Repentance (At-Tawba)
۞ IMMUNITY is granted those idolaters by God and his Apostle with whom you have a treaty. 1 [Announce unto them:] "Go, then, [freely] about the earth for four months - but know that you can never elude God, and that, verily, God shall bring disgrace upon all who refuse to acknowledge the truth!" 2 A general proclamation is (made) this day of the Greater Pilgrimage on the part of God and His Apostle, that God is not bound (by any contract) to idolaters, nor is His Apostle. It is, therefore, better for you to repent. If you do not, remember that you cannot elude (the grip of) God. So announce to those who deny the truth the news of painful punishment, 3 Except those of the associators with whom ye covenanted and they have not failed you in aught, nor have they backed up anyone against you; so fulfil unto them their covenant till their full period. Verily Allah loveth the Godfearing. 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 And if any of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God seeks thy protection, grant him protection, so that he might [be able to] hear the word of God [from thee]; and thereupon convey him to a place where he can feel secure: this, because they [may be] people who [sin only because they] do not know [the truth]. 6