Repentance (at-Tawbah)

7 minutes • 1429 words

¹ The polytheists made a treaty with the Muslims. This is a declaration of disassociation, from Allah and His Messenger, from that treaty.

² Polytheists, you can travel the land for 4 months. But know that Allah will disgrace you.

³ The hajj is the greater pilgrimage. The umrah is the lesser one.

Allah and His Messenger announces that on the day of the hajj, that Allah has disowned the polytheists, and so did His Messenger.

If you repent, it will be better for you.
But if you turn away, know that you cannot escape Allah.

Announce to those who disbelieve a painful punishment.

⁴ Except for those among the polytheists with whom you had made a treaty, and did not violate any of its terms, nor aided anyone against you.

So fulfill the treaty with them to the end of its term.

⁵ When the Sacred Months have passed:

kill the polytheists wherever you find them
capture them
besiege them, and
lie in wait for them at every ambush.

But let them go their way if they:

repent
perform the prayers
pay the alms

If any of the polytheists asks you for protection, give him protection so that he may hear the Word of Allah.

Then escort him to his place of safety.

How can there be a treaty with the polytheists on the part of Allah and His Messenger, except for those with whom you made a treaty at the Sacred Mosque?

As long as they are upright with you, be upright with them.

How? Whenever they overcome you, they respect neither kinship nor treaty with you.

They satisfy you with lip service, but their hearts refuse, and most of them are immoral.

⁹ They traded away Allah’s revelations for a cheap price, so they barred others from His path. How evil is what they did.

¹⁰ Towards a believer they respect neither kinship nor treaty. These are the transgressors.

¹¹ But if they repent, and perform the prayers, and give the obligatory charity, then they are your brethren in faith. We detail the revelations for a people who know.

But if they violate their oaths after their pledge, and attack your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief—they have no faith so that they may desist.
Will you not fight a people who violated their oaths, and planned to exile the Messenger, and initiated hostilities against you? Do you fear them? It is Allah you should fear, if you are believers.
Fight them. Allah will punish them at your hands, and humiliate them, and help you against them, and heal the hearts of a believing people.
And He will remove the anger of their hearts. Allah redeems whomever He wills.

¹⁶ Or do you think that you will be left alone, without Allah identifying which of you will strive, and take no supporters apart from Allah, His Messenger, and the believers?

It is not for the polytheists to attend Allah’s places of worship while professing their dis- belief. These—their works are in vain, and in the Fire they will abide.
The only people to attend Allah’s places of worship are those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and pray regularly, and practice regular charity, and fear none but Allah. These are most likely to be guided.
Do you consider giving water to pilgrims and maintaining the Sacred Mosque the same as believing in Allah and the Last Day and striving in Allah’s path? They are not equal in Allah’s sight. Allah does not guide the unjust people.
Those who believe, and emigrate, and strive in Allah’s path with their possessions and their persons, are of a higher rank with Allah.
Their Lord announces to them good news of mercy from Him, and acceptance, and gardens wherein they will have lasting bliss.
Abiding therein forever. With Allah is a great reward.
Muslims, Do not ally yourselves with your parents and your siblings if they prefer disbelief to belief. Whoever of you allies himself with them—these are the wrongdoers.
Say, “If your parents, and your children, and your siblings, and your spouses, and your relatives, and the wealth you have acquired, and a business you worry about, and homes you love, are more dear to you than Allah, and His Messenger, and the struggle in His cause, then wait until Allah executes His judgment.”
Allah has given you victory in numerous regions; but on the day of Hunayn, your great number impressed you, but it availed you nothing; and the land, as spacious as it was, narrowed for you; and you turned your backs in retreat.

26-27. Then Allah sent down His serenity on His Messenger and the believers.

He sent down troops you did not see and punished those who disbelieved.

Muslims, the polytheists are polluted. Do not let them approach the Kabbah after this year of theirs.

Work collectively, as they fight you collectively.

Postponement is an increase in disbelief—by which those who disbelieve are led astray.

They allow it one year, and forbid it another year, in order to conform to the number made sacred by Allah, thus permitting what Allah has forbidden. The evil of their deeds seems good to them.

Muslims, What is the matter with you, when it is said to you, “Mobilize in the cause of Allah,” you cling heavily to the earth?

Do you prefer the present life to the Hereafter? The enjoyment of the present life, compared to the Hereafter, is only a little.

Unless you mobilize, He will punish you most painfully, and will replace you with an- other people, and you will not harm Him at all. Allah has power over all things.
If you do not help him, Allah has already helped him, when those who disbelieved expelled him, and he was the second of two in the cave. He said to his friend, “Do not worry, Allah is with us.”

Allah made His tranquility descend upon him, and supported him with forces you did not see, and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowest, while the Word of Allah is the Highest.

Mobilize, light or heavy, and strive with your possessions and your lives in the cause of Allah. That is better for you, if you only knew.
Had the gain been immediate, and the journey shorter, they would have followed you; but the distance seemed too long for them. Still they swear by Allah: “Had we been able, we would have marched out with you.”

They damn their own souls, and Allah knows that they are lying.

May Allah pardon you! Why did you give them permission before it became clear to you who are the truthful ones, and who are the liars?

fear poverty, Allah will enrich you from His grace, if He wills. Allah is Aware and Wise.

Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor abide by the religion of truth—from among those who received the Scripture—until they pay the due tax, willingly or unwillingly.
The Jews said, “Ezra is the son of Allah,”

The Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah.”

They emulate the statements of those who blasphemed before. May Allah assail them! How deceived they are!

They have taken their rabbis and their priests as lords instead of Allah, as well as the Messiah son of Mary. Although they were commanded to worship none but The One God.
They want to extinguish Allah’s light with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to complete His light, even though the disbelievers dislike it.
It is He who sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, in order to make it prevail over all religions, even though the idolaters dislike it.
Muslims, Many of the rabbis and priests consume people’s wealth illicitly, and hinder from Allah’s path. Those who hoard gold and silver, and do not spend them in Allah’s cause, inform them of a painful punishment.
On the Day when they will be heated in the Fire of Hell, then their foreheads, and their sides, and their backs will be branded with them: “This is what you hoarded for yourselves; so taste what you used to hoard.”
The number of months is 12 according to Allah. The Day He created the heavens and the earth, of which 4 are sacred.

Do not wrong yourselves during them. Fight the polytheists that they do not approach the prayer except lazily, and that they do not spend except grudgingly.