060- AL-MUMTAHANAH
SHE WHO IS EXAMINED
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL
# O you who believe! Take not Mine enemy and your enemy as friends—you offer them affection, though they have indeed disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, expelling the Messenger and you for having believed in God your Lord—if you have gone forth striving in My way and seeking My good pleasure. You show them affection in secret, while I know best that which you hide and that which you disclose. And whosoever among you does so has indeed strayed from the right way. # Were they to come upon you, they would be enemies unto you and would stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you in evil. And they wish you to disbelieve. # Your family relations and your children will not benefit you on the Day of Resurrection; He will distinguish between you. And God sees whatsoever you do. # There is indeed a beautiful example for you in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, “Truly we are quit of you and of all that you worship apart from God. We have rejected you, and enmity and hatred have arisen between us and you forever, till you believe in God alone”; save for Abraham’s saying to his father, “I shall assuredly ask forgiveness for you, though I have no power to avail you aught from God.” “Our Lord, in Thee do we trust, unto Thee do we turn in repentance, and unto Thee is the journey’s end. # Our Lord! Make us not a trial for those who disbelieve, and forgive us. Our Lord! Truly Thou art the Mighty, the Wise.” # You have a beautiful example in them for whosoever hopes for God and the Last Day. And whosoever turns away—truly God is the Self-Sufficient, the Praised. # It may be that God will forge affection between you and those of them with whom you are in enmity. God is Powerful, and God is Forgiving, Merciful. # God does not forbid you, with regard to those who did not fight you on account of religion and did not expel you from your homes, from treating them righteously and being just toward them. Truly God loves the just. # God only forbids you, with regard to those who fought you on account of religion and expelled you from your homes and supported your expulsion, from befriending them; whosoever befriends them, they are the wrongdoers. # O you who believe! When the believing women come unto you as emigrants, examine them. God knows best their faith. Then if you know them to be believers, do not return them to the disbelievers. Those women are not lawful for those men; nor are those men lawful for those women. And give them what they have spent. There is no blame upon you if you marry them when you have given them their bridewealth. And hold not to the ties of disbelieving women. Ask for what you have spent, and let them ask for what they have spent. That is the Judgment of God; He judges between you. And God is Knowing, Wise. # And if any of your wives should go over to the disbelievers, and then you have your turn, give those whose wives have gone the like of what they have spent. And reverence God, in Whom you are believers. # O Prophet! When believing women come unto thee, pledging unto thee that they will not ascribe any as partners unto God, nor steal, nor fornicate, nor slay their children, nor bring a slanderous lie that they have fabricated between their hands and feet, nor disobey thee in anything honorable, then accept their pledge and seek God’s Forgiveness for them. Truly God is Forgiving, Merciful. # O you who believe! Do not befriend a people with whom God is wroth; they who have despaired of the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have despaired of the inhabitants of graves.
Commentary
# O you who believe! Take not Mine enemy and your enemy as friends—you offer them affection, though they have indeed disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, expelling the Messenger and you for having believed in God your Lord—if you have gone forth striving in My way and seeking My good pleasure. You show them affection in secret, while I know best that which you hide and that which you disclose. And whosoever among you does so has indeed strayed from the right way.
1 Friends translates awliyāʾ, which could also be rendered “protectors,” “helpers,” or “allies” (Ṭ). This verse was reportedly revealed in relation to a member of the Muslim community who attempted to disclose the Prophet’s plans to the Quraysh. The Prophet sent several Companions to intercept the letter sent by Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah. After intercepting the letter, which had information about the Prophet’s plans to march upon Makkah, the Prophet asked, “What is this, O Ḥāṭib?” He answered, “Be not hasty [in judging me], I am a man who is merely allied with the Quraysh, for I am not myself a Qurayshite. All the Emigrants with you have relatives who will protect them. I have no relatives in Makkah; so I wanted to obtain some assistance from the Quraysh. By God, I did not do it because I doubt my religion, nor because I have turned to disbelief after choosing Islam.” The Prophet said, “He has spoken the truth!” But ʿUmar exclaimed, “Let me strike the neck of this hypocrite!” To which the Prophet responded, “He has taken part in the Battle of Badr. You do not know; perhaps God has looked upon those who took part in the Battle of Badr and said, ‘Do as you please, for I have forgiven you.’” Then this verse was revealed (Q, Ṭ, W). Despite the Prophet’s leniency, the verse indicates that to choose alliance with disbelievers over alliance with the Prophet and the Muslim community is to stray from the right way (sawāʾ al-sabīl), which literally means, “the middle way.”
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# Were they to come upon you, they would be enemies unto you and would stretch forth their hands and their tongues against you in evil. And they wish you to disbelieve.
2 Stretch forth their hands means that they would fight and try to kill the believers (JJ, Ṭ), while stretch forth . . . their tongues means that they will insult and revile them (JJ). They wish for derives from the same root as af ection in v. 1, w-d-d, indicating that, while some believers still harbor affection for some of the disbelievers, many of the disbelievers only maintain their bonds in the hopes that the believers will revert to idolatry.
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# Your family relations and your children will not benefit you on the Day of Resurrection; He will distinguish between you. And God sees whatsoever you do.
3 Here your family relations and your children could be a specific reference to those who remain idolatrous (JJ) or a broader reference to the fact that each person stands alone before God on the Day of Judgment, which is thus described as the Day when neither wealth nor children avail, save for him who comes to God with a sound heart (26:88–89). For other references to this broad Quranic theme, see 3:10, 14, 116; 8:28; 9:24, 55, 69, 85; 18:39–40, 46; 23:55–56; 26:88; 34:35–37; 63:9c; 64:14–15; 68:14; 71:21. This verse could also be read, “Your family relations and your children will not benefit you. On the Day of Resurrection He will distinguish between you.” In both readings, that God will distinguish between you means that the believers and disbelievers will be divided from one another and judged separately.
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# There is indeed a beautiful example for you in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, “Truly we are quit of you and of all that you worship apart from God. We have rejected you, and enmity and hatred have arisen between us and you forever, till you believe in God alone”; save for Abraham’s saying to his father, “I shall assuredly ask forgiveness for you, though I have no power to avail you aught from God.” “Our Lord, in Thee do we trust, unto Thee do we turn in repentance, and unto Thee is the journey’s end.
4 Those with him refers to the prophets (Ṭ) or to those who followed Abraham (JJ, R). According to the first interpretation, the believers are told to look to the examples set by all previous prophets. When they said to their people thus refers to the manner in which all prophets sought to distance themselves from the disbelievers in their respective communities (Ṭ). According to the second interpretation, the believers are enjoined to follow the example of Abraham and his followers in rejecting the idolaters (R). According to both interpretations, Abraham’s seeking forgiveness for his father is not a beautiful example to be followed, because one should not seek forgiveness for disbelievers (JJ, R, Ṭ, Z). Thus 9:113 says of Abraham’s prayer for his father, But when it became clear to him that he was an enemy of God, he repudiated him. In other passages, Muhammad is told to seek forgiveness for his followers (3:159; 24:62), and Jacob agrees to seek forgiveness for his sons (12:97–8). But where there is no corresponding attitude of repentance on the part of those for whom forgiveness is sought, the Quran says, It is the same for them whether thou askest forgiveness for them or thou askest forgiveness for them not; God will never forgive them. Truly God guides not iniquitous people (63:6; see also 4:107; 9:80). The ability of prophets and angels (see 40:7; 42:5) to pray for the forgiveness of others is related to the heavily debated Quranic topic of intercession, regarding which see 2:48c; 2:255c.
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# Our Lord! Make us not a trial for those who disbelieve, and forgive us. Our Lord! Truly Thou art the Mighty, the Wise.”
5 The plea in this verse is, “Do not let the disbelievers defeat us such that they are fooled into thinking they are followers of the truth” (Bg, JJ, R), or “Do not let the disbelievers defeat us such that they will be punished on account of what they have done to us” (R); cf. 10:85; 25:20. It can also be seen as expressing the desire that evil not befall the disbelievers, since from a Quranic perspective that is the likely outcome of a situation in which the believers are a trial for disbelievers, as in 85:10: Truly those who persecute believing men and believing women, then do not repent, theirs shall be the punishment of Hell, and theirs shall be the punishment of burning. The verse could also be understood as a general prayer that trial and strife (fitnah) not arise between the two communities.
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# You have a beautiful example in them for whosoever hopes for God and the Last Day. And whosoever turns away—truly God is the Self-Sufficient, the Praised.
6 The example of Abraham and his people dissociating themselves from the disbelievers among their own tribe is the model for those who anticipate the meeting with God and hope for the reward of the Hereafter (R); see 43:26–27: Abraham said to his father and his people, “Truly I am quit of that which you worship, save Him who originated me, for surely He will guide me.” In the present verse, whosoever turns away refers to those who do not follow the injunctions of vv. 1–4 and maintain ties with the enemies among the disbelievers (JJ).
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# It may be that God will forge affection between you and those of them with whom you are in enmity. God is Powerful, and God is Forgiving, Merciful.
7 According to some accounts, after the revelation of vv. 4–6, extolling the example of Abraham and his followers, who shunned the idolaters among them, many Muslims declared their relatives among the idolaters to be their enemies. Knowing that this was hard on them, God revealed this verse (W). God “forged affection” between them through marriage, for example, when the Prophet married Umm Ḥabībah, the daughter of the Qurayshī leader Abū Sufyān (Q, W), and by guiding the disbelievers to belief (JJ). God is Powerful to do that, Forgiving of their past deeds if they repent, and Merciful to them by continuing to offer guidance.
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# God does not forbid you, with regard to those who did not fight you on account of religion and did not expel you from your homes, from treating them righteously and being just toward them. Truly God loves the just.
8 Muslims are here encouraged not to treat an entire people as enemies, if only some of those people are in fact enemies. In this context, God does not forbid you is understood as a positive exhortation meaning, “God wishes you to do so” (Q, R, Ṭ). This verse was reportedly revealed in response to a specific incident when Asmāʾ, the daughter of Abū Bakr, refused to meet her mother, who had come from Makkah to visit her in Madinah, because her mother had remained an idolater rather than embracing Islam. When the situation was brought to the attention of the Prophet, this verse was revealed. Asmāʾ then received her mother in her house (Q, Ṭ, W). In this context, that God loves the just (cf. 5:42) indicates that God loves those who are able to discern between those who are enemies and those who are not, thus avoiding indiscriminate animosity.
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# God only forbids you, with regard to those who fought you on account of religion and expelled you from your homes and supported your expulsion, from befriending them; whosoever befriends them, they are the wrongdoers.
9 Though Muslims are enjoined to not bear animosity toward an entire people, they are also not to befriend or make alliances with members of an enemy force. Such clarifications were crucial at the beginning of the formation of the Islamic community, because many Muslims still had relatives among the Quraysh of Makkah or had previously held alliances with other tribes that were allied with the Quraysh. Nonetheless, the injunctions of this verse have more general implications; see also 5:51c.
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# O you who believe! When the believing women come unto you as emigrants, examine them. God knows best their faith. Then if you know them to be believers, do not return them to the disbelievers. Those women are not lawful for those men; nor are those men lawful for those women. And give them what they have spent. There is no blame upon you if you marry them when you have given them their bride wealth. And hold not to the ties of disbelieving women. Ask for what you have spent, and let them ask for what they have spent. That is the Judgment of God; He judges between you. And God is Knowing, Wise.
10 This verse discusses the legality of marriage between Muslims and people of other communities, forbidding marriage between Muslims and disbelievers (see also 2:221). Examine them means that when women come to embrace Islam, the Muslims must first be sure that they have migrated to Madinah out of sincere belief, not out of enmity toward their husbands or because they were enamored of other men (JJ). God knows best their faith indicates that, once they have taken an oath, their word is to be trusted and the matter is between them and God. Though marriage between believers and disbelievers is forbidden, in 5:5, one of the last verses to be revealed, marriage between Muslim men and women from among the People of the Book (i.e., Jews and Christians) is permitted; see 5:5c. This verse was reportedly revealed after the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyah in 6/628, which stipulated that the Makkans who fled to the Prophet should be returned to the Makkans, but that anyone among the Prophet’s Companions who fled to the people of Makkah would not be returned to Madinah. A Qurayshī man whose wife had joined the Muslims then went to the Prophet and said, “O Muhammad, return my wife to me, for you have agreed to return to us whosoever flees to you.” Then this verse was revealed stipulating that Muslim women could not be married to idolaters and that their return was excluded from the treaty. And give them what they have spent stipulates that any bride wealth that had been paid to the Muslim women before they left their disbelieving husbands in order to embrace Islam must be returned to their disbelieving husbands when they are removed from wedlock with them. The Prophet therefore allowed the believing women who had migrated to Madinah to stay and sent back to the Quraysh the men who had fled the Quraysh to join the Muslims in Madinah (Q, W).
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# And if any of your wives should go over to the disbelievers, and then you have your turn, give those whose wives have gone the like of what they have spent. And reverence God, in Whom you are believers.
11 Any of your wives may refer to the wives themselves, their bridewealth (JJ, Ṭ), or both. And then you have your turn can mean either when Muslim men succeed in battle against their adversaries (JJ) or when they are afflicted with the loss of their women, as were the disbelievers whose wives went over to the Muslims. As the disbelievers could not be expected to follow the Quranic injunction to pay back the bridewealth if a woman left her husband and returned to them from the Muslims (which is said to have happened six times during the life of the Prophet; Z), the Muslim community was then asked to spend from the treasury or the spoils of war to give those whose wives have gone the like of what they have spent on the woman’s bridewealth (Bg, Ṭ, Z). The Muslims carried out this command by way of paying back the disbelievers the bridewealth of their former wives, but the idolaters refused to do the same (IK, Ṭ).
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# O Prophet! When believing women come unto thee, pledging unto thee that they will not ascribe any as partners unto God, nor steal, nor fornicate, nor slay their children, nor bring a slanderous lie that they have fabricated between their hands and feet, nor disobey thee in anything honorable, then accept their pledge and seek God’s Forgiveness for them. Truly God is Forgiving, Merciful.
12 This verse is reported to constitute the elements of the oath that the Prophet would take from women who came to him to embrace Islam (IK, Q). Nor steal implies any acquisitions or gains made by unlawful means (R). Nor slay their children refers to the pre-Islamic Arabian practice of burying newborn girls to avoid shame and poverty (JJ). Some argue that it applies by extension to those who kill an unborn fetus (IK), though this issue is debated. A slanderous lie that they have fabricated between their hands and feet refers to a baby conceived in adultery whom a woman falsely claims was her husband’s child (IK, JJ, Z). When taking this pledge from women, the Prophet is reported to have added on one occasion that they not wail for the dead and on another occasion to have said, “Whosoever among you fulfills the pledge will be rewarded by God, and whosoever commits any of those sins and is punished [in this life], that will serve as expiation for the sin; and whosoever commits any of these sins and God covers that, then it is up to God to punish or to forgive” (Q). In this context, it is important to note that the Prophet took an independent pledge from women, indicating that women remain spiritually independent of their husbands and responsible for themselves before God and the Prophet, an issue revisited in Sūrah 66.
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# O you who believe! Do not befriend a people with whom God is wroth; they who have despaired of the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have despaired of the inhabitants of graves.
13 This verse was reportedly revealed regarding some poor Muslims who would inform the Jews of the activities of the Muslims in exchange for provisions (Q, R, W, Z). In this sense, the sūrah ends with an injunction similar to the one with which it began—to not take God’s enemies as friends (Q). They have despaired of the Hereafter refers to the Jews of Madinah, who would be in despair for denying the prophethood of Muhammad (Q, R, Ṭ), or to the hypocrites, who would despair for conspiring against the Prophet (Q). It can also be seen as a reference to all those who despair of the Hereafter because they preferred and thus worked only for this world. That they despair as do the disbelievers, here referring specifically to the idolatrous Makkans, indicates that both will be punished in the Hereafter. That they despair of the inhabitants of graves is understood as a reference to the manner in which the disbelievers despair of seeing their deceased relations because they have no concept of a Hereafter (Q), or to the belief that no good will come to those who die as disbelievers (Q).
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