Sūrah At-Tawbah The Repentance
سورة التوبة
Al-Qurṭubī treats At-Tawbah as the primary surah for the fiqh of zakāh, the ahl al-dhimmah (protected non-Muslims), and the legal conditions of war and peace extracting from 9:5 the "sword verse" and its scope, from 9:29 the jizya ruling, and from 9:60 the comprehensive eight-category zakāh distribution.
Surah Overview
Key Themes from Al-Qurṭubī
Al-Qurṭubī opens At-Tawbah with the unusual absence of the basmala noting the scholarly consensus that this is because the surah was revealed in the context of war declarations and the basmala (bismillāh al-raḥmān al-raḥīm = in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate) would be incongruous with a declaration of war. He documents the second position: that the surah is a continuation of Al-Anfāl and thus does not require a separate basmala. He then analyses 9:5 (the "sword verse") and carefully documents its scope it applies to polytheists who have broken their treaties, not to all non-Muslims. The "sacred months" (al-ashhur al-ḥurum) of prohibition expire and then the command is to deal with those specific treaty-breakers. Al-Qurṭubī emphasises that 9:5 does not abrogate all verses of peace and tolerance but applies specifically to hostile treaty-breakers.
On the zakāh distribution in 9:60, al-Qurṭubī maps the eight categories: the poor (fuqarāʾ), the needy (masākīn), zakāh workers (ʿāmilīn), those whose hearts are to be won (muʾallafat al-qulūb), enslaved people seeking manumission (riqāb), debtors (ghārimīn), the cause of Allah (fī sabīl Allāh), and the wayfarer (ibn al-sabīl). He documents the major debate: whether "muʾallafat al-qulūb" (hearts to be won over) still applies after the Prophet's death ʿUmar reportedly suspended payment to them, leading Shāfiʿī to hold this category is legally eliminated; Mālikī and Ḥanbalī maintain the category continues whenever the imam judges its strategic benefit.
- Sword verse scope limitation: Al-Qurṭubī carefully limits 9:5 to hostile treaty-breakers among polytheists explicitly rejecting any reading that makes it a blanket command against all non-Muslims.
- Muʾallafat al-qulūb debate: Al-Qurṭubī documents the ʿUmar suspension and the resulting school split Shāfiʿī eliminates the category; Mālikī and Ḥanbalī retain it based on imam's strategic judgment.
- Innamā restriction: The ḥaṣr principle applied to 9:60 makes the eight categories an exhaustive exclusive list no other recipient category can be added, making zakāh distribution a legally fixed structure.
- Basmala absence: Al-Qurṭubī documents both positions on the missing basmala (war-declaration incongruity vs. continuation of Al-Anfāl) a rare inter-school agreement on a structural Quranic feature.
- Jizya four-school map: Al-Qurṭubī documents the scope of jizya obligation across schools the significant disagreement on whether women and monks are included reflects different readings of "those who were given the Book."