Repentance (Al-Tawbah)

Commentary

(a) Those who are engrossed in worldly considerations and therefore are not able to support God’s religion—rising above their reservations—are generally people of status in society. In order to keep their position intact, they try to spoil the image of those who have risen in true Islam. They run campaigns of false propaganda against them, devising different ways to distort their image, such as ferreting out various points in their statements which they claim to be objectionable. Such people forget that this is a very serious matter. For their part they are simply opposing the people of Faith, but it amounts to opposing God Himself; it is like setting themselves up as adversaries of God. Had these people admitted their wrongdoing, instead of trying to establish their innocence, and had they been the well-wishers of the believers at least in their hearts, they would perhaps have been treated as pardonable. But having adopted an obstinate and inimical attitude, they have written their names on the list of God’s enemies. Now, for them, there is nothing but dishonour and divine retribution. Fear of God softens a person’s heart. He patiently listens even to people’s baseless utterances—to such an extent that the hypocrites start saying that that person seems to be a simpleton, that he is unable to fully understand the points being made. (a) At the time of the battle of Tabuk, those who had set out with the Prophet Muhammad were treated as staunch and courageous people, while those who remained behind at home were considered hypocrites and cowards. The hypocrites who stayed at home started ridiculing the Prophet and his companions in order to belittle the action taken by them. Some said, ‘In these reciters of the Quran, we see nothing except that they are the hungriest among us, the most extreme liars among us and the worst cowards among us.’ Some asked, ‘Do you think that fighting the Romans is like internal fighting among the Arabs? By God! Tomorrow all these people will be seen tied and bound.’ Others said, ‘This gentleman thinks that he will conquer and capture the palaces and castles of Rome. It’s a pity.’ (Tafsir ibn Kathir). When the Prophet Muhammad came to know about this, he called them and asked them about it. They said, ‘We were simply talking jocularly. In reply to this, the Quran has this to say: ‘Would you make a mockery of God and of His Revelations and His Messenger?’ The message of God is always conveyed through some human being. If this man is apparently ordinary in the eyes of the observers, they start to mock him. But this mockery is not against that man; it is against God Himself. Those who do this only prove that they are not serious about God’s religion. Such people are most guilty in the eyes of God. Their false justifications will never be successful in hiding the reality. Hypocrisy and apostasy (irtidad) after accepting Islam are two aspects of the same fact. If a man, after adopting Islam, openly becomes an infidel (disbeliever) then this is irtidad; and if in his mind and heart, he is far away from Islam but before other people shows himself as a Muslim, this is hypocrisy. The fate of such hypocrites before God is the same as of those who have committed irtidad. However, if they sincerely admit their wrongs and reform themselves before death, God may relent towards them.