Overview (Verses 94 - 96)

Hollow Excuses

The sūrah continues its description of those people of plentiful means who prefer to stay behind at a time when the Prophet and the Muslim community are marching to face a powerful enemy. There is something behind such preference with what it entails of adopting a humiliating attitude and being always evasive when asked to come clean and state their position openly.

“They shall come to you with their excuses when you return to them.” (Verse 94) This is a piece of information which God gives to His Messenger and the faithful among his Companions. It tells them of what those hypocrites will be doing when the Muslims return from their arduous expedition. This confirms that these verses were revealed when the Muslim army was on its way back from the expedition, and before they had arrived in Madinah. The hypocrites would come with their excuses, because they would be ashamed to let their action be seen in its true light. It would be disgraceful to let it be seen with its real motives, which were a weak faith, a preference for personal safety and an unwillingness to fight a great power: “Say: ‘Do not offer any excuses, for we shall not believe you. God has already enlightened us about you.’” (Verse 94) The Prophet is instructed to tell them to spare themselves the trouble of offering excuses, because they are not to be believed. It is no longer the case that these hypocrites can be taken on the basis of appearances. God has revealed the truth about them to His Messenger and He has informed him of their motives which are now seen for what they truly are. The Arabic expression used here is highly significant. The words indicating refusal to accept the excuses of the hypocrites are identical to those used in reference to being believers. This connotes verbal acceptance, rational trust, and inner faith and reassurance. It also involves a believer’s trust in his Lord, and a mutual trust between all believers.

Those offering their excuses are told not to do so, because words are of no use. They need to show what they do. If their action confirms what they say, then their assertions will be true. If not, there can be no trust or acceptance. “God will see how you act, and so will His Messenger.” (Verse 94) God sees every action and knows every secret hidden in every heart. He knows the real intentions of all His creation. The Prophet was to take what people say in conjunction with what they do. That would be the basis of internal relationships in the Muslim community.

Moreover, matters will not end in this life on earth. There will eventually come the reckoning and the reward which will be based on God’s absolute knowledge of what is done openly and what remains in people’s hearts: “In the end you shall be brought before Him who knows all that is beyond the reach of human perception, and all that is manifest when He will tell you what you used to do.” (Verse 94)

The phrase “beyond the reach of human perception” means what people do not know, while “what is manifest” refers to what they see and what comes to their knowledge. God knows all this when the statement is read in this simple sense, but it also has a wider and more profound sense. God knows everything in this world which is seen and experienced, and He knows everything in the worlds beyond, of which we know nothing. There is an intended meaning in what God says to those whom He addresses in this verse: “He will tell you what you used to do.” (Verse 94) They know what they do, but God — limitless is He in His glory — knows their doings better than they, and He will tell them about these. It is often the case that a person may not be aware of an inner motive for something he does. God knows it better than he. An action may very often produce an outcome that may remain unknown to the person who performed it. What is meant here is that God gives people the results of what they used to do. That is the reward they will have for their actions. Here, though, they are only informed and the reward itself is not specified. 

When you return to them they will swear to you by God so that you may let them be. Let them be, then: they are unclean. Hell shall be their abode in recompense for what they used to do. (Verse 95)

This is another piece of information given by God to His Messenger, telling him what the hypocrites will be doing when he and his faithful Companions return to Madinah; an encounter the hypocrites thought they would never return from. God knew, and He told His Messenger as much, that they would try to make their excuses easier to accept by swearing to their truth. By doing so, they hoped to make the Muslims overlook what they had done so that they might forgive them their negligence without question.

God instructs His Messenger to leave them alone, not as a sign of forgiveness, but as a sign of turning away from them, because they are abominable: “Let them be, then: they are unclean.” (Verse 95) This gives a physical expression of mental impurity. They are not physically or bodily unclean, but they are unclean mentally, as a result of their actions. The physical description gives an image that is much more abominable, revolting and contemptible. They are more concerned with their personal safety than striving for the cause of the community and are hence described as unclean. Their impurity contaminates souls, spreads disease and fills people with disgust, just like a rotten, dead body left in their midst.

“Hell shall be their abode in recompense for what they used to do.” (Verse 95) They feel that they gain by staying behind, securing their safety and comfort and enjoying their wealth. The fact is that in this life they are unclean, while they waste their share of the life to come. They end up in utter loss. God certainly tells the truth.

The sūrah goes on to tell more of what they will do after the Muslim fighters return home: “They swear to you trying to make you pleased with them. Should you be pleased with them, God shall never be pleased with such transgressing folk.” (Verse 96) They first request the Muslims to overlook what they have done. Then, they gradually ask for more, trying to make the Muslims feel easy with them so that they can secure their own safety within the community. They want to ensure that the Muslims continue to accept their outward appearances, treating them on that basis, and not mounting a campaign against them as God has ordered them in this final, definitive description of relations between Muslims and hypocrites.

God makes it clear that they have transgressed by staying behind because their action is motivated by their lack of faith. He also tells the Muslim community that He will never be pleased with wrongdoing people, even though they may be able to win acceptance with the Muslims through their swearing and excuses. It is God’s verdict that is final. People’s acceptance, though they may be Muslims, will not change their position with God and will avail them nothing. The only way to win God’s acceptance is to change their attitude and to embrace the true faith leading to God’s pleasure.

God has thus revealed the true situation of those living among the Muslim community and staying behind without having any real cause for exemption. He has also defined the sort of relations that should prevail between the Muslim community and the hypocrites in the same way as He defined the relationship between this community and the idolaters on the one hand, and between it and the followers of earlier revelations on the other. This sūrah gives the details of this final verdict.