بَرَآءَةٌ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦٓ إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ عَٰهَدتُّم مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ · فَسِيحُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ أَرْبَعَةَ أَشْهُرٍ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّكُمْ غَيْرُ مُعْجِزِى ٱللَّهِ
Barāʾatun mina'llāhi wa rasūlihī ila'lladhīna ʿāhadtum mina'l-mushrikīn · Fa-sīḥū fi'l-arḍi arbaʿata ashhurin wa'ʿlamū annakum ghayru muʿjizi'llāhi wa anna'llāha mukhzi'l-kāfirīn
"A declaration from God and His Messenger, severing relations, to those of the mushrikūn with whom you made a treaty. · Travel about the earth for four months, and know that you cannot frustrate God; God will disgrace those who reject."
- Barāʾatun … ila'l-mushrikīn — "to the mushrikūn." It does not say this.
- Barāʾatun … ila'l-nās — "to the people." It does not say this.
What the sentence says is this: إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ عَٰهَدتُّم مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ — ila'lladhīna ʿāhadtum mina'l-mushrikīn: "to those of the mushrikūn with whom you made a treaty."
| Element | Function |
|---|---|
| ٱلَّذِينَ | Relative pronoun — it points to a determinate group |
| عَٰهَدتُّم | Relative clause — "with whom you made a treaty" |
| مِّنَ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ | Min — partitive (a part out of a whole): "who are of the mushrikūn" |
These three elements together do this: the one addressed is not a general human category; it is a determinate party with whom a treaty had been made.
And that the particle min is partitive must be recorded separately. This reading is not an interpretation; it is confirmed within the text by verses 4 and 6: verse 4 excepts a part of that same group, and verse 6 lays down a separate ruling for aḥadun mina'l-mushrikīn (one of the mushrikūn). The sūra itself, that is, does not use this name of a whole.
The note entered in al-Fatḥ for the word aʿrāb and in al-Baqara for the root ك-ف-ر holds here too: the name states not an identity but an attribute and a position. I rely on that treatment.
The concrete sense of the root: to slip free of something, to separate from it, to sever relations with it. The lexicographers record that beneath the root lies the idea of "a thing's coming out of another thing, drawing away from it".
| Derivative | Meaning |
|---|---|
| بَرِيء (barīʾ) | Having no connection, clear of, acquitted |
| بَرَآءَة (barāʾa) | Non-connection; being clear of a liability; the declaration of this |
| بَرَأَ (baraʾa) | He created — He separated it out of nothingness and brought it forth |
| بَرِئَ مِنَ ٱلْمَرَض | He was freed of the illness, he recovered |
The word occurred in al-Anfāl at 8/48 (innī barīʾun minkum), and there it stated an abandonment. Here it is a declaration — and its being a declaration is the procedural side of the verse.
The verse does not begin with a command. Barāʾatun — an indefinite noun, standing at the head as subject (mubtadaʾ). In Arabic, sentences of this kind that begin with an indefinite belong to the style of proclamation and announcement.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the sentence is a nominal one: the verse does not command an act, it makes the declaration of a state of affairs. The act will come four verses later, and tied to conditions.
And this coincides exactly with the procedure treated in al-Anfāl at 8/58: wa immā takhāfanna min qawmin khiyānatan fa'nbidh ilayhim ʿalā sawāʾ — "throw their treaty back to them openly, on equal terms." It was recorded there: even in a case where treachery is suspected, acting in secret is shut off; the dissolving of a treaty is itself bound to a procedure.
The first verse of al-Tawba is that procedure carried out. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the verbal overlap of the two verses: al-Anfāl says "throw it back with notice", and al-Tawba opens with a text of notice.
The root س-ي-ح: water flowing and spreading over the ground. Sayḥ — flowing water; sāʾiḥ — one who moves about, who travels. The lexicographers record that when the verb is used of a person it means "to move about unhindered".
The choice of word is worth recording, and I give it as an observation: the command is not "flee" or "hide" — it is sīḥū, that is, move about freely. The water-image of the root carries the fact that the movement is unimpeded.
The same root will occur again in verse 112 of the sūra as al-sāʾiḥūn, and there it will be discussed in another sense. I shall compare the two occurrences at 112.
أَرْبَعَةَ أَشْهُرٍ — four months. The declaration of dissolution does not take effect immediately; a fixed period is granted.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the existence of the period: a stretch of time is placed between the declaration and its consequence. The function of the period is to give the other party room to move — and indeed the command is a command to move (sīḥū).