Tafseer of The Cow · Al-Baqara · 2:234
And those who are taken in death among you and leave wives behind - they, [the wives, shall] wait four months and ten [days]. And when they have fulfilled their term, then there is no blame upon you for what they do with themselves in an acceptable manner. And Allah is [fully] Acquainted with what you do.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَالَّذِينَ يُتَوَفَّوْنَ مِنْكُمْ وَيَذَرُونَ أَزْوَاجًا يَتَرَبَّصْنَ بِأَنْفُسِهِنَّ أَرْبَعَةَ أَشْهُرٍ وَعَشْرًا
(And those of you who pass away and leave behind wives: they [the wives] must wait by themselves four months and ten [days].)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means thereby: and those of you who pass away — namely of the men, O people — and who die and leave behind wives: their wives must wait by themselves.
* * *
If someone were to say: Where then is the predicate (the statement) concerning "those who pass away"?
Then the answer is: It has been omitted, because the intent was not to convey anything about them. Rather, the intent was to convey something about what the women who must observe the waiting period are obliged to with respect to the waiting period (ʿiddah) upon the death of their husbands. Therefore the statement has been turned away from those with whose mention He began — the deceased — and directed toward the statement about their wives and what they are obliged to with respect to the waiting period, since the meaning intended by the saying was known and comprehensible. This is comparable to the expression in the language: "a part of your cloak is torn" — whereby one omits the statement about that with which the saying began in favor of the statement about one of its aspects. So too with the wives upon whom the waiting rests: since the waiting was imposed upon them only on account of circumstances connected with their husbands, the saying has been turned away from the statement about the one with whose mention it began, toward the statement about the one about whom one truly wished to convey something. As the poet said:
"Perhaps, if the wind should make me incline one time against Ibn Abī Dhubbān, that he will come to regret it."
He said "perhaps I," and then he said: "that he will come to regret it," because the meaning of the saying is: perhaps Ibn Abī Dhubbān will come to regret it, if the wind should make me incline against him one time. Thus he returned with the statement to the one whom he meant thereby, even though he had begun with the mention of another. To this also belongs the saying of the poet:
"Do you not know that Ibn Qays and his death without blood [avenged] — the house of humiliation has fallen to his lot."
Thus he set "Ibn Qays" aside, although he had begun with his mention, and conveyed about his death that it was a humiliation.
* * *
Some grammarians have claimed that the predicate of "those who pass away" has been omitted, and that the meaning of the saying is: and those of you who pass away and leave behind wives — it behooves these [the wives] to wait after their death. And they claimed that He did not mention "their death," just as a part of the saying is omitted — and that "they wait" (yatarabbaṣna) stands in the nominative because it takes the place of "it behooves" (yanbaghī), and "it behooves" stands in the nominative. We have, however, already shown earlier how incorrect is the saying of him who supposes that "they wait" stands in the nominative on account of taking the place of "it behooves," so that repeating it is superfluous.
* * *
Another of them said: He mentioned nothing about "those," because "those" in their statement took on the meaning of the conditional construction: "whoever of us meets you will obtain good" — [in the sense of] the one who of us meets you will obtain good. He said: and this is permitted only in the meaning of a condition.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: In the two verses that we have mentioned lies the clear proof for the saying about this, contrary to what the two of them said.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: As for His saying "they wait by themselves" (yatarabbaṣna bi-anfusihinna), He means thereby: they restrain themselves, observing the waiting period, away from husbands, from perfume, from adornment, and from removal from the dwelling they inhabited during the lifetime of their husbands — for four months and ten [days]; unless they are pregnant, in which case the waiting rests upon them until the moment they bring forth what they bear. When they have brought forth what they bear, their waiting period ends at that moment.
* * *
The exegetes of the Qurʾān have differed concerning the explanation of this:
Some said the same as what we have said about it:
5071 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "And those of you who pass away and leave behind wives: they must wait by themselves four months and ten [days]" — this is the waiting period of the woman whose husband has died, unless she is pregnant, for then her waiting period is that she brings forth what is in her belly.
5072 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: al-Layth related to me, saying: ʿUqayl related to me, on the authority of Ibn Shihāb concerning the saying of Allah: "And those of you who pass away and leave behind wives: they must wait by themselves four months and ten [days]." Ibn Shihāb said: Allah has fixed this waiting period for the woman whose husband has died; if she is pregnant, then that which releases her from her waiting period is that she brings forth what she bears — even if that extends beyond the four months and ten [days], however far it extends; nothing releases her except that she brings forth what she bears.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: We have said that He meant by "the waiting" that which we have described only on account of the concurrence of the reports from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with what follows:
5073 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Wakīʿ and Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba; — and Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of Shuʿba; — on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Nāfiʿ, saying: I heard Zaynab, the daughter of Umm Salama, relate — Abū Kurayb said: Abū Usāma said: on the authority of Umm Salama — that a woman whose husband had died complained about her eye. She came to the Prophet ﷺ to ask him for a ruling (fatwā) about applying kohl (kuḥl), whereupon he said: "Indeed, in the time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) one of you [women] would sit in her worst rags, and she would remain a year in her house when her husband had died; and then a dog would pass by her, and she would throw camel dung at it! Is then four months and ten [days] not [enough]!"
5074 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, saying: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd say: I heard Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ṣafiyya, the daughter of Abī ʿUbayd, that she heard Ḥafṣa, the daughter of ʿUmar, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, relate, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, that he said: "It is not permitted for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to mourn over a dead person for longer than three [days], except over a husband: over him she mourns four months and ten [days]." Yaḥyā said: And mourning (iḥdād) means, with us, that she does not use perfume, does not wear a garment dyed with wars or saffron, does not apply kohl, and does not adorn herself.
5075 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā informed us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ṣafiyya, the daughter of Abī ʿUbayd, on the authority of Ḥafṣa, the daughter of ʿUmar: that the Prophet ﷺ said: "It is not permitted for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to mourn over a dead person for longer than three [days], except over a husband."
5076 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, saying: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd say: Ḥumayd ibn Nāfiʿ informed me that Zaynab, the daughter of Umm Salama, informed him, on the authority of Umm Salama — or Umm Ḥabība — the wife of the Prophet ﷺ: that a woman came to the Prophet ﷺ and mentioned that the husband of her daughter had died and that she feared for [the eye of] her daughter. Ḥumayd claimed, on the authority of Zaynab, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Indeed, one of you [women] would [formerly] throw camel dung at the end of the year, while it is [now] only four months and ten [days]."
5077 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Hārūn related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd informed us, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Nāfiʿ: that he heard Zaynab, the daughter of Umm Salama, relate, on the authority of Umm Ḥabība or Umm Salama, that she mentioned: that a woman came to the Prophet ﷺ whose husband had died, while she complained about her eye and wished to blacken her eye. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Indeed, one of you [women] would [formerly] throw camel dung after the [passing of the] year, while it is [now] only four months and ten [days]." Ibn Bashshār said: Yazīd said: Yaḥyā said: I asked Ḥumayd about her throwing of camel dung. He said: In the time of ignorance, when the husband of a woman had died, she would betake herself to the worst part of her house and sit therein for a year; and when a year had passed over her, she would throw camel dung behind her.
5078 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Yaḥyā, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Nāfiʿ, with this isnād, the same.
5079 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Idrīs related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna related to us, on the authority of Ayyūb ibn Mūsā and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Zaynab, the daughter of Umm Salama, on the authority of Umm Salama: that a woman came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: The husband of my daughter has died, and she complains about her eye — may she apply kohl? Then he said: "Indeed, one of you [women] would [formerly] throw camel dung at the end of the year, while it is now only four months and ten [days]!" He [the transmitter] said: I said: And what does "she threw camel dung at the end of the year" mean? He said: The women of the time of ignorance, when the husband of one of them died, she would wear her worn-out rags and sit in the lowest part of her houses; and when a year had passed over her, she would take camel dung and roll it over the back of a donkey and say: "I am now free [of the waiting period]!"
5080 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn Yūnus related to us, saying: Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiya related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Ḥumayd ibn Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Zaynab, the daughter of Umm Salama, on the authority of her mother Umm Salama and Umm Ḥabība, the two wives of the Prophet ﷺ: that a woman of the Quraysh came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said: The husband of my daughter has died, and I fear for [the eye of] her eye, and she wishes to [apply] kohl? He said: "Indeed, one of you [women] would [formerly] throw camel dung at the end of the year! While it is [now] only four months and ten [days]!" Ḥumayd said: I said to Zaynab: And what does "the end of the year" mean? Zaynab said: In the time of ignorance, when the husband of a woman perished, she would betake herself to the worst house she had and sit therein, until, when a year had passed over her, she would go out and thereafter throw camel dung behind her.
5081 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwa, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha: that she gave to the woman whose husband had died the ruling (fatwā) that she must mourn over her husband until her waiting period had elapsed; and that she should not wear a dyed garment, nor a garment dyed with safflower, and should not apply kohl of ithmid, nor kohl in which there was perfume, even if her eye hurt — but she would apply aloe (ṣabir) and whatever she pleased of kohl other than ithmid, provided there was no perfume in it; and that she should not wear ornaments, and should wear white and not wear black.
5082 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Mūsā ibn ʿUqba, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, concerning the woman whose husband has died: She does not apply kohl, does not use perfume, does not pass the night outside her house, and does not wear a dyed garment, except a ʿaṣb-garment with which she may cover herself.
5083 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, saying: It reached me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that he said: The woman whose husband has died is forbidden to adorn herself and to use perfume.
5084 — Naṣr ibn ʿAlī related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: ʿUbaydallāh related to us, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, saying: The woman whose husband has died does not wear a dyed garment, does not touch perfume, does not apply kohl, and does not comb herself. — And he saw no objection in her wearing a striped mantle (burd).
* * *
Others said: The woman whose husband has died has only been commanded to restrain herself away from husbands in particular; but as for perfume, adornment, and passing the night outside the dwelling — from that she is not held back, nor has she been commanded to abstain from it.
Mention of who said that:
5085 — Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Yūnus, on the authority of al-Ḥasan: that he permitted adorning oneself and grooming oneself, and reckoned the mourning (iḥdād) as nothing.
5086 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "And those of you who pass away and leave behind wives: they must wait by themselves four months and ten [days]" — He did not say that she must observe the waiting period in her house; she observes the waiting period wherever she wishes.
5087 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ismāʿīl related to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj related to us, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, saying: Ibn ʿAbbās said: Allah said only: "And those of you who pass away and leave behind wives: they must wait by themselves four months and ten [days]," and He did not say that she must observe the waiting period in her house; let her then observe the waiting period wherever she wishes.
* * *
Those who made this statement relied upon the fact that Allah, the Exalted whose praise is exalted, commanded the woman whose husband has died only to wait with respect to marriage; and they regarded the ruling of the verse as specific [limited to that]. And [they relied] upon the following:
5088 — Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sulamī related this to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us; and Muḥammad ibn Maʿmar al-Baḥrānī related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀmir related to us — both said together: Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥa related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtayba, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Shaddād ibn al-Hād, on the authority of Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, she said: When Jaʿfar was stricken [killed in battle], the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me: "Put on the mourning garb for three [days], then do what you wish."
5089 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Abū Nuʿaym and Ibn al-Ṣalt related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥa, on the authority of al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtayba, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Shaddād, on the authority of Asmāʾ, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, the same.
* * *
They said: This report from the Prophet ﷺ has made clear that there is no mourning (iḥdād) for the woman whose husband has died, and that the statement concerning the explanation of His word "they must wait by themselves four months and ten [days]" means only: they wait by themselves away from husbands, and nothing else.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: As for those who made mourning (iḥdād) obligatory for the woman whose husband has died, as well as refraining from removal from her dwelling which she inhabited on the day her husband died — they relied upon the literal wording of the revelation, and said: Allah commanded the woman whose husband has died to wait four months and ten [days]; He did not command her to wait with respect to anything specific named by name in the revelation, but He encompassed thereby all forms of waiting in general terms. They said: What is obligatory for her, then, is that she abstain from everything, except that which is released to her by a proof to which one must submit. They said: Refraining from perfume, adornment, and removal belongs to that which falls under the general import of the verse, just as refraining from husbands falls under it. They said: From the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the report has been reliably established concerning what we have said about adornment and perfume; and as for the removal:
5090 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Yūnus ibn Muḥammad related to us, on the authority of Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān, on the authority of Saʿd ibn Isḥāq ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿUjra, on the authority of his paternal aunt, on the authority of al-Furayʿa bint Mālik, the sister of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, she said: My husband was killed while I was in a dwelling, and I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for permission for the removal, and he gave me permission. Then he called me, after I had turned away, and I returned to him, and he said: "O Furayʿa, [remain] until the Prescribed [term] reaches its appointed end."
* * *
They said: Thus the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made clear the correctness of what we have said concerning the meaning of the waiting of the woman whose husband has died, [and he refuted] what contradicts it. They said: As for what has been related on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās — that has no validity, on account of its deviation from the literal wording of the revelation and from what is firmly established of the report from the Messenger ﷺ.
They said: And as for the report related on the authority of Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, concerning his command to her to put on the mourning garb for three [days] and thereafter to do what she pleased — that does not indicate that there is no mourning (iḥdād) upon the woman; rather it indicates only the command of the Prophet ﷺ to her to put on the mourning garb for three [days], and thereafter to act according to what she pleases of wearing whatever she wishes of clothing that the woman observing the waiting period is permitted to wear — being clothing that is not adornment and is not perfumed. For there exists clothing that is neither adornment nor mourning garb, and that is like what he ﷺ permitted the woman whose husband has died to wear of ʿaṣb-clothing and striped mantles of Yemen; for that belongs neither to adornment-clothing nor to mourning garb. And so too applies to every garment upon which no dyeing has been applied after the weaving of the kind that people apply in order to adorn it: she may wear that, because she wears it without adorning herself with the adornment that the people know [as such].
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: If someone were to say to us: How is it that it is said "they must wait by themselves four months and ten (ʿashran)," and not "ten (ʿashratan)"? And since the revelation reads thus: does the woman whose husband has died observe the ten according to the nights, or according to the days?
Then the answer is: Rather she observes them according to the days with their nights.
If he says: If that is so, how is it then that it is said "and ten (ʿashran)" and not "and ten (ʿashratan)," while "ʿashr" without the "hāʾ" belongs to the counting of the nights and not of the days? If you allow in that respect the meaning that you have stated, do you then also allow: "I have ten (ʿashr) with me," while you mean ten persons, of men and women?
Then I say: That is permitted in the counting of the nights and the days, but something of the kind is not permitted in the counting of the children of Adam, men and women. That is because the Arabs, with the days and the nights in particular, when they leave the number indefinite, let the nights dominate therein — to the very point that, according to what has been related to us about them, they say: "we fasted ten (ʿashr) of the month of Ramadan," on account of their letting the nights dominate over the days. That is because counting among them therein proceeded according to the nights and not according to the days. When, however, they make the explanatory numeral [the counted thing] explicit with the number, they omit the "hāʾ" in the counting of the feminine, and affirm it in the counting of the masculine, as the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, said: سَخَّرَهَا عَلَيْهِمْ سَبْعَ لَيَالٍ وَثَمَانِيَةَ أَيَّامٍ حُسُومًا [Surah al-Ḥāqqa: 7] (He let it rage over them seven nights and eight days in succession) — thus He omitted the "hāʾ" in "seven (sabʿ)" and affirmed it in "the eight (al-thamāniya)."
As for the children of Adam: it is the custom of the Arabs, when men and women are together and one leaves their number indefinite, that they express it according to the counting of the masculine and not of the feminine. That is because the masculine among the children of Adam — both the singular and the plural — are marked with a marker other than that of their feminine; and that is not so with all other things besides them. For the masculine of other [beings] are sometimes marked with the marker of the feminine, as "shāh" (sheep) is said for both the male and the female, and as "baqar" (cattle) is said for the males and females of cattle — whereas that is not so with the children of Adam.
* * *
If he says: What then is the meaning of the addition of these ten days to the months?
Then the answer is: Something has been said about that, in what follows:
5091 — Ibn Wakīʿ related this to us, saying: My father related to us, saying: Abū Jaʿfar related to us, on the authority of al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya concerning His saying: "And those of you who pass away and leave behind wives: they must wait by themselves four months and ten [days]." He said: I said: Why have these ten [days] come added to the four months? He said: Because in the ten the spirit is breathed [into the fetus].
5092 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to me, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, saying: I asked Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab: What is it with the ten [days]? He said: In them the spirit is breathed [into the fetus].
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَإِذَا بَلَغْنَ أَجَلَهُنَّ فَلا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِيمَا فَعَلْنَ فِي أَنْفُسِهِنَّ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ
(And when they reach their term, then there is no sin upon you concerning what they do with themselves in a proper manner.)
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means thereby: and when they reach the term in which is permitted to them what was forbidden to them during their waiting period on account of the death of their husbands — and that is after the elapse of their waiting period and the passing of the four months and ten days — "then there is no sin upon you concerning what they do with themselves in a proper manner," whereby He says: then there is no offense upon you, O guardians — guardians of the woman — concerning what the women whose husbands have died do with themselves at that moment, of using perfume, adorning themselves, removing from the dwelling in which they observed the waiting period, and marrying whomever it is permitted for them to marry — "in a proper manner," whereby He means: according to what Allah has permitted them and released to them.
* * *
It has been said: He meant thereby only marriage in particular. And it has been said that the meaning of His saying "in a proper manner" is only the permitted (ḥalāl) marriage.
Mention of who said that:
5093 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "then there is no sin upon you concerning what they do with themselves in a proper manner" — he said: the permitted, the good.
5094 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Abī Bazza, on the authority of Mujāhid: "then there is no sin upon you concerning what they do with themselves in a proper manner" — he said: the proper is the permitted, good marriage.
5095 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Mujāhid said concerning His saying: "concerning what they do with themselves in a proper manner" — he said: it is the permitted, good marriage.
5096 — Mūsā related to me, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, saying: It is the marriage.
5097 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: al-Layth related to me, saying: ʿUqayl related to me, on the authority of Ibn Shihāb: "concerning what they do with themselves in a proper manner" — he said: in marrying whomever she desires, provided it takes place in a proper manner.
* * *
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ (234)
(And Allah is well-acquainted with what you do. (234))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, means thereby: "And Allah is, with what you do," O guardians, in the matter of those of whom you are the guardian of your women — in preventing them [from remarrying] (ʿaḍl) and in marrying them off to whomever they wish to marry in a proper manner, and in other matters of yours and of theirs — "well-acquainted," whereby He means: possessor of acquaintance and knowledge; nothing of that remains hidden from Him.
