وإن خفتم ألا تقسطوا في اليتامى فانكحوا ما طاب لكم من النساء مثنى وثلاث ورباع فإن خفتم ألا تعدلوا فواحدة أو ما ملكت أيمانكم ذلك أدنى ألا تعولوا
Wa in khiftum allā tuqsiṭū fi'l-yatāmā fa'nkiḥū mā ṭāba lakum mina'l-nisāʾi mathnā wa thulātha wa rubāʿ, fa-in khiftum allā taʿdilū fa-wāḥidatan aw mā malakat aymānukum, dhālika adnā allā taʿūlū
"If you fear that you cannot act with fairness towards the orphans, then marry of the women lawful to you two by two, three by three, four by four. If you fear that you cannot deal equitably, then one; or what your right hands possess. That is nearer to your not falling into injustice / into a burden."
This verse is one of the most debated places in the Qurʾān and one of the most often torn from its context.
What will be done in this section is this: 1. That the verse comes in the context of orphans will be shown from the text's own wording. 2. The condition fa-in khiftum allā taʿdilū fa-wāḥida will be brought to the fore. 3. The verse will be read together with 4/129, and the two verses will be compared in a table. 4. The differing readings of the classical commentaries and of the schools of law will be related in the language of "it is transmitted".
And these will not be done: no preference will be imposed, no legal ruling will be issued, no current debate will be entered into, the reader will not be scolded, and no demeaning language about women will be used.
وَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تُقْسِطُوا۟ فِى ٱلْيَتَٰمَىٰ — "If you fear that you cannot act with fairness towards the orphans…"
So the subject of the condition standing before the command (fa'nkiḥū) is orphans. This is not a point open to interpretation; it is the wording of the sentence.
And the verse's position says the same thing: the second verse was about the orphan's property, and the sixth verse will again be about the orphan's property. The third verse stands between the two.
| Verse | Subject |
|---|---|
| 2 | Give the orphans their property; do not mix it with your own |
| 3 | If you fear you cannot act justly towards the orphans… → the ruling on marriage |
| 4 | Give the women their bridal gifts |
| 5 | Do not hand over property to one who cannot manage it |
| 6 | Test the orphans; when you see soundness of judgement in them, give them their property |
Four of these five verses concern the trusteeship of property directly. The third verse stands in the middle of this cluster, and that is a countable fact.
The condition concerns orphans, the answer concerns marriage. What the link between the two is has been one of the most debated questions in the classical commentaries.
The table below shows the main explanations transmitted in the classical sources. None of them is preferred and none is binding.
| Explanation | How the link is made | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| A. The guardian marrying the orphan girl in his care | The guardian, with an eye on the property or the beauty of the orphan girl in his household, would marry her with a bridal gift below what her like would receive. The verse: if you cannot do this properly, marry other women | The verse's connection with the hundred and twenty-seventh: there the expression wa targhabūna an tankiḥūhunna (you desire to marry them) returns to the same matter |
| B. The fear of injustice set upon two fields at once | People were wary of injustice in the orphan's property but not wary in the number of wives. The verse: what you fear in the one, fear in the other too | The same verb is repeated in the two clauses: in khiftum allā tuqsiṭū / fa-in khiftum allā taʿdilū |
| C. Avoiding the burden of caring for orphans | To one who shrinks from caring for orphans it is said to keep his responsibility within limits | Reading the closing word allā taʿūlū in the sense of "not to take on a crowd" |
| D. The regulation of a situation after a battle | It is transmitted in the sources that after a battle the number of widows and orphans left behind grew; it is said that the verse regulates this situation | The presence of post-war regulations throughout the sūra |
The four explanations do not wholly exclude one another. A and D are readings that support one another; B rests on the repetition in the wording of the sentence.
These three words are in a special Arabic pattern called maʿdūl, and their meaning is not "two, three, four" but "two by two, three by three, four by four".
| Word | Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| مَثْنَىٰ | Mafʿal — maʿdūl | Two by two |
| ثُلَٰثَ | Fuʿāl — maʿdūl | Three by three |
| رُبَٰعَ | Fuʿāl — maʿdūl | Four by four |
One. The pattern of repetition/distribution shows that the address is not to one person but to a community. It means "each of you two by two, three by three, four by four" — distribution, not addition.
Two. The same pattern occurs in one other place in the Qurʾān: al-Fāṭir 35/1 — of the wings of the angels, mathnā wa thulātha wa rubāʿ. That verse was treated in Fāṭir. The pattern therefore states not the number itself but the distribution.
And the particle itself must be recorded: between the words stands wa (the conjunction), not aw (or). In classical grammar it is said that this wa states an alternative here; this is a point the grammarians dwell on, and it has not been brought to a firm conclusion.
The second half of the verse sets a condition upon the first half, and this condition must be brought to the fore:
فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا۟ فَوَٰحِدَةً — "If you fear that you cannot deal equitably, then one."
| Element | What it says |
|---|---|
| خِفْتُمْ (khiftum) | The measure is not injustice that has occurred but the fear of injustice. The threshold has been drawn forward |
| أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا۟ | The verb is from ʿadl — to hold the balance, to treat equally |
| فَوَٰحِدَةً | The answer is a single word: one |
| ذَٰلِكَ أَدْنَىٰٓ | And a ground is given: "this is nearer to your not…" |
The verse's own logic is this, and it is read off the wording of the sentence: the permission has been tied to a condition, the measure of the condition has been lowered to the level of fear, and the place to be reached when the condition holds is stated in a single word.
| Root | Word | The distinction the lexicographers record |
|---|---|---|
| ق-س-ط | Tuqsiṭū (in the first condition) | To give the share, the portion; fairness in dividing. Qisṭ — a share. In Form IV "to be just", in Form I "to swerve from the right" (one of the aḍdād, the words that carry contrary senses) |
| ع-د-ل | Taʿdilū (in the second condition) | Equivalence, holding two sides at the same weight. ʿAdl — the equal of a thing |
And the placing of the two roots is worth recording: the root that concerns the share is used for the orphans, the root that concerns equivalence for marriage.
The root ق-س-ط was treated at al-Ḥujurāt 49/9 and at al-Raḥmān 55/9; I rely on those treatments. The root will return once more in this sūra, in the hundred and thirty-fifth verse, this time in the context of testimony: kūnū qawwāmīna bi'l-qisṭ.
| Reading | What taʿūlū means | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | To do injustice, to incline to one side | The root's sense of "to bend, the balance tipping to one side". ʿĀla'l-mīzān — the balance tipped |
| 2 | That the number of dependants one must support increases | The root's derivative ʿiyāl (the family one supports). ʿĀla'l-rajul — the man had many mouths to feed |
And neither reading changes the outcome of the verse: in the one it says "not to fall into injustice", in the other "not to take on a burden you cannot carry". In both cases the function of the sentence is limitation.
The sūra returns to the same subject in the hundred and twenty-ninth verse, and there it says something else:
وَلَن تَسْتَطِيعُوٓا۟ أَن تَعْدِلُوا۟ بَيْنَ ٱلنِّسَآءِ وَلَوْ حَرَصْتُمْ فَلَا تَمِيلُوا۟ كُلَّ ٱلْمَيْلِ فَتَذَرُوهَا كَٱلْمُعَلَّقَةِ "You will never be able to deal equitably among women, however much you desire it. So do not incline wholly to one side and leave the other as though suspended." (4/129)
I set the two verses side by side. The table compares the wording of the two verses; it establishes no ruling.
| 4/3 | 4/129 | |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | Taʿdilū — to deal justly | Taʿdilū — the same verb |
| Mood | Conditional: in khiftum allā taʿdilū | Negated future: lan tastaṭīʿū an taʿdilū |
| What it says | If you fear you cannot deal justly | You will not be able to realise justice fully |
| Degree of force | Khiftum — a possibility | Lan — the strongest negation of the future in Arabic |
| Added qualification | — | Wa law ḥaraṣtum — "however much you desire it" |
| Concluding clause | Fa-wāḥida — one | Fa-lā tamīlū kulla'l-mayl — do not incline wholly to one side |
| Ground | Adnā allā taʿūlū | Fa-tadharūhā ka'l-muʿallaqa — do not leave her suspended |
What follows from the wording of the two verses and is not in dispute is this: the first verse sets justice as a condition; the second states that this condition cannot be fulfilled completely.
On how these two verses are to be reconciled, different tendencies are transmitted in the classical commentaries:
| Tendency | How it reconciles them |
|---|---|
| a | The justice in 4/129 is the inclination of the heart, the justice in 4/3 is conduct and maintenance. A person can act equally in conduct; he cannot command the inclination in his heart. This is the explanation most widely transmitted in the classical commentaries |
| b | 4/129 came to show how heavy the condition in 4/3 really is; read together, the two verses narrow the permission in practice |
| c | The two verses are on two separate matters and are not directly linked; 4/129 regulates the management of an existing situation |
I prefer none of these three tendencies, and none of them is binding. All three have been defended in the classical literature, and the rulings drawn from these verses differ among the schools of law.
One thing I record separately, because it is a datum of the text: the continuation of 4/129 runs wa in tuṣliḥū wa tattaqū fa-inna'llāha kāna Ghafūran Raḥīmā, and in 4/128 it says wa'l-ṣulḥu khayr (settlement is better). That is, the sūra closes this discussion not with a sanction but with a call to setting right. The same thing will happen in the thirty-fifth verse.
The table below shows the principal divergences that arose from this verse in classical jurisprudence. None of them is this text's preference, none of them is binding, and within each school there are differences of view as well.
| Question | The main tendencies transmitted |
|---|---|
| The limit of number | The great majority of classical jurisprudence agrees that the number is limited to four. There is a grammatical debate over how the pattern (mathnā wa thulātha wa rubāʿ) yields this |
| The legal character of the condition of justice | Some jurists count it a binding condition; some count it an obligation that is diyānī (a matter between the person and God, not enforceable in court). The divergence has to do with whether justice can be measured |
| The scope of justice | There is broad agreement on equality in maintenance and in the turn of nights; on the inclination of the heart it is said, on the strength of 4/129, that a person is not held responsible |
| The relation between 4/3 and 4/129 | The three tendencies above (a, b, c) apply here too |
| The consequence of breaching the condition | The schools differ over whether it affects the validity of the marriage and over what claims the woman may bring |
This table is not a fatwā and cannot be read as a guide to practice. The reason it is placed here is the rule on disagreement in the method (Method): the disagreement is not concealed, no preference is imposed.
And current debates are not entered into. How this verse is understood today, how it is regulated in this or that country, and the social debates around it are not the subject of this text.
I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the wording of the verse. In giving the permission, the verse narrows it three times:
| Order | Clause | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wa in khiftum allā tuqsiṭū fi'l-yatāmā | It gives the permission as the answer to a condition — not as an absolute command |
| 2 | Fa-in khiftum allā taʿdilū fa-wāḥida | It sets a second condition and brings the answer down to one |
| 3 | Dhālika adnā allā taʿūlū | It gives the ground in the direction of narrowing |
So the sentence structure of the verse produces more restriction than permission. This is a countable fact: the sentence contains one command, two conditions and one ground.
It is possible to write the bearing of this verse on the present without entering current debates and without scolding the reader; what is treated is the measure the verse itself establishes.
One. The threshold drawn back to fear. The verse does not say "if you commit injustice", it says "if you fear you will commit injustice". This is a rare threshold in law: not the act but the anxiety about the act is made the measure. The decision whether one can carry an obligation is left to the person's own foresight.
Two. Responsibility tied to number. The logic of the verse is this: as the number of relationships undertaken rises, the share of justice falling to each one falls. This logic works independently of marriage too — a child cared for, a job taken on, a promise given. When capacity is exceeded, the party beyond the limit is the one who suffers.
Three. And a limit. No general conclusion such as "a person sets his own measure" follows from this verse; the verse speaks within a particular field of ruling. And no judgement about the morals of a person or a society today can be built from here.