al-Nisāʾ 4:19

Yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū lā yaḥillu lakum an tarithu'l-nisāʾa karhā, wa lā taʿḍulūhunna li-tadhhabū bi-baʿḍi mā ātaytumūhunna illā an yaʾtīna bi-fāḥishatin mubayyina, wa ʿāshirūhunna bi'l-maʿrūf, fa-in karihtumūhunna fa-ʿasā an takrahū shayʾan wa yajʿala'llāhu fīhi khayran kathīrā

"O you who believe! It is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will. And do not press them in order to take back part of what you have given them — unless they commit a manifest indecency. And live with them in kindness. If you dislike them — it may be that you dislike a thing in which God has placed much good."

The verse says three things, and the three come one after another:

Two prohibitions and one command. And the command comes after the two prohibitions: first what is not to be done, then what is.

The seventh verse said that women take a share of an estate. The nineteenth verse says that women cannot be taken as an estate.

Twelve verses stand between the two, and both use the same root: و-ر-ث.

This is a weave of roots in the sūra that can be verified, and I record it as my own reading: the same root, twelve verses apart, establishes two separate sides of one right.

And the word karhan must be recorded. The root ك-ر-ه: to dislike, not to want; and karh — compulsion, unwillingness. The word was treated at al-Baqara 2/216 (wa huwa kurhun lakum).

There are two readings of the word's case, and both are found in classical exegesis:

I impose no preference; both come out at the same place.

It is transmitted in the sources that in that period, when a man died, the wife he left behind was regarded by the deceased's relatives as part of the estate: she could be married, given to another, or prevented from marrying so that her property might be kept in hand.

I relate this in the language of "it is transmitted"; I give no name of a person or a tribe. What the wording of the verse says is clear in any case: the verb is tarithū (to inherit) and its object is al-nisāʾ.

This root was analysed at al-Baqara 2/232, and it was recorded there:

"فَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ — root ع-ض-ل. The concrete sense the lexicographers record is striking: aʿḍalati'l-nāqa — the blocking of a camel's delivery, the young unable to come out. From there comes the sense of 'to press, to block someone's way, to leave without a way out'. The choice of the word shows the character of the conduct that is forbidden: the obstruction is set up not by a ruling but by the blocking of the way out."

I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.

Comparing the two verses is worth recording:

In the use in al-Nisāʾ the purpose is written out openly: a financial gain. In al-Baqara the purpose was not written. This is a verifiable difference between the two verses.

There is a classical disagreement over what the exception attaches to and over what a fāḥisha mubayyina is. The transmitted views are given in a table; no preference is imposed and no legal ruling is issued.

And the word mubayyina must be recorded: root ب-ي-ن, active participle — "that makes itself plain". That is, not an imputation resting on suspicion but a situation whose plainness comes from itself.

This record matters because the same field was treated at al-Nūr 24/4: the accusation itself was tied to four witnesses. Read together, the two verses show that the exception is not a door that can be worked easily.

I record this as my own reading; its ground is the pattern of the word together with the verse of al-Nūr.

عَاشِرُوا۟ — root ع-ش-ر, Form III (mufāʿala). And the pattern carries information.

The concrete sense of the root: ʿashara — ten; ʿashīra — a tribe, a community living together; muʿāshara — to live together, to be intertwined.

The function of Form III must be recorded: reciprocity. Verbs in this pattern state acts performed by two parties together (qātala — to fight, shāraka — to be a partner, sābaqa — to race).

So ʿāshirūhunna does not mean "treat them well" but "live together with them, each with the other". The verb states not a one-way treatment but a shared life.

I record this as a grammatical observation; its ground is the form itself.

And the qualification bi'l-maʿrūf: root ع-ر-ف — known, recognised. The measure is the measure known in that community. The word draws the limit of a ruling in six places in this sūra (5, 6, 8, 19, 25, 114).

And the last sentence of the verse is the very same pattern as one in al-Baqara.

This pattern was treated at al-Baqara 2/216, and what was recorded there sits directly here:

"The most striking side of the verse is that in laying down the ruling it does not deny the aversion… The ruling is laid down without disregarding what the one addressed feels. عَسَىٰٓ — 'it may be'. This particle states no certainty. The verse, that is, does not say 'everything you dislike is good'; it says that the link between the two is not necessary."

I rely on that treatment without fail. And I compare the two verses:

The difference in the fourth row is a datum of the text and must be recorded: the sentence in al-Baqara was built in two directions (what you dislike may be good, what you love may be an ill); the sentence in al-Nisāʾ states only the first direction.

I record this as my own reading and propose a ground for it: in al-Baqara the one addressed was being called to an obligation, and a warning in both directions was needed. In al-Nisāʾ the one addressed is on the threshold of ending a relationship; the sentence is trying to delay that decision. This is an interpretation, not a transmitted report.

And what the sentence does not say must also be recorded:

The verse does not say "endure it even though you dislike it". The particle ʿasā states no certainty, and the verse guarantees no outcome. What is said is this: aversion is not, by itself, a datum for a ruling. What a person feels at a given moment does not carry sufficient information about the whole of a relationship.

And it cannot be concluded from this sentence that a party who is being harmed must keep the situation going. The sūra itself regulates separation (the section on divorce in al-Baqara, and al-Nisāʾ 4/35, 4/128, 4/130), and the hundred and thirtieth verse says plainly: wa in yatafarraqā yughni'llāhu kullan min saʿatih — "if they part, God will enrich each of them out of His abundance."

The sūra, that is, encourages staying together without closing the door to separation. This is a balance within the sūra's own text, and it can be verified by the presence of the two verses.