Overview (Verse 28)

At this point the sūrah concludes its statement on the unbelievers who associate partners with God and gives its final verdict concerning them. This verdict remains valid for the rest of time: “Believers, know that the idolaters are certainly impure. So, let them not come near to the Sacred Mosque after this year is ended. If you fear poverty, then in time God will enrich you with His own bounty, if He so wills. Truly, God is All-knowing, Wise.” (Verse 28)
 
The sūrah emphasizes the abstract impurity of the idolaters to make it their essential quality. This shows them to be totally and completely impure. This statement gives the feeling that we should seek to purify ourselves when we have anything to do with them, although their impurity is abstract. Their bodies are not really impure. In its unique style, the Qur’ān often resorts to magnification, giving abstract matters a physical shape and entity. “The idolaters are certainly impure. So, let them not come near to the Sacred Mosque after this year is ended.” (Verse 28) Here we have the strictest injunction prohibiting their presence in the Haram area. The order implies that they must not even come near it, because they are impure while the Haram is a source of purity.
 
The whole commercial season which the people of Makkah await every year, and their business which provides livelihood for most people and the two business trips in summer and winter which are so essential for the continued prosperity of the people of Makkah will all be jeopardized as a result of banning the idolaters from pilgrimage and declaring jihād against them all. This may be true, but when it comes to faith, God wants people’s hearts to be totally dedicated to their faith. When they do this, they will not worry about their livelihood, because God ensures that everyone gets his or her share in the normal way and through recognized means: “If you fear poverty, then in time God will enrich you with His own bounty, if He so wills.” (Verse 28) When God wills, He may replace certain causes with others, and He may close certain doors in order to open others. “Truly, God is All- knowing, Wise.” (Verse 28) He manages all matters and conducts all affairs in accordance with His knowledge and wisdom.
 
In this sūrah the Qur’ān is addressing the Muslim community as it was composed immediately after the conquest of Makkah, when standards of faith were not at the same level. We can see from reading the sūrah carefully that there were gaps in that community, and we can also see how the Qur’ān has set about filling these gaps and the great effort made to educate the Muslim community.
 
The method of the Qur’ān was to guide the footsteps of the Muslim community to bring it up to the high summit of total dedication to God and to the divine faith. Faith becomes the standard by which any relationship or source of pleasure in life is accepted or rejected. All this was accomplished through educating people in the real difference between God’s method which makes all people serve God alone and the methods of jāhiliyyah which enable some people to enslave others. The two are essentially different and they cannot be reconciled.
 
Without this proper understanding of the nature of this religion and its method, and also the nature of jāhiliyyah, or the state of ignorance that Islam always comes up against, we cannot recognize the true value of Islamic rules and regulations that govern dealings and transactions between the Muslim community and other communities.