al-Nisāʾ 4:148-152 commentary

4/148-152

لا يحب الله الجهر بالسوء من القول إلا من ظلم … · إن تبدوا خيرا أو تخفوه أو تعفوا عن سوء فإن الله كان عفوا قديرا · … الذين يفرقون بين الله ورسله … · والذين آمنوا بالله ورسله ولم يفرقوا بين أحد منهم أولئك سوف يؤتيهم أجورهم

Lā yuḥibbu'llāhu'l-jahra bi's-sūʾi mina'l-qawli illā man ẓulim … · In tubdū khayran aw tukhfūhu aw taʿfū ʿan sūʾin fa-inna'llāha kāna ʿAfuwwan Qadīrā · … Alladhīna yufarriqūna bayna'llāhi wa rusulihī … · Wa'lladhīna āmanū bi'llāhi wa rusulihī wa lam yufarriqū bayna aḥadin minhum ulāʾika sawfa yuʾtīhim ujūrahum

"God does not like the open utterance of evil speech — except by one who has been wronged… Whether you make a good deed known, or hide it, or pardon an evil — God is pardoning, powerful… Those who make a separation between God and His messengers… And those who believe in God and His messengers and make no distinction between any of them — to these He will give their rewards."

إِلَّا مَن ظُلِمَ — the place of the exception

The verse lays down a prohibition and immediately opens an exception: illā man ẓulim — "except one who has been wronged".

And there is disagreement in the classical commentaries over what the exception covers:

Reading	What the exception covers	Its ground
A	That the one wronged should state his situation	The sense of the word jahr as "to say openly"
B	That he should pray against the one who wronged him	That the sentence concerns sūʾ (evil speech)
C	That he should make the wrong done to him known to another, that he should complain	The general use of the word

All three readings are transmitted; I impose no preference and draw no legal ruling from this.

What can be said from the text is this, and it is an observation about word order: while forbidding the open utterance of evil speech, the verse leaves a door open for the one who has been harmed. The exception is in the same sentence as the prohibition.

إِن تُبْدُوا۟ خَيْرًا أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ أَوْ تَعْفُوا۟ عَن سُوٓءٍ — three possibilities

The verse counts three things, and the return for all three is given with the same verse-ending: inna'llāha kāna ʿAfuwwan Qadīrā.

Order	Verb	What it is
1	Tubdū khayrā	To make known a good deed
2	Aw tukhfūh	To hide a good deed
3	Aw taʿfū ʿan sūʾ	To pardon an evil

And the choice of the verse-ending must be recorded: the verse sets the attributes ʿAfuww (much-pardoning) and Qadīr (able) side by side.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the coming together of the two attributes: pardoning means something when it is done while one has the power, not because one lacks it. The verse-ending is a measure set beside the third item.

And this verse is the last row of the trio set out in a table in the discussion of the twenty-fifth verse (wa an taṣbirū khayrun lakum — wa'l-ṣulḥu khayr — in tubdū khayran aw tukhfūhu aw taʿfū ʿan sūʾin). I rely on that.

يُفَرِّقُونَ بَيْنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِۦ — and the sentence set over against it

The root ف-ر-ق: to separate, to divide.

And the verses give a disposition and its exact opposite one after the other:

Verse	Wording	Who
150	Yufarriqūna bayna'llāhi wa rusulih … wa yurīdūna an yattakhidhū bayna dhālika sabīlā	Those who separate
152	Wa lam yufarriqū* bayna aḥadin minhum*	Those who do not separate

The same verb, once affirmative and once negative, two verses apart. This is a countable fact.

And the hundred and fifty-second verse coincides with the hundred and thirty-sixth of the same sūra: there too the things to be believed in were counted out one by one (God, the messenger, the Book, the earlier Book). The block opens with an enumeration and closes with one.

And the same expression occurs at al-Baqara 2/285 (lā nufarriqu bayna aḥadin min rusulih), and there it is a sentence of prayer. The same construction in two sūras: one a statement, the other an utterance.