Accomplice to Evildoing
4. Surah an-Nisa
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
إِنَّ
الَّذِينَ
تَوَفَّاهُمُ
الْمَلآئِكَةُ
ظَالِمِي
أَنْفُسِهِمْ
قَالُواْ
فِيمَ
كُنتُمْ
...
4: 97. When angels take the souls of those who die in sin against their souls, they say:
"In what (plight) were ye?"
C615. The immediate occasion for this passage was the question of migration (Hijrah) from places where Islam was being persecuted and suppressed.
Obviously the duty of Muslims was to leave such places, even if it involved forsaking their homes, and join and strengthen the Muslim community among whom they could live in peace and with whom they could help in fighting the evils around them.
But the meaning is wider.
Islam does not say: "Resist not evil." On the contrary it requires a constant, unceasing struggle against evil. For such struggle it may be necessary to forsake home and unite and organize and join our brethren in assaulting and overthrowing the fortress of evil.
For the Muslim's duty is not only to enjoin good but to prohibit evil.
To make our assault we must be prepared to put ourselves in a position from which such assault would be possible, and Allah's earth is spacious enough for the purpose.
"Position" includes not only local position, but moral and material position. For example, we must shun evil company where we cannot put it down, but organize a position from which we can put it down.
... قَالُواْ كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الأَرْضِ...
They reply: "Weak and oppressed were we in the earth."
... قَالْوَاْ أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللّهِ وَاسِعَةً فَتُهَاجِرُواْ فِيهَا...
They say: "Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to move yourselves away (from evil)?"
... فَأُوْلَـئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَسَاءتْ مَصِيرًا ﴿٩٧﴾
Such men will find their abode in Hell, what an evil refuge!
إِلاَّ
الْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ
مِنَ
الرِّجَالِ
وَالنِّسَاء
وَالْوِلْدَانِ
لاَ
يَسْتَطِيعُونَ
حِيلَةً
وَلاَ
يَهْتَدُونَ
سَبِيلاً
﴿٩٨﴾
4: 98. Except those who are (really) weak and oppressed, men, women, and children who have no means in their power, nor (a guide-post) to direct their way.
C616. If through physical, mental, or moral incapacity, we are unable to fight the good fight, we must nevertheless guard ourselves from it.
Allah's gracious Mercy will recognise and forgive our weakness if it is real weakness, and not merely an excuse. (R).
فَأُوْلَـئِكَ
عَسَى
اللّهُ
أَن
يَعْفُوَ
عَنْهُمْ
...
4: 99. For these, there is hope that Allah will forgive:
... وَكَانَ اللّهُ عَفُوًّا غَفُورًا ﴿٩٩﴾
for Allah doth blot out (sins) and forgive again and again.
Asad’s Version:
4: 97…………………They will answer : "We were too weak on earth," [The Angels ] will say: "Was, then, God's earth not wide enough for you to forsake the domain of evil?
For such, then the goal is hell-and how evil a journey's end!
4: 98 But excepted shall be the truly helpless - be they man or women or children -who cannot bring forth any strength and have not been shown the right way:
4: 99 as for them, God may efface their sin - for God is indeed an absolver of sins, much-forgiving.
[[Asad’s notes -
123 Lit., "in what [condition] were you?"- i.e., while alive. This refers to people who evade, without valid excuse, all struggle in God's cause.
124 Lit., "was not God's earth wide, so that you could migrate therein?" The term hijra
(lit., "exodus"), derived from the verb hajara ("he migrated"), is used in the Qur'an in
two senses: one of them is historical, denoting the exodus of the Prophet and his Companions
from Mecca to Medina, while the other has a moral connotation - namely, man's "exodus" from
evil towards God - and does not necessarily imply the leaving of one's homeland in the
physical sense. It is this wider, moral and ethical meaning of the term hijrah to which
the above passage refers - just as the preceding passage (verses 95-96) referred to
"striving hard in God's cause" (jihad) in the widest sense of the term, embracing both
physical and moral efforts and the sacrifice, if need be, of one's possessions and even
one's life. While the physical exodus from Mecca to Medina ceased to be obligatory for
the believers after the conquest of Mecca in the year 8 H., the spiritual exodus from the
domain of evil to that of righteousness continues to be a fundamental demand of Islam;
in other words, a person who does not "migrate from evil unto God" cannot be considered
a believer - which explains the condemnation, in the next sentence, of all who are
remiss in this respect.
125 Or: "cannot find the [right] way" - implying that they are helplessly confused and cannot, therefore, grasp this basic demand of Islam; or, alternatively, that the message relating to this demand has not been adequately conveyed and explained to them. ]]