Repentance (At-Tawba)
۞ (This is a declaration of) immunity by Allah and His Apostle towards those of the idolaters with whom you made an agreement. 1 Go ye, then, for four months, backwards and forwards, (as ye will), throughout the land, but know ye that ye cannot frustrate Allah (by your falsehood) but that Allah will cover with shame those who reject Him. 2 A proclamation, from God and His Messenger, unto mankind on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage: 'God is quit, and His Messenger, of the idolaters. So if you repent, that will be better for you; but if you turn your backs; know that you cannot frustrate the will of God. And give thou good tidings to the unbelievers of a painful chastisement; 3 except those idolaters who have fully honored their treaties with you and aided none against you. With these fulfill your covenant till their term. Surely, Allah loves the righteous. 4 But when these months, prohibited (for fighting), are over, slay the idolaters wheresoever you find them, and take them captive or besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every likely place. But if they repent and fulfil their devotional obligations and pay the zakat, then let them go their way, for God is forgiving and kind. 5 If an idolater seeks asylum with you, give him protection in order that he hears the Word of Allah, and then convey him to his place of safety, because they are a nation who do not know. 6