101 When you [believers] are travelling in the land, you will not be blamed for shortening your prayers, if you fear the disbelievers may harm you: they are your sworn enemies. 102 When you [Prophet] are with the believers, leading them in prayer, let a group of them stand up in prayer with you, taking their weapons with them, and when they have finished their prostration, let them take up their positions at the back. Then let the other group, who have not yet prayed, pray with you, also on their guard and armed with their weapons: the disbelievers would dearly like you to be heedless of your weapons and baggage, in order for them to take you in a single assault. You will not be blamed if you lay aside your arms when you are overtaken by heavy rain or illness, but be on your guard. Indeed, God has prepared a humiliating punishment for the disbelievers. 103 After performing the ritual prayer, continue to remember God– standing, sitting, and lying on your sides– and once you are safe, keep up regular prayer, for prayer is obligatory for the believers at prescribed times. 104 Do not be faint-hearted in pursuing the enemy: if you are suffering hardship, so are they, but you hope to receive something from God for which they cannot hope. God is all knowing and wise.
Wrongdoers Only Harm Themselves
105 We have sent down the Scripture to you [Prophet] with the truth so that you can judge between people in accordance with what God has shown you. Do not be an advocate for those who betray trust. [a] 106 Ask God for forgiveness: He is most forgiving and merciful. 107 Do not argue for those who betray their own souls: God does not love anyone given to treachery and sin. 108 They try to hide themselves from people, but they cannot hide from God. He is with them when they plot at night, saying things that do not please Him: He is fully aware of everything they do. 109 There you [believers] are, arguing on their behalf in this life, but who will argue on their behalf with God on the Day of Resurrection? Who will be their defender? 110 Yet anyone who does evil or wrongs his own soul and then asks God for forgiveness will find Him most forgiving and merciful. 111 He who commits sin does so against his own soul– God is all knowing and wise– 112 and anyone who commits an offence or a sin, and then throws the blame on to some innocent person, has burdened himself with deceit as well as flagrant sin.
113 If it were not for the grace of God and His mercy to you [Prophet], a party of them would have tried to lead you astray; they only lead themselves astray, and cannot harm you in any way, since God has sent down the Scripture and Wisdom to you, and taught you what you did not know. God’s bounty to you is great indeed. 114 There is no good in most of their secret talk, only in commanding charity, or good, or reconciliation between people. To anyone who does these things, seeking to please God, We shall give a rich reward; 115 if anyone opposes the Messenger, after guidance has been made clear to him, and follows a path other than that of the believers, We shall leave him on his chosen path– We shall burn him in Hell, an evil destination.
116 God does not forgive the worship of others beside Him– though He does forgive whoever He will for lesser sins– for whoever does this has gone far, far astray. 117 In His place the idolaters invoke only females, [b] and Satan, the rebel 118 God rejected, who said, ‘I will certainly take my due share of Your servants; 119 I will mislead them and incite vain desires in them; I will command them to slit the ears of cattle; [c] I will command them to tamper with God’s creation.’ Whoever chooses Satan as a patron instead of God is utterly ruined: 120 he makes them promises and raises false hopes, but Satan’s promises are nothing but delusion. 121 Such people will have Hell for their home and will find no escape from it, 122 but We shall admit those who believe and do good deeds into Gardens graced with flowing streams, there to remain for ever– a true promise from God. Who speaks more truly than God? 123 It will not be according to your hopes or those of the People of the Book: anyone who does wrong will be requited for it and will find no one to protect or help him against God; 124 anyone, male or female, who does good deeds and is a believer, will enter Paradise and will not be wronged by as much as the dip in a date stone. 125 Who could be better in religion than those who direct themselves wholly to God, do good, and follow the religion of Abraham, who was true in faith? God took Abraham as a friend. 126 It is to God that everything in the heavens and earth belongs: God is fully aware of all things.
Fear God
127 They ask you [Prophet] for a ruling about women. Say, ‘God Himself gives you a ruling about them. You already have what has been recited to you in the Scripture about orphan girls [in your charge] from whom you withhold the prescribed shares [of their inheritance] and whom you wish to marry, and also about helpless children– God instructs you to treat orphans fairly: He is well aware of whatever good you do.’
128 If a wife fears high-handedness or alienation from her husband, neither of them will be blamed if they come to a peaceful settlement, for peace is best. Although human souls are prone to selfishness, if you do good and are mindful of God, He is well aware of all that you do. 129 You will never be able to treat your wives with equal fairness, however much you may desire to do so, but do not ignore one wife altogether, leaving her suspended [between marriage and divorce]. If you make amends and remain conscious of God, He is most forgiving and merciful, 130 but if husband and wife do separate, God will provide for each out of His plenty: He is infinite in plenty, and all wise. 131 Everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to God.
We have commanded those who were given the Scripture before you, and We command you, to be mindful of God. Even if you do ignore Him, everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to Him, and He is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise. 132 Yes, indeed, everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to God, and He is enough for those who trust in Him. 133 If He so willed, He could remove you altogether and replace you with new people: He has full power to do so. 134 If some want the rewards of this world, the rewards of this world and the next are both God’s to give: He hears and sees everything.
135 You who believe, uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it is against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives. Whether the person is rich or poor, God can best take care of both. Refrain from following your own desire, so that you can act justly– if you distort or neglect justice, God is fully aware of what you do. 136 You who believe, believe in God and His Messenger and in the Scripture He sent down to His Messenger, as well as what He sent down before. Anyone who does not believe in God, His angels, His Scriptures, His messengers, and the Last Day has gone far, far astray. 137 As for those who believe, then reject the faith, then believe again, then reject the faith again and become increasingly defiant, God will not forgive them, nor will He guide them on any path. 138 [Prophet], tell such hypocrites that an agonizing torment awaits them.
139 Do those who ally themselves with the disbelievers rather than the believers seek power through them? In reality all power is God’s to give. 140 As He has already revealed to you [believers] in the Scripture, if you hear people denying and ridiculing God’s revelation, do not sit with them unless they start to talk of other things, or else you yourselves will become like them: [d] God will gather all the hypocrites and disbelievers together into Hell.
Footnotes
a. A man from Medina stole a suit of armor and accused a Jew of doing it. He brought his family to ask the Prophet to rule against the Jew and he was about to do this when these verses were revealed (Razi).
b. See also 53: 19–20.
c. An example of pagan superstitious practices: they used to dedicate cattle to their gods by slitting their ears.
d. See 6: 68– an earlier, Meccan sura.
The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)
The Qur'an / a new translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, copyright © 2004 Oxford World's Classics (Oxford University Press). Used by permission. All rights reserved.