If they really have faith in Allah and the day of resurrection...

If they really have faith in Allah and the day of resurrection, then it is a must for them that should have faith in the universal Prophet hood of Prophet (s.a.w.a.) also, which is part of the teachings of Allah in the old and new testaments. In that case they will become Muslims and surely get the rewards. In short faith on Allah and the day of resurrection is not different from the Heavenly Books and their teachings. (In which the prophet hood of Last Prophet is included).

Then such a person who has faith in these in a sense is not a Christian, but he will be considered a Muslim. (3) It is evident from studying the verse preceding this verse in Surah Baqarah that, it is connected to these group of the People of Book, who believed in Allah in the time of the previous Prophets and they believed in the day of resurrection. In and in those periods of time they were following the commands of their respective religion.

In contrast to that, some others disobeyed the way of Tawhid and started worshipping calf and became shameless to the extent that, they said to Musa (a.s.) in clear words: As long as we do not see Allah with our own eyes we will not worship Him. As a result of such unbecoming ways the Israelites came face to face with the anger of Allah.

And according to the meaning of the preceding verse, their foreheads were stamped with a seal of disgrace and misfortune and they were trapped in the wrath of Allah because they had committed blasphemy with respect to the signs of Allah and were killing the prophets unjustly.[^6] Allah has revealed above-mentioned verses to remove the wrong notions and to explain that the group of the People of book, which really believed in Tawhid and the day of resurrection and did good deeds, is different from others.

They will get salvation on the day of resurrection and for them there will be no grief and sadness. In these circumstances this verse will be especially for that group of the people of Book, who were alive in the past ages and died before the Proclamation of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) and it is not with regard to the period of the Prophet of Islam (s.a.w.a.).

The purpose of revelation of this verse also explains this subject in a complete way that, after the apostleship of the Holy Prophet and the revelation of Holy Qur’an some Muslims will think that, when Islam is the only way of truth and salvation, then what will be the fate of our ancestors, who were the followers of other religions at that time?