Surah Al-Hashr 59:11-17 - Quran Translation Commentary

(59:11) Have you not considered those who adopted hypocrisy,²⁴ saying to their brothers of the People of the Book who have disbelieved, ‘If you are driven out, we too will go forth with you, and we will never ever obey anyone concerning you. And, if you are fought against, we will certainly help you.’ But Allah bears witness that surely they are liars.²⁵

(59:12) If those are expelled, they will never go forth with them, and if they are fought against, they will never help them. Even if they helped them, they will certainly show their backs, and then they would not be helped.

(59:13) Indeed, you are more fearful to them in their hearts than Allah.²⁶ That because they are a people who do not understand.

(59:14) They will not fight against you all together except from fortified townships, or from behind walls.²⁷ Their valor is great among themselves. You reckon them united,²⁸ but their hearts are split.²⁹ That because they are a people who do not intellectualize.³⁰

(59:15) Like those before them who lately tasted the evil consequences of their doings;³¹ and there awaits for them a painful chastisement.

(59:16) Like Shaytan who said to man, ‘Disbelieve.’ But when he disbelieved he said, ‘I am quit of you. I am afraid of Allah, Lord of the worlds.’³²

(59:17) So the outcome of the two was that both are in the Fire, abiding therein. That is the recompense of the wrongdoers.

Commentary

24. Those were `Abdullah b. Ubayy, Wadiy`ah b. Nawfal, Malik b. Nawfal, Suwayd b. Daa`is (Ibn Jarir), Rifaa`ah b. Tabut, `Abdullah b. Nabtal, and Aws b. Qayzi (Qurtubi, Shawkani).

25. Yusuf Ali comments: “The Jews of the Banu Nadir had been assured by the Hypocrites of Madinah of their support to their cause. They had thought that their defection from the Prophet’s Cause would so weaken that cause that they would save their friends. But they never intended to undertake any act involving self-sacrifice on their part; if they had helped their Jewish friends, it was not likely that they would have succeeded; and if they had actually gone to the fight; they had neither valour nor fervour to support them, and they would have fled ignominiously before the discipline, earnestness, and Faith of the men of Islam.”

This is one of the several signs of the Prophet’s authenticity. The prediction came true and the hypocrites neither fought on their side, nor accompanied them in their banishment (Qurtubi). After all, even if they did not fight, none of them preferred to do what was easier of accomplishment, viz., accompany them to the places of banishment (Au.).

26. The reference is to both the parties: the hypocrites as well as the Jews. (Qurtubi).

As Allah said elsewhere:

“A party of them fears the people as they ought to fear Allah, or even more fearful” (Ibn Kathir).

27. “The passage of centuries has not had any effect on the truth of the Qur’anic statements. They hold true today as they did a millennium and half earlier. I was personal witness to the clashes during the final phases of the war between the Jews and Muslim Fida’iin in the Holy Land (in 1948: Au.). They would never fight but from fortified places in Palestine, fleeing as soon as they feared attack in the open. Their behavior reflected the Qur’anic illustration so well as if the verses had come down then, right there while the fighting was going on.” (Sayyid).

Shabbir remarks that after having always lost in wars that allowed for one-to-one sword fights, the West invented gun-powder.

Early on when gun-powder was invented and battles after battles were being lost by the Muslims against European invasions at the end of the Middle-ages because of the advantage of gun-powder, the Ottomans also introduced guns into their army. But Muslim soldiers refused to accept the guns on grounds of chivalry. They would say, “How can you kill someone without giving him an equal chance to defend himself?” They thought it was cowardice to be killing a man from a distance. By the time they learnt that there was no alternative to the gun, it was pretty late. The lead that their enemies then acquired lasts to this day. Its supremacy in battlefields is the supremacy of a coward’s reliance on the ability to kill from a distance. When this ability is gone, which is likely to happen in a short while, the Crusader will retreat to his preserves (Au.).

28. The allusion is to the hypocrites and Jews. At heart they were disunited because both bore different faiths. It was unity of ranks on the basis of unity of purposes, but not unity of convictions, that they tried to achieve, and, therefore, failed (Au.).

29. “...implying that people who have no real faith and no definite moral convictions can never attain to true unity among themselves, but are always impelled to commit acts of aggression against one another” (Asad).

30. They do not understand for instance, that where there is no unity of intents and purposes, arising from unity of convictions, unity of ranks is not viable (Au.).

(Way back in the first Islamic century, what Muslims understood seems not to be the share of modern-day Muslims, and, specifically, their leaders: Au.). Qatadah stated: You will find the followers of falsehood as holders of varying beliefs, following varying fanciful thoughts, practicing varying deeds. They are only united over enmity of the holders of Truth (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi).

Yusuf Ali adds: “It may be that they have a strong fighting spirit among themselves, but they have no Cause to fight for and no common objective to achieve. The Makkan Pagans want to keep their own unjust autocracy; the Madinah Hypocrites wish for their own domination in Madinah; and the Jews want their racial superiority established over the Arabs, of whose growing union and power they are jealous. Their pretended alliance could not stand the strain of either a defeat or a victory. If they had been wise, they would have accepted the Cause of Unity, Faith, and Truth.”

31. The opinion of Ibn `Abbas was that the allusion was to another Jewish tribe Banu Qaynuqa` (Ibn Jarir).

Their story is as follows:

Banu Qaynuqa’

Tthe Prophet (saws) had entered into peace treaties with various tribes around Madinah, including the Jews. But at the time of the Badr battle one or two incidents of the breach of trust had already appeared. Following the defeat of the Quraysh at Badr, the Prophet gathered the Jews of Banu Qaynuqa` (a gold-smith tribe: Yusuf Ali), and admonished them saying, ‘fear Allah, for you have seen how the Quraysh power was destroyed at Badr.’ (There is every possibility that the Prophet had learnt that orders from on High for expeditions against various Jewish tribes was simply a matter of time, and so warned them for one and the last time, hoping they could be saved). But they acted arrogantly and said to him, “Muhammad, do not be encouraged by the fact that you killed a few of the Quraysh at Badr who did not know how to fight. If you meet with us in a battle you will learn that we are real men, and that you have not met the like of us.” In reply, Allah revealed the following:

“Say to the unbelievers that you will be overcome and mustered into Jahannam - an evil resting place. There was a sign for you in the two groups that met (at Badr). One group fighting in the cause of Allah, while the other - the unbelievers - seeing them, as the eye sees, twice themselves. But Allah strengthens with His succor whom He will. In this (event) was a lesson indeed for those of sight.”

But of course, such revelations were not to move them. Far from that, they would not give up their mischievous ways. When a Muslim woman visited a Jewelry shop in the market dominated by this Jewish tribe, she was persistently asked to unveil. She refused. So the shop-keeper secretly tied her lower garment to a peg in such a manner that when she came down, she was uncovered. She called for help. A Muslim killed the Jewish shopkeeper. Other Jews rushed in and killed the Muslim. The Prophet (saws) announced Jihad against this tribe. They withdrew to their forts and the Prophet laid siege following Allah’s instruction:

32. Shabbir reproduces Shah `Abdul Qadir’s note that this is exactly what had happened at Badr. Shaytan came in the form of a man and encouraged them to the battle. But when he saw the angels, he fled declaring that he was quit of the pagans.

Although obviously general, Ibn Jarir relates the ayah to the story of an Israeli monk of the past. He presents several versions of it on the authority of `Ali, Ibn Mas`ud, and Ibn `Abbas. Herewith a summary: There was a monk in the deserts among the Israelites much devoted to God. People came to him from afar seeking blessings. A girl fell victim to a Jinn. Her brothers brought her to him for cure. She was beautiful and he lost self-control. She became pregnant. Shaytan suggested to him that he should kill her and concoct a story. Given his reputation it will be believed. So he killed her and buried her under a tree. When the brothers came he told them that she died by natural causes and he had buried her. They believed in him and returned. But Shaytan appeared to them in dreams and told them what truly had happened. They were so sure of the innocence of the monk that they spoke of the dream to each other only fearfully. But all stories concurring, they dug the grave and found that she had truly been murdered. Shaytan next went to the monk and told him that his crime was about to be discovered. He could find a way out for him if he would prostrate himself to him. The monk did it. But when he had done, Shaytan said, “I am quit of you. I am afraid of Allah, Lord of the worlds.” The brothers, of course, informed the authorities and they handed him a death sentence.

The narrative is found in `Abd al-Razzaq, Ibn Rahwayh, Bukhari in his Ta’rikh, Ibn Marduwayh, Bayhaqi and Hakim who declared it trustworthy (Shawkani). Among the early commentators, the narrative is there in Ibn Abi Hatim and Durr al-Manthur (Au.).

The monk involved has been named as Barsis (Qurtubi) and this story is different from the story of another monk Jurayj whom the woman involved had accused falsely (Ibn Kathir).