Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:39
If you do not go forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment and will replace you with another people, and you will not harm Him at all. And Allah is over all things competent.
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 His word: إِلا تَنْفِرُوا يُعَذِّبْكُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا وَيَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ وَلا تَضُرُّوهُ شَيْئًا وَاللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ (9:39) (If you do not march forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment and will replace you with another people, and you will not harm Him in anything; and Allah is Powerful over all things.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says to the believers among the Companions of His Messenger, threatening them on account of their failing to march forth (al-nafr) against their enemy, the Byzantines: if you do not march forth, O believers, against those against whom the Messenger of Allah has summoned you to fight, then Allah will already in this life, here on earth, punish you on account of your failing to march forth against them, with a painful, tormenting punishment. And He will replace you with another people means: Allah will replace you, for His Prophet, with a people other than you, who do march forth when they are summoned, who do respond to Him when they are called, and who obey Allah and His Messenger. And you will not harm Him in anything means: you will not harm Allah in anything by your failing to march forth and by your disobedience to Him, for He has no need of you; rather, it is you who are in need of Him. He is Self-Sufficient, free of need of you, and you are the needy ones. And Allah is Powerful over all things means: the Exalted, whose praise is great, says: Allah is Powerful to destroy you and to replace you with a people other than you, and over all that He wills of things, He is Powerful.
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It has been transmitted that "the painful punishment" in this place consisted of withholding the rain from them.
Mention of those who said that:
16721 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn Khālid al-Ḥanafī related to me, saying: Najda al-Khurāsānī related to me, saying: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās, when he was asked about His word If you do not march forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment, say: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, summoned one of the Arab tribes to fight, but they delayed and held back. Thereupon He withheld the rain from them, and that was their punishment. That is His word If you do not march forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment.
16722 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin related to us, on the authority of Najda, who said: I asked Ibn ʿAbbās about it — and he mentioned something similar — except that he said: their punishment was that He withheld the rain from them.
16723 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: If you do not march forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment — Allah summoned the believers to fight in the blazing heat during the campaign of Tabūk in the direction of Syria, despite the exhaustion of which Allah is aware.
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Some have claimed that this āyah is abrogated (mansūkh).
Mention of those who said that:
16724 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, on the authority of Yazīd, on the authority of ʿIkrima and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, who both said: If you do not march forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment, and He said: It was not fitting for the people of Medina and the bedouins around them to hold back from the Messenger of Allah and to prefer their own lives over his, up to His word that Allah might reward them with the best for what they used to do — this was abrogated by the āyah that followed it: And it is not fitting for the believers to march forth all together, up to His word that they may be on their guard (9:120-122).
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Abū Jaʿfar said: There is no narration concerning what ʿIkrima and al-Ḥasan said about the abrogation of the ruling of this āyah which they both mentioned, that one would have to accept as binding, nor is there any proof-ground that denies its soundness. A number of the Companions and the Successors (tābiʿūn) have affirmed the continuing validity of its ruling, and we shall mention them hereafter. And it is possible that His word If you do not march forth, He will punish you with a painful punishment pertains to a specific group among the people, and that thereby are meant those whom the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, summoned to fight but who did not march forth, in accordance with what we have transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās.
And if that is so, then His word And it is not fitting for the believers to march forth all together is a prohibition by Allah to the believers against vacating the lands of Islam without a single believer remaining behind in them, and an announcement by Allah to them that marching forth is an obligation upon some of them and not upon all of them, namely upon those among them who are summoned, not upon those who are not summoned. And if that is so, then neither of the two āyahs contains an abrogation of the other, and the ruling of each of them remains in force in that to which it pertains.