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(31) But if you avoid the major sins which you have been forbidden, We shall remit your (trivial) offences, and cause you to enter an honourable abode.
(32) Do not covet what Allah has conferred more abundantly on some of you than others. Men shall have a share according to what they have earned, and women shall have a share according to what they have earned. Do ask Allah for His bounty. Allah has full knowledge of everything.
(33) To everyone We have appointed rightful heirs to inherit whatever the parents and near of kin might leave behind. As to those with whom you have made a solemn covenant, give them their share. Allah watches over all things.34
34 According to the customary law of Arabia, those who concluded compacts of alliance and friendship also became mutual heirs. Likewise, an adopted son inherited from his foster-father. While abrogating this customary law, this verse reveals that inheritance goes to one’s kin according to the rules for the distribution of inheritance laid down by God Himself. However, if a man has made commitments to people, he has the right to give away to them whatever he wishes during his lifetime.
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Al-Nisa’ 4: 34–5
(34) Men are the protectors and maintainers of women35 because Allah has made one of them excel over the other, and because they spend out of their possessions (to support them). Thus righteous women are obedient and guard the rights of men in their absence under Allah’s protection. As for women of whom you fear rebellion, admonish them, and remain apart from them in beds, and beat them.36 Then if they obey you, do not seek ways to harm them. Allah is the Exalted, the Great. (35) If you fear a breach between the two, appoint an arbitrator from his people and an arbitrator from her people. ▶
35 A qawwam or qayyim is a person responsible for administering and supervising the affairs of either a person, or an organization or a system; responsible for protecting and safeguarding them and providing for the needs of those under his supervision.
36 This does not mean that a man should resort to these three measures all at once, but that they may be employed if a wife adopts an attitude of obstinate defiance. So far as the actual application of these measures is concerned, there should naturally be some correspondence between the fault and the punishment that is administered. Moreover, it is obvious that wherever a light measure can prove effective one should not resort to stern measures. Whenever the Prophet (peace be on him) permitted a man to administer corporal punishment to his wife, he did so with great reluctance, and continued to express his utter distaste for it.
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Al-Nisa’ 4: 36–7
If they both want to set things right,37 Allah will bring about reconciliation between them. Allah is All-Knowing, All- Aware.
(36) Serve Allah and ascribe no partner to Him. Do good to your parents, to near of kin, to orphans, and to the needy, and to the neighbour who is of kin and to the neighbour who is a stranger, and to the companion by your side,38 and to the wayfarer, and to those whom your right hands possess. Allah does not love the arrogant and the boastful, (37) who are niggardly and bid others to be niggardly and conceal the bounty which Allah has bestowed upon them. We have kept in readiness a humiliating chastisement for such deniers (of Allah’s bounty). ▶
37 The statement: “if they both want to set things right” may be interpreted as referring either to the mediators or to the spouses concerned. Every dispute can be resolved provided the parties concerned desire reconciliation, and the mediators too are keen to remove the misunderstandings between them and to bring them together.
38 The expression al-sahib bi al-janb (the companion by your side) embraces those with whom one has friendly relations of an abiding nature as well as those with whom one’s relationship is transient: for instance, either the person who walks beside one on the way to the market or who sits beside one while buying things from the same shop or one’s fellow traveller. Even this temporary relationship imposes certain claims on every refined and decent person – that he should treat the latter, as far as possible, in a kind and gracious manner and avoid causing him any discomfort.
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Al-Nisa’ 4: 38–42
(38) Allah does not love those who spend out of their wealth to make a show of it to people when in fact they neither believe in Allah nor in the Last Day. And he who has taken Satan for a companion has indeed taken for himself a very bad companion. (39) What harm would have befallen them if they had believed in Allah and the Last Day, and spent on charity what Allah had bestowed upon them as sustenance? For Allah indeed has full knowledge of them. (40) Indeed Allah wrongs none, not even as much as an atom’s weight. Whenever a man does good, He multiplies it two- fold, and bestows out of His grace a mighty reward. (41) Consider, then, when We shall bring forward witnesses from every community, and will bring you, (O Muhammad), as a witness against them all. (42) Those who disbelieved and disobeyed the Messenger will wish on that Day that the earth were levelled with them. They will not be able to conceal anything from Allah.
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Al-Nisa’ 4: 43
(43) Believers! Do not draw near to the Prayer while you are intoxicated39 until you know what you are saying;40 nor when you are defiled41 – save when you are travelling – until you have washed yourselves.42 If you are either ill or travelling or have satisfied a want of nature or have had contact with women43 and can find no water, then betake yourselves to pure earth, ▶
39 This is the second in the chronological sequence of injunctions concerning intoxicants. We have already come across the first injunction in Surah al-Baqarah (2: 219).
40 What is required is that while praying one should at least be conscious enough to know what one is uttering in the Prayer.
41 The term janabah denotes the state of major ritual impurity, which results from the act of sexual intercourse or from seminal emission (ensuing either from sexual stimulation or from a wet dream).
42 A group of jurists and Qur’anic commentators interprets this verse to mean that one should not enter a mosque in the state of major ritual impurity (janabah), unless it be out of necessity. Another group thinks that the reference here is to travel. In the opinion of this group, if a traveller is in the state of major ritual impurity he may resort to tayammum (i.e. symbolic ablution attained through wiping the hands and face with clean earth).
43 There is disagreement as to what is meant here by the verb lamastum. Several jurists are of the opinion that it signifies sexual intercourse. Abu Hanifah and his school follow this view. Contrary
