The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

b
this is the correct calculation.
c
Do not
wrong your souls in these months –
– though you may 
fight the
idolaters at any time,
d
if they 
first fight you–– remember that God is
with those who are mindful of Him. 
37Postponing sacred months
is another act of disobedience by which those who disregard [God]
are led astray: they will allow it one year and forbid it in another in
order outwardly to conform with the number of God’s sacred
months, but in doing so they permit what God has forbidden. Their
evil deeds are made alluring to them: God does not guide those who
disregard [Him].
38Believers, why, when it is said to you, ‘Go and fight in God’s
way,’ do you feel weighed down to the ground? Do you prefer this
a
Clearly this refers to a certain group who, possibly at the time of the Prophet or
earlier, made this claim.
b
These are Rajab, Dhu ’l-Qa
 da, Dhu ’l-Hijjah, and Muharram in the Muslim lunar
calendar. Fighting was not allowed during these months (except in self-defence).
Cf. 
2: 194.
c
One of the meanings of din is ‘calculation’ or ‘reckoning’.
d
Another interpretation of kafatan is ‘all together’.
Repentance
119
9: 38

---

world to the life to come? How small the enjoyment of this world
is, compared with the life to come! 
39If you do not go out and
fight, God will punish you severely and put others in your place,
but you cannot harm Him in any way: God has power over all
things. 
40Even if you do not help the Prophet, God helped him
when the disbelievers drove him out: when the two of them
a
were
in the cave, he [Muhammad] said to his companion, ‘Do not
worry, God is with us,’ and God sent His calm down to him, aided
him with forces invisible to you, and brought down the dis-
believers’ plan. God’s plan is higher: God is almighty and wise.
41So go out, no matter whether you are lightly or heavily armed,
and struggle in God’s way with your possessions and your per-
sons: this is better for you, if you only knew. 
42They would cer-
tainly have followed you [Prophet] if the bene
fit was within sight
and the journey short, but the distance seemed too great for them.
They will swear by God, ‘If we could, we certainly would go out
[to battle] with you,’ but they ruin themselves, for God knows that
they are lying.
43God forgive you [Prophet]! Why did you give them permission
to stay at home before it had become clear to you which of them
spoke the truth and which were liars? 
44Those who have faith in God
and the Last Day do not ask you for exemption from struggle with
their possessions and their persons –
– God knows exactly who is
mindful of Him –
–
45only those who do not have faith in God and the
Last Day ask your permission to stay at home: they have doubt in
their hearts and so they waver. 
46If they had really wanted to go out
[to battle] with you, they would have made preparations, but God
was loath to let them rise up and made them hold back. It was said,
‘Stay with those who stay behind.’
47They would only have given
you trouble if they had gone out [to battle] with you: they would
have scurried around, trying to sow discord among you, and some of
you would willingly have listened to them –
– God knows exactly who
does evil. 
48Indeed, they had tried before that to stir up discord: they
devised plots against you [Prophet] until the truth was exposed and
God’s will triumphed, much to their disgust. 
49Some of them said,
‘Give me permission to stay at home: do not trouble me.’ They
are already in trouble: Hell will engulf the disbelievers. 
50If you