A. J. Arberry - Sura 9: Repentance lyrics

9:1 An acquittal, from God and His Messenger, unto the idolaters with whom you made covenant: 'Journey freely in the land for four months; and know that you cannot frustrate the will of God, and that God degrades the unbelievers.' A proclamation, from God and His Messenger, unto mankind on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage: 'God is quit, and His Messenger, of the idolaters. So if you repent, that will be better for you; but if you turn your backs; know that you cannot frustrate the will of God. And give thou good tidings to the unbelievers of a painful chastisement; excepting those of the idolaters with whom you made covenant, then they failed you naught neither lent support to any man against you. With them fulfil your covenant till their term; surely God loves the godfearing. 9:5 Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. And if any of the idolaters seeks of thee protection, grant him protection till he hears the words of God; then do thou convey him to his place of security --that, because they are a people who do not know. How should the idolaters have a covenant with God and His Messenger? -- excepting those with whom you made covenant at the Holy Mosque; so long as they go straight with you, do you go straight with them; surely God loves the godfearing. How? If they get the better of you, they will not observe towards you any bond or treaty, giving you satisfaction with their mouths but in their hearts refusing; and the most of them are ungodly. They have sold the signs of God for a small price, and have barred from His way; truly evil is that they have been doing, 9:10 observing neither bond nor treaty towards a believer; they are the transgressors. Yet if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then they are your brothers in religion; and We distinguish the signs for a people who know. But if they break their oaths after their covenant and thrust at your religion, then fight the leaders of unbelief; they have no sacred oaths; haply they will give over. Will you not fight a people who broke their oaths and purposed to expel the Messenger, beginning the first time against you? Are you afraid of them? You would do better to be afraid of God, if you are believers. Fight them, and God will chastise them at your hands and degrade them, and He will help you against them, and bring healing to the breasts of a people who believe, 9:15 and He will remove the rage within their hearts; and God turns towards whomsoever He will; God is All-knowing, All-wise Or did you suppose you would be left in peace, and God knows not as yet those of you who have struggled, and taken not -- apart from God and His Messenger and the believers -- any intimate? God is aware of what you do. It is not for the idolaters to inhabit God's places of worship, witnessing against themselves unbelief; those -- their works have failed them, and in the Fire they shall dwell forever. Only he shall inhabit God's places of worship who believes in God and the Last Day, and performs the prayer, and pays the alms, and fears none but God alone; it may be that those will be among the guided. Do you reckon the giving of water to pilgrims and the inhabiting of the Holy Mosque as the same as one who believes in God and the Last Day and struggles in the way of God? Not equal are they in God's sight; and God guides not the people of the evildoers. 9:20 Those who believe, and have emigrated, and have struggled in the way of God with their possessions and their selves are mightier in rank with God; and those -- they are the triumphant; their Lord gives them good tidings of mercy from Him and good pleasure; for them await gardens wherein is lasting bliss, therein to dwell forever and ever; surely with God is a mighty wage. O believers, take not your fathers and brothers to be your friends, if they prefer unbelief to belief; whosoever of you takes them for friends, those -- they are the evildoers. Say: 'If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your clan, your possessions that you have gained, commerce you fear may slacken, dwellings you love -- if these are dearer to you than God and His Messenger, and to struggle in His way, then wait till God brings His command; God guides not the people of the ungodly.' 9:25 God has already helped you on many fields, and on the day of Hunain, when your multitude was pleasing to you, but it availed you naught, and the land for all its breadth was strait for you, and you turned about, retreating. Then God sent down upon His Messenger His Shechina, and upon the believers, and He sent down legions you did not see, and He chastised the unbelievers; and that is the recompense of the unbelievers; then God thereafter turns towards whom He will; God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. O believers, the idolaters are indeed unclean; so let them not come near the Holy Mosque after this year of theirs. If you fear poverty, God shall surely enrich you of His bounty, if He will; God is All-knowing; All-wise. Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden -- such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book -- until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled. 9:30 The Jews say, 'Ezra is the Son of God'; the Christians say, 'The Messiah is the Son of God.' That is the utterance of their mouths, conforming with the unbelievers before them. God a**ail them! How they are perverted! They have taken their rabbis and their monks as lords apart from God, and the Messiah, Mary's son -- and they were commanded to serve but One God; there is no god but He; glory be to Him, above that they a**ociate -- desiring to extinguish with their mouths God's light; and God refuses but to perfect His light, though the unbelievers be averse. It is He who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may uplift it above every religion, though the unbelievers be averse. O believers, many of the rabbis and monks indeed consume the goods of the people in vanity and bar from God's way. Those who treasure up gold and silver, and do not expend them in the way of God -- give them the good tidings of a painful chastisement, 9:35 the day they shall be heated in the fire of Gehenna and therewith their foreheads and their sides and their backs shall be branded: 'This is the thing you have treasured up for yourselves; therefore taste you now what you were treasuring!' The number of the months, with God, is twelve in the Book of God, the day that He created the heavens and the earth; four of them are sacred. That is the right religion. So wrong not each other during them. And fight the unbelievers totally even as they fight you totally and know that God is with the godfearing. The month postponed is an increase of unbelief whereby the unbelievers go astray; one year they make it profane, and hallow it another, to agree with the number that God has hallowed, and so profane what God has hallowed. Decked out fair to them are their evil deeds; and God guides not the people of the unbelievers. O believers, what is amiss with you, that when it is said to you, 'Go forth in the way of God,' you sink down heavily to the ground? Are you so content with this present life, rather than the world to come? Yet the enjoyment of this present life, compared with the world to come, is a little thing. If you go not forth, He will chastise you with a painful chastisement, and instead of you He will substitute another people; and you will not hurt Him anything, for God is powerful over everything. 9:40 If you do not help him, yet God has helped him already, when the unbelievers drove him forth the second of two, when the two were in the Cave, when he said to his companion, 'Sorrow not; surely God is with us.' Then God sent down on him His Shechina, and confirmed him with legions you did not see; and He made the word of the unbelievers the lowest; and God's word is the uppermost; God is All-mighty, All-wise. Go forth, light and heavy! Struggle in God's way with your possessions and your selves; that is better for you, did you know. Were it a gain near at hand, and an easy journey, they would have followed thee; but the distance was too far for them. Still they will swear by God, 'Had we been able, we would have gone out with you,' so destroying their souls; and God knows that they are truly liars. God pardon thee! Why gavest thou them leave, till it was clear to thee which of them spoke the truth, and thou knewest the liars? Those who believe in God and the Last Day ask not leave of thee, that they may struggle with their possessions and their selves; and God knows the godfearing. 9:45 They only ask leave of thee who believe not in God and the Last Day, those whose hearts are filled with doubt, so that in their doubt they go this way and that. If they had desired to go forth, they would have made some preparation for it; but God was averse that they should be aroused, so He made them pause, and it was said to them, 'Tarry you with the tarriers.' Had they gone forth among you, they would only have increased you in trouble, and run to and fro in your midst, seeking to stir up sedition between you; and some of you would listen to them; and God knows the evildoers. They sought to stir up sedition already before, and turned things upside down for thee, until the truth came, and God's command appeared, though they were averse. Some of them there are that say, 'Give me leave and do not tempt me.' Have not such men fallen into temptation? And surely Gehenna encompa**es the unbelievers. 9:50 If good fortune befalls thee, it vexes them; but if thou art visited by an affliction, they say, 'We took our dispositions before', and turn away, rejoicing. Say: 'Naught shall visit us but what God has prescribed for us; He is our Protector; in God let the believers put all their trust.' Say: 'Are you awaiting for aught to come to us but one of the two rewards most fair? We are awaiting in your case too, for God to visit you with chastisement from Him, or at our hands; so await; we are awaiting with you.' Say: 'Expend willingly, or unwillingly, it shall not be accepted from you; you are surely a people ungodly.' And naught prevents that their expendings should be accepted from them, but that they believe not in God and His Messenger, and perform not the prayer save lazily, and that they expend not without they are averse. 9:55 So let not their possessions or their children please thee; God only desires thereby to chastise them in this present life, and that their souls should depart while they are unbelievers. They swear by God that they belong with you, but they are not of you they are a people that are afraid. If they could find a shelter, or some caverns, or any place to creep into, they would turn about and bolt away to it. Some of them find fault with thee touching the freewill offerings; if they are given a share of them they are well-pleased, but if they are given none then they are angry. O were they well-pleased with what God and His Messenger have brought them, saying, 'Enough for us is God; God will bring us of His bounty, and His Messenger; to God we humbly turn.' 9:60 The freewill offerings are for the poor and needy, those who work to collect them, those whose hearts are brought together, the ransoming of slaves, debtors, in God's way, and the traveller; so God ordains; God is All-knowing, All-wise. And some of them hurt the Prophet, saying, 'He is an ear!' Say: 'An ear of good for you; he believes in God, and believes the believers, and he is a mercy to the believers among you. Those who hurt God's Messenger -- for them awaits a painful chastisement.' They swear to you by God, to please you; but God and His Messenger -- more right is it they should please Him, if they are believers. Do they not know that whosoever opposes God and His Messenger -- for him awaits the fire of Gehenna, therein to dwell forever? That is the mighty degradation. 9:65 The hypocrites are afraid, lest a sura should be sent down against them, telling thee what is in their hearts. Say: 'Mock on; God will bring forth what you fear.' And if thou questionest them, then a**uredly they will say, 'We were only plunging and playing.' Say: 'What, then were you mocking God, and His signs, and His Messenger? Make no excuses. You have disbelieved after your believing. If We forgive one party of you, We will chastise another party for that they were sinners.' The hypocrites, the men and the women, are as one another; they bid to dishonour, and forbid honour; they keep their hands shut; they have forgotten God, and He has forgotten them. The hypocrites -- they are the ungodly. God has promised the hypocrites, men and women, and the unbelievers, the fire of Gehenna, therein to dwell foreover. That is enough for them; God has cursed them; and there awaits them a lasting chastisement. 9:70 Like those before you, who were stronger than you in might, and more abundant in wealth and children; they took enjoyment in their share; so do you take enjoyment in your share, as those before you took enjoyment in their share. You have plunged as they plunged. Those -- their works have failed in this world and in the world to come; those -- they are the losers. Has there not come to you the tidings of those who were before you -- the people of Noah, Ad, Thamood, the people of Abraham, the men of Midian and the subverted cities? Their Messengers came to them with the clear signs God would not wrong them, but themselves they wronged. And the believers, the men and the women, are friends one of the other; they bid to honour, and forbid dishonour; they perform the prayer, and pay the alms, and they obey God and His Messenger. Those -- upon them God will have mercy; God is All-mighty, All-wise. God has promised the believers, men and women, gardens underneath which rivers flow, forever therein to dwell, and goodly dwelling-places in the Gardens of Eden; and greater, God's good pleasure; that is the mighty triumph. O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be thou harsh with them; their refuge is Gehenna -- an evil homecoming! 9:75 They swear by God that they said nothing, but they indeed said the word of unbelief and disbelieved, after they had surrendered. They purposed what they never attained to, and they took revenge only that God enriched them, and His Messenger, of His bounty. So if they repent it will be better for them; if they turn away, God will chastise them with a painful chastisement in this world and the next; on the earth they have no protector or helper. And some of them have made covenant with God: 'If He gives us of His bounty, we will make offerings and be of the righteous.' Nevertheless, when He gave them of His bounty they were n***ardly of it, and turned away, swerving aside. So as a consequence He put hypocrisy into their hearts, until the day they meet Him, for that they failed God in that they promised Him and they were liars. Did they not know that God knows their secret and what they conspire together, and that God knows the things unseen? 9:80 Those who find fault with the believers who volunteer their freewill offerings, and those who find nothing but their endeavour they deride -- God derides them; for them awaits a painful chastisement. Ask pardon for them, or ask not pardon for them; if thou askest pardon for them seventy times, God will not pardon them; that, because they disbelieved in God and His Messenger; God guides not the people of the ungodly. Those who were left behind rejoiced in tarrying behind the Messenger of God, and were averse to struggle with their possessions and their selves in the way of God. They said, 'Go not forth in the heat.' Say: 'Gehenna's fire is hotter, did they but understand.' Therefore let them laugh little, and weep much, in recompense for what they have been earning. So, if God returns thee to a party of them and they ask leave of thee to go forth, say: 'You shall not go forth with me ever, and you shall not fight with me any enemy. You were well-pleased to tarry the first time, so now tarry with those behind.' 9:85 And pray thou never over any one of them when he is dead, nor stand over his grave; they disbelieved in God and His Messenger, and died while they were ungodly. And let not their possessions and their children please thee; God only desires thereby to chastise them in this present world, and that their souls should depart while they are unbelievers. And when a sura is sent down, saying, 'Believe in God, and struggle with His Messenger,' the affluent among them ask leave of thee, saying, 'Let us be with the tarriers.' They are well-pleased to be with those behind, and a seal has been set upon their hearts, so the they understand not. But Messenger, and the believers with him, have struggled with their possessions and their selves, and those -- for them await the good things; those -- they are the prosperers. 9:90 God has prepared for them gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein to dwell forever; that is the mighty triumph. And the Bedouins came with their excuses, asking for leave; those who lied to God and His Messenger tarried; there shall befall the unbelievers of them a painful chastisement. There is no fault in the weak and the sick and those who find nothing to expend, if they are true to God and to His Messenger. There is no way against the good-doers -- God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate -- neither against those who, when they came to thee, for thee to mount them, thou saidst to them, 'I find not whereon to mount you'; they turned away, their eyes overflowing with tears of sorrow, because they found nothing to expend. The way is open only against those who ask leave of thee, being rich; they are well-pleased to be with those behind; God has set a seal on their hearts, so they know not. 9:95 They will excuse themselves to you, when you return to them. Say: 'Do not excuse yourselves; we will not believe you. God has already told us tidings of you. God will surely see your work, and His Messenger, then you will be returned to Him who knows the unseen and the visible, and He will tell you what you were doing.' They will swear to you by God, when you turn back to them, that you may turn aside from them. So turn aside from them, for they are an abomination, and their refuge is Gehenna -- a recompense for what they have been earning. They will swear to you, that you may be well-pleased with them; but if you are well-pleased with them, God will surely not be well-pleased with the people of the ungodly. The Bedouins are more stubborn in unbelief and hypocrisy, and apter not to know the bounds of what God has sent down on His Messenger; and God is All-knowing, All-wise. Some of the Bedouins take what they expend for a fine, and await the turns of fortune to go against you. Theirs shall be the evil turn; God is All-hearing, All-knowing. 9:100 And some of the Bedouins believe in God and the Last Day, and take what they expend for offerings bringing them near to God, and the prayers of the Messenger. Surely they are an offering for them, and God will admit them into His mercy; God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. And the Outstrippers, the first of the Emigrants and the Helpers, and those who followed them in good-doing -- God will be well-pleased with them and they are well-pleased with Him; and He has prepared for them gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein to dwell forever and ever; that is the mighty triumph. And some of the Bedouins who dwell around you are hypocrites; and some of the people of the City are grown bold in hypocrisy. Thou knowest them not; but We know them, and We shall chastise them twice, then they will be returned to a mighty chastisement. And other have confessed their sins; they have mixed a righteous deed with another evil. It may be that God will turn towards them; God is All-forgiving, All-compa**ionate. Take of their wealth a freewill offering, to purify them and to cleanse them thereby, and pray for them; thy prayers are a comfort for them; God is All-hearing, All-knowing. 9:105 Do they not know that God is He who accepts repentance from His servants, and takes the freewill offerings, and that God -- He turns, and is All-compa**ionate? Say: 'Work; and God will surely see your work, and His Messenger, and the believers, and you will be returned to Him who knows the unseen and the visible, and He will tell you what you were doing.' And others are deferred to God's commandment, whether He chastises them, or turns towards them; God is All-knowing, All-wise. And those who have taken a mosque in opposition and unbelief, and to divide the believers, and as a place of ambush for those who fought God and His Messenger aforetime -- they will swear 'We desired nothing but good'; and God testifies they are truly liars. Stand there never. A mosque that was founded upon godfearing from the first day is worthier for thee to stand in; therein are men who love to cleanse themselves; and God loves those who cleanse themselves. 9:110 Why, is he better who founded his building upon the fear of God and His good pleasure, or he who founded his building upon the brink of a crumbling bank that has tumbled with him into the fire of Gehenna? And God guides not the people of the evildoers. The buildings they have built will not cease to be a point of doubt within their hearts, unless it be that their hearts are cut into pieces; God is All-knowing, All-wise. God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of God; they k**, and are k**ed; that is a promise binding upon God in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph. Those who repent, those who serve, those who pray, those who journey, those who bow, those who prostrate themselves, those who bid to honour and forbid dishonour, those who keep God's hounds -- and give thou good tidings to the believers. It is not for the Prophet and the believers to ask pardon for the idolaters, even though they be near kinsmen, after that it has become clear to them that they will be the inhabitants of Hell. 9:115 Abraham asked not pardon for his father except because of a promise he had made to him; and when it became clear to him that he was an enemy of God, he declared himself quit of him; Abraham was compa**ionate, clement. God would never lead a people astray after that He has guided them, until He makes clear to them as to what they should be godfearing; surely God knows everything. Surely to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth; He gives life, and makes to die; and you have not, apart from God, either protector or helper. God has turned towards the Prophet and the Emigrants and the Helpers who followed him in the hour of difficulty, after the hearts of a part of them well-nigh swerved aside; then He turned towards them; surely He is Gentle to them, and All-compa**ionate. And to the three who were left behind, until, when the earth became strait for them, for all its breadth, and their souls became strait for them, and they thought that there was no shelter from God except in Him, then He turned towards them, that they might also turn; surely God turns, and is All-compa**ionate. 9:120 O believers, fear God, and be with the truthful ones. It is not for the people of the City and for the Bedouins who dwell around them to stay behind God's Messenger, and to prefer their lives to his; that is because they are smitten neither by thirst, nor fatigue, nor emptiness in the way of God, neither tread they any tread enraging the unbelievers, nor gain any gain from any enemy, but a righteous deed is thereby written to their account; God leaves not to waste the wage of the good-doers. Nor do they expend any sum, small or great, nor do they traverse any valley, but it is written to their account, that God may recompense them the best of what they were doing. It is not for the believers to go forth totally; but why should not a party of every section of them go forth, to become learned in religion, and to warn their people when they return to them, that haply they may beware? 9:125 O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that God is with the godfearing. Whenever a sura is sent down to thee, some of them say, 'Which of you has this increased in belief?' As for the believers, them it has increased in belief, and they are joyful. But as for those in whose heart is sickness, them it has increased in abomination added to their abomination, and they have died while they were unbelievers. Do they not see that they are tried every year once or twice? Yet still they do not repent, nor do they remember. And whenever a sura is sent down, they look one at another: 'Does anyone see you?' Then they turn away. God has turned away their hearts, for that they are a people who do not understand. Now there has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him is your suffering; anxious is he over you, gentle to the believers, compa**ionate. 9:130 So if they turn their backs, say: 'God is enough for me. There is no god but He. In Him I have put my trust. He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne.'