Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:84
So fight, [O Muhammad], in the cause of Allah; you are not held responsible except for yourself. And encourage the believers [to join you] that perhaps Allah will restrain the [military] might of those who disbelieve. And Allah is greater in might and stronger in [exemplary] punishment.
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: فَقَاتِلْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ لا تُكَلَّفُ إِلا نَفْسَكَ وَحَرِّضِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ عَسَى اللَّهُ أَنْ يَكُفَّ بَأْسَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَاللَّهُ أَشَدُّ بَأْسًا وَأَشَدُّ تَنْكِيلا (So fight in the way of Allah; you are not held responsible except for yourself. And incite the believers; perhaps Allah will restrain the might of those who disbelieve. And Allah is greater in might and more severe in punishment) (4:84).
Abū Jaʿfar said: Exalted is His praise, by His word He means: "So fight in the way of Allah, you are not held responsible except for yourself": so wage jihād, O Muḥammad, against the enemies of Allah from among the people who ascribe partners to Him (ahl al-shirk) = "in the way of Allah," that is to say: in His religion which He has prescribed for you, namely Islam, and fight them therein in your own person.
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As for His word "you are not held responsible except for yourself," this means: Allah charges you, in that which He has imposed upon you of fighting (jihād) against His enemy and your enemy, only with that which He has commanded you to bear of it, not with that which He has commanded another to bear of it; that is to say: you will be called to account only for what you have acquired, not for what another has acquired, and there rests upon you only that with which you are charged, not that with which another is charged.
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Then He said to him: "And incite the believers," that is to say: and urge them on to the fight against those against whom I have commanded you to fight together with you = "perhaps Allah will restrain the might of those who disbelieve," He says: perhaps Allah will restrain from you and from them the fighting of those who disbelieve in Allah, and who denied His oneness and rejected your messengership, as well as their causing of harm.
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And we have already previously expounded that "ʿasā" (perhaps) on the part of Allah is inevitable, in a manner that absolves us from repeating it in this place.
= "And Allah is greater in might and more severe in punishment," He says: and Allah is more severe in causing harm to His enemy from among the people who disbelieve in Him = than they are toward you, O Muḥammad, and toward your companions; so do not shrink from the fight against them, for I lie in wait for them with might, harm, punishment (tankīl), and chastisement, to weaken their cunning, to nullify their might, and to raise the truth above them.
And "al-tankīl" is a verbal noun derived from the saying of the one who says: "nakkaltu bi-fulān" (I have chastised so-and-so), "fa-anā unakkilu bihi tankīlan" (and I chastise him with chastisement), when you cause him pain through punishment, as:
10014 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his word: "and more severe in punishment," that is to say: in chastisement.
