وآتوا النساء صدقاتهن نحلة فإن طبن لكم عن شيء منه نفسا فكلوه هنيئا مريئا
Wa ātu'l-nisāʾa ṣaduqātihinna niḥla, fa-in ṭibna lakum ʿan shayʾin minhu nafsan fa-kulūhu hanīʾan marīʾā
"Give the women their bridal gifts with a glad heart. If of their own accord they leave you some part of it, then eat it with pleasure and ease."
The second verse began wa ātu'l-yatāmā amwālahum. The fourth verse begins wa ātu'l-nisāʾa ṣaduqātihinna.
The same verb, the same pattern, two verses apart, for two different parties addressed. This is a countable fact.
And in both sentences the object is named as belonging to the recipient: amwālahum (their property) / ṣaduqātihinna (their bridal gifts). In both, the pronoun is on the receiving side.
I record this as my own reading: the sūra gives back with the same verb what can be taken from the hands of two different groups, and it names both acts as a restitution.
ص-د-ق: ṣidq — truthfulness; ṣādiq — truthful; ṣadaqa — a gift given; taṣdīq — confirming as true. The root was treated in al-Ḥujurāt and in al-Baqara.
And the explanation the lexicographers record for this word is this: the bridal gift is what shows the seriousness and the truthfulness of the desire to marry; the sign that there is something backing the word. I relate this explanation in the language of "what the lexicographers record".
For the same thing the Qurʾān elsewhere uses the words ajr (25, 24) and farīḍa (24) as well. The variety of words is worth recording: the same legal element is named from three different sides — a token of truthfulness, a return, an appointed share.
نِحْلَة — root ن-ح-ل. The lexicographers explain the word as a gift given without return, given from the heart. From the same root comes نَحْل (naḥl) — the bee; and the link the lexicographers make is this: the bee gives back more than it takes, expecting no return. This link is widely transmitted among the lexicographers; I do not present it as a settled derivation.
| Reading | What niḥla is | Its consequence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Farīḍa — an appointed, obligatory duty | The bridal gift is a debt, not a favour |
| 2 | Hiba / ʿaṭiyya — given from the heart, without return | The manner of giving is being regulated: not grudgingly |
| 3 | Diyānatan — as a religious requirement | The source of the obligation is being stressed |
But the outcome common to the three readings can be recorded: in none of them is the bridal gift a price paid to someone other than the woman. The party addressed by the verse is the men, the recipient is the women, and there is no third party in between.
It is transmitted in the sources that in that period the bridal gift was given to the woman's guardian or withheld by him. It is said that the verse ties the payment directly to the woman.
I relate this in the language of "it is transmitted" and give no name of a person or a tribe. What the wording of the verse says is clear in any case: the object of the verb is al-nisāʾ.
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| طِبْنَ (ṭibna) | Root ط-ي-ب — to be pleasant, for the heart to be glad. The subject of the verb is the women (feminine plural) |
| عَن شَىْءٍ مِّنْهُ | "Some of it" — not the whole, but a part |
| نَفْسًا | Specification (tamyīz): "nafsan" — from within themselves, of their own accord |
Read together, the three settle by whom and in what manner the consent must be given. Without the word nafsan the sentence could have been read as "if they leave it to you"; the word adds the qualification that the leaving must come from inward willingness.
And this is the word nafs's second occurrence in the sūra: in the first verse as the root of creation (min nafsin wāḥida), here as the source of consent. The same word, at two separate tasks.
هَنِيء — root ه-ن-أ: pleasant, wholesome, free of trouble. مَرِيء — root م-ر-أ: easily digested, lying light on the stomach. (Marʾ — a human being; imraʾa — woman is counted in the same root family.)
The distinction the lexicographers draw is worth recording: hanīʾ is what is pleasant while being eaten, marīʾ what causes no discomfort after it has been eaten. The first adjective therefore looks to the moment, the second to what follows.
And the placing of the two here yields an observation, which I record as my own reading: the verse says that what is given with consent will not turn into a burden of guilt afterwards either. The picture used in the tenth verse for those who consume the orphan's property wrongfully (innamā yaʾkulūna fī buṭūnihim nārā) and these two adjectives stand opposite one another in the same sūra.