Surah At-Taubah

At-Taubah, "Repentance", is the ninth surah of the Quran and the only one that does not open with the Basmala. A Medinan surah of 129 verses, it is 113th in the traditional order of revelation, among the very last surahs revealed. Largely revealed in 9 AH, around the expedition of Tabuk, it deals with the end of the treaties with the polytheists, the hypocrites and repentance.

Names

It is called At-Tawba after the repentance that God accepted from the Prophet ﷺ, the Emigrants and the Helpers, and from three men who had stayed behind from Tabuk (9:117–118). It is also known as Bara'a, "Disavowal", its first word. Ibn Abbas called it al-Fadiha, "the Exposer", because it went on describing the hypocrites, "and among them… and among them…", until people feared no one would be left unmentioned (al-Bukhari 4882). Al-Bara' ibn Azib said it was the last surah revealed (al-Bukhari 4605).

Context

In 9 AH Abu Bakr led the pilgrimage and had it proclaimed at Mina, on the Day of Sacrifice, that after that year no polytheist would make the pilgrimage and no one would circle the Kaaba naked (al-Bukhari 369); Ali was then sent to proclaim the opening verses. Much of the surah concerns the expedition to Tabuk, launched the same year in the heat of summer. The absence of the Basmala has been explained in several ways (see Al-Anfal).

Main themes

• The end of the treaties with the polytheists who had broken them, after four months of respite, while pacts with those who had kept faith were honoured to their term (9:1–16); a polytheist seeking protection was to be granted it, to hear the word of God (9:6).
• The sacred months (9:36), the People of the Book (9:29–35) and a warning to those who hoard gold and silver (9:34–35).
• Tabuk: the call to set out, the excuses of the hypocrites and their "mosque of harm" (9:107–110).
• The recipients of zakat (9:60), and God's purchase from the believers of their lives and wealth in exchange for Paradise (9:111).
• The cave during the Hijra, where the Prophet reassured Abu Bakr: "Do not grieve, God is with us" (9:40; al-Bukhari 3653, Muslim 2381).
• Repentance: God forgave the three who stayed behind, Ka'b ibn Malik, Murara ibn ar-Rabi' and Hilal ibn Umayya, after fifty nights of isolation (9:118; al-Bukhari 4418, Muslim 2769), followed by the call "Fear God and be with the truthful" (9:119).

Closing verses

The surah ends with a portrait of the Prophet: "There has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves. Your suffering weighs on him; he is deeply concerned for you, and kind and merciful to the believers" (9:128), then "God is sufficient for me; there is no god but He" (9:129). When the Quran was collected under Abu Bakr, Zayd ibn Thabit found these verses in writing only with Abu Khuzayma al-Ansari (al-Bukhari 4986).