The verb تَوَلَّىٰ: turning away, or taking as an ally
The verb تَوَلَّىٰ (form V of the root ولي) has two meanings, and the construction decides. Without a complement it means "to turn away"; with a direct object (a noun or an attached pronoun) it means "to take as an ally".
The root ولي expresses nearness, the one who is next to. Form V draws two opposite movements from it: turning one's back on someone, or placing oneself at his side. Arabic distinguishes them only by construction:
- intransitive: « وَمَن يَتَوَلَّ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ », "And whoever turns away — indeed God is the Self-Sufficient" (60:6);
- transitive: « أَن تَوَلَّوْهُمْ », "from taking them as allies" (60:9); « وَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُۥ مِنْهُمْ », "whoever among you takes them as allies is then of them" (5:51).
Sura 60 places both meanings three verses apart without any confusion. The survey of the whole corpus counts 84 occurrences of form V: 65 intransitive, all "turn away", and 9 transitive, all "take as an ally".
The few apparent departures come from another form of the verb: form II وَلَّىٰ, which takes two objects. In 8:15, « فَلَا تُوَلُّوهُمُ ٱلْأَدْبَارَ » means "do not turn your backs to them": it is وَلَّىٰ + ٱلْأَدْبَار, outside the scope of the rule.
In the text
وَمَن يَتَوَلَّ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُوَمَن يَتَوَلَّهُم مِّنكُمْ فَإِنَّهُۥ مِنْهُمْفَلَا تُوَلُّوهُمُ ٱلْأَدْبَارَ