As-salaam wa-alaikum, brothers and sisters.
Summary
Today’s selection is from Surah 4, An-Nisâ or the Women, verses 24-42. These verses continue from the previous set, prohibited and permitted marriages, including marrying slave girls. Next is a brief mention of respecting one another’s property rights and a warning to avoid heinous sins and jealousy. Men are declared as the protectors of women and rules of arbitration between family members are established. Lastly there is a discussion of the rights of people such as orphans and the needy, and how the other Messengers of God will be brought forth on the Day of Judgment.
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Verses
Bis-millahi ar-rahman, ar-raheem.
In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful.Also forbidden for you are married women, except those who have fallen in your hands as prisoners of war. This is the order of Allah relating to marriage prohibitions. All women, other than these, are lawful provided you seek them in marriage with gifts from your property (dowry), desiring chastity and not lust. Give them their dowry as an obligation for the benefit you have received from your marriage relationship. However, there is no blame on you if you change the agreement of dowry with mutual consent. Surely, Allah is the Knowledgeable, Wise.[24] 4:[24]
If any of you cannot afford to marry a free believing woman, let him marry a slave girl who is a believer; Allah knows how good you are in your faith. You are from one another. Marry them with the permission of their family and give them their fair dowry so that they may live a decent life in wedlock and not live as prostitutes or look for secret illicit relationships. Then, if after marriage they commit adultery, they shall be given half the punishment prescribed for a free adulteress. The concession of such a marriage is for those of you who fear that they might commit a sin if they do not get married, but it is better for you to practice self-restraint. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.[25] 4:[25]
Allah desires to clarify, and guides you to the ways which were followed by the righteous people before you, and turns to you in mercy. Allah is the Knowledgeable, Wise.[26] Allah wishes to forgive you, but those who follow their lusts wish to see you deviate far away from the Right Way.[27] Allah wishes to lighten your burdens because humans have been created weak by nature.[28] 4:[26-28]
O believers! Do not consume one another’s wealth through unlawful means; instead, do business with mutual consent; do not kill yourselves by adopting unlawful means. Indeed Allah is Merciful to you.[29] Anyone who commits such acts of aggression and injustice will soon be thrown into Hell-fire, and this is very easy for Allah to do.[30] 4:[29-30]
If you avoid the heinous sins which you have been forbidden, We will do away with your small sins and cause you to enter a place of great honor (paradise).[31] Do not wish for that which Allah has given some of you more than the others. Men will be rewarded according to their deeds and women will be rewarded according to theirs. Ask Allah for His grace. Surely, Allah has perfect knowledge of everything.[32] 4:[31-32]
For every parent and relative, We have appointed the rightful heirs to inherit what they leave. As for those with whom you have made firm agreements, give them their share. Surely, Allah is a Witness to everything.[33] 4:[33]
Men are overseers over women because Allah has made the one of them to excel the other, and because men are required to spend their wealth for the maintenance of women. Righteous women are, therefore, devoutly obedient and guard in the husband’s absence what Allah requires them to guard (their husband’s property and their own honor). As to those women from whom you fear disobedience, first admonish them, then refuse to share your bed with them, and then, if necessary, beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further actions against them and do not make excuses to punish them. Allah is Supremely Great and is aware of your actions.[34] If you fear a breach of marriage between a man and his wife, appoint one arbiter from his family and another from hers; if they wish to reconcile, Allah will create a way of reconciliation between them. Allah is the Knowledgeable, Aware.[35] 4:[34-35]
Serve Allah and do not commit shirk (associate any partner with Him), and be good to your parents, relatives, orphans, the helpless, near and far neighbors who keep company with you, the travelers in need, and the slaves you own. Allah does not love those who are arrogant and boastful,[36] who are themselves stingy and enjoin others to be stingy, who hide the bounties which Allah has bestowed on them. For such unbelievers We have prepared a disgraceful punishment.[37] Similar punishment has been prepared for those who spend their wealth to show off to the people, believing neither in Allah nor in the Last Day. In fact, the one who chooses Shaitân as his companion has chosen a very evil companion![38] 4:[36-38]
What harm would they have suffered if they had believed in Allah and the Last Day and spent in charity out of what Allah had given them? Allah Knows them all.[39] Rest assured, Allah does not wrong anyone even by an atom’s weight. If someone does a good deed He increases it manifold and also gives an extra great reward on His own.[40]Just imagine, how they will feel, when We shall bring a witness from every nation and call upon you, O Muhammad, to testify against them?[41] On that Day (the Day of Judgment) those who rejected faith and disobeyed the Rasool will wish that they were levelled with earth; for they will not be able to hide a single word from Allah![42] 4:[39-42]
Ameen.
Tafseer
I would highly recommend that you look up more than what is written here. I’m including some of it as clarification given the subject matter.
Concerning verses 24-25, the translation I use denotes the word “slave”. Yusuf Ali’s translation uses the phrase “whom your right hands possess”. Quoth:
That is captives taken in Jihad: Your right hands does not mean necessarily that she has been assigned to you, or is your property. All captures in war belong to the community, they are “yours” in that sense. If you seek such a person in marriage, do it from no base motives. Safeguard your faith, and see that she too does believe. In that case, after all, she is of the human brotherhood, and her condition is accidental and redeemable. If the slave bore a child to her master, she would become free.
Concerning verse 34:
In case of family jars, four steps are mentioned, to be taken in that order: 1) perhaps verbal advice or admonition may be sufficient; 2) if not, sex relations may be suspended; 3) if this is not sufficient, some slight physical correction may be administered; but Imam Shafi’i considers this inadvisable, though permissible, and all authorities are unanimous in deprecating any sort of cruelty, even of the nagging kind as mentioned in the next clause 4) if all this fails a family council is recommended.
Broadly speaking, there is so much of the Qur’an and the Sunnah which talks of forgiveness. I do not think that it is particularly controversial of me to say that the use of physical force against a woman, even if she has truly wronged a man, should not be undertaken lightly or just flat out, not done. There are better ways to redress transgressions against a person.
This concludes today’s episode of the 17 Verses Podcast. I hope that this selection has helped increase your understanding of the holy Qur’an just a little bit.
Thank you and be well.