Linguistic-Interreligious Analysis of the Qur'anic Verse "Lā Taqūlū Rāˁinā wa Qūlū ˀUnẓurnā"

One of the verses of the Holy Qur'an which has been under debate for centuries is Baqarah/104. According to Muslim exegetes, the above-mentioned verse prevented Muslims from using the term "Rāˁinā" and called on them to replace it with the term "ˀUnẓurnā". Although the exegetes have put forward seven ideas about the meaning of "Rāˁinā" and the reasons behind preventing Muslims from saying it, there are still some hidden aspects which require conducting new studies based upon new scientific approaches. That's why this study, considering the previously neglected linguistic-interreligious data, is going to provide a new analysis of the audience of the Qur'anic verse Baqarah/104 and the exact meaning of the term "Rāˁinā". This study proves that the Jews, being influenced by the teachings of the Old Testament, viewed the relations between "Prophet and the followers" as the relations between "shepherd and sheep". However, the Almighty God commanded the Jews to abandon the deeply-rooted metaphor of "shepherding". Therefore, the Qur'anic verse "Lā Taqūlū Rāˁinā wa Qūlū ˀUnẓurnā" called on the Jews to not only replace the term "Rāˁinā" with "ˀUnẓurnā", but to change the formulation of relations between Prophet and his followers.