9. At-Tawba

They have taken their rabbis, the scholars among the Jews, and their monks, the devout among the Christians, as lords beside God — following them in making lawful what God has made unlawful and making unlawful what He has made lawful — and the Messiah, son of Mary, when they were not commanded, in the Torah and the Gospel, except to worship One God: there is no god except Him; glory be to Him, as an affirmation of His transcendence [high], above what they associate [with Him].

He it is Who has sent His Messenger, Muhammad (s), with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may manifest it, make it prevail, over every religion, all the religions which oppose it, even though the disbelievers be averse, to this.

O you who believe, many of the rabbis and monks indeed consume, take, people’s goods by false means, as in the case of bribes [paid] for judgements, and bar, people, from the way of God, [from] His religion. And those who (wa’lladhīna is the subject) hoard up gold and silver, and do not expend them, these treasure-hoards, in the way of God, that is, they do not pay from it what is due to Him by way of alms and charity — give them tidings, inform them, of a painful chastisement.

On the day when it shall be heated in the fire of Hell and therewith their foreheads and their sides and their backs shall be branded, burnt — their skins will be stretched until these [hoards of gold and silver] can be placed on them entirely, and it will be said to them: ‘This is what you hoarded up for yourselves: so taste now what you used to hoard!’, that is, [taste] its requital.

Verily the number of months, used to reckon the year, with God is twelve months in the Book of God, the Preserved Tablet (al-lawh al-mahfūz), from the day that He created the heavens and the earth; four of them, that is, the months, are sacred, inviolable: Dhū’l-Qa‘da, Dhū’l-Hijja, Muharram and Rajab. That, making of them sacred, is the right, the upright, religion. So do not wrong yourselves during them, during these sacred months, with acts of disobedience, for their burden [of sin] is greater therein; but it is also said to mean [do not wrong yourselves] at any time during all the months [of the year]. And fight the idolaters altogether, all of them, throughout the months, even as they fight you altogether; and know that God is with those who fear Him, supporting and assisting [them].

Postponement [of the sacred month] — that is, the deferment of the sacredness of a given month to another, as they used to do during paganism, such as postponing the sacredness of Muharram, if it arrives while they are at war, to Safar — is only an excess of unbelief, because of their rejection of God’s ruling thereof, whereby those who disbelieve are led astray (yudallu may also be read yadillu, ‘[they] go astray’), one year they make it, the month postponed, profane, and hallow it another, that they may make up, by profaning one month and hallowing another in its place, the number, of months, which God has hallowed, such that they do not hallow more, or less, than the four months, but without observing the individual months themselves; and so they profane what God has hallowed. Their evil deeds have been adorned for them, such that they deem them to be good [deeds]; and God does not guide the disbelieving folk.

When the Prophet (s) summoned men for the Tabūk campaign, and they thought it too burdensome, because of the hardship and the extreme heat from which they were suffering, the following was revealed: O you who believe, what is wrong with you that, when it is said to you, ‘Go forth in the way of God,’ you sink down heavily (iththāqaltum: the original tā’ [of tathāqaltum] has been assimilated with the thā’, and the conjunctive hamza has been supplied), in other words, you hesitate and are disinclined to [participate in] the struggle, to the ground, to stay sitting upon it? (the interrogative is meant as a rebuke). Are you so content with the life of this world, and its delights, rather than with the Hereafter?, that is, in place of its bliss? Yet the enjoyment of the life of this world is, in, comparison with the enjoyment of, the Hereafter but little, trivial.

If (illā: lā has been assimilated with the nūn of the conditional particle in, in both instances [here and in the next verse]) you do not go forth, [if you do not] set out with the Prophet (s) for the struggle, He will chastise you with a painful chastisement, and He will substitute [you with] another folk other than you, that is, He will bring them in your place, and you will not hurt Him, that is, God, or [‘him’ as being] the Prophet (s), at all, should you neglect to help him [to victory], for God [Himself] will indeed bring victory to His religion; for God has power over all things, including bringing victory to His religion and His Prophet.

If you do not help him, that is, the Prophet (s), [know that] God has already helped him, when the disbelievers drove him forth, from Mecca, that is, they made him resort to leaving, when they desired to kill him or imprison him or banish him at the council assembly — the second of two (thāniya ithnayn: this is a circumstantial qualifier), that is, one of two, the other being Abū Bakr: in other words, just as God helped him in such a situation, He will not forsake him in another; when (idh substitutes for the previous idh) the two were in the cave — a breach in the mountain called Thawr — when (idh substituting again), he said to his companion, Abū Bakr — who, upon perceiving the [sound of the] feet of the idolaters [nearby], had said to him, ‘If one of them should merely look below his feet, he will definitely see us!’ — ‘Do not despair; verily God is with us’, assisting [us]. Then God sent down His Spirit of Peace upon him, His reassurance — some say this means upon the Prophet, others, that it means upon Abū Bakr — and supported him, that is, the Prophet (s), with legions, of angels, you did not see, [both] in the cave and in the locations in which he fought battles; and He made the word of those who disbelieved, that is, the call to idolatry, the nethermost, the one vanquished, and the Word of God, that is, the profession of His Oneness (shahāda), was the uppermost, the one prevailing and triumphant. And God is Mighty, in His Kingdom, Wise, in His actions.