An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 114 of 176

An-Nisa 4:114

۞ لَّا خَيْرَ فِى كَثِيرٍ مِّن نَّجْوَىٰهُمْ إِلَّا مَنْ أَمَرَ بِصَدَقَةٍ أَوْ مَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ إِصْلَـٰحٍۭ بَيْنَ ٱلنَّاسِ ۚ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَٰلِكَ ٱبْتِغَآءَ مَرْضَاتِ ٱللَّهِ فَسَوْفَ نُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا

“No good is there in much of their private conversation, except for those who enjoin charity or that which is right or conciliation between people. And whoever does that seeking means to the approval of Allāh - then We are going to give him a great reward.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Most private talk does no good; the conversations that count urge giving, kindness or making peace, and done for Allah they earn an immense reward.

A reflection

An audit of your private conversations

Lā khayra fī kathīrin min najwāhum: there is no good in much of their private talk.

The word najwā has a lovely root. One lexicon pictures a najwa, a patch of high ground the flood never reaches. Another commentator explains that it is named for being set apart by its height. So najwā is talk lifted out of everyone else's reach. It is the conversation held to one side.

In this passage, the first meaning was close at hand. One classical commentator says it refers to the scheming of the thief's people, the plan they talked over before going to the Prophet ﷺ. But an early scholar said the ayah is general, for all people. One commentator explains najwā here as the people who confer together, or as their private talk.

Notice the precision. The ayah does not say there is no good in any private talk. It says there is none in much of it. That is an audit, not a ban.

Picture three teachers after a long staff meeting. They stand by their cars in the dark for twenty minutes. They talk about the head's tone, a colleague's new car and which parents are 'difficult'. Nothing they say could have been said in the meeting. Nothing they say changes anything. They drive home tired and slightly worse.

Now picture the same three on another evening. One says quietly that a new colleague has been crying in the toilets. They agree who will invite her for lunch. That conversation was private too. It was also good.

The difference is not secrecy. It is direction. Some private talk drains. Some private talk mends.

Tonight, think back over your private conversations today. Ask how many of them did any good at all.

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.