The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

9: 20
Repentance 117
with God and His Messenger for such idolaters? But as for those
with whom you made a treaty at the Sacred Mosque, so long as they
remain true to you, be true to them; God loves those who are mindful
of Him. 8 [How,] when, if they were to get the upper hand over
you, they would not respect any tie with you, of kinship or of treaty?
They please you with their tongues, but their hearts are against you
and most of them are lawbreakers. 9 They have sold God’s message
for a trifling gain, and barred others from His path. How evil their
actions are! 10 Where believers are concerned, they respect no tie of
kinship or treaty. They are the ones who are committing aggression.
11 If they turn to God, keep up the prayer, and pay the prescribed
alms, then they are your brothers in faith: We make the messages
clear for people who are willing to learn. 12 But if they break their
oath after having made an agreement with you, if they revile your
religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief – oaths mean nothing to
them – so that they may stop. 13 How could you not fight a people
who have broken their oaths, who tried to drive the Messenger out,
who attacked you first? Do you fear them? It is God you should fear
if you are true believers. 14 Fight them: God will punish them at your
hands, He will disgrace them, He will help you to conquer them, He
will heal the believers’ feelings 15 and remove the rage from their
hearts. God turns to whoever He will in His mercy; God is all
knowing and wise. 16 Do you think that you will be left untested a
without God identifying which of you will strive for His cause and
take no supporters apart from God, His Messenger, and other
believers? God is fully aware of all your actions.
17 It is not right for the idolaters to tend God’s places of worship
while testifying to their own disbelief: the deeds of such people will
come to nothing and they will abide in Hell. 18 The only ones who
should tend God’s places of worship are those who believe in God
and the Last Day, who keep up the prayer, who pay the prescribed
alms, and who fear no one but God: such people may hope to be
among the rightly guided. 19 Do you consider giving water to pilgrims
and tending the Sacred Mosque to be equal to the deeds of
those who believe in God and the Last Day and who strive in
God’s path? They are not equal in God’s eyes. God does not guide
such benighted people. 20 Those who believe, who migrated and
a See also 29: 2.