The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 741
PT. 10 AT-TAUBAH CH. 9 ط اِسْتَغْفِرُ لَهُمْ أَوْ لَا تَسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ إِنْ Ask thou forgiveness for. 80 تَسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ سَبْعِينَ مَرَّةً فَلَنْ يَغْفِرَ forgiveness for them; even if اللهُ لَهُمُ ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَفَرُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَاللهُ لَا يَهْدِى الْقَوْمَ them, or ask thou not thou ask forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will never forgive them. That is because they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger. And Allah & guides not the perfidious people. 1232 الفُسِقِينَ R. 11. فَرِحَ الْمُخَلَّفُونَ بِمَقْعَدِهِمْ خِلْفَ Those who were left behind. 81 رَسُولِ اللهِ وَكَرِهُوا أَنْ تُجَاهِدُوا back of the rejoiced in their sitting at home behind the Messenger of Allah, and were 1232. Commentary: 963:7. 9:87, 93. The verse refers to the offering of prayer for the hypocrites while they lived. It does not, however, refer to all hypocrites as a matter of principle; but only to such as were doomed to perish and about whom God had revealed to His Prophet that they would die disbelievers (see 9:77 above). To pray for such hypocrites or disbelievers would virtually be contradicting the purpose of God. As for the injunction about the funeral Prayer, it is contained in 9:84 below. It so happened that before the latter verse was revealed, 'Abdullah bin Ubayy, the leader of the hypocrites, died; and the Holy Prophet, considering that he was outwardly a Muslim and that his son was a particularly devoted believer, prepared to offer the funeral prayer for him. Thereupon, 'Umar drew his attention to the verse under comment that the verse left it to him whether or upon which the Holy Prophet said not to say the funeral prayer for a hypocrite and that he would ask forgiveness of God for 'Abdullah more than "seventy times. " 1181 It should be noted that the words, "seventy times," are not here meant literally but are simply intended to intensify such that the point hypocrites as are doomed to perish will never be forgiven; but so great was the mercy of the Holy Prophet for those who professed faith in him that, taking advantage of the fact that God had not So far expressly commanded him to abstain from praying for the hypocrites at all, he interpreted the word "seventy" literally and offered to say the funeral