Tafsir of Surah At-Taubah - Verse 62

Hypocrites revert to Lies to please People

Qatadah said about Allah's statement,

يَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ لَكُمْ لِيُرْضُوكُمْ

(They swear by Allah to you (Muslims) in order to please you) "A hypocrite man said, `By Allah! They (hypocrites) are our chiefs and masters. If what Muhammad says is true, they are worse than donkeys.' A Muslim man heard him and declared, `By Allah! What Muhammad says is true and you are worse than a donkey!' The Muslim man conveyed what happened to the Prophet who summoned the hypocrite and asked him,

«مَا حَمَلَكَ عَلَى الَّذِي قُلْتَ؟»

(What made you say what you said) That man invoked curses on himself and swore by Allah that he never said that. Meanwhile, the Muslim man said, `O Allah! Assert the truth of the truthful and expose the lies of the liar.' Allah revealed this Verse."' Allah's statement,

أَلَمْ يَعْلَمُواْ أَنَّهُ مَن يُحَادِدِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ

(Know they not that whoever opposes and shows hostility to Allah and His Messenger,) means, have they not come to know and realize that those who defy, oppose, wage war and reject Allah, thus becoming on one side while Allah and His Messenger on another side,

فَأَنَّ لَهُ نَارَ جَهَنَّمَ خَالِداً فِيهَا

(certainly for him will be the fire of Hell to abide therein), in a humiliating torment,

ذَلِكَ الْخِزْىُ الْعَظِيمُ

(That is the extreme disgrace)9:63, that is the greatest disgrace and the tremendous misery.

Commentary

The present verses, like the previous ones, chastise hypocrites for their absurd objections, hostility to the Holy Prophet ﷺ and their feigned professions of Faith on false oaths.

The first verse (61) mentions the painful comment made by the hypocrites against the Holy Prophet ﷺ . They thought, since he hears and believes everything, they had nothing to worry about. In the event, their conspiracy was exposed, they would simply tell him on oath that they had nothing to do with it. Allah Almighty corrected them by saying that His Messenger preferred silence against baseless hostilities because of his high morals. He did not believe in what they said. He himself knew reality as it was. He simply avoided refuting them on their faces because of his inherent gentleness of nature.

Those who are engrossed in worldly considerations and therefore are not able to support God’s religion—rising above their reservations—are generally people of status in society. In order to keep their position intact, they try to spoil the image of those who have risen in true Islam. They run campaigns of false propaganda against them, devising different ways to distort their image, such as ferreting out various points in their statements which they claim to be objectionable. Such people forget that this is a very serious matter. For their part they are simply opposing the people of Faith, but it amounts to opposing God Himself; it is like setting themselves up as adversaries of God. Had these people admitted their wrongdoing, instead of trying to establish their innocence, and had they been the well-wishers of the believers at least in their hearts, they would perhaps have been treated as pardonable. But having adopted an obstinate and inimical attitude, they have written their names on the list of God’s enemies. Now, for them, there is nothing but dishonour and divine retribution. Fear of God softens a person’s heart. He patiently listens even to people’s baseless utterances—to such an extent that the hypocrites start saying that that person seems to be a simpleton, that he is unable to fully understand the points being made.