Surah 60
The Trial
1. O you who believe, take not My enemy and your enemy as masters, demonstrating to them intimacy, and they have disbelieved what came from the Law, they drive the messenger out with you, so that you believe in your Lord if you come out striving on My Way and seeking My contentment, you secret to them intimacy, and I know what you’ve concealed and what you disclosed, whoever does it of you: have lost the straight way,
2. If they recognise you they will be enemies to you, and they extend their hands and their tongues with ill, they wish you disbelieved,
3. They won’t benefit you your womb/blood ties, and nor your offspring the day of the up-rise, separates God between you, and God is of what you do All Seer,
4. You have had a good example in Abraham and the ones with him, when they said to their people: “we are free from you and from what you worship below God, we’ve disbelieved you and animosity has emerged between us and you, and hatred forever, until you believe in God alone”, except the say of Abraham to his father: “I ask forgiveness for you, and I reign over nothing from God for you, our Lord upon Thee we rely, to Thee we’ve turned, to Thee is the becoming,
5. “Our Lord, make us not a strife for those who have disbelieved, forgive for us, our Lord, it is Thee, the Exalted the Sovereign”,
6. This has been for you [the people] in them a good example, for them who beg for God and the last day, and whoever turn away: God is Unneeding Thankworthy,
7. Perhaps God makes between you and those that you’ve taken as enemies of them: intimacy; God is Capable, God is Forgiving Compassionate,
[It has been easy, for both Islamic interpreters and Qur’anic haters alike: to read a call to animosity and war in those verses,
I don’t even see that I have to clarify anything. It’s crystal clear, that the call is to stop taking ideological teaching from pagan people, who just can’t stand the sight of people not going along with their rituals and traditions and the chanting of their slogans …
And indeed, not to follow the people of Abraham who took faith as an excuse to hate and to war, contrary to Abraham’s say to his father …: this is the good model …
If Abrahamic religions want to stick to the example of animosity: it’s their choice …
In the last millennia it has brought upon them one disaster after another, with each religion and faction thereof waiting for assistance from the heaven, or imagining it …
But their all destinies in the Middle East, and indeed in the whole world now: have been the same: war and suffering that are accelerating …]
8. God does not command you against them who did not fight you in religion, and did not force you out of your circles/homes, [rather] to be devout to them and to be just with them, that God loves just people,
9. That so God commands you against those who forced you out of your circles/homes, and watched over your forced exist, that you [do not] take them as masters; those are the unjust/darkened ones,
[Undoubtedly, these are some of the verses that are being used by Muslims and non-Muslims to flare up a state of constant strife between Muslims and non-Muslims, and indeed between Muslims …
The call to reason and friendship, however, which is strong and unequivocal: goes unnoticed and unwanted,
A few points, however, need to be made clear:
Whenever it is said: “أن تولوهم”, or not to take them as “أولياء": those Arabic words are from the root “ولي”, which points to taking a master or a guardian, or becoming one …
This has nothing to do with making alliances or declaring war …, it is only saying not to take non-believing people as "masters" …
So, if you ask: to what extent does the prohibition of “mastership” go?
It makes sense to say: only in as far as matters of faith and belief go, so that every group can practise their faith in whichever way they want without the interference of others, and reciprocally: without them interfering with the similar rights of others …
In any case, Muslims in the present live in their own countries, some of which implement fully a shariah law: while completely adopting the sciences and a lot of the financial systems of the West: which are totally alien to Islam and Middle Eastern cultures, and employing foreign consultants and experts in many matters of governance and statesmanship, …: who are non-Muslims,
And in the last century, before Western science and technology became so reliable and indispensable: the religious authorities were against embracing the kuffars’ sciences …
Until gradually religious authorities started to see that there was nothing in their Book that prohibited them …
On the other hand, “those who did not fight you in religion”: clearly points to an ideological fight,
Then it continues on to say: “and did not force you out of your homes/circles” …
Although homes can be physical ones, there’s room for an ideological interpretation, hence the suggested two layers of meanings …
Muslims nowadays, and since the split of Islam between different factions, have been forcing each other out of their homes, physically and ideologically and in every way one can imagine …
There’s no verse in their Book that can be remotely interpreted as a legitimisation of such actions,
It you think there is: bring it forward, and let’s discuss it …
It is everyone’s natural right to defend themselves, and as has been said on this Page many times: this is a natural right, that no Book from heaven has denied …
On the other hand: launching an offence onto others, especially unarmed civilians, in their homes, streets and on their travel: does not constitute self-defence, and neither can a pre-Islamic law of vendetta be said to constitute self-defence,
The energy that Muslims have geared towards each other’s destruction could’ve been geared towards building up prosperous and self-reliant nations, where there is no poverty and there are no refugees fleeing to non-Islamic neighbouring countries to stay alive …!
It is obvious that the spirit of those verses has been completely missed, and what Muslims are left with now is none but their heathen laws of before …]
10. O you who believe, if migrating believing females come to you, try them, God is best Knower of their faith, so if you recognise them as faithful, do not return them to the disbelievers, they are not legitimate to them nor are they [the disbelievers] legitimate to them, and give them [both] their dues, and you are not in error if you marry them if you give them their dues, and hold on not to the devout disbelievers, and question/investigate what you’ve expended, and let them question what they expended, this and all is God’s ruling, rules He between you [all], God is Omniscient Sovereign,
11. And if you missed something from/belonging to your spouses to the disbelievers and then you penalised: bring those whose spouses have left what they expended, and take refuge in God, in Whom you trust,
[Obviously it is a call to fairness, even to the “kuffar” and in the direst straits,
But by the sound of it: this is a situation that doesn’t arise now: unless people deliberately create it, in the belief this is a command that they should implement to make a god happy,
Just incidentally, while going through this Surah in preparation for an English reading of it, there was on the world news a story that I heard of non-Muslim girls being taken as converts to Islam, as brides to already married Muslims …
While the conditions under which those girls agreed to adopt Islam, and how much they understand of it …: is all questionable: one can’t but wonder: were those verses the inspiration of launching an act believed to benefit Islam and Muslims?
It has been clear from the actions of the warring factions of Muslims in the recent times: that they’re all trying to replicate situations which their clergy have told them …, actions which are highly regarded and thought to be ultimate examples of faith and the highest grades of morality,
And although the world as it is now, with the enormous change that has reshaped every social, political and economic aspect of it: offers a myriad of situations which try one’s values and morality, and put one’s faith in human virtues and reason under the toughest of tests:
Those people don’t seem to notice them. They hence indulge in pleasures, and practise trades and commit cruelty … while totally oblivious to the evil of them: all in the belief that what they’re doing is totally halal, as prescribed by their clergy many centuries ago …
Their attempt to stay in their time capsules have not delivered them from their ills. Their dreams of recreating an Islamic state and society to the model of 1500 years ago will make them an easy target for clever nations, as they have been for many centuries now …]
12. O you prophet, if believing females come to you to vow to you not to affix anything to god, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to kill their children, and not to come up with falsehood that they fabricate between their hands and their legs, and not to disobey you in virtue: do accept their vow, and beg forgiveness for them, God is Forgiving Compassionate,
[As the verse addresses the prophet, being Muhammad, it affirms that he was the guardian of the message that was delivered to him by the messenger Gabriel,
As for the personality of Gabriel, many Muslims, and indeed members of other Abrahamic faiths, will continue to believe that he was a supernatural being,
But this will not help them understand neither their message and nor the other messages, and nor comprehend what “revelation” is and how it is delivered to the prophets …
Muslims know from their Book that Gabriel also delivered the previous messages, and hence the call in this very Book: to believe all the Books and all the messengers and prophets, and that there’s no differentiation between them,
The differentiation is only in the understanding of each religion: which is not supported or prescribed by any Book: and if they believe otherwise: they have to provide evidence from their Book and validate the authenticity of it, so that it is not fabricated between their hands and their legs, as the verse says,
But they will be wasting their time if they believe that a god sent a message then changed his mind and sent another one, then changed his mind again and sent yet another one …
And despite the clear and logical evidence to the contrary: many still believe that some verses of the Qur’an override other verses in it, and override the entire Books which preceded it or followed it,
I say to them: give us a list of the verses which have cancelled or have been cancelled, so we can discuss them,
But they can’t and won’t. Their adhering to this belief, however, creates only tensions between religions and within each religion, and serves no good purpose.
The mention of the Ten Commandments in this verse is not random,
This is just affirming them …
The Qur’an has not cancelled the religions of before, but indeed re-affirmed them, as it has declared a number of times, and every prophet spoke to his people in their tongue, as this Grand Book has testified,
Then “ألمعروف” is mentioned, which we’ve often translated to “virtue” or “the highest standard”,
Virtue cannot be stated in any statement at any level of detail, and certainly is not a privilege of a tribe of people,
And when in trying circumstances people aren’t sure if their action is virtuous or not: they should consult their wise people or follow their good innateness,
If people are virtuous, and this is the result of their faith in their Lord Who endowed them with reasoning minds and compassionate hearts: they can work out what course of action or inaction is best in a particular situation, so that they do not cause harm neither to themselves and nor to others: even if it is not specified in their commandments and Book,
But when people are hypocritical, they go by the literality of their commandments, in order to bypass them and allow themselves everything that is disallowed in them,
Hence the corruption and the criminal behaviour of very pious people, who have guaranteed themselves success in the world and salvation and a paradise in the hereafter …, and have hence judged themselves already and sentenced their enemies and rivals to eternal suffering in hell and damnation …
Sadly, the “migration” of believing females is happening in the opposite direction nowadays, every time women flee Islamic countries to countries where their rights are respected and where they are not treated as half human …
Islamic scholars don’t seem to be aware of the suffering of women in their countries …, perhaps they are all waiting for the comeback of al-Hakim of the Fatimid state to sentence them again to permanent house detention …
There is nothing supernatural about the following verse which terminates this very important Surah, it is stating actual facts, if Islamic scholars and their rivals in other religions understand their Book …]
13. O you who believe, take no masters from a people that God is angry with, they have despaired from the hereafter, as much as have despaired the darkened ones of the dwellers of the graves
