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Lit., "He has caused hypocrisy to become for them consequence (a'qabahum) in their hearts until the Day on which they shall meet Him" (i.e., until their resurrection). Thus, the Qur'an states that it is excessive love of worldly possessions which gives rise, in a certain type of man, to the attitude of mind described as "hypocrisy" - and not vice versa (see also 29:11 and the corresponding note [7]). Cf. in this connection the Prophet's saying, reported by Abu Hurayrah: "The mark (ayah) of the hypocrite is threefold: when he speaks, he lies; and when he promises, he breaks his promise; and when he is trusted, he betrays" (Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi and Nasa'i; similar Traditions, on the authority of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr, are quoted by Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Da'ud, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah and Ibn Hanbal).
I.e., to themselves, trying to find excuses for their breaking their vow.
If men are false to their covenants and words, the natural consequence will be hypocrisy to cover their falsehood. Such consequences will last till the Day of Judgment, when they will have to account for their deeds. They may think that they are deceiving men by their hypocrisy, but they cannot deceive Allah, to Whom all their most secret thoughts and plots and doings are known.
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Regarding my rendering of sadaqat as "that which is given for the sake of God", see [note 81] above.
There are many authentic Traditions to the effect that the hypocrites at Medina used to deride the offerings which the believers brought to the Prophet (as head of the community and the state) in response to the Qur'anic ordinance that they should "give for the sake of God". For instance, the Companion Abu Mas'ud reports: "[When] a man brought an ample offering, they [i.e., the hypocrites] would say, 'He [only] wants to be seen and praised by men'; and when a man brought an offering of a small measure [of dates or grain], they would say, 'God does not stand in need of such an offering'" (Bukhari and Muslim, and many similar versions in other hadith compilations). The above verse, however, does not allude merely to these historical incidents but serves to illustrate the mentality of the hypocrite whose own insincerity colours his view of all other people.
Lit., "God will scoff at them": a turn of phrase often occurring in the Qur'an (e.g., in 2:15 ), indicating God's requital.
When financial help is necessary for the Cause, every Muslim contributes what he can. Those who can afford large sums are proud to bring them in of their own free-will, and those who are very poor contribute their mite or their labour. Both kinds of gifts are equally precious because of the faith and good-will behind them, and only cynics will laugh at the scantiness of the one or the lavishness of the other. Sometimes they not only laugh, but attribute wrong motives to the givers. Such conduct is here reprimanded.
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I.e., many times. In Arabic usage, the number "seventy" often stands for "many", just as "seven" is a synonym for "several" (see Lisan al-'Arab and Taj al-'Arus). It is evident from many authentic Traditions (recorded, among others, by Bukhari and Muslim) that the Prophet often prayed to God that He pardon his enemies.
I.e., "those who are so deeply rooted in their iniquity and in their insolent persistence in evildoing (tamarrud)... [that] they have lost all disposition for repentance and belief" (Manar X, 657).
An awful warning for those who actively oppose the Cause of Allah. The Holy Prophet was by nature full of mercy and forgiveness. He prayed for his enemies. But in such a case even his prayers are nullified by their attitude of rejecting Allah.
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Lit., "rejoiced in their sitting [at home]" - a reference to those who, under one pretext or another, excused themselves from participating in the expedition to Tabuk (see notes [59] and [66] above). As is evident from the sequence - and clearly stated in many authentic Traditions - one of the excuses advanced was the extreme heat of the season.
The Tabuk expedition had to be undertaken hurriedly in the heat of summer, because of a threat or fear of Byzantine invasion. They marched from Madinah about the month of September or October in the solar calendar.
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Lit., "and let them weep a lot".
They may sneer or ridicule or rejoice now: that will be only for a little: much will they have to weep for afterwards.
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Lit., "if God brings thee back [from the campaign] to a group of them" - i.e., to those hypocrites who remained at home under false pretences.
I.e., with the old men, the women, the children and the sick, who are not able or not expected to go to war (Manar X, 662).
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I.e., unless he has repented before his death. It is reported that when the life-long opponent of the Prophet and leader of the hypocrites of Medina,'Abd Allah ibn Ubayy was dying, he sent his son to the Prophet with the request that the latter give him his (the Prophet's) shirt, so that he might be buried in it, and that the Prophet should pray over him after his death. The Prophet took this request as a sign of Ibn Ubayy's repentance, and gave him his shirt and later led the funeral prayers over his body. When 'Umar ibn al-Khattab vehemently protested against this clemency towards the man whom all the believers had regarded as "God's enemy", the Prophet answered, "God has granted me a choice in this matter [a reference to verse {80} of this surah, "whether thou dost pray that they be forgiven or dost not pray...", etc.], and so I shall pray [for him] more than seventy times." Several variants of this Tradition are to be found in Bukhari, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i, Ibn Hanbal. on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas; Bukhari and Muslim, on the authority of Ibn 'Umar; Muslim, on the authority of Jabir ibn'Abd Allah; and in various other hadith compilations. Since 'Abd Allah ibn Ubayy died some time after the Prophet's return from Tabuk, while verse {84} - like most of this surah - was revealed during the campaign, it is clear that the prohibition expressed in this verse relates only (as the sequence shows) to those who "were bent on denying God and His Apostle, and [who] died in this their iniquity" - that is, to unrepentant sinners.
Lit., "while they were iniquitous".
On the death of a Muslim, it is the pious duty of every neighbouring Muslim who can, to assist in the simple funeral ceremonies,-the prayer for mercy before the body is consigned to the grave, and the consignment of the body to the grave, by a simple, solemn, and dignified ritual. For those who have shown hostility to Islam, this would not be seemly and is forbidden.
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Cf. 3:178 and 8:28 , as well as the corresponding notes. This (almost literal) repetition of {verse 55} above is meant to stress the psychological importance of this problem (Zamakhshari) - namely, the insignificance of worldly happiness as compared with spiritual righteousness or the absence of it.
Except for the omission of a single word ("life"), this verse repeats verse 55 above. But the repetition indicates the harmonious closing of the same argument in two aspects. In ix. 55 it occurred in connection with the reasons for refusing to receive the contributions of such persons to the expenses of an enterprise which though vital to Islam's defence was secretly opposed by such persons. Here (in ix. 85) it is a question of refusing to participate in the obsequies of such persons after their death: it is natural to omit the word "life" in this case.
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Lit., "when a surah was bestowed from on high": the word surah being here synonymous with "revealed message" (see note [25] on 47:20 ).
I.e., with those who were either not expected to go to war - like women and children - or were handicapped by old age or illness.
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Cf. 2:7 and the corresponding note, as well as {7:100-101}.
Khawalif, plural of khalifa, those (feminine) who remain behind at home when the men go to war: women. There is a stinging taunt in this, a suggestion that such men were cowards, preferring to remain behind like women when stiff work was to be done by men in defending their homes. They were not only cowards, but fools: as they did not understand their own best interests. If the enemy got the better of their brethren, they would themselves be crushed. "Their hearts are sealed": the habits of cowardice and hypocrisy which they have adopted have become their second nature.
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"Good things," and "prosperity," are to be understood both in the physical and in the highest spiritual sense as the next verse makes clear.
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In this verse there is a reminiscence, but not an exact repetition, of verse 72 above. This balances the parallel repetition or reminiscence in verse 85 above. See n. 1338. The symmetry of the argument is thus completed, as regards the Hypocrites of Madinah before we pass on to consider the case of the Hypocrites among the desert Bedouins in section 12.
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I.e., from participating in the expedition to Tabuk. The term al-mu'adhdhirun connotes both "those having a valid excuse ('udhr)" and "those offering false excuses"; it is, therefore, best rendered as "such as had some excuse to offer". The specific mention of the a'rab ("bedouin") in this and the following passages probably arises from the fact that their attitude - positive or negative - towards Islam was of the greatest importance within the context of early Muslim history, inasmuch as the message of Muhammad could not obtain a real, lasting foothold in Arabia without first securing the allegiance of those warlike nomads and half-nomads, who constituted the great majority of the Peninsula's population. At the time when the Prophet was preparing to set out towards Tabuk, many of the already-converted tribesmen were willing to go to war under his leadership (and, in fact, did so), while others were afraid lest in their absence their encampments, denuded of man-power, be raided by hostile, as yet unconverted tribes (Razi); others, again, were simply averse to exposing themselves to the hardships of a campaign in distant lands, which did not seem to them to have any bearing on their own, immediate interests.
I.e., without even caring to come to Medina and to excuse themselves.
Not only had the Hypocrites a nest in Madinah, but their tactics affected some of the village or desert Bedouins, who loved war and would have followed a standard of war even if no question of Faith or a sacred Cause was involved. But some of them, though professing Islam, were frightened by the hardships of the Tabuk expedition and the prospect of meeting the trained armies of the great Roman (Byzantine) Empire. They made all sorts of lying excuses, but really their want of faith made them ineligible for being enlisted in a sacred Cause, in the terms of ix. 46-47 and ix. 53-54. Some came to make excuses: other did not even come , but sat at home, ignoring the summons.
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