ولكل جعلنا موالي مما ترك الوالدان والأقربون والذين عقدت أيمانكم فآتوهم نصيبهم إن الله كان على كل شيء شهيدا
Wa li-kullin jaʿalnā mawāliya mimmā taraka'l-wālidāni wa'l-aqrabūn, wa'lladhīna ʿaqadat aymānukum fa-ātūhum naṣībahum, inna'llāha kāna ʿalā kulli shayʾin Shahīdā
"For all of what parents and near kin leave We have appointed heirs. And to those whom your oaths have bound, give their share. God is witness over all things."
The concrete sense of the root: to be near, to be adjoining. Walī — the one who is near, who takes charge of another's affair; mawlā — both master and freedman, both helper and the one bound. Because of the nearness in its root, the word is used in both directions at once.
The root was treated at al-Anfāl 8/72-75 under the heading "the bond of walāya". I rely on that treatment.
| Verse | To whom | From what |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | To the men and to the women | From what is left |
| 32 | To the men and to the women | From what is earned |
| 33 | Alladhīna ʿaqadat aymānukum | From what is left |
The expression means literally "those whom your oaths have bound", and there is disagreement in the classical commentaries over whom it means.
| Reading | Who | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| A | Those with whom a pact has been made — those given a promise of mutual aid and a share in the estate | The sense of binding, of contract, in the word ʿaqd; the use of the plural aymān (oaths) |
| B | Those adopted or attached | The word's sense of a bond resting on an agreement |
| C | That the ruling was later abrogated, the verse regulating a transitional period | That the verses of inheritance (11-12) have determined the shares |
All three readings are transmitted; I impose no preference and draw no legal ruling from this. The legal force of this verse is disputed in classical jurisprudence, and that debate is not the subject of this text.
What can be said from the text is this: the verse builds a sentence that counts even a bond not made by blood as holding a share. And this will widen further in the thirty-sixth verse — there the neighbour and the travelling companion will enter the list.