“And seek Allah’s forgiveness. Indeed, Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. * Do not argue on behalf of those who betray themselves. Indeed, Allah does not love anyone who is habitually treacherous and sinful. * They hide from people, but they do not hide from Allah, though He is with them when they plot by night words that He does not approve. Allah encompasses all that they do. * Here you are, arguing on their behalf in the life of this world; but who will argue with Allah on their behalf on the Day of Resurrection, or who will be their guardian? * Whoever does evil or wrongs himself and then seeks Allah’s forgiveness will find Allah Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. * Whoever earns a sin earns it only against himself. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. * Whoever earns a grave offense or a sin and then accuses an innocent person of it has burdened himself with slander and manifest sin. * Were it not for Allah’s favor upon you and His mercy, a group of them would have sought to lead you astray. Yet they lead none but themselves astray, and they cannot harm you in the least. Allah has sent down to you the Book and wisdom, and He has taught you what you did not know. Allah’s favor upon you has been immense.”

“And seek Allah’s forgiveness” for anything that may have proceeded from you, if indeed anything did.

“Indeed, Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” That is, He forgives even a grave sin for one who seeks His forgiveness, repents to Him, and turns back to Him. He then grants him success in performing righteous deeds, which earn His reward and remove His punishment.

“Do not argue on behalf of those who betray themselves.” Betrayal here means wrongdoing, injustice, and sin. This includes the prohibition against arguing on behalf of someone who has committed a sin and thereby become liable to a prescribed penalty or discretionary punishment. One must not defend him by denying the betrayal he committed or by seeking to avert the legal punishment resulting from it. “Indeed, Allah does not love anyone who is habitually treacherous and sinful”—that is, one who commits much betrayal and sin. When love is denied, its opposite—hatred—is affirmed. This serves as the reason for the preceding prohibition.

Allah then states concerning these treacherous people: “They hide from people, but they do not hide from Allah, though He is with them when they plot by night words that He does not approve.” It is a sign of weak faith and deficient certainty that they fear created beings more than they fear Allah. They therefore strive, by both lawful and unlawful means, to avoid disgrace before people, even though they have brazenly confronted Allah with grave sins and have shown no concern that He sees them and is fully aware of them.

He is with them through His knowledge in all their circumstances, particularly when they plot by night words that do not please Him: declaring the offender innocent, accusing an innocent person of the offense, and seeking to persuade the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—to carry out what they had plotted.

They thus combined several offenses and showed no watchfulness of the Lord of the earth and the heavens, who knows their innermost secrets and thoughts. Allah therefore threatened them by saying: “Allah encompasses all that they do.” That is, He fully encompasses it in His knowledge. Yet He did not hasten to punish them; rather, He gave them respite, offered them repentance, and warned them against persisting in their sin, which would incur severe punishment.

“Here you are, arguing on their behalf in the life of this world; but who will argue with Allah on their behalf on the Day of Resurrection, or who will be their guardian?” That is: suppose you have argued on their behalf in this worldly life, and your arguments have spared them some of the shame and disgrace before people that you feared (1). What benefit or advantage will that bring them? Who will argue with Allah on their behalf on the Day of Resurrection, when the proof is established against them and their tongues, hands, and feet testify to what they used to do? “On that Day Allah will pay them their true recompense in full, and they will know that Allah is the Manifest Truth.”

Who can argue on their behalf before the One who knows every secret and what is yet more hidden, and who has brought forth against them witnesses whose testimony they cannot deny? This verse contains guidance (2) to compare the supposed worldly benefits gained by abandoning Allah’s commands or committing what He has forbidden with the reward of the Hereafter that will be forfeited or the punishment that will be incurred.

Thus, when a person’s own self urges him to neglect Allah’s command, he should say to it: “Here you are—you have neglected His command through laziness and negligence. What benefit have you gained? How much reward in the Hereafter have you forfeited? What misery, deprivation, disappointment, and loss have resulted from this neglect?”

Likewise, when his own self calls him to the forbidden desires it craves, he should say to it: “Suppose you did what you desired. Its pleasure will pass away, only to be followed by worries, grief, regret, the loss of reward, and the onset of punishment—even a portion of which should be enough to deter a rational person from it.” Reflecting on this is among the most beneficial things for a servant, and it is the defining quality of true reason. This is unlike the person (3) who claims to possess reason when he does not. Through his ignorance and injustice, he prefers immediate pleasure and present ease, regardless of whatever consequences may follow. Allah alone is the One whose help is sought.

The Most High then says: “Whoever does evil or wrongs himself and then seeks Allah’s forgiveness will find Allah Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” That is, whoever boldly commits acts of disobedience and plunges into sin, but then seeks Allah’s forgiveness with complete sincerity—entailing acknowledgment of the sin, remorse for it, abandoning it, and resolving never to return to it—has been promised forgiveness and mercy by the One who never breaks His promise.

Allah forgives the sin he committed, removes the deficiency and blemish resulting from it, restores to him his previous righteous deeds, and grants him success throughout the remainder of his life. He does not allow the sin to prevent him from receiving divine guidance and success, for He has forgiven it; and when He forgives it, He also forgives its consequences.

Know that, when mentioned without qualification, “doing evil” includes every act of disobedience, minor and major. It is called “evil” because its punishment causes harm to the one who commits it and because it is itself evil and not good.

Likewise, when mentioned without qualification, “wronging oneself” includes wronging oneself through polytheism and every lesser sin. But ⦗201⦘ when the two expressions occur together, each may be interpreted according to the meaning most appropriate to it. Thus, “doing evil” here may be interpreted as wrongdoing that harms other people—wronging them with respect to their lives, property, and honor.

“Wronging oneself” may then be interpreted as the wrongdoing and sins that lie between Allah and His servant. It is called “wronging oneself” because the servant’s soul does not belong to him such that he may dispose of it however he pleases. Rather, it belongs to Allah Most High, who has entrusted it to the servant and commanded him to keep it upon the path of justice by binding it to the straight path in both knowledge and action. He must therefore strive to teach it what Allah has commanded and strive to carry out what is required. To strive along any other path is to wrong and betray oneself and to turn it away from justice, whose opposite is inequity and injustice.

He then says: “Whoever earns a sin earns it only against himself.” This includes everything that incurs sin, whether minor or major. Whoever earns an evil deed will bear its punishment in this world and the Hereafter; it does not pass from him to anyone else. As the Most High says: “No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another.” However, when evil deeds become openly prevalent and are not denounced, their punishment becomes general and their sin encompasses others. This too does not fall outside the ruling of this noble verse, because whoever fails to perform the obligatory denunciation has himself earned an evil deed.

This demonstrates Allah’s justice and wisdom: He does not punish anyone for another person’s sin, nor does He punish anyone beyond the punishment arising from his own sin. He therefore says: “Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise”—that is, His knowledge is perfect and His wisdom complete.

Part of His knowledge and wisdom is that He knows the sin, what proceeded from it, the cause that prompted its commission, and the punishment resulting from it. He also knows the sinner’s condition. If the sin arose because the impulses of his soul, which persistently commands evil, overcame him, while he frequently turns back to his Lord, Allah will forgive him and grant him success in repenting.

But if the sin arose from his audacity in violating sacred limits, his disregard for his Lord’s watchfulness, and his contempt for His punishment, then such a person is far from forgiveness and far from being granted success in repentance.

He then says: “Whoever earns a grave offense”—that is, a major sin—“or a sin,” meaning something less serious, “and then accuses an innocent person of it,” meaning that he charges an innocent person with his own sin, even if that person is guilty of other sins, “has burdened himself with slander and manifest sin.” That is, he has loaded upon his back the slander of the innocent person and a clear and evident sin. This indicates that such conduct is among the major and ruinous sins, for it combines several evils: earning the grave offense and sin; accusing someone who did not commit it of having done so; the heinous lie of declaring oneself innocent while accusing the innocent person; and the resulting worldly punishment, which is averted from the one who deserves it and inflicted upon one who does not.

It also leads people to speak ill of the innocent person, along with many other evils from which—and from every evil—we ask Allah to preserve us.

Allah then mentions His favor to His Messenger in protecting him and preserving him from those who sought to lead him astray. He says: “Were it not for Allah’s favor upon you and His mercy, a group of them would have sought to lead you astray.” The commentators have mentioned that the occasion for the revelation of these noble verses was that members of a household committed a theft in Medina. When their theft was discovered, they feared disgrace, so they took the stolen property and placed it in the house of someone innocent of the crime.

The thief then enlisted the help of his people to go to the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and ask him to declare their man innocent before the people. They said, “He did not steal. The thief was the man in whose house the stolen property was found,” though that man was innocent. The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was on the verge of declaring their man innocent, so Allah revealed these verses as a reminder and clarification of that incident and as a warning to the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—not to argue on behalf of the treacherous. Arguing on behalf of one who is in the wrong is a form of misguidance, and misguidance is of two kinds:

Misguidance in knowledge, which is ignorance of the truth; and misguidance in action, which is acting contrary to what is required. Allah therefore protected His Messenger from this form of misguidance [just as He protected him from misguidance in deeds] (4).

Allah further states that their scheming and deception recoil upon themselves, as happens to every schemer. He says: “Yet they lead none but themselves astray,” because their scheming and deception did not achieve their objective, and they gained (5) nothing but disappointment, deprivation, sin, and loss. This (6) is a tremendous blessing upon His Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—encompassing the blessing of righteous action: being granted success in performing what is obligatory and being preserved from everything forbidden.

Allah then mentions His blessing upon him in the form of knowledge, saying: “Allah has sent down to you the Book and wisdom.” That is, He sent down to you this magnificent Quran and wise Reminder, which contains an explanation of all things and the knowledge of the earlier and later generations.

Wisdom may refer to the sunnah, concerning which some of the early Muslims said, “The sunnah was sent down to him just as the Quran was sent down.”

Alternatively, it may refer to understanding the deeper wisdoms of the Sacred Law in addition to knowing its rulings, placing matters in their proper positions, and arranging everything as befits it.

“And He has taught you what you did not know.” This includes everything that Allah Most High taught him. Before his prophethood, Allah described him—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—by saying: “You did not know what the Book was, nor faith,” and: “He found you unaware and guided you.”

Allah then continued to reveal to him, teach him, and perfect him until he attained a station of knowledge beyond the reach of the earlier and later generations. ⦗202⦘ Thus, he became the most knowledgeable of all creation without exception, the one who most fully combined the attributes of perfection, and the most perfect in possessing them. Allah therefore says: “Allah’s favor upon you has been immense.” His favor upon the Messenger Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is greater than His favor upon every created being (7).

The many kinds of favor with which Allah distinguished him cannot be exhaustively enumerated (8), nor can they readily be counted (9).