Surah an-Nisa' (Women ) 4 : 36

Overview (Verses 36 - 40)

Kindness All Around
 
Worship God alone and do not associate with Him any partners. Be kind to your parents and near of kin, to orphans, the needy, the neighbour who is related to you and the neighbour who is a stranger, the friend by your side, the wayfarer, and those whom your right hands possess. God does not love those who are arrogant and boastful. (Verse 36)
 
The passage starts with a clear commandment to worship God alone and a clear prohibition against associating partners with Him. We note that this verse begins with a conjunction which links it with the preceding orders that relate to the family and its affairs. This serves to stress the total unity that pervades all aspects of Islamic faith. Islam is not merely a number of beliefs that our minds accept, nor is it a host of rituals and acts of worship, nor a worldly system divorced from faith and worship. It is a way of life that combines all these aspects and unites them together on the basis of believing in the Oneness of God and deriving all systems and legislation from Him alone. There can be no split between accepting God’s unity and implementing His legislation.
 
This is followed by an order to extend kind treatment to certain groups of one’s immediate family and of the human family at large. Miserliness, conceit, boastfulness and suppression of God’s favours, of whichever type, are denounced. This is coupled with a warning against following Satan, together with raising the prospect of punishment in the hereafter and all that attends on it of public humiliation. Again, all this is linked to the belief in God’s oneness and to acknowledging that He is the only source of legislation.
 
In the Islamic system, all directives, laws, and legislation are derived from faith and are based on the basic concept of God’s oneness. Hence, they are interlinked, mutually complementary and perfectly coherent. As a result, it is very difficult to isolate one part of Islamic legislation from the rest. The study of any one part without reference to its essential origin is unscholarly. The implementation of some parts of these laws to the exclusion of others falls short of implementing Islam and does not yield the full benefits to humanity which are sure to result from the actualisation of the Islamic system.
 
Under Islam, all concepts of human and universal relationships upon which all social, economic, political and moral systems are founded, and which affect all aspects of human relations are derived from believing in God. It is these concepts which give shape to human conscience and which characterise the basic set-up of human society. They make ordinary human dealings acts of worship because they are conducted in accordance with the Divine system, and they make worship the basis of all dealings because it refines conscience and improves behaviour. Thus, the whole of human life becomes a single solid unit, guided by the Divine system and seeks its ultimate fulfilment, both in this world and in the world to come, with God, the only source of legislation.
 
“Worship God alone and do not associate with Him any partners.” (Verse 36) The first commandment is to worship God, which is followed by a prohibition of worshipping anyone other than Him. This is a total and absolute prohibition of all sorts of worship which man has practised in all ages and communities. False gods, be they animate or inanimate objects, angels or devils, have been ascribed as partners to God in one way or another. No claim of this sort is ever allowed in Islam. It is absolutely forbidden for all time.
 
This is followed by a commandment to extend kindness to parents in particular and relatives in general. Most Divine orders in this particular area tend to emphasise the need to be kind to one’s parents, although they do not overlook the other area of requiring parents to be kind to children. God is more merciful and compassionate to children than their own parents. But it is children who need to be directed more strongly to look after the older generation who stand in need of kindness. In most cases, the younger generation direct their feelings, sympathies and concerns to the generation which will follow them, not the preceding one, simply because in life people tend to look forward without turning back. Hence, these directives from the All-Merciful, the Compassionate, who does not neglect a parent or a child. It is He who has taught His servants how to be kind and compassionate to one another.
 
We also note in this verse, as in many others, that Divine directives begin by emphasising the need to be kind to one’s relatives before widening their concern to include all those who need to be looked after in society or in humanity at large. This fits in perfectly with human nature. Compassion towards others begins at home, in one’s own immediate family. A person who has not himself been a recipient of compassion in his childhood, within his family, hardly ever feels compassionate towards others. Moreover, man tends to look more favourably towards his relations, extending his kindness to them. There is no harm in this, as long as such compassion is continually enhanced and extended to a wider area so as to benefit more people.
 
Moreover, this directive to be kind to parents, relatives and other people fits in most coherently with the Islamic view of social organisation. It ensures that social security begins within the family before it is carried further to include the whole community. It does not entrust it to government machinery except when the smaller, more directly involved machinery of the family becomes incapable of meeting the challenge. Normally, smaller local units are more able to ensure that mutual social security is given at the right time, and with an ease and compassion that make the whole social set-up worthy of man.
 
In this particular verse, the directive begins by emphasising the need to be kind to parents, before widening the area to include kinsfolk, and then at a later stage, extending this to orphans and the needy. These are given precedence over one’s neighbours because their need may be more pressing and they must be looked after more immediately. Kindness is then urged towards a neighbour who may be a relation, and so to any other neighbour. Both take precedence over friends, because a neighbour always remains next to us. We meet our friends intermittently. Commentators on the Qur’ān have defined this type of friend as the one with whom we meet socially and whom we may choose as a travelling companion. The next type of person who deserves our kindness is a stranded wayfarer. This is followed by slaves who suffer the hardships of bondage, but with whom we have human ties common to all mankind.
 
This commandment to extend our kindness to all these groups is followed by a comment which denounces conceit and arrogance, miserliness, suppression of God’s favours, boastfulness and showing off. All these are attributed to one basic cause, namely, lack of faith in God and the Day of Judgement.
 
Unfavourable Contrast
 
The verse which commanded all types of kindness ends with a comment denouncing such shameful qualities as arrogance, boastfulness, miserliness, concealment of God’s bounty and deliberately giving foul impressions: “God does not love those who are arrogant and boastful; [nor] those who are niggardly and bid others to be niggardly, and conceal whatever God has bestowed on them of His bounty. We have prepared humiliating suffering for the unbelievers. And [God does not love] those who spend their wealth for the sake of ostentation, and do not believe in God and the Last Day. He who chooses Satan for a companion, an evil companion has he.” (Verses 36-38)
 
Here again we note an especially important characteristic of the Islamic way of life which relates to all aspects of behaviour, and from which all feelings and all social relationships to faith are derived. When a person worships God alone and derives his values and principles from Him only, he will definitely extend his kindness to people, seeking to please God and hoping to receive reward in the hereafter. His kindness is characterised by a humble and gentle attitude which demonstrates his genuine belief that he only spends what God has granted him. He does not create his wealth. A person who denies God and the Day of Judgement is often arrogant and boastful. He is also a niggardly creature who encourages others to be niggardly. He tries to conceal the favours that God has bestowed on him, which is the opposite attitude of one who demonstrates his gratitude to God by extending his kindness to others. He may, on the other hand, spend some of what he has been given by God in order to publicise his generosity and to seek praise from others. Essentially, however, he does not believe in any other reward than people’s adoration.
 
Here, then, the two opposite types of morality generated by faith and unfaith are clearly demonstrated. Motivation to do good and behave in a goodly manner is essentially the belief in God and the Day of Judgement and the eagerness to earn God’s pleasure which ensures reward in the hereafter. It is indeed a sublime motivation, one which is not based in social tradition and which does not expect to be rewarded by other people. When faith is absent and a person does not believe in the Day of Judgement, the Day when he will receive reward for his actions, worldly values predominate. These do not remain constant even during the span of a single generation, let alone for all time and all places. When these constitute the basic motivation, values change in the same way as people change their likes and dislikes. We then have a breeding ground for all the bad qualities thus far mentioned, whether boastfulness, arrogance, niggardliness or hypocrisy.
 
The Qur’ānic statement says that God “does not love” such people. What we have to understand is that love and hate are not responses applicable to God. What is meant here is the result that is associated with such feelings in people’s lives: “We have prepared humiliating suffering for the unbelievers.” (Verse 37) Humiliation is the proper response to arrogance and boastfulness. The Qur’ānic verse is couched in such a way as to arouse contempt of such people and disgust at their attitude, especially via the statement that Satan is their intimate friend: “He who chooses Satan for a companion, an evil companion has he.” (Verse 38)
 
Some reports suggest that these verses refer to a group of Jews who lived in Madinah. These qualities certainly apply to Jews as well as to hypocrites. Both types were present in the Muslim society at the time. The reference to their concealment of the favours God has bestowed on them may also mean their concealment of the truth that is recorded in their Scriptures about Islam and the Prophet Muĥammad. The verse, however, is expressed as a general statement within the context of charity and kind treatment. It is better, therefore, that we understand it in this context.
 
This is followed by the rhetorical question: “What would they have to fear if they would only believe in God and the Last Day, and spend (for His sake) out of that with which He has provided them. Indeed God has full knowledge of them. Indeed God does not wrong anyone by as much as an atom’s weight. And if there be a good deed, He will multiply it, and will bestow a great reward out of His Grace.” (Verses 39-40)
 
Indeed, what do they have to fear from believing in God and the Last Day and spending of the provisions given to them by God. Since God knows their motives and what they have in their hearts and since He does not deny anyone his due reward for even the slightest of actions, then they cannot fear that their good actions will go unnoticed or that their reward will not be forthcoming. Indeed, they will have an increase and a multiplication for their good deeds.
 
Even in the narrow sense of material loss and gain, faith gives better returns in all eventualities. Why should they, then, fear to believe in God and the Last Day and to spend of God’s provisions? After all, they do not spend of something that they themselves have created. God provides it all for them. He, nevertheless, multiplies to them their reward and gives them an unlimited increase of His provisions. It is the sort of investment that is only rejected by an ignorant loser.