Volume 8 Surah 9 - Enjoy Islam

Al-Tawbah (The Repentance) | THE BASIS OF INTER-COMMUNAL RELATIONSleadership at the time, but that did not necessarily mean that it was similarly clear toall groups in the Muslim community, particularly the newcomers to Islam and thosewho were only on friendly terms with the Muslims.Some people in the Muslim community, perhaps among the noblest and mostdedicated Muslims, might have felt uneasy about the termination of all treaties withthe unbelievers on the terms outlined in the sūrah: after four months for those whoviolated their treaties, and those with treaties that did not specify a term, and thosewhose treaties ended in less than four months and those who had no treaties andwere not at war with the Muslims. Those who had treaties with specified terms andcontinued to honour their obligations would have their treaties respected andobserved for the remainder of their terms. Such conscientious Muslims might haveunderstood that the treaties with the violators and those from whom violation wasexpected should be terminated, as was clear in the provisional instructions given tothe Prophet in the previous sūrah: “if you fear treachery from any folk, cast [your treatywith them] back to them in a fair manner. God does not love the treacherous.” (8: 58)However, the termination of treaties after four months or after their term was overmight have appeared to those people contrary to the familiar practice of maintainingpeaceful relations with those who did not adopt any hostile attitude. God, on theother hand, had a far greater objective than maintaining what was familiar practice.Other people in the Muslim community, perhaps also among the noblest and mostdedicated Muslims, might have felt that there was no longer any need to fight theidolaters generally after Islam had attained supremacy in Arabia, leaving onlyscattered pockets of resistance which represented no threat whatsoever. On thecontrary, they were expected to change their attitude to Islam gradually after peacewould have been maintained for sometime in Arabia. Such Muslims might have feltparticularly uneasy about fighting against relatives and friends as well as peoplewith whom they might have had social and economic relations. After all there wasstill hope that such people would still see the light of Islam without resorting to sucha drastic measure. But God wanted faith to be the basic bond that united people in acohesive community. He also wanted the Arabian Peninsula to be a secure base forIslam, as He was aware of the plots the Byzantines were preparing against theMuslim state. This will be explained later.Yet others in the Muslim community, some of whom might have been among thenoblest and most dedicated Muslims, might have feared economic depressionensuing from the disruption to business transactions in Arabia as a result ofdeclaring war against all Arabian idolaters. That was bound to affect the pilgrimageseason, particularly after it had been announced that no idolater would be allowed togo on pilgrimage after that year, and that idolaters would not be allowed to enterinto mosques and places of worship. Such people’s fears were made even greater by43