Tafsir of At-Tawbah 9:7

{How can there be for the polytheists...}

{How}: An interrogative in the sense of denunciation and dismissal. It is impossible for the polytheists to have a covenant with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), for they are adversaries whose chests are filled with malice. It means: It is impossible for a covenant to be established for them, so do not covet it, do not entertain it in your souls, and do not think of [sparing] them.

Then, He makes an exception by saying: {Except those with whom you made a covenant}, meaning: But those among them with whom you made a covenant {at the Sacred Mosque} and who have not shown treachery, such as the Banu Kinanah and Banu Damrah. So, wait for their affair and do not fight them {as long as they are upright toward you} in keeping the covenant, {so be upright toward them} in the same manner. {Indeed, Allah loves the righteous}, meaning that waiting for them is among the deeds of the righteous.

{How}: A repetition to dismiss the possibility of the polytheists remaining steadfast on a covenant. The verb is omitted because it is understood, as in the verse: “And you two informed me that death is in the villages; so how [did it happen] while this is a plateau and a well?” Meaning: How did he die? That is: How can they have a covenant {while} their state is that {if they gain dominance over you}—after all the oaths and treaties they have previously confirmed—they will not regard any alliance or covenant, nor will they spare you.

{They do not observe toward you any ill}: They do not respect any alliance. It is also said: kinship. Hassan (may Allah be pleased with him) recited: “By your life, the kinship (ill) of the Quraysh is like the kinship of the young camel to the ostrich chick.”

It is said: {ill} means a deity (ilah). It is also read as ila, meaning the same. It is said: Gabriel (Jibril), and Jibra'il, is derived from this. It is also said: Al (kinship) is derived from it, just as Rahim (womb/kinship) is derived from Rahman (The Merciful). The most sound view is that the derivation of ill is "alliance," because when they swore oaths and made alliances, they raised their voices and publicized it. It comes from al, which is clamor. Alil means a moan with which one raises his voice. Da'at illayha means she wailed. Then, every covenant and treaty was called ill. Kinship was named by it because kinship binds two men in a way that a treaty does not.

{They satisfy you with their mouths}: A new statement describing their state of contradiction between their outward appearance and their inward reality, confirming the dismissal of their steadfastness on a covenant. The refusal of their hearts is the contradiction of the malice within them against the beautiful words they let flow from their tongues.

{And most of them are defiantly disobedient}: Rebellious and unrestrained; they have no chivalry to restrain them, nor pleasing character traits to deter them—unlike what is found in some disbelievers who avoid lying and treachery, and who abstain from what tarnishes honor or invites evil rumors.

{They have exchanged the signs of Allah for a small price and averted [people] from His way. Indeed, it was evil that they were doing. They do not observe toward a believer any ill or treaty. And it is they who are the transgressors.}