LX. The Chapter of the Tried

The Qur'ân, part II (Sacred Books of the East volume 9), Palmer edition [1880]; at sacred-texts.com

THE CHAPTER OF THE TRIED.

(LX. Medînah.)

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.

O ye who believe! take not my enemy and your enemy for patrons, encountering them with love for they misbelieve in the truth that is to come to you; they drive out the Apostle and you for that ye believe in God your Lord  ²!

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If ye go forth fighting strenuously in my cause and craving my good pleasure, and secretly show love for them, yet do I know best what ye conceal and what ye display! and he of you who does so has erred from the level path.

If they find you they will be enemies to you, and they will stretch forth against you their hands and their tongues for evil, and would fain that ye should disbelieve; neither your kindred nor your children shall profit you upon the resurrection day; it will separate you! but God on what ye do doth look!

Ye had a good example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, 'Verily, we are clear of you and of what ye serve beside God. We disbelieve in you: and between us and you is enmity and hatred begun for ever, until ye believe in God alone!'

But not ¹ the speech of Abraham to his father, 'Verily, I will ask forgiveness for thee, though I cannot control aught from God!' O our Lord! on thee do we rely! and unto thee we turn! and unto thee the journey is!

[5] Our Lord! make us not a trial for those who misbelieve; but forgive us! Our Lord! verily, thou art mighty, wise!

Ye had in them a good example for him who

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would hope in God and the last day. But whoso turns his back, verily, God, He is rich and to be praised.

Mayhap that God will place love between you and between those of them ye are hostile towards ¹: for God is powerful, and. God is forgiving, compassionate.

God forbids you not respecting those who have not fought against you for religion's sake, and who have not driven you forth from your homes, that ye should act righteously and justly towards them; verily, God loves the just!

He only forbids you to make patrons of those who have fought against you for religion's sake, and driven you forth from your homes, or have aided in your expulsion; and whoever makes patrons of them, they are the unjust!

[10] O ye who believe! when there come believing women who have fled, then try them: God knows their faith. If ye know them to be believers do not send them back to the misbelievers;--they are not lawful for them, nor are the men lawful for these;--but give them ² what they have expended ³, and it shall be no crime against you that ye marry them, when ye have given them their hire. And do not ye retain a right over misbelieving women; but ask for what ye have spent, and let them ask for what they have spent. That is God's judgment: He judges between you, for God is knowing, wise!

And if any of your wives escape from you to the

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misbelievers, and your turn comes, then give to those whose wives have gone away the like of what they have spent; and fear God, in whom it is that ye believe.

O thou prophet! when believing women come to thee and engage with thee that they will not associate aught with God, and will not steal, and will not fornicate, and will not kill their children, and will not bring a calumny which they have forged between their hands and feet ¹, and that they will not rebel against thee in what is reasonable, then engage with them and ask forgiveness for them of God;--verily, God is forgiving, compassionate.

O ye who believe! take not for patrons a people whom God is wroth against; they despair of the hereafter, as the misbelievers despair of the fellows of the tombs ²!

Footnotes

277:1 See Introduction, p. lxvii.

277:2 ‘Hâtîb ibn abi Balta’hah had given the Meccans warning of an p. 278 intended surprise by Mohammed, and on his letter being intercepted, excused himself by saying that he had only done so in order to make terms for his family, who were at Mecca, and that he knew that the information would be of no avail. Mohammed pardoned him, but the verse in the text prohibits such conduct for the future.

278:1 I.e. they are not to imitate Abraham's speech to his father, and ask forgiveness for their infidel friends. Cp. Part I, p. 189, verse 115.

279:1 I.e. by their becoming converted to Islâm.

279:2 I.e. to their infidel husbands.

279:3 The dowries.

280:1 This is said by some commentators to mean foisting spurious children on to their husbands.

280:2 I.e. of the resurrection of the dead.