Translation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur'an - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary * - Translations’ Index
Translation of the meanings Ayah: (107) Surah: At-Tawbah
وَٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُواْ مَسۡجِدٗا ضِرَارٗا وَكُفۡرٗا وَتَفۡرِيقَۢا بَيۡنَ ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ وَإِرۡصَادٗا لِّمَنۡ حَارَبَ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ مِن قَبۡلُۚ وَلَيَحۡلِفُنَّ إِنۡ أَرَدۡنَآ إِلَّا ٱلۡحُسۡنَىٰۖ وَٱللَّهُ يَشۡهَدُ إِنَّهُمۡ لَكَٰذِبُونَ
(107) [2229]And ˹among them are˺ those who assumed ˹for themselves˺ a mosque to cause damage[2230], in Denial, to cause discord among the Believers and in anticipation of he who had fought Allah and His Messenger before[2231]. They will surely swear: “We intended nothing but good!”[2232] Allah bears witness that they are surely liars.
[2229] These are the most conniving hypocrites who built a gathering place for them in the shape of a mosque, in which they claimed to perform sincere worship while in fact they intended it to be a base for their sabotage campaign against the community (cf. Abū Ḥayyān).
[2230] Ḍirāran comes originally from damage/harm (ḍarar) which is the opposite of benefit (manfaʿah) (cf. Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah, al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt). The ‘mosque’ they built came later to be known as masjid al-ḍirar; acquiring the symbolic value of dissention and discord (cf. Ibn Taymiyyah, Iqtiḍā’ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm, 2/341, al-Baghawī).
[2231] Riḍā reports the consensus of exegetes that this person they were waiting for was a man known as Abū ʿĀmir al-Rāhib, a Khazrajite, who had rebelled against God and the Messenger (ﷺ) and promised them to bring a Byzantine army to fight the Messenger (ﷺ). They built their ‘mosque’ as a summoning of chaos, centre of disruption once this eagerly-awaited person showed up.
[2232] Their all-time favorite artifice was to swear solemnly to the Messenger (ﷺ) and the Believers to escape punishment; they swore that they intended it for the benefit of the less able who lived on the outskirts of Madinah, since, they reasoned, it was closer than any other mosque (cf. al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī).
[2230] Ḍirāran comes originally from damage/harm (ḍarar) which is the opposite of benefit (manfaʿah) (cf. Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah, al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt). The ‘mosque’ they built came later to be known as masjid al-ḍirar; acquiring the symbolic value of dissention and discord (cf. Ibn Taymiyyah, Iqtiḍā’ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm, 2/341, al-Baghawī).
[2231] Riḍā reports the consensus of exegetes that this person they were waiting for was a man known as Abū ʿĀmir al-Rāhib, a Khazrajite, who had rebelled against God and the Messenger (ﷺ) and promised them to bring a Byzantine army to fight the Messenger (ﷺ). They built their ‘mosque’ as a summoning of chaos, centre of disruption once this eagerly-awaited person showed up.
[2232] Their all-time favorite artifice was to swear solemnly to the Messenger (ﷺ) and the Believers to escape punishment; they swore that they intended it for the benefit of the less able who lived on the outskirts of Madinah, since, they reasoned, it was closer than any other mosque (cf. al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī).
Arabic explanations of the Qur’an:
Translation of the meanings Ayah: (107) Surah: At-Tawbah
Translation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur'an - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - Translations’ Index
Translation of the meanings of the Noble Qur’an into English - in progress - translated by Dr. Walid Bleihesh Al-Omari.