وَلَوْ شَآءَ رَبُّكَ لَـَٔامَنَ مَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ كُلُّهُمْ جَمِيعًا أَفَأَنتَ تُكْرِهُ ٱلنَّاسَ حَتَّىٰ يَكُونُوا۟ مُؤْمِنِينَ · وَمَا كَانَ لِنَفْسٍ أَن تُؤْمِنَ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ
"Had your Lord willed, everyone on the earth would have believed, all of them together. Will you then compel people until they become believers? · No soul can believe except by God's leave. And He lays filth upon those who do not use their reason."
This limit was treated many times in the index, and at al-Qaṣaṣ 28/56 a table across six sūras was set up. I carry the table here and add Yūnus, because this verse is one of the plainest expressions of that line:
| Place | Expression | What it limits |
|---|---|---|
| al-Aḥqāf 46/35 | Balāgh | The task — it is conveying |
| al-Zumar 39/41 | Wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-wakīl | Responsibility |
| Qāf 50/45 | Wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-jabbār | The authority to compel |
| Fāṭir 35/8 | Fa-lā tadhhab nafsuka ʿalayhim ḥasarāt | Grief |
| Luqmān 31/23 | Fa-lā yaḥzunka kufruh | Grief |
| al-Qaṣaṣ 28/56 | Lā tahdī man aḥbabta | Love — the closest bond |
| al-Raʿd 13/40 | Innamā ʿalayka'l-balāghu wa ʿalayna'l-ḥisāb | A division of labour — it states both sides |
| Yūnus 10/99 | A-fa-anta tukrihu'n-nāsa ḥattā yakūnū muʾminīn | The act of compelling — asked directly |
| Yūnus 10/108 | Wa mā ana ʿalaykum bi-wakīl | Trusteeship — from the Prophet's own mouth |
First: here the limit is set not as a statement but as a question. A-fa-anta tukrihu'n-nās — "will you compel them?" In the other verses it was said "you are not"; here it is asked.
Second: here it is not the impossibility of compulsion but its needlessness that is shown. The first half of the sentence establishes this: wa law shāʾa rabbuka la-āmana man fi'l-arḍi kulluhum jamīʿā. That "everyone should believe" is possible — but that way has not been chosen.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the two sentences: the verse first says that willing would have been enough, and then asks about compelling. Compulsion, that is, is placed not as something that could take the place of willing, but as a needless imitation of it.
"The lā here is the lā that negates a whole class. It is not, that is, 'let there be no measure of compulsion': the very category of compulsion is removed." And the ground: qad tabayyana'r-rushdu mina'l-ghayy — "when the distinction is in plain sight, there is no need for compulsion."
| al-Baqara 2/256 | Yūnus 10/99 | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | A ruling — lā ikrāha fi'd-dīn | A question — a-fa-anta tukrihu'n-nās |
| Addressee | General | The Prophet |
| Ground | Qad tabayyana'r-rushdu mina'l-ghayy — the plainness of the distinction | Law shāʾa rabbuka la-āmana … — the sufficiency of the willing |
| Root | ك-ر-ه | ك-ر-ه |
The same root, two distinct grounds. I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared root of the two verses together with the difference of their reasons: al-Baqara makes compulsion unnecessary (the distinction is plain), Yūnus makes it out of place (it would have happened had it been willed). The two verses support the same ruling from two different directions.
And this verse had already been named at Qāf 50/45 — there, in the treatment of wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-jabbār. I rely on that treatment.
And at al-Shuʿarāʾ 26/4 this verse had entered a table: wa law shāʾa rabbuka la-āmana man fi'l-arḍ (Yūnus 10/99), wa law shiʾnā la-ātaynā kulla nafsin hudāhā (al-Sajda 32/13). And it was recorded there: "all three verses have the same structure: willing + compelling + not happening." I rely on that treatment.
A note per the method (Method): this verse is not to be used to pass a wholesale ruling on anyone in the matter of religious belief, nor to produce a position in current politics. What the verse says in its own words is that compelling is not the messenger's work.
وَمَا كَانَ لِنَفْسٍ أَن تُؤْمِنَ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ (100) — and the word leave occurs for the third time in the sūra.
| Verse | What the leave concerns |
|---|---|
| 3 | Illā min baʿdi idhnih — intercession |
| 59 | Āllāhu adhina lakum — the lawful and the forbidden |
| 100 | Illā bi-idhni'llāh — faith |
Three occurrences, one root (أ-ذ-ن). I record this as an observation about the wording: in three distinct fields the sūra asks the same question — where is the leave for this from?
ٱلرِّجْسَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْقِلُونَ — rijs: the root ر-ج-س, filth, uncleanness; the lexicographers record the sense "what is found loathsome and kept away from".
And the word order must be recorded: the ruling is tied to a quality — alladhīna lā yaʿqilūn. As at al-Raʿd 13/4 and along the general line of this series: the verse issues a ruling not against a group but against a quality.