The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 700
CH. 9 AT-TAUBAH PT. 10 أَلَا تُقَاتِلُونَ قَوْمًا نَكَثُوا أَيْمَانَهُمْ Will you not fight a people. 13 وَهَمُّوا who have broken their oaths, بِاخْرَاجِ الرَّسُولِ وَهُمْ and who plotted to turn out the b بَدَءُ وُكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ أَتَخْشَوْنَهُمْ commence hostilities فَاللهُ اَحَقُّ أَنْ تَخْشَوْهُ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ مُّؤْمِنِيْنَ Messenger, and they were the first to against you? Do you fear them? Nay, Allah is most worthy that you should fear Him, if you are believers. 1176 attacks meant to injure the vital interests of Islam; the word literally meaning "to pierce with a spear. " The epithet, these leaders of disbelief, is here applied not to a few leading individuals but to the whole people to whom this commandment to fight referred. They are called as (leaders) because, firstly, they were among the first and the foremost to clash with Muslims and their example encouraged others; and, secondly, their hostility towards Islam was so inveterate and implacable that they served, as it were, as evil models in this respect. 1176. Commentary: The words, who plotted to turn out the Messenger, do not refer to the Meccans, but to those who, when the Holy Prophet went on an expedition to the Syrian border, plotted to bring about his downfall by making the different tribes of Arabia stand up as one man against him on his return (see notes on 9:3,4, above). The Meccans did not merely plot to turn out the Holy Prophet, but actually turned him out (see 47:14). Moreover, E by the time these verses were revealed, the Meccans had embraced Islam and all hostilities between Muslims and Meccans had ceased. The words, they were the first to commence hostilities against you, also refer not to the Meccans but to those infidels, whether open or secret, who lived in and about Medina. The words provide conclusive proof of the fact that, far from being the transgressor, Islam was transgressed against. It was the infidels who first began hostilities against it. They acted most treacherously and resorted to all sorts of foul means to annihilate it. It was only such men that Muslims had been commanded to fight. Christian critics of Islam will do well to compare the wars of Islam with the wars of their great Lawgiver, Moses, against a people who had never taken up arms against him and had done nothing to offend him. Yet these people were ruthlessly butchered and even their women and children were not spared (Deut. 20:16, 17). As compared with this, the Holy Prophet took up arms only against those who first started hostilities, and 1140