Overview (Verse 111)

A Very Special Contract

God has bought of the believers their lives and their property, promising them heaven in return: they fight for the cause of God, kill and be killed. This is a true promise which He has made binding on Himself in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’ān. Who is more true to his promise than God? Rejoice, then, in the bargain you have made with Him. That is the supreme triumph. (Verse 111)

I have heard this verse recited and have read it myself countless times over a long period starting from when I first memorized the Qur’ān and later when I used to recite and study it over a period of more than a quarter of a century. But when I began to reflect on it in order to write about it in this commentary, I began to understand it in a way that did not occur to me previously.

It is an inspiring verse, revealing the nature of the relationship between the believers and God, and the nature of the deal they make with God when they adopt Islam and which remains in force throughout their lives. Whoever makes this deal and remains true to it is the one who may truly be described as a believer reflecting the nature of faith. Otherwise his claim to be a believer remains short of proof.

The nature of this deal, or this contract of sale, as God graciously describes it, is that He has taken for Himself the souls and property of the believers, leaving them nothing of all that. They do not retain any part of that which they would feel too dear to sacrifice for His cause. They no longer have any choice whether to spend it in furthering His cause or not. It is indeed a deal that has been concluded and sealed. The buyer may do what He likes, as He pleases, with what He has bought. The seller has no option other than to fulfil the terms of the deal. He cannot argue or make any choices. He can only do what the deal specifies. The price given for this purchase is paradise, and the way to be followed by the sellers is that of jihād, fighting and sacrificing their lives, and the end result is either victory or martyrdom.

“God has bought of the believers their lives and their property, promising them heaven in return: they fight for the cause of God, kill and be killed.” (Verse 111) Whoever is party to this deal, signing the contract, paying the price agreed is a true believer. It is with the believers that God has made this deal of purchase. He has bestowed His grace on them by specifying a price. He is, after all, the One who gives life and property to all His creation, and He has also given human beings the ability to make a choice. He then bestowed further grace on human beings by making them able to make contracts, even with God Himself, and holding them to their contracts. He makes the honouring of their contract an evidence of their humanity, while going back on it is evidence of sinking back to the level of animals, and the worst of animals: “Indeed, the worst of all creatures in God’s sight are the ones who have denied the truth, and therefore will not believe; those with whom you have concluded a treaty, and then they break their treaty at every occasion, entertaining no sense of fearing God.” (8: 55-56) He has also made the honouring or violation of such deals the criterion of reckoning and reward.

It is indeed an awesome deal, but it remains binding on every believer who is able to honour its terms. He is not to be exempt from it unless he goes back on his faith. Hence the sense of dread that I feel now as I am writing these words. “God has bought of the believers their lives and their property, promising them heaven in return: they fight for the cause of God, kill and be killed.” (Verse 111) My Lord, we certainly need Your help.

The deal fills us with awe. Yet those who are claiming to be Muslims everywhere, from the far east to the far west are sitting idle, unwilling to strive hard in order to establish the fundamental truth of God’s Lordship on earth, or to remove the tyranny which usurps the qualities of Lordship over human life on earth. They are unwilling to fight, kill and be killed for God’s cause, and unwilling to undertake a struggle that does not involve fighting and sacrificing one’s life.

These words touched the hearts of the early Muslims at the time of the Prophet and were transformed into a reality that they would experience in life. They were not mere words carrying certain abstract meanings for contemplation and reflection. They were meant for immediate implementation. This is how `Abdullāh ibn Rawāĥah felt at the time of the second pledge given by the Anşār to the Prophet at `Aqabah as reported by Muĥammad ibn Ka`b al-Qurażī and others: “ `Abdullāh ibn Rawāĥah asked God’s Messenger to specify God’s conditions and his own conditions. The Prophet said: `As for God, the condition is that you worship Him alone, associating no partners with Him. And as for myself, the condition is that you protect me like you protect yourselves and your property.’ He said: ‘What do we get in return if we fulfil these terms?’ The Prophet said: ‘Paradise.’ They all said: ‘This is a profitable deal. We accept no going back and we will not go back on it ourselves.’”

That is how they felt about the whole contract: it was a profitable deal that allows no going back by either party. They treated it as a final deal concluded and sealed, with no opting out clause. The price, which is paradise, is paid, not deferred. Is it not a promise made by God Himself? Is He not the purchaser? Is He not the One who has made an old promise specifying the price in all His revelations: “This is a true promise which He has made binding on Himself in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’ān.” (Verse 111)

“Who is more true to his promise than God?” (Verse 111) Indeed a promise by God is certain to be honoured. No one fulfils his promises like He does.

Jihād, or striving for God’s cause, is a deal made by every believer, ever since the first Messenger was sent to mankind with a religion setting out the principles of faith. It is a course of action that is necessary to put life on a proper footing. Without it human life will not follow its right course. It is as God says in the Qur’ān: “Had it not been for the fact that God repels one group of people by another, the earth would have been utterly corrupted.” (2: 251) And He also says: “Had it not been for the fact that God repels one group of people by another, monasteries, temples, houses of worship and mosques, wherein God’s name is often praised, would have been pulled down.” (22: 40)

A True Promise and a Profitable Deal

The truth must certainly move along its well-known way, and it is inevitable that falsehood should try to obstruct its march. The true faith revealed by God must set forth to liberate all mankind from submission to other creatures and to return them to serve and submit to God alone. Tyranny is certain to try to stop it and foil its efforts. The aim of the faith is to reach all corners of the world and liberate all mankind. The truth must set out along its way, without hesitation in order to prevent falsehood from gaining access to it. As long as unbelief and falsehood continue to exist anywhere in the world, and as long as people continue to submit to beings other than God, thus causing man to be humiliated, then striving for God’s cause must continue. The deal made by every believer must be fulfilled, or else he is not a believer. The Prophet is quoted as saying: “Whoever dies without having joined a campaign of jihād, or at least considered joining it, betrays an aspect of hypocrisy.” [Related by Aĥmad, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasā’ī.]

“Rejoice, then, in the bargain you have made with Him. That is the supreme triumph.” (Verse 111) Yes, people should rejoice at having dedicated their souls and their property for God’s cause in return for admittance into heaven, as God Himself has promised. What does a believer miss out on when he honours his part of the deal? He certainly does not miss out on anything. He is certain to die anyway, and his wealth is certain to go, whether he spends it to serve God’s cause or in any other way. Being in paradise is a great gain which a believer actually gets for nothing, since the price he offers would be gone anyway, whichever course of action he follows.

We need not mention the position of honour man attains when he conducts his life in line with what God requires of him. If he attains victory, then it is a victory achieved to make God’s word supreme, to establish the faith God has revealed and to liberate God’s servants from subjugation by human beings. If he attains martyrdom, then he is a martyr sacrificing his life for God’s cause, making a testimony that he values his faith as more precious than his life. At every moment and at every step he feels himself to be stronger than the shackles and bonds of life, and that the burdens of this earthly life cannot stop his march. His faith triumphs over pain, and over life itself.

On its own this is a great victory, because it represents the fulfilment of man’s humanity through his release from the burdens of his needs. When admittance to heaven is added as a reward, then the sale he has made calls for him to rejoice as it represents a great triumph indeed: “Rejoice then in the bargain you have made with Him. That is the supreme triumph.” (Verse 111)

We need to pause here a little to reflect on God’s statement which says: “This is a true promise which He has made binding on Himself in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’ān.” (Verse 111) The promise God has made in the Qur’ān to those who strive for His cause is well known and is repeated several times. It leaves no room for any doubt about the fact that striving for God’s cause is an essential part of the Islamic way of life as revealed by God Himself. Such striving is indeed the means to counter any human situation, at any place or time. It is to be remembered that the state of ignorance, or jāhiliyyah, is found in a human grouping or community that resorts to physical force to protect itself. It is not a theoretical concept standing in opposition to another. It takes practical steps to resist the divine faith and to overcome any Islamic grouping that upholds it. It prevents people from listening to the general declaration Islam makes which emphasizes that God is the only Lord to whom all human beings should submit; the declaration that ensures the liberation of all mankind throughout the world from submission to creatures of any sort. It actually stops people from joining the liberated Islamic community. Hence Islam has no choice but to confront the physical power that protects jāhiliyyah groupings, which, in turn, try their utmost to crush the Muslim revivalist groups and suppress their declaration announcing the liberation of mankind.

God’s promise in the Torah and the Gospel to those who strive for His cause needs clarification. The Torah and the Gospel that are today in circulation cannot be described as the ones which God — limitless is He in His glory — revealed to His Messengers, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them both). Even the Jews and the Christians do not claim that. They agree that the original versions of these Scriptures are not in existence. What they have today was written long after the revelation of these books, when all that was left was the little committed to memory after more than one generation. Much was added to that small memorized portion.

Nevertheless there remain in the Old Testament clear references to jihād and much encouragement to the Jews to fight their pagan enemies in order to ensure the triumph of their faith. Having said that, we should remember that distortion has crept into their concept of God and what striving for His cause means.

On the other hand, the Gospels that circulate among Christians today do not include any reference to jihād. We must, however, revise the concepts people have of the nature of Christianity, because these are taken from those Gospels which are not authentic, a fact conceded by Christian scholars. Besides, their lack of authenticity has been stated by God Himself in His last book, the Qur’ān, which admits no falsehood whatsoever. And in the Qur’ān God says clearly that His promise to grant heaven to those who strive for His cause, kill and be killed, was spelled out in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’ān. This is, then, the true fact which no counter argument can disprove.

What this statement means is that jihād, or striving for God’s cause, is a deal binding on everyone who believes in God, ever since God sent messengers to mankind to preach His faith. But striving for God’s cause does not mean rushing to fight the enemy. It is the practical translation of a principle of faith which influences the feelings, attitudes, behaviour and worship of the believers. Those with whom God has made this deal reflect their faith by their true characteristics outlined in the next verse.