Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:103
And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting, or [lying] on your sides. But when you become secure, re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His word: فَإِذَا قَضَيْتُمُ الصَّلاةَ فَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَى جُنُوبِكُمْ فَإِذَا اطْمَأْنَنْتُمْ فَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلاةَ ("And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting, and lying on your sides; and when you have become tranquil, then establish the ritual prayer (ṣalāh)") (4:103).
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He, exalted is His praise, means the following: When you, O believers, are finished with your prayer while you are arrayed facing your enemy — that which We have set forth to you — then remember Allah in all your states: standing, sitting, and lying on your sides, by glorifying Him and supplicating for yourselves for victory over your enemy, hoping that Allah may grant you victory and aid you against them. That is similar to His word: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا لَقِيتُمْ فِئَةً فَاثْبُتُوا وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ ("O you who believe, when you meet a group [of enemies], stand firm and remember Allah much, that you may succeed") [Surah Al-Anfāl: 45], and as:
10380 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: وَاذْكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَثِيرًا ("and remember Allah much"), he said: Allah has not imposed any obligation upon His servants except that He set a known limit (ḥadd) for it, and He thereafter excused people in the case of a valid excuse — except for the remembrance (dhikr), for He set no limit for it at which it stops, and He excused no one for neglecting it except the one who has been deprived of power over his reason. That is why He said: "Then remember Allah, standing, sitting, and lying on your sides" — by night and by day, on land and on sea, on a journey and at home, in wealth and in poverty, in sickness and in health, in secret and in public, and in every state.
* * *
As for His word: "and when you have become tranquil, then establish the ritual prayer," concerning this the people of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) have differed.
Some of them said: The meaning of His word "and when you have become tranquil" is: when you have settled in your dwellings and you reside in your towns, "then establish," that is: then complete the prayer that you were permitted to shorten at the time of your fear during your journey and your traveling through the land.
* Mention of who said that:
10381 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word: "and when you have become tranquil," he said: The departure from the state of travel to the state of settling.
10382 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word: "and when you have become tranquil," he says: when you have become tranquil in your towns, then complete the prayer.
* * *
And others said: The meaning of it is: "and when you have settled," "then establish the ritual prayer," that is: then complete its limits with its bowing (rukūʿ) and its prostration (sujūd).
* Mention of who said that:
10383 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and when you have become tranquil," he said: when you have become tranquil after the fear.
10384 — And Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "and when you have become tranquil, then establish the ritual prayer," he said: when you have become tranquil, then pray the prayer; do not pray it riding, nor walking, nor sitting.
10385 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word: "and when you have become tranquil, then establish the ritual prayer," he said: complete it.
10386 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the more correct of the two interpretations of the interpretation of the verse is the interpretation of the one who interpreted it thus: when your fear of your enemy departs and you are safe, O believers, and your souls become tranquil through the safety, "then establish the ritual prayer," that is: then complete its limits which have been prescribed for you, without shortening anything of those limits.
And we have only said that this is the more correct of the two interpretations of the verse because Allah, exalted is His mention, made known to His believing servants by these two verses the obligation of the duty of their prayer in two states:
The first of them: the state of intense fear, in which He permitted them to shorten the prayer, as I have set forth concerning the shortening of its limits relative to its completeness.
And the other: the state of non-intense fear, in which He commanded them to perform its limits and to complete it, as He, exalted is His praise, described it to them: that one party of them alternates with the other party in the prayer behind their imams, and that one party of them guards the other party against their enemy. And that is a state in which there is no shortening, for He, exalted is His praise, says to His Prophet ﷺ in this state: وَإِذَا كُنْتَ فِيهِمْ فَأَقَمْتَ لَهُمُ الصَّلاةَ ("And when you are among them and lead them in prayer"). From that, then, it is known that His word: "and when you have become tranquil, then establish the ritual prayer," only means: when you have become tranquil out of the state in which you could not perform your prayer, then perform it. And that is the state of intense fear, for He had already commanded them to perform it in a state of non-intense fear with His word: وَإِذَا كُنْتَ فِيهِمْ فَأَقَمْتَ لَهُمُ الصَّلاةَ ("And when you are among them and lead them in prayer") — the verse.
* * *
The explanation of His word: إِنَّ الصَّلاةَ كَانَتْ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ كِتَابًا مَوْقُوتًا ("Indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times") (4:103).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The people of interpretation have differed over the interpretation of it.
Some of them said: Its meaning is: the prayer is for the believers an imposed obligation (farīḍa mafrūḍa).
* Mention of who said that:
10387 — Abū al-Sāʾib related to me, he said: Ibn Fuḍayl related to us, on the authority of Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, on the authority of ʿAṭiyya al-ʿAwfī concerning His word: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," he said: prescribed.
10388 — Yūnus related to us, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His word: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," he said: prescribed; "that which is fixed at appointed times" is the prescribed.
10389 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, he said: as for "a prescription at appointed times," that is prescribed.
10390 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid: "a prescription at appointed times," he said: prescribed.
* * *
And others said: The meaning of it is: the prayer is for the believers a binding obligation (farḍ wājib).
* Mention of who said that:
10391 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Abū Rajāʾ, on the authority of al-Ḥasan concerning His word: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," he said: a binding prescription.
10392 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word: "a prescription at appointed times," he said: binding.
10393 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, he said: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
10394 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar ibn Sām, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar concerning His word: "a prescription at appointed times," he said: made obligatory.
10395 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," and "that which is fixed at appointed times" is the binding.
10396 — Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim related to me, he said: Abū Nuʿaym related to us, he said: Maʿmar ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: I heard Abū Jaʿfar say: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," he said: its bindingness.
* * *
And others said: The meaning of it is: the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times, divided into terms, which they perform at their fixed times.
* Mention of who said that:
10397 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," he said: Ibn Masʿūd said: indeed, the prayer has an appointed time just like the time of the pilgrimage (ḥajj).
10398 — Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam concerning His word: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," he said: divided into terms; whenever a term has passed, another term comes. He says: whenever a time has passed, another time comes.
10399 — Al-Qāsim related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam, in the same manner.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: And these statements are close to one another in meaning. For what is prescribed is binding, and what is obligatory to perform at one time after another is divided into terms.
But the most correct of the meanings of the interpretation of the word is the statement of the one who said: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription divided into terms," because "mawqūt" (fixed at appointed times) is only a "passive past participle" from the statement of the one who says: "Allah has appointed (waqata) His prescription for you, and He appoints it (yaqitu-hu)," so His prescription for you is "mawqūt" (fixed at an appointed time), such that, when you delay it, a time has been set for it at which you are obliged to perform it. Likewise, the meaning of His word: "indeed, the prayer is for the believers a prescription at appointed times," is only: it was for the believers a prescription for which He appointed for them the time of the obligation to perform it, and He set that forth to them.