# Sura  33 - The Confederates

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> SURA XXXIII (33) - THE CONFEDERATES    (Medina - 73 Verses)       (CIII - 434) 
>  
>        In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
>  
>        O Prophet, fear thou God, and obey not the unbelievers and the
> hypocrites; - Truly God is Knowing, Wise:
>  
>        But follow what is revealed to thee from thy Lord:  Cognisant truly is
> He of all your actions -
>  
>        And put thou thy trust in God, for a sufficient guardian is God.
>  
>        God hath not given a man two hearts within him; neither hath he made
> your wives who ye divorce to be as your mothers; nor hath he made your adopted
> sons to be as your own sons.  Such words are indeed in your mouths; but God
> speaketh the truth, and in the right way He guideth.
>  
>        Name them after their fathers:  this will be more right before God.  But
> if ye know not who their fathers are, then let them be your brethren in the
> faith, and your comrades.  And unless made with intent of heart, mistakes in
> this matter shall be no crime in you:  for God is Lenient, Merciful.
>  
>        Nearer of kin to the faithful is the Prophet, than they are to their own
> selves.  His wives are their mothers.  According to the Book of God, they who
> are related by blood, are nearer to the one to the other than other believers,
> and than those who have fled their country for the cause of God:  but whatever
> kindness ye shew to your kindred, shall be noted down in the Book.
>  
>        And remember that we have entered into covenant with the Prophets, and
> with thee, and with Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, Son of Mary:  and
> we formed with them a strict covenant,
>  
>        That God may question the men of truth as to their truth.  But a sore
> torment hath He prepared for the unbelievers.
>  
>        O believers! remember the goodness of God towards you, when the armies
> came against you, and we sent against them a blast, and hosts that ye saw not;
> for the ye of God was upon your doings:
>  
> 33:10  When they assailed you from above you, and from below you, and when
> your eyes became distracted, and your hearts came up into your throat, and ye
> [Bought divers thoughts of God:
>  
>        Then were the faithful tried, and with strong quaking did they quake:
>  
>        And when the disaffected and the diseased of heart said, "God and his
> Apostle have made us but a cheating promise:"
>  
>        And when a part of them said, "O people of Yathrib! there is no place of
> safety for you here; therefore return into the city."  And another party of you
> asked the prophet's leave to return, saying, "Our houses are left defenceless."
> No! they were not left defenceless:  but their sole thought was to flee away.
>  
>        If the enemy had effected an entry at all points, and they (the
> disaffected) had been asked to promote confusion, they would have done so; but
> only a short time would they have remained in it. - (Medina).
>  
>        They had before pledged themselves to God that they would not turn their
> backs; and a pledge given to God must be enquired of.
>  
>        Say:  Flight shall not profit you; if ye have fled the death or the
> slaughter, yet even then, but a little while shall ye enjoy your good things!
>  
>        Say:  Who is here that will screen you from God, whether He choose to
> bring evil on you, or to shew you mercy?  None beside God shall they find to
> be their patron or helper.
>  
>        God well knoweth those among you who cause hindrances, and those who say
> to their brethren, "Come hither to us;" and who come not to the fight except a
> little.
>  
>        It is out of covetousness in your regard:  for when an alarm cometh,
> thou mayest see them look to thee, and roll their eyes like him on whom the
> shadows of death have fallen!  Yet, when the alarm is passed, with sharp
> tongues will they assail you, covetous of the best of the spoil.  No faith have
> these!  God will make their doings of no avail!  And easy is this with God.
>  
> 33:20  They thought that the confederates would never retire:  and were the
> confederates to come again, they would fain be dwelling among the Arabs of the
> desert, and there ask news about you! for though they were with you, they
> fought not except a little.
>  
>        A noble pattern had ye in God's Apostle, for all who hope in God, and in
> the latter day, and oft remember God!
>  
>        And when the faithful saw the confederates, they said, "This is what God
> and His Apostle promised us, and God and His Apostle spoke truly:" and it only
> increased their faith and self-devotion.
>  
>       Some were there among the faithful who made good what they had promised
> to God,.  Some have fulfilled their course, and others await its fulfilment,
> and have not been changelings who change -
>  
>        That God may reward the faithful for their faithfulness, and may punish
> the hypocrites, if He so please, or be turned unto them:  for God is Forgiving,
> Merciful.
>  
>        And God drove back the infidels in their wrath; they won no advantage;
> God sufficed the faithful in the fight:  for God is Strong, Mighty.
>  
>        And He caused those of the people of the Book (the Jews), who had aided
> the confederates, to come down out of their fortresses, and cast dismay into
> their hearts:  some ye slew, others ye took prisoners.
>  
>        And He gave you their land, and their dwellings, and their wealth, for
> an heritage - even a land on which ye had never set foot:  for the might of God
> is equal to all things.
>  
>        O Prophet! say to thy wives, If ye desire this present life and its
> braveries, come then, I will provide for you, and dismiss you with an
> honourable dismissal.
>  
>        But if ye desire God and His Apostle, and a home in the next life, then,
> truly, hath God prepared for those of you who are virtuous, a great reward.
>  
> 33:30  O wives of the Prophet! should any of you be guilty of a prove
> lewdness, doubly shall her chastisement be doubled: and with God this is easy.
>  
>        But whoever of you shall obey God and His Apostle, and shall do that
> which is right, twice over will we give her her reward, and we have prepared
> for her a noble provision
>  
>        O wives of the Prophet!  ye are not as other women.  If ye fear God, be
> not too complaisant of speech, lest the man of unhealthy heart should lust
> after you, but speak with discreet speech.
>  
>        And abide still in your houses, and go not in public decked as in the
> days of your former ignorance, but observe prayer, and pay the impost, and obey
> God and the Apostle:  for God only desireth to put away filthiness from you as
> his household, and with cleansing to cleanse you.
>  
>        And recollect what is rehearsed to you in your houses of the Book of
> God, and of wisdom:  for God is keen-sighted, cognisant of all.
>  
>        Truly the men who resign themselves to God (Muslims), and the women who
> resign themselves, and the believing men and the believing women, and the
> devout men and the devout women, and the men of truth, and the women of truth,
> and the patient men and the patient women, and the humble men and the humble
> women, and the men who give alms and the women who give alms, and the men who
> fast and the women who fast, and the chaste men and the chaste women, and the
> men and the women who oft remember God: for them hath God prepared forgiveness
> and a rich recompense.
>  
>        And it is not for a believer, man or woman, to have any choice in their
> affairs, when God and His Apostle have decreed a matter:  and whoever
> disobeyeth God and His Apostle, erreth with palpable error.
>  
>        And, remember, when thou saidst to him unto whom God had shewn favour,
> and to whom thou also hadst shewn favour, "Keep thy wife to thyself, and fear
> God;" and thou didst hide in they mind what God would bring to light, and thou
> didst fear man; but more right had it been to fear God.  And when Zaid had
> settled concerning her to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it might
> not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted sons, when
> they have settled the affair concerning them.  And the behest of God is to be
> performed.
>  
>        No blame attacheth to the prophet where God hath given him a permission.
> Such was the way of God with those prophets who flourished before thee; for
> God's behest is a fixed decree -
>  
>        Who fulfilled the mission with which God had charged them, and feared
> Him, and feared none but god.  And God taketh a sufficient account.
>  
> 33:40  Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the Apostle
> of God, and the seal of the prophets: and God knoweth all things.
>  
>        O Believers! remember God with frequent remembrance, and praise Him
> morning and evening.
>  
>        He blesseth you, and His angels intercede for you, that He may bring you
> forth out of darkness into light: and Merciful is He to the Believers.
>  
>        Their greeting on the day when they shall meet Him shall be "Peace!"
> And He hath got ready for them a noble recompense.
>  
>        O Prophet! we have sent thee to be a witness, and a herald of glad
> tidings, and a warner;
>  
>        And one who, through His own permission, summoneth to god, and a
> light-giving torch.
>  
>        Announce, therefore, to believers, that great boons do await them from
> God;
>  
>        And obey not the Infidels and Hypocrites - yet abstain from injuring
> them:   and put thou thy trust in God, for God is a sufficient guardian.
>  
>        O Believers! when ye marry believing women, and then divorce them before
> ye have consummated the marriage, ye have no term prescribed you, which ye must
> fulfil towards them:  provide for them, and dismiss them with a reputable
> dismissal.
>  
>        O Prophet!  we allow thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the
> slaves whom thy right hand possesseth out of the booty which God hath granted
> thee, and the daughters of thy uncle, and of thy paternal and maternal aunts
> who fled with thee to Medina, and any believing woman who hath given herself up
> to the Prophet, if the Prophet desired to wed her - a Privilege for thee above
> the rest of the Faithful.
>  
> 33:50  We well know what we have settled for them, in regard to their wives
> and to the slaves whom their right hands hold, that there may be no fault on
> thy part:  and God is Indulgent, Merciful!
>  
>        Thou mayest decline for the present whom thou wilt of them, and thou
> mayest take to thy bed her whom thou wilt, and whomsoever thou shalt long for
> of those thou shalt have before neglected; and this shall not be a crime in
> thee.  Thus will it be easier to give them the desire of their eyes, and not
> to put them to grief, and to satisfy them with what thou shalt accord to each
> of them.  God knoweth what is in your hearts, and God is Knowing, Gracious.
>  
>        It is not permitted thee to take other wives hereafter, nor to change
> thy present wives for other women, though their beauty charm thee, except
> slaves whom thy right hand shall possess.  And God watcheth all things.
>  
>        O Believers!  enter not into the houses of the Prophet, save by his
> leave, for a meal, without waiting his time.  When ye are invited then enter,
> and when ye have eaten then disperse at once.  And engage not in familiar talk,
> for this would cause the Prophet trouble, and he would be ashamed to bid you
> go; but God is not ashamed to say the truth.  And when ye would ask any gift of
> his wives, ask it from behind a veil.  Purer will this be for your hearts and
> for their hearts.  And ye must not trouble the Apostle of God, nor marry his
> wives, after him, for ever.  This would be a grave offense with God.
>  
>        Whether ye bring a matter to the light or hide it, God truly hath
> knowledge of all things.
>  
>        No blame shall attach to them (your wives) for speaking to their fathers
> unveiled, or to their sons, or to their brothers, or to their brothers' sons,
> or to their sisters' sons, or to their women, or to the slaves whom their right
> hands hold.  And fear ye God:  for God witnesseth all things.
>  
>        Verily, God and His Angels bless the Prophet!  Bless ye Him, O
> Believers, and salute Him with salutations of Peace.
>  
>        Verily, they who affront God and His Apostle, the curse of God is on
> them in this world, and in the world to come:  and He hath prepared for them a
> shameful chastisement.
>  
>        And they who shall affront believing men and believing women, for no
> fault of theirs, they shall surely bear the guilt of slander, and of a clear
> wrong.
>  
>        O Prophet! speak to thy wives and to thy daughters, and to the wives of
> the Faithful, that they let their veils fall low.  Thus will they more easily
> be known, and they will not be affronted.  God is Indulgent, Merciful!
>  
> 33:60  If the Hypocrites, and the men of tainted hearts, and the stirrers of
> sedition in Medina desist not, we will surely stir thee up against them.  Then
> shall they  not be suffered to dwell near thee therein, but a little while:
>  
>        Cursed wherever they are found; they shall be seized and slain with
> slaughter!
>  
>        Such hath been the way of God with those who lived before them; and no
> change canst thou find in the way of God.
>  
>        Men will ask thee of "the Hour."  Say: The knowledge of it is with God
> alone: and who can tell thee whether haply the Hour be not nigh at hand?
>  
>        Verily, God hath cursed the Infidels, and hath got ready for them the
> flame:
>  
>        For aye shall they abide therein; none to befriend them, no helper shall
> they find!
>  
>        On the day when their faces shall be rolled in the fire, they shall cry:
> "Oh! would that we had obeyed God, and obeyed the Apostle!"
>  
>        And they shall say:  "Oh our Lord! indeed we obeyed our chiefs and our
> great ones, and they misled us from the way of God -
>  
>        O our Lord! give them a double chastisement, and curse them with a heavy
> curse."
>  
>        O Believers! be not like those who affronted Moses.  But God cleared him
> from what they said of him, and of God what he high esteemed.
>  
> 33:70  O Believers! fear God, and speak with well-guided speech.
>  
>        That God may bless your doings for you, and forgive you your sins.  And
> whoso obeyeth God and His Apostle with great bliss shall he be blessed.
>  
>        Verily, we proposed to the Heavens, and to the Earth, and to the
> Mountains to receive the Faith, but they refused the burden, and they feared to
> receive it.  Man undertook to bear it, but hath proved unjust, senseless!
>  
>        Therefore will God punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical
> women, and the men and the women who join gods with God; but to the believing
> men and women will God turn him:  for God is Indulgent, Merciful!
>
> — *Sura  33 - The Confederates*