An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 90 of 176

An-Nisa 4:90

إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ يَصِلُونَ إِلَىٰ قَوْمٍۭ بَيْنَكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُم مِّيثَـٰقٌ أَوْ جَآءُوكُمْ حَصِرَتْ صُدُورُهُمْ أَن يُقَـٰتِلُوكُمْ أَوْ يُقَـٰتِلُوا۟ قَوْمَهُمْ ۚ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَسَلَّطَهُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ فَلَقَـٰتَلُوكُمْ ۚ فَإِنِ ٱعْتَزَلُوكُمْ فَلَمْ يُقَـٰتِلُوكُمْ وَأَلْقَوْا۟ إِلَيْكُمُ ٱلسَّلَمَ فَمَا جَعَلَ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ عَلَيْهِمْ سَبِيلًا

“Except for those who take refuge with a people between yourselves and whom is a treaty or those who come to you, their hearts strained at [the prospect of] fighting you or fighting their own people. And if Allāh had willed, He could have given them power over you, and they would have fought you. So if they remove themselves from you and do not fight you and offer you peace, then Allāh has not made for you a cause [for fighting] against them.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who shelter with your allies, or stand aside torn, are owed peace; once someone lays down the rope, no road against them remains.

A reflection

Those who did not fight you were held back by Him

In the middle of a passage about treaties and neutrality comes a sentence that changes the angle. Had Allah willed, He would have given them power over you, and they would have fought you.

The commentators read it as a reminder of a gift. These people stood aside because Allah restrained them; one commentary says He cast awe into their hearts. Another draws the lesson plainly. Obey the One who blessed you by holding them back, and hold back from them in turn.

That cuts against a very human instinct. When trouble passes us by, we credit ourselves. Picture a woman who has run an independent bookshop in a market town for twenty years. She tells everyone the big chains never came because they could not compete with her. At a trade fair, a retired executive mentions that his firm looked at her town three times. They passed each time for reasons that had nothing to do with her: rents, parking, a board vote. Her survival was real. Her explanation for it was not.

The ayah gives that experience its true name. Every enemy who chose not to come, every danger that turned aside, was turned by Allah. The ego wants the credit for the battles that never happened. The ayah hands it back to the One who decides.

This is not God boasting. He is free of all need (35:15); our gratitude adds nothing to Him. The point is practical. People who know they were spared are gentler with others. Having been held back from by Allah, the believers were told to hold back from those who stood aside.

The question for the reader is simple. Which of your safe places were never your doing?

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.