(20) The Forbidding, LXVI, 9.
32. "O Prophet, (Jáhid) do thy utmost with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be strict towards them."
Sale ... "Attack the infidels with arms and the
hypocrites with arguments."
Rodwell ... "Make war."
Palmer ... "Fight strenuously."
(21) The Immunity, IX, 74.
33. The same verse, word for word.
Sale ... "Wage war."
Rodwell ... "Contend against."
Palmer ... "Strive strenuously."
The word Jáhid is the same in both the passages, yet the translators differ in their interpretation of it. As there had been no war against the hypocrites, the word cannot be held to bear the construction they put on it, even if we deprived it of its proper signification. In one place Sale takes Jáhid to mean "attacking with arms," and in another he takes it in the sense of attacking with arguments.
There is no signification of "attacking" in Jihád, but only that of "exerting," and the verse simply means, "exert thyself in preaching to, and remonstrating with, the unbelievers and hypocrites, and also be strict towards them,"—i.e., not to be smooth with them, nor to be beguiled by them.[332]
(22) The tried, LXI.
34. "O Ye believers! take not my foe and your foe for friends: ye show them kindness although they believe not that truth which hath come to you: they drive forth the Apostle and yourself because ye believe in God your Lord! If ye have come forth[333] (Jihádan) labouring in my cause, and from a desire to please Me, ye show them kindness in private, then I well know what ye conceal and what ye discover! And whoso of you doth this hath verily, therefore, gone astray from the even way."