Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:53
Or have they a share of dominion? Then [if that were so], they would not give the people [even as much as] the speck on a date seed.
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: أَمْ لَهُمْ نَصِيبٌ مِنَ الْمُلْكِ فَإِذًا لا يُؤْتُونَ النَّاسَ نَقِيرًا (Or do they have a share in the kingship? Then they would not give the people even as much as the speck on a date-stone) (4:53).
Abū Jaʿfar said: By His word, exalted is His praise: "Or do they have a share in the kingship," He means: do they have a portion of the kingship? He says: they have no portion of the kingship, as in:
9796 — 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: "Or do they have a share in the kingship," he says: if they had a share in the kingship, they would not give Muḥammad even a speck on a date-stone.
9797 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Allah said: "Or do they have a share in the kingship," he said: so they have no share in the kingship, [they would not give the people a speck on a date-stone] = "Then they would not give the people even a speck on a date-stone," and if they had a share and a portion of the kingship, they would not give the people even a speck on a date-stone, because of their stinginess.
* * *
The exegetes differed concerning the meaning of "al-naqīr" (the speck on the date-stone).
Some of them said: it is the little dot that is on the back of the date-stone.
* Mention of who said that:
9798 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh related to me, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his word: "naqīran," he says: it is the little dot that is on the back of the date-stone.
9799 — Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣalt related to us, saying: Abū Kudayna related to us, on the authority of Qābūs, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: al-naqīr is that which is on the back of the date-stone.
9800 — Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Kūfī al-Marwazī related to me, saying: ʿUbayd Allāh related to us, on the authority of Isrāʾīl, on the authority of Khuṣayf, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: al-naqīr is the middle of the date-stone.
9801 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "Then they would not give the people even a speck on a date-stone," "al-naqīr" is the speck on the date-stone: its middle.
9802 — 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: "Or do they have a share in the kingship? Then they would not give the people even a speck on a date-stone," he says: if they had a share in the kingship, they would not give Muḥammad even a speck on a date-stone = and "al-naqīr" is the little dot that is in the middle of the date-stone.
9803 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ṭalḥa ibn ʿAmr related to me that he heard ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ saying: al-naqīr is that which is on the back of the date-stone.
9804 — Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to me, saying: Yazīd informed us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who said: "al-naqīr" is the speck that is on the back of the date-stone.
9805 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, saying: Hushaym related to us, saying: Ḥuṣayn informed us, on the authority of Abū Mālik, who said: "al-naqīr" is that which is on the back of the date-stone.
* * *
Others said: "al-naqīr" is the grain that is in the middle of the date-stone.
* Mention of who said that:
9806 — 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: "naqīran," he said: "al-naqīr" is the grain of the date-stone that is in the middle of it.
9807 — 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: "Then they would not give the people even a speck on a date-stone," he said: al-naqīr is the grain of the date-stone that is in the middle of it.
9808 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Sufyān ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, who said: "al-naqīr" is in the date-stone.
9809 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr informed me that he heard Mujāhid saying: "al-naqīr" is the speck of the date-stone that is in the middle of it.
9810 — It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh saying: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Muzāḥim saying: "al-naqīr" is the speck of the date-stone that is in the middle of the date-stone.
* * *
Others said: the meaning of it is: the flicking away of something by a man with the tip of his fingers.
* Mention of who said that:
9811 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Dirham Abū al-ʿAlāʾ, who said: I heard Abū al-ʿĀliya: and Ibn ʿAbbās placed the tip of his thumb on the back of his index finger, then raised them and said: this is al-naqīr.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The correct of the opinions concerning this is to say that Allah has described this group of the People of the Book with stinginess toward the least of a thing that has no value, even though they were kings and people with power over matters of lofty value. Since that is so, the most fitting for the meaning of "al-naqīr" is the smallest of the specks (nuqar) that exist. And since that is the most fitting, the speck that is on the back of the date-stone is one of the smallest specks, and under it may fall everything that resembles it among specks. And He put [grammatically] His word: "lā yuʾtūna al-nāsa" (they do not give the people) in the nominative and did not put it in the accusative with "idhan," even though it is among the rules of the latter that it puts future verbs in the accusative when the sentence begins with it, because there is a "fāʾ" with it. And it is among its rules, when one of the conjunctions enters into it, that it is sometimes directed toward beginning with it, and at other times toward its transferring to something else. And this place is among that in which one has intended, by the "fāʾ," the transferring of "idhan" to what comes after it, and the meaning of the sentence is: do they have a share, then they would not give the people a speck on a date-stone therefore.
