Al-Quran & Hadist Research Papers (original) (raw)

Potentially there are up to 14 names for this sura (cf. al-Zamakhshari, Mushaf al-Madinah al-Nabawiyyah). However, only two of these figure large: al-Tawbah (cf. Abu Ubaydah, Fada’il al-Qur’an, p. 130, al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, al-Tabarani, al-Awsat: 1330) and Bara’ah (lit. declaration of non-responsibility over an agreement; cf. al-Bukhari: 4605, Muslim: 1618) thus named after the first word in the sura (cf. al-Zamakhshari, al-Fayrazabadi, Basa’ir Dhawi al-Tamyiz, 1/227, Ibn Ashur, al-Mukhtasar). However, al-Tawbah is the more common of the two. It is titled thus because the theme of ‘repentance’ (tawbah, as manifested by the derivates of the root t-w-b, and mentioned 17 times) is eminently recurrent in the sura. Between the firmness of the assertion of existence and the open door of repentance lies the essence of the Bara’ah-cum-al-Tawbah.
Merit: it, along with the earlier sura, al-Anfal, make up the last one of the meritorious first seven lengthy suras of the Qur’an (cf. Introductions to Suras 4 and 8). al-Bara’ Ibn Azib narrated: “The last sura ˹of the Qur’an˺ that came down is Bara’ah)” (al-Bukhari: 4364, Muslim: 4364).
Theme: there are three major themes of this sura: 1) the course of conduct and action to take when dealing with disruptive elements of society: the Associators, the People of the Book and the hypocrites; 2) blowing the cover of the hypocrites, the remaining and most dangerous enemy element, for their seriously inimical role in society, and 3) accounting for many of the rulings and directions for the emerging Muslim state.
Key: this sura cannot be properly understood without a thorough grounding in the historical and social events that were in order at the time of its revelation. For one, it is telling to know that this was the last sura of the Qur’an to come down. It was revealed, piecemeal, after the Tabuk Expedition during the 9th year of Hijrah, which the Messenger and the army of Believers undertook to face up to the northern threat posed by the Byzantine Empire. This after having seized Makkah, the Arabian metropolis, during the previous year and which ended their long, drawn out malignant tug of war, one that threatened the Believing community’s very existence. The sura calls Believers to establish their state, the stronghold of Islam, on stable grounds and to eliminate or sideline all threats that may jeopardize or compromise stability and its rising to its full potential. The accounts of the deep seated hostility, which reveals existential estrangement, and lack of respect for pacts of mutually binding nature; the lessons drawn from the Tabuk Expedition; the call to take up arms with resoluteness; the detailed exposé of the different segments of society and the all-embracing call for repentance; all fall under one overall goal; if the Believers were to secure for themselves a domain where their religion ruled unthreatened, they would have to be prepared for battle.