15/11/2024
*THE LAST LINE*
In surah al-Nisa', Allah says:
[إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَن يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَن يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدِ افْتَرَىٰ إِثْمًا عَظِيمًا]
Allah does not forgive associating partners with Him but He forgives whatever is less than that for whom He wishes. And whoever associates partners with Allah has fabricated a terrible sin. [48]
About 70 ayaat later in the same surah, He repeats this statement in almost exactly the same words when He says:
[إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَن يَشَاءُ ۚ وَمَن يُشْرِكْ بِاللَّهِ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَالًا بَعِيدًا ]
Allah does not forgives associating partners with Him but He forgives whatever is less than that for whom He wishes. And whoever associates partners with Allah has gone far astray. [116]
And in between those two ayaat in the same surah, Allah says:
[وَمَن يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًا مُّتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَاؤُهُ جَهَنَّمُ خَالِدًا]
But whoever kills a believer intentionally, then his punishment will be the hellfire, remaining eternally in it. [93]
In his famous tafsir, ibn Kathir made an interesting observation about this arrangement when he wrote:
[ وقال تعالى : ( إن الله لا يغفر أن يشرك به ويغفر ما دون ذلك لمن يشاء ) [ النساء : 48 ] . فهذه الآية عامة في جميع الذنوب ما عدا الشرك ، وهي مذكورة في هذه السورة الكريمة بعد هذه الآية وقبلها ، لتقوية الرجاء ، والله أعلم . ]
The ayah "Allah does not forgives associating partners with Him but He forgives whatever is less than that for whom He wishes" applies to all sins aside from shirk.
And this statement is mentioned in this surah both before Allah says "But whoever kills a believer intentionally, then his punishment will be the hellfire, remaining eternally in it" and afterwards as well, 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗻𝗲'𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗲 [𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗵'𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝘆]. And Allah knows best.
[Tafsir ibn Kathir 2/381]
