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In the verse of obedience, Sūrat al-Nisāʾ 4:59, God commands the faithful to obey Him, the Messenger and those vested with authority, and to refer their disputes to God and the Messenger. This page gathers the questions readers most often ask about it, in the order of al-Tasnim’s commentary, each with a short answer drawn from what Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says. Each answer links to the passage in al-Tasnim, so you can read more.
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The verse and its place in the chapter
What is this verse about, in brief?
It commands the faithful to obey God, the Messenger and those vested with authority among you, and tells them to refer any dispute to God and the Messenger. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī divides it into three segments: the duty of obedience, the reference for resolving disputes, and faith in the Origin and the Last Day.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Segments of the Verse
How does it connect with the verse before it?
The previous verse told the faithful, and especially those in charge in Islamic communities, to return trusts to their owners and to judge fairly. This verse lays the foundation for that and for the earlier verses on law and government: it calls people to obey God, the Messenger and those vested with authority, so that God’s laws are actually followed.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Concordance between Verses
If everyone must obey God, why does the verse address only the faithful?
Obeying God, His Messenger and the infallible authorities is an obligation for everyone. But the faithful are the ones concerned with obedience and more inclined to it, so they are addressed directly. The call O you who have faith! also asks them to grow their faith in heart, word and action, and to live by what it requires.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Obeying God and His Messenger · Verse 4:59 · Obeying God and His Messenger
Obeying God and obeying the Messenger
Why is the word “obey” repeated before “the Messenger”?
Because the Messenger’s commands are of two kinds. Some are God’s own laws that he conveys, like prayer and fasting; obeying these is obeying God. Others he gives as ruler and guardian of the faithful, such as appointing officials or declaring war and peace. Obey Allah covers the first kind, and obey the Messenger the second.
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī cites ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī, who likewise says the repetition is not for mere emphasis.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Repetition of Obey · Verse 4:59 · Repetition of Obey
Why is “obey” not repeated before “those vested with authority”?
Because obeying those vested with authority does not differ from obeying the Messenger. So a single command covers both. And in the end God alone is the one truly obeyed: the commands of the Prophet and the guidance of the infallible Imams reveal His will.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Repetition of Obey · Verse 4:59 · Repetition of Obey
Who are “those vested with authority”?
What views are there on who they are?
Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and al-Ṭabrisī mention three: rulers, scholars, and the Imams descended from the Prophet; refuting the first two affirms the third. Other exegetes have suggested the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, military commanders, or the decision-making elite of society (ahl al-ḥall wa al-ʿaqd).
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Disagreements over the meaning of “Those Vested with Authority” · Verse 4:59 · Disagreements over the meaning of “Those Vested with Authority”
Is the idea that they must be infallible only a Shīʿī view?
No. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī notes that Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and Sunni scholars such as al-Fakhr al-Rāzī both reasoned that whoever the verse commands us to obey unconditionally must be infallible. The difference is over who they are: the Shīʿah say the Imams, while al-Rāzī held that it is the consensus of the decision-making elite.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Arguing the Infallibility of the Decision-making Elite
What qualities does the Qur’an require in someone with authority over Muslims?
Three: he must be a Muslim, since the verse says among you and the faithless are given no way over the faithful; he must be just, since the Qur’an will not even accept a sinner’s news without checking it; and he must be infallible, because the obedience commanded is unconditional.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Qualities of an Authoritative Figure from the Qur’an · Verse 4:59 · Qualities of an Authoritative Figure from the Qur’an
Why does the verse use a plural, if only one Imam leads at a time?
Al-Fakhr al-Rāzī raised this. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī answers that the phrase is not tied to one time or era. Obeying the infallible Imam means obeying the Imam of one’s own time together with all who came before him, so during the occultation everyone must obey Imam al-Mahdī and all the preceding Imams.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Objections of al-Fakhr al-Rāzī and Responses to Them
How can we obey someone we cannot know or reach?
This was another of al-Rāzī’s objections. The answer is that every command depends on its subject existing and being known, and that does not make an unconditional command conditional. Just as people must investigate a claim to prophethood before they can obey a prophet, they must come to know who is vested with authority; the command itself stays absolute. And the same objection would apply to al-Rāzī’s own view.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Objections of al-Fakhr al-Rāzī and Responses to Them · Verse 4:59 · The Objections of al-Fakhr al-Rāzī and Responses to Them
Can the consensus of a group be infallible?
Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says no. The members of the decision-making elite are not each infallible, and infallibility belongs to real persons, not to an abstraction. Opinions, individual or collective, can only be true or false; they are not protected from error and forgetting. Consensus may give a strong assumption, but an assumption cannot ground unconditional obedience.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Arguing the Infallibility of the Decision-making Elite · Verse 4:59 · Arguing the Infallibility of the Decision-making Elite
Referring disputes to God and the Messenger
Why does the verse not mention “those vested with authority” when it speaks of disputes?
Because the first dispute after the Prophet’s passing was over who holds that authority. A dispute about the very identity of the authority must go to a reference everyone accepts, the Qur’an and the Prophet’s sunnah. Once their authority is established from these, the infallible Imams become a reference for resolving other disputes too, as 4:83 also mentions referring matters to them.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Objections of al-Fakhr al-Rāzī and Responses to Them · Verse 4:59 · The Objections of al-Fakhr al-Rāzī and Responses to Them
What kinds of dispute does the verse have in mind?
Disputes may be over a general ruling or law, or over how a ruling applies to a particular case. For general rulings the reference is the Qur’an and the sunnah of the infallibles, the thaqalayn. Such disputes cannot be settled by drawing lots, by a majority vote or by compromise, because the verse names the word of God and the Prophet as the only reference.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Reference for Resolving Disputes
Is the second part of the verse needed, if obedience is already commanded?
It is a specific command following a general one, and it stresses the importance of the matter. Even without it, Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says, the first part would still require referring disputes to God and the Messenger, since it commands unconditional obedience whether or not there is a dispute.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Framing the Dispute and Its Resolution
Does the verse prove that consensus is a source of law?
Some have argued that since the verse requires referring to the Qur’an and sunnah only when there is a dispute, agreement must be authoritative on its own. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī disagrees: when there is no dispute there is simply nothing to refer, not a proof that consensus is valid. If consensus stood beside the Qur’an and sunnah, conflicting agreements in different places and times would all be binding, which would mean chaos.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Authority of Consensus in the Verse: Analysis and Refutation · Verse 4:59 · Authority of Consensus in the Verse: Analysis and Refutation
Does the verse prove analogy (qiyās)?
Al-Rāzī argued that refer it to Allah and the Messenger means comparing a new case to a similar ruling, which is analogy. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī replies that some rulings carry reasons beyond the ordinary intellect, and that analogy is a guess that can start disputes rather than end them. What the verse calls for is deducing rulings from the Qur’an and sunnah, which is ijtihād.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Fakhr al-Rāzī Reasoning for the Authority of Qīyās · Verse 4:59 · Fakhr al-Rāzī Reasoning for the Authority of Qīyās
Did the Prophet himself use analogy?
Al-Rāzī cited two narrations, about kissing while fasting and about performing ḥajj for a dead parent. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says the Prophet did not use analogy in either: analogy is a presumed proof that may be right or wrong, while the infallible Prophet speaks only what is revealed to him. He gave those examples simply to make the answers easy to grasp.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Result of Delegating the Wrong People
The end of the verse
What does “that is better and more favorable in outcome” refer to?
The context shows that that refers to both parts of the verse: obeying God, the Messenger and those vested with authority, and referring disputes to the Qur’an and sunnah. A better life and a good outcome are the fruit of both.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Better Path and Favorable Outcomes
Does “better” mean obedience is only the better choice?
No. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says khayr and aḥsan here are not comparatives, as if we could choose between obeying and not obeying. They point to a fixed obligation with no alternative (wājib taʿyīnī), as reason also concludes, and as the stern warnings of verses like 33:66–67 confirm.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · “Khayr” and “Aḥsan”
Further reflections
Can anyone besides God make law?
No. The Qur’an and the sunnah are the sources of law, and the intellect is a source only where it judges independently; analogy and human opinion can never be sources of religious rulings. People may consult one another in managing their society (and their affairs are by counsel among themselves, 42:38), but universal laws are God’s alone.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Only God Can Legislate · Verse 4:59 · Only God Can Legislate
Who should be obeyed during the Imam’s occultation?
The qualified jurist whom the infallible Imams have deputised. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī cites Imam al-Ṣādiq’s instruction to refer to one who narrates from them and knows their rulings. People do not appoint him as their agent; they accept the guardianship the Imams have given him. Because he is not infallible, obedience to him is conditional, and his rulings must agree with the Qur’an and the sunnah.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist and Authority over People · Verse 4:59 · Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist and Authority over People
What happens when responsibility is given to the wrong people?
The Prophet said that when a matter is entrusted to those who do not know it, one should await “the Hour”, meaning the collapse of the government. A system whose appointments are not based on competence has, in effect, an expiry date. The continuity of a government depends on just and Godwary people who can bear responsibility.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Result of Delegating the Wrong People
What do the mystics say about “those vested with authority”?
Some of the people of ʿirfān say they are those who reach nearness to God through supererogatory worship, of whom God says, “I am his hearing with which he hears…”. Their command is like the command “Be!”. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī says such a station befits only the Prophet’s Household, and anyone else who reaches it does so by their blessing.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Authoritative Figures Addressed in Hadith al-Nawafil
What the narrations say
About whom was the verse revealed, according to the narrations?
Imam al-Ḥusayn is reported as saying it was revealed about ʿAlī, al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn. Asked why the Qur’an did not name them, he compared it to prayer, zakāh and ḥajj, which were revealed without their details, which the Prophet then explained. In the same way the Prophet explained this verse, saying, “Whoever I am his guardian (mawlā), ʿAlī is his guardian.”
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · The Occasion of Revelation
How did Imam ʿAlī apply the verse in his letter to Mālik al-Ashtar?
He told Mālik that when hard matters weighed on him he should refer them to God and the Messenger: referring to God means the Qur’an, and referring to the Messenger means following his sunnah “that unites Muslims and does not divide them.” Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī notes that the calls for unity in Islam rest on such fixed principles.
Read more in al-Tasnim: Verse 4:59 · Referring to the Messenger to Resolve Disputes