al-Nisāʾ 4:88-91

Fa-mā lakum fi'l-munāfiqīna fiʾatayni wa'llāhu arkasahum bimā kasabū … Illa'lladhīna yaṣilūna ilā qawmin baynakum wa baynahum mīthāqun aw jāʾūkum ḥaṣirat ṣudūruhum an yuqātilūkum … Fa-ini'tazalūkum fa-lam yuqātilūkum wa alqaw ilaykumu'l-salama fa-mā jaʿala'llāhu lakum ʿalayhim sabīlā

"What is the matter with you, that you have split into two groups over the hypocrites? God has turned them back for what they earned… Except those who join a people with whom you have a treaty, or who come to you with hearts too constrained to fight you… If they keep away from you, do not fight you, and offer you peace, then God has given you no way against them."

This block is one of the places where the method's rule that "no sweeping ruling is made about a group" works most plainly. And the reason is not an interpretation but the verses' own wording: after giving a ruling, the block lays down three separate exceptions.

And the outcome of the third exception is written out plainly: fa-mā jaʿala'llāhu lakum ʿalayhim sabīlā — "God has given you no way against them."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the three rows above: having laid down a ruling, the block counts out in detail whom that ruling does not cover. The verses, that is, themselves block a sweeping generalisation.

The root ر-ك-س: to turn a thing upside down, to reverse it. Riks — filth, a thing turned back.

And the ground must be recorded: bimā kasabū — "for what they earned".

The root ك-س-ب had occurred in this sūra at the thirty-second verse (iktasabū / iktasabna) and was treated there. I rely on that treatment. The same root in two separate places, one stating a share, the other an outcome.

And how the same pattern (bimā kasabat aydīkum) is to be read was treated in detail at al-Shūrā 42/30; the barrier against generalising set out there was carried over here in the discussion of 4/79. The same record holds here.

The root ف-ي-أ: to turn, to come back. Fiʾa — a company, a party.

And the form of the sentence must be recorded: before giving a ruling, the verse asks a question — fa-mā lakum ("what is the matter with you?").

The same pattern of question was present at the seventy-fifth verse: wa mā lakum lā tuqātilūna fī sabīli'llāh. In both places the question takes as its subject the state of the one addressed. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.

The root ح-ص-ر: to encircle, to press in, to confine in a place. Ḥaṣr — a besieging.

Ḥaṣirat ṣudūruhum — "their breasts constrained". And the function of the expression must be recorded: the verse describes an unwillingness to fight as an inward state and counts it a ground of exception.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the exception itself: the verse lays down a qualification that looks not at the outwardly visible behaviour but at the state behind that behaviour.