| An-Nisa (The Women): (40) Indeed, Allah does not...

It should be noted that the connection of this verse is to the preceding verse: {And what is upon them if they believe in Allah and the Last Day and spend from what Allah has provided for them} (An-Nisa: 39). It is as if He is saying: Allah does not wrong anyone in this state by the weight of an atom, and if there is a good deed, He will multiply it, thereby encouraging faith and obedience.

Know that this verse encompasses a promise of three things:

The First: His saying, the Exalted: {Indeed, Allah does not wrong by the weight of an atom}. In this, there are several issues:

Issue 1: The Dharrah (atom) is the small red ant, according to linguists. It is narrated from Ibn Abbas that he put his hand into the dust, lifted it, then blew upon it, and said: "Every one of these things is a Dharrah." And Mithqal (weight) is derived from Thiqal (heaviness); it is said: "This is the Mithqal of that," meaning the weight of that. The meaning of {the weight of an atom} (mithqāl dharratin) is that which weighs the weight of an atom.

Know that the intent of the verse is that the Exalted does not wrong anyone, whether little or much, but the speech is phrased using the smallest thing people commonly recognize. This is supported by His saying, the Exalted: {Indeed, Allah does not wrong people anything} (Yunus: 44).

Issue 2: The Mu'tazila said: This verse indicates that the Exalted is not the creator of the deeds of His servants. This is because among those deeds is the wrongdoing of some against others. If Allah were the originator of that wrongdoing, then Allah would be the wrongdoer. Furthermore, if He created the injustice within the wrongdoer, and that wrongdoer has no power to bring about that injustice when it is absent, nor to repel it once it exists, and then Allah addresses someone with this description and characterization, saying, "Why did you wrong?" and then punishes him for it—this would be sheer injustice, and the verse indicates that Allah is pure from injustice.

The Reply: The counter-argument based on Divine Knowledge and the motivating factor (for the action) is limitless, as previously mentioned many times. We have stated that the arguments of these Mu'tazila, however numerous and grand, ultimately revert to a single point: clinging to praise and blame, reward and punishment. The specific question regarding this point is the counter-argument based on Divine Knowledge and the motivating factor. Every time they repeat this line of reasoning, we repeat this question to them.

Issue 3: The Mu'tazila said: The verse indicates that He is capable of injustice, because He praises Himself for abandoning it. And one cannot be rightly praised for abandoning an ugly act unless one is capable of performing it. Do you not see that inanimate objects cannot rightly praise themselves by saying they do not go out at night to steal?

The Reply: The Exalted praises Himself by saying that neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him, and this does not necessitate that it is possible for Him to be overtaken by slumber or sleep. He praises Himself by saying that no vision comprehends Him, and this did not lead the Mu'tazila to conclude that it is possible for vision to comprehend Him.

Issue 4: The Mu'tazila said: The verse indicates that the servant deserves reward for his obedience, and that if Allah did not reward him, He would be unjust. This is because Allah clarified in this verse that if He did not reward them for their deeds, it would be considered injustice towards them, which is only true if they were deserving of the reward for their deeds.

The Reply: The Exalted promised them reward for those actions. If He did not reward them for them, it would be in the form of injustice, which is why the term injustice is applied. What indicates that injustice is impossible for Allah is that injustice necessitates ignorance and neediness according to your view, both of which are impossible for Allah. And that which necessitates the impossible is impossible, and the impossible is not within the realm of power. Furthermore, injustice is defined as interfering with the property of others, whereas the Truth, the Exalted, only acts within His own property, so it is impossible for Him to be unjust. Also, a wrongdoer cannot be a god. A thing is only sound if its necessary consequences are sound. If injustice were possible for Him, then the cessation of His godhood would be sound. If that were the case, His godhood would be subject to cessation, and if so, it would require a specific determiner and agent to establish the attribute of godhood for Him, which is impossible for Allah.

Issue 5: The Mu'tazila said: The punishment for a drop of wine removes the reward for faith and obedience spanning a hundred years. Our companions (Ahl al-Sunnah) say: This is false. We know by necessity that the reward for all those great acts of obedience over those long years is greater than the punishment for drinking that drop. Therefore, nullifying that immense reward due to the punishment for this small amount of sin is injustice, which is negated by this verse.

Issue 6: Al-Jubba'i said: The punishment for a major sin nullifies the reward for all acts of obedience, and none of that punishment is nullified. His son, Abu Hashim, said: Rather, it is nullified. Know that this doctrine became a strong argument for our companions regarding the falsehood of the doctrine of nullification (Iḥbāṭ). We say: If that reward were nullified, it would either be nullified by an equivalent amount of punishment or not. Both cases are false. Therefore, the doctrine of nullification is false. We only say that it is not permissible for each one (reward and punishment) to nullify the other, because if the cause for the absence of each one is the existence of the other, then if both absences occurred, both existences would have to occur simultaneously. Necessarily, the cause must be present with the effect, which is impossible. We only say that it is not permissible for obedience to be nullified by sin while sin is not nullified by obedience, because those acts of obedience would have provided absolutely no benefit to the servant—neither in bringing reward nor in averting punishment—and that is injustice, which contradicts His saying, the Exalted: {Indeed, Allah does not wrong by the weight of an atom}. Since both cases are proven false, the doctrine of the invalidity of nullification, as the Mu'tazila hold, is established.

Issue 7: Our companions used this verse as proof that believers will exit the Fire and enter Paradise. They said: There is no doubt that the reward for faith, perseverance in monotheism, acknowledging Him as the One connected to the attributes of Majesty and Honor, and prostrating the forehead on the dust of servitude for a hundred years, is greater in reward than the punishment for drinking a single draught of wine. When this drinker appears on the Day of Judgment, and the measure of the punishment for this sin is deducted from that immense reward, a great portion of the reward remains for him. If he were to remain in the Fire due to that measure of punishment, that would be injustice, which is false. Therefore, it must be concluded that he will exit to Paradise.

The Second Type: Of the matters encompassed by this verse:

His saying, the Exalted: {And if there is a good deed, He will multiply it}. In this, there are issues:

Issue 1: Nafi' and Ibn Kathir recited hasanatan (good deed) in the nominative case, assuming a complete kāna (verb 'to be'), meaning: If a good deed occurs or happens. The rest recited it in the accusative case, assuming an incomplete kāna, meaning: And if the weight of an atom is a good deed. Ibn Kathir and Ibn 'Amir recited yuḍā'ifuhā (He multiplies it) with a shaddah (doubling) without an alif (for the causative form), while the rest recited it with the alif and the light form of the causative (muḍā'afah).

Issue 2: Tak (it is) originates from kāna yakūnu (it was, it will be). Its origin is takūnu. The ḍammah (vowel mark) was dropped due to the jussive mood, and the wāw was dropped due to its being quiescent and the nūn being quiescent, resulting in takun. Then the nūn was also omitted because it is quiescent. It resembles the soft letters (ḥurūf al-layn), and soft letters, when they occur at the end, are dropped in the jussive mood, like your saying: lam adri (I did not know), meaning lā adrī (I do not know). The Qur'an came with both omission and affirmation. The omission is here, and the affirmation is in His saying: {If he be rich or poor} (An-Nisa: 135).

Issue 3: The Exalted clarified by His saying: {Indeed, Allah does not wrong by the weight of an atom} that He does not diminish their right at all. And He clarified by this verse that Allah increases them beyond what they deserve.

Know that the intent of this multiplication is not multiplication in duration, because the duration of the reward is infinite, and multiplying the infinite is impossible. Rather, the intent is that He multiplies it according to the measure: for example, he deserves ten parts of reward for his obedience, so He makes it twenty parts, or thirty parts, or more. It is narrated from Ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: A servant will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection, and a herald will call out before the first and the last: "This is so-and-so, son of so-and-so. Whoever has a right against him, let him come for his right." Then he will be told: "Give these people their rights." He will say: "My Lord, from where, since the world is gone?" Allah will say to His angels: "Look into his good deeds and give them from them. If the weight of an atom of a good deed remains, Allah will multiply it for His servant and admit him to Paradise by His grace and mercy." The confirmation of this in the Book of Allah is: {And if there is a good deed, He will multiply it}. Al-Hasan said: His saying, {And if there is a good deed, He will multiply it}, is more beloved to the scholars than if He had said: For one good deed, there are one hundred thousand good deeds, because that statement would imply that it is better than a thousand months. Abu Uthman Al-Nahdi said: It reached me from Abu Hurayrah that he said: Indeed, Allah gives His believing servant for one good deed a million good deeds. So I estimated that I went to Mecca for Hajj or Umrah and met him, and I said: It reached me that you say Allah gives His believing servant for one good deed a million good deeds. Abu Hurayrah said: I did not say that, but I said: Indeed, a good deed is multiplied by two million times, then he recited this verse and said: When Allah says, {a great reward}, who can estimate its measure?

The Third Type: Of the matters encompassed by this verse is His saying, the Exalted: {And He will give from Himself a great reward}. In this, there are two issues:

Issue 1: Ladun means ʿinda (with/near), except that ladun implies greater establishment. A man says: ʿindī mālin (I have wealth) when his wealth is in another country, but he does not say ladayya mālin or ladunnī unless it is present.

Issue 2: Know that there must be a distinction between this and His saying: {And if there is a good deed, He will multiply it}. What occurs to my mind—and knowledge belongs to Allah—is that this multiplication will be of the same kind as that reward, whereas this great reward will not be of the same kind as that reward. The apparent meaning is that the multiplication will be of the kind of pleasures promised in Paradise, but this great reward which He gives min ladunhi (from Himself) is the pleasure attained through vision, and through immersion in love and knowledge. This type is specified by His saying {from Himself} because this type of delight, happiness, joy, and perfection is not attained through physical deeds, but rather it is attained by what Allah instills in the essence of the pure soul—illumination, clarity, and light. In summary, that multiplication points to bodily happiness, and this great reward points to spiritual happiness.

{4:105} {So how will it be when We bring a witness from every nation and bring you as a witness against them?} {4:106} {That Day, those who disbelieved and disobeyed the Messenger would wish that the earth would level with them, and they would never conceal from Allah any statement.}