And recall when We took a firm covenant from the Children of Israel: Worship none but The God (Allah); do good to parents, relatives, orphans, and those in need; speak good words to people; establish prayer and conscious worshipful connection (salat), and give purifying social charity (zakat). Then you turned your backs, except for a few among you, while you were turning away.
After speaking of faith and righteous deeds, the Qur'an again recalls the covenant of the Children of Israel. This time, the content of the covenant is placed before the reader: serving The God, doing good to human beings, good speech, establishing prayer and conscious worshipful connection (salat), and giving purifying social charity (zakat). A firm covenant (mithaq) comes from the root W TH Q, associated with firmness and making secure. It is a binding covenant, not advice whose acceptance and abandonment are equivalent. What follows consists of commitments that must be honored in life.
The covenant begins by requiring that you worship none but The God. Worship here is service and devotion; a human being must not place another in the position of a deity. This meaning is not confined to the outward form of a ceremony, but neither should an image constructed from the root replace the meaning of the word itself. The verse's clear statement is that worshipful service belongs exclusively to The God.
The form of the sentence also deserves attention. The Qur'an uses the indicative expression “you do not worship,” but in the context of the covenant this sentence states the content of the commitment: worship none but Him. It is not reporting that all of them actually behaved this way; the ending of the verse reports their turning away. Here, refraining from worship of anything other than The God is what they were bound to by covenant.
Immediately afterward, the parents' claim upon their children appears in a different expression: do good to your parents. This placement shows the important position of parents, but the distinction between the two relationships remains intact in the words themselves: worship for The God, and benevolent conduct (ihsan) toward parents. The greatness of a mother and father's rights does not raise them to the position of a deity, just as serving The God does not release a person from their parents' rights.
The Qur'an itself shows how to understand this closeness. Luqman 31:14 recalls the mother's hardship in pregnancy and nurturing the child, and then commands: give thanks to Me and to your parents. In Al-Isra 17:23–24 too, benevolence toward parents follows the exclusive dedication of worship to The God and is accompanied by remembrance of their raising the child. These verses connect care for parents with hardship, upbringing, and a claim that a person must not forget upon growing up.
Benevolence is not merely refraining from harm; it means doing good. In the relationship with parents, it can become visible through attending to their needs, patience with their frailty, respectful speech, and preserving their dignity. Al-Isra 17:23 speaks of their old age, prohibits even the smallest expression of irritation and rebuffing them, and calls for gracious speech. Benevolence is therefore not a hidden feeling or a claim of love; it must be visible in the manner of one's conduct.
Nevertheless, doing good to parents is not the same as unconditional obedience. Luqman 31:15 says that if they pressure you to associate something with The God, do not obey them; but in the same sentence it adds: keep their company in this worldly life with kindness. This boundary clarifies the placement of worship and benevolence alongside one another: refusing to associate partners with The God does not authorize mistreatment of parents, and parents' rights do not authorize taking a partner for Him.
Benevolence in this verse does not stop with parents. Relatives, orphans, and the needy are joined to the same set of recipients. The command to do good therefore encompasses all these groups. Relatives, through their close ties; orphans, through the loss of a supporter; and the needy, through want and poverty, each place a responsibility upon a person. The verse extends the circle of benevolence beyond the family. Someone in need does not have to be our relative to be included in this commitment.
Alongside caring for these groups, the verse speaks of people: speak good words to people. No particular people, religion, or group is named here. Goodness in speech is not a privilege reserved for those who share our beliefs.
Benevolent action (ihsan) and goodness (husn) both come from the root H S N. The same goodness required in conduct toward others now reaches speech. Goodness concerns what is good, so the issue is not merely adorning the outward form of a sentence. Speech that conveys falsehood or humiliation through polite words does not become good merely because its surface is polished. Al-Isra 17:53 also asks the servants of The God to say what is better, and the same verse warns of Satan's sowing discord among them.
Good speech is not necessarily speech that everyone is pleased to hear. Stating the truth, warning, and criticism may be necessary, but an error can be made clear without attacking a person's dignity. This covenant does not ask us to hide truth to please people. It asks that language serve goodness rather than become a means of harm and superiority-seeking.
Within this same set of commitments comes the command: establish prayer and conscious worshipful connection (salat), and give purifying social charity (zakat). The relationship with The God and responsibility toward people are not presented as two separate, unrelated domains.
Establishing (iqamah) means setting up and maintaining. In Forqan's Qur'anic reading, prayer and conscious worshipful connection (salat) is an aware, devotional relationship with The God, accompanied by remembrance of Him and the orientation of one's life. This explanation comes from reading verses together, not from equating the root of prayer with the word for connection. In addressing Moses, the Qur'an says: establish prayer for My remembrance. Al-‘Ankabut 29:45 also describes prayer as restraining indecency and wrongdoing. Establishing it must therefore not be reduced to movements and words detached from awareness and conduct. The meaning of prayer, its essential elements, and the relationship between remembrance of The God and human conduct are examined in detail in the article How Should We Establish Salat According to the Qur’an?. The command to give also concerns giving and conveying. Purifying social charity (zakat) is connected with the semantic field of purity and growth; in this command it is something that must be rendered and put into practice. In Forqan's reading, giving and delivering what is due to those in need are among the ways this purification and growth are realized: a person both responds to another's need and examines their own relationship with wealth, miserliness, and accumulation. This meaning must neither be reduced to inward purity without action nor equated with every later financial mechanism. Its Qur'anic and historical examination appears in Zakat and Its Historical Distortion.
The inclusion of prayer and purifying giving in the covenant of the Children of Israel shows that, in the Qur'an, these two are not exclusive to the community after its revelation. But this verse does not state the details of how they were practiced in that community. What is clear here is their position alongside exclusive devotion to The God, benevolence, and good speech.
After stating all these commitments, the ending of the verse reveals the distance between covenant and conduct: then you turned your backs, except for a few among you, while you were turning away. Turning one's back (tawallaytum) and being averse or turning away (mu‘ridun) describe their response. The concluding sentence emphasizes their state as they turned their backs. A covenant that should have been accepted and upheld was met with aversion.
Within this same censure, the exception except for a few among you remains. A few were not included in this turning away. Removing this qualification does not make the criticism stronger; it disregards the justice of the verse itself. The existence of those few must not be used to conceal the others' turning away, nor should the error of many be used to deny the faithfulness of the few.
For readers of the Qur'an, this covenant is not merely a report of the past. An-Nisa 4:36 places the same principles before them again: worship The God, associate no partner with Him, and do good to parents, relatives, orphans, and the needy. The verse's connection with responsibility today is therefore clear from the Qur'an itself. What was abandoned in the past, thereby breaking the covenant, cannot be kept alive today by preserving its name while setting aside its practice.
The covenant in this verse places worshipful service to The God alongside doing good to human beings. The rights of parents, relatives, and those in need, good speech, prayer, and purifying giving are not dispensable margins of religion; they are commitments within this very covenant. Faithfulness to it must be visible in life.