أينما تكونوا يدرككم الموت ولو كنتم في بروج مشيدة وإن تصبهم حسنة يقولوا هذه من عند الله وإن تصبهم سيئة يقولوا هذه من عندك قل كل من عند الله … · ما أصابك من حسنة فمن الله وما أصابك من سيئة فمن نفسك وأرسلناك للناس رسولا وكفى بالله شهيدا
Aynamā takūnū yudrikkumu'l-mawtu wa law kuntum fī burūjin mushayyada, wa in tuṣibhum ḥasanatun yaqūlū hādhihī min ʿindi'llāh, wa in tuṣibhum sayyiʾatun yaqūlū hādhihī min ʿindik, qul kullun min ʿindi'llāh, fa-mā li-hāʾulāʾi'l-qawmi lā yakādūna yafqahūna ḥadīthā · Mā aṣābaka min ḥasanatin fa-mina'llāh, wa mā aṣābaka min sayyiʾatin fa-min nafsik, wa arsalnāka li'l-nāsi rasūlā, wa kafā bi'llāhi shahīdā
"Wherever you may be, death will overtake you — even were you in towers built strong. If some good befalls them they say 'this is from God'; if some ill befalls them they say 'this is from you'. Say: all is from God. What is the matter with these people that they barely understand a word? — Whatever good befalls you is from God; whatever ill befalls you is from yourself. We sent you to people as a messenger. God suffices as a witness."
There is an apparent tension between these two verses, and the tension must not be concealed. But two things are not done in this section:
One. No theological polemic is entered into. These two verses have been used in the history of classical theology in the debate over destiny and the creation of human acts. This commentary takes no side in that debate and does not relate the objections the parties direct at one another. What is treated are the explanations that follow from the wording of the verses.
| Verse | Sentence | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| 78 | Qul kullun min ʿindi'llāh | All is from God |
| 79 | Wa mā aṣābaka min sayyiʾatin fa-min nafsik | Ill is from yourself |
The two sentences come one after the other, and at first sight they look as though they answer each other back.
And before resolving the tension, what the seventy-eighth verse says and to whom must be established, because this is the point most often skipped.
| Case | What is said |
|---|---|
| In tuṣibhum ḥasana | Hādhihī min ʿindi'llāh — this is from God |
| In tuṣibhum sayyiʾa | Hādhihī min ʿindik — this is from you |
The answer kullun min ʿindi'llāh in the seventy-eighth verse, that is, comes not in order to lay down a general law of cause and effect but in order to reject a particular ascription: the saying that lays the ill that has befallen one upon a person.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the sentence begins with qul (say): the sentence is an answer, and the party addressed by the answer are those who said the words related.
| 4/78 | 4/79 | |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | Tuṣibhum — third person plural | Aṣābaka — second person singular |
| Who is being spoken of | The group described | The one directly addressed |
| The end of the sentence | Lā yakādūna yafqahūna ḥadīthā | Wa arsalnāka li'l-nāsi rasūlā |
The two verses use the same words (ḥasana, sayyiʾa) but their pronouns differ. This is a countable fact.
And the second half of the seventy-ninth verse must be recorded separately, because it is most often dropped: wa arsalnāka li'l-nāsi rasūlā — "we sent you to people as a messenger."
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the continuation of the verse: the place where the sentence stands is not a context debating the source of an ill but a context stating the position of the messenger. In the seventy-eighth verse it had been said "this is from you"; the seventy-ninth verse lifts that ascription and says what the messenger is.
Different tendencies are transmitted in the classical commentaries on how the two verses are to be reconciled. I put them in a table; I impose no preference and none of them is binding.
| Tendency | How it reconciles them | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| A | The two verses speak from two different sides: 78 in respect of creation and decree ("everything is from God"), 79 in respect of ascription and acquisition ("an ill is ascribed to a person's own act"). This explanation is the one most widely transmitted in the classical commentaries | The difference in the word patterns of the two verses: 78 min ʿindi'llāh (source), 79 min nafsik (ascription) |
| B | The words do not answer to the same thing in the two verses: the ḥasana/sayyiʾa of 78 are abundance and hardship (favour and affliction), while those of 79 are good and bad conduct | That the verb tuṣibhum is used for what comes from outside; that the one addressed in 79 is singular |
| C | 79 is the lifting of the ascription made in 78: the sentence lays down no law, it rejects the words "this is from you" and gives the responsibility back to the speaker | That the verse continues with wa arsalnāka li'l-nāsi rasūlā |
| D | 78 is general, 79 particular: 78 states the ultimate source of all that happens, 79 what falls to a person's own share; the two are different layers | The generality of the word kullun (all); the singularity of the pronoun ka in 79 |
And now comes the most important record in this discussion. The Qurʾān builds another verse in the same field, and there a limit is set.
وَمَآ أَصَٰبَكُم مِّن مُّصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَيَعْفُوا۟ عَن كَثِيرٍ "Whatever affliction strikes you is for what your own hands have earned. And He pardons much." (al-Shūrā 42/30)
This verse was treated in detail at al-Shūrā 42/30, and the barrier set there must be carried over here as it stands. The records made there:
"The following generalisation cannot be drawn from the verse: 'every affliction is the return for a sin; therefore a person to whom something happens is in that state on account of his sin.'… First: the verse itself sets a proportion. The sentence wa yaʿfū ʿan kathīr says that there is no one-to-one correspondence between what comes and what is earned."
"Fourth: whom the address is to. The verse says aṣābakum — second person plural. Those addressed, that is, are a particular community, and the sentence is said to them. It is not a structure that can be used for one person to pass a verdict about another."
"The verse opens a door for a person to take account of his own condition. But this door is one-way… To ask the same question about someone else does not follow from the wording of the verse."
This barrier holds for al-Nisāʾ 4/79 too, and its ground is the verse's own pronoun: aṣābaka — second person singular.
The sentence, that is, is said to the one addressed about himself. For a person to say, of what has befallen someone else, "this is from himself" does not follow from the wording of this verse.
I record this separately and plainly, because the method's rules against scolding the reader and against sweeping rulings are at work here.
Yudrikkum — root د-ر-ك: to catch up with, to reach, to overtake. Idrāk — arriving at something; and from there, grasping it. The concrete sense of the verb is catching up from behind.
Burūjin mushayyada — burj: root ب-ر-ج: to be visible, to be out in the open. Tabarruj — to make visible. A burj, then, is a high structure seen from afar.
Mushayyada — root ش-ي-د: to raise, to build firmly. Shīd — lime, mortar. The word states that the structure has been reinforced.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the particle wa law: the sentence gives the most sheltered case as its example and says that even so the outcome does not change. The verse, that is, states not the impossibility of protection but the limit of protection.
And the position of the block needs to be recorded: this sentence comes immediately after the verses that take as their subject holding back from war (77). In the seventy-seventh verse people were feared; the seventy-eighth verse says how far the thing feared can protect anyone.
One. The saying the seventy-eighth verse relates — laying good to a source and ill to a person — describes a habit of thought. In rejecting this habit the verse does not accuse the person; it corrects the direction of the ascription.
Two. The qualification min nafsik in the seventy-ninth verse is a sentence framed for a person's taking account of himself. As was recorded in the discussion of al-Shūrā 42/30: "to say to a person in pain 'this is from what you did' is not consolation but the adding of a burden." I rely on that treatment.