At-Tawbah

This is: A declaration of immunity from God and His Messenger to, reach, the idolaters with whom you made a pact, a pact for an indefinite period of time, or one for [a period of] less than, or more than, four months; the annulment of the pact shall be as God mentions in His saying:

‘Journey freely, travel in security, O idolaters, in the land for four months — beginning with [the month of] Shawwāl, on the basis of what will come shortly — after which there will be no security for you, and know that you cannot escape God, that is, you shall [not] elude His punishment, and that God degrades the disbelievers’, humiliating them in this world by having them killed, and in the Hereafter, by [sending them to] the Fire.

A proclamation, a notification, from God and His Messenger to mankind on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage, the Day of Sacrifice (yawm al-nahr), that God is free from obligation to the idolaters, and their pacts, and [so is] His Messenger, also free from obligation: in that same year, year 9 [of the Hijra], the Prophet (s) sent forth ‘Alī, who proclaimed these verses on the Day of Sacrifice at Minā, and also [he proclaimed] that after this year no idolater will [be allowed to] make pilgrimage or circumambulate the House naked, as reported by al-Bukhārī. So, if you repent, of unbelief, it will be better for you; but if you turn away, from belief, then know that you cannot escape God. And give tidings to — inform — those who disbelieve of a painful chastisement, namely, [of] slaughter or capture in this world, and of [punishment in] the Fire in the Hereafter.

Excepting those of the idolaters with whom you have made a pact, and who have not diminished [their commitment to] you in anyway, with regard to the terms of the pact, nor supported, assisted, anyone, from among the disbelievers, against you; [as for these] fulfil your pact with them until, the completion of, the term, to which you have agreed. Truly God loves those who fear [Him], by fulfilling pacts.

Then, when the sacred months have passed — that is, [at] the end of the period of deferment — slay the idolaters wherever you find them, be it during a lawful [period] or a sacred [one], and take them, captive, and confine them, to castles and forts, until they have no choice except [being put to] death or [acceptance of] Islam; and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush, [at every] route that they use (kulla, ‘every’, is in the accusative because a [preceding] genitive-taking preposition has been removed). But if they repent, of unbelief, and establish prayer and pay the alms, then leave their way free, and do not interfere with them. God is Forgiving, Merciful, to those who repent.

And if any one of the idolaters (ahadun, ‘one’, is in the nominative because of the [following] verb [istajāraka, ‘seeks your protection’] that validates it) seeks your protection, requests security from you against being killed, then grant him protection, provide security for him, so that he might hear the words of God — the Qur’ān — and afterward convey him to his place of security, that is, the dwelling-places of his folk, if he does not believe, so that he might reflect upon his situation — that, which is mentioned, is because they are a people who do not know, the religion of God, and so they must [be made to] hear the Qur’ān in order to [come to] know [religion].

How can the idolaters have a pact with God and His Messenger — they cannot —while they disbelieve in God and His Messenger, acting treacherously; except for those with whom you made a pact at the Sacred Mosque?, the day of al-Hudaybiyya — these were Quraysh, for whom an exception was made earlier [Q. 9:4]. So long as they are true to you, keeping to the pact and not breaking it, be true to them, by fulfilling it (fa-mā, ‘so long as’: the mā is a conditional particle). Truly God loves the God-fearing: the Prophet (s) had kept to the pact made with them until they broke it by supporting the Banū Bakr against Khuzā‘a.

How, can they have a pact, when, if they get the better of you, [if] they have the upper hand over you, they do not respect, [they do not] take into consideration, any bond, kinship, or treaty, pact, with regard to you, but will instead harm you as much as they can (the conditional sentence [‘if they …’] is [also] a circumstantial qualifier), pleasing you with their tongues, with charming words, while their hearts refuse, to be true to these [words]; and most of them are wicked, violators of pacts.

They have purchased with the signs of God, the Qur’ān, a small price, of this world, that is, they have refrained from following them in favour of passions and whims, and have barred [people] from His way, His religion. Truly evil is that, deed of theirs, which they are wont to do.

They respect neither bond [of kinship] nor treaty with regard to a believer; those, they are the transgressors.

Yet if they repent and establish prayer and pay the alms, then they are your brothers in religion; and We detail, We explain, the signs for a people who know, [who] reflect.

But if they break, [if] they violate, their oaths, their covenants, after [making] their pact and assail your religion, slander it, then fight the leaders of unbelief, its heads (here an overt noun [‘the leaders of unbelief’] has replaced the [third person] pronominalisation) — verily they have no [binding] oaths, [no] pacts (a variant reading [for aymān, ‘oaths’] has the kasra inflection [for the alif, sc. īmān, ‘[no] faith’]) — so that they might desist, from unbelief.

Will you not (a-lā, ‘will not’ or ‘is not’, denotes incitement) fight a people who broke, violated, their oaths, their pacts, and intended to expel the Messenger, from Mecca — for they discussed this between them in their council assembly — initiating, combat, against you first?, when they fought alongside Banū Bakr against Khuzā‘a, your allies? So what is stopping you from fighting them? Are you afraid of them? God is more worthy of your fear, when you fail to fight them, if you are believers.

Fight them, and God will chastise them, He will have them killed, at your hands and degrade them, humiliate them through capture and subjugation, and He will give you victory against them, and He will heal the breasts of a people who believe, [removing the harm] done to them — these are the Banū Khuzā‘a.

And He will remove the rage, the grief, in their hearts. God turns [in forgiveness] to whomever He will, when they return to Islam, as in the case of Abū Sufyān. And God is Knowing, Wise.

Or (am has the meaning of the [initial a-] hamza used to express disavowal) did you suppose that you would be left [in peace] when God does not yet know, that is, through knowledge outwardly manifested, those of you who have struggled, sincerely, and have not taken, besides God and His Messenger and the believers, an intimate friend?, as a confidant or an ally? In other words: when it has not yet become manifest who the sincere ones are — those described in the exclusive way mentioned. And God is aware of what you do.

It is not for the idolaters to attend God’s places of worship (masājid, is also read in the singular, masjid), entering them or sitting in them, bearing witness, against themselves, to unbelief; those, their works have failed, [their works] are invalid, and in the Fire they shall abide.

Only he shall attend God’s places of worship who believes in God and the Last Day, and observes prayer, and pays the alms, and fears none but God alone; it may be that those will be among the rightly guided.

Do you reckon the giving of water to pilgrims and the attendance of the Sacred Mosque, that is, [do you reckon] those who do such things, to be the same as he who believes in God and the Last Day and struggles in the way of God? They are not equal, in merit, in God’s sight; and God guides not the evildoing, the disbelieving, folk: this was revealed to refute those who claimed this, such as al-‘Abbās and others.

Those who believe, and have emigrated, and have struggled in the way of God with their possessions and their lives are greater in degree, in rank, with God, than others; and those, they are the triumphant, the ones who will attain good.

Their Lord gives them good tidings of mercy from Him and beatitude; for them shall be gardens wherein is enduring, everlasting, bliss,

therein they shall abide forever (khālidīna is an implied circumstance). Surely with God is a tremendous reward.

The following was revealed regarding those who refrained from emigrating because of their families and trade: O you who believe, do not take your fathers and brothers for your friends, if they prefer, if they have chosen, disbelief over belief; whoever of you takes them for friends, such are the evildoers.

Say: ‘If your fathers, and your sons, and your brothers, and your wives, and your clan, your kinsmen (‘ashīratukum: a variant reading has ‘ashīrātukum), and the possessions which you have acquired, and merchandise for which you fear there may be no sale, no longer viable, and dwellings which you love, are dearer to you than God and His Messenger and struggling in His way, so that you have refrained from emigrating and struggling for the sake of such [things], then wait until God brings about His command — this is meant as a threat to them. And God does not guide the wicked folk’.

God has already helped you on many fields, of battle, such as Badr, and [against] Qurayza and al-Nadīr, and, remember, on the day of Hunayn — a valley between Mecca and Tā’if; that is, [remember] the day on which you fought Hawāzin — this was in Shawwāl in year 8 [of the Hijra], when (idh substitutes for yawma, ‘the day’) your vast numbers were pleasing to you, such that you were saying, ‘We shall not be defeated today, not on account of our being few’: and they numbered 12,000, while the disbelievers were 4,000); but it availed you nothing and the earth, for all its breadth (bi-mā rahubat, the mā refers to the verbal noun, in other words [understand it as being] ma‘a rahbihā, ‘despite its breadth’), it was straitened for you, such that you could not find a place in which you felt secure, because of the severe fear that afflicted you; then you turned back, retreating, fleeing: the Prophet (s), however, on his white mule remained firm, with only al-‘Abbās by his side, while Abū Sufyān was charging on his mount.

Then God sent down His Spirit of Peace, His reassurance, upon His Messenger and upon the believers, and so they turned back towards the Prophet (s), after al-‘Abbās called them, with his [the Prophet’s] permission, and they fought [once again]; and He sent down legions, of angels, you did not see, and chastised the disbelievers, with slaughter and capture, and that is the requital of the disbelievers.

Then afterwards God will relent to whom He will, from among them, by [their acceptance of] Islam. And God is Forgiving, Merciful.

O you who believe, the idolaters are indeed unclean, [they are] filth, on account of their inner vileness, so do not let them come near the Sacred Mosque, that is, let them not enter the Sanctuary, after this year of theirs, year 9 of the Hijra. If you fear impoverishment, poverty, as a result of the cessation of their commerce with you, God will surely enrich you from His bounty, if He will: and He indeed enriched them through conquests and [the imposition of] the jizya. God is Knowing, Wise.

Fight those who do not believe in God, nor in the Last Day, for, otherwise, they would have believed in the Prophet (s), and who do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden, such as wine, nor do they practise the religion of truth, the firm one, the one that abrogated other religions, namely, the religion of Islam — from among of those who (min, ‘from’, explains [the previous] alladhīna, ‘those who’) have been given the Scripture, namely, the Jews and the Christians, until they pay the jizya tribute, the annual tax imposed them, readily (‘an yadin is a circumstantial qualifier, meaning, ‘compliantly’, or ‘by their own hands’, not delegating it [to others to pay]), being subdued, [being made] submissive and compliant to the authority of Islam.

The Jews say: Ezra is the son of God; and the Christians say: The Messiah, Jesus, is the son of God. That is the utterance of their mouths, for which they have no support, nay, imitating the utterances of those who disbelieved before [them], from among their forefathers, mimicking them. God assail, curse, them! How they are deviated!, turned away from the truth, despite the proofs having been established.

They have taken their rabbis, the scholars among the Jews, and their monks, the devout among the Christians, as lords beside God — following them in making lawful what God has made unlawful and making unlawful what He has made lawful — and the Messiah, son of Mary, when they were not commanded, in the Torah and the Gospel, except to worship One God: there is no god except Him; glory be to Him, as an affirmation of His transcendence [high], above what they associate [with Him].

They desire to extinguish God’s light, His Law and His proofs, with their tongues, with what they say about Him; and God refuses but to perfect, to make manifest, His light, even though the disbelievers be averse, to this.

He it is Who has sent His Messenger, Muhammad (s), with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may manifest it, make it prevail, over every religion, all the religions which oppose it, even though the disbelievers be averse, to this.

O you who believe, many of the rabbis and monks indeed consume, take, people’s goods by false means, as in the case of bribes [paid] for judgements, and bar, people, from the way of God, [from] His religion. And those who (wa’lladhīna is the subject) hoard up gold and silver, and do not expend them, these treasure-hoards, in the way of God, that is, they do not pay from it what is due to Him by way of alms and charity — give them tidings, inform them, of a painful chastisement.

On the day when it shall be heated in the fire of Hell and therewith their foreheads and their sides and their backs shall be branded, burnt — their skins will be stretched until these [hoards of gold and silver] can be placed on them entirely, and it will be said to them: ‘This is what you hoarded up for yourselves: so taste now what you used to hoard!’, that is, [taste] its requital.

Verily the number of months, used to reckon the year, with God is twelve months in the Book of God, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), from the day that He created the heavens and the earth; four of them, that is, the months, are sacred, inviolable: Dhū’l-Qa‘da, Dhū’l-Hijja, Muharram and Rajab. That, making of them sacred, is the right, the upright, religion. So do not wrong yourselves during them, during these sacred months, with acts of disobedience, for their burden [of sin] is greater therein; but it is also said to mean [do not wrong yourselves] at any time during all the months [of the year]. And fight the idolaters altogether, all of them, throughout the months, even as they fight you altogether; and know that God is with those who fear Him, supporting and assisting [them].

Postponement [of the sacred month] — that is, the deferment of the sacredness of a given month to another, as they used to do during paganism, such as postponing the sacredness of Muharram, if it arrives while they are at war, to Safar — is only an excess of unbelief, because of their rejection of God’s ruling thereof, whereby those who disbelieve are led astray (yudallu may also be read yadillu, ‘[they] go astray’), one year they make it, the month postponed, profane, and hallow it another, that they may make up, by profaning one month and hallowing another in its place, the number, of months, which God has hallowed, such that they do not hallow more, or less, than the four months, but without observing the individual months themselves; and so they profane what God has hallowed. Their evil deeds have been adorned for them, such that they deem them to be good [deeds]; and God does not guide the disbelieving folk.

When the Prophet (s) summoned men for the Tabūk campaign, and they thought it too burdensome, because of the hardship and the extreme heat from which they were suffering, the following was revealed: O you who believe, what is wrong with you that, when it is said to you, ‘Go forth in the way of God,’ you sink down heavily (iththāqaltum: the original tā’ [of tathāqaltum] has been assimilated with the thā’, and the conjunctive hamza has been supplied), in other words, you hesitate and are disinclined to [participate in] the struggle, to the ground, to stay sitting upon it? (the interrogative is meant as a rebuke). Are you so content with the life of this world, and its delights, rather than with the Hereafter?, that is, in place of its bliss? Yet the enjoyment of the life of this world is, in, comparison with the enjoyment of, the Hereafter but little, trivial.

If (illā: lā has been assimilated with the nūn of the conditional particle in, in both instances [here and in the next verse]) you do not go forth, [if you do not] set out with the Prophet (s) for the struggle, He will chastise you with a painful chastisement, and He will substitute [you with] another folk other than you, that is, He will bring them in your place, and you will not hurt Him, that is, God, or [‘him’ as being] the Prophet (s), at all, should you neglect to help him [to victory], for God [Himself] will indeed bring victory to His religion; for God has power over all things, including bringing victory to His religion and His Prophet.

If you do not help him, that is, the Prophet (s), [know that] God has already helped him, when the disbelievers drove him forth, from Mecca, that is, they made him resort to leaving, when they desired to kill him or imprison him or banish him at the council assembly — the second of two (thāniya ithnayn: this is a circumstantial qualifier), that is, one of two, the other being Abū Bakr: in other words, just as God helped him in such a situation, He will not forsake him in another; when (idh substitutes for the previous idh) the two were in the cave — a breach in the mountain called Thawr — when (idh substituting again), he said to his companion, Abū Bakr — who, upon perceiving the [sound of the] feet of the idolaters [nearby], had said to him, ‘If one of them should merely look below his feet, he will definitely see us!’ — ‘Do not despair; verily God is with us’, assisting [us]. Then God sent down His Spirit of Peace upon him, His reassurance — some say this means upon the Prophet, others, that it means upon Abū Bakr — and supported him, that is, the Prophet (s), with legions, of angels, you did not see, [both] in the cave and in the locations in which he fought battles; and He made the word of those who disbelieved, that is, the call to idolatry, the nethermost, the one vanquished, and the Word of God, that is, the profession of His Oneness (shahāda), was the uppermost, the one prevailing and triumphant. And God is Mighty, in His Kingdom, Wise, in His actions.

Go forth, light and heavy!, that is, energetically or not; it is also said [to mean], [go forth] strong or weak, or rich or poor — but this was abrogated by the verse, The weak would not be at fault … [Q. 9:91]. Struggle in the way of God with your possessions and your lives: that is better for you, if only you knew, that it is better for you; so do not sink down heavily.

The following was revealed regarding the hypocrites who stayed behind [away from the campaign]: Had it — that to which you summon them — been a near, easily acquired, gain, a transient pleasure of this world, and an easy journey, of moderate [length], they would have followed you, seeking spoils; but the distance, the hardship, was too great for them, and so they stayed behind. Still they will swear by God, when you return to them: [saying]: ‘Had we been able, to go forth, we would have gone forth with you,’ destroying their souls, by swearing false oaths, and God knows that they truly are liars, in this saying of theirs.

The Prophet (s), exercising his personal judgement, had given leave to a group to stay behind, and so the following was revealed as a reprimand for him, but with the pardon first, in order to reassure his heart: May God pardon you! Why do you give them leave, to stay behind; why did you not leave them, until it was clear to you which of them spoke the truth, in their excuse, and you knew those who were lying, in it?

Those who believe in God and the Last Day do not ask leave of you, to stay behind, that they may struggle with their possessions and their lives; and God knows the pious.

They alone ask leave of you, to stay behind, who do not believe in God and the Last Day, and whose hearts are doubtful, uncertain, about religion, so in their doubt they waver, they are confused.

If they had desired to go forth, with you, they would have made some preparation for it, some equipment, such as tools and provisions, but God was averse that they should be sent forth, that is, He did not want them to go forth, so He slowed them down, He made them [feel] lethargic, and it was said, to them: ‘Stay back with those who stay back!’, [with] the sick, the women and the children: in other words, God decreed this.

Had they gone forth among you, they would only have caused you more trouble, [more] corruption, by abandoning the believers, and would have hurried to and fro among you, that is, they would have hastened to spread slander among you, seeking, desiring, to stir up sedition, by casting enmity, between you; and among you there are some who would listen to them, to what they say, listening in readiness to accept it; and God knows the evildoers.

Indeed, they sought to stir up sedition, against you, already before, when you first came to Medina, and scrutinised your affairs, that is, they thought long and hard how to plot against you and invalidate your religion, until the truth, the [victorious] help, came, and God’s command, His religion, prevailed, stood mighty, they still being averse, to it [His religion], entering it superficially.

And there are some of them who say, ‘Grant me leave, to stay behind, and do not lead me into temptation’: this was al-Jadd b. Qays, to whom the Prophet (s) said, ‘Will you do battle against the Byzantines?’, and to which he replied, ‘I am infatuated with women, and I fear that if I were to see these Byzantine women, I shall not be able to stay away from them and be led into temptation’. God, exalted be He, says: Surely they have [already] fallen into temptation!, by staying behind (a variant reading [for saqatū, ‘they have fallen’] has [the singular form] saqat, ‘he has fallen’). And surely Hell shall encompass the disbelievers, for whom there shall be no escape therefrom.

If good fortune, such as a victory or [a taking of] some spoils, befalls you, it vexes them; but if an affliction, some hardship, befalls you, they say, ‘We took our precaution, judiciously — when we stayed behind — before’, before this act of disobedience; and they turn away, rejoicing, at what has afflicted you.

Say, to them: ‘Nothing shall afflict us but that which God has decreed for us, that we be afflicted thereby; He is our Protector, our Helper and the One in charge of our affairs; in God let the believers put their trust’.

Say: ‘Are you waiting (tarabbasūn: one of the two original tā’ letters [in tatarabbasūn] has been omitted) for anything, to occur, for us but one of the two fair things, [the two fair] outcomes? (husnayayn is the dual form of husnā, which is the feminine form of ahsan), that is, victory or martyrdom? We are waiting in your case too, for God to afflict you with a chastisement from Him, with a calamity from the heaven, or at our hands, should we be given permission to fight you. So wait, for this to [befall] us, we are also waiting with you’, your end.

Say: ‘Expend, in obedience to God, willingly or unwillingly, it, what you expend, shall not be accepted from you; you are surely a wicked folk’ (the imperative statement here [also] functions as a predicate).

And nothing prevents their expenditure from being accepted (read as yuqbala or tuqbala) from them, but that they (innahum is the subject of the verb, while an tuqbala, ‘being accepted’ constitutes the object) have disbelieved in God and His Messenger, and that they do not come to [perform] prayer save as idlers, sluggishly, and that they do not expend without their being reluctant, to expend, for they consider it a financial penalty.

So do not let their wealth or their children please you, that is, do not deem fair Our graces to them, for this is a [way of] drawing [them] on by degrees [to punish them]: God only desires thereby to chastise them in the life of this world, by way of the hardship that they encounter in amassing such [wealth and children] and the calamities [they suffer] as a result thereof; and that their souls should depart while they are disbelievers, so He punishes them in the Hereafter with the worst punishment.

And they swear by God that they truly are of you, that is, [that they are] believers; but they are not of you; they are a folk who are afraid, that you should deal with them as you have done with the idolaters, and so they swear merely in pretence, in order to protect themselves.

If they could find a shelter, in which to seek refuge, or some caverns, underground chambers, or any place to enter, they would turn and bolt away to it, they would hasten to enter it and get away from you with the undeterred speed of an indomitable steed.

Some of them defame you concerning the, apportioning of, voluntary almsgivings; if they are given a share of them, they are content, but if they are given none then they are enraged.

If only they had been content with what God and His Messenger have given them, in the way of spoils and the like, and had said, ‘Sufficient for us is God; God will give us from His bounty, and His Messenger [will also give us], from other spoils, what will suffice us; to God we are suppliants’, that He enrich us (the response of [the conditional] law, ‘if only’, is la-kāna khayran lahum, ‘it would have been better for them’).

The voluntary almsgivings, the alms to be dispensed, are only for the poor, who cannot find anything to suffice them in the least, and the needy, who cannot find anything to suffice them, and those who work with them, that is, [with] these alms, in other words, the one who collects [them], the one who takes the oaths [from those who claim them], the slave to be manumitted by contract, as well as the tax-summoner; and those whose hearts are to be reconciled, so that they might become Muslims, or that Islam might be firmly established, or that their peers might become Muslims, or that they might defend Muslims, all of whom are [classed according to different] categories. According to al-Shāfi‘ī, may God be pleased with him, the first and the last [of these categories] are no longer given [of the alms-tax] today, because of the [established] power of Islam; in contrast, the other two [categories] are given [of the alms-tax], according to the sounder [opinion]; and for, the manumission of, slaves, that is, [for] slaves to be manumitted by contract, and for the debtors, those in debt, if they have taken out a debt without intending thereby an act of disobedience, or those who have repented but have nothing with which to fulfil [the penalty of expiation], or to set things right between people, even if they be wealthy; and, for the way of God, that is, [for] those who are engaged in the struggle, of those for whom there is no [share of the] booty (fay’), even if they be wealthy; and for the traveller, the one cut off [from resources] during his journey — a duty imposed by God (farīdatan, ‘a duty’, is in the accusative because of an implied verb [sc. faradahā, ‘which He has imposed’]). And God is Knower, of His creatures, Wise, in His actions. Thus, it is impermissible to dispense these [alms-proceeds] other than to these [categories], or to deny [these proceeds to] any one of these [categories] if they exist. The Imam must divide these [proceeds] among them equally, but he is permitted to give priority to certain individuals over others within any one category. The lām [of li’l-fuqarā’, ‘for the poor’] indicates that it is obligatory to include every individual [of these categories in the distribution of the proceeds]; it is not, however, obligatory [to do so] when the person in charge of the monies has to apportion it but [finds that] it is insufficient. Indeed [in such a situation] it suffices to give three individuals from each category, but anything less than that is not sufficient, as is indicated by the plural form. The Sunna shows that the prerequisite condition for receiving [a share] of such [monies] is that the person be a Muslim, but not a Hashimī or a Muttālibī.