Verses 111–123

Chapter 9: Al-Tawbah (The Repentance) · Printed edition: Volume 18, pp. 314–333

These verses deal with a variety of concerns that all fall under a common theme that is linked to the concerns of the earlier verses. They speak about fighting, some of them praising the faithful and promising them a beautiful reward in return for striving in the way of God, while there are others that forbid them from showing friendship to the idolaters or seeking forgiveness for them. Others still indicate that God forgave the three men who stayed behind instead of going with the Prophet to Tabūk, while yet others impose upon the inhabitants of Medina and the Bedouins in the city’s vicinity the duty to go forth when the Prophet should he set out to fight and not to hang back. Then there are verses that indicate that some people should remain behind to deepen their understanding of the religion (al-tafaqquh fī al-dīn) in order to convey its teachings to their people when they return to them, and others that ordain that the faithful should fight the disbelievers who live on the borders of the lands of Islam.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَىٰ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ ۚ يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَيَقْتُلُونَ وَيُقْتَلُونَ ۖ وَعْدًا عَلَيْهِ حَقًّا فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالْإِنْجِيلِ وَالْقُرْآنِ ۚ وَمَنْ أَوْفَىٰ بِعَهْدِهِ مِنَ اللَّهِ ۚ فَاسْتَبْشِرُوا بِبَيْعِكُمُ الَّذِي بَايَعْتُمْ بِهِ ۚ وَذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ ١١١

(9:111) Indeed God has bought (ishtarā) from the faithful their souls and their possessions for paradise to be theirs: they fight in the way of God, kill, and are killed. A promise binding upon Him in the Torah and the Evangel and the Qurʾan. And who is truer to his promise than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him, and that is the great success.

The word ishtarā means to purchase a commodity and take possession of it by paying its price to its seller. In these verses, God mentions His promise to grant paradise to those who strive in His way using their persons and their possessions, adding that He mentioned this previously in the Torah and Evangel just as He now mentions it in the Qurʾan. God has formulated this promise in the style of a contract of sale, with Himself as the buyer and the faithful as the sellers, their persons and possessions as the commodities He is purchasing, paradise as the price He is paying for these, and the Torah, Evangel, and the Qurʾan as receipts of purchase. This is an exceedingly subtle metaphor. He then congratulates the faithful for their purchase and commends them on their great success.

التَّائِبُونَ الْعَابِدُونَ الْحَامِدُونَ السَّائِحُونَ الرَّاكِعُونَ السَّاجِدُونَ الْآمِرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَالنَّاهُونَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ وَالْحَافِظُونَ لِحُدُودِ اللَّهِ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ١١٢

(9:112) The penitent, devout, celebrators of God’s praise, wayfarers, who bow and prostrate, bid what is right and forbid what is wrong, and preserve God’s bounds—and give good news to the faithful.

God describes the faithful using their most beautiful qualities, assigning them attributes that are undoubtedly lofty and praiseworthy. Therefore, the verse means that ‘The faithful are the penitent, devout…’—they are penitent (tāʾibūn, lit. ‘returners’) because they turn away from other than God and towards God, they are devout in their worship to Him; they worship Him with their tongues by praising and magnifying Him; they worship Him with their feet by travelling to places in which He is remembered, from one mosque to another, and from one religious site to another; and they worship Him with their bodies by bowing and prostrating to Him in prayer.

This is only looking at them as individuals. In terms of their communal existence, the faithful are the ones who enjoin others to good in the religious tradition and forbid them from evil. They are the ones who preserve the bounds (ḥudūd) of God and do not transgress them on an individual or communal level, and whether they are in public or in private. Then, God tells the Prophet to give them good tidings, and God has already given them good tidings in the previous verses. This represents, then, the utmost level of emphasis.

From what we have said, the following becomes clear:

First, regarding the order in which the qualities of the faithful are arranged: God begins by listing their qualities as individuals, namely penitence, devotion, travelling, bowing, and prostrating. Then, He mentions those qualities of theirs that are specific to their collective faithfulness, namely that they enjoin the good and forbid the evil. Finally, He praises them for the quality that combines both their individual and communal existences, namely that they preserve God’s bounds. The use of the word ‘preserve’ (ḥifẓ) shows that not only do they not transgress them, but are actively mindful of them and guard them.

Second, that, based on the context of the verse, the meaning of ‘travelling’ (siyāḥa)—which literally means to move through the land—is travelling to the places in which God is remembered and worshipped, such as mosques. As for the interpretation that says this refers to fasting, or to travelling through the land in order to draw lessons from the wonders of God’s creation and the fates of earlier peoples from the ruins of their abodes, or travelling in the land in order to gain knowledge, or travelling in order to collect Prophetic sayings particularly—all of these are without basis.

As for the first—that it refers to fasting—there is no evidence for this from the text whatsoever. As for the other interpretations of ‘travelling’, these might find support from the following verses: Have they not travelled over the land so that they may observe how was the fate of those who were before them? They were more numerous than them and were in power and with respect to the effects in the land. But what they used to earn did not avail them (). Yet it is not for the faithful to go forth en masse. But why should not there go forth a group from each of their sections to become learned in religion… ().

However, if either of these meanings—travelling through the land to learn from the fates of earlier peoples or to gain knowledge—is what was intended by the word ‘wayfarers’ (sāʾiḥūn), this would undermine the eloquent arrangement of the attributes in the verse.

Third, it is through these noble attributes that a believer’s faith (īmān) becomes complete, which entitles them to the divine guarantee of paradise. This is illustrated by the fact that both God and His Messenger give them glad tidings of this in these verses, which stems from the fact that they respected rights of God, which in turn means that God will deliver what He has imposed on Himself to give to them.

مَا كَانَ لِلنَّبِيِّ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنْ يَسْتَغْفِرُوا لِلْمُشْرِكِينَ وَلَوْ كَانُوا أُولِي قُرْبَىٰ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُمْ أَصْحَابُ الْجَحِيمِ ١١٣ وَمَا كَانَ اسْتِغْفَارُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ لِأَبِيهِ إِلَّا عَنْ مَوْعِدَةٍ وَعَدَهَا إِيَّاهُ فَلَمَّا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ أَنَّهُ عَدُوٌّ لِلَّهِ تَبَرَّأَ مِنْهُ ۚ إِنَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ لَأَوَّاهٌ حَلِيمٌ ١١٤

(9:113-114) The Prophet and the faithful may not plead for the forgiveness of the polytheists, even if they should be relatives, after it has become clear to them that they will be the inmates of hell. Abraham’s pleading forgiveness for his father was only to fulfil a promise he had made him. So when it became manifest to him that he was an enemy of God, he repudiated him. Indeed Abraham was most plaintive and forbearing.

The meaning of the first verse is clear. However, it is worth paying attention to the explanation that God gives in the second verse about the reason Abraham pleaded to God for his father’s forgiveness, even though his father was a disbeliever. Here, God says that Abraham disassociated from him after it became clear that he was an enemy of God. This shows that when it becomes clear that the idolaters are inmates of hellfire, the logical conclusion to be drawn from this is that one should not plead to God for their forgiveness, because if they are being consigned to hell, this can only mean that they are enemies of God. Therefore, when it is clear to the Prophet and the faithful that the idolaters are enemies of God, this means that they are not allowed to plead to God for their forgiveness, because it is pointless to do so and will have no effect, and the humility of a servant’s faith should prevent them from invoking God for pointless things.

This is because there are only two possibilities: First, that God is an enemy of His servant and detests him because of some shortcoming on his part or some misdeed he committed, in which case it is permitted to appeal to God’s mercy, and plead for Him to forgive the servant and show him mercy, so long as the servant is humble and not recalcitrant. However, the second possibility is that the servant is an enemy of God, who makes war on Him, who is wilfully and defiantly opposed to Him, such as the most implacable opponents of Islam amongst the idolaters. In this case, common sense dictates that no intercession or prayers for forgiveness will be of any use to such a person unless he repents, returns to God, and forsakes the path of arrogance and obstinacy by putting on the garb of humility and lowliness. After all, it is meaningless to speak of God’s forgiveness and mercy to someone too arrogant to accept either of these, nor of God’s generosity in the case of someone who will not submit themselves to receive God’s gifts without mocking the station of His lordship or making light of it—and this is something self-evidently forbidden by basic human nature.

The verse conveys the impermissibility of seeking forgiveness for the idolaters by denying the Prophet and the faithful the right to do so with the following phrase, The Prophet and the faithful may not plead for the forgiveness of the polytheists. In other words, they do not have the right to pray for their forgiveness after it has become clear to them that they will be the inmates of hell. We have already discussed in our commentary on the earlier verse from this chapter, It is not for the polytheists to maintain God’s mosques () that in order for something to be permissible for someone to do, the divine law must have already established the right for them to do it.

Therefore, the meaning of the verse is that the Prophet and the faithful do not have the right to invoke God to ask Him to forgive the idolaters once it has become clear to them that they are the enemies of God who are destined to abide forever in Hell, even if they are close relatives. As for Abraham’s prayers for His idolatrous father’s forgiveness, this is because he did not think that his own father was an obstinate enemy of God, even if he was an idolater. Therefore, he fulfilled his promise to him to ask God to forgive him, but once it became clear that his father was an enemy of God who would never give up his idolatry and erroneous ways, he disassociated from him.

Indeed Abraham was most plaintive and forbearing: This shows that Abraham tolerated his father’s harshness and promised to pray for his forgiveness because he was a patient person and then prayed for his forgiveness because he was saddened by his father’s idolatry. Someone who is plaintive (awwāh) is deeply grieved by his fear of his Lord and his longing for Him.

وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِلَّ قَوْمًا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَاهُمْ حَتَّىٰ يُبَيِّنَ لَهُمْ مَا يَتَّقُونَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ ١١٥ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۖ يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ ۚ وَمَا لَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ مِنْ وَلِيٍّ وَلَا نَصِيرٍ ١١٦

(9:115-116) God does not lead any people astray after He has guided them until He has made clear to them what they should beware of. Indeed God has knowledge of all things. Indeed to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. He gives life and brings death. And besides God you do not have any guardian or helper.

These two verses continue on from the above two and offer a rationale for the prohibition on seeking forgiveness for idolaters.

As for the first verse—God does not lead any people astray—this warns the faithful that they are at risk of being led astray after being guided if they are not wary of that which God has bid them to be wary of and to avoid. In the present context, this refers to the fact that the idolaters are enemies of God and it is not permissible to seek forgiveness for them or to show affection to them. Therefore, the faithful should be wary of that and avoid it, or else they will go astray after having been guided. Readers should refer to our explanation of the verse from Sūrah al-Māʾida, Today the faithless have despaired of your religion. So do not fear them, but fear Me (), as well as our commentary on the verse from Sūrah al-Anfāl about taking the idolaters and People of the Book as allies (awliyāʾ).

From one angle, this verse is in the same vein as God’s saying, That is because God never changes a blessing that He has bestowed on a people unless they change what is in their own souls () and other verses with similar meanings. All of these verses indicate that God’s modus operandi is to continue to bestow blessings and guidance upon His servants until they change what is with themselves through their own ingratitude or transgressions, whereat God deprives them of these blessings and guidance.

As for the second verse, namely, Indeed to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. He gives life and brings death. And besides God you do not have any guardian or helper, its coda provides the rationale for the principle encapsulated in the preceding verse. In short, it forbids the faithful from taking God’s enemies as allies or guardians and bids them to disassociate from them, for there is no real guardian or helper besides God Himself. He explains this to the faithful and, therefore, by virtue of their faith, they are obliged to take no other guardian other than Him or those who He has permitted them to take as guardians from among His chosen friends. They should not go beyond the bounds by taking His enemies as guardians, no matter who they might be.

The opening of the verse provides the rationale behind this rationale, namely that God is the true master of all things, who controls life and death and governs all things. Therefore, he is the true guardian, besides whom there is no guardian.

From the generality of the wording of these four verses and of the rationales they offer, it is evident that the principle they expound is also general in scope, namely the duty to disassociate from the enemies of God and the prohibition on taking them as allies or guardians. This is true whether this takes the form of seeking forgiveness for them from God or any other act, and whether they are idolaters, disbelievers, hypocrites, innovators, or anyone who otherwise denies God’s signs or who persists in commissioning major sins, such as the usurer or the one who makes war on God and His Messenger.

لَقَدْ تَابَ اللَّهُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ وَالْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالْأَنْصَارِ الَّذِينَ اتَّبَعُوهُ فِي سَاعَةِ الْعُسْرَةِ مِنْ بَعْدِ مَا كَادَ يَزِيغُ قُلُوبُ فَرِيقٍ مِنْهُمْ ثُمَّ تَابَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ إِنَّهُ بِهِمْ رَءُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ ١١٧ وَعَلَى الثَّلَاثَةِ الَّذِينَ خُلِّفُوا حَتَّىٰ إِذَا ضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ أَنْفُسُهُمْ وَظَنُّوا أَنْ لَا مَلْجَأَ مِنَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا إِلَيْهِ ثُمَّ تَابَ عَلَيْهِمْ لِيَتُوبُوا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ ١١٨

(9:117-118) Certainly God turned clemently to the Prophet and the Emigrants and the Helpers, who followed him in the hour of difficulty (sāʿat al-ʿusra), after the hearts of a part of them were about to swerve (yazīgh). Then He turned clemently to them—indeed He is most kind and merciful to them—and to the three who were left behind (khullifū). When the earth became narrow for them with its expanse (bi mā raḥubat), and their own souls weighed heavily on them, and they knew that there was no refuge from God except in Him, then He turned clemently toward them so that they might be penitent. Indeed God is the All-clement, the All-merciful.

The term sāʿat (‘hour’) refers to a quantity of time. Therefore, ‘the hour of difficulty’ (sāʿat al-ʿusra) denotes a time in which one’s life becomes difficult because one has been afflicted by hardships and tribulations, such as thirst, hunger, extreme heat, or the like thereof.

Yazīgh (‘swerve’) means to depart from the path or incline away from the truth. Describing hearts as ‘about to swerve’, in conjunction with ‘the hour of difficulty’, and in addition to the overall tone and context of the verse, indicates that the meaning of ‘swerve’ here is to refuse to follow the instructions of the Prophet and to disobey him by being sluggish in answering his call to arms or in returning to one’s homeland by taking a route that is fraught with difficulties and hardships.

According to Majmaʿ al-bayān, khullifū (‘left behind’) means for something to fall behind someone who has gone ahead; it does not mean that you have left something behind in a specific place. The verb kullifū, whose infinitive is takhlīf, is derived from the root khalf, which means ‘back’ as opposed to ‘face’ (wajh). The verb khallafa-hu means to turn your back on something, which means it is ‘left behind’ (mukhallaf).

Raḥubat (‘expanse’) means to be wide and open, as opposed to narrow (ḍayyiq).

Therefore, each of these verses considers a different situation. The first says that God turned clemently to the Emigrants and the Helpers, while the second says that He forgave the three who were left behind. In both cases, the term tawba is used, but in each one it means something different. In the case of the first verse, God turns clemently to the people (or at least some of them) mentioned in it even while they have not committed any sins, while in the second verse, God turns clemently to people who have acted sinfully.

Therefore, each of the two verses has its own locus of concern and meaning. However, they are clearly intended to be read together, in a single context, with a single aim in mind. After all, both of these are explaining God’s clemency towards the Prophet, the Emigrants, the Helpers, and the three who were left behind, as is evident from the way the two verses are constructed: Certainly God turned clemently to the Prophet and the Emigrants and the Helpers… and to the three who were left behind. Therefore, the second verse is not independent of the first one in terms of its wording, even if it is distinct in its meaning. This means that the two verses must have been revealed at the same time and their connection to one another points to them having been revealed with a specific purpose in mind.

Perhaps the primary concern of the two verses is to express God’s clemency towards the three who were left behind, to which God has added His clemency towards the Emigrants, the Helpers, and even the Prophet himself. This is in order to offer the three who were left behind comfort and to reassure them that they are once again a part of the community of the faithful, that they are no longer separate from them, and that the effects of their sin have been effaced fully. Therefore, they are now all part of the same category, namely those to whom God has turned clemently with His mercy, hence they are now once again equals, without any of them being higher or lower than any other.

This illustrates why the term tawba is repeated twice in each of the two verses. God begins by saying that He turned clemently to the Prophet, the Emigrants, and the Helpers, then adds that then He turned clemently to them, before mentioning the three who were left behind and adding, then He turned clemently toward them. In this case, what this shows is that God is alternating between general and specific points. He begins by mentioning how He turned clemently to all of them in general, before referring to each of the two groups specifically and saying that He turned clemently to each of them in particular.

Now, if each of the two verses was completely distinct from the other and there was no common thread to connect them, this repetition of tawba in each of the verses would have been meaningless.

The first verse clearly indicates that the Prophet was neither sinful, nor swerved, nor was about to swerve, as it praises the Emigrants and Helpers for following the Prophet. Therefore, his heart cannot have swerved nor been about to swerve, or else it would not have made sense to praise them for following his example. Equally, if it was not the case that the two verses were connected to one another, it would not have made sense to include the Prophet amongst those mentioned in the verses.

Therefore, the meaning of the verse is as follows: God swears that He turned clemently with His mercy towards the Prophet, the Emigrants, the Helpers, and the three who were left behind. As for His turning clemently towards the Emigrants and Helpers with His mercy, this is because they followed the Prophet at a time of great hardship, which was during his campaign to Tabūk. They followed him even after some of their hearts were about to swerve from the path of truth and righteousness and turn back from the journey they were undertaking, but once they resolved to follow him, God turned clemently to them and forgave them, for He is most kind and most merciful.

As for His turning clemently towards the three who were left behind, this is after their affair became difficult and the earth grew narrow for them in spite of its vastness. This is because people would not interact with them or speak to them, not even their own families, so they could find no friends to keep them company. Then their own souls weighed on them because of the grief they felt and they became certain that there was no refuge from God except through turning to Him penitently that He might forgive them. And He accepted their repentance because He is the All-clement (al-tawwāb)—meaning He often returns to His servants through granting them guidance and the success of repenting to Him, then He accepts this repentance from them—and He is ever merciful to the faithful.

From the above, the following becomes clear: First, the meaning of God turning clemently (tawba) to the Prophet means only that He turned towards Him mercifully. And part of God turning mercifully towards the Prophet is that He turned mercifully towards the Prophet’s community. Therefore, God turning clemently to the faithful is the same as Him turning clemently to the Prophet, meaning that the Prophet is the intermediary for whose sake all goodness and blessings come down to his community.

In addition to this, part of God’s grace to His Prophet is that whenever He mentions the Prophet’s community or those who are with him in a good manner, He singles out the Prophet for mention and mentions him first in order to ennoble him. For example, see the verses: The Messenger has faith in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and all the faithful (); Then God sent down His composure upon His Messenger and upon the faithful (); But the Messenger and the faithful who are with him strive with their possessions and persons ().

Second, when God says for a second and third time in each of the two verses that He turned clemently to them, this is providing more detail for what He said at their beginning, Certainly God turned clemently.

Third, that the meaning of tawba in the phrase, then He turned clemently to them (thumma tāba ʿalayhim), in both verses is that He returned to them by guiding them towards goodness and success. As we have mentioned on numerous occasions previously, the tawba (repentance) of a servant to God is actually encompassed by two acts of tawba (turning clemently) by God to them. The first of these is that God turns towards them by granting them success and extending to them the mercy of guidance. Through this act of tawba, the servant is guided to seek forgiveness for his sins from God. The second act of tawba by God towards His servant is that He turns towards him by accepting his repentance and forgiving him for his sins.

The evidence that this is what is meant in these two instances is as follows: In the first verse, the people mentioned by God include are not sinful. Therefore, the act of tawba performed by God here cannot be the acceptance of their repentance or the forgiveness of their sins. Instead, God mentions the hearts of some of them almost swerving from the path of righteousness. With this in mind, tawba in the sense of extending guidance and granting success to them would appear to be the most appropriate meaning. At the same time, in the second verse, God says that He turned clemently toward them so that they might be penitent (li-yatūbū), meaning so that they seek forgiveness for their sins. In other words, inspiring their repentance was the purpose of His tawba, and He cannot have forgiven their sins before they had repented for them. Therefore, this must also refer to the first kind of tawba by God, namely granting them success and extending guidance to them.

This reading is perhaps supported by the rationale God gives for His act of tawba, namely that He is most kind and merciful to them, as these divine names (the Most Kind or al-raʾūf, and the Most Merciful, al-raḥīm) do not signify His acceptance of any repentance, nor does the verse indicate that they had repented or sought forgiveness for their sins yet.

Fourth, the pronoun ‘they’ in the phrase, so that they might be penitent (li-yatūbū), refers to the three who had been left behind, and their repentance was the result of God turning to them clemently in the first instance. Therefore, the meaning of this phrase is as follows: ‘Then God turned clemently toward them so that the three who were left behind might repent and He might accept their repentance and forgive them for their sins. Surely He is the All-clement, the All-merciful.’

Now, one might argue that such a reading would mean that the verse does not indicate that God accepted their repentance, which runs contrary to the mass of traditions that state that this verse was revealed about their repentance and subsequent forgiveness.

I would respond to this by saying that while the account referenced is well-established in the traditional literature, the verse itself does not contain any explicit indication of this. However, the context and tone of the verse strongly suggest that they were forgiven. For example, God says in general terms: Certainly God turned clemently… and because of the generality of this phrase, its meaning can accommodate both tawba in the sense of God granting them success and the sense of God accepting their repentance. The same is true of the end of the second verse, Indeed God is the All-clement, the All-merciful, especially when this is read in light of the earlier statement in the same verse, and they knew that there was no refuge from God except in Him. After all, when they repent in order to seek refuge in which to feel safe from God’s wrath, and God has shown them the way to it through repentance, and then they repent in accordance with His guidance, it is unthinkable that God would turn them away from His door when He is the All-clement and the All-merciful. And it is the same God who said, acceptance of repentance by God is only for those who commit evil out of ignorance, then repent promptly. It is such whose repentance God will accept, and God is all-knowing, all-wise ().

Now, one might argue that the meaning of the statement, then He turned clemently toward them so that they might be penitent, is that God made repentance easy for that in order that they might repent. However, this is a nonsensical reading. More nonsensical still is the claim that the term tawba in the phrase so that they might be penitent (li-yatūbū) is to be understood literally, namely so that they could ‘return’ to their state of being before sinning. Even more nonsensical is the claim made by others that the pronoun ‘they’ in so that they might be penitent actually refers to the faithful, and that the full meaning of the passage is: ‘They God forgave the three who stayed behind and revealed this to His Prophet so that the faithful might be encouraged to repent for their sins with the knowledge that God is the one who accepts repentance.

Fifth, that the verb ẓann in the phrase and they knew (ẓannū) that there was no refuge from God except in Him is to be understood as ‘they knew’ rather than ‘they thought’, not because of any textual evidence for this meaning, but because of the context in which it occurs.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَكُونُوا مَعَ الصَّادِقِينَ ١١٩

(9:119) O you who have faith! Be wary of God, and be with the Truthful.

Truthfulness (ṣidq), at its most basic level, means that a statement corresponds to external reality, and a person is described as ‘truthful’ (ṣādiq) when their words match external reality. Then, in as much as all beliefs and decisions can be conceptualized as statements, the meaning of truthfulness expands to consider a person truthful not only if their words match external reality, but if their deeds match their beliefs, or if they accomplish what they resolve to do.

Now, insofar as the verse commands the faithful to be wary of God generally, and mentions the truthful generally, and commands the faithful to be with the truthful generally—meaning to be ‘with’ them in their deeds by following their example, this shows that truthful is being used in its most expansive sense and not referring to any specific group of people.

Therefore, the verse commands the faithful to be Godwary and to follow the truthful in their words and deeds. However, this is not the same as telling them to be truthful, as then God would have said, ‘and be of the truthful’ instead, as should be clear.

مَا كَانَ لِأَهْلِ الْمَدِينَةِ وَمَنْ حَوْلَهُمْ مِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ أَنْ يَتَخَلَّفُوا عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَرْغَبُوا بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ لَا يُصِيبُهُمْ ظَمَأٌ وَلَا نَصَبٌ وَلَا مَخْمَصَةٌ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَلَا يَطَئُونَ مَوْطِئًا يَغِيظُ الْكُفَّارَ وَلَا يَنَالُونَ مِنْ عَدُوٍّ نَيْلًا إِلَّا كُتِبَ لَهُمْ بِهِ عَمَلٌ صَالِحٌ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ ١٢٠

(9:120) It is not fitting for the people of Madinah and the Bedouins around them to hang back behind the Messenger of God and prefer (yarghabū) their own lives to his life. That is because they neither experience any thirst, nor fatigue, nor hunger, in the way of God, nor do they tread any ground enraging the faithless, nor do they gain any ground against an enemy but a righteous deed is written for them on its account. Indeed God does not waste the reward of the virtuous.

The verb ‘yarghabū’ is derived from raghba. When raghba is accompanied by the preposition fī, it is translated as ‘to desire’, as it denotes a selfish inclination towards something that is driven by a desire to obtain benefit from it. On the other hand, when it takes the preposition ʿan, it is translated as ‘to be averse to’ or ‘to neglect’, and it means that someone wants to avoid something. In the phrase, “and prefer their own lives to his life” (wa lā yarghabū bi-anfusihim ʿan nafsihi), we see that the preposition bi is used to indicate the cause of their aversion. Therefore, the meaning of this part of the verse is as follows: ‘Nor should their concern for their own lives cause them to care nothing for his, such that they forsake him in times of danger, such as warfare, or hardship, such as on journeys, in order to sit back and enjoy the pleasures of life.

This verse says that the people of Medina and the surrounding Bedouin tribes have no right to abandon the Prophet. He follows on from this by saying that He will count every hardship they endure striving in His way, whether hunger, thirst, or tiredness, and for every step they advance by which they enrage the faithless or make gains against them as a righteous act that is worthy of divine reward. This is because these acts render them virtuous and God does not squander the reward of the virtuous. This is the meaning of the passage that begins, that is because they neither experience any thirst…

وَلَا يُنْفِقُونَ نَفَقَةً صَغِيرَةً وَلَا كَبِيرَةً وَلَا يَقْطَعُونَ وَادِيًا إِلَّا كُتِبَ لَهُمْ لِيَجْزِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنَ مَا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَ ١٢١

(9:121) And neither do they incur any expense, big or small, nor do they cross any valley, but it is written to their account, so that God may reward them by the best of what they used to do.

The verse says that whatever expenses they incur, whether these are small and trivial or great and consequential, and whatever valley they cross, all of this is written for them as a reward so that they will be granted the best recompense in the Hereafter.

…so that God may reward them by the best of what they used to do: This explains why a righteous deed is written for them on account of what they endured. In other words, the reason these righteous deeds are written for them is so that they can be rewarded for the best of their deeds. God singles out the best of their deeds for mention either because this gives them the greatest level of motivation to act, or because the fact they are being rewarded for the best of them means that they will be rewarded for all their other good deeds as well, or because the meaning of ‘the best of what they used to do’ is striving in the way of God, as it is the most difficult undertaking and the foundation upon which the call of Islam rests.

There is another meaning to consider here as well, namely that the recompense for a deed is, in reality, nothing other than the deed itself in the form that it returned to God. Therefore, the best recompense is, quite literally, the best deeds. In other words, to be rewarded ‘by the best of what they used to do’ is to be given the very best of rewards. Yet another meaning to reflect on is that God will forgive them for their misdeeds that pollute and contaminate their good ones, while also concealing their defects. Therefore, all that is left are their best deeds as everything else has been effaced. Therefore there is nothing to reward them for other than ‘the best of what they used to do.’ And perhaps both of the meanings we have highlighted here are, at root, one and the same.

وَمَا كَانَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ لِيَنْفِرُوا كَافَّةً ۚ فَلَوْلَا نَفَرَ مِنْ كُلِّ فِرْقَةٍ مِنْهُمْ طَائِفَةٌ لِيَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي الدِّينِ وَلِيُنْذِرُوا قَوْمَهُمْ إِذَا رَجَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَحْذَرُونَ ١٢٢

(9:122) Yet it is not for the faithful to go forth en masse. But why should not there go forth a group from each of their sections to become learned in religion, and to warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware?

The context of the verse shows that the meaning of ‘to go forth en masse’ means ‘to go forth to fight in God’s way all at once,’ while the pronoun ‘their’ in ‘their sections’ refers to the faithful who should not go forth en masse. The context also indicates that ‘go forth’ here means ‘to go forth to the Prophet to become learned in religion.’

This verse forbids the faithful in all of the regions other than Medina to go forth to fight in the way of God altogether. Instead, it encourages them to send a delegation of their people to the Prophet to become learned in religion, while others go out to fight.

Based on this reading, it makes the most sense that the pronoun ‘they’ in ‘when they return to them’ refers to the group that went to become learned in religion. Then, the pronoun ‘them’ in the same phrase refers to ‘their people.’ In which case, the meaning is: ‘When those who became learned in the religion return to their people.’ However, it is also possible to reverse these pronouns, which would render the meaning: ‘When their people return from fighting in the way of God to this group that have become learned in religion and returned to their homeland.’

Therefore, the meaning of the verse is that it is not permitted for the believers in various lands to go forth to fight in the way of God all at once. Instead, a group from every section of the faithful should go to the Prophet in order to receive instruction in the teachings of the faith, that they may act upon it themselves and warn their people by disseminating these teachings to them and making them aware of the deleterious effects of contravening the precepts of the religion so that they might be Godwary and pious.

Based on this, it is clear that the phrase “become learned in religion” (yatafaqqahū fī al-dīn) encompasses learning all of the roots and branches of the faith and not only its practical laws, which is what religious people today commonly understand from the word fiqh. The evidence for this is the use of the phrase, to warn their people, as they can only accomplish this if they have learned about all aspects of the faith.

Second, that the duty of going forth to fight in the way of God is lifted from students of religious knowledge, as indicated by the wording of the verse.

Third, that all of the other readings that have been applied to this verse by commentators do not fit with its overall context. For example, some of them say that to go forth en masse means to go forth to the Prophet en masse to study the religion. Others have said that why should not there go forth a group means a group should go forth to fight in the way of God and the meaning of to become learned in religion refers to those who remained behind, and that they will warn those who went forth to fight when they return to them. These readings and others like them are all at odds with the context of the verse, and there is little value in devoting more space to them here.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَاتِلُوا الَّذِينَ يَلُونَكُمْ مِنَ الْكُفَّارِ وَلْيَجِدُوا فِيكُمْ غِلْظَةً ۚ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ الْمُتَّقِينَ ١٢٣

(9:123) O you who have faith! Fight the faithless who are in your vicinity, and let them find severity in you, and know that God is with the Godwary.

This is a general ordinance to fight in the way of God, which is intended to expand the borders of Islam until they encompass the whole world, as if each group of the faithful fight the faithless who are in their vicinity, this will inevitably lead to the expansion of Islam and the establishment of its rule over the entire world and all of its inhabitants.

Let them find severity in you means let them find steadfastness for the sake of God. It does not mean coarseness, viciousness, evil manners, or hardness of heart, as these are traits utterly condemned by the moral and ethical teachings of Islam itself. Moreover, all of the verses dealing with fighting in the way of God prohibit all forms of transgression and viciousness, as we have already discussed in our commentary on Sūrah al-Baqarah.

And know that God is with the Godwary—this is a promise of support from God that is conditional upon the recipient’s Godwariness (taqwā). This means that they should always be vigilant of themselves and mindful of the station of their Lord in relation to them, namely that He is with them and that they have the advantage so long as they are devoted to Him.

Examining Narrations

1. In al-Durr al-manthūr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Mardawayh narrate from Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh that the following verse was revealed to the Messenger of God while he was in the mosque: Indeed God has bought from the faithful their souls (), whereat all of the people in the mosque proclaimed, ‘God is greater!’ Then, a man from the Helpers who had thrown both sides of his robe over his shoulders came near and asked, ‘O Messenger of God, is this a verse revealed?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ Then, the man from the Helpers said, ‘A profitable sale, and we shall never ask God to return His purchase to us!’
2. In al-Kāfī, it is narrated from Samāʿa, from Imām al-Ṣādiq: ‘ʿAbbād al-Baṣrī met ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn on the road to Mecca and told him, “O ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn, you have given up fighting in the way of God and its difficulties and come instead to perform the hajj with its easiness! Surely, God has said: Indeed God has bought…!” To this, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn replied, “When we find the people described in these verses, then yes, fighting in the way of God alongside them is better than hajj!”’

Author’s comments: This is a reference to the second verse, the penitent, devout, celebrators of God’s praise… ().

3. It is narrated from the Prophet: ‘The wayfaring of my community is in the mosques.’

Author’s comments: It is narrated by Abū Hurayra from the Prophet that ‘the wayfarers are those who fast.’ Abū Umāma narrates from him: ‘the wayfaring of my community is to fight in the way of God.’ And we have discussed this already.

4. In al-Durr al-manthūr—concerning the verse, The Prophet and the faithful may not plead for the forgiveness of the polytheists ()—Ibn Abī Shayba, Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh, Ibn Mardawayh, and al-Bayhaqī in his Dalāʾil all narrate from Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib from his father: ‘When Abū Ṭālib was on his deathbed, the Prophet came to him, and Abū Jahl and ʿAbd Allāh b. Abī Umayya were both there with him. The Prophet said, “O uncle! Say that there is no god but God and I will use this to intervene on your behalf with God.” At this, Abū Jahl and ʿAbd Allāh b. Abī Umayya said, “O Abū Ṭālib! Will you turn away from the religion of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib?”

‘The Prophet continued to encourage him to testify to God’s oneness, while Abū Jahl and ʿAbd Allāh repeated their statement in response. Finally, Abū Ṭālib said, “I follow the religion of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.” And he refused to say that there was no god but God.

‘So the Prophet said, “I will surely plead to God for your forgiveness if He allows me to do so.” Then the verse was revealed, The Prophet and the faithful may not plead for the forgiveness of the polytheists. God sent this down concerning Abū Ṭālib, so the Messenger of God recited the verse, You cannot guide whomever you wish, but God guides whomever He wishes, and He knows best those who are guided ().’

Author’s comments: There are other narrations in the same vein found in Sunnī sources. Some of them state that when the Muslims saw the Prophet asking for God to forgive his uncle even though he was an idolater, they began to ask God to forgive their idolatrous forefathers as well, whereat this verse was revealed. However, the traditions narrated from the Imams of the Prophet’s Household are unequivocal in stating that Abū Ṭālib was a Muslim but that he kept his faith hidden in order to protect the Prophet. Reliable accounts of his poems also indicate that he believed in monotheism and in the prophethood of his nephew, and we have already discussed a selection of these previously.

5. In al-Kāfī, it is narrated via Zurāra from Abū Jaʿfar that the word ‘plaintive’ in the verse, Indeed Abraham was most plaintive and forbearing (), means that he supplicated to God frequently.
6. In Majmaʿ al-bayān, about the verse, God does not lead any people astray… (), it is related from al-Ḥasan that a group of Muslims died as believers in Islam but before any religious obligations or duties had been revealed. The Muslims said, ‘O Messenger of God, our Muslim brothers died before any obligations had been imposed on them, what is their position?’ Then the verse was revealed, God does not lead any people astray.
7. In al-Durr al-manthūr, Ibn Mardawayh relates from Ibn ʿAbbās about the same verse: ‘This was revealed when they took a payment of ransom from the idolaters for the release of captives at the Battle of Badr. He said, “You should not have taken it before you were given permission, but God will not punish a people for a sin they commit until He has made clear to them what they should beware of”—meaning unless He has prohibited it already.’

Author’s comments: The apparent meaning of these two narrations suggests that they are an application of the principle of the verse to a specific situation rather than genuine occasions of revelation for it. Furthermore, the verse in question is clearly connected to the two immediately before it and revealed in the same context as them, as we have already explained.

8. In al-Kāfī, it is narrated from Ḥamza b. Muḥammad al-Ṭayyār from Imām al-Ṣādiq about the verse, God does not lead any people astray after He has guided them until He has made clear to them what they should beware of, ‘Until He has made them aware of what pleases and angers Him.’

Author’s comments: This is also narrated from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā from the Imām, and al-Barqī also narrates it in his Maḥāsin.

9. In Tafsīr al-Qummī, concerning the verse, Certainly God turned clemently to the Prophet and the Emigrants and the Helpers, who followed him in the hour of difficulty, it is reported from Imām al-Ṣādiq: ‘This verse was revealed about Abū Dharr, Abū Khaythama, and ʿUmayr b. Wahb, who did not immediately go forth with the Messenger of God but caught up with him thereafter.’

Author’s comments: This is taken from a lengthy tradition that al-Qummī includes in his Tafsīr on the verse, Had they desired to go forth, they would have surely made some preparations for it (). In Majmaʿ al-bayān there is a recitation of the verse recorded that reads: ‘Had they desired to go forth with the Prophet’ narrated from Imām al-Ṣādiq and Imām al-Riḍā.

10. In Majmaʿ al-bayān, concerning the verse, and to the three who were left behind (), we read: ‘ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Bāqir, Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq and Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī recited this as: “who disobeyed” (khālafū instead of khullifū).’
11. In the same source, concerning the verse, Certainly God turned clemently to the Prophet and the Emigrants and the Helpers (), we read: ‘This was revealed concerning the campaign to Tabūk and the hardships the Muslims faced therein. These were so severe that a group of them made up their minds to turn back, but then God showed His grace to them. Al-Ḥasan says, “There were ten Muslims who left with a camel that they shared between themselves, so that each of them would ride on its back for an hour and then get down and allow someone else to sit upon it. Their provisions consisted of barley flour with bran, worm-eaten dates, and rancid oil. When one of them was pressed by hunger, he would put a date in his mouth and chew on it to obtain its taste, then he would take it out and give it to his compatriot who would suck some of the moisture out of it, and they would pass it around until nothing remained of that date except its seed.’
12. In the same source, concerning the verse, and to the three who were left behind, we read: ‘This was revealed concerning the matter of Kaʿb b. Mālik, Marāra b. al-Rabīʿ, and Hilāl b. Umayya. They had hung back from the Messenger of God and not gone forth with him, not because of hypocrisy but because of procrastination. Then they regretted their actions and when the Prophet came to Medina they went to him and offered apologies, but the Prophet would not speak to them, and word had already reached the Muslims that no one should speak to them. Everyone shunned them—even children. Their womenfolk came to the Messenger of God and said to him, “O Messenger of God, should we leave them?” He said, “No, but do not be intimate with them either.” As a result, the atmosphere of the city became claustrophobic for them, so they went out to the mountainsides. Their family would bring them supplies but would not talk to them. They said to one another, “People have shunned us. No one will speak to us. Should we not shun one another also?” So they dispersed and did not associate with one another any longer. They remained in this state for fifty days, pleading with God and repenting to Him, then God accepted their repentance and send down this verse about them.’

Author’s comments: We have already addressed this story through a lengthy tradition taken from Tafsīr al-Qummī concerning verse , and this story has been narrated in numerous sources.

13. In Tafsīr al-Burhān, it is related from Ibn Shahrāshūb from the Tafsīr of Abū Yūsuf b. Yaʿqūb b. Sufiyān: ‘Mālik b. Anas related to us from Nāfiʿ from Ibn ʿUmar: “O you who have faith! Be wary of God… (), in this verse God commands the Companions to fear God.” Then he said: “…and be with the Truthful, meaning be with Muḥammad and the People of His Household.”’

Author’s comments: There are numerous traditions from the Imams of the Prophet’s Household with the same meaning. For example, in al-Durr al-manthūr, Ibn Mardawayh narrates from Ibn ʿAbbās and from Ibn ʿAsākir from Imām al-Bāqir, about the verse: and be with the Truthful: ‘Be with ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib.’

14. In al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī narrates via Yaʿqūb b. Shuʿayb that he asked Imām al-Ṣādiq, ‘If the Imām dies, what should people do?’ He responded, ‘What became of God’s commandment, But why should not there go forth a group from each of their sections to become learned in religion, and to warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware ()? They are excused from fighting in the way of God so long as they are seeking knowledge from the Imām, and those who are awaiting the return of the first group are also excused until their companions return.’

Author’s comments: There are numerous narrations related with the same meaning from the Imams, and this shows that the meaning of ‘become learned in religion’ in this verse is broader than merely learning religious law, which is how the term fiqh is understood nowadays.

And know that there are other claims regarding the occasions of revelation for some of the aforementioned verses, but we have omitted these because of their evident weakness and lack of support from within the text.

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1. No source for this narration is mentioned in the text. However, it can be found in Mustadrak al-Wasāʾil, vol. 8, p. 113. (Trans.) ↩︎