In any case, whenever an act is commanded, the very essence of that act is what the Commander seeks and intends. This is evident in His words: “Fear Allah,” “And do good; indeed Allah loves those who do good” (Qur’an 2:195), “Believe in Allah and His Messenger” (4:136), “Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord” (5:72), and “In Him put your trust” (10:84).
Piety (taqwā), excellence in doing good (iḥsān), faith (īmān), and worship (ʿibādah) are themselves the objectives required; they are the very acts commanded.
Yet each commanded matter is a universal that can only occur in a particular form, and once specified it inevitably carries qualities not themselves intended by the Lawgiver. Still, the servant cannot carry out the command except together with those concrete particulars.
Thus, when He says, “Then the freeing of a slave” (4:92), it is unavoidable that, in emancipating a slave, this unrestricted command will come together with some specific attribute—whether the slave is black or white, tall or short, and so on.
(1) The Qurʼanic injunction ittaqu Allah ("fear Allah")—whether preceded by the conjunctive wa or not—occurs more than fifty times in the Qurʼan.
(2) The printed edition inserts the phrase "and His saying" between every two cited verses.
(3) Surah al-Baqarah, part of verse 195.
(4) Surah al-Nisaʾ, part of verse 136; and Surah al-Hadid, part of verse 7.
(5) Surah al-Maʾidah, parts of verses 72 and 117. Manuscripts D, J, and Ṭ read uʿbudu Allaha rabbakum ("worship Allah, your Lord"); the copyists appear to have omitted the word rabbi ("my Lord").
(6) Surah Yunus, part of verse 84.
(7) The printed edition also adds the phrase wa-t-tawakkul ("and reliance [upon Him]").
(8) The words la yumkin an ("it is impossible that") are missing in manuscript A.
(9) Manuscript A and the printed edition read taqtarin ("is linked").
(10) Manuscript A and the printed edition have: ghayr maqsudat al-fiʿl li-l-amr ("the action is not intended as an imperative").
(11) The Qurʼan contains the formulations fa-tahriru raqabah, wa-tahriru raqabah, and aw-tahriru raqabah ("then—freeing a slave," "and—freeing a slave," or "or—freeing a slave") in six passages, the first—by order of surahs—being Surah al-Nisaʾ, part of verse 92.