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11
يا أَيُّهَا الَّذينَ آمَنوا إِذا قيلَ لَكُم تَفَسَّحوا فِي المَجالِسِ فَافسَحوا يَفسَحِ اللَّهُ لَكُم ۖ وَإِذا قيلَ انشُزوا فَانشُزوا يَرفَعِ اللَّهُ الَّذينَ آمَنوا مِنكُم وَالَّذينَ أوتُوا العِلمَ دَرَجاتٍ ۚ وَاللَّهُ بِما تَعمَلونَ خَبيرٌ

Muhammad Asad

O YOU who have attained to faith! When you are told, "Make room for one another in your collective life",1 do make room: [and in return,] God will make room for you [in His grace].2 And whenever you are told, "Rise up [for a good deed]", do rise up;3 [and] God will exalt by [many] degrees those of you who have attained to faith and, [above all,] such as have been vouchsafed [true] knowledge:4 for God is fully aware of all that you do.
  • Lit., "in the assemblies (al-majalis)". Although it is frequently assumed that this refers to the assemblies held by the Prophet, when his followers would throng around him in their eagerness the better to hear what he had to say, or - more generally - to congregations in mosques, etc., in later times, I am (with Razi) of the opinion that the plural noun majalis is used here in a tropical or metaphorical sense, denoting the totality of men's social life. Taken in this sense, the "making room for one another" implies the mutual providing of opportunities for a decent life to all - and especially to the needy or handicapped - members of the community. See also next note.
  • Commenting on this passage, Razi says: "This verse indicates that if one widens the means (abwab) of happiness and well-being of God's creatures ('ibad), God will widen for him all that is good in this life and in the hereafter. Hence, no reasonable person (al-'aqil) could ever restrict [the purport of] this 'verse to merely making room for one another in an [actual) assembly."
  • The interpretation implied in the words "for a good deed" interpolated by me above is analogous to that offered by most of the classical commentators, and most explicitly by Tabari; in the words of Qatadah (ibid.), "Whenever you are called upon to do a good deed, respond to this call."
  • Cf. the saying of the Prophet: "The superiority of a learned man ('alim) over a [mere] worshipper ('abid) is like the superiority of the moon on the night when it is full over all other stars" (Ibn Hanbal, Abu Da'ud, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah and Darimi).