Sūrat at-Tawbah
Section 3 of 20 · Surah Studies · Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Two Purposes: Jihād, and Faith Against Hypocrisy
Sūrat at-Tawbah may be said to have two purposes. The first is to set out the aḥkām of jihād, of which a great many are given here; the second is to set out the difference between īmān and nifāq — between faith and hypocrisy.
First, then, Allah (swt) has them make these announcements: that from this time you shall not enter the Kaʿbah to perform your ṭawāf; you shall not come and perform the Hajj; the mushrikīn are now barred. Likewise all others are barred. A number of further matters are given there. There is also a passage much used in Islamophobic material, and it is at times these verses — verse five:
فَإِذَا ٱنسَلَخَ ٱلْأَشْهُرُ ٱلْحُرُمُ فَٱقْتُلُوا۟ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدتُّمُوهُمْ وَخُذُوهُمْ وَٱحْصُرُوهُمْ وَٱقْعُدُوا۟ لَهُمْ كُلَّ مَرْصَدٍ ۚ فَإِن تَابُوا۟ وَأَقَامُوا۟ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَءَاتَوُا۟ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ فَخَلُّوا۟ سَبِيلَهُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ
“So, when the sacred months expire, kill the Mushriks wherever you find them, and catch them and besiege them and sit in ambush for them everywhere. Then, if they repent and establish Salāh and pay Zakāh, leave their way. Surely, Allah is most Forgiving, Very-Merciful.” (9:5)
Once the four months granted them, for the declaring of the ending of the treaties, had passed, the ruling was that they might now be fought and killed wherever they were found. This is generally quoted as though it stood for all times — as though even today a man might simply go and kill. That is how it is misused, and it is shown as though this were an Islamic principle; but it is highly specific to its time: it was for that time, concerning the Arabian Peninsula, in particular circumstances and amid the difficulties then taking place. There are some twenty āyāt after it. They were in grave trouble at that point.
Allah (swt) then also gives permission to fight not only the mushrikīn but the People of the Book as well. Until then the two had been supposed to stand together; but the difficulty was that the three Israelite tribes — the Banū Qaynuqāʿ, the Banū Qurayẓah and the Banū al-Naḍīr — saw that little power remained to them. So they began every kind of intrigue and plot, working with the enemy from behind. Many a time they supported the Makkan army from behind. That was to cause great trouble, and it is why it was permitted to fight them also, and to deal with them.
There follow some twenty verses upon the inward filth, the impurity and the deception held in the hearts of the munāfiqīn. Here the sūrah truly lays their secrets open. That is why it is called Sūrat al-Fāḍiḥah, as has been said. To give some idea of it, here are certain prominent verses; the whole cannot be read here.