The verse of "those in authority": how Sunni and Shia scholars read it
Who are the uli al-amr in An-Nisa 59? The verse, its context, and how al-Tafsir al-Muyassar, Tafsir al-Safi and Tafsir al-Mizan each read it, with what the readings share and where they part.
The verse
O you who have believed, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is the best [way] and best in result.
Few verses come up more often in discussions of obedience and authority, and the whole question turns on one phrase: who are uli al-amr, those in authority? What follows gives each tradition’s reading from a commentary this site serves in full, rather than characterising anyone’s position — and adjudicates nothing.
The commentaries are in Arabic; the renderings are mine.
Context
The verse sits in Surah An-Nisa immediately after the command to return trusts and to judge with justice:
Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice. Excellent is that which Allah instructs you. Indeed, Allah is ever Hearing and Seeing.
And what follows condemns taking disputes to a false authority:
Have you not seen those who claim to have believed in what was revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you? They wish to refer legislation to Taghut, while they were commanded to reject it; and Satan wishes to lead them far astray.
The whole passage is about where a dispute is taken.
The Sunni reading
Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar, issued by the King Fahd Complex, reads it this way: respond to God’s commands and do not disobey Him; respond to the Messenger in the truth he brought; and obey those in charge of your affairs in what is not disobedience to God. Then, if you differ over something, return the judgement in it to the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Messenger — and that returning is better for you than disputing and speaking from opinion.
So uli al-amr are those who hold authority among the Muslims generally; obedience to them is conditioned on its not being disobedience to God; and the reference point in a dispute is the Book and the Sunnah.
The Shia reading
Tafsir al-Safi reports from the Imams of the House of the Prophet. Fayd Kashani cites al-Kafi and al-Ayyashi from Imam al-Sadiq: "He meant us specifically — He commanded all the believers, until the Day of Resurrection, to obey us." And in another report on this verse: it was revealed concerning Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Hasan and al-Husayn.
Tafsir al-Mizan builds the case differently, from the wording rather than from report. Tabataba’i argues that the obedience commanded in "Obey Allah and obey the Messenger" is absolute — tied to no condition and no qualification — and that this is itself the proof that the Messenger commands nothing and forbids nothing contrary to God’s ruling in the matter; otherwise making his obedience obligatory would be a contradiction, and that cannot hold without isma, protection from error, in him.
He then applies the same argument to uli al-amr: the case for the Messenger’s protection from error stands on its own grounds, from reason and from transmission, quite apart from this verse — which is why someone might suppose that those in authority need no such protection and that the verse reads soundly without it. On his reading it does not.
Where the readings agree
- That the command to obey is real, and that obedience to the Messenger is absolute.
- That obedience to those in authority does not extend to disobeying God. Al-Muyassar states the condition outright, and al-Mizan cites the saying transmitted by both traditions: there is no obedience to a creature in disobedience to the Creator.
- That the reference point in a dispute is the Book and the Sunnah, not anyone’s opinion. Al-Mizan draws attention to the fact that the verse does not mention those in authority where it names what a dispute is returned to: those in authority, whoever they are, have no share in revelation; their part is the judgement they see as sound. So when the duty of returning and submitting in a dispute is stated, they are left out and God and the Messenger alone are named.
- That those in authority may not legislate a new ruling, nor abrogate one established in the Book and the Sunnah.
Where they part
- Who is meant. Al-Muyassar takes uli al-amr to be those who hold authority among the Muslims in general. Al-Safi reports from the Imams that the phrase means the Imams of the House of the Prophet specifically.
- Whether protection from error is required. Al-Mizan holds that an unconditioned command to obey entails it. Al-Muyassar does not raise the question, and rests on the condition that obedience stops at disobedience to God.
- How the case is made. Al-Safi builds on transmission from the Imams; al-Mizan on the wording and flow of the verse, supported afterwards by report; al-Muyassar keeps to the plain sense of the words.
These are set out as their own books set them out. Weighing them is not what this page is for.
Sources
- Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran.
- Tafsir al-Safi — Mulla Muhsin Fayd Kashani.
- Tafsir al-Mizan — Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba’i.
All three, in full and each attributed to its author, sit side by side on the verse’s own page:
Tafsir of the verse of those in authority
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