Overall Atmosphere of Surah At-Tawbah
They agreed but little by little, they moved out of the framework of Islam’s rules and started their mischiefs. The content of Surah At-Tawbah begins with this and then elaborates on the conditions of the Muslim society.
This is according to Hani Chitchian, faculty member of the Quran and Etrat School of the University of Tehran, speaking in the third session in a series on Surah At-Tawbah. Following are excerpts from his remarks in the third session:
The theme of verses 1 to 16 of Surah At-Tawbah is Bara’at (disavowal). The Holy Prophet (PBUH) is order to convey God and Prophet’s (PBUH) Bara’at of disbelievers.
After the conquest of Mecca by the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the disbelievers were told they were allowed to stay in the city provided that they obey the rules of Islam. This was in the year 8 after Hijra. But the disbelievers gradually moved out of the framework of Islam’s rules and started their mischiefs.
In the following verses we see that a number of believers have ties with them and that little by little the culture of disbelievers enters the Islamic society and the disbelievers officially break their pledge with the Holy Prophet (PBUH). After some time the order for Bara’at comes that says the disbelievers are no longer allowed to stay in the Islamic society because they broke their pledge: “However, during the four sacred months, they (pagans) may travel peacefully through the land. Know (pagans) that you cannot make God helpless, but it is God who has the power to disgrace the unbelievers.” (Verse 2)
The disbelievers have four months to embrace Islam or leave the city of Mecca. Due to their broken promises, they can no longer live their own way under the religious government as they did before. So the command comes that they must either become Muslim if they want to stay or leave the city and go somewhere else. Of course this did not include those disbelievers who had kept their pledge.
After the four months passed, Muslims would be ordered to fight those disbelievers who refuse to leave or become Muslim. From verse 8, believers are warned: “How could God and His Messenger grant them (pagans) peace when if they were to acquire superiority over you, they would respect none of the peace treaties nor their kindred relations with you! They only try to please you by paying lip-service to you but their hearts are against you and most of them are evil-doers.”
Then in verse 14, the order comes: “Fight them. May God punish them by your hands, humiliate them, give you victory over them, delight the hearts of the believers.”
Verse 16 then gives another warning: “Do you think that God will not make any distinction between those of you who have fought for His cause and have relied on no one other than God, His Messenger, and the faithful ones, and other people? God is Well Aware of what you do.”
It tells believers that they should have in their heart the love of God, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and other believers much more and be careful.
One would naturally expect that the following verses will be about fighting the disbelievers, especially if one has previously read Surah Al-Anfal that is entirely about fighting the disbelievers. However, the rest of Surah At-Tawbah is about believers and focuses on the issue of Bara’at.
So the verses of the Surah are overall about the front of Muslims, which is partly related to the believers and partly to the hypocrites (those who have no belief in heart but pretend to be believers).
