Surah Al-Mumtahanah, Ayah 8

إِنَّمَا يَنْهَـكُمُ اللَّهُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ قَـتَلُوكُمْ فِى الدِّينِ وَأَخْرَجُوكُم مِّن دِيَـرِكُمْ وَظَـهَرُواْ عَلَى إِخْرَجِكُمْ أَن تَوَلَّوْهُمْ وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُمْ فَأُوْلَـئِكَ هُمُ الظَّـلِمُونَ

Some reports indicate that Sayyidah Asma’ s ؓ mother Qutailah was divorced by Sayyidna Abu Bakr ؓ in the Days of Ignorance. Sayyidah Asma’ s sister, Sayyidah ` A'ishah ؓ was born of the second wife of Abu Bakr ؓ ، namely, Umm Raman, who had embraced Islam. [ Ibn Kathir and Mazhari ].

The verse directs that justice and good behavior should be maintained with those unbelievers who did not fight the Muslims. As for justice, it is obligatory to maintain with every non-Muslim, whether he is a citizen of an Islamic State, or the Muslims have peace agreement with him, or a citizen of an un-Islamic State, even though he is at war with Muslims. Rather, Islam enjoins upon Muslims to do justice even to animals. We are not allowed to lay a burden on them more than they can bear. We need to take care of their fodder and comfort. The focus of the verse, therefore, is upon the direction that they should be treated, not only with justice, but also in good and courteous manner.

Ruling

This verse proves that optional charities may be spent on non-Muslim citizens of an Islamic State and on non-Muslims with whom the Muslims have a peace pact. It is, however, forbidden to spend on non-believers who are at war with Muslims.

In the beginning, Abraham conveyed the message of the oneness of God to his family in the manner of a well-wisher. After he had carried out his mission and had come to the end of his arguments, when his hearers persisted in their rejection of the Truth, he completely separated himself from them. But this was a very difficult stage, because his stated intention to distance himself from them amounted to an invitation to the rejecters of Truth to harass the Faithful in every possible way, ultimately degrading them by the use of force to make up for their own defeat in the field of arguments. That is why Abraham subsequently offered up this special prayer, ‘O, Lord! Do not make us the target of the atrocities of the oppressors.’ To absolve oneself of the responsibility for the guidance of relatives does not entail enmity in the usual sense. It is simply the final expression of firm conviction. From this point of view this action becomes imbued with a missionary value. So, sometimes it happens that a person who is not affected by the language of a ‘message’, is successfully won over by the language of ‘faith’.