Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:141
Those who wait [and watch] you. Then if you gain a victory from Allah, they say, "Were we not with you?" But if the disbelievers have a success, they say [to them], "Did we not gain the advantage over you, but we protected you from the believers?" Allah will judge between [all of] you on the Day of Resurrection, and never will Allah give the disbelievers over the believers a way [to overcome them].
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: الَّذِينَ يَتَرَبَّصُونَ بِكُمْ فَإِنْ كَانَ لَكُمْ فَتْحٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ قَالُوا أَلَمْ نَكُنْ مَعَكُمْ وَإِنْ كَانَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ نَصِيبٌ قَالُوا أَلَمْ نَسْتَحْوِذْ عَلَيْكُمْ وَنَمْنَعْكُمْ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَاللَّهُ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلَنْ يَجْعَلَ اللَّهُ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ سَبِيلا (4:141) (Those who lie in wait for you: if a victory from Allah falls to you, they say, "Were we not with you?" And if a portion falls to the disbelievers, they say, "Did we not gain mastery over you and protect you against the believers?" Well then, Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by His word "Those who lie in wait for you" those who wait to see, O believers, what will befall you. "If a victory from Allah falls to you" means: if Allah grants you a victory over your enemy and assigns you a portion of the spoils of war, then "they say" to you: "Were we not with you" in fighting your enemy (jihād) and waging war against him together with you? Give us, then, a share in the spoils (ghanīmah), for we attended the fighting (qitāl) together with you. "And if a portion falls to the disbelievers" means: and if your enemies among the disbelievers (kāfir) obtain a portion at your expense, by striking you, "they say" — that is to say: then these hypocrites (munāfiq) say to the disbelievers — "Did we not gain mastery over you": did we not overpower you, until you overcame the believers, "and protect you against them" through our discouraging them, until they refrained from you and withdrew? "Well then, Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection" means: Allah will judge between the believers and the hypocrites on the Day of Resurrection, and He will decide between you with the separating judgment, by admitting the people of faith into His paradise (janna), and the people of hypocrisy (nifāq) together with their allies among the disbelievers into His Fire. "And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers" means: an argument (proof) on the Day of Resurrection.
That is a promise from Allah to the believers that He will not let the hypocrites enter their abode in paradise, nor the believers the abode of the hypocrites, so that the disbelievers would thereby have an argument against the believers by saying to them, if they were to enter their abode: "Behold, in the worldly life you were our enemies, and the hypocrites were our allies, and now you are gathered together in the Fire; so He has brought you together with our allies! Where, then, are those for whose sake you claimed to fight us in the worldly life?" That, then, is "the way" which Allah has promised the believers that He would not grant against them to the disbelievers.
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And in agreement with what we have said concerning this, the people of interpretation (taʾwīl) also spoke.
*Mention of who said that:
10711- Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, concerning His word "If a victory from Allah falls to you." He said: The hypocrites lie in wait for the Muslims; "If a victory falls to you" — he said: if the Muslims obtain spoils from their enemy, the hypocrites say: "Were we not with you?" — we were indeed with you, so give us spoils equal to what you take. "And if a portion falls to the disbelievers" — which they obtain at the expense of the Muslims — the hypocrites say to the disbelievers: "Did we not gain mastery over you and protect you against the believers?" — we did hold them back from you.
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The people of interpretation differed concerning the interpretation of His word "Did we not gain mastery over you."
Some of them said: its meaning is: did we not overcome you.
*Mention of who said that:
10712- Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His word "Did we not gain mastery over you." He said: we overcame you.
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Others said: its meaning is: did we not make clear to you that we are with you in that which you are upon.
*Mention of who said that:
10713- Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: "Did we not gain mastery over you" — did we not make clear to you that we are with you in that which you are upon.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: These two views are close to each other in meaning. For whoever interprets it in the sense of "did we not make clear to you," he only means — if Allah wills —: did we not overcome you through that which proceeded from us in making clear to you that we are with you.
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The root meaning of "al-istiḥwādh" in the language of the Arabs is, according to what has reached us, domination (overpowering). To this belongs the word of Allah, exalted is His praise: اسْتَحْوَذَ عَلَيْهِمُ الشَّيْطَانُ فَأَنْسَاهُمْ ذِكْرَ اللَّهِ [sūrat al-Mujādalah: 19] (Satan has gained mastery over them and has made them forget the remembrance of Allah), in the meaning of: he dominated them. Of this one says: "ḥādha ʿalayhi wa-istaḥādha, yaḥīdhu wa-yastaḥīdhu, wa-aḥādha yaḥīdhu." And belonging to the linguistic form of the one who says "ḥādha" is the word of al-ʿAjjāj in the description of a bull and a dog:
He drives them on and has driving force (ḥūdhī) over them
And some have recited:
He drives them on and has driving force (ḥūzī) over them
And these two are close to each other in meaning. And belonging to the linguistic form of the one who says "aḥādha" is the word of Labīd in the description of a wild ass and his she-asses:
When they gathered together, and he dominated both her sides
And he drove her on crooked, long [legs]
By his word "and he dominated both her sides" he means: he overpowered and subdued her, until he encompassed both her sides, so that nothing of her was scattered.
By analogy, His word اسْتَحْوَذَ عَلَيْهِمُ الشَّيْطَانُ should properly read "istaḥādha ʿalayhim," for when the "wāw" is the middle radical of the verb and is made mobile with a fatḥa while what precedes it is quiescent, then the Arabs place its movement on the first radical of the verb before it, and change it into an "alif," following the movement of what precedes it, as they say: "istaḥāla this thing from what it was" (from "ḥāla yaḥūlu"), and "istanāra such-and-such by the light of Allah" (from "al-nūr"), and "istaʿādha bi-llāh" (from "ʿādha yaʿūdhu"). And sometimes they leave it upon its root form, as Labīd said: "aḥwadha," and did not say "aḥādha." And in this linguistic form the Qurʾān has come in His word اسْتَحْوَذَ عَلَيْهِمُ الشَّيْطَانُ .
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As for His word "Well then, Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers": there is no disagreement among them that its meaning is: and Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers on that Day.
Mention of the report about who said that:
10714- Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Dharr, on the authority of Yusayʿ al-Ḥaḍramī, who said: I was with ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, may Allah be pleased with him, when a man said: "O Commander of the Believers, what do you say of the word of Allah: 'And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers,' while they fight us and gain the upper hand and kill?" ʿAlī said to him: "Come closer, come closer!" Then he said: "'Well then, Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers' — on the Day of Resurrection."
10715- Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: al-Thawrī informed us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Dharr, on the authority of Yusayʿ al-Kindī, concerning His word "And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers." He said: A man came to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and said: "How is it with this verse: 'And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers'?" ʿAlī said: "Come closer: 'Well then, Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection, and Allah will' — on the Day of Resurrection — 'never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers'."
10716- Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Dharr, on the authority of Yusayʿ al-Ḥaḍramī, on the authority of ʿAlī, in similar wording.
10717- Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Ghundar related to us, on the authority of Shuʿbah, who said: I heard Sulaymān relate, on the authority of Dharr, on the authority of a man, on the authority of ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said concerning this verse "And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers": in the Hereafter.
10718- Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Mālik: "And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers" — on the Day of Resurrection.
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10719- Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers" — he said: that is on the Day of Resurrection.
As for "the way" in this place: that is the argument (proof), as:
10720- Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, concerning His word "And Allah will never grant the disbelievers a way against the believers." He said: an argument (proof).
