Quran Speaks

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

They (i.e. your enemies) will not cease to fight against you until they force you to renounce your faith, if they can. But he who renounces his faith and dies an unbeliever, his works shall come to nothing in this world and in the world to come. It is such people who are destined for the fire, therein to abide forever.

(The Cow; "Al-Baqarah": 2:217)

Commentary by Sayyid Qutb, Translated by A.A. Salahi & S.A. Shamsi.

When Abdullah read his instructions he said: "I will indeed obey the Prophet’s (Pbuh) orders." He then said to his companions: "Allah’s Messenger, (Pbuh), has ordered me to proceed to the Valley of Nakhlah to spy on Quraish and gather some information about them. He has ordered me not to force anyone of you to come along with me. He of you who desires to be a martyr let him proceed. He who does not like that may return. I am travelling on as Allah’s Messenger has ordered me." All his companions went along with him, without exception. They took the route of Hijaz, and as they travelled on, a camel which belonged to two of their members, namely Sa’ad ibn Abu Waqqas and Utbah ibn Ghazwan, were missing. The two were left behind to look for the camel, and the other six went on. When the expedition was at the Valley of Nakhlah, a trade caravan which belonged to Quraish was passing by. Only four people, led by Amr ibn Al-Hadhrami, travelled with the caravan. The Muslim expedition attacked the caravan, killing Amr and taking two men prisoners while the fourth managed to escape. They also took the caravan as spoils of war. They did all this thinking that the day was the last day of the month of Jumada the Second. Later, they discovered that it was the first day of the month of Rajab, which was one of the sacred months, the sanctity of which was recognized by the Arabs and under Islamic law.

When the expedition came back with two prisoners and the caravan, the Prophet (Pbuh) said to them: "I have not ordered you to fight in the sacred month." He refused to accept the caravan or the two prisoners. The people who went on to the expedition were at a loss. They thought that they had committed a gross transgression and that they were doomed. They were also rebuked by their fellow Muslims for what they had done.

Quraish, on the other hand, exploited the event for a propaganda campaign which they launched against the Prophet (Pbuh) and his companions, accusing them of violating the sacred months with a grievous act of killing, looting and taking prisoners. The Jews in Madinah, on the other hand, exploited the event for launching a campaign of psychological warfare, making use of the names of the people involved in the incident to predict that there would soon be a war between the Muslims and Quraish.

A campaign of false propaganda was thus launched in an attempt to depict Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) and his followers as the aggressors who violated Arabian sanctities and disregarded their own sanctities in pursuit of self-interest. When this verse was revealed, however, it put an end to all that nonsense and gave the right judgement in the matter. At the point only the Prophet (Pbuh) accepted to take the booty and the two prisoners. "They ask you about fighting in the sacred month. Say: ‘Fighting in it is a grave offense’." The sanctity of the sacred month is thus acknowledged. Furthermore, the gravity of fighting in that month is also stated unequivocally. There is, however, a proviso: "But to turn people away from the path of Allah, to disbelieve in Him and in the Sacred Mosque and to expel its people from it - all this is a much graver offense in Allah’s view. Indeed, religious persecution is worse than killing."

It was the polytheists, not the Muslims, who started aggression and fighting. It was the unbelievers who turned people away from the path of Allah and who disbelieved in Him and in the Sacred Mosque. They have committed very grievous sin in order to turn people away from Allah. They indeed forced people to disbelieve in Him. It was they who violated the sanctity of the Sacred Mosque when they persecuted the Muslims and tried to force them away from their religion over a period of 13 years, before their immigration to Madinah. It was they who forced the people of the Sacred Mosque which Allah has made a place of peace and security for all mankind. They showed no respect whatsoever for its sanctity.

To drive the people of the Sacred Mosque away from it is much more serious, in Allah’s view, than fighting in the sacred month. To persecute people in order to force them to renounce their faith, is a much graver crime, in Allah’s sight, than murder. The unbelievers in Makkah have committed both crimes then they could not claim any right whatsoever to make their argument on the basis of the sanctity of the Sacred Mosque or the sacred month. This puts a different complexion on the attitude of the Muslims in repelling those violators of sanctities who try to utilize such sanctities as a cover when it suits them and violate those very sanctities when it is in their interest to do so. The Muslims have no option but to fight them wherever they find them, because those very people are criminal aggressors who respect no right and observe no sanctity. The Muslims cannot allow them the luxury of seeking the protection of a false claim of observing sanctities when they have no real respect for them.

It was a case of using a right argument to defend a wrong position. It was only a case of paying lip service to the sanctity of the sacred month in order to attack the Muslim community and accuse it of aggression, when the unbelievers were the real aggressors who violated the sanctity of the Sacred Mosque.

Islam has a realistic and practical system which is not based on ideals given merely a theoretical shape. It faces human life with all its obstacles and all its practical aspects which have influence on it in order to direct it in a practical and realistic manner to progress and move towards a higher standard. It provides for it practical solutions which answer its practical problems. It has nothing to do with fanciful ideals which have no place in practical life.

Those unbelievers of Quraish were tyrannical aggressors who had no real respect to anything sacred and were always ready to violate any religious or moral value. They tried to turn people away from the path of right, inflicting on the believers all sorts of torture and driving them away from the sacred city where even the weakest of insects feels secure. All this, however, does not deter them from crying over the violation of sanctities. They raise their voices and say: "Look at Muhammad and his followers; they violate the sacred month."

How should Islam deal with such people?

Should it face them with idealistic and theoretical solutions? To do this is to disarm the Muslims who are good and honorable, when their enemies, evil aggressors as they are, have every weapon at their disposal. This is not how Islam works. Islam deals with life as it is in order to elevate it. It aims at removing aggression and evil, and disarming falsehood in order to give the leadership of mankind to the forces of good and to the noble community. In its pursuit of this aim, Islam cannot allow sanctities to be used as shelters to protect the evil tyrants as they attack the noble builders of the earth, while they remain immune from retaliation.

Islam only respects the sanctities of those who honor those sanctities. This is a principle which Islam lays down and implements. When violations take place, those who have committed such violations cannot expect an idealistic treatment. This principle permeates the Islamic practical code. Backbiting is forbidden, but an exception is made in the case of a transgressor whose transgression has become widely known. Such a person cannot claim to have rights against those who suffer as a result of his transgression. Islam also forbids speaking ill in public about other people. An exception, however, is made in the case of "those who have suffered injustice." Such people are allowed to speak ill of those who have perpetrated such injustice. To keep quiet in such a case is to afford the criminal a privilege which he does not deserve.

Islam, nevertheless, maintains its sublime standards and does not at any time lower itself to the level of the evil aggressors or use the same dirty weapons which they use. It simply directs the Muslim community to face them squarely, to fight them and kill them so that human life is purged from their evil.

When the leadership of human life is in the clean hands of the honorable believers, and when the world is purged of those who violate sanctities, such sanctities are honored and observed as perfectly as Allah desires. Such is Islam: a straightforward method which states its attitude and its policy forcefully, without any cunning or double-talking. It also does not allow anyone else to seek any false pretences as it deals with it.

In this instance, we see how the Qur’an defines the Islamic attitude and puts it on a solid basis so that the Muslims are reassured as they go about their business of exterminating evil and corruption from the face of the earth. It puts an end to any worry or reluctance they may experience. They have been facing evil, corruption, injustice and falsehood. These can have no sanctity and cannot be allowed to shelter behind sanctities in order to violate them at a later stage. The Muslims should go along the way Allah has defined for them, confident, reassured and at peace with their consciences.