ترجمة معاني سورة التوبة
باللغة الإنجليزية من كتاب ترجمة معاني القرآن الكريم - عادل صلاحي.
Disavowal by God and His Messenger [is hereby announced] to those of the idolaters with whom you have made a treaty.
[Announce to them:] You may go freely in the land for four months, but you must realize that you can never escape God’s judgement, and that God shall bring disgrace upon the unbelievers.
And a proclamation from God and His Messenger is hereby made to all mankind on this day of the greater pilgrimage: God is free from obligation to the idolaters, and so is His Messenger. If you repent, it shall be for your own good; and if you turn away, then know that you can never escape God’s judgement. Give the unbelievers the news of painful suffering,
except for those idolaters with whom you have made a treaty and who have honoured their obligations [under the treaty] in every detail, and have not aided anyone against you. To these fulfil your obligations until their treaties have run their term. God loves those who are God-fearing.
When these months of grace are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive, besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every conceivable place. Yet if they should repent, take to prayer and pay the zakat, let them go their way. For God is much-forgiving, ever-merciful.
If any of the idolaters seeks asylum with you, grant him protection, so that he may hear the word of God, and then convey him to his place of safety. That is because the idolaters are people who lack knowledge.
How can there be a treaty with God and His Messenger for the idolaters, unless it be those of them with whom you have made a treaty at the Sacred Mosque? So long as they are true to you, be true to them; for God loves those who are God-fearing.
How [else could it be] when, should they prevail over you, they will respect neither agreement made with you, nor obligation of honour towards you? They try to please you with what they say, while at heart they remain adamantly hostile. Most of them are transgressors.
They barter away God’s revelations for a paltry price and debar others from His path. Evil indeed is what they do.
They respect neither agreement nor obligation of honour with regard to any believer. Those indeed are the aggressors.
Yet, if they repent, take to prayers and pay the zakat, they are your brethren in faith. Clear do We make Our revelations to people of knowledge.
But if they break their pledges after having concluded a treaty with you, and revile your religion, then fight these archetypes of faithlessness who have no [respect for a] binding pledge, so that they may desist.
Will you not fight against people who have broken their solemn pledges and set out to drive out the Messenger, and who were the first to attack you? Do you fear them? It is God alone whom you should fear, if you are true believers.
Fight them: God will punish them at your hands, and will bring disgrace upon them; and will grant you victory over them and will grant heart-felt satisfaction to those who are believers,
removing all angry feelings from their hearts. God will turn in His mercy to whom He wills. God is all-knowing and wise.
Do you think that you will be left alone, unless God takes cognisance of those of you who strive hard for His cause and establish close association with none other than God, His Messenger and the believers. God is well aware of what you do.
It is not for the idolaters to visit or tend God’s houses of worship; for they are self-confessed unbelievers. Vain shall be their actions and they shall abide in the Fire.
God’s houses of worship may be tended only by those who believe in God and the Last Day, are constant in prayers, pay zakat (the obligatory charity) and fear none other than God. It is those who are likely to be rightly guided.
Do you, perchance, consider that the provision of drinking water to pilgrims and tending the Sacred Mosque equal to believing in God and the Last Day and striving for God’s cause? These are not equal in God’s sight. God does not provide guidance for people who are wrongdoers.
Those who believe, and leave their homes and strive hard for God’s cause with their property and their lives stand higher in rank with God. It is they who shall triumph.
Their Lord gives them the happy news of bestowing on them His grace, and acceptance, and of the gardens of eternal bliss
where they shall reside forever. God’s reward is great indeed.
Believers, do not take your fathers and brothers for allies if they choose unbelief in preference to faith. Those of you who take them for allies are indeed wrongdoers.
Say: ‘If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your spouses, your clan, and the property you have acquired, and the business in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which you take pleasure, are dearer to you than God and His Messenger and the struggle in His cause, then wait until God shall make manifest His will. God does not provide guidance to the transgressors.
‘God has granted you His support on many a battlefield, and also in the Battle of Hunayn, when you took pride in your numerical strength, but it availed you nothing. For all its vastness, the earth seemed too narrow for you, and you turned back in flight.
‘God then bestowed from on high an air of inner peace on His Messenger and on the believers, and He sent down forces whom you could not see, and punished those who disbelieved. Such is the reward for the unbelievers.
God will then turn in His mercy to whom He wills, for God is much-forgiving, ever–merciful’.
Believers, know that the idolaters are certainly impure. So, let them not come near to the Sacred Mosque after this year is ended. If you fear poverty, then in time God will enrich you with His own bounty, if He so wills. Truly, God is all-knowing, wise.
Fight against those who – despite having been given Scriptures – do not truly believe in God and the Last Day, and do not treat as forbidden that which God and His Messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, till they [agree to] pay the submission tax with a willing hand, after they have been humbled.
The Jews say: ‘Ezra is the son of God’, while the Christians say: ‘The Christ is the son of God’. Such are the assertions they utter with their mouths, echoing assertions made by the unbelievers of old. May God destroy them! How perverse they are!
They make of their rabbis and their monks, and of the Christ, son of Mary, lords besides God. Yet they have been ordered to worship none but the One God, other than whom there is no deity. Exalted be He above those to whom they ascribe divinity.
They want to extinguish God’s light with their mouths, but God will not allow anything [to interfere with His will] to spread His light in its fullness, however hateful this may be to the unbelievers.
It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, so that He may cause it to prevail over all [other] religions, however hateful this may be to the idolaters.
Believers, some of the rabbis and monks wrongfully devour people’s property and turn people away from God’s path. To those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend them in God’s cause, give the news of a painful suffering,
on the day when it will all be heated in the fire of Hell, and their foreheads, sides and backs will be branded with them. [They will be told]: ‘This is what you have hoarded up for yourselves. Taste, then, what you have been hoarding’.
The number of months, in God’s sight, is twelve as set by God’s decree on the day when He created the heavens and the earth. Of these, four are sacred, according to the ever-true law [of God]. Therefore, do not wrong yourselves by violating them. But fight against the idolaters all together as they fight against you all together, and know that God is with those who are God-fearing.
The postponement [of sacred months] is only an excess of unbelief, in which the unbelievers are led astray. They declare it permissible one year and forbidden another year, so that they may make up the number of the months which God has sanctified, and thus they make lawful what God has forbidden. The evil of their deeds thus seems fair to them. God does not guide those who are unbelievers.
Believers, what is amiss with you that, when it is said to you: ‘Go forth to fight in God’s cause’, you cling heavily to the earth? Are you content with the comforts of this world in preference to the life to come? Paltry indeed are the enjoyments of life in this world when compared with those of the life to come.
If you do not go forth to fight [in God’s cause], He will punish you severely and replace you by other people. You will not harm Him in any way, for God has power over all things.
If you do not help him [the Prophet]; God [will, as He] supported him at the time when the unbelievers drove him away. He was only one of two. When these two were alone in the cave, he said to his companion: ‘Do not grieve, for God is with us’. Thereupon God bestowed on Him the gift of inner peace, and sent to his aid forces which you did not see. He brought the word of the unbelievers utterly low, while the word of God remained supreme. God is mighty, wise.
Go forth, whether you be lightly or heavily armed, and strive in God’s cause with your wealth and your lives. This will be best for you if you but knew it.
Had there been [a prospect of] an immediate gain, and a short journey, they would certainly have followed you; but the distance was too far for them. Yet they will swear by God: ‘Had we been able, we would surely have joined you’. They bring ruin upon themselves. God knows indeed that they are liars.
May God forgive you [Prophet]! Why did you grant them permission [to stay behind] before you had come to know who were speaking the truth and who were the liars.
Those who believe in God and the Last Day will not ask you to exempt them from striving with their property and with their lives. God has full knowledge as to who are the God-fearing.
Only those who do not truly believe in God and the Last Day ask you for exemption. Their hearts are filled with doubt; and troubled by doubt, they do waver.
Had they really intended to set out [with you], they would surely have made some preparations for that. But God was averse to their going, so He caused them to hold back; and it was said to them: ‘Stay behind with those who stay’.
Had they set out with you, they would have added nothing to you but trouble, and would have scurried to and fro in your midst, seeking to sow discord among you. There are among you some who would have lent them ear. Certainly God has full knowledge of the wrongdoers.
They had, even before this time, tried to sow discord, and devised plots against you, until the truth was revealed and the will of God prevailed, no matter how hateful it is to them.
There is among them [many a] one who may say: ‘Give me leave to stay behind, and do not expose me to temptation’. Surely they have succumbed to temptation. Hell is certain to engulf the unbelievers.
Your good fortune grieves them; but if a disaster befalls you, they will say: ‘We are lucky to have taken our precautions’. Thus they turn away rejoicing.
Say: ‘Nothing will befall us except what God has decreed for us. He is our guardian. In God alone should the believers place their trust’.
Say: ‘Are you waiting for something [bad] to happen to us; but [nothing may happen to us except] one of the two best things. On our part we are waiting for God to inflict upon you a scourge, either directly from Himself or by our hands. Wait, then, if you will; we shall also be waiting’.
Say: ‘Whether you spend willingly or unwillingly, it will not be accepted from you; for you are indeed wicked people’.
What prevents their offerings from being accepted from them is that they have disbelieved in God and His Messenger, and they only come to prayer with reluctance, and never donate anything [for a righteous cause] without being resentful.
Let neither their riches nor their children rouse your admiration. God only wishes to punish them by means of these in this worldly life, and that their souls perish while they are unbelievers.
They swear by God that they belong to you, when certainly they do not belong to you, but are people overwhelmed by fear.
If only they could find a place of shelter, a cavern, or any hiding place, they would rush headlong into it.
Among them there are those who speak ill of you concerning the distribution of charity. If they are given a share of it, they are pleased, but if no share is given to them, they are enraged.
Yet [how much better it would have been for them] had they contented themselves with what God and His Messenger have given them, and said: ‘God is sufficient for us. God will give us out of His bounty, and so too will His Messenger. To God alone do we turn in hope’.
Charitable donations are only for the poor and the needy, and those who work in the administration of such donations, and those whose hearts are to be won over, for the freeing of people in bondage and debtors, and to further God’s cause, and for the traveller in need. This is a duty ordained by God, and God is all-knowing, wise.
And among them are others who hurt the Prophet and say: ‘He is all ear’. Say: ‘He is an ear listening to what is good for you. He believes in God, trusts the believers and he is a mercy to those of you who are true believers. Those who hurt God’s Messenger shall have painful suffering’.
They swear to you by God in order to please you. Yet it is God and His Messenger that they should strive to please, if indeed they are believers.
Do they not know that anyone who defies God and His Messenger shall have the fire of Hell, therein to abide. That is the ultimate disgrace.
The hypocrites dread lest a surah be revealed about them, making clear to them what is really in their hearts. Say: ‘Scoff, if you will; God will surely bring to light the very thing you are dreading’.
Should you question them, they will say: ‘We have only been indulging in idle talk and jesting’. Say: ‘Was it, then, at God, His revelations and His Messenger that you have been mocking?
‘Make no excuses. You have disbelieved after you have professed to be believers’. Though We may pardon some of you, We shall punish others, on account of their guilt.
The hypocrites, both men and women, are all of a kind. They enjoin what is wrong and forbid what is right, and tighten their fists. They have forgotten God and so He has chosen to forget them. Surely the hypocrites are the transgressors.
God has promised the hypocrites, both men and women, and the unbelievers the fire of Hell, where they shall abide. It shall be sufficient for them. God has rejected them, and theirs is a lasting torment.
Yours is just like the case of those before you. They were more powerful than you and had greater wealth and more children. They enjoyed their share. And you have been enjoying your share, just as those who preceded you enjoyed their share; and you have been indulging in idle talk just like they did. Their works have come to nothing in this world and shall come to nothing in the life to come. They are indeed the losers.
Have they not heard the histories of those who preceded them, such as Noah’s people, [Ad and Thamud, and Abraham’s people, and the folk of Madyan and the ruined cities? Their messengers came to them with clear evidence of the truth. It was not God who wronged them; it was they who wronged themselves.
The believers, men and women, are friends to one another: They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong; they attend to their prayers, and pay their zakat, and obey God and His Messenger. It is on these that God will have mercy. Surely, God is almighty, wise.
God has promised the believers, men and women, gardens through which running waters flow, where they will abide, and goodly dwellings in the Garden of Eden. Yet God’s acceptance is the greatest blessing of all. This is indeed the supreme triumph.
Prophet, strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and press hard on them. Their ultimate abode is Hell, and how vile a journey’s end.
They swear by God that they have said nothing [wrong]. Yet they certainly uttered the word of unbelief, and disbelieved after they had professed to submit to God, for they aimed at something which they could not attain. They had no reason to be spiteful, except that God and His Messenger had enriched them out of His bounty. If they repent, it will be for their own good; but if they turn away, God will cause them to endure grievous suffering both in this world and in the life to come. They shall find none on this earth to be their friend or to give them support.
Some of them have pledged to God: ‘If He gives us of His bounty, we will certainly spend in charity, and we will be among the righteous’.
But when He has given them of His bounty they grew niggardly and turned away, heedless [of their pledges].
In consequence, He caused hypocrisy to take root in their hearts till the Day on which they will meet Him, because they have been untrue to the pledges they made to God, and because of the lies they used to tell.
Do they not realise that God knows both their secret thoughts and what they talk about in private, and that God has full knowledge of all things that are hidden away.
It is those hypocrites that taunt the believers who donate freely, as well as those who have nothing to give except what they earn through their toil, and deride them all. God derides them, and painful suffering awaits them.
You may pray for their forgiveness or may not pray for them, [for it will all be the same]. Even if you were to pray seventy times for their forgiveness, God will not forgive them, for they have denied God and His Messenger. God does not guide those who are transgressors.
Those who were left behind rejoiced at having stayed at home after [the departure of] God’s Messenger, for they were averse to striving with their property and their lives in God’s cause. They said [to one another]: ‘Do not go to war in this heat’. Say: ‘The fire of Hell is far hotter’. Would that they understood.
They shall laugh but a little, and they will weep much, in return for what they have earned.
If God brings you back and you meet some of them, and then they ask leave to go forth with you, say: ‘Never shall you go forth with me, nor shall you fight an enemy with me. You were happy to stay behind on the first occasion, so you stay now with those who remain behind’.
You shall not pray for any of them who dies, and you shall not stand by his grave. For they have denied God and His Messenger and died as hardened transgressors.
Let not their riches and their children excite your admiration. God only wishes to punish them by means of these in the life of this world, and that their souls perish while they are unbelievers.
When a surah was revealed from on high calling on them to believe in God and to strive alongside His Messenger, those of them who were well able to do so asked you to give them leave and said to you: ‘Allow us to stay with those who remain behind’.
They are well-pleased to remain with those who are left behind. And their hearts are sealed, so that they are unable to understand [the truth].
But the Messenger and those who have believed with him strive hard in God’s cause with their property and their lives. These shall have all the good things. These shall certainly prosper.
God has prepared for them gardens through which running waters flow, where they shall abide. That is the supreme triumph.
Some of the bedouins who had excuses to offer turned up, begging to be granted exemption; while those who denied God and His Messenger stayed behind. Grievous suffering shall befall those of them that disbelieved.
No blame shall be attached to the weak, the sick or those who do not have the means, if they are sincere towards God and His Messenger. There is no cause to reproach those who do good. God is much-forgiving, ever-merciful.
Nor shall those be blamed who, when they came to request you for transport and you said: ‘I have no means of transporting you’, turned away with their eyes overflowing with tears, sad that they did not have the means to cover their expenses.
But blame shall certainly attach only to those who ask you for exemption even though they are rich. They are well pleased to be with those who are left behind. God has sealed their hearts, so that they have no knowledge.
They shall come to you with their excuses when you return to them. Say: ‘Do not offer any excuses, for we shall not believe you. God has already enlightened us about you. God will see how you act, and so will His Messenger; and in the end you shall be brought before Him who knows all that is beyond the reach of human perception and all that is manifest when He will tell you what you used to do’.
When you return to them they will swear to you by God so that you may let them be. Let them be, then: they are unclean. Hell shall be their abode in recompense for what they used to do.
They swear to you trying to make you pleased with them. Should you be pleased with them, God shall never be pleased with such transgressing folk.
The desert Arabs are more tenacious in unbelief and hypocrisy, and more likely to be ignorant of the ordinances which God has revealed to His Messenger. But God is all-knowing, wise.
Some desert Arabs regard what they may spend [for God’s cause] as a loss, and wait for some misfortune to befall you. The evil turn of fortune will be theirs. God hears all and knows all.
Still other desert Arabs believe in God and the Last Day, and regard what they spend [for God’s cause] as a means to bring them closer to God and of [their being remembered] in the Messenger’s prayers. It shall certainly be for them a means of drawing near to God. God will admit them to His grace, for God is much-forgiving, ever-merciful.
As for the first to lead the way, of the Muhajirin and the Ansar, as well as those who follow them in [the way of] righteousness, God is well-pleased with them, and well-pleased are they with Him. He has prepared for them gardens through which running waters flow, where they shall abide forever. That is the supreme triumph.
Some desert Arabs around you are hypocrites, and so are some of the people from Madinah, who are indeed persistent in their hypocrisy. You do not know them, but We know them. Twice shall We punish them, and then they will be given over to a grievous suffering.
There are others who have acknowledged their sins, after having mixed righteous deeds with evil ones. It may well be that God will accept their repentance. God is much-forgiving, ever-merciful.
Take a portion of their money as charity, so that you may cleanse and purify them thereby; and pray for them: for your prayers are a source of comfort for them. God hears all and knows all.
Do they not know that it is God alone who accepts repentance from His servants, and He is truly the One who takes charitable offerings, and that God is the only One to accept repentance and bestow mercy.
Say to them: ‘Do as you will. God will see your deeds, and so will His Messenger, and the believers; and in the end you shall be brought before Him who knows all that is beyond the reach of human perception and all that is manifest when He will tell you what you used to do’.
And yet there are others who must await God’s judgement. He will either punish them or turn to them in His mercy. God is all-knowing, wise.
And there are those who have established a house of worship out of mischievous motives, to promote unbelief and disunity among the believers, and to provide an outpost for those who have already been warring against God and His Messenger. They will certainly swear: ‘We have only the best of intentions’. God bears witness that they certainly are liars.
Never set a foot there. Only a house of worship that from the very first day has been founded on piety is worthy of you standing to pray there. In it are men who love to grow in purity, for God loves those who purify themselves.
Who is better: a man who founds his building [motivated by a sense of] being God-fearing and seeking His goodly acceptance, or one who founds his building on the edge of a crumbling precipice, so that it tumbles with him in the fire of Hell? God does not guide the wrongdoers.
The structure which they have built will continue to be a source of disquiet in their hearts, until their hearts are torn to pieces. God is all-knowing, wise.
God has bought of the believers their lives and their property, promising them heaven in return: they fight for the cause of God, kill and be killed. This is a true promise which He has made binding on Himself in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an. Who is more true to his promise than God? Rejoice, then, in the bargain you have made with Him. That is the supreme triumph.
[It is a triumph for] those who turn to God in repentance, who worship and praise Him, who contemplate [God and His creation], who bow down and prostrate themselves, who enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong, and keep within the limits set out by God. Give you [Prophet] glad tidings to the believers.
It is not for the Prophet and the believers to pray for the forgiveness of those who associate partners with God, even though they may be their close relatives, after it has become clear that they are destined for the blazing Fire.
Abraham prayed for the forgiveness of his father only because of a promise he had made to him. But when it became clear to him that he was God’s enemy, he disowned him; Abraham was most tender-hearted, clement.
Never will God let people go astray after He has given them guidance until He has made plain to them all that they should avoid. God has perfect knowledge of all things.
To God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He alone gives life and causes death. Besides God, you have none to protect or support you.
God has assuredly turned in His mercy to the Prophet, the Muhajirin and the Ansar, who followed him in the hour of hardship, when the hearts of a group of them had almost faltered. Then again He turned to them in mercy; for He is compassionate towards them, ever-merciful.
And [so too] to the three who were left behind: when the earth, vast as it is, seemed to close in upon them, and their own souls had become too constricted, they realised that there was no refuge from God except by returning to Him. He then turned to them in mercy, so that they might repent. God is indeed the One who accepts repentance, the ever-merciful.
Believers, have fear of God and be among those who are truthful.
It does not behove the people of Madinah and the desert Arabs who live around them to hold back from following God’s Messenger, or to care for themselves more than for him; for, whenever they endure thirst, stress, or hunger for the sake of God, or take any step which would irritate the unbelievers, or inflict any loss on the enemy, a good deed is recorded in their favour. God does not suffer the reward of those who do good to be lost.
And whenever they spend anything for the sake of God, be it little or much, or traverse a valley [in support of God’s cause], it is recorded for them, so that God will give them the best reward for what they do.
It is not desirable that all the believers should go out to fight. From every section of them some should go forth, so that they may acquire a deeper knowledge of the faith and warn their people when they return to them, so that they may take heed.
Believers, fight those of the unbelievers who are near you, and let them find you tough; and know that God is with those who are God-fearing.
Whenever a surah is revealed, some of them say: ‘Which of you has this strengthened in faith?’ It certainly strengthens the believers in their faith, and so they rejoice.
But as for those whose hearts are diseased, it only adds wickedness to their wickedness, and so they die unbelievers.
Do they not see that they are tested once or twice every year? Yet they do not repent, and they do not take warning.
Whenever a surah is revealed, they look at one another [as if to say]: ‘Is anyone watching?’ Then they turn away. God has turned their hearts away, for they are people devoid of understanding.
Indeed there has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves: one who grieves much that you should suffer; one who is full of concern for you; and who is tender and full of compassion towards the believers.
Should they turn away, then say to them: ‘God is enough for me! There is no deity other than Him. In Him have I placed my trust. He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne’.
