An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 74 of 176

An-Nisa 4:74

۞ فَلْيُقَـٰتِلْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَشْرُونَ ٱلْحَيَوٰةَ ٱلدُّنْيَا بِٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ ۚ وَمَن يُقَـٰتِلْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ فَيُقْتَلْ أَوْ يَغْلِبْ فَسَوْفَ نُؤْتِيهِ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا

“So let those fight in the cause of Allāh who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter. And he who fights in the cause of Allāh and is killed or achieves victory - We will bestow upon him a great reward.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every life is traded for something; those who give this world for the next are promised a great reward, whether they fall or prevail.

A reflection

A word that buys and sells at once

Alladhīna yashrūna al-ḥayāta al-dunyā bi-l-ākhira. The verb sharā is unusual. It can mean to sell, and it can mean to buy.

The lexicons explain why. The root pictures two people exchanging like for like. In barter, each side both buys and sells, so the verb faces both ways. One lexicon records that the Arabs said of anyone who let go of one thing to hold another: he has bought it.

Commentators read the ayah both ways. On one reading, it praises believers who sell this life for the Hereafter. On the other, it addresses those who have been buying this life with the Hereafter, and calls them to change. Both readings agree on one thing. Everyone is trading.

An early authority says it bluntly: the foolish sold the Hereafter for this world. Another passage describes the opposite trade: Allah has bought from the believers their lives and wealth (9:111).

One classical commentator adds an inward reading of his own. When a person wants to give this life for Allah, he says, the soul grows stingy with it. So he must first buy it back from himself, paying with the joy of the Hereafter. Only then can he give it freely.

That is a quiet truth about every sacrifice. Before you can give something up, you must persuade yourself that what you gain is worth more. The Hereafter is the price that makes the giving possible.

Picture a man of fifty on a delayed train. On the back of his ticket he does a rough sum. Twenty-eight years of work, about fifty hours a week. He stares at the number. He has sold almost all his waking life. For what? A house, his children's schooling, some savings. Not all bad. But he realises he never once decided the price.

The ayah does not ask whether you will trade your life. You already are, hour by hour. It asks what you are getting in return.

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.