Tafseer of The Repentance · At-Tawba · 9:90
And those with excuses among the bedouins came to be permitted [to remain], and they who had lied to Allah and His Messenger sat [at home]. There will strike those who disbelieved among them a painful punishment.
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: وَجَاءَ الْمُعَذِّرُونَ مِنَ الأَعْرَابِ لِيُؤْذَنَ لَهُمْ وَقَعَدَ الَّذِينَ كَذَبُوا اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ سَيُصِيبُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (90) (And the excuse-making bedouins came, that leave might be granted them, and those who lied to Allah and His Messenger sat back. Those of them who disbelieved shall be struck by a painful punishment. (90))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted — may His remembrance be praised — says: "And there came" to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ "the excuse-making bedouins, that leave might be granted them" to stay behind, "and there sat back" — away from coming to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and away from the jihād alongside him — "those who lied to Allah and His Messenger," and who spoke falsehood and excused themselves with false pretexts. The Exalted — may His remembrance be praised — says: those of them who denied the oneness of Allah (tawḥīd) and the prophethood of His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ shall be struck by a painful punishment.
* * *
If someone were to ask: "And the excuse-makers came (al-muʿadhdhirūn)" — when you know that "al-muʿadhdhir" in Arabic usage means only: he who is merely half-hearted in a matter, who does not do it thoroughly and does not complete it? But this is not the description of these people; their description is rather that they had striven to find that with which they could march out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ against their enemy, and had yearned for it, but found no means to do so. They therefore deserve, more fittingly and with greater right, to be described as "they have presented a valid excuse (qad aʿdharū)" than as "they were half-hearted (ʿadhdharū)." And if they are so described, then the correct reading of it is that which Ibn ʿAbbās read, namely that which follows:
17073 — Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Ḥammād related to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, on the authority of Abū Rawq, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, he said: Ibn ʿAbbās read: "And the excuse-bearers came (al-muʿdhirūn)" with lightening [of the dāl, without doubling], and he said: they are people with a valid excuse.
— and this with the agreement of Mujāhid and others?
To this it is answered: its meaning is other than that to which you incline; its meaning is: and the ones excusing themselves among the bedouins came (al-muʿtadhirūn) — but when the tāʾ came to stand beside the dhāl, it was assimilated into it, so that the two became a single doubled dhāl, on account of the closeness of the place of articulation of the one to the other, just as one says "yadhdhakkarūn" for "yatadhakkarūn," and "yadhdhakkar" for "yatadhakkar." And the ʿayn [the middle letter] of "al-muʿadhdhirīn" took the fatḥa vowel, because the vowel of the tāʾ of "al-muʿtadhirīn," namely the fatḥa, was transferred to it, so that it took the vowel with which it had previously been voiced. And the Arabs sometimes turn the meaning of "excusing oneself (al-iʿtidhār)" toward "having a valid excuse (al-iʿdhār)," so that one says: "so-and-so excused himself in such-and-such (iʿtadhara)," by which is meant: he presented a valid excuse (aʿdhara). To this belongs the word of Labīd:
Until the year; then may the greeting of peace be upon you both — and whoever weeps a full year has indeed fulfilled his due (faqad iʿtadhar).
He said "faqad iʿtadhar" in the meaning of: "then he has fulfilled his due (faqad aʿdhar)."
* * *
Nevertheless, the scholars of interpretation have differed concerning the description of these people, whom Allah described as having come to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ "making excuses."
Some of them said: they were lying in their excuse, and for that reason Allah granted them no exemption.
* Mention of who said that:
17074 — Abū ʿUbayda ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, he said: Qatāda used to read: "and the excuse-making bedouins came (al-muʿadhdhirūn)," he said: they excused themselves with a lie.
17075 — Al-Ḥārith related to me, he said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid: "and the excuse-making bedouins came," he said: a group of the Banū Ghifār; they came and excused themselves, but Allah granted them no exemption.
* * *
— Thus those whom we have named have reported that these people were merely men who excused themselves with falsehood, not with truth. Therefore it is not permissible to describe them as "they had presented a valid excuse (al-iʿdhār)," unless one describes them as being half-hearted in their excusing with falsehood. But as for the truth — as the one whose statement we have transmitted from these people said — it is not permissible to describe them with it.
* * *
And some of them used to say: they came only making excuses, not in earnest, and offered something which they did not truly wish to do. Whoever turns it toward this interpretation encounters no objection in it; only, I know of no one among the people who possess knowledge of the interpretation of the Qurʾān who has turned its interpretation toward that, such that I would prefer that view.
Furthermore: that upon which the reading of the great cities rests is the doubling of the dhāl — I mean in His word "al-muʿadhdhirūn." And in this lies an indication of the soundness of the interpretation of him who understood it in the meaning of "excusing oneself (al-iʿtidhār)," because the people who were described by this were not charged with a task in which they would have been half-hearted (ʿadhdharū). For they were only two groups: either one who strove and was obedient, or a hypocrite, a depraved one (fāsiq) who cast aside Allah's command. In neither of the two groups, then, is there anyone who can be described with half-heartedness in marching out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; rather it is either one who [pretends to be] half-hearted and makes a show of it (muʿadhdhir mubālighun), or one who excuses himself (muʿtadhir).
When that is so, and the evidentiary force of the readers is unanimous concerning the doubling of the dhāl in "al-muʿadhdhirīn," then it is known that its meaning is that which we have described in the interpretation.
* * *
And concerning Mujāhid, agreement with Ibn ʿAbbās in this matter has been transmitted.
17076 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq informed us, he said: ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Zubayr related to us, on the authority of Ibn ʿUyayna, on the authority of Ḥumayd, he said: Mujāhid read: "and the excuse-bearers came (al-muʿdharūn)" with lightening [without doubling], and he said: they are people with a valid excuse.
17077 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: the excuse-makers were — according to what has reached me — a group of the Banū Ghifār, among them Khufāf ibn Aymāʾ ibn Raḥaḍa; then the event concerned the people with a valid excuse, until it ended at His word: وَلا عَلَى الَّذِينَ إِذَا مَا أَتَوْكَ لِتَحْمِلَهُمْ [the āyah] (nor is there anything upon those who, whenever they came to you that you might provide them with a mount…).
