A Critical Exposition of the Popular 'Jihád'/Appendix A/34

by Moulavi Gerágh Ali

[Sidenote: (22) The tried, LXI.]

34. "O Ye believers! take not my foe and your foe for friends: ye show them kindness although they believe not that truth which hath come to you: they drive forth the Apostle and yourself because ye believe in God your Lord! If ye have come forth^[1] (Jihádan) labouring in my cause, and from a desire to please Me, ye show them kindness in private, then I well know what ye conceal and what ye discover! And whoso of you doth this hath verily, therefore, gone astray from the even way."

Sale translates Jihádan as meaning "to fight in the defence of my religion."

Rodwell ... "To fight on my path."

Palmer ... "Fighting strenuously."

The translators quoted above say that Hátib had informed the Meccans of an intended surprise of Mecca on the part of Mohammad with the view of making terms for his own family, which had been left there. On this occasion the passage was revealed. This shows that the campaign of Mecca is termed Jihád. But Sir William Muir does not agree with them. He says in a footnote:—"The opening verses of the sixtieth Sura are said to refer to Hâtib; but they appear to have a general bearing against too great intimacy with the Coreish during the truce and to be, therefore, of a prior date."^[2]

Footnotes

1. i.e., from Mecca when driven out of it by the Meccans in your persecution.
2. The Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, p. 114.