MEDINA.–13 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

O YE who believe! take not my foe2 and your foe for friends, shewing them kindness, although they believe not that truth which hath come to you: they drive forth the Apostles and yourselves because ye believe in God your Lord! If ye go forth to fight on my way, and from a desire to please me, and shew them kindness in private, I well know what ye conceal, and what ye discover! Whoso doth this hath already gone astray from the even way.

If they meet with you they will prove your foes: hand and tongue will they put forth for your hurt, and will desire that you become infidels again.

Neither your kindred nor your children shall at all avail you on the day of the resurrection. A severance between you will it make! and your actions doth God behold.

A good example had ye in Abraham,3 and in those who followed him, when they said to their people, "Verily, we are clear of you, and of what ye worship beside God: we renounce you: and between us and hath hatred and enmity sprung up for ever, until ye believe in God alone." Yet imitate not the language of Abraham to his Father, "I will pray for thy forgiveness, but not aught shall I obtain for thee from God."4 O our Lord! in thee do we trust! to thee do we turn! to thee we shall come back at the last.

O our Lord! expose us not for trial to the unbelievers, and forgive us: for thou art the Mighty, the Wise!

A good example had ye in them, for all who hope in God and in the last day. But let who will turn back, God truly is the Rich, the Praiseworthy!

God will, perhaps, establish good will between yourselves and those of them whom ye take to be your enemies:5 God is Powerful: and God is Gracious, Merciful.

God doth not forbid you to deal with kindness and fairness toward those who have not made war upon you on account of your religion, or driven you forth from your homes: for God loveth those who act with fairness.

Only doth God forbid you to make friends of those who, on account of your religion, have warred against you, and have driven you forth from your homes, and have aided those who drove you forth: and whoever maketh friends of them are wrong-doers.

O Believers!6 when believing women come over to you as refugees (Mohadjers), then make TRIAL of them. God best knoweth their faith; but if ye have also ascertained their faith, let them not go back to the infidels; they are not lawful for them, nor are the unbelievers lawful for these women. But give them back what they have spent for their dowers. No crime shall it be in you to marry them, provided ye give them their dowers. Do not retain any right in the infidel women, but demand back what you have spent for their dowers, and let the unbelievers demand back what they have spent for their wives.7 This is the ordinance of God which He ordaineth among you: and God is Knowing, Wise.

And if any of your wives escape from you to the Infidels from whom ye afterwards take any spoil, then give to those whose wives shall have fled away, the like of what they shall have spent for their dowers; and fear God in whom ye believe.

O Prophet! when believing women come to thee, and pledge themselves that they will not associate aught with God, and that they will not steal or commit adultery, nor kill their children, nor bring scandalous charges,8 nor disobey thee in what is right, then plight thou thy faith to them, and ask pardon for them of God: for God is Indulgent, Merciful!

O Believers! enter not into amity with those against whom God is angered; they despair of the life to come, even as the Infidels despair of the inmates of the tombs.

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1 Revealed probably as far as verse 9 (Ramadhan Hej. 8) shortly before the taking of Mecca.

2 Halèb Ben Abu Baltaa had informed the Koreisch of an intended surprise of Mecca on the part of Muhammad, with the view of making terms for his own family who had been left there. The offence was pardoned, but the revelation was nevertheless published with the view of preventing similar acts of treachery in future.

3 Speaking of the representatives of the different religious systems prevalent in the Roman Empire, as Orpheus, Abraham, Christ, Apollonius of Tyana, enshrined among the household deities of Alexander Severus, Mr. Milman remarks (Hist. of Christianity, ii. p. 231) that "It is singular that Abraham, rather than Moses, was placed at the head of Judaism: it is possible that the traditionary sanctity which attached to the first parent of the Jewish people, and of many of the Arab tribes, and which was afterwards embodied in the Koran, was floating in the East, and would comprehend, as it were, the opinions, not only of the Jews, but of a much wider circle of the Syrian natives."

4 Sura [cxiii.] ix. 115.

5 That is, by their conversion hereafter.

6 Said (see Nöld. p. 163) to have been revealed at, or shortly after, the peace of Hudaibiya. According to the terms then agreed upon, a mutual restitution of property was to take place.

7 Who are converted to Islam.

8 Lit. with a calumny which they have devised between their hands and their feet. Said to have been revealed at the taking of Mecca. Tab. Beidh.

SURA1 CX.–HELP [CXI.]