"Oh you who believe, believe..."

[Mubashir]

Dear All, Salaam

[Shakir] 57:28 O you who believe! be careful of (your duty to) Allah and believe in His Messenger: He will give you two portions of His mercy, and make for you a light with which you will walk, and forgive you, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful;

Upon reading this verse, I am wondering if it is addressing those who came to believe in Allah, Muhammad (PBUH) and The Quran, or has it been addressed to those who believed in previous Messengers (Ahl e Kitab)? Why would Muslims be asked to believe when they already believed?

Muhammad Asad has translated the verse in a slightly different way:

[Asad] 57:28 O YOU who have attained to faith!*Remain conscious of God, and believe in His Apostle, [and] He will
grant you doubly of His grace, and will light for you a light wherein you shall walk, and will forgive you
[your past sins]: for God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

In his foot note to this verse he writes:

"...*  As is evident from the preceding passage as well as from verse 29, the people thus addressed are the
followers of earlier revelation (ahl al-kitab), and in particular the true - i.e., unitarian -
followers of Jesus..."

If this verse is asking the believers (Muslims) to fear Allah and believe in His apostle then Allah makes a promise to them. Looking at the Muslim world we find majority Muslims fear Allah and believe in His Apostle but still they are not doing too well in the world.

Would appreciate comments from my respected brothers and sisters.

Thanks.

Mubashir

[chadiga]

Salam mubashir

for me the explanation from Asad seems to be logic.
 For the other question, why the Muslims today don't walk in the light as promised , i see  this  in the fact, that they mixed truth (Quran) with falsehood (secondary sources) as do the previous people - and  they they can't find light, because Allah is the light and the Quran His last revelation: the filter to found the truth and to be guided and to do good, if we take this guidance serious and not in vain...
peace