(Revealed after Hijrah)
Like the preceding three Chapters, this Surah was revealed, as its contents show, at Medina, in the 7th or 8th year of Hijrah, sometime during the interval between the Treaty of Hudaibiyah and the Fall of Mecca. The preceding Surah had dealt with the intrigues and machinations of the Hypocrites and the Jews of Medina and with the punishment which was meted out to them. The present Surah deals with the believers’ social relations with disbelievers in general, and with those at war with Islam in particular. It opens with an emphatic prohibitory injunction to Muslims against having intimate friendly relations with those disbelievers who are at war with and are bent upon extirpating Islam. The injunction is so strict and comprehensive that even very near blood relations have not been exempted from it. The prohibitory injunction is followed by an implied prophecy that very soon the implacable enemies of Islam would become its devoted followers. The injunction, however, has its exception. It does not apply to those disbelievers who have good neighbourly relations with Muslims. Such disbelievers are to be treated equitably and with kindness. The Surah then lays down some important injunctions with regard to believing women who migrated to Medina, and also with regard to those women who left Medina and went over to disbelievers. In order to bring home to Muslims the seriousness of the matter, the Surah closes with repeating the injunction that Muslims are not to make friends with those people, who, by adopting an openly hostile attitude towards Islam, have incurred God’s wrath.