8. Surah Al-Anfaal

The second verse (30) points out to a particular reward and favour of Allah Ta` ala which has been conferred on the Holy Prophet ؓ ، the noble Companions ؓ and, in fact, on the whole world. This came to be before the Hijrah when the Holy Prophet ؓ was encircled by the disbelievers and they were planning to detain or kill him. Then, Allah Ta` ala made their unholy intentions lick dust and made it possible for the Holy Prophet ؓ to reach the city of Madinah in perfect safety. The related incident has been reported in Tafsir Ibn Kathir and Tafsir Mazhari on the authority of narrations from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Imam Ahmad, Ibn Jarir and others. According to details of this incident, when the news about visiting residents of Madinah embracing Islam became known in Makkah, the Quraysh of Makkah started worrying about it. They thought that the matter of people becoming Muslims was something restricted to Makkah upto that point of time, an area where they held all power in their hands. But, as Islam had started spreading in Madinah, many Companions ؓ of the Prophet ﷺ had migrated to that city, it went to prove that Muslims had another center in Madinah where they could assemble a fighting force against them and possibly decide to attack. Alongwith this, they also realized that this was just the beginning when only some Companions ؓ have migrated to Madinah. There was strong likelihood that Muhammad ﷺ may also go and join them. Therefore, the notable chiefs of Makkah called a special meeting for mutual consultations at Dar al-Nadwah. This place called Dar al-Nadwah was the home of Qusay ibn Kilab and was located close to al-Masjid al-Haram. These people used it as the place where they met to consult on national problems. During the Islamic period, it has been merged in al-Masjid al-Haram. It is said that the present Bab al-Ziyadat was the place known as Dar al-Nadwah. As customary, the Quraysh chiefs met at Dar al-Nadwah for this significant consultation. All known leaders from the Quraysh such as Abu Jahl, Nadhr ibn Harith, ` Utbah, Shaybah, Umaiyyah ibn Khalaf, Abu Sufyan and others participated. The agenda considered was how to confront and block the rising power of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and Islam. Before this consultative meeting could be called to order, there appeared Iblis, the accursed, in the guise of an aged ` Arab Shaykh. People on the door of Dar al-Nadwah asked: Who are you and why have you come here? The answer given was: I am a resident of Najd. I have been told that you have assembled here to discuss an important national issue. So, as a well-wisher of our people, I am here in the hope that I too may be able to tender some useful advice on the matter under consideration. His plea was heard. He was called in. Then, began the process of suggestions on the subject. According to a narration reported by Suhaili, it was suggested by Abu al-Bakhtari ibn Hisham that 'he' (meaning the Holy Prophet ﷺ ) should be chained and de-tained in a house. The door should be locked and he should be left there until he dies, God forbid, his own death. Hearing this, the Shaykh of Najd - Iblis, the accursed - said: This proposal is not sound for if you did that, this action is not going to remain hidden. In fact, it will be publicized far too widely. Then, you already know how good his Companions ؓ are in staking their lives for his sake. It is quite possible that these people may get together, attack you and rescue their prisoner from your detention. This caused voices to rise from all sides which supported the view of the Shaykh of Najd as sound. After that, Abu al-Aswad proposed that 'he' should be expelled out from Makkah. Let him go out of here and do whatever he wishes to do. This will make our city safe from the disorder generated by him and, when we do so, we shall be doing no fighting and killing. Hearing this, the Shaykh of Najd once again said: This proposal too is not sound. Do you not realize how soft-spoken a person he is? When people hear him talk, they are totally charmed by him. If he was left free like that, he would soon assemble a powerful group around him and attack you and defeat you. Now, it was Abu Jahl's turn to speak. He said: None of you seems to have understood what must be really done. Here is my plan of action. I propose that we pick out one young man from each tribe out of all tribes of Arabia and arm each one of them with a lethal sword. Then, all of them, moving jointly and suddenly, attack and kill him. This action will at least deliver us from the problems engineered by him. Now, remains the aftermath of this killing. His tribe, Banu ` Abd Munaf, may rise with their claim of retaliation against the killing, something we are legally bound to face. So, in such a situation, when the actual killing was done, not by one single person, instead, by one person from each tribe, then, the claim of Qisas, that is, taking life for life, cannot hold good after all. What would remain valid will be only the claim for blood money or property against diyah. That we shall collect from all tribes, give it to them and be done with it. When the Shaykh of Najd, Iblis, the accursed in disguise, heard this, he said: This is it. Nothing else is going to work. The whole assembly voted in his favour and it was resolved that this sinister plan would be put into action exactly the same night. What these ignorant people could not understand was the unseen power of the prophets, may they all be blessed. As a consequence, two things happened. On the one hand, Archangel Jibra'il (علیہ السلام) informed the Holy Prophet ﷺ about everything that had transpired at their meeting at Dar al-Nadwah giving him a counter-plan whereby he would not sleep in his bed that night and telling him that Allah Ta` ala has allowed him to migrate from Makkah. On the other hand, by the fall of the evening, the Quraysh young men put a cordon round the house of the Holy Prophet ﷺ . When he saw this, he ordered Sayyidna ` Ali al-Murtada ؓ that he should sleep in the Prophet's bed that night giving him the good news that the plan was though full of a danger to his life obviously, yet the enemies would not be able to harm him in any way. Happy to be at his service, Sayyidna Ali ؓ عنہ went into his bed. But, the problem was as to how the Holy Prophet ﷺ was to get out of this siege. This difficulty was resolved by Allah Ta` ala through a miracle when the Holy Prophet ﷺ acting under the command of Allah Ta` ala, came out with a handful of dust in one of his hands, responded to what his besiegers were saying about him, but it so happened that Allah Ta` ala turned their sights and minds away from him in a way that none of them saw him even though he passed by them throwing dust on their heads. When he was gone, some visitor asked them as to why were they standing there. They said that they were waiting for the Holy Prophet ﷺ . Thereupon, the visitor told them: You must be dreaming. He has already gone from here and while going he had been throwing dust on the heads of everyone among you. They all felt their heads with their hands which confirmed the fact that everyone's head had a deposit of dust on it. When they went into the house, Sayyidna ` Ali ؓ was lying in the bed of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، but the way he was tossing and turning in the bed made it possible for the besiegers to realize that he was not Muhammad ﷺ therefore, they did not venture to kill him. After carrying out their operation of siege right through the morning, these people went back disappointed and disgraced. This night and the event of Sayyidna ` Ali ؓ staking his life for the sake of the Holy Prophet ﷺ therein is rated to be among special merits credited to Sayyidna al-Murtada ؓ . The three suggestions made to deal with the Holy Prophet ﷺ during the consultative meeting of Quraysh chiefs have been mentioned by the Holy Qur'an in the verse: وَإِذْ يَمْكُرُ‌ بِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُ‌وا لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ أَوْ يُخْرِ‌جُوكَ (And [ remember ] when the disbelievers were plotting against you to hold you [ in detention ] or to kill you or to expel you - 30). But, Allah Ta` ala made all their plans and projections go to dust. That is why it was said towards the end: وَاللَّـهُ خَيْرُ‌ الْمَاكِرِ‌ينَ (and Allah is the best of those who plot - 30). It means that Allah is the best of planners. His plan pales out all plans - as demonstrated in this case. Lexically, the Arabic word: مَکر (makr: translated as 'plot' ) means restricting one's adversary from carrying out his intention through some stratagem or plan. Then, if this action is taken for a good purpose, this type of 'makr' is commendable and good - and should it be done for some evil purpose, it is blameworthy and bad. Therefore, this word can be used for man, and for Allah Ta'ala as well. But, it is used for Allah only in an environment where the context and contrast of speech does not lend to any doubt of makr which is blameworthy (Mazhari) as it is here. At this place, it is also noteworthy that the words used at the end of the verse are in the indefinite tense which denotes present and future. It was said: وَيَمْكُرُ‌ونَ وَيَمْكُرُ‌ اللَّـهُ (And they were plotting and Allah was plotting - 30), that is, they will keep plotting to hurt believers while Allah Ta'ala will keep plotting to thwart and frustrate their plots. The hint given therein is that this will continue to remain a lasting mark of disbelievers that they go about engineering designs to hurt Muslims - while, in the same way, the help and support of Allah Ta'ala shall also keep repulsing their evil designs against true believers.

Mentioned in verses 31 and 32 is the absurd remark made by Nadr ibn Harith, a participant of the same meeting at Dar al-Nadwah, with its reply appearing in verse 33. Nadr ibn Harith was a businessman who used to travel to different countries where he had repeated opportunities of seeing religious books of the Jews and Christians as well as witnessing their modes of worship. When he heard about the accounts of past communities appearing in the Holy Qur'an, he said: قَد سَمِعنَا لَونَشَآءُ لَقُلنا مِثلَ ھٰذَآ اِن ھٰذآ اِلَّا اَسَاطیرُ الاَوَّلِینَ (we have heard, if we wish, we can say some-thing like this. It is nothing but the tales of the ancient - 31). Thereupon, some of the Companions ؓ challenged him: If you can say something like this, why would you not say it? The Qur'an had already spoken on the subject and made it the very criterion of the true and the false. The challenge of the Qur'an was beamed at the whole world. If its opponents were true, let them come up with the like of even a very small Surah. In contrast, those who claimed to stake their lives and sacrifice their wealth and children for the sake of upholding their counter-assertion could not even join up their abilities together and come out even with a small Surah which could stand on its own against the Qur'an. Now, after all this, to stand up and say that we too can say something like this, if we so wished, is something no self-respecting person would venture to say. Thus, when the Companions ؓ told him that the Qur'an was nothing but the Divine word, he tried to counter the assertion by showing his own firm adherence to his incorrect faith by saying:

اللَّـهُمَّ إِن كَانَ هَـٰذَا هُوَ الْحَقَّ مِنْ عِندِكَ فَأَمْطِرْ‌ عَلَيْنَا حِجَارَ‌ةً مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ أَوِ ائْتِنَا بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ O Allah, if this be indeed the truth [ revealed ] from You, then, rain down upon us stones from the heavens, or bring upon us a painful punishment - 32.

The answer to this was given by the Qur'an itself. First, it was said: وَمَا كَانَ اللَّـهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَأَنتَ فِيهِمْ (And Allah is not to send punishment upon them while you are in their midst [ in Makkah ] - 33). The reason is that it is the customary practice of Allah Ta` ala with all blessed prophets that He would not send His punishment over a habitation where they are present until He takes out his prophets from there. This is as it happened in the case of Sayyidna Hud, Sayyidna Salih and Sayyidna Lut, may peace be upon them all. Punishment did not come as long as they remained in their towns. Punishment came when they were taken out from there. As for the Prophet of Islam ﷺ ، he was sent to this world as universal mercy. That Divine punishment would come on him while he was present in a town was an eventuality counter to his station. In a nutshell, the answer is: Because of your hostility towards Qur'an and Islam, you very much deserve to have stones rain at you but the presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ in Makkah prohibits it. According to Imam Ibn Jarir, this part of the verse was revealed at a time when he was present in Makkah. Then, came Hijrah to Madinah where the second part was revealed as follows: وَمَا كَانَ اللَّـهُ مُعَذِّبَهُمْ وَهُمْ يَسْتَغْفِرُ‌ونَ (nor would Allah send punishment on them while they are seeking forgiveness - 33). It means that following his migration to Madinah, though the preventive factor of a mass punishment stood removed as he was not present there in Makkah, yet there did remain another factor preventing the coming of mass punishment even at that time since many weaker ones among Muslims who were unable to migrate had remained behind in Makkah and they were the ones who kept praying to Allah Ta` ala for their forgiveness. It was for their sake that punishment was not sent upon the people of Makkah. When, even these blessed souls migrated to Madinah, the sentence appearing in the next verse (34): وَمَا لَهُمْ أَلَّا يُعَذِّبَهُمُ اللَّـهُ وَهُمْ يَصُدُّونَ عَنِ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَ‌امِ (And what is with them that Allah should not punish them while they pre-vent [ people ] from al-masjid al-Haram) was revealed. The sense is that there were two hindrances to the coming of punishment. They both have been removed. The Holy Prophet ﷺ was no more there in Makkah, nor there remained those forgiveness-seeking Muslims in that city. Thus, there appeared to be no hindrance to the coming of punishment. Particularly so, because the people of Makkah were already deserving of punishment for their hostility to Islam while on top of which - despite being themselves incapable of any act of worship worth the name - they had started preventing people who wished to go into al-masjid al-Haram for ` Ibadah, ` Umrah and Tawaf. So, at that stage, their entitlement to punishment had become mature and complete. Consequently, it was through the Conquest of Makkah that punishment was sent upon them. The event relating to the preventing of people from entering almasjid al-Haram took place at the expedition of Hudaibiyah when the Holy Prophet ﷺ had gone there with the intention of making ` Umrah with his Companions ؓ . The disbelievers of Makkah stopped him from entering the city and compelled him and all his Companions ؓ to undo their Ihram and return back. This happened in the Hijrah year 6. Two years later, in Hijrah 8, Makkah was conquered. Thus, it was at the hands of Muslims that punishment was sent upon them. This explanation given by Ibn Jarir rests on the assumption that the factor of the Holy Prophet's presence in Makkah should be considered as the hindrance to punishment while others have maintained that the presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ in the world is itself the prohibitive factor against any mass punishment. As long as he graces the world with his presence, no punishment can come over his people. The reason for this is obvious. The state of his call to prophet-hood is different. It is not similar to that of other blessed prophets as they were sent to particular areas or tribes. When they left these and arrived at some new place, punishment would overtake the people they left behind. This is contrary to the case of the Holy Prophet ﷺ whose prophethood and messenger ship is universal until the Last Day of this mortal life. So, the place of his blessed arrival and the scope of his mission as a Messenger of Allah extends to the whole world. Therefore, as long as he is present in any part of the world, no punishment can visit his people. Based on this Tafsir, it would mean that the doings of the people of Makkah demanded nothing less than that they be struck with a rain of stones. But, two things became a hindrance to this punishment: (1) The presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ in the world and (2) the seeking of forgiveness by the people of Makkah because they, despite being polytheists and disbelievers, used to say: غُفرَانک غُفرَانک (we seek Your forgiveness, we seek Your forgiveness) in their Tawaf. Though, this seeking of forgiveness by them coupled with disbelief (shirk) may not be beneficial in the Hereafter, but the benefit of doing that too in this world which accrued to them was that they escaped punishment in the mortal world. The standing truth is that Allah Ta` ala does not let anyone's deed go to waste. If disbelievers and polytheists do something good, its return is given to them right here in this world. As for what is said after that - 'and what is with them that Allah should not punish them while they prevent [ people ] from al-masjid al-Haram - it would then mean that the absence of punishment in the world should not embolden these people to become arrogant and complacent thinking that they were no sinners or that punishment would not come upon them at all. May be, not in the mortal world, but there is just no escape or deliverance from the punishment of the Hereafter. Given this Tafsir, the punishment mentioned in: مَا لَهُمْ أَلَّا يُعَذِّبَهُمُ (and what is with them that Allah should not punish them - 34) would be referring to the punishment of the Hereafter. To sum up, it can be said that the verses cited here leave beneficial information for us: (1) That Allah Ta` ala does not send punishment upon a locality in which people seek His forgiveness. This is His customary practice. (2) That no punishment would come upon the community of the Holy Prophet ﷺ believing or disbelieving, while he is present among them. This is as it came to pass in the case of the people of Sayyidna Nuh, Lut and Shu'ayb (علیہم السلام) . Their people were destroyed to the last person. Should some punishment visit individuals or a limited number of them, that would not be considered contrary to it - as was said by the Holy Prophet ﷺ that the punishment of خسف khasf and مسخ maskh will visit his Ummah. Khasf means to sink into the ground or be swallowed by it while Maskh means disfiguration and transformation into an animal such as monkey or swine. The intimation intended is that there will be those limited few individuals of the community who would be visited by such punishments as well. As for the phenomenon of the presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ in this world, it will remain operative right through the Last Day of Qiyamah because his mission of prophethood is operative till then. In addition to that, the Holy Prophet ﷺ is alive even at this time, though the nature and form of this life is different from his previous life. Now, any effort at this stage to engage in the debate as to what is the difference between these two lives will be ineffectual and futile - because, nothing that this community of Muslims has to do in terms of its religious or worldly duties depends on it. Neither has the Holy Prophet ﷺ himself, nor his noble Sahabah ؓ have liked such wasteful and unnecessary debates. In fact, they have prohibited it. The essence of the submission is that the marvel of the Holy Prophet ﷺ being alive in his resting place and the unbroken continuity of his prophethood right through the Last Day of Qiyamah prove that he is in this world right through Qiyamah, therefore, this community of his shall remain safe against any mass punishment until that fateful Day.

Commentary It was said in previous verses that the disbelievers of Makkah were though deserving, because of their disbelief and denial, of heavenly punishment coming down upon them, but the presence of the Holy Prophet ﷺ in Makkah was a prohibitive factor against the coming of a mass punishment on them. Then, after his migration to Madinah, such punishment would still not come upon them because of the weaker ones among Muslims who, while living in Makkah, kept seeking forgiveness from Allah. In the verses quoted above, it has been stated that though their due punishment was advanced till later either for the sake of the Holy Prophet ﷺ or in consideration of the weaker ones among Muslims, they should not make the mistake of thinking that they are no more deserving of punishment. The fact is that their being deserving of punishment is loud and clear. Then, other than their disbelief and denial, there are many more crimes committed by them because of which punishment should be visiting them positively. The first two verses (34, 35) list three such crimes by them. 1. Firstly, these people are themselves just not worthy of going into the Sacred Mosque and devote to acts of worship there as due - and these very people prevent Muslims who wish to go there to devote themselves to acts of worship, Salah, Tawaf etc. Here, the reference is to the event at Hudaibiyah when, in the Hijrah year 6, the Holy Prophet ﷺ had reached there with his Sahabah ؓ in order to perform ` Umrah at Makkah - and the disbelievers of Makkah had prevented him from doing so and had compelled him to go back. 2. Secondly, for no sane reason, these people assume and claim that they were the custodians of the Sacred Mosque whereby they would let anyone they permit come in and not permit anyone they did not wish to come in. This thinking of theirs was a combination of two misunderstandings. To begin with, they took themselves to be the custodians of the Sacred Mosque although no Kafir can become the custodian of any mosque. Then, they thought that a custodian had the right to stop anyone he wished from entering into the mosque - while, a masjid or mosque is a House of God and no one has the right to stop anyone from coming in it. Of course, exempted are particular situations in which there be the apprehension of someone desecrating the mosque or causing pain to other makers of Salah there. For example, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: Shield your masjid from small children, and insane individuals, and from mutual disputations. Small children mean children who have no sense of purity or impurity, therefore, the danger of the later is predominant. Then, the same danger of impurity as well as the danger of causing pain to those making Salah exists in the case of someone insane. As for mutual disputations, it amounts to desecration of the masjid and is also a source of causing pain to people making Salah there. In the light of the Hadith quoted above, the custodian (mutawalli ( of the masjid does have the right not to allow such small children and insane individuals into the masjid, and see to it that no one indulges in mutual disputes in the masjid - but, in the absence of such situa-tions, no custodian of a masjid has the right to stop a Muslim from coming into the masjid. In the first verse cited above, it has been considered sufficient to state that there was no way these people could be taken as custodians of the Sacred Mosque when the rule was that only God-fearing Muslims could become its custodian. From here we learn that the custodian of a masjid should be a practicing-observing Muslim, in faith and conduct. And there are some commentators who take the pronoun in: إِنْ أَوْلِيَاؤُهُ as reverting to Allah Ta` ala which would mean: only the God-fearing can be the Awliya of Allah.' According to the Tafsir mentioned immediately above, the outcome of the verse would be that those who, despite acting contrary to Shari` ah and Sunnah, claim to be a Waliyy of Allah are liars and those who take such people to be a Waliyy of Allah are down in deception.

3. The third crime of these people, other than the filth of Kufr and Shirk which was already their way of life, was the state of their doings which were low down, much lower than the ordinary human level. A sampling of this was pointed to when it was said that the act of prayer which these people called Salah was nothing but that they would whistle with their mouths and clap with their hands. It is obvious that no reasonable person would call these acts 'worship' and 'prayer,' in fact, not even a regular human act. Therefore, at the end of the verse (35), it was said: فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَكْفُرُ‌ونَ (So, taste the punishment, because you used to disbelieve), that is, the denouement of their disbelief and crimes is that they must now taste the punishment of Allah. 'Punishment' referred to here may mean the punishment of the Hereafter, as well as the punishment in the present world which came upon them in the battle of Badr at the hands of Muslims. After that, described in verse 36, there is another event relating to the disbelievers of Makkah when they collected a huge fund to raise a powerful striking force against Muslims and then spent it to wipe out the true faith and its upholders. But, what happened finally was that lost to them was not only the wealth they had pooled together but that they, rather than achieve their objective, were themselves subjected to utter disgrace. The event as reported by Muhammad ibn Ishaq from Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ is as follows. When the defeated, injured and surviving disbelievers of Makkah returned from the battle of Badr back to their city, the people whose fathers or sons were killed in Jihad went to Abu Sufyan, the leader of the trade caravan. They told him: You know that this war was fought in defence of your trade caravan as a result of which we had to suffer from all this loss of lives and properties. Therefore, we wish that we be helped by this corporate trading venture so that we can take our revenge against Muslims in the future. The people of the trading company accepted their plea and gave them a huge amount which they spent on their bid for victory in the battle of' Uhud. In this bid too, which was to avenge their defeat in the battle of Badr, they met a sad end and were overpowered as before. With the shock of defeat, left for them was the added remorse for having lost all that wealth they had invested in the unsuccessful challenge. In this verse, the Holy Qur'an has foretold the Holy Prophet ﷺ about this event much before it took place. It said there: "Surely, those who disbelieve spend their wealth to prevent (people) from the way of Allah. So, they shall spend it, then it will become remorse for them, then they shall be overpowered -36." Consequently, this is how it happened at the battle of 'Uhud. They spent everything they had collected. Then, they were overpowered as a result of which, on top of the shock of defeat, they were smitten by the remorse for having lost the wealth they had invested in their venture. Al-Baghawi and some other commentators have attributed the subject of this verse to the expenses incurred on the battle of Badr itself. According to them, the thousand strong army of disbelievers which had gone to confront Muslims in the battle of Badr was already paid for. All expenses of their maintenance were guaranteed by twelve chiefs of Makkah, included among them being Abu Jahl, ` Utbah, Shaybah and others. It goes without saying that the cost of transporting and feeding one thousand men must have been enormous. This being the state of affairs, these people not only that they felt bad about their defeat, they were also extremely remorseful about having lost their wealth. (Mazhari)

At the end of the verse (36), given there is the evil end of these people in terms of the Hereafter: وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُ‌وا إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ يُحْشَرُ‌ونَ (And those who disbelieve shall be gathered into Jahannam). In the verse under study, the mention of an evil end of spending wealth to stop people from following the true faith also includes the disbelievers of today who spend enormous wealth in the name of hospitals, educational institutions and charities only to stop people from following Islam and to attract them to their call for the false. Similarly, also included here are all those who have gone astray, those who spend their wealth to invite people to listen to doubts and superstitions they have generated into the established collective beliefs of Is-lam. But, Allah Ta` a1a has His ways of keeping the faith revealed by Him protected. There are many occasions when it is openly noticed that such people fail to achieve their objective despite having spent huge amount of money and materials.

Verse 37 describes some consequences of the events mentioned earlier which, in a nutshell, are that the disbelievers used their wealth against Islam, then they were bitten by remorse and were utterly disgraced. This series of happenings had its own advantages which find mention in the opening sentence of this verse: لِيَمِيزَ اللَّـهُ الْخَبِيثَ مِنَ الطَّيِّبِ (so that Allah separates the impure from the pure). The two words, الْخَبِيثَ (al-khabith: impure) and الطَّيِّبِ (at-tayyib : pure), stand in contrast to each other. The word, الْخَبِيثَ al-khabith, is used to refer to that which is impure, filthy and forbidden while الطَّيِّبِ at-taiyyib set against it denotes what is pure, clean, nice and lawful. At this place, the use of these two words may be referring to the impure possessions of the dis-believers, and the pure possessions of Muslim as well. Given this projection, it would mean that the enormous wealth spent by the disbelievers was impure and filthy. The evil end it met was that they suffered the loss of wealth, and the loss of lives as well. As compared to them, Muslims spent very little of whatever they had in the name of wealth, but that wealth was pure and lawful. Those who spent it succeeded, not to mention the additional spoils of war that fell into their hand. After that, it was said: وَيَجْعَلَ الْخَبِيثَ بَعْضَهُ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ فَيَرْ‌كُمَهُ جَمِيعًا فَيَجْعَلَهُ فِي جَهَنَّمَ ۚ أُولَـٰئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُ‌ونَ ﴿37﴾ 'and (Allah) puts some of the impure on some others, and heaps them all together and puts them into Jahannam. Those are the losers - 37' The sense is that the way magnet pulls iron and amber pulls grass and in the light of new scientific discoveries, the system of the world is held together by the constant of force fields pulling things together, the case in deeds and morals is also identical. They have a pull of their own. One bad deed draws in another bad deed and a good deed draws in another good deed. Impure wealth pulls in another body of impure wealth and then this heap of impure wealth generates vestiges which are equally impure. As a result of this, Allah Ta` ala will heap all impure wealth into Jahannam and those to whom it belonged would find themselves in a terrible loss. And there is a large number of commentators who take الْخَبِيثَ al-khabith and الطَّيِّبِ at-tayyib in the general sense at this place, that is, pure and impure. Thus, pure would signify true believers and impure would mean the disbelievers. Given this approach, the verse would mean that through conditions mentioned above, Allah Ta` ala likes to make the pure distinct from the impure, that is, make a true believer distinct from a disbeliever and - as a consequence of which - true believers are gathered together in Jannah and the disbelievers, all of them at one place, into Jahannam.

Appearing once again in verse 38, there is a patronizing address to disbelievers - which carries the elements of persuasion and warning both. The part of persuasion is that should they repent from their shocking deeds even then, and come forward to believe, then, all their past sins shall be forgiven. If they failed to desist even then, the warning part tells them that they better understand that Allah Ta` ala would not have to think about making some new law for them. The law is already there. It has been in force in the case of disbelievers of earlier times. The same law would come into force against them too - that they were destroyed in the present world and became deserving of the punishment of the Hereafter.

Commentary We are now on verse 39 of Surah al-Anfal. Two words: فِتْنَةٌ (Fitnah) and دينُ (Deen) used here need our attention since both are used in many shades of meaning lexically. At this place, two meanings have been reported from authorities of Tafsir from among the Sahabah and Tabi` in: (1) That Fitnah is taken to mean Kufr and Shirk, and Din is taken to mean the Deen of Islam. This very Tafsir has been reported from Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ . Given this exegetic view, the verse would mean that Muslims must continue fighting disbelievers until disbelief disintegrates yielding its place to Islam and there remains no religion and faith other than Islam. Given this situation, this injunction will be specific to only the people of Makkah and the people of Arabia - because, the Arabian Peninsula is the home of Islam. The presence of any other religion, other than Islam in it, shall be dangerous for Islam. As for the rest of the world, other religions and faiths could be kept existing as con-firmed by other verses of the Holy Qur'an and reports from Hadith. (2) According to the second Tafsir reported from Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ and others, Fitnah at this place means the chain of pain, retributive suffering and endless woes which the disbelievers of Makkah had always been inflicting on Muslims. As long as they were in Makkah, they kept' braving all sorts of pain caused to them all the time. They could do nothing about it being virtually held by them in their clutches. When these people migrated towards Madinah, they pursued each single Muslim and kept killing or looting them. Even after these people had reached Madinah, the wrath and anger of the disbelievers kept showing up in the form of attacks on the whole city of Madinah. Set against Fitnah, the term دین Deen means the state of exercising functional reach and control and prevailing over antagonists. Seen from this angle, the Tafsir of the verse would be that Muslims must keep fighting disbelievers until fellow Muslims are delivered and secured from the tyrannies of disbelievers - and until Islam takes over so that it can defend and protect Muslims from the injustices inflicted on them by others. An event relating to Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn 'Umar ؓ also goes on to support this very Tafsir. The report of the event says: When Hajjaj ibn Yusuf launched an armed attack against Sayyid-na ` Abdullah ibn Zubayr ؓ the Amir of Makkah, it became a strange scene. There were Muslims on both sides and their swords were swishing against each other. Seeing this, a couple of people came to Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ and said to him: Here you are watching the horror Muslims are in, although you are the son of Sayyidna ` Umar ibn al-Khattab ؓ who was not one of those who would ever tolerate such evil generating disorder. Why is it that you would not come out to remove this Fitnah? Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ said: The reason is that Allah Ta` ala has decreed that shedding the blood of any Muslim is forbidden. Both of them countered him by saying: Do you not recite the verse of the Qur'an: قَاتِلُوهُمْ حَتَّىٰ لَا تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ (Fight them until there is no Fitnah [ disorder or disbelief ] anymore - 39)? Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ said: Of course, I do recite this verse - and act in accordance with it as well. We continued fighting disbelievers as commanded in this verse until came the time when there remained no Fitnah anymore, and Islam became the dominant دین Deen. Now, here are people like you who wish to kill each other and plant the Fitnah all over again, as a result of which, everything other than Allah will come to reign supreme, and that which thus reigns supreme shall be counter to the true faith, our دین Deen. What he meant to say was that the command to wage Jihad, fight and kill, was against the Fitnah of disbelief and the tyranny of the disbelievers - that they had done, and continued doing so until that Fitnah was elim-inated. Now to apply this state of affairs as an analogy to fit forms of infighting among Muslims themselves was not sound logic. In fact, at a time when Muslims fight and kill each other, the instructions of the Holy Prophet ﷺ are: 'In such a situation one who keeps sitting is better than one who stands up.' Summarizing this Tafsir, it can be said that Jihad, fighting and killing against the enemies of Islam was Wajib (necessary) on Muslims until the Fitnah of their tyranny unleashed on Muslims is eliminated, and Islam's ascendancy stands established over all other orders - and this outcome will come to pass only close to Qiyamah, therefore, the injunction of Jihad is valid and operative right through the Last Day of Qiyamah. Two things could result from Jihad against the enemies of Islam: (1) That they stop being oppressive to Muslims, either by entering the Islamic brotherhood and becoming brothers-in-faith, or by remaining attached to their religion, they stop harassing and hurting Muslims and enter into a treaty of allegiance. (2) That they reject both options and stick to their policy of confrontation. Injunctions covering both options have been mentioned in the next verse (40). It was said: فَإِنِ انتَهَوْا فَإِنَّ اللَّـهَ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ‌ So, if they desist, then, Allah is indeed watchful over what they do. It means that Allah Ta` ala would deal with them in the light of their conduct. Put simply, if they desisted, Jihad action against them will be suspended. Under this arrangement, Muslims may have apprehended danger from the disbelievers. Their readiness to sign a peace pact or their declaration to have become Muslims soon after the en-counter of mutual killing may have possibly appeared to Muslims as nothing but some strategy of deception usually employed in wars. In a situation like that, stopping the ongoing war could have been harmful for Muslims. The answer to this apprehension was given by saying that Muslims are bound by deeds they see outwardly. The one who looks into hearts and knows their hidden secrets is none but Allah Ta` ala Himself. Therefore, when disbelievers declare their adherence to Islam or make a peace pact, Muslims have no choice but that they stop fighting and killing in Jihad. As for personal doubts about whether or not they have accepted Islam, or peace, honestly from their heart or all this is a cover for deception - these are things which fall in the domain of Allah. He knows it well that should they do something like that, they will be taken care of in some other way. Muslims should not lay the foundation of their matters and dealings on such thoughts and apprehensions. If hands were raised against them after their declaration of Islam or pact of peace, those waging Jihad would turn into criminals - as it appears in a Hadith of the Sahib of al-Bukhari and Muslim. There, the Holy Prophet ﷺ has said that he has been commanded to fight the enemies of Islam until they accept the Kalimah: لا إلہ إلا اللہ محمد الرسول اللہ (There is no god worthy of worship but Allah, Muhammad is a Messenger of Allah), establish Salah and pay Zakah. When they have done that, their life and property shall all become protected1. The only exception shall be that of a punishment given to them against a crime under the Islamic Law. What remains of the accountability of their hearts - whether they are accepting the creeds and deeds of Islam heartily or that they are doing it hypocritically - shall be resting with Allah. 1. It should be recalled that this principle is restricted to the Arabian Peninsula, where no disbeliever is allowed to live as a permanent citizen. In other parts of the world, the disbelievers may opt for jizyah and may continue to profess their own religion, the punishment of their disbelief being deferred to the Hereafter. (Muhammad Taqi Usmani). According to another Hadith which Abu Dawud has reported from several noble Companions, the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: Whoever does any injustice to a peace pact beneficiary (a person who has entered into a pact of allegiance with the Islamic government) or brings him any harm, or makes him do something which is more than what he can physically do, or takes something from him without his genuine, heart-felt consent, then, on the Day of Judgment, I shall support that peace pact beneficiary against a Muslim who has done something like that. The present verse of the Holy Qur'an under study along with re-ports from Hadith have obviously exposed Muslims to a political danger. Think of an arch enemy who happens to be at their mercy. Just to save his life, the enemy recites the Kalimah of Islam. Right there, Muslims have been obligated to hold their hands instantly. One may think: With this style of combat, Muslims would be unable to overcome just about any enemy! But, Allah Ta` ala has His own ways of doing things. Here, He has taken the hidden secrets of their hearts as His area of responsibility. In a miraculous manner, it has been demonstrated practically that Muslims never faced such an embarrassing situation in any of their battlefields. However, there have been hundreds of hypocrites in a state of peace who cheated, passed on as Muslims, even went about fulfilling the obligations of Salah and Sawm at least outwardly. Some of the miserably graceless among them had no other objective in sight but that they would exact a few benefits from Muslims and remain safe from their revenge despite nursing hostility in their hearts. Then, there were some of those too who were doing so with political motives of spying on Muslims, find their secrets and maintain conspiratorial liaison with enemies. But, such was the Di-vine law that it instructed Muslims to treat all of them as they would treat Muslims - unless it was proved that they had themselves betrayed their hostility to Islam or contravened the peace agreement. This teaching of Islam applied to the condition in which the enemies of Islam promise to desist from their hostility and enter into agreement to that effect.