An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 9 of 176

An-Nisa 4:9

وَلْيَخْشَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَوْ تَرَكُوا۟ مِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّةً ضِعَـٰفًا خَافُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ فَلْيَتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَلْيَقُولُوا۟ قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا

“And let those [executors and guardians] fear [injustice] as if they [themselves] had left weak offspring behind and feared for them. So let them fear Allāh and speak words of appropriate justice.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Picture your own small children left behind without you, then treat other people's children, and speak about them, the way you would want yours treated.

A reflection

Picture it as your own

A council officer is reviewing a widow's appeal for housing. It is the fortieth file of the week, and the rules allow a refusal. Before signing, he stops. He asks himself one question. If I died tonight, what would I want the person at this desk to do for my wife and my two girls? He reads the file again.

That is exactly what this ayah asks. Let them fear, who, if they left behind weak offspring, would fear for them. It does not argue or threaten. It asks you to imagine.

One classical commentator explains the method. Those in charge of orphans are told to picture this in themselves, to make it vivid, until they cannot bring themselves to act without compassion. He quotes an old Arab father's lines. My daughters have made life dearer to me, he says, because they are among the weak. I dread that they will see hardship after me, and drink muddy water after clear.

Every parent knows that dread. The ayah borrows it, and turns it outward. The fear you feel for your own children becomes the measure of how you treat someone else's.

One classical scholar links this ayah to a saying of the Prophet ﷺ in Sahih al-Bukhari. None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.

The officer's question works anywhere. In a classroom, a courtroom, a staff meeting, a family argument about an estate. Before you decide something about another person's vulnerable child, picture your own in that chair. Then decide.

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.