al-Nisāʾ 4:97-100

Inna'lladhīna tawaffāhumu'l-malāʾikatu ẓālimī anfusihim qālū fīma kuntum, qālū kunnā mustaḍʿafīna fi'l-arḍ, qālū a-lam takun arḍu'llāhi wāsiʿatan fa-tuhājirū fīhā … · Illa'l-mustaḍʿafīna mina'l-rijāli wa'l-nisāʾi wa'l-wildāni lā yastaṭīʿūna ḥīlatan wa lā yahtadūna sabīlā · Fa-ulāʾika ʿasa'llāhu an yaʿfuwa ʿanhum … · Wa man yuhājir fī sabīli'llāhi yajid fi'l-arḍi murāghaman kathīran wa saʿa

"To those whose souls the angels take while they are wronging themselves, they say: 'What state were you in?' They say: 'We were made weak in the land.' They say: 'Was God's earth not wide, that you might have migrated in it?'… Except the men, women and children who were truly made weak, who could find no means and knew no way. It is these whom God may well pardon… Whoever migrates in the way of God will find in the earth many a place of refuge and abundance."

The most important side of this block is that it requires the two verses to be read together. And in this commentary the two are given together.

I bring this forward separately, because when the ninety-seventh verse is read on its own the measure the verse lays down is lost.

And the measure itself is in the wording of the ninety-eighth verse, and it has two items:

Ḥīla — root ح-و-ل: to turn, to pass from one state to another. Taḥawwul — change; ḥawl — power, a turning. So ḥīla, at the root of the word, is "the possibility of changing one's situation".

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the concrete sense of the root: the verse describes the excuse not as a matter of intention but as whether or not the possibility of changing one's situation exists.

And the three items counted in the ninety-eighth verse — al-rijāl, al-nisāʾ, al-wildān — are word for word the same as in the seventy-fifth.

The same threefold enumeration, in two separate functions. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

I record this as my own reading: the sūra says, for the same group, both that they are to be fought for and that their excuses are to be accepted. The two do not conflict: one looks at those outside, the other at the people themselves.

"The wideness of the earth" occurs in three verses in the Qurʾān, and the three must be set side by side. The table compares the wording of the three verses.

The difference between al-Zumar and al-ʿAnkabūt was already set out in a table in the discussion of al-ʿAnkabūt 29/56, and it was recorded there:

"The difference must be recorded: in al-Zumar 'God's earth', here 'My earth' — the first person. And the address is first person too: yā ʿibādī — 'O My servants.'"

I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it. What belongs here is the difference of the third verse — al-Nisāʾ's.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the table above: in al-Zumar and al-ʿAnkabūt the sentence is a summons, spoken beforehand. In al-Nisāʾ the same sentence is a question, and it is built in the past tense — that is, it is asked after the matter is over.

And the following observation recorded at al-ʿAnkabūt 29/56-57 connects here too:

"That is, changing one's place is not escaping death — it is choosing in what state one dies."

The verse in al-Nisāʾ stands at exactly this point: the sentence is spoken at the moment of death.

The root ر-غ-م: the nose; and from there raghām — to rub the nose in the dust. Raghman — unwillingly.

Murāgham — the lexicographers explain the word in two ways: (a) a place to go to, a place of refuge; (b) a position that leaves the other party without recourse. I relate both explanations; I impose no preference.

And the coming together of the two words must be recorded: murāghaman kathīran wa saʿa.

Saʿa — root و-س-ع: wideness. And this word is from the same root as wāsiʿa in the ninety-seventh verse.

The same root, three verses apart: one in an interrogation, the other in a return. I record this as an observation about word order.

The second half of the hundredth verse must be recorded: the person who sets out and dies before arriving.

Thumma yudrikhu'l-mawt — and the verb is the same as the verb in the seventy-eighth verse: yudrikkumu'l-mawt.

The same verb, in two separate places. And the verse states that the reward of the one who dies on the road does not lapse: fa-qad waqaʿa ajruhū ʿala'llāh.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the verb the two verses share: the seventy-eighth verse said that death overtakes one everywhere; the hundredth says that where it overtakes one does not change the reward.