Transliteration:( Yaaa aiyuhal lazeena aamanoo izaa darabtum fee sabeelil laahi fatabaiyanoo wa laa taqooloo liman alqaaa ilaikumus salaama lasta mu'minan tabtaghoona 'aradal hayaatid dunyaa fa'indal laahi maghaanimu kaseerah; kazaalika kuntum min qablu famannnal laahu 'alaikum fatabaiyanoo; innallaaha kaana bimaa ta'maloona Khabeeraa )
302. Reason for its Revelation:
This verse was revealed concerning Mardas bin Naheek a resident of Fidak. Besides him the rest of his people were infidels, and the Muslims were unaware of his Islam. When the Muslim army left for Fidak, all its residents ran away, only Hazrat Mardas remained there. On seeing the Muslims army Hazrat Mardas extended to them the greetings of Salaam.
Hazrat Usama bin Zaid (Radiallahu Anhu) thought that he was greeting them in order to protect his sheep. So Hazrat Mardas was slain and his sheep were captured as a war booty.Â
From this, we learn that in whosoever you see the sign of a believer without seeing any mark of infidelity he should not be called an infidel. It does not mean that whoever extends a greeting to you is a believer, even though he may be committing thousands of acts of infidelity.
The hypocrites had been extending greetings and offering their Prayers (Salaah) yet Allah Almighty had called them infidels. Says Allah Almighty: "But Allah bears witness that the hypocrites are most surely liars." (S63:VI)
303. By "you too were such before" is meant Oh Muslims when you had accepted Islam you were accepted as Muslims merely through your verbal recitation of the Kalima, and your lives and possession were made secure.
If confirmation of this was sought from the deepest recesses of the heart would it have been possible to accept you Muslims at that point in time. You should treat the new converts as you had been treated. It was the Grace of Allah Almighty that He had given full publicity to your conversion to Islam.
Now no one can cast a doubt about you being as believers. From this one gathers that if the death of a Muslim occurs due to the misunderstanding of the interpretation of an Islamic law, then there is no capital punishment for it nor blood compensation.
Neither will such a person be regarded as an infidel nor a sinner. Observe that Usama bin Zayd has been declared a believer by the Holy QURAN. No capital punishment, ransom or blood compensation had been made incumbent upon him.
304. You are duty-bound to investigate in order to obtain the booty. From this, we learn that if any Muslim who resides among non-Muslims about whose faith Muslims are unaware were to get killed at the hands of a Muslim there is no expiation nor blood compensation incumbent upon his killer.Â
The previous verse describes the position about that Muslim whose faith is known to all but is killed at the hands of a fellow Muslim due to any misunderstanding like the cover of darkness, etc. Hence, there is no inconsistency in the verse.
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94. O you who believe! When you go (to fight) in the cause of Allah, verify (the truth), and say not to anyone who greets you: “You are not a believer;” seeking the perishable goods of the worldly life. There is much more benefit with Allah. Even as he is now, so were you yourselves before, till Allah conferred on you His Favors, therefore, be cautious in discrimination. Allah is Ever Well-Aware of what you do.
Imam Ahmad recorded that `Ikrimah said that Ibn `Abbas said, “A man from Bani Sulaym, who was tending a flock of sheep, passed by some of the Companions of the Prophet and said Salam to them. They said (to each other), `He only said Salam to protect himself from us.’ Then they attacked him and killed him. They brought his sheep to the Prophet , and this Ayah was revealed,
(O you who believe!), until the end of the Ayah.” At-Tirmidhi recorded this in his (chapter on) Tafsir, and said, “This Hadith is Hasan, and it is also reported from Usamah bin Zayd.” Al-Hakim also recorded it and said, “Its chain is Sahih, but they did not collect it.” Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn `Abbas commented;
(and say not to anyone who greets you: “You are not a believer;”), “A man was tending his sheep and the Muslims caught up with him. He said, `As-Salamu `Alaykum.’ However, they killed him and took his sheep. Allah revealed the Ayah;
(And say not to anyone who greets you: “You are not a believer; seeking the perishable goods of the worldly life).” Ibn `Abbas said; “The goods of this world were those sheep.” And he recited,
(Peace) Imam Ahmad recorded that Al-Qa`qa` bin Abdullah bin Abi Hadrad narrated that his father `Abdullah bin Abi Hadrad said, “The Messenger of Allah sent us to (the area of) Idam. I rode out with a group of Muslims that included Abu Qatadah, Al-Harith bin Rab`i and Muhallam bin Juthamah bin Qays. We continued on until we reached the area of Idam, where `Amr bin Al-Adbat Al-Ashja`i passed by us on his camel. When he passed by us he said Salam to us, and we did not attack him. Because of some previous problems with him, Muhallam bin Juthamah killed him and took his camel. When we went back to the Messenger of Allah and told him what had happened, a part of the Qur’an was revealed about us,
(O you who believe! When you go (to fight) in the cause of Allah), until,
(Well-Aware).” Only Ahmad recorded this Hadith. Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn `Abbas said that the Messenger of Allah said to Al-Miqdad,
(You killed a believing man who hid his faith with disbelieving people, after he had announced his faith to you. Remember that you used to hide your faith in Makkah before.) Al-Bukhari recorded this shorter version without a complete chain of narrators. However a longer version with a connected chain of narrators has also been recorded. Al-Hafiz Abu Bakr Al-Bazzar recorded that Ibn `Abbas said, “The Messenger of Allah sent a military expedition under the authority of Al-Miqdad bin Al-Aswad and when they reached the designated area, they found the people had dispersed. However, a man with a lot of wealth did not leave and said, `I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.’ Yet, Al-Miqdad killed him, and a man said to him, `You killed a man after he proclaimed: “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah. By Allah I will mention what you did to the Prophet .’ When they went back to the Messenger of Allah, they said, `O Messenger of Allah! Al-Miqdad killed a man who testified that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.’ He said,
(Summon Al-Miqdad before me. O Miqdad! Did you kill a man who proclaimed, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah” What would you do when you face, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah tomorrow”) Allah then revealed;
(O you who believe! When you go (to fight) in the cause of Allah, verify (the truth), and say not to anyone who greets you: “You are not a believer;” seeking the perishable goods of the worldly life. There are much more profits and booties with Allah. Even as he is now, so were you yourselves before till Allah conferred on you His Favors, therefore, be cautious in discrimination). The Messenger of Allah said to Al-Miqdad,
(He was a believing man who hid his faith among disbelieving people, and he announced his faith to you, but you killed him, although you used to hide your faith before, in Makkah.)” Allah’s statement,
(There is much more benefit with Allah.) means, better than what you desired of worldly possessions which made you kill the one who greeted you with the Salam and pronounced his faith to you. Yet, you ignored all this and accused him of hypocrisy, to acquire the gains of this life. However, the pure wealth with Allah is far better than what you acquired. Allah’s statement,
(so were you yourselves before, till Allah conferred on you His Favors.) means, beforehand, you used to be in the same situation like this person who hid his faith from his people. We mentioned the relevant Hadiths above. Allah said,
(And remember when you were few and were reckoned weak in the land). `Abdur-Razzaq recorded that Sa`id bin Jubayr commented about Allah’s statement,
(so were you yourselves before), “You used to hide your faith, just as this shepherd hid his faith.” Allah said,
(therefore, be cautious in discrimination), then said,
(Allah is Ever Well-Aware of what you do.) and this part of the Ayah contains a threat and a warning, as Sa`id bin Jubayr stated.
(4:94) Believers! When you go forth in the way of Allah, discern (between friend and foe), and do not say to him who offers you the greeting of peace: You are not a believer.’[126] If you seek the good of this worldly life, there lies with Allah abundant gain. After all, you too were such before, and then Allah was gracious to you.[127] Discern, then, for Allah is well aware of what you do.
126.In the early days of Islam the greeting as-salam ‘alaykum (‘peace be on you’) was a distinguishing symbol of the Muslims. When a Muslim greeted another Muslim with this expression it signified that he was a member of the same community, that he was a friend and well-wisher, one who wished peace and security, from whom he need entertain no fear of hostility and towards whom, in return, he should not behave with hostility. The Islamic greeting occupied virtually the same position among Muslims as the passwords used by sentries to distinguish friend from foe. This was particularly important in those days because there were no distinctions in dress, language and so on by which Muslims could be conclusively marked off from their non-Muslim Arab compatriots.
The Muslims also encountered a strange problem on the battlefield. Whenever a Muslim was in danger of being harmed inadvertently by other Muslims during the fighting, he resorted to either the Islamic greeting (as-salam ‘alaykum) or the Islamic creed There is no god save Allah’ (ili-Jl^y) in order to indicate that he was their brother-in-faith. The Muslims, however, often suspected this to be merely a ruse of the enemy and therefore sometimes disregarded the utterance of the Islamic greeting or of the Islamic creed, and killed such people and seized their belongings as booty. Although whenever the Prophet (peace be on him) came to know of such incidents, he severely reproached the people concerned, it, nevertheless, continued to take place. In the end God solved the problem by revelation. The purport of the verse is that no one has the right summarily to judge those who profess to be Muslims, and assume them to be lying for fear of their lives. At least two possibilities exist: the claim may either be true or it may be false. The truth can only be ascertained by proper investigation. While it is impossible to investigate a person’s case properly during fighting and this may enable him to save his life by lying, it is equally possible that an innocent, true believer might be put to death by mistake. The error of letting an unbeliever go unpunished is preferable to that of killing a true believer.
127.The Muslims are now told that there was a time when they were scattered among different tribes of unbelievers. They were, therefore, forced to conceal the fact of being Muslims since they feared that they would be subjected to persecution and hardship. In those days they had nothing else besides their verbal profession to testify to their faith. Later on, some time before these verses were revealed, God benevolently enabled the Muslims to develop a collective entity of their own and thus to raise the banner of Islam in the face of strong opposition from the unbelievers. That the Muslims should fail to appreciate the hardships which other Muslims were enduring, and which they themselves had endured until not long before, and not to treat them with consideration and forbearance, did not seem an adequate way of thanking God for His benevolence.
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