The Quran

Preface

كَيفَ وَإِن يَظهَروا عَلَيكُم لا يَرقُبوا فيكُم إِلًّا وَلا ذِمَّةً ۚ يُرضونَكُم بِأَفواهِهِم وَتَأبىٰ قُلوبُهُم وَأَكثَرُهُم فاسِقونَ

Yusuf Ali

How (can there be such a league),¹ seeing that if they get an advantage over you, they respect not in you the ties either of kinship² or of covenant? With (fair words from) their mouths they entice you, but their hearts are averse from you; and most of them are rebellious and wicked.

The exceptions having been stated parenthetically in verse 7, the indictment of the general mass of Pagan tribes is now set out briefly but fully and convincingly. After that kind of behaviour how can a treaty be possible with them? The counts are: (1) that whenever they got a slight advantage, they disregarded the ties both of kinship and of covenant as against the Muslims because of their Faith, thus proving doubly treacherous; (2) that they spoke fair words, but had venom in their hearts; (3) that their attitude was one of rebellion against their plighted word; (4) that they disregarded the solemn Signs of God for some miserable worldly gain; (5) that they tried to prevent other people from coming to the Way of God. The first clause is repeated again as the last clause, to emphasize their double treachery, and round off” the argument.
Among the Arabs, the ties of kinship were so strong as to be almost unbreakable. The Pagan Arabs went out of their way to break them in the case of the Muslims, who were kith and kin to them. Besides the bond of kinship there was the further bond of their plighted oath in the Treaty. They broke that oath because the other parties were Muslims.