60al-MumtaḥanahThe Examined Ladyسُورَةُ الممتحنة

O you who are committed to Allah [His power and authority]! Do not [politically and militarily] affiliate yourselves with My enemy and your enemy, bidding them mutual affection even though they have in fact rejected the truth and justice revealed to you, which they [demonstrated by] expelling the Apostle [from Makkah] along with [expelling] you, [only] because you committed yourselves to your Sustainer! [You should follow My instructions] if you are out there exerting your utmost on a [lifelong] course leading to Me, and if you are seeking My courteous approval. [Some of] you show them [My enemies] fondness covertly: but [you should realize that] I know very well what you have concealed [from the public] and what you have made public. And whoever does such [enters into an alliance with them] has already seriously gone off course.

If they [the God-denying enemies of Allah] were ever to have the upper hand, they would [in spite of everything] remain your enemies, and they would extend their forces and propaganda against you with malicious objectives: for it is their aspiration that you, too, deny Allah [as the only power and authority reference].

[Bear in mind that] neither your blood relatives [family solidarity], nor your progeny [-cum-nationalistic solidarity] will be of any benefit to you on the Day of Resurrection, [for then] He shall sort you out: and Allah is ever observant of what you do.

You [the committed muslims] have in [the precedent of] Ibrāhīm and those who followed him a good example as they said to their people [of false gods], “We [declare that we] are free from you and from what you revere in exclusion to Allah. We reject you [as you have rejected Allah], and from here on, aversion has become apparent between us and you until [such time as] you [may] commit yourselves to Allah alone.” The only exception was Ibrāhīm saying to his father [or respected uncle], “I will, for you, certainly ask [Allah] to forgive you, although I do not have the power to require Allah to do anything.” [And then, Ibrāhīm and his followers prayed], “O our Sustainer! In You we place our trust and to You we return in repentance, and to You is the destiny [of ours].

“O our Sustainer! Do not turn us into a [divisive] controversy [to be used against You] by those who are in denial [of You], and forgive us. O our Sustainer! Indeed, You are the Dearly Grand, the Profoundly Wise.”

In them [the followers of Ibrāhīm] you have an exemplary model [of social relations] for those of you who yearn for Allah and the Final Day. And whoever walks away [from this prototype, let him know that] Allah is far from being in need [of anyone, and He is] the Praiseworthy [by everyone].

[As time goes by] there is hope that Allah will bring about mutual affection between you [the committed muslims] and those you antagonized: for, of a certainty, Allah is very capable; and Allah is very forgiving and very merciful.

As for those who have never fought against you because of your adherence to a divine ideology and did not expel you from your homes and homelands there is no God-given injunction that prohibits you from showing them kindness and dispensing social justice to them: for, certainly, Allah loves those who dispense social justice.

Rather, though, Allah prohibits you to [politically and militarily] align yourselves with those who wage war against you because of your [adherence to a] divine ideology, and those who expel you from your homes and homelands or are enablers of those who expel you [from your home and homelands]: and whoever aligns [and politically and militarily affiliates] with them are truly offenders [of truth and justice].

O you who are divinely committed! Whenever committed muslim women come to you after having fled [their anti-Islamic societies], test them [to see whether their rhetoric corresponds to their behavior, although] Allah knows better [than anyone about] their [level of] commitment. And if you verify that they are committed [to Allah and His Prophet] then do not send them back to the God-deniers [and their general public with its ungodly characterization of sexual relations], since [now that there is a mature Islamic society] they [committed muslim women] are [no longer] lawful to their erstwhile [mushrik] husbands, and these [mushrik husbands] are no longer lawful to them [committed muslim women]. Nonetheless, you shall give them [the erstwhile mushrik husbands] back whatever they have spent [on their wives by way of dower]; and [then, O committed muslims], you sustain no misconduct if you marry them after giving them their [new] dowers. On the other hand, you [the committed muslim husbands] shall not be bonded in marriage to God-denying wives, and ask for [the return of] whatever you have spent [on your God-denying ex- wives by way of dower] — just as they [whose wives have gone over to you] have the right to demand [the return of] whatever they have spent. All [of the above] is Allah’s ruling: He judges among you [in equity] — for Allah is very well-informed, and especially wise.

And if any of your wives [in their clinging to God-denial] should go over to God-deniers [as their husbands], and it [now] is your turn [to do justice], then you are to give to those [muslims] whose wives have left them [to join the God-deniers] the equivalent of what they had spent [on their wives by way of dower], and remain on your guard when it comes to Allah [and His ever-present power and authority], to whom you are committed.

O Prophet! Whenever committed muslim women come to you to offer their loyalty affirming that they will not equate anything [or anyone] with Allah, and that they will not steal, nor commit adultery, and will not kill [or abort] their children, and will not exhibit sexual misconduct accompanied by contrived excuses, and will not disobey you in anything that is self-evidently decent, then accept their loyal affirmation and pray to Allah to forgive them [their past wrongdoings]: for, behold, Allah is always forgiving, always merciful.

O you committed muslims! Do not associate [politically or militarily] with those whom Allah is angry with, for they have lost all hope of the Final Life — just as the God-deniers have lost all hope of [ever again seeing] the occupants of the graves.