وَمَا لَكُمْ لَا تُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ ۙ وَٱلرَّسُولُ يَدْعُوكُمْ لِتُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِرَبِّكُمْ وَقَدْ أَخَذَ مِيثَٰقَكُمْ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
Wa mā lakum lā tuʾminūna bi'llāh, wa'r-rasūlu yadʿūkum li-tuʾminū bi-rabbikum wa qad akhadha mīthāqakum in kuntum muʾminīn "What is the matter with you that you do not believe in God, when the Messenger calls you to believe in your Lord and He has taken your pledge — if you are going to believe?"
This pattern in Arabic is not a question but an expression of reproach and astonishment: "what is going on, that you do this?" In English it answers to "what is the matter with you?" or "what has come over you?"
The function of the pattern is not to obtain information from the one addressed but to show that the behaviour is without ground. It is a question for which no answer is expected, because it is assumed that no reasonable answer can be given.
Two verses apart, in the same pattern, on two different subjects. And this is a repetition, in order, of the two commands of verse 7 (believe, spend).
The structure itself builds an argument: faith and spending are taken up on the same level. The second does not stand as an optional addition to the first; both are the subject of the same question.
ميثاق — root و-ث-ق: to be firm, to be trustworthy, to bind. From the same root come wathīqa (a document), thiqa (a trustworthy person), withāq (a bond), īthāq. In its concrete sense wathāq is the rope used to tie a thing.
| View | Which pledge | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| The pledge of primordial nature | The pledge given at the human being's creation | Al-Aʿrāf 7/172: "Your Lord took from the loins of the children of Adam their offspring and made them bear witness against themselves: Am I not your Lord?" |
| The oath of allegiance | The pledge of loyalty given to the Prophet | The Medinan context; al-Fatḥ 48/10, 18 |
| Reason and evidence | The necessity established by the proofs | Mīthāq figuratively, "an unavoidable conclusion" |
In this commentary I impose no preference. All three have been defended in the sources, and the wording of the verse does not settle which is meant. Moreover the three do not exclude one another.
This condition at the end of the sentence looks strange at first glance. The verse is addressing those who do not believe; to say "if you believe" at the end seems contradictory.
| Explanation | Sense |
|---|---|
| "If you are people who will believe" | The condition looks to the future: if you have the capacity to believe |
| "If you believe in the binding force of a pledge" | The condition attaches to the mīthāq in the middle of the verse |
| "If you lay claim to faith" | The one addressed is a person who counts himself a believer but whose conduct does not bear it out |
The third explanation is the one most consistent with the sūra as a whole, and I state this not as a preference but as a reading that the context points to. For in verse 16 the sūra will direct its address straight at alladhīna āmanū (those who believe) and will report a deficiency in them. The one the sūra addresses is not outside but inside.
On this reading the tone of the sentence is: "if you count yourselves believers, do what the thing you say you believe in requires."