Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:81
And they say, "[We pledge] obedience." But when they leave you, a group of them spend the night determining to do other than what you say. But Allah records what they plan by night. So leave them alone and rely upon Allah. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.
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 interpretation of His statement: وَيَقُولُونَ طَاعَةٌ فَإِذَا بَرَزُوا مِنْ عِنْدِكَ بَيَّتَ طَائِفَةٌ مِنْهُمْ غَيْرَ الَّذِي تَقُولُ وَاللَّهُ يَكْتُبُ مَا يُبَيِّتُونَ ("And they say: 'Obedience,' but when they go forth from you, a group of them plots by night something other than what you say. And Allah writes down what they plot by night.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, means by His statement, "and they say: 'Obedience,'" the group concerning whom Allah reported that, when the fighting was prescribed for them, they feared people as one fears Allah, or even more intensely; they say to the Prophet of Allah (the Prophet ﷺ) when he commands them something: "Your command is obedience, and on our part there is obedience toward you in what you command us and forbid us" = "but when they go forth from you," He says: and when they depart from you, O Muḥammad = "a group of them plots by night something other than what you say," He, exalted is His praise, means thereby: a group of them alters by night what you say to them.
And every deed performed by night is "bayyata" (plotted by night); and to this belongs the "bayyata" against the enemy, which is the raiding of them by night. And to this belongs the statement of ʿAbīda ibn Hammām:
They came to me, and I found no pleasure in what they plotted by night, and they had come to me with something abominable.
That I should give their unmarried woman in marriage to Mundhir, but does a free man marry a free woman to a slave?!
By his statement, "and I found no pleasure in what they plotted by night," by night, he means: in what they determined by night and resolved upon.
And to this belongs the statement of al-Namir ibn Tawlab al-ʿUklī:
She rose to rebuke me in the night — so listen! In foolishness the blame keeps you awake — so go to sleep!
Allah, exalted is His praise, says: "And Allah writes down what they plot by night," He, exalted is His praise, means thereby: And Allah writes down what they alter by night of your word, in the books of their deeds which His guardian angels record.
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And in accordance with what we have said concerning this, the exegetes said.
*Mention of who said that:
9980 - Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "and they say: 'Obedience,' but when they go forth from you, a group of them plots by night something other than what you say," he said: They alter what the Prophet of Allah (the Prophet ﷺ) charged them with.
9981 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bazīʿ related to me, saying: Yūsuf ibn Khālid related to us, saying: Nāfiʿ ibn Mālik related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his statement: "a group of them plots by night something other than what you say," he said: Those people altered what the Prophet (the Prophet ﷺ) said.
9982 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn Mufaḍḍal related to me, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "and they say: 'Obedience,' but when they go forth from you, a group of them plots by night something other than what you say," he said: Those people altered what the Prophet (the Prophet ﷺ) said.
9983 - 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: (and they say: 'Obedience,' but when they go forth from you, a group of them plots by night something other than what you say, and Allah writes down what they plot by night), he said: These are the hypocrites (munāfiqūn) who, when they are present with the Prophet (the Prophet ﷺ) and he commands them something, say: "Obedience," but when they go forth from him, a group of them alters what the Prophet (the Prophet ﷺ) says = "and Allah writes down what they plot by night," He says: what they say.
9984 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, he said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning his statement: "and they say: 'Obedience,' but when they go forth from you, a group of them plots by night something other than what you say," he said: They alter what the Messenger of Allah (the Prophet ﷺ) said.
9985 - 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, concerning his statement: "and they say: 'Obedience,' but when they go forth from you, a group of them plots by night something other than what you say"; they were people who, in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (the Prophet ﷺ), said: "We believe in Allah and His Messenger," so that they might be safe regarding their blood and their possessions. But when they went forth from the Messenger of Allah (the Prophet ﷺ), they turned aside to something other than what they had said in his presence; so Allah censured them and said: "a group of them plots by night something other than what you say," He says: they alter what the Prophet (the Prophet ﷺ) said.
9986 - It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Faraj, he said: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd ibn Sulaymān informed us, he said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning his statement: "a group of them plots by night something other than what you say," they are the people of hypocrisy (nifāq).
* * *
As for the placing of "ṭāʿa" (obedience) in the nominative, that comes about by means of the elided word to which the visible part of the utterance points, namely: "Your command is obedience," or: "On our part there is obedience." And as for His statement: "bayyata ṭāʾifa" (a group plots by night), most of the readers of Medina and of Iraq and the remaining readers vocalize the "tāʾ" of "bayyata" with a fatḥa, because it is the lām of the verb "faʿʿala."
* * *
And some of the readers of Iraq rendered it silent and then assimilated it into the "ṭāʾ," because of their nearness in place of articulation.
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct view regarding the reading therein is the omission of the assimilation (idghām), because they — I mean the "tāʾ" and the "ṭāʾ" — are two different letters. And since that is so, the omission of the assimilation is the most eloquent of the two linguistic forms among the Arabs, while the other linguistic form — I mean the assimilation therein — is permissible and transmitted.
* * *
The discourse on the interpretation of His statement: فَأَعْرِضْ عَنْهُمْ وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ وَكِيلا (81) ("So turn away from them and put your trust in Allah, and Allah suffices as a Protector.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His praise, says to Muḥammad (the Prophet ﷺ): "Turn away," O Muḥammad, from these hypocrites who say to you concerning what you command them: "Your command is obedience," but when they go forth from you, act in opposition to what you commanded them and alter it to what you forbade them; and leave them alone in the error in which they are, and be content that I will take vengeance upon them = "and put your trust," you, O Muḥammad, = "in Allah," He says: and entrust your affair to Allah, and rely upon Him in your matters, and commit them to Him = "and Allah suffices as a Protector," He says: and Allah is enough for you = that is to say: and Allah is sufficient for you = "as a Protector," that is to say: in what He commands you, and as the manager thereof, and as the One who wards off [harm] from you and helps you.
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Footnotes:
(2) See the explanation of "baraza" (to go forth) in the preceding 5: 354 / 7: 324.
(3) ʿAbīda ibn Hammām, brother of the Banū al-ʿAdawiyya, of the Banū Mālik ibn Ḥanẓala, of the Banū Tamīm. The editor of the Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda supposed that it was "ʿAbīda ibn Hammām al-Taghlibī," but that is incorrect: this one is an Islamic poet, whereas that one is from the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya)! I have gathered from the genealogy of "Yaʿlā ibn Umayya" in the Jamharat al-Ansāb: 217 and elsewhere that he is "ʿAbīda ibn Hammām ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Bakr ibn Zayd ibn Mālik ibn Ḥanẓala ibn Mālik ibn Zayd Manāt ibn Tamīm." And the report concerning this poem indicates that he is from the jāhiliyya, for al-Jāḥiẓ mentions in al-Ḥayawān 4: 376 the report concerning these verses, in a report concerning al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir and his blemishes: namely that his brother al-Mundhir ibn al-Mundhir sought the hand of [a daughter of] ʿAbīda ibn Hammām, whereupon the latter rejected him in the ugliest manner and recited the verses.
(4) The Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda 1: 133, al-Ḥayawān 4: 376, al-Kāmil 2: 35, 106, al-Azmina wa-l-Amkina of al-Marzūqī 1: 263, the dīwān of al-Aswad ibn Yaʿfur al-Nahshalī, Aʿshā Banī Nahshal, in Dīwān al-Aʿshayn: 298, the Lisān (nkr). And it has been transmitted: "fa-qad ṭaraqūnī bi-shayʾin." "Ṭaraqūnī": they came to me by night. And "nukur" with two ḍammas, equivalent to "nukr" with ḍamma and sukūn: the abominable matter that one disapproves of. The verse is completed by what comes after it.
(5) "Al-ayyim" among women is she who has no husband, whether she be a virgin or previously married. And "rajul ayyim": a man without a wife. And "Mundhir" means: al-Mundhir ibn al-Mundhir, brother of al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir. And his statement: "marries a free woman to a slave" means: does the free woman brought forth by free people marry a slave among the slaves? That is an allusion of his to al-Mundhir and his brother al-Nuʿmān, who made his wife a wet-nurse for one of the sons of Kisrā (Chosroes), and whom Kisrā called a "slave." And his statement "ḥurr li-ḥurr" means: a free man brought forth by free people, as you say: "he is noble, [son] of nobles, and free, [son] of free people"; the lām therein indicates descent, as though he said: noble, traced back to noble forefathers, and free, traced back to free forefathers. And this which I have said you will find in no book, so memorize it. In the manuscript it stood: "li-unkiḥa ilayhim mundhiran," which is very corrupt as you see; and therein also stood "ḥurr bi-ḥurr," whereas the correct is what has been adopted.
(6) The Majāz al-Qurʾān of Abū ʿUbayda 1: 133, and al-Khizāna 1: 153, and al-ʿAynī (in the margin of al-Khizāna) 2: 536, and Sharḥ Shawāhid al-Mughnī: 161, and elsewhere. In the printed edition it stood "bi-layl ismaʿ," which is an error, and likewise in the manuscript: "bi-layl ismaʿ," but I have adopted the transmission of Abū ʿUbayda, for it is the best of the transmissions. And his statement "ismaʿ" (listen) is the statement of his wife or his mother who rebuked him for his generosity and liberality. He means thereby that she often repeated the words "listen, and listen to me." And his statement "safahan" means: in falsehood and frivolity of intellect. And his statement "tubayyituki al-malāma" does not belong to the meaning that al-Ṭabarī intended, even though the commentators have interpreted it so. It is, in my view, derived from their statement "bāta al-rajul" when someone spends the night awake, and to this belongs: "bittu urāʿī al-nujūm" (I spent the night awake, watching the stars), that is to say: I remained awake to look at them. His statement "tubayyituki al-malāma" thus means: my blame and reproach keep you awake; he says: this exhausting wakefulness of yours belongs to foolishness, so sleep and go to rest, for that is more restful for you! The citing by Abū ʿUbayda, and al-Ṭabarī in his following of him, of this verse as proof is thus not entirely apt, even though the matters are close to one another.
(7) In the printed edition there stands "fa-idhā barazū" with the fāʾ; what stands in the manuscript has been adopted.
(8) See the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 378.
(9) See the Maʿānī al-Qurʾān of al-Farrāʾ 1: 379.
(10) See the explanation of "al-iʿrāḍ" (the turning away) in the preceding 2: 298, 299 / 6: 291 / 8: 88.
(11) See the explanation of "al-tawakkul" (the placing of trust) in the preceding: 7: 346.
(12) See the explanation of "al-wakīl" (the protector/manager) in the preceding 7: 405.
