And do not be like she who untwisted her spun thread after it was strong [by] taking your oaths as [means of] deceit between you because one community is more plentiful [in number or wealth] than another community.712 Allāh only tries you thereby. And He will surely make clear to you on the Day of Resurrection that over which you used to differ.
Notes
[712] i.e., do not swear falsely or break a treaty or contract merely for a worldly advantage.
Verse 92 of Surah An-Nahl (16:92), a Meccan surah, is in juz 14, on page 277 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 73 reciters.
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Tafsir of verse 92
Al-Mukhtasar
Do not be, by breaking your oaths, foolish and dim-witted like a woman who tired herself by spinning her wool and after it was firmly spun she broke it open and unravelled it!. She tired herself by spinning it and then breaking it and she didnt obtain the desired result. You make your oaths as a means of deception to deceive one another, so that your nation can be more in number and stronger than the nation of your enemies. Allah only tests you by the fulfilment of your oaths - will you fulfil them or break them? Allah will make clear to you on the Day of Judgement those things you differed about in the world and He will distinguish those who were on truth from those who were on falsehood and the truthful from the liars.
Do not be like the woman who unravels her yarn after spinning it firmly, by taking your oaths as a means of deceit between yourselves so that one party might gain an advantage over the other57. Allah only puts you to the test thereby58, and on the Day of Resurrection, He will surely make clear to you all that over which you used to differ.
Notes
[57] i.e., Do not swear falsely or break a treaty merely for worldly gain.
[58] As to who will honor their binding pledge and who will break it for another alluring pact with a stronger party.
And be not like her who undoes the thread which she has spun, after it has become strong, by taking your oaths as a means of deception among yourselves, lest a nation should be more numerous than another nation. Allâh only tests you by this [i.e who obeys Allâh and fulfils Allâh’s Covenant and who disobeys Allâh and breaks Allâh’s Covenant]. And on the Day of Resurrection, He will certainly make clear to you that wherein you used to differ [i.e. a believer confesses and believes in the Oneness of Allâh and in the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم which the disbeliever denies and that is their difference amongst them in the life of this world]20.
Notes
[20] (V.16:92) See the footnote of (V.3:85).
And be not like unto her who unravelleth the thread, after she hath made it strong, to thin filaments, making your oaths a deceit between you because of a nation being more numerous than (another) nation. Allah only trieth you thereby, and He verily will explain to you on the Day of Resurrection that wherein ye differed.
And be not like a woman who breaks into untwisted strands the yarn which she has spun, after it has become strong. Nor take your oaths to practise deception between yourselves, lest one party should be more numerous than another: for Allah will test you by this; and on the Day of Judgment He will certainly make clear to you (the truth of) that wherein ye disagree.
And be not like her who unravels her yarn, disintegrating it into pieces after she has spun it strongly. You make your oaths to be means of deceit between you because (one) nation is more numerous than (another) nation. Allah only tries you by this; and He will most certainly make clear to you on the resurrection day that about which you differed.
And do not be as she who breaks her yarn, even after it is strongly spun, (Literally: powerfully spun) into strands, by taking to yourselves your oaths fraudulently among yourselves, one nation being more numerous than another nation. Surely, Allah only tries you thereby; and indeed He will definitely make evident to you upon the Day of the Resurrection that wherein you used to differ.
