Ат-Тавба 9:64–126

The hypocrites are afraid that Allah will reveal a sūrah to His Messenger that will inform the believers about the disbelief that they conceal. Say, O Messenger: Continue, O hypocrites, mocking and poking fun. Allah will unveil what you are afraid of by revealing a sūrah or by informing His Messenger about the truth of your case.

If you, O Messenger, ask the hypocrites about the insults they used against the believers after Allah informs you of it, they will say, ‘We were just joking when we said that and we were not serious’. Say, O Messenger, ‘Is it Allah, His verses and His Messenger that you were making fun of?’

Do not present these false excuses, O hypocrites. You have exposed your disbelief, which was hidden, by making fun. If I were to pardon a group from among you, when they leave their hypocrisy and repent from it by sincerely repenting to Allah, I will punish another group from among you due to their remaining in hypocrisy and their failure to repent from it.

The hypocrites, men and women, are all the same with respect to their states of hypocrisy. They are not like the believers, because they call to evil and prohibit good. They are also miserly with their wealth and do not spend it in Allah’s path. They turned away from Allah and were unmindful of Him, and they only remember Allah a little. Allah therefore left them out of His mercy. The hypocrites are the ones who deviate from following Allah and the path of truth by going towards sin and the path of misguidance.

Allah has promised the hypocrites and the disbelievers who do not repent that He will make them enter the fire of Hell to live there eternally – it is a sufficient punishment for them. Allah has distanced them from His mercy and for them is an everlasting punishment.

O hypocrites, in your disbelief and mockery you are like the communities of disbelievers before you. They were greater than you in strength, and had more wealth and children, and they enjoyed their allotted share of the luxuries and pleasures of this world. You, O hypocrites, also enjoyed your allotted share of the world, just as the communities of the past did. You indulged in denying the truth and insulting the messenger just as they did. Those who have these shameful qualities will have their actions reduced to nothing by Allah due to their disbelief. They are the losers, whose own souls have brought them to the point of destruction.

Have the hypocrites not heard of what previous disbelieving communities did and what their end was? The news of the people of Noah, Hūd, Ṣāliḥ, Abraham, the inhabitants of Madyan and the towns of the nation of Lot? Their messengers came to them with clear proof and evidence. Allah was not unjust in punishing them, as their messengers had warned them, but they were unjust to themselves because of their disbelief in Allah and rejection of His messengers.

The believers, men and women, are helpers to one another, because of the faith that unites them. They command good – which is everything loved by Allah, represented by the various forms of obedience, such as accepting His Oneness and the ritual prayer – and they prohibit evil – which is everything hated by Allah, and includes sins such as disbelief and dealing in usury in financial transactions. They perform the ritual prayer in a complete manner, and they obey Allah and His Messenger. People with these praiseworthy qualities will receive Allah’s mercy. Allah is Mighty and nothing can overcome Him. He is Wise in His creating, handling of matters and establishment of laws.

Allah has promised those men and women who have faith in Him that He will enter them, on the Day of Judgement, into gardens with rivers flowing beneath their palaces, where they will live eternally. In these gardens, they will not die and their delight will never end. Yet the pleasure that Allah will give to them will be greater than all of that. This reward is the great success which no other success can equal.

O Messenger, strive against the disbelievers by fighting against them with the sword, and strive against the hypocrites with well-expressed arguments. Be hard with both groups because that is what they deserve. Their resting place on the Day of Judgement will be Hell. What an evil place they will end up in!

The hypocrites swear a false oath by Allah that they did not say the words of insults about you and your religion that have reached you. But they did say those things which showed them to be disbelievers after they had announced that they have faith. They had intended to assassinate the Prophet (peace be upon him), but were unsuccessful. They only disliked something that should not have been disliked!: that Allah had graciously favoured the Prophet and the believers by blessing them with the gains of war. If they turn to Allah and repent from their hypocrisy, their repentance will be better for them than remaining in their hypocrisy. Yet if they do not repent to Allah, He will punish them with a painful punishment in this world, by having them killed or taken prisoner, and He will also punish them in the Afterlife in the fire of Hell, and they will not have anyone to save them from the punishment.

Some of the hypocrites have made a promise with Allah, saying: If Allah gives us from His bounty, we will certainly give charity to the poor and we will be of the righteous ones whose actions are good.

When Allah, may He be glorified, gave them from His bounty, they did not fulfil the promise they made with Him. Instead, they became miserly and did not give any charity, and they turned away from accepting the faith with hatred.

Allah therefore firmly established hypocrisy in their hearts until the Day of Judgement, as a punishment for their breaking their promise with Allah and for their lying.

Do the hypocrites not know that Allah knows the plots they keep secret in their meetings and that Allah, may He be glorified, is the Knower of all Ghaib things? No action of theirs is hidden from Him and He will repay them for that.

Those who find fault with the believers who voluntarily give a little charity, who only find a little that they are able to give, and they poke fun at them – saying: Of what use is their charity? – Allah mocks them in return for their mocking the believers; and they will receive a painful punishment.

Allah will never forgive the hypocrites, even if the Messenger was to ask for their forgiveness, because they do not deserve to be forgiven, nno matter how much forgiveness is sought for them. They disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger and they deliberately oppose Allah’s sacred law.

Those hypocrites who failed to join the battle of Tabūk were happy not to strive in Allah’s path, in opposition to the Messenger of Allah. They were reluctant to strive with their wealth and live in Allah’s path as the believers did. They said to their fellow hypocrites, in order to keep them behind, ‘Do not march in the heat!’ The battle of Tabūk was during the hot season. Say to them, O Messenger: The fire of Hell that awaits the hypocrites is much hotter than this heat that they are running away from, if they only knew.

Let these hypocrites, who failed to strive in Allah’s path, laugh a little in their temporary life of the world and let them cry much in their everlasting life of the Afterlife in return for the disbelief and sins they committed in the world.

If Allah returns you, O Prophet, to a group of these hypocrites who are firm in their hypocrisy and they ask you for permission to go out with you in another battle, then say to them: You, hypocrites, will never go out with me in Allah’s path, as a punishment for you and a means of avoiding the harms that may arise due to your presence with me. You were quite pleased to remain behind in the battle of Tabūk, so stay with those sick persons, women and children who remain behind.

Do not offer the prayer, O Messenger, over any one of the hypocrites who dies; and do not stand to pray for forgiveness at their gravesides. That is because they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger, and they died whilst they had left Allah’s obedience. No prayer should be offered for such a person.

Do not, O Messenger, let the wealth and children of these hypocrites impress you. Allah only intends to punish them with that in the life of the world, through the difficulties they face and the disasters they are afflicted with respect to them, and that their souls leave their bodies while they are in disbelief.

When Allah reveals a sūrah to His Prophet (peace be upon him) that contains the instruction to have faith in Allah and to strive in His path, the rich people from among them ask you for permission to stay behind and they say: Let us stay behind with those who are excused, such as the weak and those who are chronically ill.

These hypocrites are pleased with disgrace and humiliation, since they are pleased to stay behind with those who are excused. Allah has sealed their hearts because of their disbelief and hypocrisy, so they do not know where their best interests are. They are therefore similar to animals.

The Messenger and the believers with him did not remain behind from striving in Allah’s path, as these people did. Instead, they strived in Allah’s path with their wealth and their lives. Their reward from Allah is that they will receive worldly benefits, such as victory and gains of war, as well as benefits in the Afterlife, which includes entry into Paradise and successful attainment of their desires and salvation from what they fear.

Allah has prepared for these believers gardens with rivers flowing beneath their palaces, where they shall live eternally. That reward is the great success that cannot be equalled by any other.

A group of people from the desert Arabs of Medina and the surrounding areas came with excuses to Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him), so that he would give them permission to remain behind from going out and striving in Allah’s path. Another group of people who did not even make any excuse also stayed behind from going out because they did not accept the Prophet and they did not have faith in Allah’s promise. A painful punishment will afflict these people because of their disbelief.

There is no sin on women, children, the sick, the disabled who are chronically ill or blind, and the poor who do have any wealth to spend in order to equip themselves for remaining behind from going out, since they have valid excuses, as long as they are sincere to Allah and His Messenger and they practise His sacred law. Punishment will not fall on those who do good from among these people who are excused. Allah forgives the sins of those who do good and shows them mercy.

There is likewise no sin on those who stay behind from you after coming to you, O Messenger, asking you to give them an animal to ride and you said to them, ‘I do not have any animal to give you to ride’. They then turned away from you with their tears flowing out of sorrow that they could not find anything to spend of their own or from your side.

There will only be punishment and blame on those who ask you, O Messenger, for permission to remain behind from striving while they are able to do so, due to their having the means to equip themselves. They are pleased with disgrace and humiliation for themselves by staying behind with those who remain behind at home. Allah has sealed their hearts so they are not affected by any warning. Because of this, they do not know where their best interests lie, so they can choose that; or where there is harm, so they can avoid it.

The hypocrites who stayed behind from striving in Allah’s path will present weak excuses to the Muslims when they return from their battle. Allah directs His Prophet and the believers to respond to them by saying: Do not make false excuses. We will never accept what you tell us because Allah has informed us about the excuses you make up. Allah and His Messenger will soon see whether you repent, in which case Allah will accept your repentance, or if you will persist in your hypocrisy. Then you will be returned to Allah, the One Who knows everything, and He will inform you about what you used to do and repay you for that. So rush towards repentance and good actions.

Those who stay behind will swear by Allah when you, O believers, return to them, in order to strengthen their false oaths, so that you do not blame them. Therefore leave them alone and ignore them. They are filthy and impure from the inside. They will end up in Hell, as a repayment to them for their hypocrisy and the sins they committed.

Those who stay behind will swear to you, O believers, so that you become pleased with them and accept their excuses. Do not become pleased with them. If you become pleased with them you would go against your Lord, because He will not be pleased with people who have left His obedience by disbelief and hypocrisy. So be careful, O Muslims, of becoming pleased with those whom Allah is not pleased with.

If the people of the desert are of those who adopt disbelief or hypocrisy, then their disbelief and hypocrisy is stronger than that of others who live in city areas. They are also more likely to be ignorant of religion and the obligatory and recommended acts of the sacred law that Allah has revealed to His Messenger. This is because of their lack of culture, their harshness, and their lack of interacting with others. Allah knows about their condition. Nothing is hidden from Him. He is Wise is in His handling of matters and establishment of laws.

Some of the desert hypocrites consider whatever wealth they spend in Allah’s path to be a loss and a punishment, because they think that there will be no reward for spending and that Allah will not punish them if they do not spend. Despite this, they sometimes spend to show off and to hide their real beliefs. They wait for evil to come to you, O believers, so that they can be rid of you. Instead, But Allah has made the evil and the turn of fortune that they wished to afflict the believers to occur on them instead. Allah hears what they say and knows what they keep hidden in their hearts.

Yet some of those who live in the desert have faith in Allah and the Day of Judgement and they consider any wealth they spend in Allah’s path as a means of gaining closeness to Allah, and of receiving the prayer of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and his asking forgiveness for them. Without doubt, their spending in Allah’s path and the prayer of the Messenger are means of gaining closeness to Allah; and they will find their reward with Allah when He enters them into His mercy, with His forgiveness and His Paradise. Allah is Forgiving and Compassionate towards those of His servants who repent to Him.

The leaders in faith – in terms of having good belief, words and actions – from among the Emigrants who left their homes migrating to Allah, and from among the Helpers who assisted His Messenger (peace be upon him), and those who followed the Emigrants and Helpers, Allah is pleased with them and He has accepted their actions. They are also pleased with Him because of the great reward that He is to give them: He has prepared for them gardens with rivers flowing beneath their palaces, where they shall live eternally. That reward is the great success.

Some of those who live in the desert surrounding Medina are hypocrites, as are some of the people of Medina. They are firm and staunch in their hypocrisy. You, O Messenger, do not know them, but it is Allah Who knows them. Allah will punish them twice: once in this world by exposing their hypocrisy and by their being killed and taken captive, and again in the Afterlife when they will be punished in the grave. Then they will receive, on the Day of Judgement, a great punishment in the lowest level of the fire of Hell.

There are others from among the people of Medina who stayed behind from the battle without any valid excuse. They then confessed that they had no excuse and they did not present false excuses. They have mixed their prior good actions of following Allah, obeying His sacred laws and striving in His path with an evil action; yet they hope that Allah will accept their repentance and pardon them. Allah is Forgiving and Compassionate towards those of His servants who repent to Him.

Take, O Messenger, zakat from their wealth, so that you can purify them from the uncleanliness of sins and evil actions, and by which you can increase their good actions. Pray for them after taking it from them, because your prayer is a means of comfort and mercy for them. Allah hears your prayer and knows about their actions and intentions.

Those who had stayed behind from striving in Allah’s path and who have repented to Allah should know that Allah accepts the repentance of His servants; and that He accepts charity, even though He is in no need of it, and rewards those who give charity. They should know that Allah, may He be glorified, is the One Who accepts repentance and is Compassionate towards those servants of His who repent to Him.

Say, O Messenger, to those who had stayed behind from striving in Allah’s path and who have repented from their sin: : Make up for the harm caused by what you missed and be sincere in your actions to Allah. Do what pleases Him, because Allah, His Messenger and the believers will soon see your actions. Then you will be returned, on the Day of Judgement, to your Lord, the One Who knows everything. He knows what you hide and what you make public and He will inform you about what you used to do in the world and repay you for that.

There are others from among those who stayed behind from the battle of Tabūk who did not have any valid excuse. The matter of these people has been deferred to Allah’s decree and His decision in their regard. Allah will decide about them as He wishes: He will either punish them if they do not repent to Him, or He will accept their repentance if they do. Allah knows who is deserving of His punishment and who deserves His pardon. Allah is Wise in His establishment of laws and handling of affairs. These people were Murārah ibn Al-Rabī‘, Ka‘b ibn Mālik and Hilāl ibn Umayyah.

There were also some hypocrites who built a mosque, not for Allah’s obedience, but to harm the Muslims, to support disbelief by strengthening the people of hypocrisy, to cause disunity amongst the believers and in preparation and anticipation for those who had waged war against Allah and His Messenger prior to the construction of the mosque. These hypocrites swear to you that they only wanted goodness for the Muslims. Allah is witness that they are lying in this claim of theirs.

Do not accept, O Prophet, the invitation of the hypocrites to you to pray in this mosque which was built for immoral purposes. Rather, the Qubā’ mosque which was founded from its beginning on Mindfulness is more worthy of your praying in it than this mosque that was founded on disbelief. In the Qubā’ mosque, there are men who love to purify themselves from ritual and physical impurities with water, as well as from sins with repentance and seeking forgiveness. Allah loves those who purify themselves from ritual and physical impurities and from sins.

Can those who founded their building on recognition of Allah (by following His instructions and avoiding His prohibitions) and Allah’s pleasure (by doing all forms of good) be equal to those who built a mosque to cause harm to the Muslims, to strengthen disbelief and to cause disunity amongst the believers? They can never be equal! The first have a strong structure with good foundation so it will not collapse; yet the second group are similar to a person who built a structure on the edge of a pit that is about to collapse and which collapses with him into the depths of Hell. Allah does not guide those who do wrong by committing disbelief, hypocrisy and other wrongs.

The mosque that they built in order to cause harm will continue to be a source of doubt and hypocrisy in their hearts until their hearts are cut into pieces by their death or by their being killed by the sword. Allah knows the actions of His servants and He is Wise in the decision He passes with respect to repaying them for their good or evil.

Allah, may He be glorified, has purchased from the believers their lives – despite them belonging to Him – out of His grace for a high price: Paradise. They will fight the disbelievers so that Allah’s Word is highest and they will kill the disbelievers or be killed by them. Allah has made this true promise in the Torah (the scripture of Moses), the Gospel (the scripture of Jesus), and the Qur’ān (the scripture of Muhammad (peace be upon him)). There is no one who is more faithful to his promise than Allah. so rejoice O believers, with the trade that you made with Allah, because of your gaining such a huge profit in it. That deal is the great success.

The people who will receive this great reward are those who turn to Allah in repentance from idolatry, hypocrisy and sins; are sincere in their worship of Allah; praise their Lord in every condition; go out and strive in Allah’s path; fast; pray; instruct that which Allah and His Messenger have instructed and prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited; and guard Allah’s instructions by following them and His prohibitions by avoiding them. O Messenger, tell the believers who have these qualities the good news of what will make them happy in this world and the Afterlife.

It is not right for the Prophet and the believers to seek forgiveness from Allah for the idolaters, even if they are their relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are the people of the fire of Hell – because they died as idolaters.

Abraham’s seeking forgiveness for his polytheist father was only because of a promise he had made to him to do so, in the hope that he would submit. When it became clear to Abraham that his father was an enemy of Allah, due to the advice not being of benefit to him or due to his coming to know through revelation that he will die as a disbeliever, he renounced him. He had asked forgiveness for him on the basis of his own reasoning and not in contradiction of any law that Allah had revealed to him. Abraham (peace be with him) used to frequently turn to Allah in humility and he used to overlook and pardon his people who were wrongdoers.

Allah would never pass the judgement of misguidance against a people, after He had given them guidance, until He makes clear to them those forbidden things that they must avoid. If they do that which Allah had forbidden after it has been declared forbidden and made clear to them, then He will judge them as misguided. Allah knows everything. Nothing is hidden from Him. He has taught you what you did not know.

The control of the heavens and the control of the earth belongs to Allah. He has no partner in this, and nothing in them is hidden from Him. He gives life to whomever He wills and causes whomever He wills to die. You, O people, do not have, besides Allah, any friend to take care of your affairs nor any protector to guard you against evil and assist you against your enemy.

Allah has forgiven the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) since he gave permission to the hypocrites to stay behind from the battle of Tabūk. He has also forgiven the Emigrants and the Helpers who did not stay behind, but followed him in the battle of Tabūk despite the intense heat, the lack of means and the powerful strength of the enemy. This was after a group of them who intended to abandon the expedition, almost deviated from the truth and the path of correct guidance, because of the great difficulty they faced. Then Allah enabled them to be patient and to go out for that battle. He forgave them, for He, may He be glorified, is Kind and Merciful towards them. It was because of His mercy that He enabled them to repent to Him and that He accepted their repentance.

Allah turned in forgiveness to the three – Murārah ibn Al-Rabī‘, Ka‘b ibn Mālik and Hilāl ibn Umayyah – who stayed behind from going with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)to Tabūk. The Prophet (peace be upon him)instructed people to stay away from them, which made them feel sadness and grief. The earth seemed narrow to them despite its vastness, and their hearts felt constricted because of their loneliness, and they were certain there was no place of refuge or help they could go to except to Allah alone. Allah was Merciful to them, enabling them to turn to Him, asking for forgiveness, and accepting their repentance. Allah is the One who accepts the repentance from His slaves, and is full of mercy and compassion to them.

O you who believe and follow the Messenger, act according to His sacred law, and be mindful of Him, following what He instructs and staying away from what He has prohibited; and be with those who are true in their faith and in what they say and do, as there is no salvation except in truth.

It is not for the people of Medina, or those around them of the people who live in the desert, to stay behind the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)if he himself goes out to fight, or to be stingy with themselves and give preference to their own safety over the safety of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Rather, they should sacrifice themselves for him. This is because they suffer no thirst, tiredness or hunger for the sake of Allah, and do not step anywhere in the land of those who deny the truth with their own feet or the hooves of their horses or camels, angering thereby those who oppose the truth, and do not make a gain over their enemy, killing or capturing them, making war gains or defeating them, except that Allah records for them the reward of a good action for them, which He accepts from them. Allah does not allow the reward of those who do good to be lost. Rather, He gives it to them in full, and increases the reward for them.

These successful ones do not sacrifice any wealth, whether it is small or great, and do not cross any valley except that their sacrifice or journey is recorded so that Allah may repay them, giving them in the Afterlife the reward for the best of what they used to do.

The believers should not go out all together to fight, so that they are not wiped out if their enemy overcomes them, and they should not all stay behind. A group should go out to strive for Allah’s sake, and a group should remain behind to accompany the messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and to gain understanding of the religion through the Qur’ān and sacred laws they hear from him, peace and blessings be upon him, to advise their people when they return to them of what they have learned, so that they are aware of Allah’s punishment and His consequences and they follow what He instructs and stay away from what He has not allowed. This was concerning the companies that the messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, would send to different areas, choosing a group from among his companions.

O you who believe, fight against those who oppose the truth who are near to you, because of the danger they pose to you because of their proximity; and show strength in order to inspire fear in them and drive away their evil. Allah is with the Allah-conscious believers with His help and support.

When Allah revealed a sūrah to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), some of the hypocrites would ask by way of mocking and ridicule; 'Which one of you believers has had his faith increase?' As for those who had faith in Allah, and followed His Messenger, the revelation of the sūrah had indeed increased them in faith, and they were happy because of the benefit it contained for them in this world and for the Afterlife.

As for the hypocrites, the revelation of the Qur’ān with its laws and stories increases them in sickness and wickedness because of their rejection of what is revealed, so that these deplorable characteristics become fixed in them; and the disease of their hearts increase with the revelation of the Qur’ān, because whenever something is revealed they are sceptical about it.

Are the hypocrites not taught a lesson by being tried by Allah, when He exposes their hypocrisy, once or twice a year? Then, despite knowing that Allah did this to them, they do not turn to Him from their disbelief, asking for forgiveness, and do not root out their hypocrisy, or think about what happens to them and that it is from Allah.