and placed them both under a single governing verb. Someone might hastily suppose that the command should have taken the opposite form, for “whoever obeys the Messenger has indeed obeyed Allah.” Yet the wording that actually appears in the verse is the most appropriate. Hidden beneath it is a delicate secret: it shows that whatever the Messenger commands must be obeyed, even if that very command is not found verbatim in the Qur’an. Obedience to the Messenger, then, is obligatory both when it stands on its own and when it is coupled with obedience to Allah. No one should imagine that the Messenger’s directives bind us only when they are mentioned in the Qur’an (1). The Prophet ﷺ said: “Soon a man who is full-bellied, reclining on his couch, will be told of something from my commands, and he will say, ‘Between us and you is the Book of Allah; whatever we find in it, we shall follow.’ Listen well! I have been given the Book, and something equal to it along with it.” (2)

As for those vested with authority, obedience to any one of them is required only when it falls under obedience to the Messenger; it is not an independent, self-standing obedience. The Prophet ﷺ authentically stated: “A person must listen and obey [whether he likes it or dislikes it] (3) so long as he is not commanded to disobey Allah. If he is commanded to disobey Allah (4), then there is neither listening nor obedience.” (5)