Al-Hujurat · Madani · ayah 10 of 18

Al-Hujurat 49:10

إِنَّمَا ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ فَأَصْلِحُوا۟ بَيْنَ أَخَوَيْكُمْ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ

“The believers are but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear Allāh that you may receive mercy.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Faith ties believers together like brothers by birth, so when two of them fall out, everyone else is family and must go and mend it.

A reflection

When brothers by birth fall out

Two brothers fall out over their late father's house. Within a week the whole family knows. An aunt rings one, a cousin rings the other. An in-law drives over with food and stays for two hours. Nobody asked them to. They simply could not bear two brothers not speaking.

One commentator uses exactly this picture to explain the ayah. When a quarrel breaks out between two brothers by birth, he says, people's custom is clear. The rest of the family rise to resolve it. They take any road, easy or hard. They send go-betweens until what was torn is patched and what had dried out is softened again. Faith, he concludes, has tied believers by a bond at least as close. So the brotherhood of faith deserves the same effort, and more.

The ayah's word choice supports him. It says ikhwa, not ikhwān. Two commentators note a habit of Arabic. Ikhwa tends to mean brothers by birth, ikhwān friends and companions, though each can stand for the other. The Quran reaches for the family word.

Another commentator adds a striking comparison. Brotherhood of lineage can be cut by a difference in religion. Brotherhood of religion is not cut by a difference in lineage. In that sense, he says, it is the firmer bond.

Then comes the small word innamā, which narrows and insists. Believers are nothing but brothers. One commentator explains: they are purely that, with every trace of being strangers removed.

So the ayah does not ask believers to like each other, or agree with each other, or even be friends. It tells them what they are. And it assumes that when brothers fall out, family does not watch from a distance. It gets in the car.

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.