Batch 13 — Core Moral Ayāt (Stage B)

N=1 per-ayah distillation of the Quran's most concentrated ethical passages outside Juzʾ ʿAmma. Source: J. M. Rodwell, The Koran (1861), Gutenberg #3434. Quotes are Rodwell verbatim, pending Phase 7 char-for-char audit. Anchors use canonical sura:ayah numbering. Methodology & tags: ../00-methodology.md. Passages covered: Q 4:36 (the duties), Q 17:23–39 (the covenant of children — sometimes called the "Quranic Decalogue"), Q 49:11–13 (mocking, suspicion, the nations-and-tribes verse), Q 60:8 (kind dealing with non-belligerents).

Why this batch

Stage A (B6, B7) treated these passages at thematic level. They warrant per-ayah depth because they are the Quran's clearest articulations of interpersonal ethics — the family, the neighbour, the stranger, the enemy who has not attacked you, the diverse peoples "that ye might have knowledge one of another." Q 17:23–39 is structurally a Quranic parallel to the Decalogue; Q 49:13 is the canonical universal-human-dignity ayah.

Translation note

Rodwell verbatim throughout. Where Rodwell's Victorian English flattens an Arabic term, the original is preserved in transliteration. Untranslatables in this batch: iḥsān ("kindness" / doing-the-beautiful), ʿadl (justice), taqwā (God-consciousness, flattened to "fear of God"), birr (active righteousness), qisṭ (equity / fair-dealing), shuʿūb wa qabāʾil (peoples and tribes), taʿāruf ("knowledge one of another").

Atomic statements — Q 4:36 (the duties)

A single dense ayah listing the persons and groups to whom iḥsān (kindly dealing) is owed. Comes immediately after the longest legal passage in the Quran on the family (Q 4:1–35) and resets the orientation: do not associate aught with God — and be good to a chain of widening relations.

B13-C1: Worship God; associate nothing with Him. (FOUNDATIONAL / TAWHID+WORSHIP)

Q 4:36a: "Worship God, and join not aught with Him in worship."
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatables: ʿibāda ("worship"), shirk (associating partners — by negation).

B13-C2: Be good to parents, kindred, orphans, the poor, the neighbour both-kinsman-and-newcomer, the fellow-traveller, the wayfarer, and the slaves your right hands hold. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 4:36b: "Be good to parents, and to kindred, and to orphans, and to the poor, and to a neighbour, whether kinsman or new-comer, and to a fellow traveller, and to the wayfarer, and to the slaves whom your right hands hold;"
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatable: iḥsān ("be good" — Rodwell flattens; iḥsān is the doing of the ḥasan, the beautiful/excellent, beyond strict ʿadl).
Note: the breadth of the list is structurally load-bearing — it spans the closest (parents) to the most distant (the wayfarer), and explicitly includes the "neighbour… newcomer" — a stranger settled among you.

B13-C3: God loves not the proud or the vain boaster. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+ANTHROPOLOGY)

Q 4:36c: "verily, God loveth not the proud, the vain boaster,"
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatables: mukhtāl ("proud"), fakhūr ("vain boaster") — the two Arabic terms here are specifically the self-aggrandizing in social interaction, the opposite posture to the iḥsān the ayah just commanded.

Atomic statements — Q 17:23–39 (the covenant of children)

Sometimes called the "Quranic Decalogue" — a sequence of paired commands and prohibitions, framed by tawḥīd (vv. 23a, 39) and explicitly addressed to the children as the inheritors of wisdom. This passage is the highest-density single block of interpersonal ethics in the Quran outside the Medinan legal suras.

B13-C4: Worship none but God; show kindness to parents — even when both attain to old age — speaking respectfully and deferring humbly with prayer that God show them compassion as they reared you when little. (FOUNDATIONAL / TAWHID+ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 17:23: "Thy Lord hath ordained that ye worship none but him; and, kindness to your parents, whether one or both of them attain to old age with thee: and say not to them, 'Fie!' neither reproach them; but speak to them both with respectful speech;"
Q 17:24: "And defer humbly to them out of tenderness; and say, 'Lord, have compassion on them both, even as they reared me when I was little.'"
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatable: iḥsān bi-l-wālidayn ("kindness to parents") — Rodwell preserves the strong specificity ("even as they reared me when I was little") that grounds the duty in remembered grace.

B13-C5: Render the kinsman his due, and the poor, and the wayfarer; yet waste not. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 17:26: "And to him who is of kin render his due, and also to the poor and to the wayfarer; yet waste not wastefully,"
Q 17:27: "For the wasteful are brethren of the Satans, and Satan was ungrateful to his Lord:"
Stance: command · Importance: core · Note: tabdhīr ("wasting") is here pejoratively grouped with Satan's ingratitude — the Quranic charity ethic is not unbounded permissiveness with substance.

B13-C6: Let not the hand be tied to the neck, nor outstretched all openness — God provides with open hand to whom He pleases. (OPERATIONAL / ETHICS)

Q 17:29–30: "And let not thy hand be tied up to thy neck; nor yet open it with all openness, lest thou sit thee down in rebuke, in beggary. Verily, thy Lord will provide with open hand for whom he pleaseth, and will be sparing."
Stance: command · Importance: supporting · Note: balanced economy — neither miserliness nor reckless prodigality.

B13-C7: Kill not your children for fear of want — God will provide for them and for you. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 17:31: "Kill not your children for fear of want: for them and for you will we provide. Verily, the killing them is a great wickedness."
Stance: command · Importance: core · Note: a direct prohibition of pre-Islamic Arabian female infanticide; explicitly grounds the prohibition in divine provision against economic anxiety.

B13-C8: Have nothing to do with adultery — it is foul and an evil way. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS)

Q 17:32: "Have nought to do with adultery; for it is a foul thing and an evil way:"
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatable: zinā (illicit sexual union); Rodwell renders "adultery" but the Arabic covers a broader category.

B13-C9: Slay no one whom God has forbidden you to slay, unless for a just cause; one slain wrongfully has been given to his heir, but let the heir not outstep bounds in retribution. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+JUSTICE)

Q 17:33: "Neither slay any one whom God hath forbidden you to slay, unless for a just cause: and whosoever shall be slain wrongfully, to his heir have we given powers; but let him not outstep bounds in putting the manslayer to death, for he too, in his turn, will be assisted and avenged."
Stance: command · Importance: core · Note: sanctity of life with a regulated, bounded retribution clause — anchors the Quran's anti-feud principle (cf. Q 5:32, sanctity of one life = all mankind).

B13-C10: Touch not the substance of the orphan, except uprightly, until he reach his age of strength; perform your covenant — covenants will be inquired of. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 17:34: "And touch not the substance of the orphan, unless in an upright way, till he attain his age of strength: And perform your covenant; verily the covenant shall be enquired of:"
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatable: ʿahd (covenant); covenant-fidelity is a recurring divine demand.

B13-C11: Give full measure when you measure, and weigh with just balance — this is better and fairest for settlement. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+JUSTICE)

Q 17:35: "And give full measure when you measure, and weigh with just balance. This will be better, and fairest for settlement:"
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatables: al-mīzān (the balance), qisṭ (equity) — commercial integrity rooted in the cosmological mīzān of Q 55:7–9.

B13-C12: Follow not what you have no knowledge of — hearing, sight, and heart shall each be inquired of. (FOUNDATIONAL / TRUTH+ANTHROPOLOGY)

Q 17:36: "And follow not that of which thou hast no knowledge; because the hearing and the sight and the heart,—each of these shall be enquired of:"
Stance: command · Importance: core · Note: an epistemic-ethical injunction — each faculty bears responsibility. Cited in modern Islamic ethics on rumour, news, and (with extension) AI-mediated information.

B13-C13: Walk not proudly on the earth — you cannot cleave it nor reach the mountains in height. (OPERATIONAL / ETHICS+ANTHROPOLOGY)

Q 17:37: "And walk not proudly on the earth, for thou canst not cleave the earth, neither shalt thou reach to the mountains in height;"
Q 17:38: "All this is evil; odious to thy Lord."
Stance: command · Importance: core · Note: humility before one's own creaturely limits — amāna in posture.

Atomic statements — Q 49:11–13 (mocking, suspicion, the nations-and-tribes)

Three of the Quran's clearest ayāt on speech-ethics, social conduct, and the meaning of human diversity.

B13-C14: Let no men mock men, nor women mock women — they may haply be better than the mockers; do not defame one another or call by nicknames. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 49:11: "O Believers! let not men laugh men to scorn who haply may be better than themselves; neither let women laugh women to scorn who may haply be better than themselves! Neither defame one another, nor call one another by nicknames. Bad is it to be called wicked after having professed the faith: and whoso repent not of this are doers of wrong."
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatable: al-sukhriyya (mockery); talqīb (name-calling) — these are named as sins, not merely social rudeness.

B13-C15: Avoid frequent suspicions; pry not; let no one traduce another in his absence — backbiting is like eating the flesh of a dead brother. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 49:12: "O Believers! avoid frequent suspicions, for some suspicions are a crime; and pry not: neither let the one of you traduce another in his absence. Would any one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Surely ye would loathe it. And fear ye God: for God is Ready to turn, Merciful."
Stance: command · Importance: core · Untranslatable: ghība (backbiting); the visceral metaphor of eating dead-flesh anchors backbiting as a moral horror.

B13-C16: God has created you of a male and a female; divided you into peoples and tribes "that ye might have knowledge one of another." The most worthy of honour is he who fears God most. (FOUNDATIONAL / ANTHROPOLOGY+ETHICS+SOCIAL)

Q 49:13: "O men! verily, we have created you of a male and a female; and we have divided you into peoples and tribes that ye might have knowledge one of another. Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of God is he who feareth Him most. Verily, God is Knowing, Cognisant."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatables: shuʿūb wa qabāʾil ("peoples and tribes"), taʿāruf ("that ye might have knowledge one of another" — the rich mutual-recognition sense), taqwā ("feareth"). Rodwell's footnote: "That is, not the most nobly born, like the Koreisch. This verse is said to have been revealed in Mecca on the day of its conquest."
Note: the Quran's canonical anti-racism / anti-tribalism ayah. Diversity is purposive, for mutual knowledge — not for ranking.

Atomic statements — Q 60:8 (kind dealing with non-belligerents)

A single decisive ayah on the standing posture toward those of other beliefs who have not attacked. Comes within a sura whose context is hostility (Q 60 = al-Mumtaḥana, "She Who Is Tried") — making the carve-out for kindness all the more load-bearing.

B13-C17: God does not forbid you to deal with kindness and fairness toward those who have not made war on you on account of religion, or driven you from your homes — for God loves those who act with fairness. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+JUSTICE)

Q 60:8: "God doth not forbid you to deal with kindness and fairness toward those who have not made war upon you on account of your religion, or driven you forth from your homes: for God loveth those who act with fairness."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatables: birr ("kindness" — active righteousness), qisṭ ("fairness" — equity); Rodwell flattens both. The verb construction is positive: God does not forbid — i.e., kindness and equity are permitted and indeed are signs God loves.
Note: read together with Q 2:256 (no compulsion) and Q 109:6 (your religion / my religion), this anchors a non-belligerence posture toward non-Muslims who are not at war. The boundary (vs Q 60:9: those who have warred) is also explicit and not collapsed.

Step 4 — Clusters

Cluster	Atomic statements	Intent
The widening circle of duty	C2, C4, C5	Parents → kindred → orphans → poor → neighbours → wayfarers → slaves
Tawḥīd as the gate	C1, C4	Worship one God; everything else follows
Sanctity of life	C7, C9	No infanticide; no wrongful slaying; bounded retribution
Economic integrity	C5, C6, C10, C11	Render dues; balanced economy; orphan's substance; full measure
Speech ethics	C14, C15	No mockery, no defamation, no backbiting, no false rumour
Epistemic ethics	C12	Each sensory and cognitive faculty bears responsibility
Posture / humility	C3, C13	Not proud, not boasting, not swaggering on the earth
Universal humanity	C16, C17	Peoples and tribes for mutual knowledge; kindness to non-belligerent others

Step 5 — Internal tensions

C17 (kindness to non-belligerent others) vs the warfare verses elsewhere in Q 60 and Q 9: not a contradiction at the ayah level — the carve-out is explicit on both sides (those who have/have not warred). The interpretive question of which posture is the default in which historical context is a matter for the Sunnah, tafsīr, and fiqh — context-flagged and deferred.
C9 (bounded retribution) and C11 (just balance) vs the Q 2:178 retaliation passage: complementary, not contradictory — C9 explicitly limits retribution; the legal framework presupposes the moral framework here.

Step 6 — Synthesized passage principles

B13-P1: The duties form a widening circle — from worship of one God through parents to the stranger and the captive

"Worship God, and join not aught with Him in worship. Be good to parents, and to kindred, and to orphans, and to the poor, and to a neighbour, whether kinsman or new-comer, and to a fellow traveller, and to the wayfarer, and to the slaves whom your right hands hold." Tawḥīd roots and iḥsān radiates: from closest blood to the slave under one's own roof to the newcomer-neighbour.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+SOCIAL+TAWHID · Covers: C1, C2, C4, C5 · Evidence: Q 4:36, Q 17:23–24, 17:26 · Untranslatable: iḥsān

B13-P2: Life is sacred; killing children is a great wickedness; retribution is bounded

"Kill not your children for fear of want: for them and for you will we provide. Verily, the killing them is a great wickedness." And "Neither slay any one whom God hath forbidden you to slay, unless for a just cause… but let him not outstep bounds in putting the manslayer to death." Quranic anti-infanticide and anti-feud.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+JUSTICE · Covers: C7, C9 · Evidence: Q 17:31, 17:33

B13-P3: Economic integrity — full measure, just balance, no waste, no hoarding, the orphan's substance untouched

"Give full measure when you measure, and weigh with just balance. This will be better, and fairest for settlement." Balanced economy: neither hand "tied to the neck" nor reckless; the orphan's substance held in trust; covenants kept and inquired of.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+JUSTICE · Covers: C5, C6, C10, C11 · Evidence: Q 17:26–27, 17:29–30, 17:34–35 · Untranslatables: al-mīzān, qisṭ, ʿahd

B13-P4: Speech and gaze are moral acts — no mockery, no nicknames, no suspicion, no backbiting, no following what one does not know

"Let not men laugh men to scorn… neither defame one another, nor call one another by nicknames… avoid frequent suspicions, for some suspicions are a crime; and pry not… Would any one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?" And: "Follow not that of which thou hast no knowledge; because the hearing and the sight and the heart,—each of these shall be enquired of."

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+TRUTH+SOCIAL · Covers: C12, C14, C15 · Evidence: Q 17:36, Q 49:11–12 · Untranslatables: al-sukhriyya, ghība

B13-P5: Humility is the becoming posture — God loves not the proud

"And walk not proudly on the earth, for thou canst not cleave the earth, neither shalt thou reach to the mountains in height… God loveth not the proud, the vain boaster." Posture matches faculty: a creature who cannot pierce the earth or out-reach the mountains has no warrant to swagger.

Tier: OPERATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+ANTHROPOLOGY · Covers: C3, C13 · Evidence: Q 4:36c, Q 17:37–38 · Untranslatables: mukhtāl, fakhūr

B13-P6: All humanity is one origin, divided into peoples and tribes for mutual knowing — honour is by taqwā, not lineage; kindness and equity are owed to all non-belligerents

"O men! verily, we have created you of a male and a female; and we have divided you into peoples and tribes that ye might have knowledge one of another. Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of God is he who feareth Him most." And: "God doth not forbid you to deal with kindness and fairness toward those who have not made war upon you on account of your religion." Diversity is taʿāruf-purposive (for mutual knowledge); the standing posture toward non-belligerent others is birr (active kindness) and qisṭ (equity).

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ANTHROPOLOGY+ETHICS+SOCIAL · Covers: C16, C17 · Evidence: Q 49:13, Q 60:8 · Untranslatables: shuʿūb wa qabāʾil, taʿāruf, birr, qisṭ, taqwā

Step 7 — Traceability

Principle	Atomic statements	Ayāt
B13-P1	C1, C2, C4, C5	Q 4:36, Q 17:23–24, 17:26
B13-P2	C7, C9	Q 17:31, 17:33
B13-P3	C5, C6, C10, C11	Q 17:26–27, 17:29–30, 17:34–35
B13-P4	C12, C14, C15	Q 17:36, Q 49:11–12
B13-P5	C3, C13	Q 4:36c, Q 17:37–38
B13-P6	C16, C17	Q 49:13, Q 60:8

Step 8 — Quality

Coverage at per-ayah depth: Q 4:36 (1/1 ayah, three-part), Q 17:23–39 (the core ten distinct moral commands captured), Q 49:11–13 (3/3), Q 60:8 (1/1).
Orphaned at flagged-passage level: 0%.
Principles: 6 (within range).
Traceability: 100%.

Step 9 — Validation (frame-independent claim-vs-warrant)

B13-P1 (widening circle of duty): very strong convergence — Decalogue (honour parents), Levitical "love the stranger" (Lev 19:34), Confucian xiào (filial reverence), Jesus' Good Samaritan, Catholic Social Doctrine's solidarity. Warrant (rooted in tawḥīd and iḥsān before God) is theistic.
B13-P2 (sanctity of life; bounded retribution): very strong convergence — Decalogue, Buddhist ahiṃsā (here covered at the claim level only — Q 17:33 explicitly allows just cause); the bounded-retribution element converges with the Tanakh's "eye for eye" as cap, not floor. Anti-infanticide convergence is strong cross-traditionally.
B13-P3 (economic integrity): convergence with Tanakh's "just balance" (Lev 19:35–36), Confucian zhōng (loyalty in dealings), Catholic Social Doctrine's dignity-of-work; Quranic distinctive is the explicit naming of the orphan's substance and covenant-fidelity inquired-of by God.
B13-P4 (speech as moral): very strong convergence — Decalogue prohibition of false witness, James 3 on the tongue, Buddhist Right Speech, Christian teaching on truth and the logos. Q 49:12's metaphor (eating dead-flesh) is a Quranic distinctive image. Q 17:36 (each faculty inquired of) is a striking proto-epistemic ethic with direct contemporary relevance to AI-mediated information.
B13-P5 (humility): convergence with biblical "before honour, humility" and Christian kenosis (at the claim level — the kenosis warrant differs); Buddhist anatta-driven humility; Stoic acceptance of creaturely limit. Warrant here is creaturely limit before God.
B13-P6 (one human family; honour by taqwā; kindness to non-belligerents): the strongest cross-tradition convergence candidate in this batch — Genesis 1:27 / Acts 17:26; Christian human dignity; Confucian universalism; Stoic cosmopolis. Warrant (created by one God, ranked by taqwā) is theistic. Q 60:8 supplies a Quranic anchor for active kindness across the non-belligerent religious boundary — a distinct contribution to the Atlas's pluralism question.

Cross-references

Stage A: deepens B6 (family / women / justice) and B7 (table / covenant / law). No batch principle overturned.
N=3 strengthening: B13-P1 → N=3 P13 (honour, mercy, forgiveness order the family and community); B13-P2 → N=3 P11 (justice; sanctity of one life = all mankind); B13-P3 → N=3 P10 (righteousness as care for the vulnerable) and P11; B13-P4 → N=3 P13 (guarded speech); B13-P6 → N=3 P12 (one human family, honour by taqwā). Q 60:8 specifically strengthens P12 / P11 with an additional Rodwell-anchored attestation.