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Surah At-Tawbah — 9:10

لَا يَرْقُبُونَ فِى مُؤْمِنٍ إِلًّا وَلَا ذِمَّةً ۚ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُعْتَدُونَ

Laa yarquboona fee mu'minin illanw wa laa zimmah wa ulaaa 'ika humulmu 'tadoon

They honor no tie of kinship or treaty toward a believer. They are the ones who transgress.

Reflection

This repeats a sentence from two lines earlier with one term changed: there the tie is refused toward you, the addressees, and here toward any believer at all, which turns a grievance between particular parties into a description of character. The word rendered as kinship has been read three ways by commentators — blood relation, sworn pact, or God himself. The second term, dhimma, later became the legal name for a protected covenant.

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