Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:11
But if they repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, then they are your brothers in religion; and We detail the verses for a people who know.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: فَإِنْ تَابُوا وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ فَإِخْوَانُكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَنُفَصِّلُ الآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ (9:11) ("But if they repent and establish the prayer (ṣalāh) and give the alms-tax (zakāh), then they are your brothers in religion; and We set forth the signs in detail for a people who know." (9:11))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: But if these polytheists, whom I have commanded you, O believers, to kill, turn away from their unbelief (kufr) and from their ascribing partners to Allah (shirk), to belief in Him and in His Messenger, and turn to obedience to Him =(and establish the prayer), the prescribed prayer, and fulfill it within its bounds =(and give the alms-tax), the obligatory (zakāh) to those entitled to it =(then they are your brothers in religion), He says: then they are your brothers in the religion that Allah has commanded you, and that is Islam =(and We set forth the signs in detail), He says: and We make clear Allah's proofs and indications to His creatures =(for a people who know), to whom they are made clear, so that We expound them to them in detail, to the exclusion of the ignorant who do not understand Allah's exposition and the clear meaning of His signs.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said concerning that, the people of interpretation (taʾwīl) have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
16516 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: (but if they repent and establish the prayer and give the alms-tax, then they are your brothers in religion), he says: if they give up al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, and bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah =(then they are your brothers in religion, and We set forth the signs in detail for a people who know).
16517 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (but if they repent and establish the prayer and give the alms-tax), he said: This verse rendered inviolable the blood of the people of the qibla (ahl al-qibla, the Muslims).
16518 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said: The prayer and the alms-tax were both made obligatory together, without any distinction being made between them. And he recited: (but if they repent and establish the prayer and give the alms-tax, then they are your brothers in religion), and he refused to accept the prayer except together with the alms-tax. And he said: May Allah have mercy on Abū Bakr, how well he understood the religion (afqah)!
16519 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of Abū ʿUbayda, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh (ibn Masʿūd), who said: You have been commanded to establish the prayer and give the alms-tax, and whoever does not give the alms-tax has no prayer.
* * *
And it was said: (then they are brothers) — it was put in the nominative case by means of an implied pronoun: "then they are your brothers," since they had already been mentioned earlier, as He said: فَإِنْ لَمْ تَعْلَمُوا آبَاءَهُمْ فَإِخْوَانُكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ [Sūrat al-Aḥzāb: 5] ("And if you do not know their fathers, then they are your brothers in religion"), that is: then they are your brothers in religion.
