An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 137 of 176

An-Nisa 4:137

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا۟ ثُمَّ ءَامَنُوا۟ ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا۟ ثُمَّ ٱزْدَادُوا۟ كُفْرًا لَّمْ يَكُنِ ٱللَّهُ لِيَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ وَلَا لِيَهْدِيَهُمْ سَبِيلًۢا

“Indeed, those who have believed then disbelieved, then believed then disbelieved, and then increased in disbelief - never will Allāh forgive them, nor will He guide them to a way.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who keep believing and leaving, then go further in denial, have made faith a thing to drop, and forfeit forgiveness and the way.

A reflection

A thought you would never say aloud

Inna alladhīna āmanū thumma kafarū thumma āmanū thumma kafarū: those who believed, then disbelieved, then believed, then disbelieved.

Read quickly, the ayah can frighten an honest heart. Picture a man who has led his family's prayers for twenty years. One night in Ramadan, a thought arrives that he cannot shake. What if none of this is true? He is horrified. He would never say it aloud. Then he reads this ayah and wonders whether he has just 'disbelieved', and whether a door has shut.

It has not. Look at what the ayah actually describes. Five verbs, each joined by thumma, 'then': a chain of deliberate acts with time between them. Commentators describe the people meant. Some held them to be hypocrites who professed faith before believers and denied it in private, again and again. Others saw a group who made a show of faith, announced a 'doubt', returned, then left once more. One early scholar, quoted in a classical commentary, says the number is not the point. The point is their back-and-forth, the same wavering that 4:143 describes.

That is a pattern, chosen and repeated. It is not a passing thought that you hate.

Some Companions once came to the Prophet ﷺ. They said they found things within themselves too grave to put into words. He asked whether they had truly felt that. They said yes. He said: that is clear faith (Sahih Muslim). The thought itself was not faith. Their horror at it was.

So the man in Ramadan is not the person this ayah portrays. His fear is evidence of what he still holds dear.

What remains open is real, though. A doubt fed nightly, never brought to Allah or to knowledge, can harden into a choice. So bring it. Ask Allah for light, look for an honest answer, and keep praying while you look.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.