Appearance
Verse 200
This final verse is like the sum total, giving a gist of all that has been said in this chapter. It ends the chapter with a summary of its main theme.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اصْبِرُوا وَصَابِرُوا وَرَابِطُوا وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ ٢٠٠
(3:200) O you who believe! be patient and help each other in patience and remain lined up; and fear (the wrath of) Allah, that you may be successful.
The order is unrestricted. The clause, ‘‘be patient’’, covers every type of patience: Patience in hardships, patience in the obedience of God, and patience against the disobedience of God. However, it refers to individual’s patience, as the next clause shows.
al-Muṣābarah translated here as helping each other in patience, literally means vying with one another in being patient. It implies collective patience—when individuals bear a common hardship together and each one’s patience is augmented by others’ steadfastness.
In this way, their strength is enhanced, their patience redoubled and its effect multiplied. This phenomenon may easily be experienced, if we first look at an individual as a single person, and then look at his behavior in a group when he becomes a part of a collective whole, each one acting on and reacting towards the others. We shall describe this topic in detail, God willing, in its place.
…and remain lined up; and fear (the wrath of) Allah, that you may be successful: al-murābaṭah is more comprehensive than al-muṣābarah (vying with one another in patience; helping each other to be patient), because al-murābaṭah implies people’s linking up with one another in their powers, faculties, and activities in all affairs of their religious life—in time of ease as well as in difficulties. As the main aim of these orders is to let the believers attain the reality of happiness of this world and the next—otherwise only partial worldly happiness can be achieved which obviously is not the real happiness—these orders have been followed by the words, ‘‘and fear (the wrath of) God, that you may be successful’’, that is, you may achieve total and real happiness and success.
Discourse
The discussion “A Discourse on Believers’ Mutual Connection in Islamic Society” appears here in the printed volume. Read it in the Al-Mizan App.
Examining Narrations
- al-Ṣādiq said about the words of God, O you who believe! be patient and help each other in patience and remain lined up: ‘‘Have patience in misfortunes, and help each other to be patient in trial [and temptation], and be lined up with him whom you follow.’’ (Maʿāni al-akhbār)
- The same Imām said: ‘‘Be patient about your religion, and have patience against your enemy and be linked up to your Imām’’ (al-Tafsīr, al-ʿAyyāshī)
Author’s comments: Nearly the same theme has been narrated from the Prophet through the Sunnī chains.
- The same Imām said: ‘‘Be patient about the obligatory commandments, and help each other to be patient in misfortunes, and be linked up to the Imāms.’’ (al-Kāfī)
- ʿAlī said: ‘‘Be lined up for the prayers.’’ He said: ‘‘That is, remain waiting for them, because (the system of) garrisoning did not exist at that time.’’ (Majmaʿ al-bayān)
Author’s comments: The difference in the traditions springs from the generality of the orders, as we had mentioned earlier.
- Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Ḥayyān have narrated from Jābir b. ʿAbdullāh al-Anṣārī that he said: ‘‘The Messenger of God said: ‘Should not I guide you to that by which God erases the mistakes and covers the sins?’ We said: ‘Yes, indeed, O Messenger of God!’ He said: ‘To perform al-wuḍūʾ (ablution) properly in spite of inconveniences, and to walk many times to the mosques, and to wait for the (next) prayer after the prayer; so that is the lining up.’ ’’ (al-Durr al-manthūr)
Author’s comments: [al-Suyuṭī] has narrated it from the Prophet, also through other chains. There are innumerable traditions about excellence of being lined up or linked up.
End of Chapter 3
al-Murābaṭah, in post-Qur’anic era is used for troops being garrisoned, posted, stationed. Many translators have rendered it as, ‘‘be ever-garrisoned’’; but the author has taken it in its literal and original sense, that is, to be linked with each other. I have used a word (that is remain lined up) which may be interpreted both ways. (Trans.) ↩︎