3.32 – Obey God and the messenger

After telling the reader or listener to follow the messenger in verse 31, the Quran now commands obedience to him. This is the first time in its canonical progression that the Quran associates “the messenger” with Allah, but the two are linked at least eighty-four more times. The command to obey Allah and the messenger also appears here for the first time and will repeat in this sūra at verse 132. The Quran associates the messenger with Allah for obedience or disobedience a total of twenty-eight times, most frequently in Sūras 4, 8, 24, and 33.

Quranic commands to obey the messenger became very important in the writings of the influential Muslim jurist al-Shāfi‘ī (d. 820), who insisted they gave divine authority to traditional sayings (known as “hadith”) that Muslims attribute to Muhammad. See an analysis of these commands at 64.12.

3.32 – surely God does not love the disbelievers

The Quran contains twenty-four statements about the kinds of people whom Allah does not love. Here the object is disbelievers (kāfirūn, also 30.45). See “The Language of Love in the Quran”.