Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:217
They ask you about the sacred month - about fighting therein. Say, "Fighting therein is great [sin], but averting [people] from the way of Allah and disbelief in Him and [preventing access to] al-Masjid al-Haram and the expulsion of its people therefrom are greater [evil] in the sight of Allah. And fitnah is greater than killing." And they will continue to fight you until they turn you back from your religion if they are able. And whoever of you reverts from his religion [to disbelief] and dies while he is a disbeliever - for those, their deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter, and those are the companions of the Fire, they will abide therein eternally.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter. But hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and [hindering] from the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people therefrom, is greater with Allah; and the affliction is greater than killing
Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: By this He, exalted is His praise, means the following: your companions ask you, O Muḥammad, about the sacred month — and that is Rajab — about fighting (qitāl) therein.
&; 4-300 &;
The genitive ending of "the fighting" (al-qitāl) rests on the implicit repetition of the preposition "about" (ʿan) before it. And thus too was the reading of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, according to what has been related to us. And indeed:
4080 - It has been related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, concerning His word: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein" — he said: He says: they ask you about fighting therein. He said: and thus he used to read it: "about fighting therein" (ʿan qitālin fīhi).
* * *
= Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: "Say", O Muḥammad: "fighting therein" — that is to say: in the sacred month — "is a great matter" (kabīr), that is to say: it is an enormous thing with Allah to regard that [month] as violable and to shed blood therein.
And the meaning of His word "fighting therein" is: say, fighting therein is a great matter. He said only "Say: fighting therein is a great matter", because the Arabs would not clash their spearheads against one another therein: a man would encounter therein the killer of his father or his brother and do nothing to him, out of reverence for [that month]. The tribe of Muḍar called it "al-Aṣamm" (the Deaf), because of the silence of the clatter of weapons and their clanging therein. And indeed:
4081 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam the Egyptian related to me, he said: Shuʿayb ibn al-Layth related to us, he said: al-Layth related to us, he said: al-Zubayr related to us, on the authority of Jābir, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would not set out to fight in the sacred month, unless he was attacked; or he would set out to fight, and when that [month] then began, he would halt until it had passed.
* * *
And His word, exalted is His praise: "and hindering from the path of Allah". The meaning of "hindering" (al-ṣadd) from something is: restraining from it and warding off from it. From this is the expression: "so-and-so turned his face away from so-and-so" (ṣadda fulān bi-wajhihi ʿan fulān), when he turned away from him and thus prevented him from looking at him.
* * *
And His word: "and disbelief in Him" (wa-kufrun bihi) — that is to say: and disbelief in Allah. The "bā'" in "bihi" (in Him) refers back to the name of Allah occurring in "the path of Allah". The explanation of the sentence is: and hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and [hindering] from the Sacred Mosque, and expelling the people of the Sacred Mosque — who are its inhabitants and its custodians — is greater with Allah than fighting in the sacred month.
&; 4-301 &;
Thus "hindering from the path of Allah" is set in the nominative by His word "is greater with Allah". And His word "and expelling its people therefrom" is conjoined (ʿaṭf) to it upon "hindering". Then He begins the report about the affliction (al-fitna) and says: "and the affliction is greater than killing" — that is to say: shirk is more enormous and greater than killing, namely than the killing of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, that killing which you found objectionable in the sacred month.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: Some of the scholars of Arabic linguistics held that His word "and the Sacred Mosque" is conjoined to "the fighting", and that the meaning is: they ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein, and about the Sacred Mosque. Whereupon Allah, exalted is His praise, said: "and expelling its people therefrom is greater with Allah" than fighting in the sacred month.
But this statement, besides falling outside the statements of the people of knowledge, is a statement without any basis. For the people harboured no doubt about the enormity of what the polytheists (mushrikīn) had done to the Muslims by expelling them from their dwellings at Mecca, such that they would be compelled to ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the expulsion of the Muslims by the polytheists from their dwellings, and whether that was permitted to them. Rather, no one of the Muslims claimed that against them, nor that they asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about it.
Since that is so, the people asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ only about that whose ruling they deemed uncertain — such as their uncertainty in the matter of the killing of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, when they claimed that his killer, one of the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, had killed him in the sacred month, and so they asked about his case, on account of their uncertainty about the ruling concerning it. As for the expulsion of the people of Islam from the Sacred Mosque by the polytheists: there was no one among them who doubted that this was a wrong on their part against them, such that they would ask about it.
There is no disagreement among all the people of interpretation that this verse was revealed &; 4-302 &; to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on account of the killing of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī and his killer.
* Mention of the report of him who said that:
4082 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: al-Zuhrī and Yazīd ibn Rūmān related to me, on the authority of ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh out in Rajab, upon his return from the first [expedition to] Badr, and he sent with him eight men of the emigrants (muhājirūn), without there being a single one of the helpers (anṣār) among them. He wrote for him a letter and commanded him not to look into it until he had been travelling for two days; then he was to look into it and carry out what he was commanded, and he was not to compel any of his companions.
= The companions of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh from the emigrants were: from the Banū ʿAbd Shams: Abū Ḥudhayfa [ibn ʿUtba] ibn Rabīʿa — and from the Banū Umayya ibn ʿAbd Shams, and then from their allies: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh ibn Ri'āb, and he was the commander of the company, and ʿUkkāsha ibn Miḥṣan ibn Ḥurthān, one of the Banū Asad ibn Khuzayma — and from the Banū Nawfal ibn ʿAbd Manāf: ʿUtba ibn Ghazwān, an ally of theirs — and from the Banū Zuhra ibn Kilāb: Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ — and from the Banū ʿAdī ibn Kaʿb: ʿĀmir ibn Rabīʿa, an ally of theirs, and Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Manāt ibn ʿArīn ibn Thaʿlaba ibn Yarbūʿ ibn Ḥanẓala, and Khālid ibn al-Bukayr, one of the Banū Saʿd ibn Layth, an ally of theirs — and from the Banū al-Ḥārith ibn Fihr: Suhayl ibn Bayḍāʾ.
= When ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh had been travelling for two days, he opened the letter and looked into it, and in it was: "When you look into this letter of mine, march on until you halt at Nakhla, between Mecca and Ṭā'if, &; 4-303 &; and lie in wait there for the Quraysh, and gather for us intelligence about them." When ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh looked into the letter, he said: "Hearing and obeying!" Then he said to his companions: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has commanded me to march to Nakhla and to lie in wait there for the Quraysh until I bring him news of them, and he has forbidden me to compel any of you. So whoever of you desires martyrdom and strives for it, let him come along; and whoever is averse to that, let him return. As for me, I am carrying out the command of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Then he marched on and his companions marched with him, and not one of them stayed behind. He followed the road through the Ḥijāz, until he came to a mining place above al-Furʿ, called Buḥrān, [where] Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ and ʿUtba ibn Ghazwān lost a camel which they both rode and used in turns. They stayed behind to search for it, while ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh and the rest of his companions marched on until they halted at Nakhla. There a caravan of the Quraysh passed by him, laden with raisins, tanned leather, and merchandise of the Quraysh, and among them were of them: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughīra and his brother Nawfal ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughīra, both of the Makhzūm, and al-Ḥakam ibn Kaysān, the client of Hishām ibn al-Mughīra. When the people saw them, they feared them, for they had halted close to them. But ʿUkkāsha ibn Miḥṣan showed himself to them, and he had shaved his head. When they saw him, they felt secure and said: they are pilgrims! From them we have nothing to fear. The people [of the Muslims] deliberated about them, and that was on the last day of Jumādā. The people said: by Allah, if you leave these folk in peace tonight, they will surely enter the sacred precinct (al-Ḥaram) and thereby slip away from you; and if you kill them, you kill them in &; 4-304 &; the sacred month! The people hesitated and feared to attack them, but then they took courage against them and agreed to kill whomever of them they could overpower and to take what they had with them. Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tamīmī shot ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī with an arrow and killed him, and he took ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh and al-Ḥakam ibn Kaysān captive, while Nawfal ibn ʿAbd Allāh got away and escaped them.
= ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh and his companions arrived with the caravan and the two captives, until they reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Medina. And some of the family of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh have related that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh said to his companions: indeed, to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ belongs of what you have taken as booty the fifth part (al-khums).
And that was still before the fifth part of the war booty had been prescribed. So he set apart for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a fifth of the caravan and divided the rest among his companions. When they reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said: I did not command you to fight in the sacred month! He held the caravan and the two captives and refused to accept anything thereof. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said that, the men were thrown into dismay and thought that they were lost. The Muslims rebuked them for what they had done and said to them: you have done what you were not commanded, and you have fought in the sacred month, while you were not commanded to fight! And the Quraysh said: Muḥammad and his companions have regarded the sacred month as violable, shed blood therein, taken possessions therein, and taken men captive. Then those of the Muslims who were at Mecca refuted that of them, saying: they struck only in Jumādā what they struck! And the Jews — who sought thereby an evil omen against the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — said: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, killed by Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh! "ʿAmr" (ʿamarat) — the war has blazed up! And "al-Ḥaḍramī" (ḥaḍarat) — the war has come! And "Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh" (waqadat) — the war has been kindled! But Allah turned that against them and against themselves.
= When the people made much commotion about that, Allah, mighty and exalted is He, revealed to His Messenger: "They ask you about the sacred &; 4-305 &; month, about fighting therein",
that is to say: about fighting therein. "Say: fighting therein is a great matter", up to His word: "and the affliction is greater than killing" — that is to say: if you have killed in the sacred month, then they have hindered you from the path of Allah, along with disbelief in Him, and from the Sacred Mosque; and your expelling out of it, while you are its inhabitants and custodians, is greater with Allah than the killing of those of them whom you have killed. "And the affliction is greater than killing" — that is to say: they used to turn the Muslim away from his religion until they led him back to disbelief after his faith, and that is greater with Allah than killing = And they will not cease fighting you until they turn you from your religion, if they are able to do so — that is to say: they persist in that most vile and greatest of it, without repentance and without desisting from it. So when the Qurʾān was revealed with this command, and Allah relieved the Muslims of the fear they were in, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ received the caravan and the two captives.
4083 - Mūsā ibn Hārūn related to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter" — and that was because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent out a reconnaissance party (sariyya) — they were seven men — and he set ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh al-Asadī over them. Among them were ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, Abū Ḥudhayfa ibn ʿUtba ibn Rabīʿa, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, &; 4-306 &; ʿUtba ibn Ghazwān al-Sulamī, an ally of the Banū Nawfal, Suhayl ibn Bayḍāʾ, ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayra, and Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Yarbūʿī, an ally of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. He sent a letter along with Ibn Jaḥsh and commanded him not to read it until he should halt at [Baṭn] Malal. When he halted at Baṭn Malal, he opened the letter, and in it was: march on until you halt at Baṭn Nakhla. Then he said to his companions: whoever desires death, let him go forward and make his testament, for I am making my testament and carrying out the command of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He marched on, and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ and ʿUtba ibn Ghazwān stayed behind, since they had lost a mount; they went to Buḥrān to search for it. Ibn Jaḥsh marched on to Baṭn Nakhla, and there they encountered al-Ḥakam ibn Kaysān, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughīra, al-Mughīra ibn ʿUthmān, and ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī. They fought, and they took al-Ḥakam ibn Kaysān and ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughīra captive, while al-Mughīra got away, and ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī was killed — Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh killed him. This was the first war booty that the companions of Muḥammad ﷺ took.
= When they returned to Medina with the two captives and the possessions they had taken as booty, the people of Mecca wanted to ransom the two captives. But the Prophet ﷺ said: until we see what has befallen our two companions! When Saʿd and his companion returned, he ransomed the two captives. The polytheists slandered him and said: Muḥammad claims that he follows obedience to Allah, and he is the first to regard the sacred month as violable and to kill our companion in Rajab! The Muslims said: we killed him only in Jumādā! — and it was said: on the first night of Rajab and the last night of Jumādā — and the Muslims sheathed their swords when Rajab began. Then Allah, mighty and exalted is He, revealed, to put the people of Mecca to shame: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter" which is not permitted; but what you yourselves have done, O assembly of polytheists, is greater than killing in the sacred month, when you were disbelieving in Allah, and hindering Muḥammad and his companions from it; and the expulsion of the people of the Sacred Mosque therefrom, when they expelled Muḥammad, is greater than killing with Allah; and the affliction — which is shirk — is more enormous with Allah than killing in the sacred month. That is His word: "But hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and [hindering] from the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people therefrom, is greater with Allah; and the affliction is greater than killing."
4084 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Ṣanʿānī related to us, he said: al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān al-Taymī related to us, on the authority of his father: that a man related to him, on the authority of Abū al-Sawwār, who narrated it to him on the authority of Jundub ibn ʿAbd Allāh, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: that he sent out a company and set Abū ʿUbayda over them. When the latter was about to depart, he wept out of longing &; 4-307 &; for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Thereupon he sent out in his place a man called ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh, and he wrote for him a letter and commanded him not to read the letter until he should reach such-and-such a place: "and do not compel any of your companions to march with you." When he read the letter, he uttered the istirjāʿ (innā lillāhi wa-innā ilayhi rājiʿūn) and said: hearing and obeying the command of Allah and His Messenger! He brought them the news and read them the letter, whereupon two men returned and the rest marched on. They encountered Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī and killed him, while that day they did not know whether it was Rajab or Jumādā. The polytheists said to the Muslims: you have done thus and so in the sacred month! They came to the Prophet ﷺ and narrated to him the incident, whereupon Allah, mighty and exalted is He, revealed: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter. But hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and [hindering] from the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people therefrom, is greater with Allah; and the affliction is greater than killing" — and the affliction is shirk. And one of those — I think he said: who were in the reconnaissance party — said: by Allah, no one killed him but a single man! Thereupon he said: if it is good, then you have performed a good deed; and if it is a sin, then you have committed [it]!
4085 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein" — he said: a man of the Banū Tamīm was sent out by the Prophet ﷺ in a reconnaissance party, and he came upon Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, who was transporting wine from Ṭā'if to Mecca. He shot him with an arrow and killed him. There was a treaty between the Quraysh and Muḥammad, and he killed him on the last day of Jumādā al-Ākhira and the first day of Rajab. Then the Quraysh said: in the sacred month! And we have a covenant! Thereupon Allah, mighty and exalted is He, revealed: "fighting therein is a great matter, and hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him" and hindering from the Sacred Mosque, "and expelling its people therefrom, is greater with Allah" than the killing of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī; and the affliction is disbelief in Allah and the worship of idols, [and that is] greater than all of this.
&; 4-308 &;
4086 - al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī and ʿUthmān al-Jazarī, and on the authority of Miqsam, the client of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh encountered ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī on the first night of Rajab, while he thought that it was Jumādā, and he killed him; and he was the first one killed of the polytheists. The polytheists put the Muslims to shame and said: do you kill in the sacred month?! Thereupon Allah revealed: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter. But hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and the Sacred Mosque" = He says: and hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Allah = "and the Sacred Mosque" = and hindering from the Sacred Mosque = "and expelling its people therefrom, is greater with Allah" than the killing of ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī = "and the affliction", He says: the shirk in which you are, is also greater than that. = al-Zuhrī said: and the Prophet ﷺ used to, according to what has reached us, regard fighting in the sacred month as forbidden, and afterwards it was made permissible to [him].
4087 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter" — and that was because the polytheists had hindered the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and kept him away from the Sacred Mosque in a sacred month, and Allah granted His Prophet victory in a sacred month of the following year. The polytheists reproached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for fighting in a sacred month, &; 4-309 &; whereupon Allah, mighty and exalted is He, said: "But hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people therefrom, is greater with Allah" than the killing therein. = And Muḥammad had sent out a reconnaissance party, and they encountered ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, who was returning from Ṭā'if, on the last night of Jumādā and the first night of Rajab. = And the companions of Muḥammad ﷺ thought that that night belonged to Jumādā, but it was the first night of Rajab, without their realizing it, and one man of them killed him. = And the polytheists sent [a message] to put him to shame about it, whereupon Allah, mighty and exalted is He, said: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter" — but something else is greater than that: "hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people therefrom" — the expulsion of the people of the Sacred Mosque is greater than what Muḥammad struck, and the shirk in Allah is worse.
4088 - Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Abū Mālik, he said: when there was revealed "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter", up to His word "and the affliction is greater than killing", they regarded [that fighting] as enormous. Thereupon He said: and the affliction = the shirk in which you persist = is greater than what you regarded as enormous.
4089 - It has been related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār ibn al-Ḥasan, he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ḥuṣayn, on the authority of Abū Mālik al-Ghifārī, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh out in a military force, and he encountered folk of the polytheists at Baṭn Nakhla, while the Muslims thought it was the last day of Jumādā, but it was the first day of Rajab. The Muslims killed Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī, whereupon the polytheists said: do you not claim that you regard the sacred month and the sacred precinct as violable, while you [yet] have killed in the sacred month?! Thereupon Allah revealed: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein", up to His word "is greater with Allah" than that which you have regarded as enormous, namely the killing of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī; and "the affliction" — that in which you persist, namely shirk — "is greater than killing".
4090 - It has been related to me on the authority of ʿAmmār, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Qatāda, he said: &; 4-310 &; and he used to name it — he says: Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Tamīmī encountered ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī at Baṭn Nakhla and killed him.
4091 - al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ concerning His word: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein" — concerning whom was that revealed? He said: I do not know. = Ibn Jurayj said: and ʿIkrima and Mujāhid said: concerning ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī. Ibn Jurayj said: and Ibn Abī Ḥusayn also informed us of that, on the authority of al-Zuhrī.
4092 - al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Mujāhid said: "Say: fighting therein is a great matter, and hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and the Sacred Mosque" — he said: He says: hindering from the Sacred Mosque "and expelling its people therefrom" — all of this is greater than the killing of Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī — "and the affliction is greater than killing" — disbelief in Allah and the worship of idols is greater than all of this.
4093 - It has been related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh al-Faḍl ibn Khālid say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān al-Bāhilī informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim say concerning His word: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter" — the companions of Muḥammad ﷺ had killed Ibn al-Ḥaḍramī in the sacred month, and the polytheists put the Muslims to shame with it. Thereupon Allah said: fighting in the sacred month is a great matter, but greater than that is the hindering from the path of Allah and the disbelief in Him, and the expulsion of the people of the Sacred Mosque from the Sacred Mosque.
Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: and these two reports which we have mentioned on the authority of Mujāhid and al-Ḍaḥḥāk indicate the correctness of what we have said about setting "the hindering" and "the disbelief in Him" in the nominative, and that what sets it in the nominative is "greater with Allah". Both confirm the correctness of what we have related concerning that from Ibn ʿAbbās, and they indicate the error of him who claims that it is in the nominative by conjunction (ʿaṭf) upon "great" (al-kabīr), and of the statement of him who claims that the meaning is: and great is the hindering from the path of Allah, &; 4-311 &; and who claims that His word "and expelling its people therefrom is greater with Allah" is a report standing separate from the preceding, standing on its own.
* * *
4094 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Hushaym related to us, he said: Ismāʿīl ibn Sālim informed us, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, concerning His word: "and the affliction is greater than killing" — he said: by this disbelief (al-kufr) is meant.
4095 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "and expelling its people therefrom is greater with Allah" than that. Then He put the polytheists to shame for their deeds, their evil deeds, and said: "and the affliction is greater than killing" — that is to say: the shirk in Allah is greater than killing.
* * *
And in the manner of what we have said about the explanation thereof, it has been related from Ibn ʿAbbās:
4096 - Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, he said: when the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ killed ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥaḍramī on the last night of Jumādā and the first night of Rajab, the polytheists sent [a message] to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to put him to shame with it. Thereupon He said: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter", but something else is greater than that: "hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief in Him, and the Sacred Mosque, and expelling its people therefrom, is greater" than what Muḥammad ﷺ struck.
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Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: As for the people of Arabic linguistics, they disagreed about that by which His word "and hindering from the path of Allah" is set in the nominative.
Some of the grammarians of Kūfa said: there are two possibilities for its nominative. The first is that "the hindering" is referred back to "great" (al-kabīr), by which is meant: say, fighting therein is great, and hindering from the path of Allah, and disbelief &; 4-312 &; in Him. And if you wish, you make "the hindering" into "great", by which is meant: say, fighting therein is great, and great is the hindering from the path of Allah and the disbelief in Him.
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Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: he — al-Farrāʾ is meant — has erred in both interpretations. For when he sets "the hindering" in the nominative by conjunction upon "great", the explanation of the sentence becomes: say, fighting in the sacred month is great, and [it is] a hindering from the path of Allah, and a disbelief in Allah. That is an interpretation that contradicts what all the people of Islam adhere to, for no one has ever claimed that Allah, blessed and exalted is He, made fighting in the sacred months into a disbelief in Allah; rather, it is not admissible that such a thing be supposed of a sensible person who understands what he says, that he would say that. And how could anyone of sound disposition say that, while Allah, exalted is His praise, immediately follows it with: "and expelling its people therefrom is greater with Allah"?! For if the sentence were as he deemed admissible in this interpretation, then the expulsion of the people of the Sacred Mosque from the Sacred Mosque would have to be more enormous with Allah than disbelief in Him, because He immediately follows it with: "and expelling its people therefrom is greater with Allah". And in the establishment of the proof that nothing is more enormous with Allah than disbelief in Him, lies that which makes clear the error of this statement.
And when he sets "the hindering" in the nominative according to the meaning which he claims to be the other possibility — that is to say: setting it in the nominative with the meaning "and great is the hindering from the path of Allah", and that afterwards it is said: "and expelling its people therefrom is greater with Allah" — then the meaning becomes that the expulsion of the people of the Sacred Mosque from the Sacred Mosque is more enormous with Allah than disbelief in Allah and hindering from His path and from the Sacred Mosque. And whoever interprets it thus falls into the same error as that into which he fell who made the first statement: namely by making one of the constituents of disbelief more enormous with Allah &; 4-313 &; than disbelief itself. And that is something whose error and corruption is hidden from no one.
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And one of the linguists of Basra used to make the first statement about the nominative of "the hindering", and claimed that it is conjoined therein upon "great", and set His word "and expelling its people" in the nominative as an inceptive clause (ibtidāʾ). And we have already set forth the corruption thereof and the error of his interpretation.
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Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: Then the people of interpretation disagreed about His word "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter": is it abrogated (mansūkh) or is its ruling established?
Some of them said: it is abrogated by the word of Allah, mighty and exalted is He: And fight the polytheists collectively, just as they fight you collectively [Surah al-Tawba: 36], and by His word: Then kill the polytheists [Surah al-Tawba: 5].
* Mention of who said that:
4097 - al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: ʿAṭāʾ ibn Maysara said: fighting in the sacred month was permitted in [Surah] Barāʾa, [with] His word: Do not wrong yourselves therein, and fight the polytheists collectively [Surah al-Tawba: 36]. He says: therein and outside it.
4098 - al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, he said: the Prophet ﷺ used to, according to what has reached us, regard fighting in the sacred month as forbidden, and afterwards it was made permissible. &; 4-314 &; And others said: no, that is an established ruling = it is not permissible for anyone to fight in the sacred months, on the basis of this verse, for Allah has made fighting therein a great matter.
* Mention of who said that:
4099 - al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter"; I said: what is with them! Was it not permitted to them at that time to fight the people of shirk in the sacred month, and did they afterwards fight them [yet] therein? Then ʿAṭāʾ swore to me by Allah: it is not permitted for the people to set out to fight in the sacred month, nor to fight therein, nor is it recommended. He said: and they [the polytheists] are not called to Islam before they are fought, nor to the jizyah; that they have left off.
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Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: The correct of the statements concerning that is what ʿAṭāʾ ibn Maysara said: that the prohibition of fighting the polytheists in the sacred months is abrogated by the word of Allah, exalted is His praise: Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve months, [laid down] in the Book of Allah on the day He created the heavens and the earth; of them four are sacred. That is the upright religion. So do not wrong yourselves therein, and fight the polytheists collectively, just as they fight you collectively [Surah al-Tawba: 36].
And we have said only that this His word "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter" abrogates it, on account of the abundant reports from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he fought Hawāzin at Ḥunayn and Thaqīf at Ṭā'if, and sent Abū ʿĀmir to Awṭās to fight those of the polytheists who were there, in the sacred months, namely in Shawwāl and a part of Dhū al-Qaʿda, and that belongs to the sacred months. It was thereby known, then, that if fighting therein were forbidden and therein lay disobedience, he ﷺ would have been the furthest of people from doing that.
&; 4-315 &;
And another [argument]: all the people of knowledge about the biography of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ do not contradict one another [over the fact] that the oath of good pleasure (bayʿat al-riḍwān) for fighting the Quraysh took place in Dhū al-Qaʿda, and that he ﷺ called his companions to it on that day only because it had reached him that ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān had been killed by the polytheists when he had sent him to them with the message with which he had sent him. So he ﷺ took the oath to declare to the people war and fighting, until ʿUthmān returned with the message [and] between the Prophet ﷺ and the Quraysh a peace settlement came about; then he desisted from fighting and combating them. And that was in Dhū al-Qaʿda, and that belongs to the sacred months.
Since that is so, the correctness is clear of what we have said about His word "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein. Say: fighting therein is a great matter", namely that it is abrogated.
And if anyone supposes that the prohibition of fighting in the sacred months came about after the regarding of it as violable by the Prophet ﷺ — as we have described of his wars — then he has supposed out of ignorance. For this verse — I mean His word "They ask you about the sacred month, about fighting therein" — concerns the matter of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh and his companions, and what happened in their matter and in the matter of the slain man whom they killed. So Allah revealed concerning his matter this verse, at the end of Jumādā al-Ākhira of the second year after the arrival of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Medina and his emigration thereto; while the battle of Ḥunayn and Ṭā'if took place in Shawwāl of the eighth year after his arrival at Medina and his emigration thereto, and between the two lies a span of time hidden from no one.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: And they will not cease fighting you until they turn you from your religion, if they are able to do so
Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: He, exalted is His mention, means: and the polytheists of the Quraysh will not cease fighting you until they turn you from your religion, if they are able to do so, as:
&; 4-316 &;
4100 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, he said: Ibn Isḥāq related to me, he said: al-Zuhrī and Yazīd ibn Rūmān related to me, on the authority of ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr: "and they will not cease fighting you until they turn you from your religion, if they are able to do so" — that is to say: they persist in that most vile and greatest of it, without repentance and without desisting from it = that is to say: in turning the Muslims away from their religion until they lead them back to disbelief, as they used to do with those of them whom they could overpower before the emigration (hijra).
4101 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, he said: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the word of Allah, mighty and exalted is He: "and they will not cease fighting you until they turn you from your religion, if they are able to do so" — he said: the disbelievers of the Quraysh.
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The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: And whoever of you turns back from his religion and dies while he is a disbeliever — their works have become fruitless in this life and the Hereafter; and they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide eternally (217)
Abū Jaʿfar (Ṭabarī) said: By His word, exalted is His praise, "and whoever of you turns back from his religion (yartadid)" He means: whoever of you returns from his religion, as He, exalted is His praise, said: Then the two of them turned back (fa-rtaddā) upon their footsteps [Surah al-Kahf: 64] — by His word "fa-rtaddā" He means: the two of them turned back. And from this is the expression: "so-and-so reclaimed his right from so-and-so" (istaradda fulān ḥaqqahu min fulān), when he reclaimed it from him.
And the doubling [of the dāl] was made explicit only in His word "yartadid", because the lām of the verb bears quiescence through the jussive (jazm); and when it &; 4-317 &; bears quiescence, the rule requires the omission of the doubling, but it is sometimes nonetheless doubled and assimilated while bearing quiescence, by analogy with the dual form and the plural form.
* * *
And His word "and dies while he is a disbeliever" — He says: whoever turns back from his religion, the religion of Islam, "and dies while he is a disbeliever", that is to say: dies before he repents of his disbelief — they are those whose works have become fruitless.
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By His word "whose works have become fruitless (ḥabiṭat)" He means: have become void and fallen away. Their becoming void means: the falling away of their reward, and the falling away of the recompense for them and the requital for them in the life of this world and in the Hereafter.
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And His word "and they are the inhabitants of the Fire, therein they will abide eternally" — He means: those who turned back from their religion and died in their disbelief, they are the people of the Fire, who remain therein forever.
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And He made them "its inhabitants" only because they do not go out of it, so that they are its denizens who abide therein permanently, as one says: "these are the inhabitants of such-and-such quarter", by which is meant: its denizens who abide therein permanently.
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And by His word "therein they will abide eternally" He means: they will abide therein, an abiding without a time limit and without end.
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