Tafsir of Ta-Ha 20:112

The manifest meaning is that His saying, "And whoever does some of the righteous deeds," is a counterpart to His saying, "And all faces shall be humbled [before the Ever-Living...]" up to the end of what preceded, and to His saying, "And indeed, he who carries [a burden of] injustice will have failed." This is as Ibn Atiyyah and others have explicitly stated. That is: "Whoever performs some righteous deeds, or a portion of righteous deeds, while he is a believer"—meaning, in what is mandatory to believe in. The sentence is in the position of a state (hal), and this qualification is made because faith is a condition for the validity of acts of obedience and the acceptance of good deeds—"he shall not fear injustice," meaning the withholding of a reward that is due by virtue of a promise, "nor a diminution," meaning the withholding of a part of it. The Arabs say, "I have hadamtu (diminished) my right," meaning I have deducted from it; from this is hadim (slender) of the flanks, meaning one who has sunken flanks, and hadm (digestion) of food, meaning its dissipation in the stomach.

It is narrated from Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, and Qatadah that the meaning is: "He shall not fear that he will be wronged by having his evil deeds increased, nor that he will be diminished by having his good deeds decreased." The first is narrated from Zayd.

It has been said that the discourse contains an elliptical genitive (mudaf); that is, he shall not fear the recompense of injustice or diminution, since he has not committed injustice or the violation of anyone’s rights to cause him to fear that. Or, it may be that by "injustice" and "diminution," their recompenses are intended figuratively. Perhaps what is meant, according to what has been said, is the negation of fear from him regarding that, by virtue of his faith and his performance of some righteous deeds; this implies that righteous action, when accompanied by faith, is not considered injustice or diminution.

It has also been said that the intent is that whoever performs such deeds while being a believer is characterized by this, because God Almighty protects him from injustice or diminution, and because [injustice or diminution] is not counted against him along with righteous action. Thus, the objection that "faith and some deeds do not necessitate that one will not wrong others or violate their rights" is refuted. It should not be hidden from you that the claim of an elliptical genitive and the use of figurative language in this verse are extremely far-fetched, and the objection mentioned is strong, and the response to it is as you see.

Furthermore, the apparent wording of Al-Jawhari suggests there is no difference between "injustice" (zulm) and "diminution" (hadm), but the apparent meaning of the verse dictates a difference, as does the statement of Al-Mutawakkil al-Laythi: "Indeed, the humiliated and the base are for a people whose protector is the wronged and oppressed (al-mutahaddam al-mazlum)." Among those who have explicitly stated this is Al-Mawardi, who said: "The difference between them is that injustice is the withholding of the entire right, while diminution is the withholding of a part of it."

Ibn Kathir, Ibn Muhaysin, and Humayd recited "he shall not fear" (fala yakhaf) as a prohibition (nahy). Al-Tibi said: The recitation of the majority agrees with His saying, "And indeed, he who carries [a burden of] injustice will have failed," in terms of informing, and it is more eloquent than the other recitation in terms of continuity, while the other recitation is more eloquent in that it does not allow for hesitation in the informing.