The Ocean of the Quran

A verse by verse explanation of The Ultimate Scripture

Al-Mujādilah – Verse 14

أَلَم تَرَ إِلَى الَّذينَ تَوَلَّوا قَومًا غَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيهِم ما هُم مِنكُم وَلا مِنهُم وَيَحلِفونَ عَلَى الكَذِبِ وَهُم يَعلَمونَ

Have you not regarded those who befriend a people at whom Allah is wrathful? They neither belong to you, nor to them, and they swear false oaths [that they are with you] and they know.

EXPOSITION

Verses 14-22 mention a group of the hypocrites who had befriended the Jews while the Jews opposed God and His Messenger.‎[1] Thus these verses reproach the hypocrites for that deed and severely threaten them with punishment and wretchedness. The verses then authoritatively assert at the end that faith in God and the Last Day prevents a person from befriending whoever opposes God and His Messenger, whosoever that may be. It also praises the believers who disavow the enemies of God and promises them constant faith, a spirit from God, paradise, and God’s satisfaction.‎[2]

Verse 14 begins by addressing the Prophet‎[3] (and by extension the Muslims) in a rhetorical style that denotes surprise.‎[4] It says: Have you not regarded those who befriend a people at whom Allah is wrathful where those who befriend is a reference to the hypocrites,‎[5] while a people at whom Allah is wrathful is a reference to the Jews.‎[6] God describes the Jews similarly in the following verse: Those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He is wrathful, and turned some of whom into apes and swine, and worshippers of the rebel! (5:60). The hypocrites used to befriend and support the Jews, sharing secrets of the Muslims with them‎[7] and gathering with them to speak ill of the Prophet and the Muslims, gossiping about their supposed defects and faults,‎[8] and plotting intrigues against them.‎[9]

The verse continues, addressing the Muslims: They neither belong to you, nor to them. They refers to the hypocrites,‎[10] while them refers to the Jews.‎[11] Thus the meaning of this verse is: the hypocrites have befriended and taken as allies a people with whom God was angry, and these were the Jews. The hypocrites have done this due to their wavering nature between belief and disbelief (which is a core characteristic of hypocrisy),‎[12] and to cause hurt and grief to the Prophet and the Muslims. These hypocrites are not from the believers and nor are they from the Jews‎[13] and yet they have taken the Jews as their allies. This is only due to their wicked desire to participate with the Jews in a common goal, which was to harm the Prophet and the Muslims.‎[14]

This verse then ends with and they swear false oaths [that they are with you] and they know, which means the hypocrites swear falsely to you that they are from the believers and that they are not hypocrites,‎[15] but all the while they know that they are lying in their oath and that that they are indeed hypocrites‎[16] (9:56). Alternatively, the statement can mean that they swear falsely to you that they have not befriended the Jews, that they have not been plotting against the Muslims, and have not been speaking ill of the Prophet and the Muslims, when they know that is exactly what they have been doing!‎[17] Both explanations can be taken as mutually inclusive, and God knows best.

Several verses in the Quran warn the Muslims not to take their religious opponents as friends and protectors over the believers, such as 3:28, 4:139, 3:144, 5:51, 5:57, and 9:23.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Some scholars have held that They in They neither belong to you refers to the people at whom Allah is wrathful and these are the Jews, while them in nor to them refers to those who befriend and take the Jews as allies, and these are the hypocrites. Thus in such a case, the meaning obtained would be: Have you not seen the hypocrites who have befriended the Jews and taken them as allies? The Jews are neither from you for you are believers, and nor are they from the hypocrites themselves, rather they are different from both the parties and not of them.‎[18] Tabatabai writes, however, that although this reading of the verse carries a kind of blame for the hypocrites, similar to the preferred interpretation (expounded in the Exposition section), yet he believes that this alternative interpretation is far from valid.‎[19] 

[1] Mizan, 19/192; Tibyan, 9/552; Razi, 29/497.
[2] Mizan, 19/192.
[3] Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381.
[4] Kashif, 7/275; Munyah, 28/80.
[5] Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381; Razi, 29/497.
[6] Mizan, 19/192; Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381; Razi, 29/497.
[7] Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381; Razi, 29/497.
[8] Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381.
[9] Razi, 29/497.
[10] Mizan, 19/192; Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381; Razi, 29/497.
[11] Mizan, 19/192; Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381; Razi, 29/497.
[12] Mizan, 19/192.
[13] Mizan, 19/192; Tibyan, 9/552; Tabrisi, 9/381.
[14] Munyah, 28/80.
[15] Tabrisi, 9/381; Mizan, 19/192; Razi, 29/497; Tibyan, 9/552.
[16] Mizan, 19/192; Tabrisi, 9/381; Tibyan, 9/552.
[17] Razi, 29/497.
[18] Cited in Mizan, 19/192.
[19] Mizan, 19/192.