An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 150 of 176

An-Nisa 4:150

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَكْفُرُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِۦ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَن يُفَرِّقُوا۟ بَيْنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِۦ وَيَقُولُونَ نُؤْمِنُ بِبَعْضٍ وَنَكْفُرُ بِبَعْضٍ وَيُرِيدُونَ أَن يَتَّخِذُوا۟ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ سَبِيلًا

“Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allāh and His messengers and wish to discriminate between Allāh and His messengers and say, "We believe in some and disbelieve in others," and wish to adopt a way in between -”

Saheeh International

Essence

Accepting some of Allah's messengers and rejecting others, while hoping for a road between belief and denial, is a pattern the ayah exposes.

A reflection

One standard of evidence

'We believe in some and disbelieve in some.' Why does the ayah treat this as a rejection of the whole?

One classical theologian gives two reasons. The first is about evidence. What shows that any messenger is truly sent is the sign Allah gives him. If such a sign can appear without truth in one case, it proves nothing in any case. So whoever accepts one messenger on that evidence, and rejects another bringing the same kind of evidence, has quietly abandoned the evidence itself.

The second is about motive. If you accept a messenger because you are obeying Allah, obedience requires you to accept every messenger He sends. If you accept one for some other reason, such as status, habit or loyalty, it was never obedience at all.

Another commentary names those other reasons bluntly. Desire, custom, what one's fathers believed, partisanship. Not proof.

This is a sharp test of how any of us handles truth. Picture a football fan who praises goal-line technology when it awards his side a goal. Next week the same camera rules one out, and he calls it rigged. Nothing about the camera changed. Only the result did.

He does not really trust the technology. He trusts his team, and uses the technology when it agrees.

The ayah asks a searching question of every believer. Do I accept what Allah says because He said it? Or do I accept what suits me, and reach for His words when they agree with me?

One standard, applied every time, is the mark of a person who truly submits.

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.