Interpretation of Sura an-Nisa

Interpretation of Sura an-Nisa - Verse 20

:Sayyid Kamal Faghih Imani

2012/07/22

1164

20. " And if you intend to take one wife in place of another and you have given one of them a considerable property then do not take anything of it. Would you take it by slandering (her) and with manifest wrong ? "

Commentary

At the Age of Ignorance, when some men desired to marry another wife, he would denigrate his first wife so that she had to remit her dower in order that the husband might divorce her. After that, the husband could marry another woman with the same dower that he had taken back. This verse blames the custom of the pagans of that time.

Explanations

1. Remarriage is admissible from the point of Islam.

" And if you intend to take one wife in place of another. ..."

2. Divorce is in the authority of man.

3. Islam is the defender of the rights of women, and prohibits it if the second marriage might waste the rights of the first wife.

"... and you have given one of them considerable property ..."

4. Wives have possession and their whole wealth must be given to them completely.

"... then do not take anything of it. ..."

5. One of the worst sorts of transgression is taking the property of others by justifying, denigrating and defaming them. "... would you take it by slandering (her) and with manifest wrong ? "

Adopted from the book : "The Light of the Holy Qur'an; Interpretation of Surah an-Nisa" by : "Sayyid Kamal Faghih Imani and a Group of Muslim Scholars"

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Quranic Sciences