Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:64
And We did not send any messenger except to be obeyed by permission of Allah. And if, when they wronged themselves, they had come to you, [O Muhammad], and asked forgiveness of Allah and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Accepting of repentance and 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.
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ رَسُولٍ إِلا لِيُطَاعَ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ (And We did not send any messenger except that he should be obeyed by Allah's leave.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted be His praise — means thereby: and We have not, O Muḥammad, sent any messenger except that We made obedience to him obligatory upon those to whom We sent him. He — exalted be His mention — says: and you, O Muḥammad, are among the messengers whose obedience I have made obligatory upon those to whom I sent him.
And this from Allah is nothing other than a rebuke to the hypocrites who referred their dispute — those who claimed that they believed in what was sent down to the Prophet ﷺ — when, in that over which they quarreled, they referred their dispute to the ṭāghūt, turning away from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He — exalted be His mention — says to them: I have not sent any messenger except that I made obedience to him obligatory upon those to whom I sent him; and Muḥammad ﷺ is among those messengers. So whoever neglects obedience to him and contentment with his judgment, and refers his dispute to the ṭāghūt, has transgressed My command and neglected My obligation.
Then He — exalted be His praise — informed that whoever obeys His messengers obeys them only by His leave — by which He means: by His predestination of that and His prior decree in His knowledge and His will — as:
9904 — 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 statement of Allah "except that he should be obeyed by Allah's leave": it is obligatory upon them that those whom Allah wills should obey them, and none obeys them except by Allah's leave.
9905 — 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, the like of it.
9906 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Suwayd ibn Naṣr related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, on the authority of Shibl, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
Abū Jaʿfar said: This is only an allusion from Allah — exalted be His mention — to these hypocrites, namely that their neglect of obedience to Allah and obedience to His messenger and contentment with his judgment arises only from what has been preordained for them of His forsaking them and the prevailing of wretchedness over them. And were it not for that, they would have been among those granted leave to be content with his judgment and to hasten to his obedience.
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ جَاءُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا اللَّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُوا اللَّهَ تَوَّابًا رَحِيمًا (4:64) (And if they, when they had wronged themselves, had come to you and asked Allah for forgiveness, and the messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah accepting of repentance, merciful (4:64).)
Abū Jaʿfar said: He — exalted be His praise — means thereby: and if these hypocrites — those whose character He has described in these two verses, who, when they are called to the judgment of Allah and the judgment of His messenger, turn away completely — "when they wronged themselves," by acquiring for themselves the grave sin in their referring their dispute to the ṭāghūt and their turning away from the Book of Allah and the Sunna of His messenger when they were called to it — "had come to you," O Muḥammad, after they had done what they did by turning to the ṭāghūt, content with its judgment in place of your judgment, had come to you, repentant and contrite, and had asked Allah to remit for them the punishment of their sin by covering it for them, and His messenger ﷺ had asked Allah the same for them. And that is the meaning of His statement: "and asked Allah for forgiveness, and the messenger had asked forgiveness for them."
As for His statement "they would have found Allah accepting of repentance, merciful," He says: if they had done that and repented of their sin, "they would have found Allah accepting of repentance," by which He says: turning toward them, bringing them from what they detest to what they love, "merciful" toward them, in His refraining from punishing them for the sin of which they repented.
And Mujāhid said: By this are meant the Jew and the Muslim who referred their dispute to Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf.
9907 — 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 statement of Allah "they wronged themselves" up to His statement وَيُسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا (and submit completely), he said: this is about the Jewish man and the Muslim man who referred their dispute to Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf.
