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Tafsir

Scholarly commentary explaining a verse — its context, its meaning and how the scholars have understood it.

An-Nisa 4:161

Word by word

وَأَخْذِهِمُ ٱلرِّبَوٰا۟ وَقَدْ نُهُوا۟ عَنْهُ وَأَكْلِهِمْ أَمْوَٰلَ ٱلنَّاسِ بِٱلْبَـٰطِلِ ۚ وَأَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَـٰفِرِينَ مِنْهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا

And [for] their taking of usury while they had been forbidden from it, and their consuming of the people's wealth unjustly. And We have prepared for the disbelievers among them a painful punishment.

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Ma'arif al-Qur'an

Mufti Muhammad Shafi

Mentioned earlier through several verses were the wrongdoings of Jews and the punishment they would get for doing so. The present verses talk about some other vices of theirs and mention yet another kind of punishment as well. This punishment will, obviously, visit them on the Day of Judgment. But, right here in this present world, the outcome will be that they will find many things already lawful forthem made unlawful as a measure of punishment.

Commentary

In the Shari` ah brought by the Holy Prophet Muhammad al Mustafa ﷺ there are some things too, known as Haram or unlawful, but these were forbidden because of one or the other physical or spiritual harm they bring. This was contrary to what happened with the Jews - the good things forbidden to them had no physical or spiritual harm in them, instead, these were forbidden to them as the punishment of their acts of transgression and disobedience.

Tafsir is provided for educational reference. Paragraph breaks are added for readability — the wording of each commentary is unchanged. For religious guidance, consult a qualified scholar.