Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:47
Had they gone forth with you, they would not have increased you except in confusion, and they would have been active among you, seeking [to cause] you fitnah. And among you are avid listeners to them. And Allah is Knowing of the wrongdoers.
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: لَوْ خَرَجُوا فِيكُمْ مَا زَادُوكُمْ إِلا خَبَالا وَلأَوْضَعُوا خِلالَكُمْ يَبْغُونَكُمُ الْفِتْنَةَ وَفِيكُمْ سَمَّاعُونَ لَهُمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالظَّالِمِينَ (47) (Had they marched out among you, they would only have increased you in corruption, and they would have hurried about in your midst, seeking to stir up sedition (al-fitna) among you; and among you are some who listen to them. And Allah has knowledge of the wrongdoers. (9:47))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: Had these — the hypocrites (munāfiqūn) — marched out among you, O believers — they would only have increased you in corruption. He says: by their marching out among you they would only have increased you in depravity and harm; and that is why I held them back from marching out with you.
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We have already previously set forth the meaning of "al-khabāl" (corruption) with its proofs.
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and they would have hurried about in your midst. He says: and they would have moved swiftly about among you upon their mounts.
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The origin of this is from "the urging on of horses and mounts (īḍāʿ al-khayl wa-al-rikāb)," which is to go swiftly with them. One says of the she-camel when she goes swiftly: "the she-camel hurried, she hurries, a hurrying and a being-hurried (waḍaʿat al-nāqatu taḍaʿu waḍʿan wa-mawḍūʿan)," and "her owner urged her on (awḍaʿahā ṣāḥibuhā)," when he spurs and incites her, "he urges her on, an urging (yūḍiʿuhā īḍāʿan)." Of this is the saying of the rajaz-poet:
"O, would that I were therein a youth, who trots therein and hurries."
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As for the origin of "al-khilāl": it is from "al-khalal," and these are the openings that occur between people, in the ranks and elsewhere. Of this is the word of the Prophet ﷺ: "Close the ranks tightly together, so that [the devils] do not weave their way between you, as though they were the young of the ḥadhaf-sheep."
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As for His word seeking to stir up sedition among you: the meaning of "they seek for you the sedition" is that they seek for you that by which you would be tested in your marching out on your campaign, through their discouraging you from it.
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One says of this: "I sought the evil for him," and "I sought the good for him, I seek for him, a seeking (abghīhi bughāʾan)," when you seek it out for him, with the meaning of "I sought for him"; and likewise "I bound your load (ʿakamtuka)" and "I milked for you (ḥalabtuka)," with the meaning of "I milked for you" and "I bound the load for you." And when they mean: I helped you in seeking it out and seeking it, they say: "I made you seek out such and such (abghaytuka kadhā)," and "I made you milk (aḥlabtuka)," and "I made you bind the load (aʿkamtuka)," that is: I helped you in that.
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In agreement with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
16771 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: and they would have hurried about in your midst (khilālakum), among you seeking to stir up sedition among you, by it.
16772 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: and they would have hurried about in your midst. He says: [and they would have hurried about in your midst], your center, with the sedition.
16773 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: and they would have hurried about in your midst, seeking to stir up sedition among you, they delay you. He said: Rifāʿa ibn al-Tābūt, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl, and Aws ibn Qayẓī.
16774 — al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word: and they would have hurried about in your midst. He said: they would have moved swiftly through the lanes — among you, seeking to stir up sedition among you, they delay you — ʿAbd Allāh ibn Nabtal, Rifāʿa ibn Tābūt, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl.
16775 — ...... he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū Sufyān related to me, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: and they would have hurried about in your midst. He said: they would have moved swiftly among you, seeking to stir up sedition among you, by it.
16776 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: had they marched out among you, they would only have increased you in corruption. He said: these are the hypocrites in the campaign of Tabūk. By it Allah consoles His Prophet ﷺ and the believers and says: And what grieves you? Had they marched out among you, they would only have increased you in corruption! They say: "A plot has been laid against you, and such and such has been done," while they discourage you — and they would have hurried about in your midst, seeking to stir up sedition among you, unbelief (al-kufr).
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As for His word and among you are some who listen to them: the people of interpretation differed over its interpretation.
Some of them said: its meaning is: and among you are some who listen to your conversation on their behalf, conveying it to them — spies for them against you.
* Mention of who said that:
16777 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: and among you are some who listen to them, they pass on your conversations, spies who are not hypocrites.
16778 — al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: and among you are some who listen to them. He said: relayers, spies, other than the hypocrites.
16779 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: and among you are some who listen to them, they hear what they convey to your enemy.
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And others said: rather its meaning is: and among you are some who listen to their words and obey them.
* Mention of who said that:
16780 — Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: and among you are some who listen to them, and among you is one who listens to their words.
16781 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: Those who asked for permission were, according to what has reached me, among the notables; among them were ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl and al-Jadd ibn Qays, and they were notables among their people. Allah held them back, on account of His knowledge concerning them: that they, had they marched out with them, would have corrupted His army for Him. And in His army there were people who harbored love and obedience toward them in that to which they summoned them, on account of their standing among them. Therefore He said: and among you are some who listen to them.
Abū Jaʿfar said: According to this interpretation, then: and among you are some among you who are inclined to listen and obey, who, were they to accompany you, would corrupt them for you through their discouraging them from marching out with you.
And according to the first interpretation its meaning is: and among you are some of them who listen, who listen to your conversation on their behalf, and convey and pass it on to them — spies for them against you.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And the more correct of the two interpretations, in my view, here is the interpretation of the one who said: its meaning is: "and among you are some who listen to your conversation on their behalf, conveying it from you, spies for them" — because the predominant usage in the language of the Arabs in their word "sammāʿ" (a listener) is a description of one who is described as being a listener to words, just as Allah, exalted is His praise, said in more than one place in His Book: سَمَّاعُونَ لِلْكَذِبِ (they listen eagerly to falsehood) [sūrat al-Māʾida: 41], whereby He described a people with listening to falsehood from the conversation. But when they describe a man with listening to the words of a man and his command and prohibition, and his acceptance of it and his following of it, they describe him as "a hearer and obeyer to him (lahu sāmiʿ wa-muṭīʿ)," and they hardly ever say: "he is to him a listener-obeyer (huwa lahu sammāʿ muṭīʿ)."
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As for His word and Allah has knowledge of the wrongdoers: its meaning is: and Allah has knowledge of whoever directs his deeds toward other than their proper directions and places them in other than their places, and of whoever asks the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for permission on account of a valid excuse, and of whoever asks him for permission out of doubt concerning Islam and out of hypocrisy, and of whoever listens in on the conversation of the believers in order to report it to the hypocrites, and of whoever listens in on it in order to rejoice over that over which the believers rejoice and to be grieved by that which grieves them. Nothing of the hidden matters of His creatures or of their manifest affairs remains concealed from Him.
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And we have already set forth the meaning of "al-ẓulm" (wrongdoing) in more than one place in this our book, in a manner that dispenses us from repeating it in this place.
