An-Nisa 4:92–121

Killing is a heinous and irreversible crime. One who deliberately kills another therefore brings down upon himself the wrath of God. Such an act leaves no scope for atonement. God will reject him, and he will be rewarded with eternal hell fire. Accidental killing, however, is more leniently punished. If one unintentionally kills someone, but then, fully realizing the gravity of the crime, sincerely seeks God’s forgiveness and makes due monetary compensation, one may hope for divine clemency. One positive development arising from having faced up to the enormity of the crime is the desire for self-reform. To this end God has given man His directives. Self-punishment is a starting point and may be achieved by the observance of a continuous fast.

In essence, these verses primarily lay down the law on premeditated and unpremeditated modes of crime, but they also suggest ways, under the divine law, of dealing with and checking other serious crimes in the public realm. Just as it is our duty not to deprive our fellow men of their lives, we are also commanded that we should not disgrace others, or rob or deprive them of their livelihood or victimize them in any manner such as would seriously disturb their peace of mind. If one commits any such damaging acts against others by mistake, one should be quick to accept the blame. Proof of the realisation of guilt would be sincere repentance before God and providing compensation for the loss of the affected person. But if one indulges in acts such as are deliberately intended to harm and harass others, this would be regarded as the equivalent of an act of deliberate homicide, the only difference being in its degree of gravity.

Muslims broadly fall into two categories as far the level of their actions is concerned. One category is comprised of those who adopt the Islamic way of life, remaining within the confines of obligatory injunctions. They worship God and live discreetly, heeding what is lawful and what is unlawful. The second category includes those who live at the level of sacrifice. They follow Islam and exert themselves to convey its message to other people, willingly enduring the difficulties of their endeavour. They place their lives and prossessions in jeopardy for the cause of Islam. They do not confine themselves to obeying obligatory injunctions, but move far beyond—offering their very existence for the sake of Islam. Muslims in both the categories are sincere and will be recipients of their respective shares of God’s grace; however, the status of the second category of Muslims is different from the first. Their offerings in the path of God were not in measurable terms, so neither will God’s requital of their efforts be measurable. These Muslims joined the mission of God without any consideration for expediency; accordingly, God’s grace and mercy will, in return, be immeasurable.

A believer naturally wants a free environment where his believing personality may find full opportunities to express itself. If he finds the environment unfavourable, he had better change his surroundings. This change of place is called hijrah (emigration). Thus, in the real spirit of hijrah, one should remove oneself from an unfavourable to a favourable situation. Let us take the example of a person who is associated with an organisation which is dominated by certain personalities. He realises that he may exist there only as a glorifier of those personalities and not as a glorifier of God. Now, if for the sake of self-interest he compromises with that atmosphere and fails to proclaim the truth as he sees it, and then, still in the same state, he breathes his last, it might be said that in that case, he had perpetrated an injustice against his soul.

When a call of truth is raised, which demands that the believers respond to the call and expend their energies and their wealth on spreading this message, they refuse to come out of their cocoons of self-interest and expediency. Thus they fail to join the caller for truth and become his supporters. If they continue to remain in this state till the moment of their death, they will appear before God as having done an injustice to their own lives. However, those who are really helpless and incapable of extending any support are exempted from this condition.

All acts of religion, whether in the nature of prayer (salat) and alms-giving (zakat) or the propagation of God’s word or the struggle for God’s cause, have the ultimate purpose of remembering God. Their aim is to create a man who lives with the thought of God at every moment and under all situations; who fears God in moments of apprehension and longs for Him in moments of hope; who relies solely on God; whose attention is diverted towards God. If he achieves something, he believes it to be from God and if he suffers deprivation, he takes it as being God’s command. The whole of his inner existence should be lost in the majesty and grace of God. This orientation is such an important matter that, even in such critical times as war, one is directed to say one’s prayer in some form or the other so that, even though face to face with death, one may be reminded of what is of real value, to be carried along with one to the Hereafter.

Though Muslims rely entirely on God, they have been instructed to be ready with the necessary means of defence against their enemies. This is so because help from God reaches the recipient through tangible means. If the Muslims did not prepare for their defence, it would be like not taking hold of the receptacle through which God’s help could reach them. The difficulties faced by the Muslims in this world are a part of God’s scheme to create such conditions of trial as will enable Him to judge who remains steadfast and who is a reckless victimiser of his fellow men. During the struggle between truth and untruth, sometimes the believers are defeated and harmed. This causes pessimism among some of them. But in such adversities, God’s providence lies hidden; they occur so that man’s repentance will be the greater and, in turning to God, he will make himself more deserving of His benevolence.

Living along with others is a need felt by every human being. It is this need that creates the nation or the community. A man has his strength enhanced a thousand times by association with his own community. However, something which initially came into existence as a human need for social cohesion, gradually takes on the status of a social religion. The community or the nation becomes a goal in itself. This leads to the mentality, ‘My community right or wrong. It is my community, whether based on truth or falsehood.’ Thus people consider their own circle as important and that of others as unimportant. It is considered that a man belonging to their own circle, even if he is in the wrong, must be supported, while another associated with a different group or community, though right and justified, receives no support. A group with this mentality can be said to have taken communal expediencies and group bias as the criteria by which to judge right and wrong. On the contrary one should regard God’s command as the standard by which to make judgements. If someone errs, he must be checked without prejudice or favouritism. If someone stands for truth, he must be supported—even though associated with another group. Even in a situation where two persons are involved, one from one’s own group and the other from some other group, matters must be looked into on the basis of truth and untruth, ignoring all other considerations. One should always associate oneself with the truth.

Abandoning the truth is like abandoning oneself. A man is dishonest to himself before he is dishonest to someone else. This is so because, in the hearts and minds of every human being, God has implanted a conscience as His representative. Whenever any individual intends to go against the truth, he is stopped by this invisible representative of God. He has first to suppress and ignore this inner voice, and only then is it possible for him to leave the path of justice for that of injustice. All too often he lends support to some erring person due to importance having been attached to him. Social relations and expediencies lead him to turn a blind eye to the other’s misdeeds and, therefore, knowing full well that the other is not on the right path, he becomes his supporter. Refusal to distance himself from a person known to be following the path of untruth happens at the cost of distancing himself from God. When one supports untruth to seek the esteem of another human being in this world, one loses God’s company in the Hereafter.

This world is a place of trial. Everyone may commit mistakes here, both with regard to God as well as to His servants. When someone errs, the right course is that he should sincerely repent and seek the guidance of God, beg for His forgiveness and pray to be assisted to perform only virtuous deeds in future. One who seeks God’s shelter so sincerely, will certainly receive it from Him. By the grace of God, his religious sensibility will be sharpened and he will be enabled to live more prudently in this world. On the other hand, a person may do some wrong, but does not care to admit it; he rather attempts to justify himself. He then gathers his supporters and fights with those who simply intended to inform him of his mistake. Such arrogant, un-repentant individuals and their supporters are the worst criminals in the eyes of God. Their eloquence, used to hide their wrongs, will become meaningless, and the host of supporters, who propped up their arrogance, will be of no avail in the Hereafter.

A man steals something, but when faced with the possibility of getting caught, he hides it in someone else’s house. He then raises the alarm that so and so has committed a theft. Similarly, a man may intend to outrage the modesty of a woman, but when that pious woman does not relent, he defames her with all sorts of fabricated stories. Again, two persons start a business in partnership. After some time, one of them feels that his personal interests are being harmed in the venture and, therefore, manages to get it closed down, putting the blame on his partner. All such activities are deliberate efforts to implicate others in order to lay the blame at their door. But these misdemeanours only increase the guilt of the person concerned; they do not absolve him of his responsibility. To such wrongdoers God gives the opportunity to reform; through His immense bounty they are advised to accept their faults without argument, not to be arrogant in their dealings because of the strength of their supporters, but to remain humble out of fear for God, and if there happens to be any chance of retaliation, not to exult, but to pray that God may save them from becoming tyrants.

The issuing of a genuine call to the truth amounts to the establishment of God’s balance of justice on the earth. Everyone feels that he is being weighed in its scale. Such a call removes the veneer from man and leaves him as he actually is. This state of affairs is so hard upon those who are thus exposed that they become infuriated to an extreme degree. The preacher of God’s word has to bear the brunt of this. People who find themselves valueless in the scales of truth are overcome with feelings of haughtiness and pride. They lose no time in opposing and obstructing any move that casts doubt on their being lovers of the truth. They spread all kinds of rumours against the call and the caller. They dissuade others from extending any financial help to the dayees. They relentlessly try to discourage God’s servants from rallying around the conveyor of the divine message by creating doubts about his message. On the other hand, to those who have kept their consciences alive, God gives the ability to surrender before the preacher of God’s word, to extend their full support to him and mould their lives in accordance with his guidance. For them their God-given faculty of speech is used to openly acknowledge the truth; they urge people to expend their time and wealth on that mission, they encourage people to use their energies in charity and welfare activities and strive to persuade them to extinguish personal enmities and grievances. The acknowledgement of truth awakens a positive psychology within them as a natural result of which they feel disposed to engage in positive activities.

Opposition to the call of truth and victimization of the followers of the giver of that call are unforgivable offences in the eyes of God. While all other sinful acts may have been committed out of human weakness, the act of opposing the call of Truth is entirely due to insolence and haughtiness: insolence and rebellion are crimes that God will not forgive unless man confesses his mistakes and gives up his rebellious stance. Whenever the call of truth is brought to people in its pure and original form (without making concessions to people’s whims and wishes) it always is a divine mission supported by the special succour of God. To oppose such a mission is to stand in opposition to God Almighty. And can any individual succeed if he takes a stand against God? One who firmly believes in God has his actions rooted in Him. He may err occasionally but, when he turns to God, he rejoins his real roots. On the other hand, one who has associated himself with anyone besides God, is as if deprived of the true base in this universe. An individual who has not established his roots in the one God may perform some good actions, but such actions do not emanate from the divine source; they have only a surface value and are easily nullified by the slightest jolt. That is why a good action based in monotheism unfolds its results in the Hereafter, whereas that based in polytheism is swept away in this world itself.

Man’s real challenge in this world is from Satan. Though Satan has no real power, he can lure human beings with fanciful promises to fulfil wishful, imaginary desires and thus manage to make them deviate from the straight path of truth. Satan’s way of misguiding is of two main types: one is superstition and the other is interference in God’s creation. Faith in superstition means expectation of such results from something as have no relation with that thing. For instance, on the basis of self-styled suppositions, one may believe that someone other than God is the controller of the affairs of the world, while it is a well-established fact that no one enjoys any power save God. Superstition can also take the form of being fully involved in worldly activities and then, by wishful thinking, hoping to achieve success in the Hereafter without having worked hard for it.

Man’s real challenge in this world is from Satan. Though Satan has no real power, he can lure human beings with fanciful promises to fulfil wishful, imaginary desires and thus manage to make them deviate from the straight path of truth. Satan’s way of misguiding is of two main types: one is superstition and the other is interference in God’s creation. Faith in superstition means expectation of such results from something as have no relation with that thing.