Surah 9. Al-Tawba, Ayah 97

The words interpolated by me between brackets at the beginning of this sentence are based on the interpretation given by Razi (see also Manar XI, 8), obviously in view of verse {99}, which speaks of believers among the bedouin.

Owing to their nomadic way of life and its inherent hardship and crudity, the bedouin find it more difficult than do settled people to be guided by ethical imperatives unconnected with their immediate tribal interests - a difficulty which is still further enhanced by their physical distance from the centres of higher culture and, consequently, their comparative ignorance of most religious demands. It was for this reason that the Prophet often stressed the superiority of a settled mode of life to a nomadic one: cf. his saying, "He who dwells in the desert (al-badiyah) becomes rough in disposition", recorded by Tirmidhi, Abu Da'ud, Nasa'i and Ibn Hanbal on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas, and a similar Tradition, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, by Abu Da'ud and Bayhaqi.