Boreal

JIHAD IN THE KORAN

The Enemy

The Reluctant Immigrants

The revelations about Muslim sympathizers “who could have accepted the faith and emigrated, but did not” are interpreted today as encouraging believers to emigrate to the Land of War—the land of the unbelievers—so as to facilitate its eventual conquest in Allah’s Cause.

2:218 Those who believed and those who emigrated and strove for the Cause of Allah are those who may surely hope for Allah’s Mercy. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

For God, the Meccans who, during the war between Mecca and Medina (to be covered later), were tempted to convert to Islam but didn’t because they did not want to leave were as despicable as those who fought His Messenger, and deserving of the same fate.

4:97 Those whom the angels cause to die while they are unjust to themselves (the reference is to those Meccans who could have accepted the faith and emigrated, but did not) will be asked [by the angels]: “What were you doing?” They will say: “We were oppressed in the land.” They (the angels) will add saying: “Was not Allah’s Land spacious enough for you to emigrate to some other part?” Those people – their refuge is Hell, and what a wretched destiny!

God was not as pitiless towards all who would not actively join the fight for Islam by emigrating.

4:98 Except the oppressed men, women and children who have no recourse and cannot find a way out (the reference here is to those Meccans who were weak and could not emigrate).

4:99 Those, Allah may pardon them; Allah is All Pardoning, All Forgiving.

The stay-put believers of Mecca’s refuge may be in Hell, but they still served as a rallying cry. God invited the believers to join His Messenger’s campaign against Mecca to liberate those who refused to leave the city even if, as Revelation 4:97 makes quite clear, nothing was stopping them from doing so.

4:75 And why don’t you fight for the Cause of God and for the down-trodden, men, women and children, who say: “Lord, bring us out of the city (Mecca) whose inhabitants are unjust and grant us, from you, a protector, and grant us, from You, a supporter.”

An invitation to emigrate to the land of the unbelievers so as to further Allah’s Cause is as valid today as it was then.

4:100 He who emigrates for the Cause of Allah will find on earth many a place of refuge and abundance; and he who leaves his home as an emigrant to Allah and His Messenger and is then overtaken by death, has already earned his reward from Allah. Allah is All-Forgiving, Merciful.

If necessary, you may conceal the fact that you are Muslim from your “manifest enemy.”

4:101 And when you journey in the land, you are not at fault if you shorten the prayer for fear that the unbelievers will harm you. The unbelievers are your manifest enemy.