وَيَسْتَفْتُونَكَ فِي النِّسَٓاءِ: they ask the Messenger for a ruling concerning women. The answer does not merely add new information: قُلِ اللّٰهُ يُفْت۪يكُمْ ف۪يهِنَّۙ وَمَا يُتْلٰى عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الْكِتَابِ. God gives the ruling concerning them, together with what is already being recited in the Book. The questioners are sent backward into revelation they have already heard. The orphan women’s problem is not that God has failed to speak; it is that the responsible parties لَا تُؤْتُونَهُنَّ مَا كُتِبَ لَهُنَّ, do not give them what has been written for them. Earlier verses had ordered the delivery of orphan property, assigned women obligatory inheritance shares, and secured marriage gifts as women’s own wealth. Asking for further clarification cannot replace obeying what has already been recited. Al-Baqarah exposes the same separation when it asks how people can recite the Book while forgetting themselves. The matching ruling formula will return at the sūrah’s close, where inheritance is again clarified so that people do not stray.

The ruling concerning women immediately includes وَالْمُسْتَضْعَف۪ينَ مِنَ الْوِلْدَانِ, vulnerable children, and culminates in وَاَنْ تَقُومُوا لِلْيَتَامٰى بِالْقِسْطِ: stand for orphans with equity. The sūrah had summoned believers to fight for oppressed men, women, and children and later named those among them who genuinely lacked any strategy or path of escape. Now vulnerable children appear within the household’s distribution of rights. The person may not imagine himself a defender of the oppressed at a distance while failing the child dependent upon him at home. When Al-Baqarah is asked about orphans, its answer is that reform for them is better; when asked what should be spent, it names orphans among those whose claims turn wealth into good. Here the ruling must become provision, repair, and a life sustained by justice.

The marital danger now comes from the other side. Earlier the sūrah addressed husbands who feared a wife’s defiance of her marital obligations. Here امْرَاَةٌ خَافَتْ مِنْ بَعْلِهَا نُشُوزًا اَوْ اِعْرَاضًا: a woman fears ill-treatment or withdrawal from her husband. نُشُوزًا can describe his withholding her rights and treating her with contempt; withdrawal may appear in diminished conversation and companionship. The repeated noun places the husband’s conduct under scrutiny too. The procedures are not identical, but neither spouse’s treatment of the other falls outside God’s judgment.

There is no blame upon the two if they reach a settlement between them, and the ayah states simply, وَالصُّلْحُ خَيْرٌ: settlement is better. Then it names what enters the negotiation with them: وَاُحْضِرَتِ الْاَنْفُسُ الشُّحَّ. The self readily clings to its own interests. A wife may find it hard to relinquish a marital right; a husband may be reluctant to give care and support where his affection has waned. The observation asks each to recognize what the other finds difficult, not merely insist upon what the self wants. Elsewhere success belongs to those protected from the grasping avarice of their own selves: they prefer others despite need, hear and obey, and spend. The marriage settlement brings that struggle into the intimate difficulty of living with another person.

Then comes the admission of human limitation: وَلَنْ تَسْتَط۪يعُٓوا اَنْ تَعْدِلُوا بَيْنَ النِّسَٓاءِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتُمْ. Complete equality among wives, extending to every movement of affection, will not be achieved even with earnest desire. But incapacity is followed by a prohibition: فَلَا تَم۪يلُوا كُلَّ الْمَيْلِ—do not incline wholly toward one. The opening marriage ruling had made fear of injustice a reason to restrict marriage to one wife. This later ayah does not remove the duty of justice; it distinguishes perfect parity beyond human control from the fairness still within a husband’s power. He may not turn unequal affection into the abandonment of a wife’s rights.

The consequence is pictured rather than merely named: فَتَذَرُوهَا كَالْمُعَلَّقَةِ—you leave her like one suspended. She remains bound by the marriage, but is neither treated as a wife nor free to marry someone else. Al-Baqarah calls for either keeping the marriage honorably or parting with kindness, and forbids retaining a woman in order to harm her. Al-Ṭalāq likewise requires honorable conduct whether the marriage continues or ends. The Qur’an will not allow the marriage bond to become a device for placing a woman’s life indefinitely between states while the other spouse preserves every option for himself.

Reconciliation is better where genuine repair is possible, but the passage does not make preservation of the marriage the highest good under every condition. وَاِنْ يَتَفَرَّقَا يُغْنِ اللّٰهُ كُلًّا مِنْ سَعَتِه۪: if the two separate, God will enrich each from His vastness. The symmetry of كُلًّا matters. Neither husband nor wife is named as the sole possessor of provision, future, dignity, or security. Earlier the migrant leaving oppression was promised spaciousness in God’s earth. Here separating spouses are promised that the present bond is not the boundary of divine provision. Al-Ṭalāq joins honorable parting, fear of God, a divinely opened way out, unexpected provision, and reliance upon God. Separation may be painful, but it need not be treated as movement beyond God’s abundance.

The declaration وَلِلّٰهِ مَا فِي السَّمٰوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْاَرْضِ had closed the preceding unit. It now returns three times after the family material, twice within a single ayah and once immediately after. Following the promise to separated spouses, it names the inexhaustible source of their provision. Following the warning against disbelief, it declares that human refusal cannot impoverish God. Everything belongs to Him, and He is sufficient as guardian. The formula returns near the sūrah’s close when the People of the Book are warned against exaggeration concerning Christ: even the most honored servant belongs to God.

The charge to fear God was given to those who received Scripture before and is now given to the present community. Reverence for God is not the possession of one people; it is a command given across the generations of revelation. If the hearers disbelieve, God loses nothing: وَكَانَ اللّٰهُ غَنِيًّا حَم۪يدًا. He is free of need and worthy of praise. Then the address widens to all humanity: اِنْ يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ اَيُّهَا النَّاسُ وَيَأْتِ بِاٰخَر۪ينَ. The sūrah began by honoring humanity’s creation from one self; it now warns that the present human generation is not indispensable to its Creator. Elsewhere the same warning names God as the Rich, Possessor of mercy, or declares that He can remove the existing people and bring a new creation. Human beings depend upon God completely. God depends upon no human household, faction, or civilization.

مَنْ كَانَ يُر۪يدُ ثَوَابَ الدُّنْيَا فَعِنْدَ اللّٰهِ ثَوَابُ الدُّنْيَا وَالْاٰخِرَةِ. Whoever desires the reward of this world must know that with God are the rewards of this world and the Hereafter. The hypocrites described later will seek honor from unbelievers and wait to claim membership in whichever side appears successful. Their error is not merely that they want worldly good. It is that they seek from divided human allegiance what already belongs to God. Āl ʿImrān places the two rewards beside gratitude: one may seek the reward of the world or the Hereafter, while God recompenses the grateful and grants both worldly reward and the finest reward of the Hereafter to those who act with excellence. Al-Nisāʾ will likewise end this unit with gratitude, faith, and God as Appreciative and Knowing.

Then comes the command at the center of the unit: كُونُوا قَوَّام۪ينَ بِالْقِسْطِ شُهَدَٓاءَ لِلّٰهِ. Stand firmly for justice as witnesses for God. The witness is not merely to produce an accurate statement when accuracy is painless. He is to take a stable position for justice. The command crosses the strongest human loyalties: وَلَوْ عَلٰٓى اَنْفُسِكُمْ اَوِ الْوَالِدَيْنِ وَالْاَقْرَب۪ينَ—even against yourselves, parents, and close relatives. The preceding unit had forbidden defending betrayers and throwing guilt upon the innocent. Here that legal refusal becomes a universal discipline of the believing self. Justice must survive when truth damages one’s own advantage, exposes one’s family, or defeats one’s preferred side.

Al-Māʾidah gives the nearest parallel by rearranging the same words: كُونُوا قَوَّام۪ينَ لِلّٰهِ شُهَدَٓاءَ بِالْقِسْطِ. Al-Nisāʾ protects testimony from attachment to self, parents, kin, wealth, and poverty; al-Māʾidah protects it from hatred of another people. Together they close the two great doors through which partisanship enters justice: loyalty must not acquit the guilty, and enmity must not condemn the innocent. Al-Anʿām likewise commands just speech even where a close relative is involved. Behind all human standing stands God Himself, whom Āl ʿImrān describes as bearing witness to His oneness قَٓائِمًا بِالْقِسْطِ, standing in equity. The believer witnesses for God by refusing to place desire above the justice by which God rules.

The final warning names two ways testimony fails: وَاِنْ تَلْوُٓ۫ا اَوْ تُعْرِضُوا. Speech may be twisted, bent from its proper course, or the witness may turn away altogether. Earlier the sūrah exposed people twisting their tongues and moving words away from their places. Here that same moral danger reaches the witness stand. Truth can be betrayed by what is said and by what is refused, by distortion and by silence. God is fully aware of both.

Immediately after the command to testify against the self comes the arresting address: يَٓا اَيُّهَا الَّذ۪ينَ اٰمَنُٓوا اٰمِنُوا—O you who believe, believe. The designation “believers” is not presented as a possession that makes further response unnecessary. They are called to remain steadfast in faith, embracing all that it requires. The objects are comprehensive: God, His Messenger, the Book sent down upon His Messenger, and the Book sent down before. Unbelief in God, His angels, His books, His messengers, or the Last Day is far-reaching error. Al-Baqarah gives the same integrated field of faith and adds that the believers do not divide between God’s messengers. Al-Nisāʾ will soon condemn those who want to believe in some and reject others. Whole faith cannot be built from selected allegiances.

The next ayah gives instability a rhythm: اٰمَنُوا ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا ثُمَّ اٰمَنُوا ثُمَّ كَفَرُوا ثُمَّ ازْدَادُوا كُفْرًا. They believe, then disbelieve, then believe, then disbelieve, then increase in unbelief. The final clause matters. This is not a repentant person’s struggle followed by genuine return; the oscillation acquires a direction and ends in increase. Āl ʿImrān distinguishes the same conditions carefully: it condemns unbelief after faith, immediately excepts those who repent and repair, and separately warns those who continue and increase in unbelief. Al-Nisāʾ will likewise open a real path of return at 4:146. God will neither forgive them nor guide them to a way while they persist in this unbelief. The warning does not exclude sincere return; it exposes the danger of repeatedly treating faith as something to take up and discard.

The hypocrites are given bitter “good news” of painful punishment. They take unbelievers as protectors in preference to believers and seek الْعِزَّةَ with them. The question exposes their calculation: فَاِنَّ الْعِزَّةَ لِلّٰهِ جَم۪يعًا. All might, honor, and unassailable dignity belong to God. Elsewhere whoever desires honor is told that all honor belongs to God, and honor is named with God, His Messenger, and the believers. The hypocrite therefore seeks borrowed dignity from a source that cannot bestow it independently of God. The preceding declarations had already named God as the One who enriches, owns, suffices, replaces, and possesses both rewards. Divided alliance after those declarations is not prudent realism. It is a refusal to trust where honor actually resides.

The hearers are reminded that this matter has already been sent down in the Book: when God’s verses are rejected and mocked, فَلَا تَقْعُدُوا مَعَهُمْ حَتّٰى يَخُوضُوا ف۪ي حَد۪يثٍ غَيْرِه۪. Do not remain seated with them until they turn to another subject. The command is precise. It does not demand permanent social withdrawal; it requires withdrawal from a gathering while the verses themselves are being made the subject of denial and contempt. Remaining is not neutral: اِنَّكُمْ اِذًا مِثْلُهُمْ. Al-Anʿām gives the earlier command almost in the same form and likewise permits the relation to change when the subject changes. Presence becomes complicity when one freely lends it to a gathering organized around mockery of God’s verses.

The hypocrites wait upon outcomes. If the believers receive فَتْحٌ مِنَ اللّٰهِ, they ask, اَلَمْ نَكُنْ مَعَكُمْ—were we not with you? If the unbelievers obtain a share, they claim that they gained control over them and protected them from the believers. Their belonging is always declared retrospectively, after advantage becomes visible. Earlier obedience was promised companionship in the Garden with the prophets, truthful ones, martyrs, and the righteous. The laggard wished he had been with the believers only after visible gain appeared. Here opportunism has become a stable method of affiliation. At the unit’s end, repentance will replace the claim “Were we not with you?” with a belonging God recognizes: فَاُو۬لٰٓئِكَ مَعَ الْمُؤْمِن۪ينَ. True companionship is not claimed after victory; it is formed by obedience, repair, holding fast, and sincerity.

Their boast to the unbelievers is اَلَمْ نَسْتَحْوِذْ عَلَيْكُمْ—did we not gain mastery over you? Al-Mujādilah uses the same verb for Satan’s mastery over hypocrites and says that he made them forget God. In one passage, hypocrites boast of power over others; in the other, they are exposed as followers of Satan. Here, too, they remember God only a little.

The hypocrites attempt to deceive God, وَهُوَ خَادِعُهُمْ, but He turns their deception against them. Their outward profession preserves their lives and property among the Muslims; it does not avert the judgment awaiting their concealed unbelief. What they take as successful deception is not escape. Al-Baqarah likewise says that those attempting to deceive God and the believers deceive only themselves without perceiving it. The One before whom the outward performance and the inward rejection are both present has never been deceived.

Their prayer completes the exposure: وَاِذَا قَامُٓوا اِلَى الصَّلٰوةِ قَامُوا كُسَالٰىۙ يُرَٓاؤُ۫نَ النَّاسَ وَلَا يَذْكُرُونَ اللّٰهَ اِلَّا قَل۪يلًا. They rise lazily, display themselves to people, and remember God only a little. Earlier in Al-Nisāʾ, expenditure for human sight hollowed out a social act; here the same display-root hollows out direct worship. Prayer had first required conscious speech and bodily purification, then survived the battlefield through changing ranks, weapons, vigilance, and continuing remembrance. The hypocrite possesses the outer standing but not the inward direction. Al-Tawbah joins sluggish prayer to unwilling spending, and al-Māʿūn warns worshippers whose prayer is heedless and performed for display. A human audience has displaced God as the act’s governing presence.

They are مُذَبْذَب۪ينَ بَيْنَ ذٰلِكَ, wavering between faith and disbelief, fully committed to neither side. The conclusion repeats the preceding unit’s opening warning: whoever God leads astray, no path can be found for him. Their shifting position does not provide a way around God’s judgment.

The portrait of hypocrisy is then turned directly toward the believers: يَٓا اَيُّهَا الَّذ۪ينَ اٰمَنُوا لَا تَتَّخِذُوا الْكَافِر۪ينَ اَوْلِيَٓاءَ مِنْ دُونِ الْمُؤْمِن۪ينَ. The community is not permitted to read the diagnosis as though only “they” were vulnerable to it. The question that follows is severe: اَتُر۪يدُونَ اَنْ تَجْعَلُوا لِلّٰهِ عَلَيْكُمْ سُلْطَانًا مُب۪ينًا—do you want to give God a clear case against yourselves? Earlier, continuing hostility after refusal to withdraw, offer peace, and restrain the hands gave believers سُلْطَانًا مُب۪ينًا against aggressors. Here divided allegiance creates clear evidence before God against the believers themselves. Those once commanded to act only where God granted authority must not manufacture the proof by which divine judgment turns upon them.

The image of holding fast answers the image of swaying. Āl ʿImrān says that whoever holds fast to God has been guided to a straight path and commands the community to hold fast together to God’s rope after recalling rescue from the brink of a pit of Fire. Here وَاعْتَصَمُوا بِاللّٰهِ appears immediately after the lowest depth of the Fire. Al-Ḥajj joins holding fast to God with witness, prayer, and God as the true Protector and Helper—the very fields corrupted in this passage by bent testimony, displayed prayer, and false alliances. At the sūrah’s close, those who believe in God and hold fast to Him are brought into mercy and favor and guided to Him on a straight path. Stability is not achieved by choosing a more powerful human faction. It is achieved by fastening oneself to God.

The result is فَاُو۬لٰٓئِكَ مَعَ الْمُؤْمِن۪ينَ. They are with the believers. Those who return are not left permanently outside the company they once deceived. God counts them among the believers, and they share in the great reward He promises. The false claim “Were we not with you?” has given way to a belonging God recognizes in this life and the next.

The closing names are شَاكِرًا عَل۪يمًا—Appreciative and Knowing. God knows the sincere response and rewards it generously; even a little obedience does not go unrecognized. The same pairing follows voluntary good at al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah. Āl ʿImrān likewise joins gratitude to divine recompense, steadfast action, forgiveness and excellence. The God who knows the hidden performance of hypocrisy also knows the hidden truth of repentance. His knowledge exposes deception; His appreciation welcomes and rewards return.