Say (O Muslims), "We believe in Allah and that which has been sent down to us and that which has been sent down to Ibrahim (Abraham), Ismail (Ishmael), Ishaque (Isaac), Yaqoob (Jacob), and to Al-Asbat (the twelve sons of Yaqoob (Jacob)), and that which has been given to Moosa (Moses) and Iesa (Jesus), and that which has been given to the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we have submitted (in Islam)." (Al-Baqara 136)Commentary:
The earlier verses have defined the religion (Millat) of Sayyidnā Ibrāhīm علیہ اسلام and established that its present form is Islam. Now, the Jews and the Christians, in spite of their pretension to be his followers, did not in actual fact follow his religion. Each of these two groups, instead of accepting Islam, used to ask the Muslims to accept its own religion in order to find true guidance. No doubt, each of these two religions was, in its own time and for its own time, a genuine religion, but in its present form each had become distorted, and had also been abrogated by Allah. So, in answer to them, Allah asks the Holy Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم to declare on his own behalf and on that of his followers that they are and shall remain steadfast in the religion of Sayyidnā Ibrāhīm علیہ اسلام who shunned all kinds of association (Shirk), who adored nothing but the One God and obeyed no one but Him, and whose religion, therefore, did not have even a trace of distortion. Then, in the second of these verses Allah asks the Muslims to declare the basic tenets of this religion too, which are as follows:- (1) Muslims believe in Allah and in the guidance which He has sent them through the Holy Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم. (2) They also believe in all the prophets Allah has sent from time to time - some of whom have been mentioned in this verse. (3) Some of the prophets may in some ways be superior to others, but it is essential for a Muslim to believe in all the prophets without making any distinction. (4) Muslims believe that the Sharī'ahs of all the prophets mentioned here were instituted by Allah Himself, but they have now been abrogated. So, Muslims follow the Sharī'ah of the Holy Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم, for this alone is now valid. (5) Muslims ultimately obey Allah alone, and submit themselves totally to Him.
In the second of these verses the progeny of Sayyidnā Ya'qūb (Jacob علیہ اسلام) has been described as 'Asbāt or "tribes." The reason is that he had twelve sons, and the offspring of each son came to form a tribe. Allah so blessed his seed that in Egypt, Sayyidnā Yūsuf (Joseph علیہ السلام ) and his brothers made up a group of twelve men, but their lineage flourished, and when the Israelites left Egypt along with Sayyidnā Mūsā (Moses), their number ran into thousands. Another form of this blessing was that the progeny of Sayyidnā Ya'qūb علیہ السلام included a large number of prophets. (Maarif ul Quran by Mufti Muhammad Shafi RA)
