Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:29
O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves [or one another]. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful.
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.
Exposition of the interpretation of His word: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَكُمْ بَيْنَكُمْ بِالْبَاطِلِ إِلا أَنْ تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً عَنْ تَرَاضٍ مِنْكُمْ ("O you who believe, do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood, unless it be commerce by mutual consent among you.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, whose praise is exalted, means by His word "O you who believe," that is: those who hold Allah and His Messenger to be true — "do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood," He says: let not one of you consume the wealth of another by means of what He has forbidden Him, such as usury (ribā), gambling, and other matters which Allah has forbidden you — "unless it be commerce." As in:
9140 - 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: "O you who believe, do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood, unless it be commerce by mutual consent among you," concerning "their consuming of their wealth among themselves in falsehood," that is by usury (ribā), gambling, fraudulent reduction, and injustice — "unless it be commerce," so that he may earn a thousand on a dirham, if he can.
9141 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl Abū al-Nuʿmān related to us, saying: Khālid al-Ṭaḥḥān related to us, saying: Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind informed us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His word, the Exalted: "do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood," he said: the man buys the merchandise and then returns it and gives back a dirham along with it.
9142 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — concerning the man who buys a garment from a man and says: "if it pleases me I take it, and if not, then I return it and give back a dirham along with it," he said: that is what Allah meant: "do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood."
* * *
And others said: no, this verse was revealed with the prohibition that one of them should eat the food of another except by purchase. As for hospitality, that was forbidden by this verse, until that was abrogated by His word in "Sūrat al-Nūr": لَيْسَ عَلَى الأَعْمَى حَرَجٌ وَلا عَلَى الأَعْرَجِ حَرَجٌ وَلا عَلَى الْمَرِيضِ حَرَجٌ وَلا عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَنْ تَأْكُلُوا مِنْ بُيُوتِكُمْ the verse ("There is no blame upon the blind, nor is there blame upon the lame, nor is there blame upon the sick, nor upon yourselves, that you eat from your houses") [Sūrat al-Nūr: 61].
*Mention of who said that:
9143 - Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd related to me, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn Wāqid, on the authority of Yazīd al-Naḥwī, on the authority of ʿIkrima and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, who both said concerning His word: "do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood, unless it be commerce by mutual consent among you" — the verse: the man used to feel scruples about eating with any of the people after this verse was revealed, and that was abrogated by the verse which is in "Sūrat al-Nūr," for He said: لَيْسَ عَلَى الأَعْمَى حَرَجٌ وَلا عَلَى الأَعْرَجِ حَرَجٌ وَلا عَلَى الْمَرِيضِ حَرَجٌ وَلا عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَنْ تَأْكُلُوا مِنْ بُيُوتِكُمْ أَوْ بُيُوتِ آبَائِكُمْ أَوْ بُيُوتِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ up to His word: جَمِيعًا أَوْ أَشْتَاتًا ("There is no blame upon the blind, nor upon the lame, nor upon the sick, nor upon yourselves, that you eat from your houses, or the houses of your fathers, or the houses of your mothers" ... "together or separately"). The rich man used to invite the man of his family to the food, whereupon he would say: "I feel scruples!" — and "al-tajannuḥ" means scrupulousness — and he would say: "The poor have more right to it than I!" And thus it was permitted to them to eat of that over which the name of Allah had been pronounced, and the food of the People of the Book was made permissible.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: and the most correct of these two views concerning it is the view of al-Suddī. That is because Allah, whose remembrance is exalted, forbade the consuming of our wealth among ourselves in falsehood, and there is no disagreement among the Muslims that consuming it is forbidden to us, for Allah has never permitted the consuming of wealth in falsehood.
And since that is so, the statement of him who said: "that was a prohibition against the man's eating the food of his brother by way of hospitality [in the manner in which it was permitted to him], which was then abrogated" — has no meaning, on account of the transmission of all the learned of the community and its ignorant alike: that hospitality toward the guest and the feeding of food were among the praiseworthy deeds of the people of associating partners (shirk) and of Islam, whose practitioners Allah has praised and to which He has urged them, and that Allah did not forbid that at any time, but rather called and urged His servants to it.
And since that is so, it falls outside the meaning of eating in falsehood, and is removed from being anything abrogating or abrogated. For abrogation occurs only with respect to something abrogated, and the prohibition of it is not established, such that it would be admissible for it to be abrogated by the permission.
And since that is so, the view which we have stated is correct: that the falsehood by which Allah forbade the consuming of wealth is what we have described, namely what He forbade His servants in His revelation, or by the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ — and what deviates from that is deviant and anomalous.
And the reciters differed concerning the reading of His word: "unless it be commerce by mutual consent among you."
Some read it: ( إِلا أَنْ تَكُونَ تِجَارَةٌ ) with the nominative (rafʿ), in the meaning of: unless there exist commerce, or: commerce takes place, by mutual consent among you, so that the consuming of it is then permitted to you in that meaning. And the view of him who reads it in this manner is that "unless it be" here is complete (tāmma), without need of a predicate, in the manner I have described. And with this reading read most of the people of the Ḥijāz and the people of Basra.
* * *
And others read that — namely the generality of the reciters of Kufa: ( إِلا أَنْ تَكُونَ تِجَارَةً ) with the accusative (naṣb), in the meaning of: unless the wealth which you consume among yourselves be commerce by mutual consent among you, so that the consuming of it is permitted to you therein. Then "the wealth" is implicitly present in His word "unless it be," and "the commerce" is in the accusative as predicate.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: and both readings are, in our view, correct and admissible to read with, on account of their wide currency among the reciters of the regions, with the close agreement of their meanings. But even though the matter is so, the reading of it with the accusative is dearer to me than the reading of it with the nominative, on account of the strength of the accusative from two aspects:
One of them: that in "unless it be" there is a reference to the wealth. And the other: that if one were to put no reference to it therein and then leave it standing with "the commerce" alone, while it is indefinite, the accusative would be eloquent in the speech of the Arabs, since it was built upon a subject and a predicate. For when there appears with it only a single indefinite word, they use both the accusative and the nominative, as the poet said:
When among them there is talk of a spear-thrust and an embrace.
Abū Jaʿfar said: in this verse there is thus a clarification from Allah, whose remembrance is exalted, regarding the refutation of the statement of the ignorant among the Sufis who disapprove of the seeking of livelihood by means of commerce and crafts, while Allah, the Exalted, says: "O you who believe, do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood, unless it be commerce by mutual consent among you," as an acquisition on our part thereby, as in:
9144 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda concerning His word: "O you who believe, do not consume your wealth among yourselves in falsehood, unless it be commerce by mutual consent among you," he said: commerce is a provision from the provision of Allah, and a permitted thing from the permitted of Allah, for him who seeks it with its truthfulness and its sincerity. And we used to be taught: that the honest, truthful merchant will be together with the seven beneath the shade of the Throne on the Day of Resurrection.
* * *
As for His word "by mutual consent," its meaning is as in:
9145 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning the word of Allah, the Blessed and Exalted: "by mutual consent among you," in commerce or sale, or a gift which one gives to another.
9146 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "by mutual consent among you," in commerce, or sale, or a gift which one gives to another.
9147 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of al-Qāsim, on the authority of Sulaymān al-Juʿfī, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Maymūn ibn Mihrān, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: the sale takes place by mutual consent, and the right of choice exists after the transaction, and it is not permitted for a Muslim to deceive a Muslim.
9148 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj. He said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: is the striking of hands together (al-mumāsaḥa) a sale? He said: no, until he gives him the choice; the right of choice exists after the sale has become binding: if he wishes he takes, and if he wishes he leaves it.
* * *
And the people of knowledge differed concerning the meaning of "mutual consent" in commerce. Some of them said: that is that each of the two contracting parties, after their mutual concluding of the sale between them, is given the choice regarding that over which they traded, namely the carrying through of the sale or the rescinding of it, or that they both withdraw with their bodies from the place of their sitting where they made the sale mutually binding, by mutual consent of the two of them with the contract which they concluded between themselves before the dissolution.
*Mention of who said that:
9149 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, on the authority of Shurayḥ, he said: two men disputed, one of whom had sold to the other a burnous. He said: I sold this man a burnous and sought his consent, but he did not satisfy me!! He (Shurayḥ) said: satisfy him as he satisfied you. He said: I gave him dirhams, but he did not consent! He said: satisfy him as he satisfied you. He said: I have already satisfied him, but he did not consent! He said: the two selling parties have the right of choice as long as they have not parted.
9150 - Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Safar, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, on the authority of Shurayḥ, he said: the two selling parties have the right of choice as long as they have not parted.
9151 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba, on the authority of al-Ḥakam, on the authority of Shurayḥ, something similar.
9152 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Jābir, he said: Abū al-Ḍuḥā related to me, on the authority of Shurayḥ, that he said: the two selling parties have the right of choice as long as they have not parted — he (Jābir) said: Abū al-Ḍuḥā said: Shurayḥ used to transmit it on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in similar fashion.
9153 - And al-Ḥusayn ibn Yazīd al-Ṭaḥḥān related to me, saying: Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Salām, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Abū Ḥawshab, on the authority of Maymūn, he said: I bought from Ibn Sīrīn a sābirī cloth, and he proposed to me its price, whereupon I said: do well! He said: either you take, or you leave it. So I took it from him, and when I had weighed out the price he laid down the dirhams and said: choose, either the dirhams, or the goods. So I chose the goods and took them.
9154 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Hushaym related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Sālim, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, that he used to say concerning the two selling parties: they have the right of choice as long as they have not parted; and when each of them goes his way, then the sale has become binding.
9155 - Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Aḥmasī related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn Dīnār related to us, on the authority of Ẓabya, he said: I was in the market, and ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him, was in the market, when a slave-girl came to a fruit-seller for a dirham and said: give me this. He gave it to her, whereupon she said: I do not want it, give me my dirham! He refused, whereupon ʿAlī took it from him and gave it to her.
9156 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī: that a case was presented to him concerning a man who bought a horse from a man and it had become binding upon him, and that the buyer then returned it before they had parted, and he (al-Shaʿbī) judged that it had become binding upon him. Then Abū al-Ḍuḥā testified before him: that Shurayḥ in a similar case had judged that he should give it back to its owner. Then al-Shaʿbī reverted to the judgment of Shurayḥ.
9157 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Hishām related to us, on the authority of Ibn Sīrīn, on the authority of Shurayḥ, that he used to say concerning the two selling parties: when the buyer claims that the sale has been made binding upon him, and the seller says: I did not make it binding upon him — he (Shurayḥ) said: two upright men shall testify that the two of you parted by mutual consent after a sale or a mutual choice; and if not, then the oath of the seller: that the two of you did [not] part after a sale or a mutual choice.
9158 - Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Ayyūb, on the authority of Muḥammad. He said: Shurayḥ used to say: two upright men shall testify that the two of you parted by mutual consent after a sale and a mutual choice; and if not, then his oath by Allah: you two did not part by mutual consent after a sale or a mutual choice.
9159 - Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Ibn ʿAwn related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, on the authority of Shurayḥ, that he used to say: two upright men shall testify that the two of them parted by mutual consent after a sale or a mutual choice.
* * *
And the basis of him who made this statement is what:
9160 - Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh, he said: Nāfiʿ informed me, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, he said: with any two selling parties there is no sale between them until they part, except when it is a sale of choice.
9161 - Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Marwān ibn Muʿāwiya related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb related to me, saying: Abū Zurʿa used to, when he made a transaction with a man, say to him: give me the choice! Then he said: Abū Hurayra said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "they part only by mutual consent."
9162 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Ayyūb related to us, on the authority of Abū Qilāba, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: O people of al-Baqīʿ! Then they heard his voice. Then he said: O people of al-Baqīʿ! Then they stretched their necks and looked, until they recognized that it was his voice. Then he said: O people of al-Baqīʿ! Let not two selling parties part except by mutual consent.
9163 - Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī related to me, saying: Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī related to us, saying: Sulaymān ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Simāk related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: that the Prophet ﷺ made a transaction with a man and then said to him: choose. He said: I have already chosen. Then he said: thus is the sale.
* * *
They said: commerce by mutual consent is thus what accords with what the Prophet ﷺ clarified, namely the choice given to each of the buyer and the seller regarding the carrying through of the sale in that over which they mutually trade — or the rescinding of it after the conclusion of the sale between them and before the parting — or that of which they part with their bodies, by mutual consent of the two of them, after making the sale mutually binding therein, from their place of sitting. What deviates from that does not, then, belong to the commerce which took place between them by mutual consent of the two of them.
* * *
And others said: no, mutual consent in commerce is the mutual making binding of the conclusion of the sale in that over which the two contracting parties mutually trade, by the consent of each of the two of them: what the one party transfers in ownership to the other and what the other transfers in ownership to him — whether they part from that place of their sitting or do not part, whether they give each other the choice in the sitting or do not give each other the choice therein after concluding it.
* * *
And the basis of him who made this statement: that the sale takes place only by the word, just as marriage takes place by the word, and there is no disagreement among the people of knowledge concerning the binding, in marriage, of one of the two marrying parties to the other, whether they part or do not part from the place of their sitting where that took place. They said: thus likewise is the ruling concerning the sale. And they interpreted the statement of the Prophet ﷺ "the two selling parties have the right of choice as long as they have not parted" as: as long as they have not parted by the word. And among those who made this statement were Mālik ibn Anas, Abū Ḥanīfa, Abū Yūsuf, and Muḥammad.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: and the most correct of the two views concerning it, in our view, is the view of him who said: that the commerce which is by mutual consent between the two contracting parties is that of which the two contracting parties part with their bodies from the place of sitting where they mutually made the agreement of the sale binding, by mutual consent of the two of them with the contract that took place between them, and by the giving of the choice by each of the two of them to the other — on account of the soundness of the transmission on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, with what:
9164 - Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, saying: Ayyūb informed us = and Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, saying: Ayyūb related to us = on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "the two selling parties have the right of choice as long as they have not parted, or it is a sale of choice" = and perhaps he said: "or one of them says to the other: choose."
* * *
And since that is sound on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the statement of one of the two contracting parties to the other "choose" does not escape being: either before the conclusion of the sale, or with it, or after it.
If it is before it, then that is the corruption of speech which has no meaning, for before the conclusion of the sale neither of the two contracting parties has transferred in ownership to the other what did not belong to him, such that his giving the other the choice regarding what he transferred to him in ownership would have an intelligible sense — and among them there is none who does not know that he has the right of choice in transferring in ownership to the other what does not belong to him, against a counter-prestation which he receives in exchange for it, such that it would be said to him: "you have the right of choice in whatever you wish to bring about of sale or purchase."
= Or it is — since this meaning falls away — the giving of the choice by each of the two of them to the other together with the conclusion of the sale. And the meaning of giving the choice in that state is the same as the meaning of giving the choice before it. For it is a state in which there has not passed from either of the two of them that which he previously owned, to the other, such that giving the choice would have an intelligible sense.
= Or that is after the conclusion of the sale, since these two meanings are unsound.
And since that is so, it is correct that the other meaning of the statement of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — I mean His word: "as long as they have not parted" — is only the parting after the conclusion of the sale, just as the giving of the choice was after it. And since that is correct, the statement of him who claimed that its meaning is only the parting by the word by which the sale takes place is unsound. And since that is unsound, what we have said is correct: that the giving of the choice and the parting are only two meanings by which the completion of the sale takes place after its conclusion; and the interpretation is correct of him who said: the meaning of His word "unless it be commerce by mutual consent among you" is: unless your consuming of the wealth which one of you consumes from another takes place by virtue of your ownership of those from whom you acquired it in ownership, by means of commerce which you mutually conducted and from which you parted by mutual consent of yours after the conclusion of the sale between you with your bodies, or the giving of the choice by one of you to the other.
* * *
Exposition of the interpretation of His word: وَلا تَقْتُلُوا أَنْفُسَكُمْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ بِكُمْ رَحِيمًا (29) ("And do not kill yourselves. Verily, Allah is Merciful toward you.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, whose praise is exalted, means by that: "and do not kill yourselves," that is: let not one of you kill the other, while you are the people of one religious community, of one call, and of one religion. Thus Allah, whose praise is exalted, made the people of Islam all to be a part of one another. And He made the killer among them who is a slain one — by the killing of him who belongs to them — like one who kills himself, since the killer and the slain were the people of one hand against whom their religious community was opposed.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning it, the people of interpretation spoke.
*Mention of who said that:
9165 - 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: "and do not kill yourselves," he says: the people of your religious community.
9166 - 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 ibn Abī Rabāḥ: "and do not kill yourselves," he said: the killing of one of you by the other.
* * *
As for His word, whose praise is exalted: "verily, Allah is Merciful toward you," that means: verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, is unceasingly "Merciful" toward His creation, and it is part of His mercy toward you that He restrains one of you from killing the other, O believers, by forbidding the blood of one of you to the other, except in the case of his lawful claim, and by forbidding the consuming of the wealth of one of you by the other in falsehood, except in the case of commerce by which one acquires it in ownership from him with his consent and good pleasure. Were it not for that, you would perish and one of you would destroy the other by killing, plunder, and violent dispossession.
