Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:65
But no, by your Lord, they will not [truly] believe until they make you, [O Muhammad], judge concerning that over which they dispute among themselves and then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged and submit in [full, willing] submission.
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: fa-lā wa-rabbika lā yuʾminūna ḥattā yuḥakkimūka fīmā shajara baynahum thumma lā yajidū fī anfusihim ḥarajan mimmā qaḍayta wa-yusallimū taslīman ("But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree, and then find within themselves no constriction over what you have decided, and submit fully") (65).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His praise, means by His saying "but no": it is not as they claim, namely that they believe in what has been sent down to you, while they refer their disputes to the false deity (al-ṭāghūt) and turn away from you when they are called to you, O Muḥammad. Then He, exalted be His mention, began the oath and said: "by your Lord," O Muḥammad — "they will not believe," that is: they do not believe in Me, and in you, and in what has been sent down to you — "until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree." He says: until they make you judge between them in those of their affairs which have become confused among them and whose ruling has become unclear to them. One says: "shajara yashjuru shujūran wa-shajran" and "tashājara l-qawmu" (the people quarreled), when they differ in word and matter, "mushājaratan wa-shijāran."
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= "and then find within themselves no constriction over what you have decided." He says: that they find within themselves no distress over what you have decided. And its meaning is only: then their souls do not become constricted over what you have decided — that is: that they do not sin by denying what you have decided and by their doubt concerning obedience to you, and (by doubting) that what you have decided between them is truth from which it is not permitted for them to deviate. As:
9908 — 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: "constriction over what you have decided" — he said: doubt.
9909 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His saying: "constriction over what you have decided" — he says: doubt.
9910 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the same.
9911 — Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib related to us, saying: Yazīd informed us, saying: Juwaybir informed us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk concerning His saying: "and then find within themselves no constriction over what you have decided" — he said: sin — "and submit fully." He says: and that they submit to your decision and your ruling, in obedience and in submission, and as an acknowledgment to you of prophethood, in complete surrender.
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The scholars of exegesis differed concerning whom this verse intends and concerning whom it was revealed.
Some of them said: it was revealed concerning al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām and an adversary of his from the Anṣār, who referred a dispute between them to the Prophet ﷺ concerning a certain matter.
Mention of the narration about that:
9912 — Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Yūnus and al-Layth ibn Saʿd informed me, on the authority of Ibn Shihāb, that ʿUrwa ibn al-Zubayr related to him that ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr related to him, on the authority of al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām: that he had a dispute with a man from the Anṣār who had participated with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at (the battle of) Badr, over a watercourse of the Ḥarra with which they both irrigated their palm crops. The Anṣārī said: Let the water flow through! But he (al-Zubayr) refused him this. Then he (the Prophet) ﷺ said: Irrigate, O Zubayr, and then let the water flow to your neighbor. The Anṣārī became angry and said: O Messenger of Allah, is it because he is the son of your aunt? Then the face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ changed color, and afterward he said: Irrigate, O Zubayr, and then hold back the water until it returns up to the walls (al-jadr), and then let it flow to your neighbor. Thus the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted al-Zubayr his full right — Abū Jaʿfar said: and the correct reading is "istawʿaba" — whereas before that moment the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had given al-Zubayr an advice in which he intended leniency for him and for the Anṣārī. But when the Anṣārī angered the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he granted al-Zubayr his full right in the strict letter of the ruling. He said: Then al-Zubayr said: I think that this verse was revealed only concerning that: "But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree" — the verse.
9913 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa, who said: al-Zubayr had a dispute with a man from the Anṣār over a watercourse of the watercourses of the Ḥarra. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: O Zubayr, irrigate (give to drink), and then let the water go its way. Then the one from the Anṣār, from the Banū Umayya, said: Be just, O prophet of Allah, even though he is the son of your aunt! He said: Then the face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ changed until it became clear that what he had said displeased him, and afterward he said: O Zubayr, hold back the water up to the walls — or: up to the ankles — and then let the water go its way. He said: Then it was revealed: "But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree."
9914 — ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmayr al-Rāzī related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, saying: ʿAmr ibn Dīnār related to us, on the authority of Salama, a man from the descendants of Umm Salama, on the authority of Umm Salama: that al-Zubayr had a dispute with a man, referred to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ decided in favor of al-Zubayr. Then the man, when he decided in favor of al-Zubayr, said: Is it because he is the son of your aunt! Thereupon Allah revealed: "But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree, and then find within themselves no constriction over what you have decided, and submit fully."
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Others said: no, this verse was revealed concerning the hypocrite and the Jew whom Allah described in His saying: a-lam tara ilā lladhīna yazʿumūna annahum āmanū bimā unzila ilayka wa-mā unzila min qablika yurīdūna an yataḥākamū ilā l-ṭāghūti ("Have you not seen those who claim that they believe in what has been sent down to you and in what was sent down before you, but who wish to refer their disputes to the false deity").
Mention of who said that:
9915 — 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 His saying: "But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree, and then find within themselves no constriction over what you have decided, and submit fully" — he said: these are the Jewish man and the Muslim man who referred their dispute to Kaʿb ibn al-Ashraf.
9916 — 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 same.
9917 — Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, in a similar manner — except that he said: to the soothsayer (al-kāhin).
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Abū Jaʿfar said: And this view — I mean the view of him who said: by this are intended the two who referred their dispute to the false deity, whose affair Allah described in His saying a-lam tara ilā lladhīna yazʿumūna annahum āmanū bimā unzila ilayka wa-mā unzila min qablika ("Have you not seen those who claim that they believe in what has been sent down to you and in what was sent down before you") — is the correct one, because His saying "But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree" stands in the context of the story of those about whom Allah began the report with His saying: a-lam tara ilā lladhīna yazʿumūna annahum āmanū bimā unzila ilayka ("Have you not seen those who claim that they believe in what has been sent down to you"), and there is no indication pointing to the interruption of their story. So connecting one part of it to the other — as long as no indication of its interruption has come — is the correct course.
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Should anyone suppose that in what has been related from al-Zubayr and Ibn al-Zubayr concerning his story and the story of the Anṣārī about the watercourse of the Ḥarra, and in the statement of him who said about their report: "then it was revealed 'But no, by your Lord, they will not believe until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree'," there is something that indicates the interruption of the ruling of this verse and its story from the story of the verses before it — then it is not excluded that the verse was revealed concerning the story of those who referred their dispute to the false deity, while at the same time there lies in it a clarification of that concerning which al-Zubayr and his companion, the Anṣārī, had a dispute, since the verse constituted a pointing indication. And since that is not excluded, connecting the meaning of one part of it to the other is the correct course, as long as the speech is coherent in its meanings according to one and the same context, unless an indication comes of the interruption of one part of it from the other, so that one thereby deviates from the meaning of what precedes it.
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As for His saying "and submit" (wa-yusallimū): it is in the accusative by apposition to His saying "and then they do not find within themselves" (thumma lā yajidū fī anfusihim). And His saying "and then they do not find within themselves" is in the accusative by apposition to His saying "until they make you the arbiter over that concerning which they disagree."