Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:79
What comes to you of good is from Allah, but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself. And We have sent you, [O Muhammad], to the people as a messenger, and sufficient is Allah as 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 statement: مَا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ حَسَنَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ سَيِّئَةٍ فَمِنْ نَفْسِكَ ("Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by His statement: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself": Whatever befalls you, O Muhammad, of prosperity, favor, well-being, and preservation, that is from the grace of Allah toward you, with which He favors you as a benefaction from Him to you = and as for His statement: "and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," that is to say: and whatever befalls you of adversity, hardship, harm, and what is disagreeable = "is from yourself," that is to say: through a sin by which you have deserved it, which your soul has earned for itself, such as:
9968 - 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: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," as for "from yourself," he says: from your sin.
9969 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," as a punishment, O son of Adam, for your sin. He said: And it was mentioned to us that the Prophet of Allah ﷺ used to say: A man is not struck by the scratch of a twig, nor by a stumble of the foot, nor by the throbbing of a vein, except that it is for a sin, and what Allah pardons of it is more.
9970 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās concerning His statement: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," he says: "the good" is what Allah opened for him on the day of Badr, and what befell him of spoils of war (ghanīma) and victory = and "the evil" is what befell him on the day of Uḥud, that his face was wounded and his front tooth was broken.
9971 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," he says: for your sin = then he said: everything is from Allah, the favors and the calamities.
9972 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Saʿd and Ibn Abī Jaʿfar related to us, both of them saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya concerning His statement: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," he said: this concerns good deeds and bad deeds.
9973 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, the like of it.
9974 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj: "and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," he said: as a punishment for your sin.
9975 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," for your sin, as He said to the people of Uḥud: أَوَلَمَّا أَصَابَتْكُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَدْ أَصَبْتُمْ مِثْلَيْهَا قُلْتُمْ أَنَّى هَذَا قُلْ هُوَ مِنْ عِنْدِ أَنْفُسِكُمْ [Surah Āl ʿImrān: 165] ("Why, when a calamity struck you, though you had already inflicted twice the like of it, did you say: From where is this? Say: It is from yourselves"), for your sins.
9976 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ concerning His statement: "and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," he said: for your sin, and I decreed it for you.
9977 - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yaḥyā related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ concerning His statement: "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself," and it is I who decreed it for you.
9978 - Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masrūqī related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Bishr related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid related it to me, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, the like of it.
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Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone were to say: What is the reason for inserting "min" (from/of) in His statement: "Whatever good befalls you (mā aṣābaka min ḥasana)" and "evil (min sayyiʾa)"?
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It is said: Concerning that, the people of Arabic linguistics have differed.
Some grammarians of Basra said: "Min" is inserted because "min" fits well with negation, as in: "no one came to me (mā jāʾanī min aḥad)." He said: And the insertion of the predicate with the fāʾ is because "mā" takes the place of "man" (who).
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And some grammarians of Kufa said: "Min" is inserted with "mā," just as it is inserted with "in" (if) in the conditional clause, because both are conditional particles. And likewise it is inserted with "man," when this is a condition. The Arabs then say: "Whoever visits you (man yazurka min aḥad), him you must honor," just as you say: "If anyone visits you (in yazurka min aḥad), him you must honor." He said: And they inserted it with "mā" and "man," so that by inserting it with them it would be known that both are a condition. They said: And when it is inserted with both, it is not omitted, for if it were omitted, the verb would put two things in the nominative. That is because "mā" in His statement: "whatever evil befalls you (mā aṣābaka min sayyiʾa)" is in the nominative by His statement: "aṣābaka (befalls you)." If, then, "min" were omitted, His statement "aṣābaka" would put "al-sayyiʾa (the evil)" in the nominative, for its meaning is: if evil befalls you = so the omission of "min" is therefore not permissible, because the verb that is on the pattern "faʿala" or "yafʿalu" does not put two things in the nominative. And that is permissible with "man," because it resembles the prepositions (al-ṣifāt), while it stands in the position of a noun. As for "in" (if): "min" may be inserted with it and left out of it, but it is not omitted with "ayy" (which), because this is inflected so that the inflection is visible in it; and it is inserted with "mā" because the inflection is not visible in it.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَأَرْسَلْنَاكَ لِلنَّاسِ رَسُولا وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا (79) ("And We have sent you to mankind as a messenger, and Allah suffices as a Witness." (4:79))
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by His statement: "And We have sent you to mankind as a messenger": We have only made you, O Muhammad, a messenger between Us and the creation, so that you may convey to them that with which We have sent you of the message, and there is nothing incumbent upon you except the conveyance and the delivery of the message to those to whom you have been sent. If they accept that with which you have been sent, then that is to their own benefit, and if they reject it, then that is to their own detriment = "and Allah suffices" as a Witness over you and over them = "as a Witness," He says: Allah, exalted is His remembrance, is sufficient for you, as a Witness over you in your conveyance of that which I have commanded you to convey of His message and His revelation, and over those to whom you have been sent, concerning their acceptance from you of that with which you have been sent to them. For your affair and their affair does not remain hidden from Him, and He it is who will recompense you for your conveyance with what He has promised you, and who will recompense them for what they have done of good and evil: the doer of good for his good deed, and the doer of evil for his evil deed.
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Footnotes:
(39) See the explanation of "al-ḥasana" (the good) in what preceded: 555, note: 2, and the references there. And see the explanation of "al-sayyiʾa" (the evil) in what preceded: 555, note: 4, and the references there.
(40) See the annotation on the two preceding narrations: 9961, 9962.
(41) See what preceded 2: 126, 127, 442, 470 / 5: 586 / 6: 551.
(42) In the printed edition and the manuscript: "and the insertion of the predicate with the fāʾ necessarily in place of min," which has no meaning at all; its correct reading is what I have adopted, and he means by the insertion of the fāʾ in the predicate His statement: "famina llāh (then it is from Allah)" and "famin nafsik (then it is from yourself)."
(43) In the printed edition and the manuscript: "whatever good befalls you," but the context requires the mention of the other, as I have adopted it.
(44) "Faʿala" or "yafʿalu," he means the past tense and the present tense.
(45) "Al-ṣifāt" (the prepositions), the prepositions, as already repeatedly mentioned; see this back in the registers of technical terms.
(46) See the explanation of "al-shahīd" (the witness) in what preceded, in the linguistic registers.
