اتَّخَذوا أَيمانَهُم جُنَّةً فَصَدّوا عَن سَبيلِ اللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُم ساءَ ما كانوا يَعمَلونَ
They make a shield of their oaths, and bar from the way of Allah. Evil indeed is what they used to do.
EXEGESIS
A similar verse to this in content appears in 58:16.
The verse under discussion ascribes the practice of swearing false oaths to the hypocrites as a means of disguising their satanic deeds with the ultimate aim of misleading the believers.
Junnah – shield – is a noun which derives from the root janna meaning to hide, cover, and veil, since it covers and protects a person from the strike of a weapon.,
Yamīn (pl. aymān) in the Arabic language can mean an oath. Some lexicographers maintain that it derives either from the root yamana which means power and strength, since taking an oath strengthens the will of a person to act on what he has taken the oath upon, or from yamīn meaning the right hand, as it was a custom among the Arabs to strike one’s right hand with that of his counterpart’s when they swore the oath of allegiance.
Ṣadd means to turn away from something, or dissuade someone from something. The meaning of the verse would be correct based on both meanings; according to the first meaning it would mean: [the hypocrites] barred themselves away from God; whereas based on the second meaning it would read: they barred people away from God.
However, taking into consideration the context of the verse and their taking resort in false oaths, the second meaning is more likely to have been intended by the verse, as the motive behind taking false oaths was to swerve the minds of the Muslims from the satanic intents and plots of the hypocrites.
Such hypocritical traits do not develop instantaneously; rather, they are bred over a period of time and through a gradual process. They are the outcome of constant negligence and indulgence in deviant acts. Hence, the verse ends with saying, Evil indeed is what they used to do.
Some exegetes, however, maintain that what they used to do is, in fact, the hypocrisy that they had been practicing over time; that is, their act of pretending to be Muslims and, at the same time, harbouring disbelief in God and His Messenger, and discouraging people from following the Prophet of God.
EXPOSITION
The community of hypocrites existed within the wider Islamic nation in the holy city of Medina during the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (s), as has been clearly stated in 9:101. However, their presence in the Muslim society did not cease to exist after the Prophet’s demise, as they are undoubtedly to be found among the Muslim nation during all times and eras.
Interestingly, the Holy Quran mentions two categories of people who stand in contrast to the believers: the unbelievers (kuffār) and the hypocrites (munāfiqūn). Hence, the Quran cautions the Messenger of God of them: O Prophet! Be wary of Allah and do not obey the faithless and the hypocrites (33:1); it exhorts him to strive against them and not to leave any room for them to manoeuvre: O Prophet! Wage jihad against the faithless and the hypocrites, and be severe with them (9:73).
The verse reveals the tendency of the hypocrites, in order for the Muslim nation in general and its leaders in particular, to remain alert and cautious of their satanic conspiracies against the ummah.
The hypocrites are committed to even make misuse of religion and its sacred slogans in their struggle to combat Islam. In other words, they strive against Islam in the name of Islam and try to harm the Muslims from within, in the guise of being Muslims. Hence, in order for their true position not to be exposed, they endeavour to prove their loyalty to the Prophet and their commitment to the interests of the Muslim ummah. Thus they have been quoted in a number of places in the Holy Quran as swearing falsely by God so that they may not be suspected by the Muslims.
In conclusion, this characteristic of the hypocrites of disguising their true identity under the cover of religion makes their presence in the Islamic society to be even more dangerous than those disbelievers who openly seek to destroy the message of God. Hence, verse 4 considers them as enemies and enjoins the Holy Prophet to be cautious of them.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- The Prophet of God says in a narration: ‘I neither fear a believer (muʾmin) nor a non-believer (mushrik) for my nation. As for the believer, Allah shall withhold him because of his faith; and as for the unbeliever, Allah will subdue him because of his [explicit] unbelief. But I fear for you a hypocrite who conceals his disbelief; one who knows of the religious precepts and speaks of them; he talks of that which you consider to be good, but carries out that which you regard as evil.’
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Some exegetes hold as a possibility that oaths in this verse could be referring to bearing witness, mentioned in the opening verse of this surah. In this case, We bear witness in verse 1 would mean: We swear by God. This is due to the fact that giving testimony has the same function of affirmation as taking an oath. Accordingly, They make a shield of their oaths would imply that their testimony to the apostleship of the Messenger of God is a false oath. However, this view is not supported by the context of the verse, as the reason of revelation indicates that the oath they took was to deny the statement reported by Zayd ibn Arqam.
[1] Lisan, under j-n-n.
[2] Jinn (genie), jinnah (madness), jannah (garden), and janīn (embryo) all come from the same root and involve the same meaning.
[3] Bahrayn, under y-m-n.
[4] Tahqiq, under y-m-n, quoting from Maqayis.
[5] Nemuneh, 24/151.
[6] Mudarrisi, 15/412.
[7] Tibyan, 10/12; Tabrisi, 10/439.
[8] Quran, 9:56.
[9] Quran, 4:62, 9:56, 9:62, 9:74, 9:96, and 58:14. According to 58:18, they are so much drowned in this habit that they shall even swear to God on the Day of Resurrection as they would swear to the believers in this world.
[10] Nahj, letter 27.
[11] Razi, 30/546; Zamakhshari, 4/538.