Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:41
So how [will it be] when We bring from every nation a witness and we bring you, [O Muhammad] against these [people] as a witness?
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 discourse on the explanation of His saying: فَكَيْفَ إِذَا جِئْنَا مِنْ كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ بِشَهِيدٍ وَجِئْنَا بِكَ عَلَى هَؤُلاءِ شَهِيدًا (41) ("But how will it be when We bring from every community a witness and bring you as a witness against these?" (4:41))
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means, exalted is His praise: Indeed, Allah does not wrong His servants by even the weight of a speck of dust, so how then will it be with them = "when We bring from every community a witness," that is to say: with someone who testifies against it concerning its deeds, and concerning its belief in its messengers or its denial of them = "and bring you as a witness against these." He says: and We bring you, O Muḥammad ﷺ, = "against these," that is to say: against your community = "as a witness." He means: testifying, as in:
9515 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "But how will it be when We bring from every community a witness and bring you as a witness against these," he said: The prophets come on the Day of Resurrection; some of them, only one of his people accepted Islam, or two, or ten, or fewer than that, or more. Until the people of Lūṭ ﷺ are brought, with whom none believed except his two daughters. Then it is said to them: Did you convey that with which you were sent? They say: Yes. Then it is said: Who testifies? They say: The community of Muḥammad ﷺ! Then it is said to them: Testify; indeed, the messengers have deposited a testimony with you, so concerning what do you testify? They say: Our Lord, we testify that they truly conveyed = just as they had testified in the worldly life concerning the conveying. Then it is said: Who testifies to that? They say: Muḥammad ﷺ. Then Muḥammad, peace be upon him, is summoned, and he testifies that his community truly affirmed the truth, and that the messengers truly conveyed. That is His saying: وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا [Surah Al-Baqarah: 143] ("And thus We have made you a moderate community, that you may be witnesses over the people and that the Messenger may be a witness over you.").
9516 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said concerning His saying: "But how will it be when We bring from every community a witness," he said: her messenger, and he testifies against her that he truly conveyed to them that with which Allah sent him to them = "and bring you as a witness against these," he said: when the Prophet ﷺ reached this, both his eyes overflowed with tears.
9517 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, on the authority of Yazīd al-Naḥwī, on the authority of ʿIkrima concerning His saying: وَشَاهِدٍ وَمَشْهُودٍ [Surah Al-Burūj: 3] ("and by a witness and that which is witnessed"), he said: the witness is Muḥammad, and that which is witnessed is the Friday. That is His saying: "But how will it be when We bring from every community a witness and bring you as a witness against these."
9518 - ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad al-Zuhrī related to me, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Masʿūdī, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth, on the authority of his father, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh: "But how will it be when We bring from every community a witness and bring you as a witness against these," he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنِي كُنْتَ أَنْتَ الرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَأَنْتَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ ("And when You took me to Yourself, You were the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things.").
9519 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn Abī al-Wazīr related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of al-Masʿūdī, on the authority of al-Qāsim: that the Prophet ﷺ said to Ibn Masʿūd: Recite for me. He said: Shall I recite for you, when it has been sent down upon you? He said: I love to hear it from another. He said: So Ibn Masʿūd recited "An-Nisāʾ" until he came to: "But how will it be when We bring from every community a witness and bring you as a witness against these," he said: The Prophet ﷺ was overcome by tears, and Ibn Masʿūd stopped. = Al-Masʿūdī said: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth related to me, on the authority of his father: that the Prophet ﷺ said: "A witness against them so long as I am among them; and when You take me to Yourself, You are the Watcher over them, and You are Witness over all things."
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Footnotes:
(36) See the explanation of "al-shahīd" (the witness) in what preceded 1: 376-378 / 3: 97, 145 / 6: 60, 75 / ...
(37) In the printed edition: "you testify that the messengers," and I have adopted what is in the manuscript.
(38) The narration: 9518 - Sufyān: that is Ibn ʿUyayna. Al-Masʿūdī — here —: that is Maʿn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd. He is trustworthy (thiqa). The two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) narrated from him. Al-Bukhārī mentioned him in al-Kabīr 4/1/390, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/1/277. "Jaʿfar ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth al-Makhzūmī": trustworthy. Al-Bukhārī mentioned him 1/2/193, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/1/484. His father "ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth": a companion (ṣaḥābī). This narration — despite the soundness of its isnād — I have not found except in the narration of al-Ṭabarī. Ibn Kathīr did not attribute it to anyone else 2: 453, and likewise al-Suyūṭī 2: 164. See the narration that follows hereafter. And the verse is a reference to the verse of Surah Al-Māʾida 117.
(39) The narration: 9519 - Ibrāhīm ibn Abī al-Wazīr — and the name of Abū al-Wazīr is ʿUmar — ibn Muṭarrif al-Makkī, freedman of Banū Hāshim: trustworthy, declared trustworthy by Muḥammad ibn Bashshār and others. Mentioned in al-Tahdhīb, and al-Kabīr 1/1/333, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/1/114-115. This narration is in reality two narrations: The first of them: the narration of al-Masʿūdī — Maʿn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān — on the authority of al-Qāsim. It appears that this al-Qāsim is his brother "al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd." He is a trustworthy Successor (tābiʿī thiqa). But he did not live to narrate from his grandfather "ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd," and it is not mentioned here that it is "on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd" — so that it would be a broken (munqaṭiʿ) isnād. It is therefore a mursal narration. But this first of the two narrations is established and authentic through the connected isnāds. For al-Bukhārī narrated it 9: 81 (Fatḥ), via al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ibrāhīm, on the authority of ʿAbīda, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh. Likewise Aḥmad narrated it in al-Musnad: 3606, 4118, via al-Aʿmash, with it. And Aḥmad also narrated it: 3550, in the narration of Abū Ḥayyān al-Ashjaʿī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd, and: 3551, via Abū Razīn, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd. Ibn Kathīr cited it in Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān, p. 77, from al-Bukhārī. Then he said: "And the group (of narrators) narrated it, except Ibn Mājah, via several routes, on the authority of al-Aʿmash. And it has routes too long to set out." And he cited it in the tafsīr 2: 452-453, likewise from al-Bukhārī. Then he said: "And it has been narrated via numerous routes on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd. It is therefore certainly established. And Aḥmad narrated it via the route of Abū Ḥayyān and Abū Razīn, on his authority." And al-Suyūṭī cited it 2: 163, and added to its attribution Ibn Abī Shayba, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, and al-Bayhaqī in al-Dalāʾil. And the second of them: the narration of al-Masʿūdī, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth, on the authority of his father. And this is a repetition of the preceding narration: 9518, but he made it here a narration of ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth, and did not mention therein his narration on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd. It is therefore a mursal of a companion. It is thus in any case authentic. Al-Ḥākim narrated it in al-Mustadrak 3: 319, via the route of Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn, on the authority of al-Masʿūdī, on the authority of Jaʿfar ibn ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth, on the authority of his father — at length — with the story of Ibn Masʿūd's recitation of these verses before the Prophet ﷺ. But in it is the text that is here "a witness against them so long as I am among them...". The origin of the narration is therefore authentic and established. Therefore al-Ḥākim said: "This is a narration with an authentic isnād, but the two of them (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) did not narrate it." And al-Dhahabī agreed with him. And al-Suyūṭī cited the narration of al-Ḥākim 2: 163, somewhat abridged, and did not attribute it to anyone else.
