An-Nisa 4:153–176

The People of the Scripture, the Jews, will ask of you, O Muhammad (s), to cause a Book to be revealed to them from the heaven, all at once, as was revealed to Moses, merely to harass [you]. If you consider this shocking, then [know that], they, their forefathers, asked Moses for something greater than that, for they said, ‘Show us God openly’, before our eyes; so the thunderbolt, death, seized them, as punishment for them, for their evildoing, when they harassed him [Moses] with this demand. They then took to themselves the [golden] calf, for a god, after clear proofs, the miracles testifying to God’s Oneness, had come to them; yet We pardoned that, and did not annihilate them; and We bestowed upon Moses clear authority, evident and manifest sway over them, for when he commanded them to slay themselves in repentance, they obeyed him.

And We raised above them the Mount, by the covenant with them, that is, on account of the covenant made with them, that they might fear, and so they accepted it; and We said to them, while it cast a shadow [hovering] above them: ‘Enter the gate, the gate of the town, bowing’; and We said to them, ‘Transgress not (a variant reading [of lā ta‘dū] is lā ta‘addū, where the original tā’ [of lā tata‘addū] is assimilated with the dāl, in other words [it is similar in meaning to] lā ta‘tadū, ‘do not act unjustly [in]’) the Sabbath’, by fishing during it, and We took from them a firm covenant, over this, but they broke it.

So, for their breaking (fa-bi-mā naqdihim: the mā is extra; the bā’ is causative and connected to a missing element [such as sabab, ‘reason’], in other words [it should be understood as] la‘annāhum bi-sabab naqdihim, ‘We cursed them for the reason of their breaking’) their covenant and disbelieving in the signs of God, and slaying the prophets wrongfully, and for their saying, to the Prophet (s): ‘Our hearts are covered up’, and cannot grasp what you say — nay, but God sealed them for their disbelief, and so they cannot heed any admonition; so they do not believe, except for a few, among them, like ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām and his companions.

And for their disbelief, a second time, in Jesus (the bā’ [of bi-kufrihim, ‘for their disbelief’] is repeated in order to separate it [‘their disbelief’ in Jesus] from what is supplemented to it [‘their utterance against Mary’]) and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny, when they accused her of fornication.

And for their saying, boastfully, ‘We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God’, as they claim: in other words, for all of these [reasons] We have punished them. God, exalted be He, says, in repudiating their claim to have killed him: And yet they did not slay him nor did they crucify him, but he, the one slain and crucified, who was an associate of theirs [the Jews], was given the resemblance, of Jesus. In other words, God cast his [Jesus’s] likeness to him and so they thought it was him [Jesus]. And those who disagree concerning him, that is, concerning Jesus, are surely in doubt regarding, the slaying of, him, for some of them said, when they saw the slain man: the face is that of Jesus, but the body is not his, and so it is not he; and others said: no, it is he. They do not have any knowledge of, the slaying of, him, only the pursuit of conjecture (illā ittibā‘a l-zann, is a discontinuous exception) in other words: ‘instead, they follow conjecture regarding him, that which they imagined [they saw]’; and they did not slay him for certain (yaqīnan, a circumstantial qualifier emphasising the denial of the slaying).

Nay, God raised him up to Him. God is ever Mighty, in His kingdom, Wise, in His actions.

And there is not one of the People of the Scripture but will assuredly believe in him, in Jesus, before his death, that is, [before the death] of one belonging to the People of the Scripture upon seeing the angels of death with his very eyes, at which point his faith will not profit him; or [it means] before the death of Jesus, after he descends at the approach of the Hour, as is stated in hadīth; and on the Day of Resurrection he, Jesus, will be a witness against them, of what they did when he was sent to them.

And because of the evildoing (fa-bi-zulmin is [to be understood as] fa-bi-sababi zulmin, ‘and for the reason of the evildoing’) of some of those of Jewry, the Jews, We have forbidden them certain good things that were lawful for them, those things [mentioned] where God says [And to those of Jewry] We have forbidden every beast with claws [Q. 6:146]; and because of their barring, of people, from God’s way, [from] His religion, many, a time.

And because of their taking usury when they had been forbidden it, in the Torah, and their consuming people’s wealth through falsehood, through bribes in adjudications, and We have prepared for the disbelievers among them a painful chastisement.

But those of them who are firmly rooted, established, in knowledge, like ‘Abd Allāh b. Salām, and the believers, the Emigrants and the Helpers, believing in what has revealed to you, and what was revealed before you, of scriptures, and those who observe the prayer (wa’l-muqīmīna l-salāta is in the accusative because it is a laudative; it is also read in the nominative [wa’l-muqīmūna l-salāta]); and pay the alms, and those who believe in God and the Last Day — to them We shall surely give (nu’tīhim, is also read yu’tīhim, ‘He shall surely give’) a great wage, namely, Paradise.

We have revealed to you as We revealed to Noah, and the prophets after him, and, as, We revealed to Abraham and, his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob, the son of Isaac, and the Tribes, his [Jacob’s] children, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron, and Solomon, and We gave to, his father, David the Inscribed Book (read zabūran, it would denote the name of the revealed Book [cf. the Psalms]; read zubūran would make it a verbal noun, meaning mazbūran, that is to say, maktūban, ‘inscribed’).

And, We sent, messengers We have told you of before, and messengers We have not told you of: it is related that God sent eight thousand prophets [in total], four thousand [of them] from [the Children of] Israel, and [the remaining] four thousand from other peoples, as stated by the Shaykh [Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī] in [his commentary on] sūrat Ghāfir [Q. 40:78]; and God spoke directly, without mediation, to Moses,

messengers (rusulan, substitutes for the previous rusulan, ‘messengers’) bearing good tidings, of reward for those that believe, and warning, of punishment for those that disbelieve; We sent them, so that people might have no argument, to make, against God after, the sending of, the messengers, to them, and say: Our Lord, why did you not send a messenger to us so that we might follow Your signs and be among the believers [Q. 28:47]; thus We sent them to pre-empt such excuses. God is ever Mighty, in His kingdom, Wise, in His actions.

When the Jews were asked about his [Muhammad’s] prophethood (s) and they denied him, the following was revealed: But God bears witness, He makes clear [the truth of] your prophethood, with what He has revealed to you, of the miraculous Qur’ān; He has revealed it, enveloped, through His knowledge, that is, [He has revealed it] knowing it fully, or [He has revealed it] with His knowledge therein; and the angels also bear witness, to you; and God suffices as a Witness, to this.

Surely those who disbelieve, in God, and bar, people, from the way of God, [from] the religion of Islam, by concealing the descriptions of Muhammad (s), and these are the Jews, they have indeed gone far astray, from the truth.

Surely those who disbelieve, in God, and who have done wrong, to the Prophet, by concealing his descriptions, it is not for God to forgive them, neither to guide them to any path, whatever,

except for the path of Hell, that is, [to] the path that leads to it, abiding, it is decreed for them to abide, therein, once they enter it, forever; and for God that is an easy matter.

O people, of Mecca, the Messenger, Muhammad (s), has now come to you with the truth from your Lord; so believe, in him and seek what, it is better for you, than that which you are presently seeking. And if you disbelieve, in him, then surely to God belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants, and your disbelief will not harm Him; and God is ever Knowing, of His creation, Wise, in what He does with them.

O People of the Scripture, the Gospel, do not go to extremes, do not go beyond the bounds, in your religion and do not say about God except, the saying of, the truth, such as exalting Him above any associations with a partner or a child: the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was only the Messenger of God, and His Word which He cast to, [which] He conveyed to, Mary, and a spirit, that is, one whose spirit is, from Him: he [Jesus] is here attached to God, exalted be He, as an honouring for him, and not as you claim, that he is the son of God, or a god alongside Him, or one of three, because one that possesses a spirit is compound, while God transcends being compound and the attribution of compounds to Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and do not say, that the gods are, ‘Three’, God, Jesus and his mother. Refrain, from this and say what, it is better for you, [to say], which is the profession of His Oneness. Verily, God is but One God. Glory be to Him, transcending [the possibility], that He should have a son! To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and in the earth, as possessions, creatures and servants, and such sovereignty is not compatible with [that] prophethood [of Jesus]. God suffices as a Guardian, a Witness to this.

The Messiah, whom you claim is a god, would never disdain, [would never] scorn or reject haughtily, to be a servant of God, neither would the angels who are nigh, to God, disdain to be servants: this is a splendid digression [to the matter of the angels], and it is mentioned as a refutation of those who claim that they [the angels] are gods or the daughters of God, just as He refuted, with what was stated before, the Christians who claim that which is the subject of the address to them [above]. Whoever disdains to worship Him, and waxes proud, He will assuredly muster them to Him, all of them, in the Hereafter.

As for those who believed, who did righteous deeds, He will pay them in full their wages, the reward for their deeds, and He will give them more of His bounty, what no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no man’s heart has ever wished for; and as for them who disdain and are too proud, to worship Him, He will chastise them with a painful chastisement, which is the chastisement of the Fire, and they shall not find for themselves, besides God, that is, other than Him, any friend, to ward it off them, or helper, to protect them from it.

O people, a proof, a definitive argument, has now come to you from your Lord, against you, namely, the Prophet (s), and We have revealed to you a manifest, a clear, light, namely, the Qur’ān.

As for those who believe in God, and hold fast to Him, He will surely admit them to mercy from Him, and bounty, and He will guide them to Him by a straight path, namely, the religion of Islam.

They will ask you for a pronouncement, concerning indirect heirs. Say: ‘God pronounces to you concerning indirect heirs. If a man (in imru’un is in the nominative because of the verb [halaka, ‘perishes’] that explains it) perishes, dies, having no children, and no parent, and this is the one referred to as an indirect heir (kalāla), but he has a sister, from both parents or from one, hers is half of what he leaves, and he, a brother, similarly, is her heir, in all that she leaves, if she has no children: but if she has a son, then he [the maternal uncle] receives nothing, and if a daughter, then whatever is left after her share; if the brother and sister be from the same mother, then the one receives a sixth, as was stipulated at the beginning of the sūra [Q. 4:11]. If there be two sisters, or more — for this was revealed regarding Jābir [b. ‘Abd Allāh], who died and was survived by sisters —, theirs are two-thirds of what he, the brother, leaves; if there be, among the inheritors, siblings, men and women, then the male, among them, shall receive the equivalent of the portion of two females. God makes clear to you, the stipulations of your religion, lest you go astray; and God has knowledge of all things’, including [matters of] inheritance: it is reported by the two Shaykhs [Bukhārī and Muslim] that al-Barā’ [b. ‘Āzib] said that this was the last of the ‘duty’ verses to be revealed.