(114) “Who is more unjust than one who prevents Allah’s name from being mentioned in His mosques and strives to bring about their ruin? Such people have no right to enter them except in fear. For them is disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter they will suffer a tremendous punishment.”
That is, no one is more unjust or more grievously sinful than one who prevents Allah from being remembered in His mosques and prevents prayer and other acts of obedience from being performed there.
“And strives”—that is, exerts every effort—“to bring about their ruin,” both physically and spiritually. Their physical ruin means demolishing, damaging, and defiling them, while their spiritual ruin means preventing those who remember Allah’s name from doing so within them. This applies generally to everyone who possesses this characteristic. It therefore includes the People of the Elephant; Quraysh, when they barred the Messenger of Allah from the Sacred Mosque in the year of al-Hudaybiyya; the Christians, when they laid waste Jerusalem; and other wrongdoers who strive to ruin the mosques out of hostility and opposition to Allah.
Allah consequently repaid them by barring them from entering the mosques through both His religious law and His providential decree, unless they entered fearful and abased. Because they had frightened Allah’s servants, Allah caused them to fear. As for the polytheists who barred His Messenger, only a short time passed before Allah permitted him to conquer Mecca and prohibited the polytheists from approaching His House. Allah Most High said:
“O you who believe, the polytheists are indeed impure, so let them not approach the Sacred Mosque after their present year.”
Allah has related what befell the People of the Elephant. As for the Christians, Allah empowered the believers over them, and they expelled them from Jerusalem.
Likewise, everyone who possesses their characteristics must receive his due share of retribution. This is one of the great signs: the Creator foretold it before it occurred, and it came to pass just as He had foretold.
Scholars have also cited this noble verse as evidence that unbelievers may not be permitted to enter mosques.
“For them is disgrace in this world”—that is, public humiliation, as explained previously—“and in the Hereafter they will suffer a tremendous punishment.”
If no one is more unjust than one who prevents Allah’s name from being mentioned in His mosques, then no one is greater in faith than one who strives to maintain the mosques both physically and spiritually. As Allah Most High said:
“Only those who believe in Allah and the Last Day maintain Allah’s mosques.”
Indeed, Allah Most High has commanded that His houses be raised, revered, and honored. He said:
“In houses which Allah has ordained to be raised and in which His name is remembered.”
There are many rulings pertaining to mosques, all of which ultimately derive from the purport of these noble verses.