8. Al-Anfaal

اللَّـهُمَّ إِن كَانَ هَـٰذَا هُوَ الْحَقَّ مِنْ عِندِكَ فَأَمْطِرْ‌ عَلَيْنَا حِجَارَ‌ةً مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ أَوِ ائْتِنَا بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

O Allah, if this be indeed the truth [ revealed ] from You, then, rain down upon us stones from the heavens, or bring upon us a painful punishment - 32.

The answer to this was given by the Qur'an itself. First, it was said: وَمَا كَانَ اللَّـهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَأَنتَ فِيهِمْ (And Allah is not to send punishment upon them while you are in their midst [ in Makkah ] - 33). The reason is that it is the customary practice of Allah Ta` ala with all blessed prophets that He would not send His punishment over a habitation where they are present until He takes out his prophets from there. This is as it happened in the case of Sayyidna Hud, Sayyidna Salih and Sayyidna Lut, may peace be upon them all. Punishment did not come as long as they remained in their towns. Punishment came when they were taken out from there. As for the Prophet of Islam ﷺ ، he was sent to this world as universal mercy. That Divine punishment would come on him while he was present in a town was an eventuality counter to his station.

In a nutshell, the answer is: Because of your hostility towards Qur'an and Islam, you very much deserve to have stones rain at you but the presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ in Makkah prohibits it. According to Imam Ibn Jarir, this part of the verse was revealed at a time when he was present in Makkah. Then, came Hijrah to Madinah where the second part was revealed as follows: وَمَا كَانَ اللَّـهُ مُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَهُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُ‌ونَ (nor would Allah send punishment on them while they are seeking forgiveness - 33). It means that following his migration to Madinah, though the preventive factor of a mass punishment stood removed as he was not present there in Makkah, yet there did remain another factor preventing the coming of mass punishment even at that time since many weaker ones among Muslims who were unable to migrate had remained behind in Makkah and they were the ones who kept praying to Allah Ta` ala for their forgiveness. It was for their sake that punishment was not sent upon the people of Makkah.

When, even these blessed souls migrated to Madinah, the sentence appearing in the next verse (34): وَمَا لَهُمْ أَلَّا يُعَذِّبَهُمُ اللَّـهُ وَهُمْ يَصُدُّونَ عَنِ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَ‌امِ (And what is with them that Allah should not punish them while they pre-vent [ people ] from al-masjid al-Haram) was revealed.

The sense is that there were two hindrances to the coming of punishment. They both have been removed. The Holy Prophet ﷺ was no more there in Makkah, nor there remained those forgiveness-seeking Muslims in that city. Thus, there appeared to be no hindrance to the coming of punishment. Particularly so, because the people of Makkah were already deserving of punishment for their hostility to Islam while on top of which - despite being themselves incapable of any act of worship worth the name - they had started preventing people who wished to go into al-masjid al-Haram for ` Ibadah, ` Umrah and Tawaf. So, at that stage, their entitlement to punishment had become mature and complete. Consequently, it was through the Conquest of Makkah that punishment was sent upon them.

The event relating to the preventing of people from entering almasjid al-Haram took place at the expedition of Hudaibiyah when the Holy Prophet ﷺ had gone there with the intention of making ` Umrah with his Companions ؓ . The …

Commentary

It was said in previous verses that the disbelievers of Makkah were though deserving, because of their disbelief and denial, of heavenly punishment coming down upon them, but the presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ in Makkah was a prohibitive factor against the coming of a mass punishment on them. Then, after his migration to Madinah, such punishment would still not come upon them because of the weaker ones among Muslims who, while living in Makkah, kept seeking forgiveness from Allah.

In the verses quoted above, it has been stated that though their due punishment was advanced till later either for the sake of the Holy Prophet ﷺ or in consideration of the weaker ones among Muslims, they should not make the mistake of thinking that they are no more deserving of punishment. The fact is that their being deserving of punishment is loud and clear. Then, other than their disbelief and denial, there are many more crimes committed by them because of which punishment should be visiting them positively. The first two verses (34, 35) list three such crimes by them.

1. Firstly, these people are themselves just not worthy of going into the Sacred Mosque and devote to acts of worship there as due - and these very people prevent Muslims who wish to go there to devote themselves to acts of worship, Salah, Tawaf etc. Here, the reference is to the event at Hudaibiyah when, in the Hijrah year 6, the Holy Prophet ﷺ had reached there with his Sahabah ؓ in order to perform ` Umrah at Makkah - and the disbelievers of Makkah had prevented him from doing so and had compelled him to go back.

2. Secondly, for no sane reason, these people assume and claim that they were the custodians of the Sacred Mosque whereby they would let anyone they permit come in and not permit anyone they did not wish to come in.

This thinking of theirs was a combination of two misunderstandings. To begin with, they took themselves to be the custodians of the Sacred Mosque although no Kafir can become the custodian of any mosque. Then, they thought that a custodian had the right to stop anyone he wished from entering into the mosque - while, a masjid or mosque is a House of God and no one has the right to stop anyone from coming in it. Of course, exempted are particular situations in which there be the apprehension of someone desecrating the mosque or causing pain to other makers of Salah there. For example, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: Shield your masjid from small children, and insane individuals, and from mutual disputations. Small children mean children who have no sense of purity or impurity, therefore, the danger of the later is predominant. Then, the same danger of impurity as well as the danger of causing pain to those making Salah exists in the case of someone insane. As for mutual disputations, it amounts to desecration of the masjid and is also a source of causing pain to people making Salah there.

In the light of the Hadith quoted above, the custodian (mutawalli ( of the masjid does have the right not to allow such small children and insane individuals into the masjid, and see to it that no one indulges in mutual disputes in the masjid - but, in the absence of such …

3. The third crime of these people, other than the filth of Kufr and Shirk which was already their way of life, was the state of their doings which were low down, much lower than the ordinary human level. A sampling of this was pointed to when it was said that the act of prayer which these people called Salah was nothing but that they would whistle with their mouths and clap with their hands. It is obvious that no reasonable person would call these acts 'worship' and 'prayer,' in fact, not even a regular human act. Therefore, at the end of the verse (35), it was said: فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْفُرُ‌ونَ (So, taste the punishment, because you used to disbelieve), that is, the denouement of their disbelief and crimes is that they must now taste the punishment of Allah. 'Punishment' referred to here may mean the punishment of the Hereafter, as well as the punishment in the present world which came upon them in the battle of Badr at the hands of Muslims.

After that, described in verse 36, there is another event relating to the disbelievers of Makkah when they collected a huge fund to raise a powerful striking force against Muslims and then spent it to wipe out the true faith and its upholders. But, what happened finally was that lost to them was not only the wealth they had pooled together but that they, rather than achieve their objective, were themselves subjected to utter disgrace.

The event as reported by Muhammad ibn Ishaq from Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ is as follows. When the defeated, injured and surviving disbelievers of Makkah returned from the battle of Badr back to their city, the people whose fathers or sons were killed in Jihad went to Abu Sufyan, the leader of the trade caravan. They told him: You know that this war was fought in defence of your trade caravan as a result of which we had to suffer from all this loss of lives and properties. Therefore, we wish that we be helped by this corporate trading venture so that we can take our revenge against Muslims in the future. The people of the trading company accepted their plea and gave them a huge amount which they spent on their bid for victory in the battle of' Uhud. In this bid too, which was to avenge their defeat in the battle of Badr, they met a sad end and were overpowered as before. With the shock of defeat, left for them was the added remorse for having lost all that wealth they had invested in the unsuccessful challenge.

In this verse, the Holy Qur'an has foretold the Holy Prophet ﷺ about this event much before it took place. It said there: "Surely, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to prevent (people) from the way of Allah. So, they shall spend it, then it will become remorse for them, then they shall be overpowered -36." Consequently, this is how it happened at the battle of 'Uhud. They spent everything they had collected. Then, they were overpowered as a result of which, on top of the shock of defeat, they were smitten by the remorse for having lost the wealth they had invested in their venture.

Al-Baghawi and some other commentators have attributed the subject of this verse to the expenses incurred on the battle of Badr itself. According to …

At the end of the verse (36), given there is the evil end of these people in terms of the Hereafter: وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُ‌وا إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ يُحْشَرُ‌ونَ (And those who disbelieve shall be gathered into Jahannam).

In the verse under study, the mention of an evil end of spending wealth to stop people from following the true faith also includes the disbelievers of today who spend enormous wealth in the name of hospitals, educational institutions and charities only to stop people from following Islam and to attract them to their call for the false. Similarly, also included here are all those who have gone astray, those who spend their wealth to invite people to listen to doubts and superstitions they have generated into the established collective beliefs of Is-lam. But, Allah Ta` a1a has His ways of keeping the faith revealed by Him protected. There are many occasions when it is openly noticed that such people fail to achieve their objective despite having spent huge amount of money and materials.

Verse 37 describes some consequences of the events mentioned earlier which, in a nutshell, are that the disbelievers used their wealth against Islam, then they were bitten by remorse and were utterly disgraced. This series of happenings had its own advantages which find mention in the opening sentence of this verse: لِيَمِيزَ اللَّـهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ (so that Allah separates the impure from the pure).

The two words, الْخَبِيثَ (al-khabith: impure) and الطَّيِّبِ (at-tayyib : pure), stand in contrast to each other. The word, الْخَبِيثَ al-khabith, is used to refer to that which is impure, filthy and forbidden while الطَّيِّبِ at-taiyyib set against it denotes what is pure, clean, nice and lawful. At this place, the use of these two words may be referring to the impure possessions of the dis-believers, and the pure possessions of Muslim as well. Given this projection, it would mean that the enormous wealth spent by the disbelievers was impure and filthy. The evil end it met was that they suffered the loss of wealth, and the loss of lives as well. As compared to them, Muslims spent very little of whatever they had in the name of wealth, but that wealth was pure and lawful. Those who spent it succeeded, not to mention the additional spoils of war that fell into their hand. After that, it was said:

وَيَجْعَلَ الْخَبِيثَ بَعْضَهُ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ فَيَرْ‌كُمَهُ جَمِيعًا فَيَجْعَلَهُ فِي جَهَنَّمَ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُ‌ونَ ﴿37﴾

'and (Allah) puts some of the impure on some others, and heaps them all together and puts them into Jahannam. Those are the losers - 37'

The sense is that the way magnet pulls iron and amber pulls grass and in the light of new scientific discoveries, the system of the world is held together by the constant of force fields pulling things together, the case in deeds and morals is also identical. They have a pull of their own. One bad deed draws in another bad deed and a good deed draws in another good deed. Impure wealth pulls in another body of impure wealth and then this heap of impure wealth generates vestiges which are equally impure. As a result of this, Allah Ta` ala will heap all impure wealth into Jahannam and those to whom it belonged would find themselves in a terrible loss.

And there is a large number of commentators who take الْخَبِيثَ al-khabith and الطَّيِّبِ at-tayyib in the general sense at this place, that is, pure and impure. Thus, pure would signify true believers and impure would mean the disbelievers. Given this approach, the verse would mean that through conditions mentioned above, Allah Ta` ala likes to make the pure distinct from the impure, that is, make a true believer distinct from a disbeliever and - as a consequence of which - true believers are gathered together in Jannah and the disbelievers, all of them at one place, into Jahannam.

Appearing once again in verse 38, there is a patronizing address to disbelievers - which carries the elements of persuasion and warning both. The part of persuasion is that should they repent from their shocking deeds even then, and come forward to believe, then, all their past sins shall be forgiven. If they failed to desist even then, the warning part tells them that they better understand that Allah Ta` ala would not have to think about making some new law for them. The law is already there. It has been in force in the case of disbelievers of earlier times. The same law would come into force against them too - that they were destroyed in the present world and became deserving of the punishment of the Hereafter.

Commentary

We are now on verse 39 of Surah al-Anfal. Two words: فِتْنَةٌ (Fitnah) and دينُ (Deen) used here need our attention since both are used in many shades of meaning lexically.

At this place, two meanings have been reported from authorities of Tafsir from among the Sahabah and Tabi` in: (1) That Fitnah is taken to mean Kufr and Shirk, and Din is taken to mean the Deen of Islam. This very Tafsir has been reported from Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ . Given this exegetic view, the verse would mean that Muslims must continue fighting disbelievers until disbelief disintegrates yielding its place to Islam and there remains no religion and faith other than Islam. Given this situation, this injunction will be specific to only the people of Makkah and the people of Arabia - because, the Arabian Peninsula is the home of Islam. The presence of any other religion, other than Islam in it, shall be dangerous for Islam. As for the rest of the world, other religions and faiths could be kept existing as con-firmed by other verses of the Holy Qur'an and reports from Hadith.

(2) According to the second Tafsir reported from Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ and others, Fitnah at this place means the chain of pain, retributive suffering and endless woes which the disbelievers of Makkah had always been inflicting on Muslims. As long as they were in Makkah, they kept' braving all sorts of pain caused to them all the time. They could do nothing about it being virtually held by them in their clutches. When these people migrated towards Madinah, they pursued each single Muslim and kept killing or looting them. Even after these people had reached Madinah, the wrath and anger of the disbelievers kept showing up in the form of attacks on the whole city of Madinah.

Set against Fitnah, the term دین Deen means the state of exercising functional reach and control and prevailing over antagonists. Seen from this angle, the Tafsir of the verse would be that Muslims must keep fighting disbelievers until fellow Muslims are delivered and secured from the tyrannies of disbelievers - and until Islam takes over so that it can defend and protect Muslims from the injustices inflicted on them by others. An event relating to Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn 'Umar ؓ also goes on to support this very Tafsir. The report of the event says: When Hajjaj ibn Yusuf launched an armed attack against Sayyid-na ` Abdullah ibn Zubayr ؓ the Amir of Makkah, it became a strange scene. There were Muslims on both sides and their swords were swishing against each other. Seeing this, a couple of people came to Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ and said to him: Here you are watching the horror Muslims are in, although you are the son of Sayyidna ` Umar ibn al-Khattab ؓ who was not one of those who would ever tolerate such evil generating disorder. Why is it that you would not come out to remove this Fitnah? Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ said: The reason is that Allah Ta` ala has decreed that shedding the blood of any Muslim is forbidden. Both of them countered him by saying: Do you not recite the verse of the Qur'an: قَاتِلُوهُمْ حَتَّىٰ لَا تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ (Fight them until there is no Fitnah [ …

The second condition is that they stick to their doggedness and hostility. The injunction covering this situation, appears in the later verse (40) where it was said: وَإِن تَوَلَّوْا فَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّـهَ مَوْلَاكُمْ ۚ نِعْمَ الْمَوْلَىٰ وَنِعْمَ النَّصِيرُ‌ ﴿40﴾ (And if they turn away, then, be sure that Allah is your protector. He is the excellent protector and excellent supporter).

In brief, if they fail to desist from their tyranny and disbelief, the injunction Muslims are obligated with is the same as stated above, that is, continue fighting them. Since Jihad involves fighting and killing, it is usually associated with a big army, ample weapons and other hardware and logistic support. But, those days Muslims did not have much of this normally, therefore, it was possible that Muslims would have found this command to fight and kill somewhat heavy, or their lack of numbers or paucity of equipment may have led them to realize that they could not win a war like that. Therefore, Muslims were given the antidote they needed. They were told that it did not matter if the disbelievers had more men and equipment to fight with, but where in the world, were they going to get the unseen support and help of Allah Ta` ala which Muslims have with them and which they have been witnessing as being along with them on every battlefield. Then, towards the end it was said that, for all practical purposes, everyone in the world finds some help and support from someone or somewhere, but the touchstone of how effective and functionally superior it is depends on the power, strength, knowledge and experience of that helper or supporter. It goes without saying that a whole world-full of people could never exceed, even equal the power and strength and knowledge and perception of Allah Ta` ala because He is an excellent protector and an excellent supporter with no one to match Him.