Sūrah al-Tawbah

Overview

Sūrah al-Tawbah is a Madinan sūrah with 129 āyāt. The word tawbah means ‘repentance’, and the sūrah is so named due to Allah declaring He had accepted the repentance of three companions who had stayed behind in the battle of Tabūk: Kaʿb ibn Mālik, Murārah ibn al-Rabīʿ al-ʿAmrī, and Hilāl ibn Umayyah al-Wāqifī. They did not join what became known as Jaysh al-ʿUsrah (the Army of Hardship) and had no valid reason. Unlike the hypocrites, however, they did not lie and give themselves or the Messenger of Allah ﷺ fake excuses. They recognised they had made a mistake and, though trepid and fretful of Allah’s wrath and His Messenger’s, wholeheartedly accepted the consequences. In revelation to be recited until the end of times, Allah proclaims His having relented towards them: “Allah has relented towards… the three who stayed behind until, when the earth for all its spaciousness closed in around them and their own souls straitened for them and they realised there was no escape from Allah except towards Him, He relented towards them so that they may repent. Indeed, Allah—yes He—is the Relenting, the Mercifier” (9:117-118). Sūrah al-Tawbah is perhaps the harshest of all sūrahs against the hypocrites. It repeatedly exposes their malignant intentions and their silver-tongued lies, concealing in their hearts nothing but ill will for Allah’s Messenger ﷺ and the Muslims. Unlike the three forementioned companions, the hypocrites “were jubilant at their lagging behind the Messenger of Allah; hating that they strive with their wealth and their selves in Allah’s cause and they said, ‘Do not go forth in the heat!’ Say, ‘The Fire of Hell is more intense in heat!’ If only they understood” (9:81). As much as it lambasts the sedition of the treacherous, the sūrah also praises the fidelity of the faithful, acknowledging a unique, lofty station for “the first and the foremost from the Emigrants and the Supporters” (9:100).

Context

As with militaristic pacts and declarations, the sūrah stylistically sounds the keynote from the onset: “A repeal from Allah and His Messenger from those whom you have covenanted from the polytheists” (9:1). Disavowal, freedom of obligation, and complete distancing from the treason of the betrayers. The Prophet ﷺ had sent Abū Bakr and a group of companions for Hajj in the 9th year after Hijrah. He ﷺ then sent ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālibafter him to inform him of what had been revealed of Sūrah al-Tawbah. There were four primary messages:

• Only believers shall enter the Garden.
• No disbeliever may perform the Hajj after this year.
• No one shall circumambulate the Kaʿbah naked.
• Whoever had been covenanted has a four-months grace period before cessation.

The sūrah speaks about the virtue of jihad, the ploys of the hypocrites, the false tenants of Ahl al-Kitāb, and incorrect pre-Islamic practices like intercalation (nasīʾ).

Themes

One of the primary themes of the sūrah pertains to disgracing the hypocrites and laying bare their harboured malice for Islam. This is achieved via many ways, among them are the following:

• Their giving fake excuses, as with al-Jadd ibn Qays who said he feared the trial of Roman women so excused himself from going Tabūk: “Among them are those who say, ‘Excuse me and trial me not.’ Verily, in the trial did they fall.” (9:49)
• Their hoping for the Muslims’ loss and spreading false rumours to that effect to subdue the believers’ morale: “If some good befalls you it upsets them, and if a calamity befalls you they say, ‘We already took our precautions’, and they turn away rejoicing.” (9:50)
• Their assuming ill of the Prophet ﷺ in his distributing charity, like Dhū al-Khuwayḍirah who said to him ﷺ, “Be just!” Allah says: “Of them is he who defames you regarding the alms.” (9:58)
• Their insulting the Prophet ﷺ then, when confronted, taking oaths in Allah’s name that they did not do or say any wrong, as was the case with al-Ḥallās ibn al-Ṣāmit: “They swear by Allah they did not say—and they did indeed say—the word of unbelief, and they disbelieved after their submitting.” (9:74)
• Their plotting against the Prophet ﷺ by building a mosque—Masjid Ḍirār—to cause disarray in the community. Allah commanded that it be destroyed and said: “They are the ones who took a mosque to cause harm, disbelief, and disunity among the believers.” (9:107)
• Exposing the head of hypocrisy, ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl, as unworthy of a funeral (janāzah) prayer: “Do not pray over any one of them who has died, ever, nor stand at his graveside.” (9:84)

Unique Features

• Sūrah al-Tawbah is the only sūrah that does not begin with the basmalah.
• Some among the Companions considered it a continuation of Sūrah al-Anfāl.
• Among its names are: Barāʾah (Disavowal), al-Fāḍiḥah (the Exposer), and al-Mukhziyah (the Humiliator).

Lessons

• “Say, ‘Nothing befalls us except what Allah has decreed for us. He is our master. In Allah let the believers put their trust.’” (9:51)
• The centrality of the niyyah (intention) is emphasised in the sūrah. A mosque may be a sacrilegious place if it is built with nefarious intentions, whereas an honest mistake with a sincere repentance is worthy of qur’anic mention.
• The shear volume of swearing undertaken by the hypocrites should make every believer wary of taking the Lord’s name in vain. The words sayaḥlifūn, wa yaḥlifūn, la-yaḥlifunn are mentioned throughout the sūrah.

Virtues and Valuable Information

• The station of Abū Bakr as the Second of Two (thāniya ithnayn) is panegyrised eternally in an incredibly optimistic passage. Allah says: “If you do not support him (the Prophet ﷺ), Allah has already supported him when the disbelievers expelled him, and he was one of two in the cave, when he said to his companion, ‘Do not be sad, for Allah is indeed with us!’” (9:40)
• The penultimate āyah contains one of the most endearing and oft-recited qur’anic extolments of the Prophet ﷺ. Allah says: “There has come to you a messenger from among yourselves: grievous to him is what you suffer, full of concern for you, for the believers full of pity, merciful.” (9:128)