Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo itha jaakumu almuminatu muhajiratin faimtahinoohunna Allahu aAAlamu bieemanihinna fain AAalimtumoohunna muminatin fala tarjiAAoohunna ila alkuffari la hunna hillun lahum wala hum yahilloona lahunna waatoohum ma anfaqoo wala junaha AAalaykum an tankihoohunna itha ataytumoohunna ojoorahunna wala tumsikoo biAAisami alkawafiri waisaloo ma anfaqtum walyasaloo ma anfaqoo thalikum hukmu Allahi yahkumu baynakum waAllahu AAaleemun hakeemun
English
Ahmed Ali
O believers, when believing women come over to you as refugees, then examine them. God alone is cognisant of their faith. If you find that they are believers, do not send them back to unbelievers. They are not lawful for them, nor are infidels lawful for believing women. Give the unbelievers what they have spent on them. There is no sin if you marry them provided you give their dowers to them. Do not retain your (marriage) ties with unbelieving women. Ask for the return of what you have spent (on them); and the unbelievers should ask for the return of what they have spent. This is the judgement of God. He judges between you. God is all-knowing and all-wise.
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (o ye who believe! when believing women) who truly believe in allah (come unto you as fugitives) from mecca to medina or al-hudaybiyyah, (examine them) ask them and let them swear as to their intentions from their coming. (allah is best aware of their faith) allah is best aware of their hearts' firmness in faith. (then, if ye know them for true believers) through examination, (send them not back unto the disbelievers) do not send them back to their disbelieving husbands. (they are not) i.e. the believing women, (lawful for the disbelievers) for their disbelieving husbands, (nor are the disbelievers lawful for them) for the believing women. allah says: a believing woman is not lawful for a disbelieving man nor is a disbelieving woman lawful for a believing man. (and give the disbelievers that which they have spent (upon them)) give their husbands that which they have spent on them as dower. this was revealed about subay'ah bint al-harth al-aslamiyyah who came to the prophet (pbuh) in the year of al-hudaybiyyah, to declare her islam but her husband musafir came after her to take her back. the prophet, allah bless him and give peace, gave him back the dowry which her husband had given her. in that particular year, and before the revelation of this verse, the people of mecca had signed a treaty with the prophet (pbuh) which stipulated that whoever from the people of mecca embraces islam can join the muslims, and whoever of the muslims embraces the religion of the meccan pagans is returned to the muslims; and any woman from the people of mecca who embraces islam, the muslims should pay back the dowry given to her to her husband, and any muslim woman who joins the religion of the meccan pagans, the people of mecca should pay back her dowry to her husband. this is why the prophet (pbuh) paid back to musafir the dowry which he had given to subay'ah. (and it is no sin for you) o believers (to marry such women) those who were disbelievers and then embraced islam (when ye have given them their dues) when you have given them their dowry. allah says here: any woman who embraces islam while her husband remains a disbeliever, the sacred bond that ties her to her husband becomes broken and, therefore, she does not have to observe a waiting period and can marry after making sure she is not pregnant. (and hold not to the ties of disbelieving women) he says: any woman who disbelieves in allah has broken the sacred bond that ties her to her husband; and therefore he should not consider her his wife; (and ask for (the return of) that which ye have spent) he says: ask the people of mecca to give back what you have spent on them, if your wives join their religion; (and let the disbelievers ask for that which they have spent) on their wives when the latter embrace islam. and this exactly what they had agreed with the prophet (pbuh). (that is the judgement of allah) that is the obligation of allah. (he judgeth between you) and the people of mecca. (allah is knower) of what is best for you, (wise) in that which he judged between you. this verse is abrogated by unanimous consensus of muslims.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : o you who believe, when believing women come to you, [saying] with their tongues [that they are], emigrating, from the [company of] disbelievers — [this was] following the truce concluded with them [the disbelievers] at al-hudaybiyya to the effect that if any of their number should go to [join] the believers, that person should be sent back — test them, by making them swear that they had only gone forth [from mecca] because of their [sincere] wish to embrace islam, and not out of some hatred for their disbelieving husbands, nor because they might be enamoured by some muslim man: that was how the prophet (s) used to take from them their oaths. god knows best [the state of] their faith. then, if you know them, if you suppose them, on the basis of their oaths, to be believers, do not send them back to the disbelievers. they [the women] are not lawful for them, nor are they [the disbelievers] lawful for them. and give them, that is to say, their disbelieving husbands, what they have expended, on them [on such women], in the way of dowries. and you would not be at fault if you marry them, on that [previous] condition, when you have given them their dowries. and do not hold on (read tumassikū or tumsikū) to the [conjugal] ties of disbelieving women, your wives, for your islam automatically prohibits you from this, or [to the ties of] those apostatising women who return to the idolaters, for [likewise] their apostatising automatically prohibits you from marrying them, and ask for, demand, [the return of] what you have expended, on these women, of dowries, in the event of apostasy, from those disbelievers to whom they are married. and let them ask for what they have expended, on those women who have emigrated, as explained above, that it may be repaid to them. that is god’s judgement. he judges between you, therewith, and god is knower, wise.
Ali ibn Ahmad al-Wahidi
تفسير : (o ye who believe! when believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them. allah is best aware of their faith…) [60:10].
ibn ‘abbas said: “on the year of hudaybiyyah, the idolaters of mecca signed a peace treaty with the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace. this treaty stipulated that whoever of the people of mecca runs away to him from them should be returned to them, and whoever of his companions runs away to the people of mecca will not be returned. they wrote the treaty and sealed it. just after signing the treaty, subay‘ah bint al-harith al-aslamiyyah went to the prophet, allah bless him and give him peace, while he was still at al-hudaybiyyah. her husband, who was an unbeliever came and said: ‘o muhammad, return my wife to me, for you had agreed to return to us whoever runs away to you. the ink of the treaty has not dried yet’. allah, exalted is he, then revealed this verse”.
al-hasan ibn muhammad al-farisi informed us> muhammad ibn ‘abd allah ibn al-fadl> ahmad ibn muhammad ibn al-hasan al-hafiz> muhammad ibn yahya> hasan ibn al-rabi‘ ibn al-khashshab> ibn idris> muhammad ibn ishaq> al-zuhri who said: “i entered in on ‘urwah ibn al-zubayr while he was writing a letter to ibn hunaydah, the aid of al-walid ibn ‘abd al-malik, in reply to his question about the words of allah, exalted is he, (o ye who believe! when believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them). he wrote to him: ‘the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, signed a peace treaty with the quraysh on the day of al-hudaybiyyah. the treaty stipulated that he should return to them whoever goes to him without the permission of his custodian. when women emigrated [from mecca to the prophet, allah bless him and give him peace,] allah, exalted is he, refused to turn them back to the idolaters after it has been ascertained that they had migrated for islam. this examination consisted of giving back their dowers to the idolaters if they are kept back [with the muslims], provided that the idolaters give back the dowers of the wives of muslims who stayed back in mecca’. he said: ‘that is the judgement of allah with which he judges between them. the messenger of allah, allah bless him and give him peace, therefore, kept back women and sent back to the quraysh the men who had run away from them’ ”.
Sahl al-Tustari
تفسير : …and do not hold on to the [conjugal] ties of disbelieving women…he said:do not agree with the people of innovations concerning anything which issues from their whims (ahwāʾ) or opinions (ārāʾ). his words, exalted is he:
