Sura   9 - Immunity
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SURA IX - IMMUNITY  (9) - [MEDINA - 130 VERSES]             (CXIII - 470)     
 
       An Immunity from God and His Apostle to those with whom ye are in
league, among the Polytheist Arabs! (those who join gods with God).
 
       Go ye therefore, at league in the land four months:  but know that God
ye shall not weaken; and that those who believe not, God will put to shame -
 
       And a proclamation on the part of God and His Apostle to the people on
the day of the greater pilgrimage, that God is free from any engagement with
the votaries of other gods with God as is His Apostle!  If, therefore, ye turn
to God it will be better for you; but if ye turn back, then know that ye shall
not weaken God:  and to those who believe not, announce thou a grievous
punishment.
 
       But this concerneth not those Polytheists with whom ye are in league,
and who shall have afterwards in no way failed you, nor aided anyone against
you.  Observe, therefore, engagement with them through the whole time of their
treaty:  for God loveth those who fear Him.
 
       And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods
with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay
wait for them with every kind of ambush:  but if they shall convert, and
observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for
God is Gracious, Merciful.
 
       If any one of those who join gods with God ask an asylum of thee, grant
him an asylum, that he may hear the Word of God, and then let him reach his
place of safety.  This, for that they are people devoid of knowledge.
 
       How shall they who add gods to God be in league with God and with His
Apostle, save those with whom ye made a league at the sacred temple?  So long
as they are true to you, be ye true to them; for God loveth those who fear Him.
 
       How can they?  since if they prevail against you, they will not regard
in you either ties of blood or faith.  With their mouths will they content you,
but their hearts will be averse.  The greater part of them are perverse doers.
 
       They sell the signs of God for a mean price, and turn others aside from
his way:  evil is it that they do!
 
9:10   They regard not in a believer either ties of blood or faith; these are
the transgressors!
 
       Yet if they turn to God and observe prayer, and pay the impost, then are
they your brethren in religion.  We make clear our signs to those who
understand.
 
       But, if after alliance made, they break their oaths and revile your
religion, then do battle with the ring-leaders of infidelity - for no oaths are
binding with them - that they may desist.
 
       What!  will ye not fight against those Meccans who have broken their
oaths and aimed to expel your Apostle, and attacked you first?  Will ye dread
them?  God is more worthy of your fear, if ye are believers.!
 
       So make war on them:  By your hands will God chastise them, and will put
them to shame, and will give you victory over them, and will heal the bosoms of
a people who believe;
 
       And will take away the wrath of their hearts.  God will be turned unto
whom He will:  and God is Knowing, Wise.
 
       Think ye that ye shall be forsaken as if God did not yet know those
among you who do valiantly, and take none for their friends beside God, and His
Apostle, and the faithful?  God is well apprised of your doings.
 
       It is not for the votaries of other gods with God, witnesses against
themselves of infidelity, to visit the temples of God.  These! vain their
works:  and in the fire shall they abide for ever!
 
       He only should visit the temples of God who believeth in God and the
last day, and observeth prayer, and payeth the legal alms, and dreadeth none
but God.  These haply will be among the rightly guided.
 
       Do ye place the giving drink to the pilgrims, and the visitation of the
sacred temple, on the same level with him who believeth in God and the last
day, and fighteth on the way of God?  They shall not be held equal by God:  and
God guideth not the unrighteous.
 
9:20   They who have believed, and fled their homes, and striven with their
substance and with their persons on the path of God, shall be of highest grade
with God:  and these are they who shall be happy!
 
       Tidings of mercy from Himself, and of His good pleasure, doth their Lord
send them, and of gardens in which lasting pleasure shall be theirs;
 
       Therein shall they abide for ever; for God! with Him is a great reward.
 
       O believers! make not friends of your fathers or your brethren if they
love unbelief above faith:  and whoso of you shall make them his friends, will
be wrong doers.
 
       Say:  If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives,
and your kindred, and the wealth which ye have gained, and merchandise which ye
fear may be unsold, and dwellings wherein ye delight, be dearer to you than God
and His Apostle and efforts on his Path, then wait until God shall Himself
enter on His work:  and God guideth not the impious.
 
       Now hath God helped you in many battlefields, and on the day of Honein,
when ye prided yourselves on your numbers; but it availed you nothing; and the
earth, with all its breadth, became too straight for you:  then turned ye your
backs in flight:
 
       Then did God send down His spirit of repose upon His Apostle, and upon
the faithful, and He sent down the hosts which ye saw not, and He punished the
Infidels:  This, the Infidels' reward!
 
       Yet, after this, will God be turned to whom He pleaseth; for God is
Gracious, Merciful!
 
       O Believers!  only they who join gods with God are unclean!  Let them
not, therefore, after this their year, come near the sacred Temple. And if ye
fear want, God, if He please, will enrich you of His abundance:  for God is
Knowing, Wise.
 
       Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as
believe not in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and
His Apostle have forbidden, and who profess not the professions of the truth,
until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled.
 
9:30   The Jews say, "Ezra (Ozair) is a son of God"; and the Christians say,
"The Messiah is a son of God." Such the sayings in their mouths!  They resemble
the saying of the Infidels of old!  God do battle with them!  How are they
misguided!
 
       They take their teachers, and their monks, and the Messiah, son of Mary,
for Lords beside God, though bidden to worship one God only.  There is no God
but He!  Far from His glory be what they associated with Him!
 
       Fain would they put out God's light with their mouths:  but God only
desireth to perfect His light, albeit the Infidels abhor it.
 
       He it is who hath sent His Apostle with the Guidance and a religion of
the truth, that He may make it victorious over every other religion, albeit
they who assign partners to God be averse from it.
 
       O Believers! of a truth, many of the teachers and monks do devour man's
substance in vanity, and turn them from the Way of God.  But to those who
treasure up gold and silver and expend it not in the Way of God, announce
tidings of a grievous torment.
 
       On that day their treasures shall be heated in hell fire, and their
foreheads, and their sides, and their back, shall be branded with them....
"This is what ye have treasured up for yourselves:  taste, therefore, your
treasures!"
 
       Twelve months is the number of months with God, according to God's book,
since the day when He created the Heavens and the Earth:  of these four are
sacred:  this is the right usage:  But wrong not yourselves therein; attack
those who join gods with God in all, as they attack you in all:  and know that
God is with those who fear Him.
 
       To carry over a sacred month to another, is only a growth of infidelity.
The Infidels are led into error by it.  They allow it one year, and forbid it
another, that they may make good the number of months which God hath hallowed,
and they allow that which God hath prohibited.  The evil of their deeds hath
been prepared for them by Satan:  for God guideth not the people who do not
believe.
 
       O Believers! what possessed you, that when it was said to you, "March
forth on the Way of God," ye sank heavily earthwards?  What! prefer ye the life
of this world to the next?  But the fruition of this mundane life, in respect
of that which is to come, is but little.
 
       Unless ye march forth, with a grievous chastisement will He chastise
you; and He will place another people in your stead, and ye shall in no way
harm Him:  for over everything is God potent.
 
9:40   If ye assist not your Prophet ... God assisted him formerly, when the
unbelievers drove him forth, in company with a second only! when they two were
in the cave; when the Prophet said to his companion, "Be not distressed;
verily, God is with us."  And God sent down His tranquility upon him, and
strengthened him with hosts ye saw not, and made the word of those who
believed not the abased, and the word of God was the exalted:  for God is
Mighty, Wise.
 
       March ye forth the light and heavy armed, and contend with your
substance and your persons on the Way of God.  This, if ye know it, will be
better for you.
 
       Had there been a near advantage and a short journey, they would
certainly have followed thee; but the way seemed long to them.  Yet will they
sear by God, "Had we been able, we had surely gone forth with you:" they are
self-destroyers!  And God knoweth that they are surely liars!
 
       God forgive there!  Why didst thou give them leave to stay behind, ere
they who make true excuses had become known to thee, and thou hadst known the
liars?
 
       They who believe in God and in the last day will not ask leave of thee
to be exempt from contending with their substance and their persons.  But God
knoweth those who fear Him!
 
       They only will ask thy leave who believe not in God and the last day,
and whose hearts are full of doubts, and who are tossed up and down in their
doubtings.
 
       Moreover, had they been desirous to take the field, they would have got
ready for that purpose the munitions of war.  But God was averse to their
marching forth, and made them laggards; and it was said, "Sit ye at home with
those who sit."
 
       Had they taken the field with you, they would only have added a burden
to you, and have hurried about among you, stirring you up to sedition; and some
there are among you who would have listened to them:  and God knoweth the evil
doers.
 
       Of old aimed they at sedition, and deranged thy affairs, until the truth
arrived, and the behest of God became apparent, averse from it though they
were.
 
       Some of them say to thee, "Allow me to remain at home, and expose me not
to the trial."  Have they not fallen into a trial already?  But verily, Hell
shall environ the Infidels!
 
9:50   If a success betide thee, it annoyeth them:  but if a reverse betide
thee, they say, "We took our own measures before:" and they turn their backs
and are glad.
 
       Say:  Nothing can befall us but what God hath destined for us.  Our
liege-lord is He; and on God let the faithful trust!
 
       Say:  Await ye for us, other than one of the two best things?  But we
await for you the infliction of a chastisement by God, from himself, or at our
hands.  Wait ye then; we verily will wait with you.
 
       Say:  Make ye your offerings willingly or by constraint; it cannot be
accepted from you, because ye are a wicked people:
 
       And nothing hindreth the acceptance of their offerings, but that they
believe not in God and His Apostle, and discharge not the duty of prayer but
with sluggishness, and make not offerings but with reluctance.
 
       Let not, therefore, their riches or their children amaze thee.  God is
only minded to punish them by means of these, in this life present, and that
their souls may depart while they are unbelievers.
 
       And they swear by God that they are indeed of you, yet they are not of
you, but they are people who are afraid of you:
 
       If they find a place of refuge, or caves, or a hiding place, they
assuredly turn towards it and haste thereto.
 
       Some of them also defame thee in regard to the alms; yet if a part be
given them, they are content, but if no part be given them, behold, they are
angry!
 
       Would that they were satisfied with that which God and His Apostle had
given them, and would say "God sufficeth us!  God will vouchsafe unto us of His
favour, and so will His Apostle:  verily until God do we make our suit!"
 
9:60   But alms are only to be given to the poor and needy, and those who
collect them, and to those whose hearts are won to Islam, and for ransoms, and
for debtors, and for the cause of God, and the wayfarer. This is an ordinance
from God:  and God is Knowing, Wise.
 
       There are some of them who injure the Prophet and say, "He is all ear."
Say:  An ear of good to you!  He believeth in God, and believeth the believers:
 and is a mercy to such of you as believe:
 
       But they who injure the Apostle of God, shall suffer a dolorous
chastisement.
 
       They swear to you by God to please you; but worthier is God, and His
Apostle, that they should please Him, if they are believers.
 
       Know they not, that for him who opposeth God and His Apostle, is surely
the fire of Hell, in which he shall remain for ever?  This is the great
ignominy!
 
       The hypocrites are afraid lest a Sura should be sent down concerning
them, to tell them plainly what is in their hearts.  Say:  Scoff ye; but God
will bring to light that which ye are afraid of.
 
       And if thou question them, they will surely say, "We were only
discoursing and jesting." Say:  What!  do ye scoff at God, and His signs, and
His Apostle?
 
       Make no excuse:  from faith ye have passed to infidelity!  If we forgive
some of you, we will punish others:L  for that they have been evil doers.
 
       Hypocritical men and women imitate one another.  They enjoin what is
evil, and forbid what is just, and shut up their hands.  They have forgotten
God, and He hath forgotten them.  Verily, the hypocrites are the perverse
doers.
 
       God promiseth the hypocritical men and women, and the unbelievers, the
fire of Hell - therein shall they abide - this their sufficing portion!  And
God hath cursed them, and a lasting torment shall be theirs.
 
9:70   Ye act like those who flourished before you.  Mightier were they than
you in prowess, and more abundant in wealth and children, and they enjoyed
their portion:  so ye also enjoy your portion, as they were were before you
enjoyed theirs; and ye hold discourses like their discourses.  These!  vain
their works both for this world and for that which is to come!  These!  they
are the lost ones.
 
       Hath not the history reached them of those who were before them?  - of
the people of Noah, and of Ad, and of Themoud, and of the people of Abraham,
and of the inhabitants of Madian, and of the overthrown cities?  Their apostles
came to them with clear proofs of their mission:  God would not deal wrongly by
them, but they dealt wrongly by themselves.
 
       The faithful of both sexes are mutual friends:  they enjoin what is
just, and forbid what is evil; they observe prayer, and pay the legal impost,
and they obey God and His Apostle.  On these will God have mercy:  verily, God
is Mighty, Wise.
 
       To the faithful, both men and women, God promiseth gardens 'neath which
the rivers flow, in which they shall abide, and goodly mansions in the gardens
of Eden.  But best of all will be God's good pleasure in them.  This will be
the great bliss.
 
       O Prophet! contend against the infidels and the hypocrites, and be
rigorous with them:  Hell shall be their dwelling place!  Wretched the journey
thither!
 
       They swear by God that they said no such thing:  yet spake they the word
infidelity, and from Muslims became unbelievers!  They planned what they could
not effect; and only disapproved of it because God and His Apostle had enriched
them by His bounty!  If they repent it will be better for them; but if they
fall back into their sin, with a grievous chastisement will God chastise them
in this world and the next, and on earth they shall have neither friend nor
protector!
 
       Some there are of them who made this agreement with God - "If truly He
give us of His bounties, we will surely give alms and surely be of the
righteous."
 
       Yet when he had vouchsafed them of His bounty, they became covetous
thereof, and turned their backs, and withdrew afar off:
 
       So He caused hypocrisy to take its turn in their hearts, until the day
on which they shall meet Him - for that they failed their promise to God, and
for that they were liars!
 
9:80   They who traduce such of the faithful as give their alms freely, and
those who find nothing to give but their earnings, and scoff at them, God shall
scoff at them; and there is a grievous torment in store for them.
 
       Ask thou forgiveness for them, or ask it not, it will be the same.  If
thou ask forgiveness for them seventy times, God will by no means forgive them.
This, for that they believe not in God and His Apostle!  And God guideth not
the ungodly people.
 
       They who were left at home were delighted to stay behind God's Apostle,
and were averse from contending with their riches and their persons for the
cause of God, and said, "March not out in the heat."  Say:  A fiercer heat will
be the fire of Hell."  Would that they understood this.
 
       Little, therefore, let them laugh, and much let them weep, as the meed
of their doings!
 
       If God bring thee back from the fight to some of them, and they ask thy
leave to take the field, Say:  By no means shall ye ever take the field with
me, and by no means shall ye fight an enemy with me:  ye were well pleased to
sit at home at the first crisis:  sit ye at home, then, with those who lag
behind.
 
       Never pray thou over anyone of them who dieth, or stand at his grave -
because they believed not in God and His Apostle, and died in their wickedness.
 
       Let not their riches or their children astonish thee:  through these God
is fain only to punish them in this world, and that their souls should depart
while they are still infidels.
 
       When a Sura was sent down with "Believe in God and go forth to war with
His Apostle," those of them who are possessed of riches demanded exemption, and
said, "Allow us to be with those who sit at home.
 
       Well content were they to be with those who stay behind:  for a seal
hath been set on their hearts so that they understand not: -
 
       But the Apostle and those who share his faith, contend for the faith
with purse and person; and these!  all good things await them:  and these are
they who shall be happy.
 
9:90   God hath made ready for them gardens 'neath which the rivers flow,
wherein they shall remain for ever:  this will be the great bliss.
 
       Some Arabs of the desert came with excuses, praying exemption; and they
who had gainsaid God and His Apostle sat at home:  a grievous punishment shall
light on such of them as believe not.
 
       It shall be no crime in the weak, and in the sick, and in those who find
not the means of contributing, to stay at home, provided they are sincere with
God and His Apostle.  Against those who act virtuously, there is no cause of
blame:  and God is Gracious, Merciful: -
 
       Nor against those, to whom when they came to thee that thou shouldst
mount them, thou didst say "I find not wherewith to mount you," and they turned
away their eyes shedding floods of tears for grief, because they found no means
to contribute.
 
       On is there cause of blame against those who, though they are rich, ask
thee for exemption.  They are pleased to be with those who stay behind; and God
hath set a seal upon their hearts:  they have no knowledge.
 
       They will excuse themselves to you when ye come back to them.  Say:
Excuse yourselves not; we cannot believe you:  now hath God informed us about
you:  God will behold your doings, and so will His Apostle:  to Him who
knoweth alike things hidden and things manifest shall ye hereafter be brought
back:  and He will tell you what ye have done.
 
       They will adjure you by God when ye are come back to them, to withdraw
from them:  Withdraw from them, then, for they are unclean:  their dwelling
shall be Hell, in recompense for their deserts.
 
       They will adjure you to take pleasure in them; but if ye take pleasure
in them, God truly will take no pleasure in those who act corruptly.
 
       The Arabs of the desert are most stout in unbelief and dissimulation;
and likelier it is that they should be unaware of the laws which God hath sent
down to His Apostle:  and God is Knowing, Wise.
 
       Of the Arabs of the desert there are some who reckon what they expend in
the cause of God as tribute, and wait for some change of fortune to befall you:
a change for evil shall befall them!  God is the Hearer, the Knower.
 
9:100  And of the Arabs of the desert, some believe in God and in the last day,
and deem those alms an approach to God and to the Apostle's prayers.  Are they
not their approach?  Into His mercy shall God lead them:  yes, God is
Indulgent, Merciful.
 
       As for those who led the way, the first of the Mohadjers, and the
Ansars, and those who have followed their noble conduct, God is well pleased
with them, and they with Him:  He hath made ready for them gardens under whose
trees the rivers flow:  to abide therein for aye:  this shall be the great
bliss:
 
       And of the Arabs of the desert round about you, some are hypocrites:
and of the people of Medina, some are stubborn in hypocrisy.  thou knowest them
not, Muhammad:  we know them:  twice will we chastise them:  then shall they be
given over to a great chastisement.
 
       Others have owned their faults, and with an action that is right they
have mixed another that is wrong.  God will haply be turned to them:  for God
is Forgiving, Merciful.
 
       Take alms of their substance, that thou mayst cleanse and purify them
thereby, and pray for them; for thy prayers shall assure their minds:  and God
Heareth, Knoweth.
 
       Know they not that when his servants turn to Him with repentance, God
accepteth it, and that He accepteth alms, and that God is He who turneth, the
Merciful?
 
       Say:  Work ye:  but God will behold your work, and so will His Apostle,
and the faithful:  and ye shall be brought before Him who knoweth alike the
Hidden and the Manifest, and He will tell you of all your works.
 
       And others await the decision of God; whether He will punish them, or
whether He will be turned unto them:  but God is Knowing, Wise.
 
       There are some who have built a Mosque for mischief and for infidelity,
and to disunite the faithful, and in expectation of him who, in time past,
warned against God and His Apostle.  They will surely sear, "Our aim was only
good:" but God is witness that they are liars.
 
       Never set thou foot in it.  There is a Mosque founded from tis first day
in piety.  More worthy is it that thou enter therein:  therein are men who
aspire to purity, and God loveth the purified.
 
9:110  Which of the two is best?  He who hath founded his building on the fear
of God and the desire to please Him, or he who hath founded his building on the
brink of an undermined bank washed away by torrents, so that it rusheth with
him into the fire of Hell?  But God guided not the doers of wrong.
 
       Their building which they have built will not cease to cause uneasiness
in their hearts, until their hearts are cut in pieces.  God is Knowing, Wise.
 
       Verily, of the faithful hath God bought their persons and their
substances, on condition of Paradise for them in return:  on the path of God
shall they fight, and slay, and be slain:  a promise for this is pledged in the
Law, and in the Evangel, and in the Koran - and who more faithful to his
engagement than God?  Rejoice, therefore, in the contract that ye have
contracted:  for this shall be the great bliss.
 
       Those who turn to God, and those who serve, who praise, who fast, who
bow down, who prostrate themselves, who enjoin what is just and forbid what is
evil, and keep to the bounds of God...  Wherefore bear these good tidings to
the faithful.
 
       It is not for the prophet or the faithful to pray for the forgiveness of
those, even though they be of kin, who associate other beings with God, after
it hath been made clear to them that they are to be the inmates of Hell.
 
       For neither did Abraham ask forgiveness for his father, but in pursuance
of a promise which he had promised to him:  but when it was shewn him that he
was an enemy to God, he declared himself clear of him.  Yet Abraham was
pitiful, kind.
 
       Nor is it for God to lead a people into error, after he hath guided them
aright, until that which they ought to dread hath been clearly shewn them.
Verily, God knoweth all things.
 
       God!  His the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth!  He maketh alive
and killeth!  Ye have no patron or helper save God.
 
       Now hath God turned Him unto the Prophet and unto the refugees
(Mohadjers), and unto the helpers (Ansars), who followed him in the hour of
distress, after that the hearts of a part of them had well nigh failed them.
Then turned He unto them, for He was Kind to them, Merciful.
 
       He hath also turned Him unto the three who were left behind, so that the
earth, spacious as it is, became to strait for them; and their souls became so
straitened within them, that they bethought them that there was no refuge from
God but unto Himself.  Then was He turned to them, that they might be turned to
Him, for God is He that turneth, the Merciful.
 
9:120  Believers! fear God, and be with the sincere.
 
       No cause had the people of Medina and the Arabs of the desert around
them, to abandon God's Apostle, or to prefer their own lives to his; because
neither thirst, nor the labour, nor hunger, could come upon them when on path
of God; neither do they step a step which may anger the unbelievers, neither do
they receive from the enemy any damage, but it is written down to them as a
good work.  Verily, God suffereth not the reward of the righteous to perish.
 
       Nor give they alms either small or great, nor traverse they a torrent,
but it is thus reckoned to them; that God may reward them with better than they
have wrought.
 
       The faithful must not march forth all together to the wars:  and if a
party of every band of them march not out, it is that they may instruct
themselves in their religion, and may warn their people when they come back to
them, that they take heed to themselves.
 
       Believers! wage war against such of the infidels as are your neighbours,
and let them find you rigorous:  and know that God is with those who fear him.
 
       Whenever a Sura is sent down, there are some of them who say, "Whose
faith hath it increased?" It will increase the faith of those who believe, and
they shall rejoice.
 
       But as to those in whose hearts is a disease, it will add doubt to their
doubt, and they shall die infidels.
 
       Do they not see that they are proved every year once or twice?  Yet they
turn not, neither are they warned.
 
       And whenever a Sura is sent down, they look at one another.... "Doth any
one see you?" then turn they aside.  God shall turn their hearts aside,
because they are a people devoid of understanding.
 
       Now hath an Apostle come unto you from among yourselves:  your
iniquities press heavily upon him.  He is careful over you, and towards the
faithful, compassionate, merciful.
 
9:130  If they turn away, Say:  God sufficeth me:  there is no God but He.  In
Him put I my trust.  He is the possessor of the Glorious Throne!
-- Sura   9 - Immunity