أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ مَا يَكُونُ مِن نَّجْوَىٰ ثَلَٰثَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ رَابِعُهُمْ وَلَا خَمْسَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ سَادِسُهُمْ وَلَآ أَدْنَىٰ مِن ذَٰلِكَ وَلَآ أَكْثَرَ إِلَّا هُوَ مَعَهُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كَانُوا۟ ۖ ثُمَّ يُنَبِّئُهُم بِمَا عَمِلُوا۟ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
Have you not regarded that Allah knows whatever there is in the heavens and whatever there is in the earth? There dost not takes place any secret talk among three, but He is their fourth [companion], nor among five but He is their sixth, nor when they are less than that or more but He is with them wherever they may be. Then He will inform them about what they have done on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed Allah has knowledge of all things.
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ نُهُوا۟ عَنِ ٱلنَّجْوَىٰ ثُمَّ يَعُودُونَ لِمَا نُهُوا۟ عَنْهُ وَيَتَنَٰجَوْنَ بِٱلْإِثْمِ وَٱلْعُدْوَٰنِ وَمَعْصِيَتِ ٱلرَّسُولِ وَإِذَا جَآءُوكَ حَيَّوْكَ بِمَا لَمْ يُحَيِّكَ بِهِ ٱللَّهُ وَيَقُولُونَ فِىٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَوْلَا يُعَذِّبُنَا ٱللَّهُ بِمَا نَقُولُ ۚ حَسْبُهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ يَصْلَوْنَهَا ۖ فَبِئْسَ ٱلْمَصِيرُ
Have you not regarded those who were forbidden from secret talks but again resumed what they had been forbidden from, and hold secret talks [imbued] with sin and transgression and disobedience to the Apostle? And when they come to you they greet you with words with which Allah never greeted you, and they say to themselves, ‘Why does not Allah punish us for what we say?!’ Let hell suffice them: they shall enter it, and it is an evil destination!
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِذَا تَنَٰجَيْتُمْ فَلَا تَتَنَٰجَوْا۟ بِٱلْإِثْمِ وَٱلْعُدْوَٰنِ وَمَعْصِيَتِ ٱلرَّسُولِ وَتَنَٰجَوْا۟ بِٱلْبِرِّ وَٱلتَّقْوَىٰ ۖ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِىٓ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ
O you who have faith! When you converse secretly, do not hold private conversations [imbued] with sin and aggression and disobedience to the Apostle, but converse in [a spirit of] piety and Godfearing, and be wary of Allah toward whom you will be gathered.
إِنَّمَا ٱلنَّجْوَىٰ مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ لِيَحْزُنَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَلَيْسَ بِضَآرِّهِمْ شَيْـًٔا إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ
Indeed [malicious] secret talks are from Satan, that he may upset the faithful, but he cannot harm them in any way except by Allah’s leave, and in Allah let all the faithful put their trust.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
From private law the sura widens to cosmic surveillance. Verse 7 declares that no secret counsel of three exists 'but He is their fourth,' of five 'but He is their sixth' — God present wherever people conspire. Verses 8-10 then indict a specific whispering campaign against the Prophet and console the believers.
'He is their fourth' — presence by knowledge, not by body. Every source insists the meaning is God's knowledge and encompassment, never corporeal proximity. Al-Mizan reads the number-sequence (3-4-5-6) as rhetorically ordered to teach that God is 'with' the counsellors in awareness alone, explicitly reconciling this with the Qur'an's rejection of 'the third of three' (5:72): His unity is absolute, not numerical. Tabarsi and Tusi say the same in classical terms — being 'with' a person means nothing of his affair is hidden, whereas adjacency 'is impossible, for that is an attribute of bodies.' Strikingly, Bahrani's tawhid narrations from Abu 'Abdillah, Musa b. Ja'far and the Commander of the Faithful say precisely this: God encompasses all 'by knowledge, not by essence,' for essence-in-place would entail containment — a rare convergence of hadith and philosophical exegesis.
The whispering campaign. Al-Mizan, Tabarsi and Tusi identify the whisperers as hypocrites and Jews who conspired 'in sin, enmity and disobedience to the Messenger' to grieve the believers — e.g. by feigning bad news of Muslim raiders. All three record the notorious greeting: instead of al-salam alayka they said al-sam alayka ('death upon you'), and the Prophet replied simply 'and upon you' — a report independently verified in the Sunni canon (Bukhari). Qummi supplies the Jahiliyya greeting 'good morning, good evening,' which the Prophet replaced with the greeting of Paradise, 'peace be upon you.'
Consolation. Verse 10 diagnoses such whispering as Satanic in origin, 'to grieve the believers, though it cannot harm them save by God's leave.' Al-Mizan turns this into a lesson in tawakkul: God calms believing hearts by reminding them the matter rests with Him. Qummi attaches the moving narration of Fatima's troubling dream and the refuge-supplication the Prophet was taught against Satanic dreams. Alongside these, two Imami sources — Qummi and Bahrani — carry a sharply sectarian taʾwīl applying the najwa verses to a pact of named Companions in the Ka'ba 'that the affair not return to the House of Muhammad.' These readings are recorded here strictly as attributed to their sources and are flagged for human review; the surrounding sources (al-Mizan, Tabarsi, Tusi) read the verses without any such application.