Verses 10–13
Commentary
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا جَاءَكُمُ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ مُهَاجِرَاتٍ فَامْتَحِنُوهُنَّ ۖ اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِإِيمَانِهِنَّ ۖ فَإِنْ عَلِمْتُمُوهُنَّ مُؤْمِنَاتٍ فَلَا تَرْجِعُوهُنَّ إِلَى الْكُفَّارِ ۖ لَا هُنَّ حِلٌّ لَهُمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحِلُّونَ لَهُنَّ ۖ وَآتُوهُمْ مَا أَنْفَقُوا ۚ وَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْ تَنْكِحُوهُنَّ إِذَا آتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ ۚ وَلَا تُمْسِكُوا بِعِصَمِ الْكَوَافِرِ وَاسْأَلُوا مَا أَنْفَقْتُمْ وَلْيَسْأَلُوا مَا أَنْفَقُوا ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ حُكْمُ اللَّهِ ۖ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ ۚ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ١٠
(60:10): O you who believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants then examine them. Allah is most knowing of their faith. And if you know them to be believers then do not return them to the disbelievers. They (the believing women) are not lawful to them (the disbelieving men) nor are they (the disbelieving men) lawful to them (the believing women), but give them (the disbelieving men) what they have spent (as dower). And there is no blame on you if you marry them (the believing emigrant women) when you have given them their dues. And do not hold to marriage bonds with disbelieving women but ask for what you have spent (on them as dower) and let them (the disbelieving men) ask what they have spent (as dower on believing women). That is the judgment of Allah. He judges between you. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
The content of this verse suggests that it was revealed after the peace treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyya had been concluded. The terms of that treaty, concluded between the Prophet and the people of Mecca, contained a provision, which was that if any man from Mecca was to emigrate to Medina and join the Muslims there, they were to send him back to the Meccans. However if a man from the Muslims was to join the Meccans, they would not return him to the Muslims. Subsequently, a disbelieving (Meccan) woman embraced the Muslim faith and emigrated to Medina and so her husband came searching for her, seeking to return her home. The husband asked the Prophet to return her to him whereupon the Prophet replied that what they had mutually agreed upon as a condition in the peace treaty was the returning of men rather than women. Consequently, the Prophet did not return the woman to him; however he paid him the dower (al-mahr) that he had paid for her and this is what the verse under consideration indicates, along with rules pertaining to such women as befitting such a situation.
The statement, O you who believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants.... identifies the women as ‘believers’ before their examination. This means that the knowledge that they were believers was on the basis of their manifesting and displaying the same. The part of this verse that says ...then examine them... is an imperative to examine their faith by means of what will manifest their belief such as the testimony in favor of the (Muslim) faith (al-shahāda) or swearing an oath which would grant knowledge of their faith and engender trust in them. The part of this verse that says ...Allah is most knowing of their faith... indicates that such conventional knowledge and trust (as that obtained by human examination) suffices in this matter rather than the certainty of the reality of their faith, which God alone is most knowledgeable of, true knowledge of which does not elude Him at all.
The statement ...And if you know them to be believers then do not return them to the disbelievers.... has the women described or qualified by the attribute of faith and belief (muʾmināt—believers). This description is in order to point out the reason for the judgement given (in this part of the verse, which is that the believing emigrant women were not to be sent back to the disbelievers from whom they had fled, and this was because they were believers). It is also in order to point out the reason for the severance of the marital bond between a believing woman and a disbelieving man (enunciated in the next part of this very verse). The next part of the verse consists of two sentences They (the believing women) are not lawful to them (the disbelieving men) nor are they (the disbelieving men) lawful to them (the believing women)... which together mean the severance of the marital bond between them but the two sentences do not prohibit them anything else.
The clause ...but give them (the disbelieving men) what they have spent (as dower)... means ‘give the disbelieving husband what he had spent on his former wife-turned-Muslim of the dower’ while the part of this verse that says And there is no blame on you if you marry them (the believing emigrant women) when you have given them their dues.... serves to remove the obstacle from Muslim men marrying these believing emigrant women provided the latter are given their dues. The Arabic word used for ‘dues’ in this verse is ujūr which is the plural of ajr. The word ajr here means the dower (al-mahr).
The instruction ...And do not hold to marriage bonds with disbelieving women... has the word ʿiṣam occur in it. This word is the plural of the word ʿiṣma (which means protection and fortification). Here, it refers to the bond of permanent marriage which protects and safeguards the woman. Therefore, the phrase ‘holding to marriage bonds’ (imsāk al-ʿisma) refers to the (believing) man continuing to remain married to or continuing to keep to his disbelieving wife even after he has embraced the Muslim faith. Thus what is required of him, after having embraced the Muslim faith, is to let go of his disbelieving wife irrespective of whether she was a polytheist or from the people of the Book. This is while it has already been discussed in the context ofAnd do not marry the polytheist women until they believe...() and...and (allowed to you are) the chaste women from among those who have been given the Book before you...(Q) that there is no abrogation between these two verses and the verse under study here.
Thereafter, the verse says ...but ask for what you have spent (on them as dower) and let them (the disbelieving men) ask what they have spent (as dower on believing women): The masculine plural imperative verb is‘alū in this section of the verse is an imperative directed at the believing Muslim men (and literally means: you all believing Muslim men ask...) while the part of this verse that says wal yas‘alū has the masculine third person plural verb in the jussive (yas‘alū) also expressing a command or an imperative. It is an imperative directed at the disbelieving men (and literally means: and let them all ask....) Thus this part of the verse addresses the believing men and aims to say: if the wife of a Muslim man from among you joins the disbelievers then ask the disbelievers for what you have spent on her as dower while if the wife of a disbelieving man joins the Muslims then the disbelievers have the right to ask for her dower to be repaid to them.
Finally, this verse concludes by pointing out that what this verse contains is the judgment of God which He has legislated for the believers. Thus God says That is the judgment of Allah. He judges between you. And Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
وَإِنْ فَاتَكُمْ شَيْءٌ مِنْ أَزْوَاجِكُمْ إِلَى الْكُفَّارِ فَعَاقَبْتُمْ فَآتُوا الَّذِينَ ذَهَبَتْ أَزْوَاجُهُمْ مِثْلَ مَا أَنْفَقُوا ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي أَنْتُمْ بِهِ مُؤْمِنُونَ ١١
(60:11) And if anything of your wives has passed away from you to the unbelievers, then your turn (of triumph) comes, give to those whose wives have gone away the like of what they have spent, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah in Whom you believe.
Al-Rāghib writes: ‘the word al-fawt means the distance of something from a person such that (it becomes beyond his reach and) it is difficult or unfeasible (for him) to reach or attain it. God says And if anything of your wives has passed away from you (fātakum) to the unbelievers....’.
He (al-Rāghib) explains the nouns al-muʿāqaba and al-ʿiqāb to mean: ‘arriving or ending up at the ultimate result or outcome (ʿuqba) of something’.
The implication of the verb (fa)ʿāqabtum (translated as: then your turn (of triumph) comes) is (fa) ʿāqabtum min al-kuffār meaning: then when your turn (of triumph) comes in respect of the disbelievers. This means: when you acquire war booty from them, which is the ultimate result or outcome (ʿuqba) of a military attack or raid. It is also suggested that the verb ʿāqaba has the meaning of the verb ʿaqaba (which means: to come close after someone as though at his heels; to arrive at the heel of someone; to follow, to come after, to pursue). It is also suggested that the verb ʿāqaba is derived from the noun al-ʿaqaba which means al-nawba—one’s turn or shift.
The most suitable meaning for the word shayʾun (thing) which occurs in this verse is that of ‘dower’ (al-mahr). The preposition min (from) preceding the word azwājikum (min azwājikum—from your wives) is identified as the preposition min of ibtidā al-ghāya. The phrase ilā al-kuffār (to the unbelievers) is related to the verbal construction fātakum (verb (fāta) + grammatical object of verb (second person masculine plural pronoun kum)) (has passed away from you all / has escaped from you all) which occurs at the beginning of this verse that says And if anything of your wives has passed away.... (Therefore the meaning obtained is: And if anything of your wives has passed away ... to the unbelievers). This is while the part of this verse which says ...those whose wives have gone away... refers to some of the believers. These are those to whom the masculine third person plural past tense verb anfaqū (meaning: ‘they have spent’, which occurs in the previous verse) applies.
Hence the meaning obtained is: “if your wives flee or escape from you to the disbelievers by joining them thereby causing you to lose the dower that you paid for them, and they are unable to return to you what you had expended on them of the dower, and then subsequently you obtain war booty from the disbelievers as a result of a raid or an attack, then give the believers whose wives have fled from them what you have obtained of the war booty similar in value to what they had paid of the dower.”
This verse has also been interpreted in several different ways; these interpretations are far from normal understanding, and therefore we have ignored them here.
This verse comes to a close with an imperative ...and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, the One in Whom you believe. The description of God here by means of the relative pronoun alladhī (the One) and the relative sentence antum bihī muʾminūn (in Whom you believe) is in order to justify the imperative, which is ...and be careful of (your duty to) Allah. This is because the necessary corollary of faith and belief in God is taqwā—that is, being God-conscious and being careful of Him.
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِذَا جَاءَكَ الْمُؤْمِنَاتُ يُبَايِعْنَكَ عَلَىٰ أَنْ لَا يُشْرِكْنَ بِاللَّهِ شَيْئًا وَلَا يَسْرِقْنَ وَلَا يَزْنِينَ وَلَا يَقْتُلْنَ أَوْلَادَهُنَّ وَلَا يَأْتِينَ بِبُهْتَانٍ يَفْتَرِينَهُ بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِنَّ وَأَرْجُلِهِنَّ وَلَا يَعْصِينَكَ فِي مَعْرُوفٍ ۙ فَبَايِعْهُنَّ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُنَّ اللَّهَ ۖ إِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ ١٢
(60:12) O Prophet, if believing women come to you pledging that they shall not associate anything with Allah, that they shall not steal nor commit adultery or kill their children, or bring forth slander/lie which they had invented between their hands and feet, or disobey you in what is good, then accept their pledge and ask forgiveness for them from Allah. Indeed, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Merciful.
This verse contains the judgment from God regarding the pledge of the believing women to the Prophet. It stipulates conditions for them, some of which are common to both men and women, such as keeping away from polytheism and keeping away from disobeying the Messenger of God in what is good. This is while others are specifically required of women from the perspective that the management of the home naturally falls to them, and they are the means to the preservation of the chastity and integrity of the home, the perpetuation of lineages, and the purity and legitimacy of the birth of children. These are such conditions as refraining from stealing, refraining from adultery, refraining from killing children or claiming that a child born to them from a man other than their husband belongs to their husband when it does not, although it may be argued that these conditions contain aspects of commonality for both genders.
The verse is in the form of a conditional sentence where the part of it which says O Prophet, if believing women come to you pledging that they shall not associate anything with Allah, that they shall not steal nor commit adultery or kill their children, or bring slander/lie which they had invented between their hands and feet, or disobey you in what is good... serves as its premise (that is, the part of the conditional sentence that contains the condition) while its result (or outcome) is the part which says ...then accept their pledge and ask forgiveness for them from Allah. Indeed, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Merciful.
The clause ...that they shall not associate anything with Allah... means not associating idols or other gods with God. This is a condition that is indispensable for any human in any situation, while the part of this verse which says ...that they shall not steal... means they shall not steal from their husbands or from anyone else, but especially from their husbands as the context suggests. The part of this verse which says ...nor commit adultery... means taking up lovers for themselves, while the part that says ...or kill their children... means killing them by means of burying them alive (infanticide) or by other such means, and aborting foetuses.
The statement ...or bring forth slander/lie, which they had invented between their hands and feet... refers to women becoming pregnant due to adultery and then giving birth to the child and attributing it to their husbands. Thus their associating the child in such a manner to their husbands and falsely attributing it to them is a slander and a calumny which they have invented between their hands and feet, and this is because when a mother delivers her child, it falls forth from between her hands and feet. The condition of shunning adultery does not dispense with this condition, since both these deeds are different from each other and each is individually subject to proscription and illegality.
The statement ...or disobey you in what is good... places the disobedience in relation to the Prophet rather than in relation to God even though in effect disobeying the Prophet ultimately means disobeying God. Thus the meaning is that women should not fall behind in observing the Prophetic teachings and practices due to disobeying him; teachings and practices that the Prophet observed and established in the Muslim society whereby what he established became good among the Muslims and in the Muslim society. It becomes apparent from here that disobeying the good (al-maʿṣiya fī al-maʿrūf) includes abandoning good such as abandoning the ritual prayers (tark al-ṣalāt) or abandoning paying the poor-due (tark al-zakāt) and doing what is forbidden such as the women’s wanton display of female finery in the pre-Islamic times ().
This verse ends with Indeed, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Merciful which is a declaration of the necessity of forgiveness and the strengthening of hope.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَتَوَلَّوْا قَوْمًا غَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ قَدْ يَئِسُوا مِنَ الْآخِرَةِ كَمَا يَئِسَ الْكُفَّارُ مِنْ أَصْحَابِ الْقُبُورِ ١٣
(60:13) O you who believe do not make friends with a people on whom is the wrath of Allah. Indeed they have despaired from the hereafter as have despaired the disbelievers from those who are in the graves.
O you who believe do not make friends with a people on whom is the wrath of Allah... refers to the Jews who are subject to God’s wrath. This quality, in respect of the Jews, is frequently repeated in the Qur’an such as in...and they became deserving of Allah’s wrath... (). The end part of this verse clearly attests that the identity of ‘a people’ (on whom is the wrath of God) (qawman (ghaḍiballāhu ʿalayhim)) is different to the identity of the disbelievers (al-kuffār). The occurrence of the word ‘hereafter’ (al-ākhira) in this verse where it says ...Indeed they despair from the hereafter... means they despair from (or of) ‘the reward of the hereafter’ (thawāb al-ākhira) while those meant by the word ‘the disbelievers’ (al-kuffār) in ....as despair the disbelievers from those who are in the graves... are the disbelievers in God and those who reject the resurrection. It is also suggested that the word ‘the disbelievers’ (al-kuffār) in this verse refers (specifically) to the polytheists of Mecca (kuffāru Makka) and the letter lām (which together with the letter alif is prefixed to the word kuffār, rendering it al-kuffār) is in order to render the word definite and specific, thereby specifying that it refers specifically to the Meccan disbelievers.
This is while the preposition min in min aṣḥāb al-qubūr (from those who are in the graves) is identified as min of ibtidāʾ al-ghāya.The end part of this verse is a declaration of the Jew’s and the unbeliever’s eternal miserly and eternal ruin, and this is so that the believers may beware of befriending them and mixing with them. Thus the meaning obtained is: the Jews have despaired of the reward of the hereafter just as the rejecters of resurrection have despaired of the dead buried in the graves. It is also suggested that the word kuffār in this verse is a reference to those who bury their dead and conceal them in the earth—an invocation of a meaning of the word kufr which is: ‘to hide’ (al-sitr). It is also suggested that the word kuffār refers to the dead disbelievers and therefore the preposition min is min bayāniyya/min libayān al-jins (the preposition min that clarifies ‘the type of’ something). Consequently, the meaning obtained is: the Jews have despaired of the reward of the hereafter just as the disbelievers (from the type or of the type) buried in the graves have despaired of it. This is in light of the verse Surely those who disbelieve and die while they are disbelievers, these it is on whom is the curse of Allah and the angels and men all ().
Examining Narrations
- ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās relates: ‘The Messenger of God made a peace treaty with the Meccan polytheists at al-Ḥudaybiyya. (One of the conditions of the peace treaty was) that whoever from the Meccans joined him (in Medina) would be returned to the Meccans by him, however whoever from the companions of the Messenger of God joined the people of Mecca, belonged to them and they would not return him to the Messenger of God. They prepared a document containing that and signed it. After the peace treaty had been signed and while the Prophet was still at al-Ḥudaybiyya, Sabʿa bint al-Ḥārith al-Aslamiyya came to the Messenger of God as a Muslim, having embraced the faith. Thereupon her husband Musāfir—or alternatively as Muqātil says, his name was Ṣayfiyy ibn al-Rāhib—from the tribe of Banū Makhzūm, arrived at the Messenger of God in search of her, and he was a disbeliever. When he came to the Prophet, he said: “Muḥammad, return to me my wife for you had agreed with us the condition that you shall return to us whoever came to you from us while here is the copy of the treaty, the clay (tablet) on which it is written has yet to dry,” whereupon this verse descended O you who believe, when believing women come to you as emigrants—from the abode of disbelief to the abode of Islam—then examine them... ()’.
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās said: ‘Their examination was that they were made to swear: “I have not left due to hatred of my husband or because I desire one place instead of another or because I desire the world, rather I have left solely for the love of God and His Messenger.” So the Messenger of God made her swear accordingly, which was that she had not left in hatred of her husband or because she had fallen in love with a man from us (the Muslims) whom she desired, rather she had left solely because she desired the Muslim faith, and the woman swore accordingly in the name of God, the One other than Whom there is no God. Consequently, the Messenger of God gave her husband her dower (mahr) and what he had spent on her but he did not return her to him. Subsequently, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb married her. The Messenger of God would return to the Meccans whoever came to him from their men-folk but would detain the women who came to him from them when he had examined them, and he would give their husbands their dowers.’ Al-Zuhri relates: ‘When this verse (that is, ) was revealed, which contains the instruction ...And do not hold to marriage bonds with disbelieving women... () ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb divorced two of his wives who were in Mecca who were disbelievers. Their names were Qarība bint Abī Umayya ibn al-Mughīra and Umm Kulthūm bint ʿAmr ibn Jarwal al-Khuzāʿiyya, also known as Umm ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar. Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān subsequently married the former and the two of them continued with their polytheistic beliefs in Mecca while the latter was subsequently married by Abu Jaḥm ibn Ḥudhāqa ibn Ghānim. He was from her tribe and they too remained on their polytheistic beliefs together. This is while Arwa bint Rabīʿa ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib was married to Ṭalḥa ibn ʿUbaydillāh. The Muslim faith caused them to separate when the Qur’anic revelation forbidding holding on to marriage bonds with disbelieving women was revealed. Ṭalḥa had emigrated to Medina while she remained in Mecca, a disbeliever, with her tribe. Subsequently, Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Umayya married her when she embraced the Muslim faith, and she was from those who fled to the Messenger of God from the disbelieving women. So the Messenger of God detained her and married her to Khālid. Umayya bin al-Bishr was married to al-Thābit ibn al-Daḥdāḥa. She fled from him to the Messenger of God while al-Thābit ibn al-Daḥdāḥa was at that time a disbeliever. The Messenger of God then married her to Sahl ibn Ḥanīf and she bore him ʿAbdullāh ibn Sahl.’
Al-Shaʿbī says: ‘Zaynab, the daughter of the Messenger of God, was a wife to Abu al-ʿĀṣ ibn al-Rabīʿ. She embraced the Muslim faith and joined the Prophet in Medina while Abu al-ʿĀṣ ibn al-Rabīʿ remained in Mecca, a polytheist. Then he came to Medina where Zaynab granted him security and he then accepted the Muslim faith whereupon the Messenger of God returned her to him.’
Al-Jubbāʿī says: ‘The peace treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyya only had the condition that men would be returned and not women. No mention was made of women. Umm Kulthūm bint ʿAqaba ibn Abī Muʿīt emigrated to Medina from Mecca as a Muslim and so her two brothers arrived in Medina and asked the Messenger of God to return her to them. The Messenger of God replied: “The condition between us was with respect to men and not with respect to women,” and he did not return her to them.’
Author’s comment: The information in these reports has been transmitted in other reports too, by means of Sunni chains of transmission, many of which have been mentioned by al-Suyūṭi in (his Qur’an commentary) Al-Durr al-manthūr. This is while al-Qummī has narrated in his tafsīr the examination to which the emigrant women were subjected, as presented earlier, and their subsequently not being returned to the disbelievers, and their dowers being paid to the latter.
- Al-Zuhri relates: ‘Six was the total number of women who joined the polytheists from the wives of believing emigrant men, rejecting the Muslim faith. These were: Umm al-Ḥakam bint Abī Sufyān who was the wife of ʿAyāḍ ibn Shaddād al-Fihrī, and Fāṭima bint Abī Umayya ibn al-Mughīra, the sister of Umm Salama who was the wife of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Thus when ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb intended to emigrate, she refused (to emigrate with him) and left the faith. The third was Barūʿ bint ʿAqaba who was Shamās ibn ʿUthmān’s wife, and ʿAbda bint ʿAbd al-ʿUzza ibn Faḍla, whom ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Wudd (subsequently) married, and Hind bint Abī Jahl ibn Hishām who was the wife of Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, and Kulthūm bint Jarwal who was the wife of ʿUmar. The Messenger of God gave all these men the dowers in respect of their wives from the war booty.’
- Abu Jaʿfar (al-Bāqir) said: ‘Marrying the women of the People of the Book is undesirable and inappropriate’. Zurāra narrates that he said: ‘May I be rendered your sacrifice (but) where is its prohibition?’ He (the Imām) replied: ‘...And do not hold to marriage bonds with disbelieving women ... ()’
Author’s comment: This report, generally speaking, refers to holding on to permanent marriage bonds (with them); in the sense of effectuating a permanent marriage or continuing to remain permanently married (to them).
- Abu Jaʿfar (al-Bāqir) said with respect to This day... are allowed to you... the chaste (women) from among those who have been given the Book before you... () that: ‘This verse is abrogated (mansūkha) by ...And do not hold to marriage bonds with disbelieving women...().’
Author’s comment: Perhaps the intent of the Imām’s speech that () (which forbids marriage bonds with disbelieving women) ‘abrogated’ () (which allows marriage with chaste women from the People of the Book) is the specification of () to ‘permanent marriage’, and the specification of () by means of () in the meaning of ‘permanent marriage’ (in that permanent marriage with chaste women from the People of the Book is forbidden) while what () indicates of allowance is specifically in favor of temporary marriage. The word ‘abrogation’ here cannot be a reference to its technical meaning and that is because () (the abrogating verse) precedes () (the abrogated verse) in revelation, and there is no sense in an antecedent verse abrogating a subsequent verse (for it is the subsequent verse that abrogates the antecedent verse), in addition to which () is in the context of granting grace and favor while something of this nature negates abrogation.
- Abu Jaʿfar (al-Bāqir) said with respect to This day... are allowed to you... the chaste (women) from among those who have been given the Book before you...() ‘This speech (of God) is abrogated (mansūkhun) by the speech (of God) And do not marry the idolatresses until they believe...() and by the speech (of God) And do not hold to marriage bonds with disbelieving women... ().’
Author’s comment: What weakens the reliability of this report, in addition to the unreliability of its transmitter (who is Abu al-Jārūd, Ziyād ibn al-Mundhir), is that () is in reference to polytheist women from the idol worshippers while () speaks of the permission to marry the women of the People of the Book, and hence there is no contradiction between the two verses such that one of them may abrogate the other. This is while the claim that () abrogated () has already been discussed above, and the commentary of () contains material which can be of benefit here too (so refer to it).
- Abu Jaʿfar (al-Bāqir) said the following with respect to And if anything of your wives has passed away from you to the unbelievers...() ‘so if they (your wives) join the disbelievers with whom you have a treaty then ask them (the disbelievers) for their dowers, and if anything (shayʾun) from their women joins you then give them (the disbelievers) their dowers. That is the judgment of God. He judges between you’.
Author’s comment: The apparent meaning of the explanation is the interpretation of the word shayʾun (anything/something) in this verse to mean ‘the wife/woman’.
- Abu ʿAbdillāh al-Ṣādiq said: ‘When the Messenger of God conquered Mecca, the men pledged allegiance. Thereafter, the women came forth to pledge allegiance to him which is when God revealed O Prophet, if believing women come to you pledging that they shall not associate anything with Allah, and that they shall not steal nor commit adultery or kill their children, or bring forth slander/lie which they had invented between their hands and feet, or disobey you in what is good, then accept their pledge and ask forgiveness for them from Allah. Indeed, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Merciful ().
Hind chided (the Prophet at that moment, saying): ‘As for (our) children, we raised them up from childhood and you killed them when they became adults.’ Umm Ḥakīm bint al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, who was ʿIkrima ibn Abī Jahl’s wife, asked: ‘Messenger of God, what is the good (al-maʿrūf) in respect of which God has instructed us not to disobey you?’ He replied: ‘(It means) you shall not slap your cheeks, you shall not scratch your faces, you shall not pull out your hair, you shall not rend asunder your shirt pockets, you shall not blacken your clothes, and you shall not invoke afflictions (on others)’. The women pledged allegiance to the Messenger of God accordingly. She (that is, Umm Ḥakīm bint al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām) asked: ‘Messenger of God, how do we pledge allegiance to you?’ He replied: ‘I do not shake hands with women’ and he called for a goblet of water and placed his hand in it. Then he removed it and said: ‘Now place your hands in this water’.
Author’s comment: Reports with such meanings are extensively transmitted (mustafīḍa) by means of Shiʿa and Sunni chains of transmission.
- ʿAbdullāh in Sinān related: ‘I asked Abu ʿAbdillāh al-Ṣādiq about the meaning of ...they shall not disobey you in what is good... () he replied: ‘It is what God has rendered incumbent on the women, from the ritual prayers and the alms-tax—and what He ordered them of goodness.’
Author’s comment: This report testifies that what has been transmitted in the reports in the context of explaining al-maʿrūf (the good) such as ‘you shall not strike your cheeks, etc’, and in some of them there occurs the imperative ‘you shall not make wanton display of female finery as in the pre-Islamic times ()’ is from the perspective of expressing some of the instances and examples of it.
Translator’s note: This masculine plural imperative verb is‘alū is preceded by the conjunctive particle wa, which causes the alif in is‘alū to lose its vowel, thereby becoming was‘alū. ↩︎
Translator’s note: This masculine third person plural verb in the jussive—yas‘alū—is reinforced by the particle li (liyas‘alū) which particle loses its vowel due to the conjunctive particle wa preceding it, thereby becoming wal yas‘alū. ↩︎
Translator’s note: These two are the verbal nouns of the masculine second person plural past tense verb ʿāqabtum, translated as: ‘your turn of triumph comes’. ↩︎
The preposition min of ibtidā al-ghāya is the preposition denoting the starting point of a thing or the departure of a thing from a place, a person, or a state towards an end by traversing a distance. Here it means the starting point or departure of a thing (the dower (shayʾun) paid by the husbands) escaping or passing away from a person (the wives). ↩︎
Majmaʿ al-bayān. ↩︎
Majmaʿ al-bayān. ↩︎
Al-Kāfī, by means of the compiler’s chain of transmission terminating at Zurārah, from him. ↩︎
Al-Kāfī, by means of the compiler’s chain of transmission terminating at Zurārah, from him. ↩︎
Majmaʿ al-bayān. ↩︎
Tafsīr al-Qummī, in the transmission of Abu al-Jārūd from him. ↩︎
Al-Kāfī, by means of the compiler’s chain of transmission terminating at Abān, from him. ↩︎
Tafsīr al-Qummī, by means of his chain of transmission terminating at him. ↩︎