An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 101 of 176

An-Nisa 4:101

وَإِذَا ضَرَبْتُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَلَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ أَن تَقْصُرُوا۟ مِنَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ إِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَن يَفْتِنَكُمُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ كَانُوا۟ لَكُمْ عَدُوًّا مُّبِينًا

“And when you travel throughout the land, there is no blame upon you for shortening the prayer,[215] [especially] if you fear that those who disbelieve may disrupt [or attack] you.[216] Indeed, the disbelievers are ever to you a clear enemy.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Prayer travels with you: on the road and under threat it may be shortened, never dropped, and the lightening is a gift to accept.

A reflection

A charity you are told to accept

Sahih Muslim preserves a conversation that every reader of this ayah should know.

A man named Yaʿlā ibn Umayya came to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb with a question. The ayah says you may shorten the prayer if you fear that the disbelievers will harm you. But now people are safe. So why do we still shorten?

ʿUmar did not brush him off. I wondered at exactly what you wonder at, he said. So I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And he said: it is a charity that Allah has given you, so accept His charity.

Think about that word. Ṣadaqa. Charity. Allah, who needs nothing, describes the lightening of a prayer as a gift He has given. The prayer itself was never for Him. He is the Free of need (35:15). It is for the one who prays. And now even its shortening is wrapped up as a present.

Some people find it harder to receive than to give. Picture a retired man who has paid his own way all his life. His son quietly clears the last of his mortgage and tells him over dinner. The father reaches for his chequebook at once. The son puts his hand over it. Dad, it's a gift. Let me give it. The old man sits with his discomfort for a long moment, then says thank you.

The modern world teaches us to earn everything, and to distrust anything free. The Prophet ﷺ teaches something different about Allah. Some of what He gives is not earned. It is simply given. The right response is not suspicion or pride. It is to accept, and to say thank you.

What ease has Allah given you that you keep refusing, as if needing it were a failure?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.