Surah At-Tawbah (9): Verses 95-96

Verse 95

{سيحلفون بالله لكم إذا انقلبتم إليهم لتعرضوا عنهم}

Know that when Allah recounted their excuses in the previous verse, He mentioned here that they would confirm those excuses with false oaths.

The phrase {They will swear by Allah to you when you return to them so that you may turn away from them} indicates that they swore by Allah. However, it does not specify what they swore about.

It is said that they swore they were unable to go out [on the expedition]. They swore to this so that you might turn away from them, meaning, so that you might overlook their situation and cease criticizing them.

{فأعرضوا عنهم} (So turn away from them).

Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said this means abandoning conversation and greetings.

Al-Muqatil said that when the Prophet (peace be upon him) arrived in Medina, he said: "Do not sit with them, and do not speak to them."

The scholars of meaning said: These people sought the turning away of pardon/forgiveness, but they were given the turning away of contempt.

Then Allah mentioned the reason necessitating turning away from them: {إنهم رجس} (Indeed, they are unclean/filth).

This means that the corruption of their inner selves is a spiritual impurity (رجس روحاني). Just as it is necessary to guard against physical impurities, guarding against spiritual impurities is more incumbent, out of fear that they might spread to a person and out of caution that a person's nature might incline toward those actions.

{ومأواهم جهنم جزاء بما كانوا يكسبون} (And their refuge will be Hell as a recompense for what they used to earn). This meaning is clear.

Verse 96

After explaining that they swear by Allah so that Muslims might stop harming them, Allah also explained that they swear so that Muslims might become pleased with them.

Then Allah forbade the Muslims from being pleased with them: {فإن ترضوا عنهم فإن الله لا يرضى عن القوم الفاسقين} (But if you are pleased with them, then indeed Allah is not pleased with the wrongdoing people).

The meaning is that if you become pleased with them while Allah is not pleased with them, then your will contradicts the will of Allah, and this is not permissible.

I say that these meanings were mentioned in the preceding verses, and Allah repeated them here again. I suspect that the first address was to the hypocrites who were in Medina, and this address is to the hypocrites among the Bedouins and desert dwellers. Since the methods of the hypocrites are similar, whether they are city dwellers or desert dwellers, it is natural that the discourse with them follows similar patterns.

{الأعراب أشد كفراً ونفاقاً وأجدر ألا يعلموا حدود ما أنزل الله على رسوله والله عليم حكيم} (The Bedouins are stronger in disbelief and hypocrisy and more likely not to know the limits of what Allah has revealed to His Messenger. And Allah is Knowing and Wise.)

{ومن الأعراب من يتخذ ما ينفق مغرماً ويتربص بكم الدوائر عليهم دائرة السوء والله سميع عليم} (And among the Bedouins are those who take what they spend as a loss [or a burden] and await misfortune upon you. May misfortune befall them. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.)