Those Vested with Authority

Qur'an 4:59 · Al-Nisāʾ

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَطِيعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَمْرِ مِنكُمْ ۖ فَإِن تَنَـٰزَعْتُمْ فِى شَىْءٍ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱلرَّسُولِ إِن كُنتُمْ تُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ وَأَحْسَنُ تَأْوِيلًا

(4:59) O you who have faith! Obey Allah and obey the Apostle and those vested with authority among you. And if you dispute concerning anything, refer it to Allah and the Apostle, if you have faith in Allah and the Last Day. That is better and more favourable in outcome.

The question

Who are “those vested with authority (ulu al-amr) from among you” whom the believers are ordered to obey alongside God and the Messenger?

Views answered: al-Rāzī (al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr), al-Manār, the view of the early exegetes, a modern writer

Al-Mizan's argument

Al-Mizan argues that the verse commands obedience to “those vested with authority” without any condition, exactly as it does for the Messenger, and that such obedience is only possible if they are protected from sin and error. It then examines the other interpretations one by one: rulers who may err, the body of influential people in the community, the rightly guided caliphs, commanders and scholars. Finally it answers five objections raised against the view that the verse refers to the sinless Imāms of the Ahl al-Bayt.

Reading guide

Each part opens the commentary at that point.

1. Unconditional obedience means the ulu al-amr are sinless
2. Objection: obeying rulers who can err, and the reply
3. The plural “ulu al-amr”, and al-Rāzī's objection
4. The influential body of the community (al-Manār's view)
5. Is the body sinless as a whole? The tradition “My ummah will not unite on error”
6. Where would such freedom from error come from?
7. Islam treated as a social system like any other
8. A writer's two reasons, examined
9. The rightly guided caliphs, commanders or scholars
10. Five objections to the Ahl al-Bayt interpretation, with replies
11. Narrations: how the early exegetes differed

Read the whole commentary on 4:59 →