An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 1 of 176

An-Nisa 4:1

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَٰحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَآءً ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِى تَسَآءَلُونَ بِهِۦ وَٱلْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا

“O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allāh, through whom[156] you ask one another,[157] and the wombs.[158] Indeed Allāh is ever,[159] over you, an Observer.[160]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Before any law on orphans or inheritance, the surah traces every human to one soul and sets the womb's bond beside Allah's name.

A reflection

Every pedigree runs back to one soul

Picture a nikah in a hired hall. The two families sit in two camps. One side has quietly noted the other's accents, the cheaper suits, the cousin who drives a taxi. The other side has noted the first side's new money and thin manners.

Then the imam stands. He opens with the sermon the Prophet ﷺ taught his Companions for marriage and other needs. Al-Tirmidhi records it and grades it ḥasan, and this ayah is one of its three recitations. O people, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from one soul.

The sentence does not argue with anyone's pedigree. It simply goes further back than every pedigree goes. Climb any family tree high enough and the branches stop competing. They meet in one soul, and in the mate made from it.

One classical commentator drew the lesson plainly. When people know they all come from a single person, he wrote, they drop boasting and arrogance and show humility. He records a report that Adam was named from the face of the earth, taken from all of it: red and black, good and bad. So his children came in every colour and temper.

That is the majesty in the ayah. One soul, and from it many men and women, spread across the earth. The commentators saw such variety from one source as the work of a Creator who chooses, not a blind process repeating itself.

The ego dislikes this ayah. It wants a story in which it began somewhere better. The ayah gives the taxi-driving cousin and the consultant one origin, and one Lord over both.

So the next time you catch yourself ranking a room, go back one generation further than you meant to. Then another. Keep going until you reach the one soul. There is nobody left to look down on.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.