The Koran Part 159

SAY: Will ye teach G.o.d about your religion? when G.o.d knoweth whatever is in the Heavens and on the Earth: yea, G.o.d hath knowledge of all things.

They taunt thee with their having embraced Islam.10 SAY: Taunt me not with your having embraced Islam: G.o.d rather taunteth you with His having guided you to the faith: acknowledge this if ye are sincere.

Verily, G.o.d knoweth the secrets of the Heavens and of the Earth: and G.o.d beholdeth what ye do.

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1 Or antic.i.p.ate not, take not the lead of G.o.d and His Apostle.

2 All the ancient Interpreters (as His. 933 ff., Ibn Sa'd. 320, Tab. Agani.

116 f.-comp. also Weil 244 ff., Caussin, iii. 271) refer from 1-5 to the disrespectful demeanour, in Muhammad's presence, of the envoys of the Banu Tamim in Hej. 9 or 10.

3 Lit. from without.

4 The commentators mentioned in the last note, as well as others, explain this verse of Al Walid ben Uqba, who had brought a false report of the refusal of the Banu'lmustaliq to pay certain alms which Muhammad had sent him to demand. This Al Walid became governor of Kufa under Othman. He probably was never really converted to Islam.

5 Upon this pa.s.sage 91-2, die Muslimen, says Noldeke, verschiedene Geschichten erzahlen, so da.s.s sich Nichts sicher bestimmen Ia.s.st, p. 164.

This remark applies to the great ma.s.s of Muhammadan comment.

6 Said to refer to Safia, one of Muhammad's wives. who had been taunted by his other wives with being a Jewess.

7 Lit. Bad the name, wickedness, after faith.

8 That is, not the most n.o.bly born, like the Koreisch. This verse is said to have been revealed in Mecca on the day of its conquest. See Weil, Leben, p.372, and n.

9 The Ban Asad had come to Medina in a year of famine to seek support for themselves and families, and made profession of Islamism. Beidh.-Thus, also Ibn Sad. Tabari. Wah.

10 As if by so doing they had conferred a favour on the Prophet.

SURA IX.1-IMMUNITY [CXIII.]

MEDINA.-130 Verses

An IMMUNITY from G.o.d and His Apostle to those with whom ye are in league, among the Polytheist Arabs! (those who join G.o.ds with G.o.d).

Go ye, therefore, at large in the land four months: but know that G.o.d ye shall not weaken;2 and that those who believe not, G.o.d will put to shame-

And a proclamation on the part of G.o.d and His Apostle to the people on the day of the greater pilgrimage, that G.o.d is free from any engagement with the votaries of other G.o.ds with G.o.d as is His Apostle! If, therefore, ye turn to G.o.d it will be better for you; but if ye turn back, then know that ye shall not weaken G.o.d: and to those who believe not, announce thou a grievous punishment.

But this concerneth not those Polytheists with whom ye are in league, and who shall have afterwards in no way failed you, nor aided anyone against you.

Observe, therefore, engagement with them through the whole time of their treaty: for G.o.d loveth those who fear Him.

And when the sacred months3 are pa.s.sed, kill those who join other G.o.ds with G.o.d wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for G.o.d is Gracious, Merciful.

If any one of those who join G.o.ds with G.o.d ask an asylum of thee, grant him an asylum, that he may hear the Word of G.o.d, and then let him reach his place of safety. This, for that they are people devoid of knowledge.

How shall they who add G.o.ds to G.o.d be in league with G.o.d and with His Apostle, save those with whom ye made a league at the sacred temple? So long as they are true to you, be ye true to them; for G.o.d loveth those who fear Him.

How can they? since if they prevail against you, they will not regard in you either ties of blood or faith. With their mouths will they content you, but their hearts will be averse. The greater part of them are perverse doers.

They sell the signs of G.o.d for a mean price, and turn others aside from his way: evil is it that they do!

They regard not in a believer either ties of blood or faith; these are the transgressors!

Yet if they turn to G.o.d and observe prayer, and pay the impost, then are they your brethren in religion. We make clear our signs to those who understand.

But if, after alliance made, they break their oaths and revile your religion, then do battle with the ring-leaders of infidelity-for no oaths are binding with them that they may desist.

What! will ye not fight against those Meccans who have broken their oaths and aimed to expel your Apostle, and attacked you first? Will ye dread them? G.o.d is more worthy of your fear, if ye are believers!

So make war on them: By your hands will G.o.d chastise them, and will put them to shame, and will give you victory over them, and will heal the bosoms of a people who believe;

And will take away the wrath of their hearts. G.o.d will be turned unto whom He will: and G.o.d is Knowing, Wise.

Think ye that ye shall be forsaken as if G.o.d did not yet know those among you who do valiantly, and take none for their friends beside G.o.d, and His Apostle, and the faithful? G.o.d is well apprised of your doings.

It is not for the votaries of other G.o.ds with G.o.d, witnesses against themselves of infidelity, to visit the temples of G.o.d. These! vain their works: and in the fire shall they abide for ever!

He only should visit the temples of G.o.d who believeth in G.o.d and the last day, and observeth prayer, and payeth the legal alms, and dreadeth none but G.o.d. These haply will be among the rightly guided.

Do ye place the giving drink to the pilgrims, and the visitation of the sacred temple,4 on the same level with him who believeth in G.o.d and the last day, and fighteth on the way of G.o.d? They shall not be held equal by G.o.d: and G.o.d guideth not the unrighteous.

They who have believed, and fled their homes, and striven with their substance and with their persons on the path of G.o.d, shall be of highest grade with G.o.d: and these are they who shall be happy!

Tidings of mercy from Himself, and of His good pleasure, doth their Lord send them, and of gardens in which lasting pleasure shall be theirs;

Therein shall they abide for ever; for G.o.d! with Him is a great reward.

O Believers! make not friends of your fathers or your brethren if they love unbelief above faith: and whoso of you shall make them his friends, will be wrong doers.

SAY: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your kindred, and the wealth which ye have gained, and merchandise which ye fear may be unsold, and dwellings wherein ye delight, be dearer to you than G.o.d and His Apostle and efforts on his Path, then wait until G.o.d shall Himself enter on His work:5 and G.o.d guideth not the impious.

Now hath G.o.d helped you in many battlefields, and, on the day of Honein,6 when ye prided yourselves on your numbers; but it availed you nothing; and the earth, with all its breadth, became too straight for you:7 then turned ye your backs in flight:

Then did G.o.d send down His spirit of repose8 upon His Apostle, and upon the faithful, and He sent down the hosts which ye saw not, and He punished the Infidels: This, the Infidels' reward!

Yet, after this, will G.o.d be turned to whom He pleaseth; for G.o.d is Gracious, Merciful!

O Believers! only they who join G.o.ds with G.o.d are unclean! Let them not, therefore, after this their year, come near the sacred Temple. And if ye fear want,9 G.o.d, if He please, will enrich you of His abundance: for G.o.d is Knowing, Wise.

Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in G.o.d, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which G.o.d and His Apostle have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand,10 and they be humbled.11

The Jews say, "Ezra (Ozair) is a son of G.o.d";12 and the Christians say, "The Messiah is a son of G.o.d." Such the sayings in their mouths! They resemble the saying of the Infidels of old! G.o.d do battle with them! How are they misguided!

They take their teachers, and their monks, and the Messiah, son of Mary, for Lords13 beside G.o.d, though bidden to wors.h.i.+p one G.o.d only. There is no G.o.d but He! Far from His glory be what they a.s.sociate with Him!

Fain would they put out G.o.d's light with their mouths: but G.o.d only desireth to perfect His light, albeit the Infidels abhor it.