Surah At-Tawbah 9:30-37 - Quran Translation Commentary

30. And the Jews say: Uzair (Ezra) is the son of Allah⁵⁸; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah.⁵⁹ That is (merely) a saying from their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who were disbelievers before them⁶⁰. May Allah destroy them. How perverse they are!

31. They have taken their priests and monks as their lords⁶¹, other than Allah and also the Messiah, son of Mary⁶², although they were bidden to worship only One God⁶³. There is no god, but He, Pure from all that they ascribe as partners (to Him)!

32. They intend to extinguish Allah’s light with their mouths, and Allah is determined to perfect His light, however much the disbelievers may dislike it ⁶⁴.

33. It is He who has sent His messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, so that He may cause it to prevail over all religions, however much the polytheists may dislike it⁶⁵.

34. O you who believe! Verily many of the priests, and monks (of people of the Book) are there who devour the wealth of men by evil means⁶⁶ and debar (them) from the path of Allah⁶⁷. And those who hoard up gold and silver in treasures and do not spend it in the way of Allah. Give them the tidings of a painful punishment⁶⁸.

35. On the day when it will be heated in the fire of hell, and their foreheads, and their sides and their backs will be branded⁶⁹ with it (saying): This is what you treasured for yourselves, so taste what you have been treasuring!

36. The number of months with Allah is twelve, as recorded in Allah’s Book⁷⁰ on the Day when He created the heavens and the earth; out of these, four months are sacred⁷l. That is the right religion⁷². So do not wrong yourselves in them⁷³. And wage war against the polytheists (Mushrikeen) all together as they wage war against you all together. And know that Allah is with those who fear Him.

37. Transposition ( of a month- Nasi,) is an excess of disbelief whereby those who disbelieve are misled. They make it (month) lawful one year, and forbidden another year, inorder that they may make up the number of months which Allah has sanctified, thus making lawful what Allah has forbidden⁷⁴. The evil of their deeds has been beautified for them, and Allah does not guide the disbelievers.

Commentary

58. In the Bible Uzair is called Ezra, who lived in the fifth century B.C. The personality who delivered them from the destruction wrought on them by Bukht Nasser and from their religious, moral and functional downfall, to reform them by strengthening their tie with the Torah, and to instil the spirit of religion in them, was that of Prophet Ezra. A major reason for the moral corruption of the Bani Israil was the fact that during their period of downfall they had been indulging in mixed marriages with the members of the polytheistic communities, the bad influence of which did not remain limited to moral corruption only, but it also helped polytheism to make inroads into their life. The Bible states:

“While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children, and gathered to him out of Israel: for the people wept bitterly... And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, ‘You have trespassed and married foreign women, and so increased the guilt of Israel. Now then make confession to the LORD the God of your fathers, and do his will: separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.’Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, ‘It is so: we must do as you have said.” (Ezra 10:1 & 10 to 12)

As a fruit of his efforts the Bani Israil got a new lease of life. Baitul Maqdis was rebuilt again, and the Shariah of the Torah came to be followed. In this way the act of giving a new life to Bani Israil was performed by prophet Ezra. Accordingly, the author of the Standard Jewish Encyclopaedia writes:

“Ezra (5th cent. B.C.E.) Refounder of Palestinian Jewry and reformer of Jewish life.”

(Standard Jewish Encyclopaedia, p. 660).

The Encyclopedia Britannica has to say this:

“So important was he in the eyes of his people that later tradition regarded him as no less than a second Moses.

(Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. 7, page 127).

It shows that he became such an important person that the people of his community, who lived after him, honored him and considered him as a second Moosa.

Impressed by his greatness a group of the Jews later on, exceeding the limits in imitation of the Christians, called him Allah’s son, but Allah is above all the polytheistic appellations that they ascribe to Him.

It may be noted that the belief in Ezra ‘s being the son of God is not a common belief of the Jews. but that it is the belief of a sect which lived at the time when the holy Quran was being revealed.

59 The creed of Christ’s being a son of God was the biggest unauthorized innovation that the Christians introduced in the religion of Allah. Saint Paul has played a very big role in popularizing and promoting this creed, as can be seen from his letters included in the collection of Bible and which speak of his audacity. For example, in the letter that he wrote to the Romans Saint Paul says: “The gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord”. (Romans 1 :3,4) For the explanation of the false belief of any person’s being a son of God please see Note No.5, Surah Ikhlas (The Unity).

60 The concept of there being children of God was held originally by polytheistic nations. This innovation was introduced among the Christians by Saint Paul. Having been influenced by the polytheistic philosophies of Greece and Rome and in order to make Christianity popular among these nations. he moulded it in a form which appealed to them. Otherwise in the existing bibles neither the creed of trinity nor the belief of Christ’s being the son of God in the present Christian sense is found. If in the existing bibles, which are distorted and modified, the Christ is stated to be the son of God, it is in a metaphorical way and not in its literary sense: This error of the editors of the Bible has been converted by St. Paul into misguidance.

61. That is: The false beliefs which came to be held by the People of the Book were due to their following blindly their priests and monks. Their sayings took the place of the Book of God, and the standard for accepting or rejecting a thing was bestowed on their sayings and their acts. The people adhered to the false beliefs and innovations introduced by the ‘priests in the religion, and they did not feel it necessary to examine what are the true beliefs and what are the false ones, what is monotheism, what is polytheism, what is worship and what is innovation. This was what happened with the Jews and the Christians, but the Christians went a step further and invented such beliefs and mythology around the person of the Christ that their whole religion revolved round the axis of these false concepts. In this verse this style of their behaviour, this line of their action has been termed as ‘taking them as their lords. ‘Accordingly in a hadith, it is explained by the prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wasallam) as shown below: “‘Adi bin Hatim says: I went to the Prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wasallam), and a golden cross was hanging round my neck. The prophet ordered me to throw that idol away. ‘ Adi says that he heard him reciting this verse of the Surah Taubah: ‘They have taken their priests and monks as their lords.’ The Prophet said: They did not worship them, but what they did was that whatever they declared lawful they took them as lawful and whatever they declared forbidden they considered them forbidden.” Although this hadith is not very reliable, because Tirmizi, while narrating it, has written: “This is a weak hadith. We have learnt of it through the medium of Abdus-Salam bin Harb only. Its narrator Ghutaif bin A ‘yan’ is not well known in the matter of narrating hadith.“ But. so far as the contents of the hadith are concerned, it is the best commentary (tafseer) of this ‘verse, and the commentaries ascribed to Ibn Abbas, Zahhak, Huzaifah, and Abul A‘liyah also endorse this view. The following principles can be deduced from pondering over this verse:

1) In the matter of religion the main thing is Allah’s obedience. To obey the commands of others besides Allah, is to accept others as lords or gods and it tantamounts to worshipping them.

2) They may be learned men or jurists, Imam or Mufti, peer or wali (saints), none has the right to substitute his command in place of that of Allah.

3) Allah’s command is proved by the reasoning by Shariah, and not the sayings of the learned men, jurists and respected people, and the path of Islam is the path of reasoning and arguing and not of blind following and stagnation.

4) Those who confer the right of law making for humans to humans in opposition to Allah, and do not care for the commands of the Shariah, they place the humans on the pedestal meant for Allah.

62. Actually the persons who made Christ the Lord (God) are the monks and the priests, particularly St. Paul, who converted the religion of the Messiah, Islam into Christianity. He has no hesitation in calling the Messiah Lord, God: .

‘Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.’(Acts.2:36) ‘Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, (Romans1: 1) ‘that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification.’ (Romans 4:24,25)

63 The following command can be seen in the Torah and the Bible even today:

“You shall have no other gods before me... you shall not bow down to them or serve them:” (Exodus 20 :3,5)

“This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances: you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deut. 26: 16)

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Begone, Satan for it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” (Matt. 4: 10).

64. By Allah’s light is meant Islam, and by perfecting it is meant perfecting the religion of Islam. It means that the disbelievers do not like the progress made by Islam. They have been extremely perturbed by the rising of the sun of Islam on the world’s horizon, and they are at a loss how to prevent the spreading of its light in the world. When they are unable to find an effective method, they indulge in trying to extinguish its light in a childish manner by blowing air from their mouths. But the world-illuminating sun of Islam cannot be extinguished by their puerile acts, and its light will reach the four corners of the world unhindered.

These disbelievers can neither stop the sun of guidance from rising nor can they prevent the crescent of Islam from becoming a full moon, as the perfection of the religion of Islam is the unchangeable decision of Allah and His decision is enforced without fail, whether any person may like it or not.

65. In the verse guidance means that guidance which illuminates the path of the true religion, that is those signs and arguments which prove the rightness and correctness of the religion of Islam, and by religion of Truth is meant the entire Islamic system of worship and the complete Shariah, whose area is spread from beliefs to politics.

In the verse the word “yuzhirahu” (from Izhar) has been used to mean prevalence or to be victorious, as shown in Lisanul Arab

“So and so is “Zaahir” (obvious) upon so and so means he is “Ghaalib”i.e. Victorious. (page 526, Vol. IV).

At another place in the Quran it is stated:

“O people of my community! Today you have gained power and you are master (Zahireen) in the land.” (Al-Mumin, 29).

In the verse under comment the word Izhar is used to mean political power and mastery and not mastery or ascendancy in argument, because this mastery was available to the prophet from the very first day. Accordingly, Imam Razi writes:

“The prevalence or mastery of this religion by means of reasoning or argument is a well-known reality, therefore, it is necessary that it should be considered prevalence by means of victory.” (At-Tafseerul Kabir Vol. 16 page. 40).

The subject of the verb ‘to cause to prevail’ is Allah and not the prophet, as is clear from the verse which precedes it: ‘Allah is determined to perfect it.” As the subject of the verb ‘to perfect’ is Allah, similarly the subject of the verb ‘to cause to prevail’ is Allah.

Both these verses express the Divine plan to be executed through the means of the Prophet. The first verse has given the tidings of perfecting the light, that is perfecting the religion. while the second verse speaks of the prevalence or the supremacy of Islam over all other religions, at the hands of the Prophet. In the background of the verse concerning perfection of the religion are the people of the Book, that is why in the first verse it is stated: however much the disbelievers may dislike it. In the background of supremacy of Islam were polytheists also, besides the people of the Book so “however much the polytheists may dislike it” has been stated. In reality it was the declaration of the fact that in connection with the last prophet, Allah has determined that He would cause Islam to prevail over all other religions of Arabia through the means of the last Prophet. Accordingly in the lifetime of prophet Muhammad (Sallal lahu Alaihi Wasallam) this decision of Allah came to be realized and this Divine plan was successfully completed, and in such a way that in the entire Arab world not a trace of idolatry and polytheistic religion could be found, the Jewry had to be exiled. As for Christianity, it remained only in the border areas of Arabia, and that too in a subjugated manner and as a tribute payer of the Islamic state.

It shows that this verse states the plan of Allah which He had made in connection with the last prophet specifically and generally the commentators have taken it in this very sense. But some contemporary commentators have taken the political supremacy of the religion as the mission of the last prophet and have taken this verse as an argument for the efforts and campaign in favour of the supremacy of the Islamic system victorious. This however appears to be a bit of stretching a point, because in this verse the mission of the prophet is not stated but the decision of God has been mentioned.

As regards the question: What was the mission of the prophet and whether political supremacy of the religion is the aim or not? It may be stated that so far as the mission of the prophet is concerned, it has not been confined to only one or two verses. but it has been mentioned in hundreds of verses. For this purpose, the verses revealed in Makkah should be referred to because every prophet states his mission in the beginning. As for the political supremacy of the religion it is most certainly aimed at and desired and for this very purpose jihad has been made compulsory, which we have explained in the commentary of this Surah as also in the commentary of Surah Al-Anfal, but it refers to a special stage of dawah campaign. Therefore, it would not be correct to take it as the mission of the prophet.

O you who believe! what is the matter with you that when you were asked to march out in the way of Allah you clung heavily to the earth? Are you more pleased with the life of, this world than the Hereafter when provision of this world is very little compared to the Hereafter? (Al-Quran)

66. The priests, monks and the learned men of the people of the Book were indulging in corrupt practices, making money in the name of religion. Quran refers to this corrupt practice of theirs in its address to the people of faith, so that they may take a lesson from that. What a pity that even after this warning there are quite a few ulema, moulvi, mulla, imam and peer, who have made their religion a means of corruptly earning money. They mislead the people by their deceitful talk. They have trapped people in the net of ‘peeri-mureedi,’ so that they may receive valuable gifts from their misled disciples. They are playing a big hoax with the people in the name of ‘Nazro-Niyaz’ for the saints, so that they may be kept provided with all the luxuries. They have invented charms, amulets and talisman, so that their business may go on. They have been promoting innovations (Bidaat) and the un-Islamic, rites so that the need of their presence may be felt in every assembly and their business may prosper. They are not averse to sponsor shirk.

The real motivation behind the ‘mujavari’ (upkeeping) of dargahs (mausoleums) is the ‘chiraghi’ or ‘chadhaway’ (presents) that are offered by the visitors, which line their pockets to the brim. At the bottom of all these innovations and rites the thing that can be discerned is the urge to earn money for the good of this world, and not earning virtue for the next world. The result is that due to the forbidden earnings which they make, their whole religiosity has become a fraud.

67. That is: The condition of these learned men and priests is strange. They do not like the real life of righteousness, therefore, they oppose the religion of truth, and they prevent men from embracing Islam.

It shows that by earning money by forbidden means turns the mentality of men in such a way that they lose their love for truth and oppose it.

68. In the text the word used is ‘yaknizoon’, which is derived from the word ‘kanz’, which in Arabic means not only hoarding but also keeping as treasure:

“Whatever things are hoarded in large quantities and for which a feeling of pride is generated is called by the Arabs as Kanz.”

(Lisanul Arab, Vol. V, page 401).

And Imam Raghib writes:

“Those who treasure gold and silver, that is hoard up.”

(Al-Mufradat page 458).

And in the Quran it is stated:

“Why no treasure has been sent down on him.” (Hood-12)

It is obvious that here kanz means treasure and not a limited quantity of wealth.

Therefore, in the verse under comment, the tiding or the warning of painful punishment that is being given is for those people who hoard up and treasure their excess wealth and do not spend it for the purpose for which it should be spent. Allah does not grant wealth to a man that he may guard it as a snake and feel proud and superior and make it the means of exhibition of his superiority, but Allah grants wealth to a man so that he may spend it for the right purpose. He is not the owner of the wealth but only a trustee (Ameen), therefore, a responsibility devolves on him that he should spend it in the manner directed by the real owner of the wealth, Allah, and he should spend it in His way. A person who does not spend wealth in this manner, but collects and hoards it, commits great injustice, for which there is a painful punishment for him.

It also refutes the idea that in Islam after payment of zakat there is no restriction on hoarding up wealth. Under this theory the explanation of this verse is given that this warning is for those who do not pay zakat, though in the verse it is not mentioned that they do not pay zakat, but what is said is that they hoard up and treasure gold and silver, and do not spend in the way of Allah, that is, it refers to spending which is in connection with the needs and the conditions, whereas zakat is a fixed portion of the property or wealth, payment of which is necessary, if due in every case, and the general principle of Islam is that after payment of zakat wealth becomes pure and clean. It does not mean that the dues to be paid as directed by Islam are over, but according to the needs and circumstances, rights and dues are to be met from the wealth, and it is necessary for the holder of the property or wealth to pay these dues. For example many times during famines, etc., people starve to death, and at such times no man can free himself from the responsibility of helping others with his wealth by saying that he has already paid the zakat, or if a - person’s parents are needy and poor and it is his duty to maintain them, even if he is paying zakat. Similarly, for jihad also extra expenditure, besides payment of zakat, will have to be incurred.

Here the command that has been given is for not hoarding up gold and silver, and for spending it in the cause of Allah. Here gold and silver include every kind of cash or currency, bank balance or bonds, and spending in the way of Allah means. spending for propagation or spreading of religion and dawah, jihad, religious instruction, construction of mosques and schools, aids to the poor and other such welfare work. Quran does not permit men to fill their safes with cash or wealth, but it emphasises on the excess wealth being spent for good causes. Islam declares wealth worshipping, miserliness and greed as causes of destruction, and presents the example of Qaroon, who was the richest man and the biggest capitalist of his time, to illustrate this point.

If a person saves his wealth for his lawful needs, or invests it in any trade or business, or leaves as inheritance for his children and relatives, none of these things is objectionable, provided he pays zakat, but it does not mean that he should make amassing of wealth only as his objective in life, and strive to make his children also millionaires. Such a kind of concentration and hoarding up of wealth is extremely objectionable in Islam. Islam warns such hoarders with painful punishment, and gives them the tidings that soon the pleasures that they are deriving from watching their wealth will be transformed into pain of punishment.

Ali (R) considered, in view of the prevalent conditions, wealth more than four thousand dirhams (about 12 thousand silver coins) as treasure. Accordingly, Ibn Jarir Tabri has quoted this saying of his:

“Four thousand dirham or less than that is for maintenance (necessary expenses). If there is anything more than this, then it is kanz (treasure) (Tafseer Tabri, Vol. X, page 83).

It was not a permanent limitation, but only a form of application of the intention of the verse according to the circumstances. When during the caliphate of Usman (R), Muslims were well off and there was growing a tendency of hoarding up of wealth among them, Abu Zar (R) reproachfully had to say this in unambiguous terms:

“They are collecting world, and do not understand anything.”

(Sahih Muslim, Kitabuz zakat)

And he totally disagreed with Amir Mua’viyah (R) who opined that this verse was revealed in connection with the people of the Book. Abu Zar (R) said that the command in the verse was for general application, it pertains to Muslims as well as the people of the Book.

(Bukhari, Kitabuz zakat).

This saying of Abu Zar (R) is basically right, because there is no particular reason to reserve the warning of painful punishment for hoarding up of wealth for the people of the Book only, however, the possibility of some companions of the Prophet disagreeing with Abu Zar (R) may be that he was rather a bit severe in application of the term ‘kanz’ (treasure) on hoarded wealth, and possibly he might have termed the wealth saved for the real needs of the family as kanz (treasure).

Today how adversely the work like propagation of religion, dawah efforts, religious instruction are affected for want of financial resources? How serious has become the Problem of rehabilitation of the riot-affected Muslims? There is a big section of the society which has no roof over its head and a large number of people are lying on roads as they have no homes to go to. Can the rich people be allowed, in these circumstances, to fill in their safes with money and to provide for their children to be millionaires by hoarding up wealth? Answer to this question can be found, not in discussion of Fiqh, but in this very verse.

69. The reason for branding these limbs is that the pride of wealth takes root in the mind, but its signs are seen on the fore-head, and the sides and the back are those parts of the anatomy that receive the excess of restful and luxurious pleasure because of wealth.

70. That is: When Allah created the heaven and the earth, he awarded moon the position of the natural calendar. Its growing and waning is commonly observed, and by watching these signs the fixation of dates can be easily made. From its watching it is also learnt as to when the month started, and when it ended. Then the order for counting of the year that has been fixed by the Creator of the universe for man is that of the twelve lunar months, and this guidance was being made available to man through the divine revelation. And so far as the Arabs are concerned, they have been following the order of the Lunar Year from the time of Prophet Ibrahim. The names of the twelve months were these: (1) Muharram (2) Safar (3) Rabiul Awwal (4) Rabiul Akhir (5) Jumadil Ula (6) Jumadil Akhira (7) Rajab (8) Shaban (9) Ramadhan (10) Shawwal (11) Zil Qa’dah (12) Zil Hijjah. Even today in the Islamic world the Lunar year is followed and the months bear these names.

At the time of the revelation of the Quran, the Arabs followed this lunar year, but in order to meet some selfish ends, they used to make unauthorized adjustments. the details of which will follow.

71. For the explanation of the sacred months, please refer to Note No.269, Surah Baqarah.

72. That is: This is the Shariah rule and order from God concerning months and year, which is quite correct and the right rule. Therefore, all religious matters like pilgrimage of Hajj, fasting of Ramadhan, payment of zakat, and counting of period of iddat, the lunar months and year should be relied upon.

73. That is: Do not commit the sin of waging war during the sacred months.

It should be noted that the ban on initiating a war during the sacred months is permanent. It is not correct to say that this command has been cancelled, because such a command had come earlier in a number of surahs and Surah Immunity is revealed in the later period. Besides, there is no verse in the Quran which has cancelled this command.

74. The Arabs followed the lunar calendar, but for their war needs they used to make changes in the order of the months, for example Muharram was a sacred month in which fighting was forbidden, but if they wanted to fight another tribe in one of their civil wars, they used to count Muharram before Safar, which they used to transpose earlier. It was like someone taking night for day and vice versa. It is obvious that such an adjustment did not affect any change in reality, but it proves man’s rebellious mentality against nature’s orderly system. By changing the order of the months, the Arabian Non-Islamism was interfering in the rule of the Nature and therefore it has been termed as excess of disbelief. Here the word ‘Nasi’ is used in this very sense.

Islam has declared the practice of ‘Nasi’ as wrongful and has restored natural practice in its original form. Accordingly, on the occasion of the last Hajj (10 A.H.), the Prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wasallam) said:

“The time, after its revolution, has come back to its original position as it was on the day when Allah created the heavens and the earth. The year is of twelve months, out of which four months are sacred, three are consecutive, Zul Qa’dah, Zul Hijjah and Muharram, and the fourth Rajab Mudhar (named after the tribe which did not transpose this month), which is between Jumadi and Sha’ban.” (Bukhari-Kitabut Tafseer).

In other words, every month has come to its original place. The lawful month is at the place of the lawful month and the forbidden or sacred month is at its original place. From that time onwards, the chain of the months has continued unchanged.

Some persons have taken ‘Nasi’ to mean ‘Kabeesah’, i.e. the difference between the solar and the lunar months. According to them, to remove the difference of eleven days between the lunar and the solar years every three years one lunar month be added. For the reasons mentioned below, their explanation is not acceptable:

Firstly, Nasi means to place later or behind and not to add, therefore, it is not correct to take it to mean ‘kabeesah’. Secondly, if in Arabia the practice of following ‘kabeesah’ were there, then Quran would not have said: “in order that they may make up the number of months which Allah has sanctified”. From this statement of Quran, it is clear that whenever they used to displace the sacred months from their original position, in their place they used to term lawful months as forbidden months. In this way they used to make up the number of the sacred months, which was four Such a form of practice has nothing to do with ‘kabeesah’. Thirdly, even if it is presumed that the practice of ‘kabeesah‘was followed in Arabia, then it means that not a single lunar month was in its origianl place, and that the entire calaendar was at sixes and sevens.

And when Quran had forbidden Muslims to initiate a war in the forbidden months, and this emphatic command was given only a few days after the Prophet’s migration, then the question arises, what then were the sacred months, when because of the practice of ‘kabeesah’ not a single month was in its original place, i.e. Rajab will not really be Rajab nor Zil Hijjah will be Zil Hijjah. As for the month of Ramadhan, would it be really Ramadhan when the fasting was made compulsory , in which the Battle of Badr was fought and during which the revelation of the holy Quran began ? All these questions crop up because of presuming that the practice of ‘kabeesah’ was followed in Arabia, but the clarifications available in the Quran are sufficient to remove this misunderstanding.

Some commentators have opined that the Hajj performed by the Muslims under the leadership of Abu Bakr (R) in the year 09 A. H. was in the month of Zil Qa‘dah, but Quran refutes this opinion, as Quran calls it the day of Hajj-e-Akbar, as stated in Verse 3 of this Surah, and Ibn Katheer has refuted this opinion taking a cue from this verse.

(See Tafseer Ibn Katheer, Vol.2, Page 357).