Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:8
How [can there be a treaty] while, if they gain dominance over you, they do not observe concerning you any pact of kinship or covenant of protection? They satisfy you with their mouths, but their hearts refuse [compliance], and most of them are defiantly disobedient.
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: كَيْفَ وَإِنْ يَظْهَرُوا عَلَيْكُمْ لا يَرْقُبُوا فِيكُمْ إِلا وَلا ذِمَّةً يُرْضُونَكُمْ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَتَأْبَى قُلُوبُهُمْ وَأَكْثَرُهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ (8) (How? While, if they gain the upper hand over you, they observe with regard to you neither kinship (ill) nor covenant (dhimma). They satisfy you with their mouths, but their hearts refuse, and most of them are wrongdoers (fāsiqūn). (8))
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted be His praise — means by His word: how could there be, for these polytheists who have broken their covenant, or for whoever among them has no covenant with you, O believers, any covenant and protective relationship, while they — (if they gain the upper hand over you), overcome you — (observe with regard to you neither kinship nor covenant).
* * *
He sufficed with "how (kayfa)" as an indication of the meaning of the statement, because that which is intended by it had preceded. Thus the Arabs act: when they repeat the particle after its meaning has passed, they consider it permissible to omit the verb, as the poet said:
You two informed me that death is only in the villages — how then, while this is a rocky hill and a sand hill?
He thus omitted the verb after "how," because that which is intended by it had preceded. The meaning of the statement is: how could death be in the villages, while this is a rocky hill and a sand hill, in which no one escapes it?
* * *
The people of interpretation differed concerning the interpretation of His word: (they observe with regard to you neither ill nor dhimma).
Some of them said, its meaning is: they observe with regard to you neither Allah nor a covenant.
* Mention of who said that:
16499 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: لا يَرْقُبُونَ فِي مُؤْمِنٍ إِلا [Sūrat al-Tawba: 10] (they observe with regard to a believer no ill), he said: (ill means) Allah.
16500 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Sulaymān, on the authority of Abū Mijlaz concerning His word: لا يَرْقُبُونَ فِي مُؤْمِنٍ إِلا وَلا ذِمَّةً (they observe with regard to a believer neither ill nor dhimma), he said: it is like His word "Jibrāʾīl," "Mīkāʾīl," "Isrāfīl," as if he says: he appends "Jabr," "Mīkā," and "Isrāf" to "īl," that is to say: servant of Allah — لا يَرْقُبُونَ فِي مُؤْمِنٍ إِلا (they observe with regard to a believer no ill), as if he says: they do not observe Allah.
16501 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to me, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: (neither ill nor dhimma), they observe neither Allah nor another.
* * *
And others said: "al-ill" is kinship (al-qarāba).
* Mention of who said that:
16502 — al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His word: لا يَرْقُبُونَ فِي مُؤْمِنٍ إِلا وَلا ذِمَّةً (they observe with regard to a believer neither ill nor dhimma), he says: (they observe) neither kinship nor covenant. And concerning His word: (and if they gain the upper hand over you, they observe with regard to you neither ill nor dhimma), he said: "al-ill" means kinship, and "al-dhimma" is the covenant.
16503 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: (they observe with regard to you neither ill nor dhimma), "al-ill" is kinship, and "al-dhimma" is the covenant — that is to say the people of the covenant among the polytheists; he says: their protective relationship.
16504 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiya and ʿAbda related to us, on the authority of Juwaybir, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk: "al-ill" is kinship.
16505 — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Aḥmad related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Salama ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: لا يَرْقُبُونَ فِي مُؤْمِنٍ إِلا وَلا ذِمَّةً (they observe with regard to a believer neither ill nor dhimma), he said: "al-ill" is kinship, and "al-dhimma" is the covenant.
16506 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say, saying: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His word: لا يَرْقُبُونَ فِي مُؤْمِنٍ إِلا وَلا ذِمَّةً (they observe with regard to a believer neither ill nor dhimma), "al-ill" is kinship, and "al-dhimma" is the covenant (al-mīthāq).
16507 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (how? while, if they gain the upper hand over you), the polytheists — (they observe with regard to you no ...), covenant, nor kinship, nor agreement.
* * *
And others said: its meaning is the oath of alliance (al-ḥilf).
* Mention of who said that:
16508 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word: (they observe with regard to you neither ill nor dhimma), he said: "al-ill" is the oath of alliance, and "al-dhimma" is the covenant.
* * *
And others said: "al-ill" is the covenant, but it was repeated because the two wordings differed, even though their meaning was one and the same.
* Mention of who said that:
16509 — 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: (ill), he said: a covenant.
16510 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: (they observe with regard to you neither ill nor dhimma), he said: they observe with regard to you neither covenant nor protective relationship. He said: the one of them is from the other like the form of "ghafūr" and "raḥīm"; he said: it is thus one word, which splits (into two forms). He said: and the covenant, that is "al-dhimma."
16511 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Khuṣayf, on the authority of Mujāhid: (nor dhimma), he said: the covenant.
16512 — al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, saying: Qays related to us, on the authority of Khuṣayf, on the authority of Mujāhid: (nor dhimma), he said: "al-dhimma" is the covenant.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the most correct of the statements concerning that is that one says: Allah — exalted be His mention — has informed concerning these polytheists, whose killing He commanded His prophet and the believers after the expiry of the sacred months, and whose besieging and lying in ambush for them at every watchpost He commanded: that they, if they were to gain the upper hand over the believers, would observe with regard to them no "ill."
And "al-ill" is a name that comprises three meanings: namely the covenant, the agreement, and the oath of alliance, as well as kinship; and it also has the meaning of "Allah." Since the word comprises these three meanings, and Allah has not singled out any one meaning of them to the exclusion of another, the correct view is that one understands it generally, just as He — exalted be His praise — intended by it the three of its meanings in a general sense. One thus says: they observe with regard to a believer neither Allah, nor kinship, nor covenant, nor agreement.
Among the proof that it can have the meaning of "kinship" is the statement of Ibn Muqbil:
The people were corrupted by evil descendants who remained; they severed the ill and the roots of blood-kinship (al-raḥim)
in the meaning of: they severed kinship. And the statement of Ḥassān ibn Thābit:
By your life, indeed, your ill toward Quraysh is like the ill of the young camel toward the offspring of the ostrich.
And as for its meaning when it means "covenant," there is the statement of the speaker:
We found them mendacious in their ill, while he who possesses ill and covenant does not lie.
* * *
And some of those who are reckoned to the knowledge of the language of the Arabs among the people of Basra have claimed: that "al-ill," "the covenant," "the agreement (al-mīthāq)," and "the oath (al-yamīn)" are one and the same — and that "al-dhimma" in this place means the feeling of obligation (al-tadhammum) toward him who has no covenant; and its plural is "dhimam."
* * *
And Ibn Isḥāq used to say: by this verse the people of the general covenant were meant.
16513 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq: (how? while, if they gain the upper hand over you), that is to say: the polytheists who have no covenant for a (fixed) term with you, from among the people of the general covenant — (they observe with regard to you neither ill nor dhimma).
* * *
As for His word: (they satisfy you with their mouths), He says: they give you with their tongues words that are contrary to what they conceal in their souls toward you of enmity and hatred — (but their hearts refuse), that is to say: their hearts refuse to hold true that which they show you with their tongues, by submitting to you. He — exalted be His praise — warns the believers concerning their affair, and urges them to the killing and extermination of them wherever they are found on the earth of Allah, and (commands) that they not fall short in inflicting harm upon them with all that they are able — (and most of them are wrongdoers (fāsiqūn)), He says: and most of them act contrary to your covenant and break it, disbelieving in their Lord, having departed from His obedience.
