Al-Hujurat · Madani · ayah 9 of 18

Al-Hujurat 49:9

وَإِن طَآئِفَتَانِ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ٱقْتَتَلُوا۟ فَأَصْلِحُوا۟ بَيْنَهُمَا ۖ فَإِنۢ بَغَتْ إِحْدَىٰهُمَا عَلَى ٱلْأُخْرَىٰ فَقَـٰتِلُوا۟ ٱلَّتِى تَبْغِى حَتَّىٰ تَفِىٓءَ إِلَىٰٓ أَمْرِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ فَإِن فَآءَتْ فَأَصْلِحُوا۟ بَيْنَهُمَا بِٱلْعَدْلِ وَأَقْسِطُوٓا۟ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُقْسِطِينَ

“And if two factions among the believers should fight, then make settlement between the two. But if one of them oppresses the other, then fight against the one that oppresses until it returns to the ordinance of Allāh. And if it returns, then make settlement between them in justice and act justly. Indeed, Allāh loves those who act justly.”

Saheeh International

Essence

When believers fall out, bring them back like returning shade, then settle what happened with a justice that leaves no splinter behind.

A reflection

A smell, a retort, and a brawl

Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim record how a fight like the one this ayah describes could start. Someone suggested that the Prophet ﷺ visit a certain man of Madinah. He rode out on a donkey across salty ground, with Muslims walking beside him. When he arrived, the man said: keep away from me, the smell of your donkey offends me. One of the Anṣār answered: by Allah, the Prophet's ﷺ donkey smells better than you.

A man from the first man's clan took offence on his behalf. Each side's friends took offence for their own. Within moments they were hitting each other with palm stalks, hands and sandals. Anas, who narrates it, adds: it reached us that this ayah was revealed about them.

The spark was almost nothing: an insult about a smell, and a clever reply. But each man had people behind him, and those people had people. The early commentators record several such fights, over a wife kept from her family, over a debt, over pride. None of them began as wars. All of them could have become one.

One commentator notices something gentle in the wording. It says wa-in, if, the word for something that ought to be rare. And it says two parties of the believers, not two parties of you. He compares it to a master telling his servant: if you see any of my servants doing this, stop them. The listener is quietly told: you are above this. If others fall into it, be the one who stops it.

Another commentator notes that the ayah still calls both sides believers, even while they fight. Their faith is not cancelled by the brawl. That matters, because the next instruction depends on it. You do not abandon a brother who is fighting. You go and make peace.

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.