Tafsir of Surah Al-Ahzab - Verse 70

The Command to the Believers to have Taqwa and speak the Truth

Here Allah commands His servants to have Taqwa of Him, worshipping Him as if they can see Him, and to

قَوْلاً سَدِيداً

(speak (always) the truth.) meaning, to speak in a straightforward manner, with no crookedness or distortion. He promises them that if they do that, He will reward them by making their deeds righteous, i.e., enabling them to do righteous deeds, and He will forgive them their past sins. With regard to whatever sins they may commit in the future, He will inspire them to repent from them. Then He says:

وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزاً عَظِيماً

(And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, he has indeed achieved a great victory.) meaning, he will be saved from the fire of Hell and will enjoy everlasting delights (in Paradise).

Customarily, Allah Ta'ala keeps prophets free from physical defects causing aversion

In this event, Allah Ta'ala has demonstrated such unusual concern to have Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) absolved of the blame imputed to him by his people which took no less than a miracle whereby a rock ran away with Sayyidna Musa's clothes and he, compelled by circumstances beyond his control, came out undressed before the people. This extra-ordinary care shown by Allah Ta’ ala to free his prophet from this blame points out to the fact that Allah Ta'ala keeps even the bodies of His prophets generally free and pure from defects that appear repulsive and undignified - as it stands proved from the Hadith of Bukhari that all prophets are lineally high-born. The reason is that it would be hard to agree to listen to, accept and follow someone from the line and family regarded by people as customarily low. Similarly, the history of prophets does not bear out that any prophet was blind, deaf, dumb or handicapped. As for the case of Sayyidna Ayyub (علیہ السلام) it cannot be used to raise any objection, for what happened to him was the dictate of Divine wisdom, a particular trial, a temporary discomfort which was eliminated later on. Allah knows best.

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّـهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا ﴿70﴾ يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ وَيَغْفِرْ‌ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ

O those who believe, fear Allah, and speak what is straight forward. Allah will correct your deeds for your benefit, and forgive for you your sins. (33:70-71)

The original word used in the text for "what is straight forward" is 'sadid' which has been explained by some exegetes as what is the truth. Others explain it as straight, while still others, as correct. Quoting all of these, Ibn Kathir calls all these true (on the beam hitting the target). The Holy Qur'an has chosen this word, instead of sadiq or mustaqim, because the present word holds all these attributes of ideal speech within itself. It was for this reason that Kashifi said in Ruh-ul-Bayan: Qawl Sadid is the saying of what is true having no trace of falsity; correct having no trace of error, right thing being no joke or fun; spoken softly, not harshly.

The injunction refrains believers from harassing the Prophet Muhammad, as did the Jews to the Prophet Moses. The verse was revealed in the backdrop of the following incident. Once when the Prophet was in Madinah, he received some goods, which he distributed among the people. Subsequently, one of the Ansars (followers of the Prophet who hailed from Madina) criticized him, saying: ‘By God, Muhammad has sought neither the pleasure of God nor a home in the Hereafter, by this distribution.’ When this incident was brought to the notice of the Prophet, he said, ‘May the Mercy of God be on Moses. He was given much more trouble, but he remained patient.’ (Tafsir ibn Kathir). There are two types of utterances—the straightforward and the devious. The straightforward utterance is that which exactly conforms to the facts; which is based on factual analysis and which is presented with the support of solid arguments. As opposed to this, the devious utterance is that which is not reality-oriented, which is based on guesses and conjectures and simply amounts to expressing an opinion: it is not factual reporting. The first mentioned is the utterance of the believer (mu’min), while the second is that of the hypocrite.