Sura-60 [ Al Mumtah madina 91]

The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا جَاءكُمُ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ مُهَاجِرَاتٍ فَامْتَحِنُوهُنَّ ...

60:10.  O ye who believe!

when there come to you believing women refugees, examine (and test) them:

C5422. Under the treaty of Hudaybiyah [see Introduction to Surah 48, paragraph 4, condition (3)], women under guardianship (including married women), who fled from the Quraish in Makkah to the Prophet's protection at Madinah were to be sent back. But before this Ayah was issued, the Quraish had already broken the treaty, and some instruction was necessary as to what the Madinah Muslims should do in those circumstances. Muslim women married to Pagan husbands in Makkah were oppressed for their Faith, and some of them came to Madinah as refugees. After this, they were not to be returned to the custody of their Pagan husbands at Makkah, as the marriage of believing women with non-Muslims was held to be dissolved if the husbands did not accept Islam. But in order to give no suspicion to the Pagans that they were badly treated as they lost the dower they had given on marriage, that dower was to be repaid to the husbands. Thus helpless women refugees were to be protected at the cost of the Muslims.

...اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِإِيمَانِهِنَّ ...

Allah knows best as to their Faith:

... فَإِنْ عَلِمْتُمُوهُنَّ مُؤْمِنَاتٍ فَلَا تَرْجِعُوهُنَّ إِلَى الْكُفَّارِ ...

if ye ascertain that they are Believers, then send them not back to the Unbelievers.

C5423. The condition was that they should be Muslim women. How were the Muslims to know?

A non-Muslim woman, in order to escape from her lawful guardians in Makkah, might pretend that she was a Muslim. The true state of her mind and heart would be known to Allah alone. But if the Muslims, on an examination of the woman, found that she professed Islam, she was to have protection. The examination would be directed (among other things) to the points mentioned in verse 12 below.

... لَا هُنَّ حِلٌّ لَّهُمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحِلُّونَ لَهُنَّ ...

They are not lawful (wives) for the Unbelievers, nor are the (Unbelievers) lawful (husbands) for them.

... وَآتُوهُم مَّا أَنفَقُوا...

But pay the Unbelievers what they have spent (on their dower).

... وَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ أَن تَنكِحُوهُنَّ إِذَا آتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ ...

And there will be no blame on you if ye marry them on payment of their dower to them.

C5424. As the marriage was held to be dissolved (see n. 5422 above), there was no bar to the remarriage of the refugee Muslim woman with a Muslim man on the payment of the usual dower to her.

... وَلَا تُمْسِكُوا بِعِصَمِ الْكَوَافِرِ ...

But hold not to the guardianship of unbelieving women:

C5425. Unbelieving women in a Muslim society would only be a clog and a handicap. There would be neither happiness for them, nor could they conduce in any way to a healthy life of the society in which they lived as aliens. They were to be sent away, as their marriage was held to be dissolved; and the dowers paid to them were to be demanded from the guardians to whom they were sent back, just as in the contrary case the dowers of believing women were to be paid back to their Pagan ex-husbands (n. 5422 above).

... وَاسْأَلُوا مَا أَنفَقْتُمْ وَلْيَسْأَلُوا مَا أَنفَقُوا...

ask for what ye have spent on their dowers, and let the (Unbelievers) ask for what they have spent (on the dowers of women who come over to you).

ذَلِكُمْ حُكْمُ اللَّهِ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿١٠﴾

Such is the command of Allah:

He judges (with justice) between you: and Allah is Full of Knowledge and Wisdom

Asad’s Version:

60:10 O YOU who have attained to faith! Whenever believing women come unto you, forsaking the domain of evil, 10 examine them, [although only] God is fully aware of their faith; 11 and if you have thus ascertained that they are believers, do not send them back to the deniers of the truth, [since] they are [no longer] lawful to their erstwhile husbands, 12 and these are [no longer] lawful to them. None the less, you shall return to them whatever they have spent [on their wives by way of dower]; 13 and [then, O believers,] you will be committing no sin if you marry them after giving them their dowers.

On the other hand, hold not to the marriage-tie with women who [continue to] deny the truth," and ask but for [the return of] whatever you have spent [by way of dower] - just as they [whose wives have gone over to you] have the right to demand 15 [the return of] whatever they have spent. Such is God's judgment: He judges between you [in equity] - for God is all-knowing, wise.

60:11 And if any of your wives should go over to the deniers of the truth, and you are thus afflicted in turn," then give unto those whose wives have gone away the equivalent of what they had spent [on their wives by way of dower], 17 and remain conscious of God, in whom you believe!

60:12 O Prophet! Whenever believing women come unto thee to pledge their allegiance to thee, 18 [pledging] that [henceforth] they would not ascribe divinity, in any way, to aught but God, and would not steal, 19 and would not commit adultery, and would not kill their clildren, 20 and would not indulge in slander, falsely devising it out of nothingness: 21 and would not disobey thee in anything [that thou declarest to be] right - then accept their pledge of allegiance, and pray to God to forgive them their [past] sins: for, behold, God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.

60:13 O YOU who have attained to faith! Be not friends with people whom God has condemned! 22 They [who would befriend them] are indeed bereft of all hope of a life to come 23 - just as those deniers of the truth are bereft of all hope of [ever again seeing] those who are [now] in their graves. 24

Asad’s notes:

10 Lit., "as emigrants" (muhajirat). For an explanation of my rendering this term as above, see surah 2, note 203.

1 1 Under the terms of the Truce of Hudaybiyyah, concluded in the year 6 H. between the Prophet and the pagan Quraysh of Mecca, any Meccan minor or other person under guardianship who went over to the Muslims without the permission of his or her guardian was to be returned to the Quraysh (see introductory note to surah 48). The Quraysh took this stipulation to include also married women, whom they considered to be under the "guardianship" of their husbands. Accordingly, when several Meccan women embraced Islam against the will of their husbands and fled to Medina, the Quraysh demanded their forcible return to Mecca. This the Prophet refused on the grounds that married women did not fall within the category of "persons under guardianship". However, since there was always the possibility that some of these women had gone over to the Muslims not for reasons of faith but out of purely worldly considerations, the believers were enjoined to make sure of their sincerity; and so, the Prophet asked each of them: "Swear before God that thou didst not leave because of hatred of thy husband, or out of desire to go to another country, or in the hope of attaining to worldly advantages: swear before God that thou didst not leave for any reason save the love of God and His Apostle" (Tabari). Since God alone knows what is in the heart of a human being, a positive response of the woman concerned was to be regarded as the only humanly attainable - and, therefore, legally sufficient - proof of her sincerity. The fact that God alone is really aware of what is in a human being's heart is incorporated in the shar'i principle that any adult person's declaration of faith, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, makes it mandatory upon the community to accept that person - whether man or woman - as a Muslim on the basis of this declaration alone.

12 Lit., "to them". Thus, if a wife embraces Islam while her husband remains outside its pale, the marriage is considered, from the Islamic point of view, to have been automatically annulled.

13 Such an annulment is to be subject to the same conditions as a khul' (dissolution of marriage, at the wife's instance, from her Muslim husband - see note 218 on the second paragraph of 2:229): that is to say, since the non-Muslim former husband is presumed to have been innocent of any breach of his marital obligations as such, the wife is to be considered the contract-breaking party and has, therefore, to

refund the dower (mahr) which she received from him at the time of concluding the marriage. In case of her inability to do so, the Muslim community is obliged to indemnify the erstwhile husband: hence the plural form in the imperative '"you shall return" (lit., "give").

14 I.e., such of the pagan wives of Muslim converts as refuse to abandon their beliefs and their non-Muslim environment, in which case the Muslim husband is to regard the marriage as null and void. As for Muslim wives who, abandoning their husbands, go over to the unbelievers and renounce their faith, see verse 11.

15 Lit., "and let them demand...", etc.

16 Lit., "and you are thus taking your turn", i.e., like the unbelievers whose wives have gone over to the Muslims and renounced their erstwhile faith.

17 Since, as a rule, the unbelievers cannot really be expected to indemnify a husband thus deserted, the Muslim community as a whole is bound to undertake this obligation. As a matter of fact, there were only six such cases of apostasy in the lifetime of the Prophet (all of them before the conquest of Mecca in 8 H.); and in each case the Muslim husband was awarded by the communal treasury, on orders of the Prophet, the equivalent of the dower originally paid by him - (Baghawi and Zamakhshari).

1 8 This connects with verse 10 above, and particularly with the words, "examine them... and if you have thus ascertained that they are believers...", etc. (see note 11). Thus, after having "ascertained" their belief as far as is humanly possible, the Prophet - or, in later times, the head of the Islamic state or community - is empowered to accept their pledge of allegiance (bay'ah)" which concludes, as it were, the "examination". It should be noted that this pledge does not differ essentially from that of a male convert.

19 In this context, according to Razi, the term "stealing" comprises also all acquisition of gains through cheating or other unlawful means.

20 Sc, "as the pagan Arabs often did, burying their unwanted female offspring alive" (see also note 147 on6:151).

21 Lit., "between their hands and their feet" : i.e., by their own effort, the "hands" and "feet" symbolizing all human activity.

22 Cf. 58:14 and the corresponding note 25, which explains the reference to those "who would be friends with people whom God has condemned" .

23 I.e., only people without any real belief in a life to come can remain "neutral" between right and wrong.

24 I.e., because they utterly reject the idea of resurrection. ]]