Surah 60. Al-Mumtahinah

In them, indeed, you have a good example for everyone who looks forward [with hope and awe⁸] to God and the Last Day. And if any turns away, [let him know that] God is truly self-sufficient, the One to whom all praise is due.

  - Mohammad Asad

As in the similar phrase in 33:21 , this double connotation is implied in the verb rajawa and all the noun-forms derived from it.

Truly, in those there is an excellent example for everyone who puts their hopes in Allah and the Last Day. He that gives no heed should know that Allah is free of all wants, worthy of all praise.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Verily ye have in them a goodly pattern for everyone who looketh to Allah and the Last Day. And whosoever may turn away, lo! still Allah, He is the Absolute, the Owner of Praise.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

[But] it may well be that God will bring about [mutual] affection between you [O believers] and some of those whom you [now] face as enemies: for, God is all-powerful - and God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

  - Mohammad Asad

It may well be that Allah will put love between you and those with whom you are now at odds because of the order which is given to you, for Allah is All-Powerful, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

It may be that Allah will ordain love between you and those of them with whom ye are at enmity. Allah is Mighty, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

As for such [of the unbelievers] as do not fight against you on account of [your] faith, and neither drive you forth from your homelands, God does not forbid you to show them kindness and to behave towards them with full equity:⁹ for, verily, God loves those who act equitably.

  - Mohammad Asad

The expression "God does not forbid you" implies in this context a positive exhortation (Zamakhshari). See also note [29] on 58:22 .

Allah does not forbid you to be kind and equitable to those who had neither fought against your faith nor driven you out of your homes. In fact Allah loves the equitable.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Allah forbiddeth you not those who warred not against you on account of religion and drove you not out from your homes, that ye should show them kindness and deal justly with them. Lo! Allah loveth the just dealers.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

God only forbids you to turn in friendship towards such as fight against you because of [your] faith, and drive you forth from your homelands, or aid [others] in driving you forth and as for those [from among you] who turn towards them in friendship, it is they, they who are truly wrongdoers!

  - Mohammad Asad

Allah only forbids you to make friendship with those who fought you on account of your faith and drove you out of your homes and backed up others in your expulsion. Those who will take them for friends are indeed the wrongdoers.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

Allah forbiddeth you only those who warred against you on account of religion and have driven you out from your homes and helped to drive you out, that ye make friends of them. Whosoever maketh friends of them--(All) such are wrong doers.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

O YOU who have attained to faith! Whenever believing women come unto you, forsaking the domain of evil,¹⁰ examine them, [although only] God is fully aware of their faith;¹¹ and if you have thus ascertained that they are believers, do not send them back to the deniers of the truth, [since] they are [no longer] lawful to their erstwhile husbands,¹² and these are [no longer] lawful to them. None the less, you shall return to them whatever they have spent [on their wives by way of dower];¹³ and [then, O believers,] you will be committing no sin if you marry them after giving them their dowers. On the other hand, hold not to the marriage-tie with women who [continue to] deny the truth,¹⁴ and ask but for [the return of] whatever you have spent [by way of dower] - just as they [whose wives have gone over to you] have the right to demand¹⁵ [the return of] whatever they have spent. Such is God's judgment: He judges between you [in equity] - for God is all-knowing, wise.

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "as emigrants" (muhajirat). For an explanation of my rendering this term as above, see surah {2}, note [203].

Under the terms of the Truce of Hudaybiyyah, concluded in the year 6 H. between the Prophet and the pagan Quraysh of Mecca, any Meccan minor or other person under guardianship who went over to the Muslims without the permission of his or her guardian was to be returned to the Quraysh (see introductory note to surah {48}). The Quraysh took this stipulation to include also married women, whom they considered to be under the "guardianship" of their husbands. Accordingly, when several Meccan women embraced Islam against the will of their husbands and fled to Medina, the Quraysh demanded their forcible return to Mecca. This the Prophet refused on the grounds that married women did not fall within the category of "persons under guardianship". However, since there was always the possibility that some of these women had gone over to the Muslims not for reasons of faith but out of purely worldly considerations, the believers were enjoined to make sure of their sincerity; and so, the Prophet asked each of them: "Swear before God that thou didst not leave because of hatred of thy husband, or out of a desire to go to another country, or in the hope of attaining to worldly advantages: swear before God that thou didst not leave for any reason save the love of God and His Apostle" (Tabari). Since God alone knows what is in the heart of a human being, a positive response of the woman concerned was to be regarded as the only humanly attainable - and, therefore, legally sufficient - proof of her sincerity. The fact that God alone is really aware of what is in a human being's heart is incorporated in the shar'i principle that any adult person's declaration of faith, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, makes it mandatory upon the community to accept that person - whether man or woman - as a Muslim on the basis of this declaration alone.

Lit., "to them". Thus, if a wife embraces Islam while her husband remains outside its pale, the marriage is considered, from the Islamic point of view, to have been automatically annulled.

Such an annulment is to be subject to the same conditions as a khul' (dissolution of marriage, at the wife's instance, from her Muslim husband - see note [218] on the second paragraph of 2:229 ): that is to say, since the non-Muslim former husband is presumed to have been innocent of any breach of his marital obligations as such, the wife is to be considered the contract-breaking party and has, therefore, to refund the dower (mahr) which she received from him at the time of concluding the marriage. In case of her inability to do so, the Muslim community is obliged to indemnify the erstwhile husband: hence the plural form in the imperative "you shall return" (lit., "give").

I.e., such of the pagan wives of Muslim converts as refuse to abandon their beliefs and their non-Muslim environment, in which case the Muslim husband is to regard the marriage as null and void. As for Muslim wives who, abandoning their husbands, go over to the unbelievers and renounce their faith, see verse {11}.

Lit., "and let them demand...", etc.

O believers! When the believing women seek refuge with you, test them. Allah best knows their faith. If you find them true believers, do not send them back to the unbelievers. They are not lawful to the unbelievers, nor are the unbelievers lawful to them. Return to their unbelieving husbands what they have spent on them. There is no blame on you if you marry such women, provided you give them their dowers. Do not hold on to your marriages with unbelieving women. Demand what you have spent on them and let the unbelievers do the same. This is the order of Allah which He has decreed between you. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

O ye who believe! When believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them. Allah is best aware of their faith. Then, if ye know them for true believers, send them not back unto the disbelievers. They are not lawful for the disbelievers, nor are the disbelievers lawful for them. And give the disbelievers that which they have spent (upon them). And it is no sin for you to marry such women when ye have given them their dues. And hold not to the ties of disbelieving women; and ask for (the return of) that which ye have spent; and let the disbelievers ask for that which they have spent. That is the judgment of Allah. He judgeth between you. Allah is Knower, Wise.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

And if any of your wives should go over to the deniers of the truth, and you are thus afflicted in turn,¹⁶ then give unto those whose wives have gone away the equivalent of what they had spent [on their wives by way of dower],¹⁷ and remain conscious of God, in whom you believe!

  - Mohammad Asad

Lit., "and you are thus taking your turn", i.e., like the unbelievers whose wives have gone over to the Muslims and renounced their erstwhile faith.

Since, as a rule, the unbelievers cannot really be expected to indemnify a husband thus deserted, the Muslim community as a whole is bound to undertake this obligation. As a matter of fact, there were only six such cases of apostasy in the lifetime of the Prophet (all of them before the conquest of Mecca in 8 H.); and in each case the Muslim husband was awarded by the communal treasury, on orders of the Prophet, the equivalent of the dower originally paid by him (Baghawi and Zamakhshari).

If you do not get back the demanded amount that you have spent on your disbelieving wives from the unbelievers, and your turn comes, to pay the demanded amount of Muslim wives to the unbelievers, you can offset the amount and pay those whose wives have fled the equivalent of the amount they have spent on their disbelieving wives. Fear Allah, in Whom you believe.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

And if any of your wives have gone from you unto the disbelievers and afterward ye have your turn (of triumph), then give unto those whose wives have gone the like of that which they have spent, and keep your duty to Allah in whom ye are believers.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

O Prophet! Whenever believing women come unto thee to pledge their allegiance to thee,¹⁸ [pledging] that [henceforth] they would not ascribe divinity, in any way, to aught but God, and would not steal,¹⁹ and would not commit adultery, and would not kill their children,²⁰ and would not indulge in slander, falsely devising it out of nothingness,²¹ and would not disobey thee in anything [that thou declarest to be] right - then accept their pledge of allegiance, and pray to God to forgive them their [past] sins: for, behold, God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

  - Mohammad Asad

This connects with verse {10} above, and particularly with the words, "examine them...and if you have thus ascertained that they are believers...", etc. (see note [11]). Thus, after having "ascertained" their belief as far as is humanly possible, the Prophet - or, in later times, the head of the Islamic state or community - is empowered to accept their pledge of allegiance (bay'ah), which concludes, as it were, the "examination". It should be noted that this pledge does not differ essentially from that of a male convert.

In this context, according to Razi, the term "stealing" comprises also all acquisition of gains through cheating or other unlawful means.

Sc., "as the pagan Arabs often did, burying their unwanted female offspring alive" (see also note [147] on 6:151 ).

Lit., "between their hands and their feet": i.e., by their own effort, the "hands" and "feet" symbolizing all human activity.

O Prophet! When the believing women come to you to take the oath of allegiance , take their pledge: that they will not commit shirk with Allah, that they will not steal, that they will not commit adultery, that they will not kill their children, that they will not give any cause for scandal which they may invent between either their hands or legs (a woman accusing another woman of having an illicit relationship with a man and spreads such stories - or - a woman carrying an illegitimate child and makes her husband believe that it is his), and that they will not disobey you in any just matter, then accept their allegiance and pray to Allah for the forgiveness. Surely Allah is Oft-Forgiving, most Merciful.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

O Prophet! If believing women come unto thee, taking oath of allegiance unto thee that they will ascribe nothing as partner unto Allah, and will neither steal nor commit adultery nor kill their children, nor produce any lie that they have devised between their hands and feet, nor disobey thee in what is right, then accept their allegiance and ask Allah to forgive them. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall

O YOU who have attained to faith! Be not friends with people whom God has condemned!²² They [who would befriend them] are indeed bereft of all hope of a life to come²³ - just as those deniers of the truth are bereft of all hope of [ever again seeing] those who are [now] in their graves.²⁴

  - Mohammad Asad

Cf. 58:14 and the corresponding note [25], which explains the reference to those "who would be friends with people whom God has condemned".

I.e., only people without any real belief in a life to come can remain "neutral" between right and wrong.

I.e., because they utterly reject the idea of resurrection.

O believers! Do not befriend those who have incurred the wrath of Allah. Indeed they despair of the Hereafter, just as the unbelievers despair of those buried in the graves.

  - Muhammad Farooq-i-Azam Malik

O ye who believe! Be not friendly with a folk with whom Allah is wroth, (a folk) who have despaired of the Hereafter as the disbelievers despair of those who are in the graves.

  - Marmaduke Pickthall