Transliteration:( Yaaa ayyuhal lazeena aamanoo atee'ul laaha wa atee'ur Rasoola wa laa tubtilooo a'maalakum )
"O believers [80]! Obey Allah and His Messenger [81], and let not your deeds go in vain [82]."
Two key points arise from this address:
Islamic worship is not obligatory on disbelievers. One must first embrace faith, then fulfill duties like Salaah and Fasting.
The address to believers does not necessarily include the Holy Prophet ﷺ, which indicates a separation between the audience (believers) and the Messenger in this particular directive.
This part of the verse conveys two essential rulings:
It is compulsory to obey the Hadith just as it is to obey the Qur’an, because obedience to the Holy Prophet ﷺ is commanded separately from obedience to Allah.
Obedience to Allah pertains to divine commandments, while obedience to the Prophet ﷺ includes both his words and his actions. This repetition underscores that complete obedience is required in all aspects.
The verse was revealed to counter those believers who misunderstood that faith alone could save them, and that sins wouldn’t affect them after embracing Islam. The verse warns against such a false sense of security.
This stresses that abandoning good deeds after starting them can render them void. Scholars derive from this that if one begins a voluntary (Nafl) act, like Nafl Salaah or Umrah, it becomes obligatory to complete it.
A clear example is when the Holy Prophet ﷺ wore Ihram for a Nafl Umrah, but due to the Treaty of Hudaibiyya, it was delayed. Yet, he fulfilled it a year later—demonstrating the importance of completion once initiated.
The tafsir of Surah Muhammad verse 33 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Muhammad ayat 32 which provides the complete commentary from verse 32 through 35.
(47:33) Believers, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and do not cause your works to be nullified.[40]
40. In other words, the deeds being beneficial and yielding of good results depends wholly on one’s obedience to Allah and His Messenger. After one has turned away from obedience, no deed remains a good deed so that one may deserve any reward for it.
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