بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَتَّخِذُوا۟ عَدُوِّى وَعَدُوَّكُمْ أَوْلِيَآءَ تُلْقُونَ إِلَيْهِم بِٱلْمَوَدَّةِ وَقَدْ كَفَرُوا۟ بِمَا جَآءَكُم مِّنَ ٱلْحَقِّ يُخْرِجُونَ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَإِيَّاكُمْ ۙ أَن تُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ رَبِّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ خَرَجْتُمْ جِهَٰدًۭا فِى سَبِيلِى وَٱبْتِغَآءَ مَرْضَاتِى ۚ تُسِرُّونَ إِلَيْهِم بِٱلْمَوَدَّةِ وَأَنَا۠ أَعْلَمُ بِمَآ أَخْفَيْتُمْ وَمَآ أَعْلَنتُمْ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْهُ مِنكُمْ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ سَوَآءَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ
O you who have faith! Do not take My enemy and your enemy for friends, [secretly] offering them affection, if you have set out for jihad in My way and to seek My pleasure, for they have certainly denied whatever has come to you of the truth, expelling the Apostle and you, because you have faith in Allah, your Lord. You secretly nourish affection for them, while I know well whatever you hide and whatever you disclose, and whoever among you does that has certainly strayed from the right way.
إِن يَثْقَفُوكُمْ يَكُونُوا۟ لَكُمْ أَعْدَآءًۭ وَيَبْسُطُوٓا۟ إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ وَأَلْسِنَتَهُم بِٱلسُّوٓءِ وَوَدُّوا۟ لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ
If they were to confront you they would be your enemies, and would stretch out against you their hands and [unleash] their tongues with evil [intentions], and they are eager that you [too] should be faithless.
لَن تَنفَعَكُمْ أَرْحَامُكُمْ وَلَآ أَوْلَٰدُكُمْ ۚ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ يَفْصِلُ بَيْنَكُمْ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌۭ
Your relatives and children will not avail you on the Day of Resurrection: He will separate you [from one another], and Allah watches what you do.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The sura opens by forbidding the believers to take awliya' (intimate allies) from among "My enemy and your enemy," the Meccan polytheists, or to leak them affection and intelligence — for those same people had rejected the truth and driven the Prophet and the believers out of Mecca (v.1). Verse 2 exposes the futility of such secret goodwill: were the enemy to gain the upper hand they would revert to open hostility of hand and tongue, wishing the believers back into disbelief. Verse 3 removes the excuse behind the leak — that it shielded relatives left in Mecca — by insisting that kin and children will not avail one before God on the Day of Resurrection, when all worldly ties are cut.
All six present sources anchor these verses in the affair of Hatib b. Abi Balta'a. Qummi, Bahrani, Tusi, Tabarsi and al-Mizan's narration-section tell one story with small variations: Hatib, a Badri Emigrant with defenceless kin in Mecca, sent a warning letter about the Prophet's planned advance; Gabriel disclosed it; the Prophet dispatched horsemen — 'Ali (with al-Zubayr, and in some chains al-Miqdad and others) — who overtook the woman courier at Rawdat Khakh and recovered the letter from her hair only after 'Ali drew his sword. Tabarsi names the courier Sara, a destitute Meccan singer the Prophet had earlier had provisioned; Qummi and Bahrani call her Safiyya; the Sunni recension (Bukhari, Muslim, cited by both Tabarsi and al-Mizan) leaves her unnamed. Hatib pleaded he had never apostatized but only sought to protect his family, and the Prophet accepted his excuse, restraining 'Umar with the words, "perhaps God looked upon the people of Badr and forgave them."
On the wording, Tusi and Tabarsi agree the ba' in bi'l-mawadda is extra, and that the conditional "if you have gone forth for jihad" attaches to the prohibition. Al-Mizan adds the grammatical nuance that conditioning the ban on a certainty ("if you truly emigrated for My sake") is for emphasis, like a father's "if you are my son." Both Tusi and Tabarsi draw a theological point: the verse proves a grave sin (kabira) does not by itself expel a person from faith, since no one held Hatib to have left Islam. Al-Mizan presses further, subjecting the celebrated "do as you wish, I have forgiven you" report to critique: it cannot mean that the men of Badr were released from all religious obligation, for the Qur'an itself censures Companions (at Uhud, and in the Slander affair, where the Badri Mistah was flogged), and such a blanket amnesty would gut the very ideas of accountability and prophetic guidance. On v.3, al-Mizan and Tabarsi converge: lineage confers rescue neither in this world nor the next, so no believer may betray God for the sake of kin.