5:51 Al-Maaida (The Table)

يرشد تعالى عباده المؤمنين حين بيَّن لهم أحوال اليهود والنصارى وصفاتهم غير الحسنة، أن لا يتخذوهم أولياء. فإن بَعْضهُمْ أَوْلِيَاءُ بَعْضٍ يتناصرون فيما بينهم ويكونون يدا على من سواهم، فأنتم لا تتخذوهم أولياء، فإنهم الأعداء على الحقيقة ولا يبالون بضركم، بل لا يدخرون من مجهودهم شيئا على إضلالكم، فلا يتولاهم إلا من هو مثلهم، ولهذا قال: { وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنْكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ ْ} لأن التولي التام يوجب الانتقال إلى دينهم. والتولي القليل يدعو إلى الكثير، ثم يتدرج شيئا فشيئا، حتى يكون العبد منهم. { إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ ْ} أي: الذين وصْفُهم الظلم، وإليه يَرجعون، وعليه يعولون. فلو جئتهم بكل آية ما تبعوك، ولا انقادوا لك.

ينهى تبارك وتعالى عباده المؤمنين عن موالاة اليهود والنصارى الذين هم أعداء الإسلام وأهله - قاتلهم الله- ثم أخبر أن بعضهم أولياء بعض ثم تهدد وتوعد من يتعاطى ذلك فقال" ومن يتولهم منكم فإنه منهم " الآية قال ابن أبي حاتم: حدثنا كثير بن شهاب حدثنا محمد - يعني ابن سعيد بن سابق- حدثنا عمرو بن أبي قيس عن سماك بن حرب عن عياض: أن عمر أمر أبا موسى الأشعري أن يرفع إليه ما أخذ وما أعطى في أديم واحد وكان له كاتب نصراني فرفع إليه ذلك فعجب عمر وقال: إن هذا لحفيظ هل أنت قارئ لنا كتابا في المسجد جاء من الشام فقال: إنه لا يستطيع فقال عمر: أجنب هو قال لا بل نصراني قال: فانتهرني وضرب فخذي ثم قال: أخرجوه ثم قرأ" يا أيها الذين آمنوا لا تتخذوا اليهود والنصارى أولياء" الآية. ثم قال: حدثنا محمد بن الحسن عن محمد بن الصباح حدثنا عثمان بن عمر أنبأنا ابن عون عن محمد بن سيرين قال: قال عبد الله بن عتبة ليتق أحدكم أن يكون يهوديا أو نصرانيا وهو لا يشعر قال: فظنناه يريد هذه الآية" يا أيها الذين آمنوا لا تتخذوا اليهود والنصارى أولياء " الآية. وحدثنا أبو سعيد الأشج حدثنا ابن فضيل عن عاصم عن عكرمة عن ابن عباس أنه سُئل عن ذبائح نصارى العرب فقال: كل. قال الله تعالى" ومن يتولهم منكم فإنه منهم " وروى عن أبي الزناد نحو ذلك.

The Prohibition of Taking the Jews, Christians and Enemies of Islamas Friends

Allah forbids His believing servants from having Jews and Christians as friends, because they are the enemies of Islam and its people, may Allah curse them. Allah then states that they are friends of each other and He gives a warning threat to those who do this,

وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُمْ مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُ مِنْهُمْ

(And if any among you befriends them, then surely he is one of them.) Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that `Umar ordered Abu Musa Al-Ash`ari to send him on one sheet of balance the count of what he took in and what he spent. Abu Musa then had a Christian scribe, and he was able to comply with `Umar's demand. `Umar liked what he saw and exclaimed, "This scribe is proficient. Would you read in the Masjid a letter that came to us from Ash-Sham" Abu Musa said, `He cannot." `Umar said, "Is he not pure" Abu Musa said, "No, but he is Christian." Abu Musa said, "So `Umar admonished me and poked my thigh (with his finger), saying, `Drive him out (from Al-Madinah).' He then recited,

يَـأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَـرَى أَوْلِيَآءَ

(O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as friends...)" Then he reported that `Abdullah bin `Utbah said, "Let one of you beware that he might be a Jew or a Christian, while unaware." The narrator of this statement said, "We thought that he was referring to the Ayah,

يَـأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ الْيَهُودَ وَالنَّصَـرَى أَوْلِيَآءَ

(O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as friends, )" Allah said,

فَتَرَى الَّذِينَ فِى قُلُوبِهِم مَّرَضٌ

(And you see those in whose hearts there is a disease...) A disease of doubt, hesitation and hypocrisy.

يُسَـرِعُونَ فِيهِمْ

(they hurry to their friendship,) meaning, they rush to offer them their friendship and allegiances in secret and in public,

يَقُولُونَ نَخْشَى أَن تُصِيبَنَا دَآئِرَةٌ

(saying: "We fear lest some misfortune of a disaster may befall us.") They thus offer this excuse for their friendship and allegiances to the disbelievers, saying that they fear that the disbelievers might defeat the Muslims, so they want to be in favor with the Jews and Christians, to use this favor for their benefit in that eventuality! Allah replied,

فَعَسَى اللَّهُ أَن يَأْتِىَ بِالْفَتْحِ

(Perhaps Allah may bring a victory...) referring to the conquering of Makkah, according to As-Suddi.

أَوْ أَمْرٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ

(or a decision according to His will) requiring the Jews and Christians to pay the Jizyah, as As-Suddi stated,

فَيُصْبِحُواْ

(Then they will become) meaning, the hypocrites who gave their friendship to the Jews and Christians, will become,

عَلَى مَآ أَسَرُّواْ فِى أَنفُسِهِمْ

(for what they have been keeping as a secret in themselves) of allegiances,

نَـدِمِينَ

(regretful,) for their friendship with the Jews and Christians which did not benefit them or protect them from any harm. Rather, it was nothing but harm, as Allah exposed their true reality to His faithful servants in this life, although they tried to conceal it. When the signs that exposed their hypocrisy were compiled against them, their matter became clear to Allah's faithful servants. So the believers were amazed at these hypocrites who pretended to be believers, swearing to their faithfulness, yet their claims were all lies and deceit. This is why Allah said, s

وَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ أَهُـؤُلاءِ الَّذِينَ أَقْسَمُواْ بِاللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَيْمَـنِهِمْ إِنَّهُمْ لَمَعَكُمْ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَـلُهُمْ فَأَصْبَحُواْ خَـسِرِينَ

(And those who believe will say, "Are these the men who swore their strongest oaths by Allah that they were with you" All that they did has been in vain, and they have become the losers.)

O you who believe do not take Jews and Christians as patrons affiliating with them or showing them affection; they are patrons of each other being united in disbelief. Whoever amongst you affiliates with them he is one of them counted with them. God does not guide the folk who do wrong by affiliating with disbelievers.

Explanation in Brief

The verses cited above take up three important subjects which are the basic principles of unity among Muslims as a collectively organized community.

1. Muslims can deal with non-Muslims in the spirit of tolerance, sympathy, goodwill, equity, justice, favour and kindness, almost every-thing within that line of conduct. In fact, they should do that for they have been taught to do that. But, what is not permitted is the kind of fast friendship and indiscriminating intimacy which may garble the distinctive hallmarks of Islam. This is the issue known as the ` Tack al-Muwalat' to refrain from deep (friendship) in Islamic terminology.

2. The second principle stressed upon is that should the Muslims of any time and place shift away from the first principle stated above and develop an intimacy of this nature with non-Muslims, then, let them not be under the impression that their conduct could harm Islam in any manner whatsoever - because Allah Almighty has Himself taken the responsibility of seeing that Islam remains duly protected. It cannot be eliminated by anyone. However, if a set of people still go out of their minds, break the limits of Islamic modality of doing things and, let us presume, decide to leave the very pale of Islam, then, Allah Ta` ala will bring in another set of people who will uphold and establish the principles and laws of Islam.

3. Once we know the positive and negative aspects in perspective, it becomes evident that the real friendship of a Muslim - deep, intense, profound and reliance-worthy - can only be with Allah, the Highest of the high, His Messenger, and with those who believe in them.

After this brief introduction of the subject, we can now move to the detailed explanation of the verses.

Commentary

In the first verse (51), Muslims have been commanded not to enter into "Muwalat" (deep friendship) with Jews and Christians as is the customary practice of non-Muslims in general and, of Jews and Christians in particular, who reserve deep friendship for their own people only. They do not deal with Muslims at the same wave length.

After this clear instruction, should a Muslim do otherwise and en-ter into an intimate friendship with a Jew or Christian, then, in the sight of Islam, he is fit to be counted as one of them - and not as a Muslim.

The Background of Revelation

Reporting from ` Ikrimah, Ibn Jarir ؓ has said that this verse was revealed in the background of a particular event. After the Holy Prophet ﷺ had settled in Madinah, he had entered into a treaty with Jews and Christians living nearby which required that they would neither fight against Muslims nor help any other tribe at war with them, rather, they would join Muslims to fight against them. Similarly, Muslims will not fight them nor help anyone against them, rather, would de-fend them against the aggressors. For some time, both parties kept adhering to the treaty. But, the Jews could not observe the terms of the treaty any longer because of their conspiratorial nature and anti-Islam temperament. They made a secret deal with the pagans of Makkah against Muslims and wrote them a letter inviting them to their fortress. When the Holy Prophet ﷺ came to know about this conspiracy, he dispatched a posse of Mujahidin to confront them. These Jews from Banu Qurayzah were, on the one hand, conspiring with the disbelievers of Makkah, while on the other, having infiltrated among Mus-lims, they had succeeded in making pacts of friendship with many of them. This was their front of spying for the disbelievers of Makkah against Muslims. Revealed thereupon was this verse which stopped Muslims from indulging in deep friendship with Jews and Christians, so that they could be deprived of having access to sensitive information about Muslims. At that time, some noble Companions, including Sayyidna ` Ubadah ibn Samit ؓ ، openly announced the cancellation of their treaty obligations as well as their support for abandonment of any close friendship in the future. As for the hypocrites who had their pragmatic relationship with Muslims, or people whose hearts had yet to taste the sweetness of genuine faith, they apprehended dangers in breaking relationships with Jews and Christians lest the conspiracy hatched by the disbelievers and the Jews succeeded and Muslims were overpowered in which case it would be necessary that they keep their relationships balanced both ways to avoid any problems Tor them later on. It was on this basis that ` Abdullah ibn Ubaiyy ibn Salul ؓ had said that he saw danger in cutting off relationship with these people and, therefore, he cannot do that. Revealed thereupon was the second verse (52):

O you who have faith, take not the Jews and Christians as friends. They are friends of each other. Whoso of you takes them as a friend is one of them. Surely God does not guide the wrongdoers. The majestic compeller, the great Lord, the knower to perfection, the exalted Possessor of Maj- esty, calls to His servants with a call of generosity. By way of gentleness He caresses them and in the attribute of clemency and mercy He turns the faces of their hearts away from others toward Himself. He is saying, “Do not take the stranger as friend, and do not approve of the enemy for your companionship. When you take a friend and take a companion, approve of him for the sake of God. Take the friend in God's work and approve of the companion in God's religion. When you seek the realities of faith, seek them from friendship with God's friends and enmity with the enemies of the religion.” MuṣṬafā said, “The firmest handle of faith is love in God and hate in God.” The enemies of the religion whose enmity is obligatory are first Satan, and second the com- manding soul. The soul is harder than Satan, for Satan does not go after the faith of the faithful, but rather their disobedience. The soul, however, pulls him to unbelief and wants his unbelief. Satan flees from [the formula] “There is no power and no strength but in God,” but the soul does not flee. Joseph the sincerely truthful suffered many trials-he was thrown into the well, sold into slav- ery, and remained in prison for years-but he never lamented the way he did at the commanding soul: “Surely the soul commands to ugliness” [12:53]. MuṣṬafā said, “Your worst enemy is the soul between your two sides.”