Volume 8 Surah 9 - Enjoy Islam

Al-Tawbah (The Repentance) | RELATIONS WITH OTHER RELIGIONSreflects this total submission.This promise was fulfilled once at the hands of God’s Messenger (peace be uponhim) and his successors, as well as those who succeeded them, for a very long periodof time when the religion of truth was the one which prevailed. All other religions,which were not based on true submission to God alone, stood in awe. Then therefollowed a time when those who professed to believe in the religion of truth startedto abandon it, step by step, due to various factors relevant to the internal structure ofMuslim societies on the one hand, and to the long war against this religion by itsdifferent enemies. In this war a wide variety of weapons and tactics are employed inorder to suppress Islam. But this is not the end of the road. God’s promise willalways come true. It will be fulfilled by the Muslim community which will raise thebanner of Islam and start its activities at the very beginning where the Prophethimself started when he began his call, preaching the religion of truth and guided byGod’s light.The sūrah takes the final step in this passage, describing how the people of earlierrevelations do not treat as forbidden what God and His Messenger have declaredforbidden. A reference to this fact has already been made in the statement: “Theymake of their rabbis and monks, and of the Christ, son of Mary, lords besides God.” (Verse(Verse 31) We have already mentioned the Prophet’s explanation of this statement:“They (i.e. the rabbis and monks) permitted them what is forbidden and forbadethem what is lawful, and they followed them.” This means that they listen to theirmonks and rabbis, not to God and His Messenger, in determining what is lawful andwhat is forbidden.Hoarding Gold and SilverThis last step in exposing the reality of those people of earlier revelations whohave distorted God’s message is given in two verses addressed to the believers:“Believers, some of the rabbis and monks wrongfully devour people’s property and turnpeople away from God’s path. To those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend themin God’s cause, give the news of a painful suffering, on the day when it will all be heated inthe fire of hell, and their foreheads, sides and backs will be branded with them. [They will betold]: ‘This is what you have hoarded up for yourselves. Taste, then, what you have beenhoarding.’” (Verses 34-35)The first verse elaborates on the roles of the rabbis and monks whom those peopleof earlier revelations have made as lords, following their bidding in their day-to-daytransactions, and also in their worship.Indeed the rabbis and monks enjoy being treated as lords whose orders are alwaysobeyed. In what they legislate for their followers, they devour people’s property on113