060 - Sūrat al-Mumtahinah

In the name of Allah (who is) Rahmān (and) Rahīm.

[For explanation, see Sūrat al-Fātiha: 1]

1

O you who believe, do not take My enemy and your enemy, namely, the disbelievers of Mecca, for friends. You offer, you communicate to, them, the Prophet's plan "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" to attack them, which he had confided to you, and had kept secret, at Hunayn, [communicating this to them out of], affection, between you and them. Hātib b. Abī Balta'a sent them a letter to that effect, on account of his having children and close relatives, idolaters, among them. The Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" intercepted it from the person to whom he [Hātib] had given it to deliver, after Allahu ta’ālā apprised him of this. Hātib's excuse for this [conduct of his] was accepted [by the Prophet]; when verily they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, that is, [in] the religion of Islam and the Qur'ān, expelling the Messenger (rasūl) and you, from Mecca, by oppressing you, because you believe in Allahu ta’ālā, your Rabb. If you have gone forth to struggle in My way and to seek My pleasure … (the response to the conditional is indicated by what preceded, that is to say, [understand it as being] 'then do not take them as friends'). You secretly harbour affection for them, when I know well what you hide and what you proclaim. And whoever among you does that, that is, to secretly communicate the Prophet's news to them, has verily strayed from the right way, he has missed the path of guidance (originally, al-sawā' means 'the middle [way]').

2

If they were to prevail over you, they would be your enemies, and would stretch out against you their hands, to kill and assault you, and their tongues with evil [intent], with insults and reviling; and they long for you to disbelieve.

3

Your relatives and your children, the idolatrous [ones], for whose sake you secretly communicated the news, will not avail you, against the chastisement in the Hereafter. On the Day of Resurrection you will be separated (passive yufsalu; or read active yafsilu, 'He will separate you') from them, so that you will be in Paradise, while they will be alongside the disbelievers in the Fire. And Allahu ta’ālā is Seer of what you do.

4

Verily there is for you a good example (read iswa or uswa in both instances, meaning qudwa) in [the person of] Abraham, in terms of [his] sayings and deeds, and those who were with him, of believers, when they said to their people, 'We are indeed innocent of you (bura'ā' is the plural of barī', similar [in form] to zarīf, 'charming') and of what you worship besides Allahu ta’ālā. We repudiate you, we disavow you, and between us and you there has arisen enmity and hate forever (wa'l-baghdā'u abadan: pronounce both hamzas fully, or replace the second one with a wāw) until you [come to] believe in Allahu ta’ālā alone', except for Abraham's saying to his father, 'I shall ask forgiveness for you - [this statement is] excepted from 'a [good] example', so it is not [right] for you to follow his example in this [respect] by asking forgiveness for disbelievers. As for his saying: but I cannot avail you anything against Allahu ta’ālā' - that is, either against His chastisement or [to secure for you of] His reward - he [Abraham] is using it to intimate [to his father] that he can do nothing for him other than to ask forgiveness [for him], which [saying] is itself based on that [former statement] albeit excepted [from it] in terms of what is meant by it, even if on the face of it, it would seem to be [semantically] part of the [good] example to be followed: Say, 'Who can avail you anything against Allahu ta’ālā' [Q. 48:11]; his [Abraham's] plea of forgiveness for him was before it became evident to him that he [his father] was an enemy of Allahu ta’ālā, as mentioned in sūrat Barā'a [Q. 9:114]. 'Our Rabb, in You we put our trust, and to You we turn [penitently], and to You is the journeying: these are the words of the Friend [of Allahu ta’ālā, Abraham] and those who were with him, in other words, they were saying:

Our Rabb, do not make us a cause of beguilement for those who disbelieve, that is to say, do not make them prevail over us, lest they think that they are following the truth and are beguiled as a result, in other words, [lest] they lose their reason because of us; and forgive us. Our Rabb, You are indeed the Mighty, the Wise', in Your Sovereignty and Your actions.

Verily there is for you, O community of Muhammad "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" (laqad kāna lakum is the response to an implied oath) in them a good example, for those [of you] who (li-man kāna is an inclusive substitution for -kum [of lakum, 'for you'] with the same preposition [li-] repeated) anticipate Allahu ta’ālā and al-yawm al-ākher (the Last Day), that is, [for those] who fear these two, or who expect reward or punishment. And whoever turns away, by befriending the disbelievers, [should know that] Allahu ta’ālā is the Independent, [without need] of His creatures, the Worthy of Praise, to those who obey Him.

It may be that Allahu ta’ālā will bring about between you and those of them with whom you are at enmity, from among the disbelievers of Mecca out of [your] obedience to Allahu ta’ālā, exalted be He, affection, by His guiding them to faith, so that they then become your friends. For Allahu ta’ālā is Powerful, [able] to do that - and He did do this after the conquest of Mecca - and Allahu ta’ālā is Forgiving, to them of their past [deeds], Merciful, to them [also].

Allahu ta’ālā does not forbid you in regard to those who did not wage war against you, from among the disbelievers, on account of religion and did not expel you from your homes, that you should treat them kindly (an tabarrūhum is an inclusive substitution for alladhīna, 'those who') and deal with them justly: this was [revealed] before the command to struggle against them. Assuredly Allahu ta’ālā loves the just.

Allahu ta’ālā only forbids you in regard to those who waged war against you on account of religion and expelled you from your homes and supported [others] in your expulsion, that you should make friends with them (an tawallawhum is an inclusive substitution for alladhīna, 'those who'). And whoever makes friends with them, those - they are the wrongdoers.

O you who believe, when believing women come to you, [saying] with their tongues [that they are], emigrating, from the [company of] disbelievers - [this was] following the truce concluded with them [the disbelievers] at al-Hudaybiyya to the effect that if any of their number should go to [join] the believers, that person should be sent back - test them, by making them swear that they had only gone forth [from Mecca] because of their [sincere] wish to embrace Islam, and not out of some hatred for their disbelieving husbands, nor because they might be enamoured by some Muslim man: that was how the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" used to take from them their oaths. Allahu ta’ālā knows best [the state of] their faith. Then, if you know them, if you suppose them, on the basis of their oaths, to be believers, do not send them back to the disbelievers. They [the women] are not lawful for them, nor are they [the disbelievers] lawful for them. And give them, that is to say, their disbelieving husbands, what they have expended, on them [on such women], in the way of dowries. And you would not be at fault if you marry them, on that [previous] condition, when you have given them their dowries. And do not hold on (read tumassikū or tumsikū) to the [conjugal] ties of disbelieving women, your wives, for your Islam automatically prohibits you from this, or [to the ties of] those apostatising women who return to the idolaters, for [likewise] their apostatising automatically prohibits you from marrying them, and ask for, demand, [the return of] what you have expended, on these women, of dowries, in the event of apostasy, from those disbelievers to whom they are married. And let them ask for what they have expended, on those women who have emigrated, as explained above, that it may be repaid to them. That is Allah’s judgement. He judges between you, therewith, and Allahu ta’ālā is Knower, Wise.

And if you lose any of your wives, that is to say, [if you lose] one or more of them - or [it means if you lose] anything of their dowries - by [their] going, to the disbelievers, as apostates, and so you retaliate, you embark upon a raid and capture spoils [from them], then give those whose wives have gone, from the spoils, the like of what they have expended, for their having lost it to the disbelievers. And fear Allahu ta’ālā in Whom you believe. And indeed the believers did what they had been commanded to do in the way of paying [back] the disbelievers [the dowries of their former wives] and the believers [the dowries of the women who had apostatised]. Afterwards, however, this stipulation was annulled.

O Prophet, if believing women come to you, pledging allegiance to you that they will not ascribe anything as partner to Allahu ta’ālā, and that they will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor slay their children, as used to be done during the time of pagandom (jāhiliyya), when they would bury new-born girls alive, fearing ignominy and impoverishment, nor bring any lie that they have invented [originating] between their hands and their legs, that is, [by bringing] a foundling which they then [falsely] ascribe to the husband - it [the lie] is described in terms of a real child, because when a woman gives birth to a child, it falls between her hands and legs; nor disobey you in, doing, what is decent, which is that which concords with obedience to Allahu ta’ālā, such as refraining from wailing, ripping apart [their] clothes [in grief], pulling out [their] hair, tearing open the front of [their] garments or scratching [their] faces, then accept their allegiance - the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" did this [but] in words, and he did not shake hands with any of them - and ask Allahu ta’ālā to forgive them; surely Allahu ta’ālā is Forgiving, Merciful.

O you who believe, do not befriend a people against whom Allahu ta’ālā is wrathful, namely, the Jews. They have truly despaired of the Hereafter, of [attaining] its reward - despite their being certain of its truth, out of obstinacy towards the Prophet, even though they know him to be sincere - just as the disbelievers have despaired - they [themselves] being - of those who are in the tombs, that is to say, those who are entombed [and barred] from the good of the Hereafter, for they are shown [both] their [would-have-been] places in Paradise, had they believed, and the Fire for which they are destined.

﴾ 0 ﴿