Appearance
Verses 107–110
These verses discuss yet another group of hypocrites who built a mosque in order to cause harm (known as Masjid al-Ḍirār or the Mosque of Sabotage) and compares their state to that of a group of believers who built a mosque out of reverence for God.
وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مَسْجِدًا ضِرَارًا وَكُفْرًا وَتَفْرِيقًا بَيْنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَإِرْصَادًا لِمَنْ حَارَبَ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ مِنْ قَبْلُ ۚ وَلَيَحْلِفُنَّ إِنْ أَرَدْنَا إِلَّا الْحُسْنَىٰ ۖ وَاللَّهُ يَشْهَدُ إِنَّهُمْ لَكَاذِبُونَ ١٠٧
(9:107) As for those (wa alladhīna) who took to a mosque for sabotage (ḍirār) and for defiance, and to cause division among the faithful, and for the purpose of ambush (irṣād) by those who have fought God and His Messenger before—they will surely swear: ‘We desired nothing but good,’ and God bears witness that they are indeed liars.
The term ḍirār (‘sabotage’) means ‘to cause harm (ḍarar).’
Irṣād (‘ambush’) means to take a spot from which one can lie in wait and observe.
As for those who took to a mosque for sabotage: What is the function of the conjunction wa (lit. ‘and’, here translated as ‘as for’) at the beginning of the verse? If these verses were revealed about the hypocrites at the same time as the verses above, then each tranche of verses is enumerating a different group of them. It is as if to say: ‘One group is such-and-such… and another group is such-and-such… and yet another group is such-and-such….’
On the other hand, if this set of verses was revealed separately, then the wa represents the beginning of a new sentence, of which the phrase, ‘those who took to a mosque for sabotage’ is the subject and ‘Do not stand in it ever!’ () is the predicate. However, even if the verses were revealed separately, they could be understood in the same manner as mentioned above. Commentators on the Qurʾan have mentioned a number of different grammatical analyses of the verse. However, we have omitted further discussion of these because of their tortuousness.
God has explained the aims that lay behind this group of hypocrites taking this mosque as causing harm to others, dividing the faithful, and providing a place of ambush to those who were making war on God and His Messenger. These aims are connected to a specific historical account which corresponds closely in its details to the contents of the verse: Scholars of narrations are in agreement that a band of the Banū ʿAmr b. ʿAwf tribe built a mosque in the village of Qubā and asked the Prophet to pray in it, which he did. However, a group of the Banū Ghanim b. ʿAwf tribe who were hypocrites became envious of them and so built a mosque right beside the Qubā mosque in order to sabotage the efforts of their neighbors and cause divisions among the faithful. They were awaiting the arrival of the Christian monk Abū ʿĀmir, who had promised to bring an army from the Romans to expel the Prophet from Medina and had bid them to prepare to fight alongside them.
Once they had built the second mosque, the Prophet came—and he was making preparations to march to Tabūk—and they asked him to come to the mosque, pray in it, and invoke God’s blessings upon them therein. So, he promised that once he had finished with the matter of Tabūk and returned to Medina, he would do so. It was then that the verse was revealed.
Therefore, they built their mosque in order to sabotage the Qubā mosque, defy God and His Messenger, divide the believers who were gathered in Qubā, and to provide a place of ambush for the Christian monk Abū ʿĀmir, who was a long-standing enemy of God and His Messenger. In this verse, God foretells that the hypocrites will swear that they only had good intentions behind building the mosque—that they only wished to do good and provide another place of worship for the faithful to pray to God therein—but God bears witness to their deceit, saying: they will surely swear: ‘We desired nothing but good,’ and God bears witness that they are indeed liars.
لَا تَقُمْ فِيهِ أَبَدًا ۚ لَمَسْجِدٌ أُسِّسَ عَلَى التَّقْوَىٰ مِنْ أَوَّلِ يَوْمٍ أَحَقُّ أَنْ تَقُومَ فِيهِ ۚ فِيهِ رِجَالٌ يُحِبُّونَ أَنْ يَتَطَهَّرُوا ۚ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُطَّهِّرِينَ ١٠٨
(9:108) Do not stand in it ever! A mosque founded on Godwariness from the first day is worthier that you stand in it for prayer. Therein are men who love to keep pure, and God loves those who keep pure.
God opens this verse by forbidding the Prophet from ever standing in the hypocrites’ mosque in prayer. He then mentions the mosque of Qubā, gives preference to standing in that for prayer, and praises it with the words, A mosque founded on Godwariness from the first day is worthier that you stand in it for prayer. God praises the mosque for the pure intentions of those who built it from the outset, and He gives this as the reason why it is preferable to stand in prayer in this mosque than in the mosque of the hypocrites.
In short, while the word ‘worthier’ does not in of itself indicate that the Prophet is obliged to offer prayers in the mosque of Qubā, the fact that the opening of the verse forbade the Prophet from ever praying in the mosque of the hypocrites conveys this meaning. Equally, when God explains the fact that such a mosque is ‘worthier’ by saying therein are men who love to keep pure and follows this with the phrase God loves those who keep pure, this shows that He is speaking about the mosque of Qubā and not the Prophet’s Mosque or any other.
Therefore, the meaning of the verse is: ‘Never offer any prayers in the mosque of the hypocrites, for I swear that the mosque of Qubā is a mosque founded on Godwariness from the first day and, as such, it is worthier and better for you to offer prayers in it. After all, it contains men who love to keep themselves pure from sins or cleansed of impurities, and God loves those who keep themselves pure. Therefore, you should stand in prayer amongst them.’
Based on this, it is evident that the statement, A mosque founded on Godwariness…, is offered as an explanation for why one mosque is better than the other. Equally, the statement, Therein are men who love to keep pure, explains why the people of one mosque are better than the people of another. Finally, the opening of the next verse, Is he who founds his building on Godwariness (), is a further explanation of the second, namely why the people of the mosque of Qubā are superior to the hypocrites who built the Mosque of Sabotage.
أَفَمَنْ أَسَّسَ بُنْيَانَهُ عَلَىٰ تَقْوَىٰ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرِضْوَانٍ خَيْرٌ أَمْ مَنْ أَسَّسَ بُنْيَانَهُ عَلَىٰ شَفَا جُرُفٍ هَارٍ فَانْهَارَ بِهِ فِي نَارِ جَهَنَّمَ ۗ وَاللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ ١٠٩ لَا يَزَالُ بُنْيَانُهُمُ الَّذِي بَنَوْا رِيبَةً فِي قُلُوبِهِمْ إِلَّا أَنْ تَقَطَّعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ١١٠
(9:109-110) Is he who founds his building on Godwariness and pleasure better-off or he who founds his building on the brink (shafā) of a collapsing bank (juruf hārin) which collapses with him into the fire of hell? And God does not guide the wrongdoing lot. The building they have built will never cease to be disquiet in their hearts lest their hearts are cut into pieces, and God is all-knowing, all-wise.
The word shafā (‘brink’) means the edge of a well, while juruf (‘bank’) signifies the bank of a valley that has been carved by a stream, while hār (‘collapsing’) is actually derived from hāʾir, which means for something to fall down because of its own softness. Therefore, when God says, …on the brink of a collapsing bank which collapses with him into the fire of hell… He produces a metaphor in which He compares the state of the hypocrites in question with a person who builds a structure whose foundations rest on the edge of the water and, as such, are completely unreliable in their stability or strength. Then, the building sinks into the valley and takes him with it. This valley, of course, symbolizes hell. Therefore, both he and his building will topple into the depths of hell. This is in contrast to someone who lays the foundation of his building on Godwariness and seeking God’s pleasure; in other words, to someone who bases his life on protecting Himself from God’s punishment and earning His satisfaction instead.
From the context of the verse, it appears that both Is he who founds his building on Godwariness and he who founds his building on the brink of a collapsing bank are two metaphors for the lives of the faithful and the hypocrites, namely their respective religions and ways of living their lives. So the religion of the believer is being wary of God and seeking His pleasure based on his certainty about Him, while the religion of the hypocrite is based on doubt and hesitation.
It is for this reason that God follows this with the beginning of the next verse, The building they have built—that is, the hypocrites—will never cease to be a disquiet—a source of doubt—in their hearts—which will never attain certainty—lest their hearts are cut into pieces—whereat these doubts will be shredded with their hearts—and God is all-knowing, all-wise ()—which is why He lowers one group and raises up another.
Examining Narrations
- In Majmaʿ al-bayān, commentators on the Qurʾan are quoted as saying that the Banū ʿAmr b. ʿAwf tribe had made a mosque in the village of Qubā and sent word to the Messenger of God asking him to visit them, so he visited them and offered prayers in the mosque. A group of hypocrites from the Banū Ghanim b. ʿAwf grew envious of them because of this and said, ‘We will build a mosque of our own to pray in and we will not attend the congregation of Muḥammad!’ They were twelve men in total—some sources say fifteen—and included Thaʿlaba b. Ḥāṭib, Muʿattib b. Qushayr, and Nabtal b. al-Ḥārith. They built their mosque beside the mosque of Qubā.
When they had built it, the Messenger of God visited them while he was making preparations for the campaign to Tabūk. They said, ‘O Messenger of God! Surely we have built a mosque for the sick and the needy, for rainy nights and winter nights, and we would like you to visit us, pray in it for us, and ask God to bless us!’ He answered, ‘I am about to travel, but when we return, we will come to you, God willing, and offer prayers therein for you.’ But when the Messenger of God departed from Tabūk, the verse was revealed concerning the mosque…
So, upon his return to Medina from Tabūk, the Messenger of God sent ʿĀṣim b. ʿAwf al-ʿAjlānī and Mālik b. al-Dukhshum—and Mālik was from the Banū ʿAmr b. ʿAwf tribe—with the instructions: ‘Go to this mosque whose people are wrongdoers and pull it down and set it alight.’ And it is narrated that he sent ʿAmmār b. Yāsir and Waḥshī to raze it to the ground, and he ordered that its site should be turned into a refuse dump.
Author’s comments: According to al-Qummī’s narration, the Messenger of God sent Mālik b. Dukhshum al-Khuzāʿī and ʿĀmir b. ʿAdī, the brother of the ʿAmr b. ʿAwf tribe. Mālik came to ʿĀmir and said, ‘Wait while I bring a fire from inside my house, so he went into his home and brought a fire on a palm branch, which he used to set the roof of the mosque alight. The people of the mosque scattered and Zayd b. Ḥāritha until the entire building had burnt down, then he ordered that the walls be torn down.
The story is narrated by numerous chains of transmission by Sunnī authorities, and all of the accounts resemble one another closely in their details, except for the names of the men that the Prophet sent to undertake this task, in which they differ.
- In al-Durr al-manthūr, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrate from Ibn Isḥāq that those who built the Mosque of Sabtoage were twelve men, Khidhām b. Khālid b. ʿUbayd b. Zayd, Thaʿlaba b. Ḥāṭib, Hilāl b. Umayya, Muʿattib b. Qushayr, Abū Ḥabīb b. al-Azʿar, ʿIbād b. Ḥanīf, Jāriya b. ʿĀmir, and his two sons Majmaʿ and Zayd, along with Nabta l b. al-Ḥārith, and Bikhdaj (Bijād) b. ʿUthmān, and Wadīʿa b. Thābit.
- In Majmaʿ al-bayān, about the verse, and for the purpose of ambush by those who have fought God and His Messenger before (), we read: ‘This refers to Abū ʿĀmir the Christian monk. His story is that he lived as a hermit before Islam and wore rough clothes. When the Prophet came to Medina, he envied his status, and began to whip up opposition to him amongst the Arabs. After the conquest of Mecca, he fled to Ṭāʾif, and when the people of Ṭāʾif submitted, he sought refuge with the Romans in Syria and converted to Christianity. He was the father of Ḥanẓala—whose corpse was famously washed by the angels when he became a martyr—who was slain fighting beside the Prophet at the Battle of Uḥud.
The Messenger of God called Abū ʿĀmir ‘the Sinner’ (al-Fāsiq). He had sent words to the hypocrites to build a mosque and prepare for war, claiming that he was going to seek help from the Roman Emperor and bring an army with him to expel Muḥammad from Medina. These hypocrites believed that Abū ʿĀmir would indeed come to them with an army, but he died before reaching the emperor.
Author’s comments: There are several narrations with this meaning.
- In al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī narrates from al-Ḥalabī, from Abū ʿAbdallāh: ‘I asked him about the mosque which was founded on Godwariness.’ He said: ‘The mosque of Qubā.’
Author’s comments: al-ʿAyyāshī narrates this in his Tafsīr, and a tradition with the same meaning is narrated in al-Kāfī with a chain of narrators from Muʿāwiya b. ʿAmmār, from him.
- And it is narrated in al-Durr al-manthūr by more than one chain of transmission from the Prophet, that he said, ‘It is my mosque.’ However, this contradicts the apparent meaning of the verse, especially the phrase, ‘Therein are men who…’, for the context of this verse is a comparison between two mosques: The mosque of Qubā and the Mosque of Sabotage, and a comparison between their two congregations. There is no sense in this relating to the mosque of the Prophet in Medina.
- In Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī, it is narrated from al-Ḥalabī, from al-Ṣādiq: ‘I asked him about the verse, therein are men who love to keep pure. He said, “The ones who love to keep pure are clean in their ablutions, they cleanse themselves after urinating using water.” He added: “This was revealed about the people of Qubā.”’
- In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, about the same verse, we read: ‘They love to purify themselves with water after urinating or defecating. This is narrated from the masters al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq, and it is narrated from the Prophet that he asked the people of Qubā, “What do you do when purifying yourselves that led God to praise you in this beautiful way?” They said: “We wash away the impurity of defecation.” He said, “God has revealed about you, and God loves those who keep pure.”’
- In the same source, we read, concerning the mode of recitation of the verse, lest their hearts are cut into pieces (), that Yaʿqūb and Sahl recited it as ‘until such time as…’ (ilā an), and this is the recitation of al-Ḥasan, Qatāda, al-Jahdarī and a group. This recitation is also narrated by al-Barqī from Imām al-Ṣādiq.