inwardly, for he does not deserve a reward merely for obeying the command until he first believes. Nor is the threat against him merely for turning away from obedience in jihad, for his disbelief is graver than that. All this indicates that these people belong to the sinful members of the Muslim community. Sinful disobedience may consist either in neglecting obligations or in committing forbidden acts. Since these people neglected the jihad Allah had made obligatory upon them, and experienced a degree of doubt that weakened their faith, they were not among the truthful whom He described, even though they were sincere in inwardly adhering to the religion of Islam.
The exegetes’ statement, “They were not believers,” denies them the faith that Allah denied them, just as He denied it to the fornicator, the thief, the drinker, the person whose neighbour is not safe from his harm, the person who does not love for his brother the good he loves for himself, and the person who does not submit to the judgment of Allah and His Messenger, and others like them.
Support for this may be drawn from His words:
“How evil is the name of sinful disobedience after faith!”
Likewise, in the saying:
“Reviling a Muslim is sinful disobedience, and fighting him is disbelief.”
Thus He condemned anyone who exchanged the designation of faith for that of sinful disobedience. This indicates that a sinfully disobedient person is not called a believer, and therefore that these Bedouins belong to the category of those guilty of major sins, not that of the hypocrites.
As for the report that they embraced Islam for fear of being killed or taken captive, this was also how people other than the Emigrants and Helpers embraced Islam: they did so out of hope and fear. Such was the conversion of those of Quraysh who were set free after the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had subdued them, and the conversion of those whose hearts were being won over, both among them and among the people of Najd. Not everyone who embraced Islam out of hope or fear was among the hypocrites who are in the lowest depths