ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

9:2.

4:139.

Important Words:

اذان (proclamation) is derived from اذن which means, he gave ear or listened; he permitted or allowed; he knew or he became informed, etc. آذن means, he informed, or notified or announced. اذان means, notification, announcement or call.

بری (clear) see 9:1 above. But whereas in that verse the word signifies absolution from obligations and from fulfilment of promises made by Islam, in the present verse it simply signifies being clear of a person or a thing, i.e. having nothing to do with him or it (Lane).

Commentary:

The declaration, contained in this verse and the one that follows, is different from that embodied in 9:1 & 2 above, for whereas vv. 9:1 & 2 relate to absolution from the fulfilment of promises made to idolaters, the present verse pertains to the severance of connections with them. This severance, however, should not be taken to mean that the verse declares Islam to be free from all treaty obligations; for, as the following verse makes it clear, treaties are to be respected in all cases and must not be violated.

It is related that on his return from Tabuk in the ninth year of the Hijrah, the Holy Prophet sent Abu Bakr to Mecca to announce, on the occasion of the Greater Pilgrimage, that henceforward no one would be allowed to perform the circuit of the Ka‘bah naked or unclothed. Immediately afterwards the first portion of this Surah was revealed. Upon this the Holy Prophet sent ‘Ali to Mecca, and he, as his cousin and representative, after reciting the opening verses of this Surah, made a proclamation containing the following two announcements before the pilgrims who had gathered at Mecca from all parts of Arabia:

1. No idolater shall approach the House of God after this year.

2. Treaties and engagements, made by the Holy Prophet with idolatrous tribes, shall stand and be faithfully respected till the end of their term. The idolaters of Arabia and the hypocrites of Medina had, by their plots and conspiracies against Muslims and by their persistent treacherous conduct, lost all claim to the clemency of the Holy Prophet. When he was absent on the expedition to Tabuk, they spread the false rumour that the whole Muslim army had been captured and the Prophet was dead. Moreover, Abu ‘Amir, a mischievous Arab leader, had gone to Syria to bring a Christian army to attack Muslims and in Arabia itself secret preparations had begun for a general rising. But for the timely return of the Holy Prophet, these plots would have resulted in great disturbance and heavy loss of life. When, on his return, the Holy Prophet learnt of the great mischief, set on foot in his absence and the plots hatched to deal a death-blow to Islam, he, with a view to preventing a recrudescence of such mischief ordered that henceforth no idolater could stay in the Hijaz with the exception of those with whom he had entered into a treaty, and these, too, were allowed to stay only till the expiry of the term of their treaty. The order was justified not only by the persistently treacherous conduct of the idolaters, but also by other political and cultural considerations which demanded its promulgation. The Hijaz had now become the religious as well as the political centre of Islam, and its interests demanded that it should be purged of all foreign and harmful elements likely to endanger its integrity and prove dangerous to the nascent Muslim community which had been brought into being to carry the message of the new Faith to the four corners of the earth.