis had kept hidden and secret from the ordinary Jews so that most of them did not know it although their rabbis did, in order that they should understand that He who had given the Prophet knowledge of it was precisely He who had sent down the Book to Moses. For this was something which neither Muhammad (salAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), nor his people, nor his kinsfolk, knew about, and which they were not aware of, before the Furqan was sent down to him; so the rabbis could claim to be confused about him, about whether he was a prophet, and whether what he brought was from Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta’ala) or not. But how could they claim confusion about the truthfulness of an illiterate (ummi) raised among illiterates, who could neither write, nor read, nor calculate? For it is said that if you can read books then you have knowledge, and if you can calculate then you can foretell the future from the stars. Yet the Prophet was sent to the rabbis, who could read and write--for they had studied books and were in charge of the communities-to inform them about their hidden faults, about their carefully guarded knowledge, about their secret traditions, and about the things which they concealed which even the rabbis below them did not know. Surely it is not difficult to decide about someone like that, surely his truthfulness is altogether clear.

Opinion of lbn 'Abbas (radyAllahu`anhu):

“Alike it is to them whether you have warned them or have not warned them, they do not believe.” This refers to those who deny (kafaru) the reminder (dhikr) of which they have knowledge, and repudiate the agreement in your favor which was taken from them. They deny what came to you as well as what they know which others apart from you brought them. How could they heed a warning or a caution from you when they deny the knowledge? Of you which they have?

Kafara, kufr, Kafir, and derivative forms of the word, imply a deliberate rejection of Faith as opposed to a mistaken idea of Allah or faith, which is not inconsistent with an earnest desire to see the truth. Where there is such desire, the Grace and Mercy of Allah gives guidance. But that guidance is not efficacious when it is deliberately rejected, and the possibility of rejection follows from the grant of free will. The consequence of the rejection is that the spiritual faculties become dead or impervious to better influences.