Verses 33–38
In the previous verses, God described the state of the faithless and added to this a description of the state of those in whose hearts there is a sickness, their reluctance to fight and the condition of those amongst them who apostatize. Now, God returns to the faithful to warn them against becoming like them, lest they parley with the idolaters, incline towards them, and follow that which displeases God and despise what pleases Him. If they do this, then their works will fail. And these verses admonish them with a mixture of encouragement and warning. This is how God concludes the sūrah.
Commentary
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَلَا تُبْطِلُوا أَعْمَالَكُمْ٣٣
(47:33) O you who have faith! Obey God and obey the Messenger, and do not render your works void.
It is possible to read this verse in isolation and to take its meaning as absolute. After all, jurists adduce the phrase and do not render your works void to prohibit invalidating one’s prayer after commencing it. However, insofar as it is situated in the context of the verses we have already dealt with, it is actually dealing with the command to fight. Equally, the following verse, which also falls within this context, especially in its apparent meaning Indeed those who are faithless… () explains the rationale for this verse. And the following verse, So do not slacken and call for peace… (), follows logically from these two. In short, the verse in its context denotes the obligation to obey God with regards to the scripture He reveals and the laws He lays down. It also denotes the obligation to obey the Messenger in that which he conveys from God and in the commands He issues insofar as he has authority over the believers in the religious community. Moreover, it warns the faithful against rendering their deeds null and void by doing that which causes their works to fail, something which afflicts those of weak faith who incline towards hypocrisy to the extent that some of them will apostatize after guidance has become clear to them!
So on the subject of obeying God, this means obeying God in the laws and commands He has sent down with regards to warfare; obeying the Prophet means obeying him in what he conveys from God and the military preparations he orders based on his authority over the believers; rendering works void means holding back from the command to fight just as the hypocrites and apostates hold back.
It is said: “Rendering works void” means causing them to fail by acting as if by believing they have done some favor to God and His Messenger, as God says: They count it as a favor to you that they have embraced Islam ().
It is said: Meaning through being conceited (ʿujub). It is also said: Through disbelief and hypocrisy.
It is said: It means invalidating the charities that they give through reproaches and affronts. Do not render your charities void by reproaches and affronts ().
It is also said: Invalidating them by committing sins. Yet others say: Specifically by committing major sins.
All these interpretations are valid examples of instances where this verse might apply, assuming we put aside the context in which it is situated. But taking into account the context that we have already highlighted above, this verse is only concerned with the matter of fighting and therefore these opinions are rejected.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَصَدُّوا عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ مَاتُوا وَهُمْ كُفَّارٌ فَلَنْ يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ ٣٤
(47:34) Indeed those who are faithless and bar from the way of God and then die faithless, God will never forgive them.
In the present context, this appears to explain the rationale for the contents of the previous verse. It indicates that if you do not obey God and His Messenger and you invalidate your works by following that which displeases God and loathing that which pleases Him, this will ultimately put you amongst the people who disbelieve and bar from the way of God, and there will never be any forgiveness for these people after they die.
To bar from the way of God means to turn aside from faith or to prevent other people from believing.
فَلَا تَهِنُوا وَتَدْعُوا إِلَى السَّلْمِ وَأَنْتُمُ الْأَعْلَوْنَ وَاللَّهُ مَعَكُمْ وَلَنْ يَتِرَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ ٣٥
(47:35) So do not slacken and call for peace when you have the upper hand, and God is with you, and He will not stint your works.
This verse follows logically from those above; slacken is from wahn, meaning weakness or limpness; and call for peace is joined to slacken and falls within the frame of prohibition, in other words: “and do not call for peace.” The sentence when you have the upper hand is a circumstantial qualifier, meaning: “do not do that while the reality is that you have the upper hand.” To have the upper hand means to triumph, and this is a well-known figure of speech.
God is with you is joined to when you have the upper hand, expounding the reason why they have the upper hand. God’s being with them means that Divine Assistance (naṣr) is with them rather than in the sense of sustaining them (qayūmiyyah), which is what is meant in the verse: and He is with you wherever you may be ().
And He will not stint your works: In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, it is said:
To stint (witr) means to diminish or deprive, and an example of this can be found in the tradition “it is as though he stinted his folk and his wealth.” The original meaning of witr is to cut, such as the one who is denied compensation for a murdered relative, or the one who is cut-off from other people.
With this in mind, stint means: He will not diminish your deeds but give you their reward in full. It is said: It means He will not squander your deeds. It is also said: He will not wrong you. But these meanings are approximately the same.
And the verse as a whole means: “The path of not obeying God and His Messenger and voiding your works is this path; it leads to being deprived of God’s forgiveness forever. So do not weaken or slacken in the matter of fighting, and do not try to make peace with the idolaters or cease hostilities while you have the upper hand. God is granting you His assistance against them and He will not deprive you of your rewards in the slightest; rather, He will recompense you in full.
This verse promises victory and success to the Muslims if they obey God and His Messenger, so it is like the other verse: Do not weaken or grieve: you shall have the upper hand, should you be faithful ().
إِنَّمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ ۚ وَإِنْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَتَتَّقُوا يُؤْتِكُمْ أُجُورَكُمْ وَلَا يَسْأَلْكُمْ أَمْوَالَكُمْ ٣٦
(47:36) The life of the world is just play and diversion, but if you are faithful and Godwary, He will give you your rewards, and will not ask your wealth from you.
This verse encourages them to desire the Hereafter and to abstain from this world by expounding its reality, namely that it is nothing more than play and diversion. And we have already discussed the sense in which it is play and diversion.
If you are faithful and Godwary—if you believe and are Godwary by obeying God and obeying His Messenger, then He will give you your rewards and He will not ask you for your wealth in return for what he gives you. The context suggests that the meaning of wealth is all of their wealth, and this is supported by the verse that follows.
إِنْ يَسْأَلْكُمُوهَا فَيُحْفِكُمْ تَبْخَلُوا وَيُخْرِجْ أَضْغَانَكُمْ ٣٧
(47:37) Should He ask it from you, and press you, you will be stingy, and He will expose your spite.
To press someone means to put them under pressure. Stingy—as it is said—means to refuse to give something. Spite means hatred.
So this verse means: “If he asked you for all your wealth and demanded it from you in its entirety, you would have refused to give it to him because you love it, then the hatred in your hearts would come out and you would go astray.”
هَا أَنْتُمْ هَٰؤُلَاءِ تُدْعَوْنَ لِتُنْفِقُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَمِنْكُمْ مَنْ يَبْخَلُ ۖ وَمَنْ يَبْخَلْ فَإِنَّمَا يَبْخَلُ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ ۚ وَاللَّهُ الْغَنِيُّ وَأَنْتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ ۚ وَإِنْ تَتَوَلَّوْا يَسْتَبْدِلْ قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا يَكُونُوا أَمْثَالَكُمْ ٣٨
(47:38) Ah! There you are, being invited to spend in the way of God; yet among you there are those who are stingy; and whoever is stingy is stingy only to himself. God is the All-sufficient, and you are all-needy, and if you turn away He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you.
This verse calls the audience to bear witness in order to explain the previous verse. It is as if to say: “If he asked you for all of your wealth and pressed you for it, you would be stingy. The proof for this is that you are called to spend only some of your wealth in the way of God and yet some of you are still stingy, so if he demanded all of your wealth then all of you would have been stingy!”
And whoever is stingy is stingy only to himself: In other words, he only withholds goodness from himself. After all, God does not ask them for what they have for His own sake, rather He asks for the benefit of those who spend as it contains what is best for them in this world and in the Hereafter. So when they refuse to spend, they actually refuse what is best for themselves. This is what God alludes to next, when He says: God is the All-sufficient, and you are all-needy. In other words: It is God who is all-sufficient, not you. And it is you who are needy, not God!
…and if you turn away He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you: It is said: This is joined to the phrase: …but if you are faithful and Godwary… (), and the meaning is: If you believe and are Godwary, He will give you your rewards. But if you turn away then He will replace you with another people by making them successful in attaining faith instead of you, and they will not be like you; they will believe, be Godwary, and spend in the way of God.
Examining Narrations
- In Thawāb al-Aʿmāl, from Abū Jaʿfar [Imām al-Bāqir]:
God’s Messenger said: “Whoever says ‘subḥānallāh’, God will plant for him a tree in paradise. Whoever says ‘alḥamdulillāh’, God will plant him a tree in paradise. Whoever says ‘lā ilāha illā allāh’, God will plant him a tree in paradise. And whoever says ‘allāhu akbar’, God will plant him a tree in paradise.”
A man from the Quraysh said: “O Messenger of God! Our trees in paradise will indeed be many!”
He said: “Yes, but beware of sending a fire that will burn them! That is because God says: O you who have faith! Obey God and obey the Messenger, and do not render your works void ().”
- And in Tafsīr al-Qummī, about the verse And if they incline toward peace, then you incline toward it… ():
It is abrogated by God’s words: So do not slacken and call for peace when you have the upper hand, and God is with you. ()
- In al-Durr al-Manthūr, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd b. Ḥamīd, Tirmidhī, Ibn Abī Hātim, Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ, and Bayhaqī in Dalāʾil narrate from Abū Hurayrah:
God’s Messenger recited the verse …and if you turn away He will replace you with another people, and they will not be like you ().
The people said: “O Messenger of God! Who are these with whom God will replace us if we turn away?”
God’s Messenger slapped the back of Salmān and said: “This one and his people, for by Him in whose hand is my soul, even if faith hung from the morning star, some men from Persia would attain it!”
And similar traditions have been narrated from Abū Hurayrah by other routes, and also by Ibn Mardawayh from Jābir.
- In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, Abū Baṣīr narrates from Abū Jaʿfar [Imām al-Bāqir]:
If you turn away—O assembly of Arabs!—He will replace you with another people—meaning the non-Arabs (mawālī).
- And in the same work, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh [Imām al-Ṣādiq]:
And God has certainly replaced them with [a people] better than them; the non-Arabs (mawālī).
The full tradition of the Prophet in al-Jawāmiʿ reads: “Whoever misses the ʿaṣr prayer, it is as though he has stinted his folk and wealth.” ↩︎