Surah At-Tawbah
I guess among our many posts, little has been said about the deen so I begin one of our new monthly classes with a small explanation of the 9th surah of the quran, surah At-Tawbah – the repentance. (maybe known as al Bara3ah, the ultimatum as seen in many hadeeth)
It begins:
“ A (declaration) of immunity from Allah and His Messenger, to those of the Pagans with whom ye have contracted mutual alliances: Go ye, then, for four months, backwards and forwards, (as ye will), throughout the land, but know ye that ye cannot frustrate Allah (by your falsehood) but that Allah will cover with shame those who reject Him. ([Qur'an 9:1])
As you see the surah is clearly focused on war, infact it was revealed during the war (Battle of Tabuk).
Why there is no Basmalah in the Beginning of This Surah
This honorable Surah (chapter 9) was one of the last Surahs to be revealed to the Messenger of Allah . Al-Bukhari recorded that Al-Bara’ said, “The last Ayah to be revealed was,
[يَسْتَفْتُونَكَ قُلِ اللَّهُ يُفْتِيكُمْ فِى الْكَلَـلَةِ]
(They ask you for a legal verdict. Say: “Allah directs (thus) about Al-Kalalah.”) [4:176], while the last Surah to be revealed was Bara’ah.”
The Basmalah was not mentioned in the beginning of this Surah because the Companions did not write it in the complete copy of the Qur’an (Mushaf) they collected, following the Commander of the faithful, `Uthman bin `Affan, may Allah be pleased with him.
The first part of this honorable Surah was revealed to the Messenger of Allah when he returned from the battle of Tabuk, during the Hajj season, which the Prophet thought about attending. But he remembered that the idolators would still attend that Hajj, as was usual in past years, and that they perform Tawaf around the House while naked. He disliked to associate with them and sent Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him, to lead Hajj that year and show the people their rituals, commanding him to inform the idolators that they would not be allowed to participate in Hajj after that season. He commanded him to proclaim,
[بَرَآءَةٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ]
(Freedom from (all) obligations (is declared) from Allah and His Messenger ()…), to the people. When Abu Bakr had left, the Messenger sent `Ali bin Abu Talib to be the one to deliver this news to the idolators on behalf of the Messenger , for he was the Messenger’s cousin. We will mention this story later.
It is also said, in this surah, that Allah gives a warning in a very strong way to hipocrites and by eliminating the basmalah, a clear message is conveyed -that no mercy will be given to them (the hipocrites).
Hope this little post has benefitted us all.
Keep it real folks.
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