Tafsir of At-Tawbah 9:23

"O you who have believed..."

Before the conquest of Mecca, the faith of one who believed was not complete unless he migrated, severed ties with his disbelieving relatives, and cut off all allegiance to them. They said: "O Messenger of Allah, if we isolate ourselves from those who oppose us in religion, we will cut off our fathers, our sons, and our clans; our trade will vanish, our wealth will perish, our homes will be ruined, and we will be left destitute."

So this verse was revealed. They migrated, and a man would be approached by his son, father, brother, or relative, yet he would pay them no heed, would not let them into his home, and would not spend upon them. Later, Allah granted them a concession regarding this. It is also said that it was revealed concerning the nine who apostatized and fled to Mecca, so Allah forbade taking them as allies.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "None of you shall taste the sweetness of faith until he loves for the sake of Allah and hates for the sake of Allah; until he loves the most distant of people for the sake of Allah, and hates the closest of people to him for the sake of Allah."

"And your clans..." It is read as ‘ashīratukum (your clan) and ‘ashīrātikum (your clans). Al-Hasan read it as ‘ashā’irukum.

"So wait until Allah brings about His command." ‘Ubayd reports from Ibn ‘Abbas that this refers to the conquest of Mecca. According to Al-Hasan, it refers to a punishment, whether immediate or delayed.

This is a severe verse, and one can see none more intense. It is as if it is mourning for the people the laxity of their religious commitment and the instability of their bond of certainty. Let the most pious and God-fearing of people judge himself fairly: Does he find within himself such firmness for the sake of Allah and such steadfastness in His religion that he prefers his faith over his fathers, sons, brothers, clans, wealth, homes, and all the fortunes of this world, stripping himself of them for its sake? Or does Allah withhold from him the most trivial of these things for his own benefit, and he does not know which of his two sides is longer? And does Satan lead him astray from the most noble of religious duties, and he does not care, as if a fly had landed on his nose and he simply shooed it away?

"Allah has already given you victory in many regions and [on the day of] Hunayn, when your great number pleased you, but it did not avail you at all, and the earth was vast for you, but then you turned back, fleeing. Then Allah sent down His tranquility upon His Messenger and upon the believers and sent down soldiers you did not see and punished those who disbelieved. And that is the recompense of the disbelievers. Then Allah will accept repentance after that for whom He wills; and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful."