Tafsir of Surah An-Nisa' - Verse 136

The Order to Have Faith after Believing

Allah commands His faithful servants to adhere to all the elements of faith, its branches, pillars and cornerstones. This is not stated as mere redundancy, but from the view of completing faith and the continual maintenence of it. For instance, the believer proclaims in every prayer,

اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ

(Guide us to the straight way.) which means, make us aware of the straight path and increase us in guidance and strengthen us on it. In this Ayah 4:136, Allah commands the believers to believe in Him and in His Messenger, just as He said elsewhere,

يأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ اتَّقُواْ اللَّهَ وَءَامِنُواْ بِرَسُولِهِ

(O you who believe! Have Taqwa of Allah, and believe in His Messenger, ). Allah's statement,

وَالْكِتَـبِ الَّذِى نَزَّلَ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ

(and the Book which He has sent down to His Messenger,) refers to the Qur'an, while,

وَالْكِتَـبِ الَّذِى أَنَزلَ مِن قَبْلُ

(and the Scripture which He sent down to those before (him);) refers to the previously revealed divine Books. Allah then said,

وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَـئِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الاٌّخِرِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَـلاً بَعِيداً

(and whosoever disbelieves in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Last Day, then indeed he has strayed far away.) meaning, he will have deviated from the correct guidance and strayed far away from its path.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ثُمَّ كَفَرُواْ ثُمَّ ءَامَنُواْ ثُمَّ كَفَرُواْ ثُمَّ ازْدَادُواْ كُفْراً لَّمْ يَكُنْ اللَّهُ لِيَغْفِرَ لَهُمْ وَلاَ لِيَهْدِيَهُمْ سَبِيلاً - بَشِّرِ الْمُنَـفِقِينَ بِأَنَّ لَهُمْ عَذَاباً أَلِيماً

Sequence

Discussed upto this point were subsidiary injunctions mostly, alongwith issues relating to faith ('Iman) and disbelief (kufr) appearing as a corollary to dealings with antagonists. Onwards from here, these issues appear in some detail continuing almost close to the end of the Surah. In the sequence of statements, first comes a description of 'Iman (faith) as credible in the sight of the Shari’ ah. After that, various groups of disbelievers have been censured for their beliefs and for some of their deeds also which issue forth from their faulty beliefs.

‘Believers, believe’ is like saying, ‘Muslims become Muslims!’ Calling oneself a Muslim or regarding oneself as such does not suffice for one to be held a Muslim in the eyes of God. A true Muslim is only that person who has made God the centre of his life and the source of his trust and confidence. A Muslim is one who believes in the Prophet and his guidance to the exclusion of all else. A Muslim is one who adheres to the revealed Scripture in such a manner that his thinking and his feelings become totally subordinated to it. A Muslim is one to whom belief in the angels means that he is surrounded by God’s guardians who are constantly watching him. A Muslim is one whose belief in the Hereafter is so profound that he begins to examine all his words and deeds in the balance of the Hereafter. One who becomes a believer in this sense is, in the eyes of God, on the right path, on the straight path to success in the Hereafter. One who does not become a believer in this sense has gone astray, however much he may consider himself a Muslim, a believer.