Surah An-Nisa 4:77-87 - Quran Translation Commentary

77. Have you not seen those to whom it was said: “Withhold your hands, establish Salat (prayer) and pay Zakat;”¹⁴⁵ but when fighting was prescribed for them, a group of them fear people as they should have feared Allah¹⁴⁶ or even more than that. They said; “Our Lord! why have you ordained fighting for us? Why have you not given us a brief respite.” Say: “The provision of this world is little and the Hereafter is much better for him who fears Allah; and you ¹⁴⁷ shall not be dealt with unjustly in the least .”

78. Wherever you are, death will overtake you, even if you are in strong fortresses.¹⁴⁸ If some good befalls them, they say: “This is from Allah; “ and if some evil, they say: “This is because of you.” Say: “ All things are from Allah.” Then what has happened to these people that they fail to understand a single fact?¹⁴⁹

79. (In reality) whatever good befalls you, it is from Allah, and whatever ill befalls you, it is because of yourself.¹⁵⁰ And We have sent you as a messenger to mankind, and sufficient is Allah as a witness.¹⁵¹

80. He who obeys the messenger, obeys Allah¹⁵²; and if anyone turns away, We have not sent you to keep watch over them.¹⁵³

81. And they say (apparently) : “Obedience;” but when they leave you a party of them meets at night to plot against what you say.¹⁵⁴ And Allah records their plotting at night. So do not heed their talk, and put your trust in Allah; and Allah is sufficient as a Trustee.

82. Do they not then ponder on the Quran? If it were from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein many contradictions.¹⁵⁵

83. And when any news whether of peace or danger comes to them, they spread it around, whereas if they had referred it to the Messenger (of Allah ) and such of them as are in authority, those among them who are able to think out the matter would have found out the fact.¹⁵⁶ Were it not for the grace of Allah upon you, all but a few of you would have followed Satan.

84. Then fight (O Prophet !) in Allah’s way. You are held responsible only for yourself and rouse the faithful. It may be that Allah will break the strength of the disbelievers and Allah is the strongest in might and in giving punishment.

85. Whoever recommends a good cause becomes a partner therein, and whoever recommends an evil cause shares in its burden.¹⁵⁷ And Allah oversees all things.

86. And when a greeting of good wishes is offered you, meet it with a still more courteous greeting, or at least say the same words,¹⁵⁸ in return. Allah takes account of all things.

87. Allah! There is no god, but He. Surely He will gather you together on the Day of Resurrection, about which there is no doubt, and whose word can be truer than Allah’s?

Commentary

145. From this verse, Imam Razi has concluded that salat (prayers) and zakat (compulsory charity) have precedence over Jihad. (Please see Tafseer Razi. Vol. lll. page 272).

There is no doubt that these two forms of worship have precedence and are desirable for themselves. As for Jihad, its importance and greatness are also not to be ignored. Jihad becomes a compulsory duty to be performed when the occasion demands and otherwise it is sufficient for a Muslim to have an intention of offering Jihad whenever called upon to do so. This is the reason why in Islam the importance of Jihad. though very great, has not been included in the fundamental pillars of Islam, which are five. However. it is a fact that when Jihad becomes an absolute duty and essential, to hesitate or to try to avoid it makes one’s faith doubtful and questionable, because it is the obvious demand of faith that man should strive for the supremacy of Islam and should be ready to offer his life for Allah.

146. That is : So far as the command for fighting was not given, great enthusiasm was being shown for it. But actually when the fighting was ordained, it became hard for them. It refers to those who were not sincere in their faith.

147. That is: Whatever sacrifices you would offer in the cause of Allah will not go waste, and that you will get full compensation and reward for them.

148. It does not mean that man may not try to plan out and take precautions, etc., but it means that he may not think that his planning and his precautions will keep him away from death for ever. Death will come at its appointed hour. Therefore, man should try to fulfil his responsibilities.

149. That is: If some misfortune befalls Muslims, these hypocrites attribute it to the faulty planning of the Prophet, even though the Prophet does not perform any act without the leave of Allah. Allah rules over the universe, therefore without Allah’s will no harm or benefit can be experienced by any person and to consider Prophet responsible for it is against reality and contrary to faith.

150. Though good and evil, both are caused by the will of Allah, the difference between the two is that occurrence of good is on account of Allah’s blessings while the occurrence of evil and unfavourable conditions is the result of man’s own faulty acts and it is caused by misusing the authority given by Allah. Therefore, the occurrence of evil and unfavourable conditions should be attributed to his own failings.

151. It means that if the hypocrites do not regard everything of the Prophet as coming from Allah, they may not do so for Muhammad’s (Peace be upon him) being the Prophet. Allah’s witness is sufficient, and this witness is given by Allah through the Quran.The mention of the Prophet’s having been sent as a messenger for mankind means that he has not been sent as a messenger only to the Arabs but to all the nations of the world.

152. This verse and other verses like this explain that the obedience to the messenger is in reality obedience to Allah, for whatever command is given by the Prophet is the command given from Allah. It also clarifies that obedience to the last Prophet is desired not only during his lifetime, but even after his death in the same manner. For us the right source of finding his teachings are his undisputed traditions and authentic ahadith. To follow them would mean obeying the Prophet and rejecting and ignoring them would amount to his disobedience.

153. That is: It is not the responsibility of the Prophet that he may forcefully compel the people to follow the right path but that his responsibility is to merely convey the message of Allah to the people.

154. There were some persons among the hypocrites who used to hold conspiratorial meetings during the night to plot against the Prophet, so that obstacles may be placed in the way of Islam and harm may be caused to the Prophet.

155. In this verse, people have been invited to ponder on the teachings of Quran, which throw light on the following points:

(1) The invitation to ponder is general for all the people including those who have not yet come into the fold of Islam, so that they may learn that the teachings of this book are mutually linked and harmonious while its subject matters are very vast, that is: perfect guidance for the human life. This is the perfect proof of the point that Quran is the word of Allah. Had it been the word of a human, it was inevitable that there should have been contradictions and incongruities in it when it dealt with such a wide range of subject matters as were concerned with not only observations but also metaphysical realities, and which discussed man’s nature, his psychology, his beginning and end, and all the aspects of his life. Since man’s knowledge is limited, he cannot lift the veil from the secrets of the universe, nor can he present such teachings as would help men to lead a right kind of life and as would be necessary for establishing a correct relationship with his Creator.

(2) By continuing to ponder on Quran, the gates of wisdom keep up opening for man, and his faith and belief get enriched.

(3) It is not correct to think that Quran is to be understood by the learned men only, but that it is meant to be understood by all persons. If it had been meant only for the learned men then this invitation for general pondering would not have been given.

(4) All the points in the Quran are mutually linked and are harmonious. Therefore, it would not be proper to attribute any such meaning to any of its verse that may be contradictory or opposed to the meaning and sense of other verses.

(5) To believe in the Quran as the Book from Allah and then to object to its teachings is an intellectual contradiction, and this is the result of not pondering on Quran.

156. At that time war conditions prevailed in Madina. In such conditions rumour mongering would have been very dangerous. But the hypocrites were bent on harming Muslims by spreading all sorts of false rumours. This activity of theirs is criticized here, and directions are given to refer to this kind of rumours to the Prophet and other responsible companions of the Prophet.

From this a principle can be derived that the rumours and the news items which may exercise some influence on the political life of the Ummah should be brought to the notice of the responsible persons before spreading them among the general public. Incidentally, this point is also derived from it that for the office of authority in the Ummah only such persons can be considered suitable as are intelligent, wise and shrewd.

157. That is: whoever will support and plead for Truth will be rewarded therefore and whoever oppose it will be punished therefore.

158. The instructions about keeping away from the hypocrites given to Muslims in Verse No. 81 do not signify that Muslims should not treat them politely and should not try to reform them. Here instructions are being given in this very connection that whoever declares himself to be a Muslim and salutes you or greets you, you should not meet his salutation with indifference, instead you should return his greetings in a better way or at least equally courteously.

It is an important aspect of Islamic civilization that whenever Muslims meet, they should greet one another with the words of good wishes As-Salamu-Alaikum’ (Peace be on you), and in reply the Muslim so addressed should answer ‘Wa Alaikumus-Salam’ (Peace be on you too). This is the shortest form, and it would be better if these words are also added to it:‘Wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu’ (and Allah’s grace and blessings on you). These words have been mentioned in the hadith.