Tafsir of An-Nisa' 4:146

"Except those who repent..."

This is an exception from the hypocrites, or from the pronoun referring to them in the predicate, or from the genitive pronoun in "for them" (lahum). It is also said: it is in the nominative case as an initial (ibtida'), and the predicate is what follows the fa (particle), as it entered due to the meaning of a condition contained within the speech.

"...and reform..."

That is, what they corrupted of their intentions and states during their hypocrisy. It is also said: they remained steadfast in repentance for the future, but the former is more appropriate.

"...and hold fast to Allah..."

Meaning: cling to His Book, or rely upon Him.

"...and make their religion sincere for Allah..."

Meaning: they do not seek through their obedience anything but His Countenance and His pleasure, Glorified is He, not the showing off to people or the warding off of harm, as was the case in hypocrisy. Ahmad, at-Tirmidhi, and others reported from Abu Thumamah that he said: The disciples said to Jesus, peace be upon him, "O Spirit of Allah, who is the one sincere for Allah?" He replied, "The one who works for Allah the Exalted and does not love that people praise him for it."

"...for those..."

This is a reference to the aforementioned group, based on their characterization by what is contained within the clause of description, and it contains the meaning of distance for reasons previously mentioned more than once.

"...[will be] with the believers..."

That is, those known to have never committed hypocrisy from the moment they believed. The intent is that they are with them in the high ranks of Paradise, or that they are counted among their number in this world and the Hereafter.

"...and Allah will give the believers a great reward."

A reward whose measure cannot be estimated, so they will be partners and sharers in it with them. Abu Hayyan interpreted the "great reward" as immortality, but the general interpretation is more appropriate. The intended meaning of "the believers" here is the same as what was intended by it previously. More than one scholar has held the view of partnership, and were it not for interpreting the verse in this way, there would be no apparent meaning in mentioning the states of those who repented from hypocrisy.

Some went to the extent of not considering the partnership; instead, the intent is to inform of the abundance of reward for those who never preceded it with hypocrisy. Others made "the believers" general to include both those who had no prior hypocrisy and those who had it but repented. The manifest [interpretation] is what we have mentioned.

The word yu'ti (He will give) is written without a ya, and it is a present-tense verb in the nominative case; thus, its ya ought to be established in both pronunciation and orthography. However, it was dropped in pronunciation due to the meeting of two vowelless letters, and the orthography followed the pronunciation. The reciters pause upon it without the ya, following the orthography, except for Ya'qub, for he pauses with the ya, looking to the root. This was also narrated from al-Kisa'i, Hamzah, and Nafi'. Al-Samin claimed that the priority is to follow the orthography, for the dropping of [letters at the] ends [of words] has occurred frequently.