al-Nisāʾ 4:64-70

Wa mā arsalnā min rasūlin illā li-yuṭāʿa bi-idhni'llāh … Fa-lā wa rabbika lā yuʾminūna ḥattā yuḥakkimūka fīmā shajara baynahum thumma lā yajidū fī anfusihim ḥarajan mimmā qaḍayta wa yusallimū taslīmā … Wa man yuṭiʿi'llāha wa'l-rasūla fa-ulāʾika maʿa'lladhīna anʿama'llāhu ʿalayhim mina'l-nabiyyīna wa'l-ṣiddīqīna wa'l-shuhadāʾi wa'l-ṣāliḥīn, wa ḥasuna ulāʾika rafīqā

"We sent no messenger except that he should be obeyed, by God's leave… No, by your Lord, they do not believe until they make you the judge in what has branched out between them, and then find in themselves no constraint over what you have decided, and submit in full submission… Those who obey God and the Messenger are with those whom God has favoured: the prophets, the ṣiddīqs, the witnesses and the righteous. How good a company they are!"

The root ش-ج-ر: a tree. And in its verbal form shajara — to branch out, to become intertwined.

So the expression fīmā shajara baynahum means literally "in what has branched out between them". The word draws the picture of a dispute branching and tangling like a tree.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the concrete sense of the root: the verse describes a disagreement not as a simple opposition but as a situation whose branches have grown into one another — and for exactly that reason an arbitrator from outside is needed.

The same logic was present in the thirty-fifth verse: there too shiqāq (a splitting) required an arrangement of arbitration. The two verses propose the same remedy at two different scales.

The concrete sense of the root: dense woodland, a place hard to pass through. From there comes the sense of narrowness, constraint.

And the coming together of the two words is worth recording: shajara (to branch out) and ḥaraj (dense woodland). Both words come from vegetation, and they are in the same verse. This is a countable fact of language.

The sixty-fifth verse describes submission in three stages, and the sequence must be recorded:

I record this as an observation about word order: the verse does not count outward acceptance as sufficient, and ties the second step plainly to the inside (fī anfusihim).

The sixty-ninth verse counts four classes, and the sequence must be recorded.

And what the verse gives is not a rank but a companionship: maʿa'lladhīna anʿama'llāhu ʿalayhim. The sentence does not say "they become of them", it says "they are with them".

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the preposition maʿa.

وَحَسُنَ أُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ رَفِيقًا — rafīq: root ر-ف-ق, gentleness, ease; and companionship on the road. From the same root comes rifq (to act gently).

And the choice of the word coincides with the thirty-sixth verse: there al-ṣāḥib bi'l-janb (the companion at one's side) had been taken into the list. The sūra uses the word for companionship at two different scales.