Surah Al-Hashr, Ayah 4

Which was revealed in Al-Madinah

Ibn `Abbas used to call this chapter, `Surah Bani An-Nadir.' Sa`id bin Mansur recorded that Sa`id bin Jubayr said, "I asked Ibn `Abbas about Surat Al-Hashr and he said, `It was revealed about Bani An-Nadir."' Al-Bukhari and Muslim recorded it using another chain of narration from Ibn `Abbas. Al-Bukhari also recorded it from Abu `Awanah, from Abu Bishr from Sa`id bin Jubayr, who said, "I asked Ibn `Abbas, `Surat Al-Hashr' He said, `Surah Bani An-Nadir."'

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Everything glorifies Allah in its own Way

Allah states that everything that exists in the heavens and on the earth praises, glorifies, reveres and prays to Him and affirms His Oneness. Allah said in another Ayah,

(1) The original word used in the text is 'hashr' which means 'gathering' or 'mustering' and after which this Surah is named. In the present context, it may be interpreted in two different ways. One, that it refers to the gathering of the Muslims who ordered the Jews to leave Madinah due to their constant conspiracies and breaches of the treaty they had with the Muslims. According to this interpretation, the verse means that the Jews of Bani Nadir were made to leave the city at the first gathering of the Muslims without fighting and without any further attempt to attack them. The second interpretation is that it refers to the gathering of the Jews for the purpose of emigration. In this case the verse indicates that it was their first exile before which they did not face such a situation. It has another subtle indication to the fact that this was their first exile which will be followed by another one, i.e. the exile faced by the Jews in the days of Sayyidna ` Umar . (Muhammad Taqi Usmani)

On the east side of Madinah, there was a settlement of the Banu al-Nadir, a Jewish tribe. There was a peace treaty between them and the Prophet Muhammad. But they committed breaches of this treaty time and again. At last in the fourth year of Hijrah, Almighty God created such conditions that they were compelled to leave Madinah. Thereafter, they settled in Khybar and Azra’at. But their conspiratorial activities continued. During the caliphate of ‘Umar Faruq, they and some other Jewish tribes were made to leave the Arabian Peninsula. They subsequently went to Syria and settled there.