Tafsir of Surah Al-Anfal - Verse 55

Striking Hard against Those Who disbelieve and break the Covenants

Allah states here that the worst moving creatures on the face of the earth are those who disbelieve, who do not embrace the faith, and break promises whenever they make a covenant, even when they vow to keep them,

وَهُمْ لاَ يَتَّقُونَ

(and they do not have Taqwa) meaning they do not fear Allah regarding any of the sins they commit.

فَإِمَّا تَثْقَفَنَّهُمْ فِى الْحَرْبِ

(So if you gain the mastery over them in war), if you defeat them and have victory over them in war,

فَشَرِّدْ بِهِم مَّنْ خَلْفَهُمْ

(then disperse those who are behind them,) by severely punishing the captured people according to Ibn `Abbas, Al-Hasan Al-Basri, Ad-Dahhak, As-Suddi, `Ata' Al-Khurasani and Ibn `Uyaynah. This Ayah commands punishing them harshly and inflicting casualties on them. This way, other enemies, Arabs and non-Arabs, will be afraid and take a lesson from their end,

لَعَلَّهُمْ يَذَّكَّرُونَ

(so that they may learn a lesson. )

As-Suddi commented, "They might be careful not to break treaties, so that they do not meet the same end."

In the verse which follows immediately, it was said about the same disbelievers: إِنَّ شَرَّ‌ الدَّوَابِّ عِندَ اللَّـهِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُ‌وا (Surely, the worst of all the living, in the sight of Allah, are those who reject Faith - 55). Here, the word: دَوَابّ (dawabb) is the plural form of dabbah which literally means creatures who walk on the earth. Therefore, this word covers human beings and whatever of the animals walk on the earth. But, in common usage, this word is used particularly for quadruped animals. Since they were far below animals in their state of insensitiveness, they were identified with that expression in the language. Thus, the meaning of the verse is clear - that these people were the worst of animals from among all animals and human beings. At the end of the verse, it was said: فَهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ (so they do not believe - 55). The sense is that these people have allowed their God-given abilities to go waste by making the satisfaction of their physical needs the very purpose of their life, therefore, having access to the refinements of Faith was just not possible for them.

Sa’ id ibn Jubayr said that this verse was revealed about six men from the Jews about whom Allah Ta` ala has declared in advance that they will never enter the fold of Faith.

In addition to that, through this word, the aim is to grant an exemption from punishment for people who were though engaged at that time, in tandem with disbelievers, in their struggle against Muslims and Islam but the likelihood was that, in future, a time will come when they will repent their past mistakes and embrace Islam. The fact is that this is how it came to be. A very large group from among them became, by embracing Islam, not only personally pious and righteous, but rose to be - in word and deed alike - leaders among men and women of the world as heralds of moral betterment and paradigms of responsible conduct of life before the Creator.

The Jews of Madinah had already become guilty by rejecting the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad. The gravity of their guilt was further increased by their breaking of the pledge. After the emigration to Madinah, there had been a written agreement between the Prophet and the Jews of Madinah that both the sides would be neutral in matters relating to each other. But the Jews started conspiring against him, secretly joining hands and collaborating with his enemies. This was breach of trust in addition to the rejection of truth. Punishment awaits such people in the Hereafter. And in this world they will be discouraged from creating further mischief. If the Muslims have a treaty with a community, but they want to cancel it for fear of its being breached by that community, it is necessary that they should first inform those co-signatories, so that it is known in advance that the treaty no longer exists between them. The position is different when there is not merely the fear of a beach of trust but there has been a clear contravention of the treaty. In such a case it is permissable to start retaliatory action without informing the other party. The campaign of Makkah is an example of this type. The Quraysh had unilaterally contravened the Hudaibiyah treaty by joining the Banu Bakr’s aggression against an ally of the Prophet Muhammad, namely, the Banu Khuza‘a. So the Prophet quietly proceeded against the Quraysh without giving them advance information.