Volume 8 Surah 9 - Enjoy Islam

Al-Tawbah (The Repentance) | THE BASIS OF INTER-COMMUNAL RELATIONSThere are countless regimes extant today where the dissenter has no sense ofsecurity for his life, property, honour or human rights. Yet people who see thistaking place in front of their own eyes try to defend Islam against this false charge bydistorting the image of the divine message. They try to portray Islam as nothingmore than a passive message that confronts swords and guns with nothing morethan words, whether in our own time or at any other time.This is, then, an outline of the final rulings that determine the relations betweenthe Muslim community and the remaining idolaters in Arabia. They mean an end tothe state based on peace agreements with all idolaters, after four months in somecases and at the end of their specified terms in others. The eventual outcome of theserulings is that there will only be one of two situations: either repentance, mending ofways, attending to prayers and payment of zakāt, which in essence means theacceptance of Islam, or fighting idolaters, taking them captive and chasing them outof their hiding places.This termination of the state of peace based on treaties and agreements is followedby a rhetorical question stating that it is just not possible that idolaters should havesuch covenants with God and His Messenger. The very principle of having suchagreements is rejected outright: “How can there be a treaty with God and His Messengerfor the idolaters?” (Verse 7)This outright denunciation, coming as it does in the verses that follow the openingones, may be understood to abrogate the first rulings which allowed the continuedobservance of treaties with those who fulfilled their obligations under those rulingsand did not provide any assistance to any group hostile to the Muslim community.In order to dispel any such misunderstanding, the ruling is restated once more:“Unless it be those of them with whom you have made a treaty at the Sacred Mosque? Solong as they are true to you, be true to them; for God loves those who are God-fearing.”(Verse 7)This restatement adds a new provision. The first instruction required the Muslimsto honour their obligations to those who had shown their true commitment to theirpeace agreements and fulfilled their own obligations under such agreements. Nowthe instruction to keep faith with them is qualified, making it clear that the Muslimswere to honour their obligations to them for as long as they themselves continued toobserve their treaties in full, as they did in the past. Here we note the carefulphraseology of texts relating to dealings, transactions and relations with others.Implicit understanding is not sufficient. It is followed by a clear statement.Considering the different aspects that prevailed in the Muslim community at thetime and the way this decisive step was likely to be received by the Muslimcommunity, the sūrah reminds the Muslims of the true nature of the idolaters, their57