يا أيها الذين آمنوا لا تأكلوا أموالكم بينكم بالباطل إلا أن تكون تجارة عن تراض منكم ولا تقتلوا أنفسكم إن الله كان بكم رحيما · ومن يفعل ذلك عدوانا وظلما فسوف نصليه نارا وكان ذلك على الله يسيرا
Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū lā taʾkulū amwālakum baynakum bi'l-bāṭili illā an takūna tijāratan ʿan tarāḍin minkum, wa lā taqtulū anfusakum, inna'llāha kāna bikum Raḥīmā · Wa man yafʿal dhālika ʿudwānan wa ẓulman fa-sawfa nuṣlīhi nārā, wa kāna dhālika ʿala'llāhi yasīrā
"O you who believe! Do not consume one another's property among you by false means — unless it be a trade by mutual consent among you. And do not kill yourselves. God is merciful towards you. Whoever does this in enmity and wrongdoing, We shall cast him into a fire; and that is easy for God."
The twenty-ninth verse opens a new block, and the opening address changes: in the first verse it was yā ayyuha'l-nās (O mankind); here comes yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū (O you who believe).
But the subject does not change. For twenty-eight verses the sūra has been occupied with property in someone else's hands: the orphan's property (2-10), the shares of inheritance (11-12), the bridal gift (4, 20-21, 24-25). The twenty-ninth verse builds the same subject again in its most general form: amwālakum baynakum — "the property among you".
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the repetition of the verb: the verb lā taʾkulū (do not consume) occurs in the sūra at the second verse (wa lā taʾkulū amwālahum), at the sixth (wa lā taʾkulūhā isrāfan), at the tenth (yaʾkulūna amwāla'l-yatāmā), and here. All four are about property, and all four use the same verb.
The root's original sense: to come to nothing, to be void, to be without effect. Baṭala — it came to nothing; bāṭil — what has no ground, what has no counter-value.
And the word's function here must be recorded: the verse does not say "by forbidden means", it says bi'l-bāṭili. The measure, that is, is property changing hands without a counter-value: if what is given has nothing given back for it, that transaction is bāṭil.
The same pattern occurs at al-Baqara 2/188 (wa lā taʾkulū amwālakum baynakum bi'l-bāṭil), and there the giving of bribes to judges is named. The two verses build the same sentence with two different examples. This is a repetition that can be verified.
| Qualification | Word | What it states |
|---|---|---|
| The first | Tijāratan | The change of hands must have a counter-value |
| The second | ʿAn tarāḍin minkum | The change of hands must rest on mutual consent |
Tarāḍin — root ر-ض-و, the tafāʿul form. And this form in Arabic states reciprocity: taqātala (they fought one another), taʿāwana (they helped one another). The word is therefore not "to consent" but "to consent to one another" — consent cannot be one-sided.
And the root comes for the third time in this sūra. In the fourth verse there was fa-in ṭibna lakum ʿan shayʾin minhu nafsan (if of their own accord they leave you some part of the bridal gift); in the twenty-fourth fīmā tarāḍaytum bihī min baʿdi'l-farīḍa occurred and was treated there under the heading "the field of consent".
| Verse | The subject of the consent | Word |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | The return of part of the bridal gift | Ṭibna … nafsan |
| 24 | An arrangement above the appointed bridal gift | Tarāḍaytum |
| 29 | Every kind of transfer of property | Tarāḍin |
The same measure is present in all three, and the third is the widest. I record this as an observation about word order.
There is disagreement in the classical commentaries over this expression, and it must not be concealed:
| Reading | What anfusakum means | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| A | Do not kill one another | The Qurʾān's naming of a community as a single body; in the same sūra the records baʿḍukum min baʿḍ (25) and min nafsin wāḥida (1); the verse's coming immediately after the discussion of property — the subject is relations within the community |
| B | Do not kill yourselves | The word's first and direct sense; the pronoun referring to the second person plural |
| C | Do not cast yourselves into ruin | The verb's figurative extension; the parallel with wa lā tulqū bi-aydīkum ila'l-tahluka at al-Baqara 2/195 |
But an indication that can be verified from the text may be recorded: immediately before the clause stands the expression amwālakum baynakum ("the property among you"), and baynakum plainly states reciprocity. This is an indication supporting reading A. I record it as an indication, not as a preference.
And this too must be recorded: two clauses stand side by side in the same verse — the taking of property unjustly and the taking of life. The sūra forbids both in one breath.
The sūra's order of verse-endings was set out in a table in the introductory section: the rulings mostly closed with an attribute of watching (raqīb, ḥasīb, shahīd, samīʿ, baṣīr, khabīr). Here there is not watching but mercy.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is verses twenty-six to twenty-eight: the block immediately before ended with yurīdu'llāhu an yukhaffifa ʿankum (He wishes to lighten your burden). The verse-ending continues that line.
The thirtieth verse qualifies the breach of the prohibition in the twenty-ninth with two words: ʿudwānan wa ẓulman.
The root ع-د-و: to exceed the bound, to cross the limit. The root ظ-ل-م: to put a thing somewhere other than its place. The two roots were compared in the discussion of al-Māʾida 5/2 and 5/8: the one states doing too much, the other not giving what is due. I rely on that treatment.
And the coming of the two words together produces a qualification: the verse qualifies not every loss of property or every death but what is done deliberately and wrongfully. This foreshadows the gradation that will be established in the ninety-second and ninety-third verses.
One. The qualification ʿan tarāḍin minkum ties the validity of a transaction to the will of both parties. That consent be mutual is not the same thing as one party's having signed; the pattern of the word says this.
Two. The measure bi'l-bāṭil asks a different question from "is it forbidden or not": is there a counter-value? This question can be asked even of transactions that look formally flawless.