Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 187 – A Call To Repentance

AI: Summary ©
The Prophet s.a.w. is a collective message that is not a one for every individual, but rather a collective message. The message is not a one for every individual, but rather a collective message. The Prophet s.a.w. is used to encourage others to kill and kill people wherever they see them, and to make alliances between nations. The history of Islam is discussed, including the use of "has" to indicate a period of time and the term "we" to mean everyone is a member of the church. The use of "med strict" in the context of the current crisis and the concept "we" means everyone is a member of the church.
AI: Summary ©
I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the
accursed.
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful.
Welcome to another episode of our Tafsir page
by page and insha'Allah ta'ala today
we're on page 187 which is the first
page of Surah Tawbah in the 10th Juz
of the Quran.
In the previous episode we finished off Surah
Al-Anfal and we spoke about a number
of issues from amongst them is an incident
that took place towards the end of the
battle of Badr in which the Prophet s
.a.w. found that amongst the captives of
war was his uncle al-Abbas r.a
claimed to be a Muslim.
He said that I'm a believer or a
messenger of Allah but I just didn't announce
my Islam so therefore I shouldn't have to
pay the ransom.
Allah a.s.w. said say to those
people that if you're truthful in your claim
you still have to pay the ransom but
Allah will give you something greater in return.
Allah will look after you if you are
truthful in your claim and that is what
happened with al-Abbas r.a and then
Allah a.s.w. speaks about the important
bond that took place or existed between the
two great bodies of companions or the two
great groups that consisted of the companions, the
Muhajirun of Mecca and the Ansar of Medina
and how they were allies to one another
and how that is an alliance that is
greater than any other type of alliance because
it is based upon the love of Allah
and the religion of Allah and the wanting
to please Allah a.s.w. as opposed
to the other types of alliances that people
have which are done for the purposes of
dunya, it's based upon people's relationships or based
upon wealth or based upon ethnicity.
Those things always fracture over time but if
people have the true essence of Islam and
they build a bond upon that true essence
as the companions did during their time then
that is something which Allah a.s.w.
blesses and those people are people who Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala loves and Allah a
.s.w. gives to them a great deal
of help and assistance as a result of
that.
We come in today's episode as we said
to the next surah, the ninth chapter of
the Quran and that is Surat At-Tawbah,
Surat At-Tawbah also known as in some
places Surah Baraa and it's a surah which
consists of 129 verses and it is a
madani revelation revealed towards the end of the
life of the Prophet s.a.w. in
fact its first verses were revealed just before
the first hajj that was led by Abu
Bakr a.s.w. around the ninth year
of the Hijrah and so therefore it's from
the final or the latter surahs of the
Quran revealed after the conquest of the city
of Mecca.
It is as you all know already also
the only surah of the Quran that doesn't
begin with the Basmala so we don't begin
this surah by saying Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim, it
is generally the sunnah and the practice that
every single surah of the Quran you begin
by saying the Basmala Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim except
for Surat At-Tawbah and Surat At-Tawbah
if you were going to begin its recitation
you would just simply make the isti'adah
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajim and then
you start to recite it so you don't
say the Basmala it's the only surah and
the scholars have a number of positions as
to why that is perhaps the one that
is most well known and the one that
is mentioned by a number of the scholars
is that because it is a surah that
was revealed by the sword or with the
sword meaning that in the surahs we will
see in the opening passages there is a
declaration of war upon the enemies of Islam
in the time of the Prophet s.a
.w. and that Allah and His Messenger are
free of any restrictions and any covenants that
they had that they're giving people a time
period and then after that time period the
treaties that they had will elapse except for
certain groups of people and so therefore it
was an open declaration that Allah is now
giving the Prophet s.a.w. freedom to
spread the religion of Islam if he chooses
to do so or as he chose to
do so s.a.w. by engaging in
warfare open warfare and so therefore Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala because of this it is
said according to a number of the scholars
that the surah doesn't begin with the basmala
because the basmala as we know invokes the
names of Allah of mercy and forgiveness and
this is a surah in which there is
a certain level of strictness that is being
applied upon people again it is important to
remember context always in these surahs of the
Quran that this is for the Muslim ruler
that Allah a.s.w. is addressing the
Prophet s.a.w. that this is something
which is permissible for you and this is
what you do and that's why we will
come across verses in which Allah a.s
.w. will say as we will see in
the opening passages and pages and verses of
this surah which Allah a.s.w. commands
the companions or commands the believers to find
the disbelievers wherever they are and to kill
them and to be harsh with them and
so on and so forth those verses have
to be understood in their context as we
will mention when we go into detail one
of the greatest as we know problems in
our time and one of the greatest calamities
to be for the Muslims is people who
don't understand the Quran correctly and so they
take a verse and they isolate it isolate
it from the rest of the Quran isolate
it from the understanding of the Prophet s
.a.w. isolate it from the interpretation that
the scholars gave to it based upon the
understanding of the companions and the Salaf and
what they do then is they just apply
it to individuals and so you take a
verse that says kill people wherever you see
them so they literally go and kill people
wherever they see them blow them up and
kill them and massacre them without any just
cause or reason and had that been what
the meaning of the verse was then the
Prophet s.a.w. would have been the
first one to do it and the companions
would have been the first ones to implement
it are they not better more wanting of
the reward of Allah more eager to please
Allah more eager in implementing the Quran and
the Sunnah than we are 1400 years or
later so when they didn't apply in that
way they didn't understand it in that way
that wasn't the context that they understood the
verse to be in that shows to you
that that's not the meaning then of the
verse that there is an understanding that has
to be taken of that verse not least
because these verses as we've said before that
speak about jihad speak about fighting speak about
killing speak about treaties between nations and breaking
of treaties between nations that's what the Muslim
ruler to do it's not for every Amr
and Zaid to do not for every Muslim
on the street to say no I don't
want to I don't want to do this
or I want to declare this or I
am free of this that's not how it
works because that would lead to chaos just
as in every single country in the world
today the people that make trade deals the
people that make alliances it's the government it's
the prime minister or the president or the
king or the queen they're the people that
are doing this it's not the average person
on the street so why then the Muslims
think for some reason because the Quran addresses
all of these different scopes and all of
these different scenarios why then the Muslims think
that that's a problem or that that's not
something which applies to them every Muslim has
the right to do as they please that's
a problem and why the non-Muslims unfortunately
think that that's also the case that even
though they we live in a system in
a country today where countries declare war or
they don't declare war or they have peace
treaties or they don't have peace treaties that
therefore the Muslims as a nation if they
were to have a single ruler and they
were to be a nation why they wouldn't
be able to do something similar and that
these verses are speaking about that particular thing
that's also something which is which shows a
lack of understanding so we ask Allah to
make our understanding correct and that Allah guides
us to understanding his speech in the way
that is pleasing to him and in accordance
to the understanding of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam and the companions and the early generations
of Muslims so we begin with verse number
one Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says a
release by Allah and his messenger from the
treaty you believe has made it has been
announced Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this
verse in verse number one this is a
declaration an open announcement that is that Allah
is instructing the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
the believers to make that Allah and his
messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam are free of every
treaty that they made with those disbelievers so
for example whether it's the Quraysh or whether
it's anyone other than the Quraysh that this
is something which now they are going to
stop but it's not going to be immediate
because obviously if you have a treaty there
is a lapsing period that you have to
give and so Allah as we will see
in verse number two gives to them four
months he says you have four months from
this date for you to for you to
know that this the four months after they
elapse then those treaties will no longer be
valid and so this is the muhla they
were given this is the time that they
were given and this announcement was made as
is mentioned a number of the narrations during
the hajj of Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu so
when hajj first became obligated as a pillar
of Islam the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in
the first year didn't attend himself he attended
the second year in the 10th year of
the hijra months before his death sallallahu alaihi
wasallam and that's why we call that the
farewell hajj but the year before in the
ninth year of the hijra he sent Abu
Bakr radiyallahu anhu to lead the hajj and
he sent with him a number of the
companions a number of the companions went and
they performed hajj and that's because the hajj
according to a number of the scholars because
the practice of the hajj of the mushrikeen
and the idolaters was so convoluted and so
mixed up there were many of those practices
that people were still familiar with making tawaf
naked uh making certain acts of devotion to
different idols doing things and stopping in different
places had the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam gone
himself and some people are doing this and
some people are doing that and he's also
doing what is the correct version of hajj
there would have been confusion amongst people so
Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu went and the other
senior companions and they told people don't do
this and don't do that and this is
how we do hajj and this is how
we don't do hajj so the people had
an understanding so in the following year when
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam comes they now
understand the hajj so as he was doing
this Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam sent his cousin Ali radiyallahu anhu
with these verses of surat al-tauba that
he should make these declarations as Abu Huraira
radiyallahu anhu used to say that we would
go and we would announce loudly to all
of the muslims all of the pilgrims to
the extent that my voice became hoarse because
of how much i was shouting and raising
my voice that after this year no non
-muslim can make hajj no one's allowed to
make tawaf naked don't worship other than Allah
that Allah and his messenger are free of
their treaties after four months and so on
and so forth Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
then says in verse number two so
you may move freely about the land for
four months but you should bear in mind
both that you will not escape Allah and
that Allah will disgrace those who defy him
so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling
them that Allah and his messenger sallallahu alaihi
wasallam are free from these treaties but they
will have a period of four months after
that four months no treaty will exist between
them and that's why as we said the
surah is called surah baraa the surah of
absolving or freeing oneself but Allah azawajal is
saying that even after the four months after
you leave meaning if you were to leave
the land or you were to do something
else or you would say okay there is
no uh treaty between us know that you
will never escape Allah azawajal you may escape
the punishment of the dunya you may but
Allah azawajal will hold you to account so
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is reminding the
disbelievers for example the people of the arabs
of of of of arabia in the time
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he's reminding
them that even if you escape or you
or you or you don't engage with the
muslims in times in terms of warfare or
fighting so you escape in that sense you
cannot truly escape Allah azawajal Allah will still
hold you to account for your disbelief Allah
will hold you to account for the sins
and the evil that you have committed and
so Allah azawajal will disgrace those who disbelieve
and those who defy him in verse number
three Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues on
the day of the great pilgrimage there will
be a proclamation from Allah and his messenger
to all people that Allah and his messenger
are released from the obligations to the idolaters
it will be better for you if you
repent know that you cannot escape Allah if
you turn away and warn those who ignore
that they will have a painful punishment so
this is the promise that Allah azawajal gave
to the believers number one that Allah will
strengthen them and aid them and that in
the end the affair will be theirs that
they will be the ones who will enter
into Mecca they will have victory as Allah
azawajal promised them in surah al-fatih Allah
said you will enter into the city of
Mecca by Allah's permission and so Allah azawajal
gave them safety and Allah azawajal gave them
power and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
commands the Prophet to make this declaration on
the day of the big hajj the major
hajj what is the day of the major
hajj according to many of the scholars of
Islam it is the day of annahar it
is the day of the Eid the big
Eid the 10th of Dhul Hijjah and that
is the day when all of the people
gather because it is the day of their
celebration and obviously in the time or in
that particular hajj of Abu Bakr you still
had many non-muslims many of the of
the mushrikeen of the arabs were still there
because they had yet to been they had
yet to declare that no non-muslims were
allowed into the city of Mecca or the
haram of Mecca and so therefore there were
many of them and so that's why these
declarations were made on that day the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam and he said that Abu
Bakr radhiallahu anhu went to lead the hajj
and then these verses were revealed so the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam gave them to Ali
and he said go and declare them and
so he came and he told Abu Bakr
oh Abu Bakr the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
sent me to make this declaration Abu Bakr
said are you to lead the hajj Ali
said no you're leading hajj but i'm just
told to make this declaration so a number
of the companions went and they made this
declaration to their people on that day that
after that year they can't make hajj except
if you're a muslim and so on and
so forth and so Allah azzawajal after mentioning
this and this declaration that should be made
and that Allah and his messenger are free
of these treaties then he says to the
disbelievers that if you were to turn back
to Allah and repent that would be better
for you and if you turn away then
know that you cannot escape Allah and that
Allah azzawajal will give a painful punishment to
those who defy him and turn away.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then makes an
exception in verse number four and he says
illa allatheena aahattum minal mushrikeena thumma lam yanqusuukum
shay'an walam yudhahiru alaykum ahadan fa atimmu
ilayhim ahdahum ila muddatihim inna allaha yuhibbul muttaqeen
as for those who have honored the treaty
you made with them and those who have
not supported anyone against you fulfill your agreement
with them to the end of their term
for Allah loves those who are mindful of
him.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says concerning the
exception here that the freedom or the absorbing
of the treaties are between those people who
did some harm to the Muslims they tried
to harm them they tried to break their
treaty they were being funny with those issues
and so therefore Allah azzawajal says that for
them and that was the majority of the
Arabs that there is no treaty now between
us and you you have four months this
grace period this waiting period after that there
is no treaty between us and you but
Allah azzawajal says illa allatheena aahattum minal mushrikeen
unless there are those who honored the treaty
that you made with them from the mushrikeen
and those who have not supported anyone against
you meaning that some of the Arabs they
made a treaty with the Muslims but then
they they even though they themselves did not
harm the Muslims they didn't attack the Muslims
they supported those who attacked the Muslims and
they were helping those who attacked the Muslims
so they're breaking the spirit of the treaty
but those people who didn't do that they
didn't try to break their treaty they didn't
try to uh in any way uh if
you like break the spirit of the treaty
they didn't try to help others or undermine
the treaty and its terms for helping others
against the Muslims Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says concerning these people then for these people
these are the people who you fulfill that
treaty until the end of that term meaning
fulfill the full term so for these people
you don't have to give them the four
months and so on they have the full
term and that is why because as we
mentioned before Islam is based on the principles
of Islam is you fulfill your oaths you
fulfill your treaties don't be the ones as
we mentioned in the verses in surah anfal
just a couple of episodes ago Allah azawajal
is saying that if they're good and with
their treaty then fulfill that treaty don't be
the one to break it but if they're
going to be the ones to break it
then you break it say to them look
it's okay we don't need this type of
treaty and so don't be people who are
fooled or people who are gullible but at
the same time people who are honorable they're
fulfilling their treaties they're doing as they said
they're not trying to undermine you then it
is from Islam that you are also not
people of deceit and betrayal people who don't
fulfill their oaths but you fulfill them until
the end of that term in allaha yuhibbul
muttaqeen for allah loves those who are mindful
of him and so again this verse also
therefore though these verses that we mentioned at
the beginning of this surah therefore also have
to be understood in terms of their correct
context it's not the case that the religion
commands us to break every treaty just because
that person's a non-muslim every treaty because
that person uh you know whatever it may
be whatever the reason may be no allah
is really speaking about a specific context here
and the context is that those people undermine
islam they try to harm islam they try
to attack the muslims although they're supporting those
who are attacking the muslims they supported the
quraysh or they helped theqeef or they're helping
other tribes that are enemies or were once
enemies towards islam and so those are the
people that allah is really saying you have
no need for those types of treaties anymore
there was a time when the muslims were
in need of them because they were few
in number they were being persecuted there was
a difficulty upon them now the muslims are
strong they've conquered the city of mecca they
are strong in number they are strong in
presence they are strong in the sense that
they don't need now for those treaties or
those types of treaties to be party to
them allah says in verse number five when
the forbidden months are over wherever you encounter
the idolaters then kill them seize them besiege
them besiege them wait for them at every
lookout post but if they turn to allah
then maintain the prayer and pay the prescribed
alms and let them go on their way
for allah is most forgiving most merciful and
allah in this verse then says so after
these these months are over these four months
that you've been given that they've been given
that they've been told that you have these
four months of grace period once they have
finished so these are the sacred months because
you're forbidden sacred in the sense that you're
forbidden to fight them in these four months
because that is the terms that you have
given to them once it has been fulfilled
then you may fight them and you may
take them as prisoners of war and you
may lay in wait for them and besiege
them and you may go actively and look
out for them in order to find them
and so this is what allah is usually
speaking about concerning those people and that is
because these people were enemies to islam they
harmed islam or they were trying to harm
islam they were trying to harm the prophet
and the muslims so they were actively enemies
of islam and there are enemies and when
there are enemies and they are actively trying
to harm the muslims then the muslims are
defending themselves the muslims are taking the war
or the battle to them so to speak
however again as we said that this is
an important issue to remember in the context
it's not speaking to every single muslim allah
azza wa jalla what he's saying at the
beginning allah should declare this the messenger of
allah should declare this the prophet said abu
bakr to declare this or ali to declare
this these are the leaders of the muslims
they're the ones making these decisions and even
then when it comes to the fighting of
those people allah says it's permissible for you
now to fight them and to seize them
and to capture them but it's not just
anyone and everyone every time they find someone
that they're doing this it's the muslim ruler
that sends out the armies it's the muslim
ruler that dictates when and how and where
this is to take place not just for
every individual to come and do this and
so what we see today unfortunately in our
time where people are taking matters into their
own hands in the west in other countries
killing people acts of extremism acts of terrorism
causing harm and sometimes even muslims are the
ones that are harmed not just only non
-muslims sometimes muslims are the ones that are
injured muslims are the ones that are being
harmed because there's many muslims in in those
places and in those locations also and so
a great deal of harm ensues and that's
all because of a misunderstanding of the verse
a taking out of context and misinterpreting what
allah azza wa jal is saying and who
these rulings are for first and foremost and
that is what allah azza wa jal says
for intabu but if these people repent and
they fulfill the prayer they establish the prayer
they give the zakah they leave them and
don't fight them and that's why a muslim
who's a muslim because some of those people
will even kill the muslims and say no
because they're living amongst non-muslims or because
they're doing harm or they're they're tacitly approving
what's going on that is permissible to kill
them as well and allah azza wa jal
is saying here that if they're muslims they
meaning they believe in allah they pray and
they give zakah so these are people that
are worshipping allah azza wa jal then it's
not permissible for you to fight them or
to kill them or to injure them and
so therefore it is something very important because
one of the uh one of the sects
that appeared and still appear in our time
is what we call the khawarij and these
are the people who for example cast out
people for any major sin that they commit
these are the people who rebel against the
muslim rulers these are the people who think
that it's permissible to go and kill and
harm people without any just cause as they
did even in the time of the companions
they would kill companions of the prophet and
they would do a great deal of harm
and that is why the companion spoke very
harshly against these people and that's why some
of the companions would say because when one
of those people came to ibn umar and
he said oh abdullah oh ibn umar if
i'm in the state of ihram is it
permissible for me to kill a fly in
the state of ihram i'm making umrah or
hajj so i have restrictions of ihram upon
me and there's a fly there and it's
annoying me irritating me is it permissible for
me to swat the fly and kill it
he said to him where are you from
he said i'm from iraq and iraq was
the place where the khawarij were he said
you killed the grandson your people killed the
grandson of the prophet of salam and they
didn't care and you care about a fly
meaning that this is your thinking that when
it comes to the believers and so on
you don't care about their blood humans you
don't care about their blood but a fly
you're concerned about its rights and its position
and so on and that shows how when
a person doesn't have knowledge of islam and
their religion how convoluted things become in the
final verse that we'll take allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala then says in verse number six
if any one of the idolaters should seek
your protection then grant it to him so
that he may hear the word of allah
then take him to a place safe for
him for there are people with no knowledge
allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says and if
one of those people come to you meaning
from the disbelievers and they seek for you
protection so he's a non-believer is a
disbeliever but he says to you i need
some protection give me protection and this is
something which is permissible for any of the
muslims to do if someone comes and they
want to give them protection it's permissible for
them to do so because in the conquest
of mecca even though the prophet came and
is conquering the city of mecca his uh
his uh cousin umuhani the sister of ali
she gave protection to one of the disbelievers
and some of the muslims said no we're
not going to give him protection just because
you said so so she came to the
messenger of allah she said a messenger of
allah this is what i did and this
is what i said and this is what
people are saying the prophet said go umuhani
we have given protection to the one whom
you've given protection to meaning that we as
muslims we the bonds that other people give
or the oaths other people give i'm not
going to break the terms that someone gives
to someone else because that is how the
muslims behave towards one another so here if
they're given protection allah azawajal says then give
them protection why so they can hear the
speech of allah and from the benefits of
this verse is that we see that the
quran is the speech of allah from the
attributes of allah azawajal not created as some
of the people said but these are the
words of allah azawajal he spoke with them
subhanahu wa ta'ala uh and he and
he it is from the speech of allah
azawajal so give them protection until they hear
the words of allah why because maybe that
revelation the words of allah will impact them
in their heart which shows to you again
something which we mentioned before that the purpose
of fighting jihad and so on is not
just to kill or to conquer land or
to harm people it is to spread the
religion of allah azawajal so here now this
person don't kill him there are non-muslim
there are enemy there are a person who
you don't have a treaty with but they
want your protection what does allah say he
doesn't say kill them the previous verse said
what wherever you find them kill them seize
them there's a context to that here allah
azawajal is saying that's a general thing for
the muslim ruler that's the general way that
he can deal with the situation for individually
one-to-one this person comes he wants
protection give them protection why let them hear
the speech of allah let them see islam
let them understand the tawhid of allah azawajal
perhaps that person will benefit from it then
take them to their place of safety meaning
that you gave them protection so you have
to fulfill that protection and take them to
a place of safety and that's because they
maybe don't understand the true reality of islam
especially when there is war there's friction between
people they're very unlikely to sit down and
want to what the other people are saying
and their perspective but now you have this
opportunity to give dawah to call to islam
to guide someone and save them from the
fire then do so to the best of
your ability because there are people who have
no knowledge so teach them help them guide
them to the best of your ability and
the rest then is in the hands of
allah azawajal and with that we come to
the end of today's episode bismillah
ar-rahman ar-raheem