At-Tawbah (The Repentance): (129) But if they turn away...

{فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا} (But if they turn away)

This refers to the polytheists and the hypocrites.

It is said that {تَوَلَّوْا} (turn away) means they turn away from you (the Prophet). It is also said: They turn away from obedience to Allah, the Exalted, and from believing the Messenger (peace be upon him). Another view: They turn away from accepting the difficult obligations mentioned in this Surah. Another view: They turn away from supporting you in Jihad.

Know that the purpose of this verse is to clarify that if the disbelievers turn away and do not accept these obligations, no sadness or grief will enter the heart of the Messenger, because Allah is sufficient for him and will suffice him in granting him victory over the enemies, and in bringing him to the stations of blessings and favors.

{لَّا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ} (There is no god but He)

Since there is no god but Him, it is necessary that no originator of any contingent things and no creator of any created things exists except Him. Since it is He who sent me with this message and commanded me with this proclamation, victory and assistance are expected from Him.

{عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ} (In Him I have put my trust)

This implies restriction (exclusivity): I put my trust in none but Him, {وَهُوَ رَبُّ الْعَرْشِ الْعَظِيمِ} (and He is the Lord of the Great Throne).

The reason for specifically mentioning the Throne is that the greater and more noble the effects, the greater the manifestation of the Majesty of the Cause (Allah) in the intellect and the mind. Since the Throne is the greatest of bodies, mentioning it is intended to magnify the Majesty of Allah, the Glorified.

If someone asks: The Throne is not perceptible, so its existence can only be known after establishing the Sharia. How can it be mentioned in the context of explaining the greatness of Allah?

We reply: The existence of the Throne is a well-known matter; the disbelievers heard about it from the Jews and the Christians. It is also possible that they heard it from their ancestors.

Some people recited {الْعَظِيمِ} (the Great) with the nominative case (as an adjective for Rabb), making it an attribute of the Lord (Allah) Himself. Abu Bakr said: This recitation is more astonishing, because making Al-'Azim an attribute of Allah is more appropriate than making it an attribute of the Throne. Furthermore, if we make it an attribute of the Throne, its greatness means the vastness of its mass, the immensity of its size, and the expanse of its dimensions, as mentioned in the reports. But if we make it an attribute of Allah, the Glorified, the meaning of His greatness is the necessity of existence, being sanctified from corporeality, parts, and limbs, the perfection of knowledge and power, and being transcendent from being represented in imaginations or reached by understandings.

Al-Hasan said: These two verses are the last things Allah revealed of the Qur'an, and no Qur'an was revealed after them. Ubayy ibn Ka'b said: These two verses renewed the covenant of the Qur'an with Allah, the Mighty and Majestic. This is the view of Sa'id ibn Jubayr. Some say the last thing revealed of the Qur'an was the verse: {وَاتَّقُوا يَوْمًا تُرْجَعُونَ فِيهِ إِلَى اللَّهِ} (And fear a Day when you will return to Allah) (Al-Baqarah: 281).

It is narrated from Hudhayfah that he said: You call this Surah At-Tawbah (The Repentance), but it is the Surah of Punishment. It has not left anyone untouched, yet you have not recited even a quarter of it.

Know that this narration must be rejected. If we allowed that, it would be evidence that addition and subtraction could infiltrate the Qur'an, which invalidates it as an authority. There is no doubt that holding this view is false. And Allah, the Glorified and Exalted, knows best His intent.

This is the end of the exegesis of this Surah, and to Allah be all praise and thanks.

The author, may Allah have mercy on him, finished its exegesis on Friday, the fourteenth of Ramadan, in the year six hundred and one (601 AH). And praise be to Allah alone, and peace and blessings be upon our Master Muhammad, his family, and all his companions.