Tafseer of The Inner Apartments · Al-Hujuraat · 49:7
And know that among you is the Messenger of Allah. If he were to obey you in much of the matter, you would be in difficulty, but Allah has endeared to you the faith and has made it pleasing in your hearts and has made hateful to you disbelief, defiance and disobedience. Those are the [rightly] guided.
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 the saying of the Exalted: وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ فِيكُمْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ لَوْ يُطِيعُكُمْ فِي كَثِيرٍ مِنَ الأَمْرِ لَعَنِتُّمْ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الإِيمَانَ وَزَيَّنَهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ وَكَرَّهَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَالْفُسُوقَ وَالْعِصْيَانَ أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الرَّاشِدُونَ (And know that the Messenger of Allah is among you; if he were to obey you in much of the matter, you would surely fall into hardship; but Allah has made faith beloved to you and has adorned it in your hearts, and He has made disbelief, moral corruption, and disobedience hateful to you — those are they who are rightly guided) (7).
The Exalted, whose remembrance is sublime, says to the companions of the Prophet of Allah ﷺ: and know, O you who believe in Allah and His Messenger, أَنَّ فِيكُمْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ (that the Messenger of Allah is among you). So fear Allah, lest you speak falsehood and fabricate lies, for indeed Allah informs him of your reports and makes known to him your tidings, and keeps him steadfast upon what is correct in his affairs.
And His saying لَوْ يُطِيعُكُمْ فِي كَثِيرٍ مِنَ الأمْرِ لَعَنِتُّمْ (if he were to obey you in much of the matter, you would surely fall into hardship) — the Exalted, whose remembrance is sublime, says: if the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were to act in matters according to your opinions and accept from you what you say to him, and thus obey you, لَعَنِتُّمْ (you would surely fall into hardship) — He says: then hardship would befall you, that is, distress and difficulty, in much of the matter through his obedience to you, were he to obey you; for then he would err in his actions, as when he would have accepted from al-Walīd ibn ʿUqba his statement concerning the Banū al-Muṣṭaliq: that they had become apostate (murtadd), had refused the alms (ṣadaqa), and had gathered armed forces to fight the Muslims, so that he would have fought them and killed some of them and struck at their blood and their possessions. Then he would have killed, and you would have killed, those whom neither he nor you were permitted to kill, and he would have taken, and you would have taken, of the property what was lawful for neither him nor you to take, namely from the possessions of a people of Muslims. Thus hardship from Allah would have befallen you thereby. وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الإيمَانَ (but Allah has made faith beloved to you) — faith in Allah and His Messenger, so that you obey the Messenger of Allah and follow him, and Allah thereby preserves you from the hardship which, had you not obeyed and followed him, and had he obeyed you, would have befallen and reached you.
And His saying وَزَيَّنَهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ (and has adorned it in your hearts) — He says: and He has made faith beautiful in your hearts, so that you believed. وَكَرَّهَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ (and has made disbelief hateful to you) — in Allah. وَالْفُسُوقَ (and moral corruption) — that is: lying. وَالْعِصْيَانَ (and disobedience) — that is: engaging in what Allah has forbidden, in contravention of the command of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and neglecting what Allah has commanded. أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الرَّاشِدُونَ (those are they who are rightly guided) — He says: these, to whom Allah has made faith beloved and adorned it in their hearts, and to whom He has made disbelief, moral corruption, and disobedience hateful — they are they who are rightly guided, who walk the path of truth.
