An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 115 of 176

An-Nisa 4:115

وَمَن يُشَاقِقِ ٱلرَّسُولَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ مَا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُ ٱلْهُدَىٰ وَيَتَّبِعْ غَيْرَ سَبِيلِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ نُوَلِّهِۦ مَا تَوَلَّىٰ وَنُصْلِهِۦ جَهَنَّمَ ۖ وَسَآءَتْ مَصِيرًا

“And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers - We will give him what he has taken[218] and drive him into Hell, and evil it is as a destination.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Whoever turns against the Messenger after the truth is clear to him is left with what he chose, and it leads to a terrible end.

A reflection

Given exactly what he turned to

Nuwallihi mā tawallā: We will turn him over to what he has turned to.

The phrase is built from one root used twice. Walī is nearness with nothing in between, the one at your side who takes charge of you. Tawallā is to take something as your ally and guardian. Nuwallihi is Allah's answer: We will make him the ward of what he chose.

The commentators explain it in several ways. One says: We leave him with what he chose for himself. Another: We let him alone with the error he took as his guardian. An early scholar said: We hand him over to the false gods he relied on, which cannot help him at all.

This is majesty of a striking kind. Allah does not chase the one who turns away. He needs no one's loyalty. He is the Free of need (35:15). He simply grants the choice.

That should humble the ego that imagines it is punishing Allah by leaving. Pride says: they will miss me, they will see what they have lost. The ayah answers that nothing is lost to Allah. The one who leaves loses everything that leaving takes with it.

A sceptic may ask whether this is a ruler insisting on obedience. But notice what the ayah describes. It is not an arbitrary penalty. It is the consequence of a choice, handed back to the one who made it.

Picture a man who walks out of his family's restaurant after a quarrel and opens a rival across the street, just to prove them wrong. No one stops him. His family even wishes him well. Two years later he is working eighteen-hour days in a business he never wanted. He chose it only because it was the opposite of theirs. He has been given exactly what he turned to.

So be careful what you turn towards in anger. You may be given it.

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.