J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

CiCAP. IV. AL KOKAN. 71
tliini^s. When ye are saluted with a salutation, salute the person witli a
better salutation,* or at least return the same; for God taketh an account
of all things. God! there is no God but he; he will surely gather you
together on the clay of resurrection; there is no doubt of it: and who is
more true than God in what he saith ? Why are ye divided concerning the
ungodly into two parties;" since GoD hath overturned them for what they
have committed? Will ye direct him whom God hath led astray; since
for him whom God shall lead astray, thou shalt find no irwepath? They
desire that ye should become infidels, as they are infidels, and that ye
should be equally loicked with themselves. Therefore take no friends from
among them, imtil they fly their c(mntry for the religion of God; and
if they turn back/?-o?/i the/'iith, take them, and kill them wherever ye find
them; and take no friend from among them, nor any helper, except those
who go unto a people who are in alliance with you,^ or those who come
unto you, their hearts forbidding them either to fight against you, or
to fight against their own people.^ And if God pleased he would havo
permitted them to have prevailed against you, and they would have fought
against you. But if they depart from you, and fight not against you, and
oS"er you peace, God doth not allow you to take or kill them. Ye shall
find others who are desirous to enter into confidence with you,* and at the
same time to preserve a confidence with their own people :^ so often as they
return to sedition, they shall be subverted therein; and if they depart not
from you, and offer you peace, and restrain their hands from warring
against you, take them and kill them wheresoever ye find them ; over these
have we granted you a manifest power. It is not law/id for a believer to
kill a believer, unless it haj)pen by mistake;* and whoso killeth a believer
by mistake, the penalty shall he the freeing of a believer from slavery, and
a fine to be paid to the family of ^Ae deceased,^ unless they remit it as alms :
* By adding something farther. As when one sahites another by this form, Peace
he upon thee, he ought not onlv to return the salutation, hut to add, and the mercy
of God, and his bles>:wr/.
" This passage was revealed, according to some, when certain of Mohammed's
followers, pretending not to like iledina. desired leave to go elsewhere, and having
obtained it, went farther and farther, till they joined the idolaters; or, as others
say, on occasion of some deserters at the battle of Ohod ; concernitig whom the
Moslems were divided in opinion whether they should be slain as infidels, or not.
^ The people here meant, say some, were the tribe of Khozaah, or, according to
others, the Aslamians, whose chief, named Helal Ehn Owaimar, agreed with
Mohammed, when he set out against Mecca, to stand neuter; or, as others rather
think, Banu Beer Ebn Zeid.^
y These, it is said, were the tribe of Modlaj, who came in to Mohammed, but
«vould not be obliged to assist him in war.
* " There are others who wish to ally your belief with that of their own nation."—
Savarj/.
* The persons hinted at here were the tribes of Asad and Chatfan, or, as some
say, Banu AbdulHar, who came to Medina and pretended to embrace Mohammedism,
that they might be trusted by the Moslems, but when they returned, fell back to
their old idolatry. *
» That is, by accident and without design. This passage was revealed to decide
the case of Ayash Ebn Abi Rabia, the brother, by the mother's side, of Abu Jahl,
who, meeting ilareth Ebn Zeid on the road, and not knowing that he had embraced
Mohammedism. slew him. 2
'• Wh'ch fine is to be distributed according to the law of inheritances given in tha
• Al Beidawi, Jallalo'ddin. ^ Al Beidawi. ' Idem.