Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:2
And give to the orphans their properties and do not substitute the defective [of your own] for the good [of theirs]. And do not consume their properties into your own. Indeed, that is ever a great sin.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَآتُوا الْيَتَامَى أَمْوَالَهُمْ وَلا تَتَبَدَّلُوا الْخَبِيثَ بِالطَّيِّبِ ("And give the orphans their property, and do not exchange the bad for the good").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His mention, means by this the guardians of the orphans. He says to them: Give, O company of guardians of the orphans, [to the orphans] their property when they reach maturity, and when sound judgment (rushd) has been established in them. And "do not exchange the bad for the good" — He says: and do not exchange that of their property which is forbidden (ḥarām) for you for your own property which is permitted (ḥalāl) for you, as in:
8436 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the statement of Allah, exalted: "do not exchange the bad for the good", he said: the permitted for the forbidden.
8437 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
8438 — Sufyān related to me, saying: my father related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, his statement: "do not exchange the bad for the good", he said: the forbidden in place of the permitted.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: Then the exegetes differed concerning the manner in which their exchanging of the bad for the good — from which they were restrained — took place, and concerning its meaning.
Some of them said: The guardians of the orphans would take the good and precious from his property, and put in its place for the orphan the inferior and worthless. That is the exchange from which Allah, exalted, restrained them.
* Mention of who said that:
8439 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Mughīra, on the authority of Ibrāhīm: "do not exchange the bad for the good", he said: do not give counterfeit (money) and take good (money).
8440 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Suddī = and on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab = and Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, they said: he gives a lean (animal) and takes a fat (animal).
8441 — And through the same, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of a man, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, he said: do not give a spoiled (thing) and take a good one.
8442 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "do not exchange the bad for the good" — one of them would take the fat sheep from the orphan's flock and put in its place the lean sheep, and say: "a sheep for a sheep!" And he would take the good dirham and throw in its place the counterfeit coin, and say: "a dirham for a dirham!!"
* * *
And others said: The meaning of it is: do not hasten toward the forbidden provision (rizq) by consuming it before that of the permitted comes to you which is destined for you.
* Mention of who said that:
8443 — Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "do not exchange the bad for the good", he said: do not hasten toward the forbidden provision before the permitted, which is destined for you, comes to you.
8444 — And through the same, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, the like of it.
* * *
And others said: The meaning of it is as that which:
8445 — Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning his statement: "do not exchange the bad for the good", he said: The people of the era of ignorance (jāhiliyya) did not let women inherit and did not let the small children inherit; the eldest would take it = and he recited وَتَرْغَبُونَ أَنْ تَنْكِحُوهُنَّ ("and you desire to marry them"), he said: when they had nothing: وَالْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الْوِلْدَانِ [Surah An-Nisāʾ: 127] ("and the oppressed among the children"), they did not let them inherit. He said: his share in the inheritance is good, and that which this (eldest) has taken is bad.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The most preferable of these statements for the explanation of the verse is the statement of the one who said: its explanation is: and do not exchange — O guardians — the property of your orphans which is forbidden and bad for you, so that you take their valuables, their best, and their good (things), for the good which is permitted for you of your own property = [that is to say: do not take] the inferior and worthless as a replacement for it.
That is because "the exchanging of a thing for a thing" in the language of the Arabs means: the taking of a thing in place of another, whereby one gives to the one from whom it is taken the thing taken, or puts it in place of that which is taken.
* * *
Since that is the meaning of "the exchanging" and "the swapping", then it is known that what Ibn Zayd said — namely that its meaning is: the taking by the eldest child of the deceased of the entire property of the deceased and his father, to the exclusion of the small ones among them, joined to his own property — is a statement which has no meaning. For when the eldest of his children takes the entire property to the exclusion of the smaller ones among them, then he has exchanged nothing for that which he has taken. What then is "the exchanging" concerning which He, exalted is His praise, said: "do not exchange the bad for the good", while the one who took has exchanged nothing in place of the thing taken?
* * *
And as for what Mujāhid and Abū Ṣāliḥ said — namely that its meaning is: do not hasten toward the forbidden provision before the permitted comes — then, if they did not mean by it the import of the statement narrated from Ibn Masʿūd, that he said: "Indeed, the man is surely deprived of provision because of the sin he commits", then its weakness is comparable to the weakness of the statement of Ibn Zayd. For whoever hastens toward the forbidden and consumes it, and Allah then grants him his permitted provision, that one has exchanged nothing in place of something else. And if they meant by it that Allah, exalted is His praise, forbade His servants to hasten toward the forbidden and consume it before the permitted comes, so that their consuming of it becomes a cause for the good of it to be withheld from them, then that is a known import and a reasonable view which the explanation admits. However, the most resembling of the [two statements] to the explanation of the verse is that which we have said; for that is the clearest of its meanings, because Allah, exalted is His praise, mentioned this only in the account concerning the property of the orphans and their rulings. So that it be of the same nature as the ruling of the beginning of the verse and its end is [more preferable] than that it should be of a different nature.
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَلا تَأْكُلُوا أَمْوَالَهُمْ إِلَى أَمْوَالِكُمْ ("and do not consume their property along with your own property").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His mention, means by this: and do not mix their property — that is to say: the property of the orphans — with your own property, so that you consume it together with your property, as in:
8446 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning his statement: "and do not consume their property along with your own property", he says: do not consume your property and their property by mixing it and consuming it jointly.
8447 — Al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Isḥāq related to us, saying: Abū Zuhayr related to us, on the authority of Mubārak, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said: When this verse concerning the property of the orphans was revealed, they found it objectionable to associate with them, and the guardian of the orphan began to set apart the property of the orphan from his own property. They complained about that to the Prophet ﷺ, whereupon Allah revealed: وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْيَتَامَى قُلْ إِصْلاحٌ لَهُمْ خَيْرٌ وَإِنْ تُخَالِطُوهُمْ فَإِخْوَانُكُمْ [Surah Al-Baqarah: 220] ("And they ask you about the orphans. Say: setting right their affairs is better; and if you associate with them, then they are your brothers"). He said: so they associated with them and feared (Allah).
* * *
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: إِنَّهُ كَانَ حُوبًا كَبِيرًا (2) ("indeed, it is a great sin (ḥūban kabīran)").
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted is His mention, means [by His statement]: "indeed, it is a great sin" — indeed, your consuming of the property of your orphans is a great sin.
* * *
And the "hāʾ" in His statement "innahu" (indeed, it) refers to the verbal noun of the action, I mean: "the consuming".
* * *
And as for "al-ḥūb", that is the sin. One says concerning it: "ḥāba al-rajul, yaḥūbu ḥawban wa-ḥūban wa-ḥiyābatan" (the man sinned, he sins). And one also says concerning it: "qad taḥawwaba al-rajul min kadhā", when he refrains from something out of fear of sin. To this belongs the statement of Umayya ibn al-Askar al-Laythī:
"And indeed, two migrants have surrounded him on that morning — surely they have gone astray and sinned (ḥābā)."
To this also belongs the statement: "we alighted at a ḥawba of the land, and at a ḥība of the land", when they alighted at a bad place thereof.
* * *
And "al-kabīr" (the great) means the enormous.
* * *
Its meaning is therefore: indeed, your consuming of the property of the orphans along with your own property is an enormous sin in the sight of Allah.
* * *
And in agreement with that which we have said concerning this, the exegetes spoke.
* Mention of who said that:
8448 — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr and ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to me, both of them saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning the statement of Allah: "a great sin (ḥūban kabīran)", he said: a sin.
8449 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ḥudhayfa related to us, saying: Shibl related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like of it.
8450 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, his statement: "indeed, it is a great sin", he said: an enormous sin.
8451 — Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "it was a ḥūb" — as for "ḥūb", that is a sin.
8452 — Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, saying: Maʿmar informed us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "ḥūban", he said: a sin.
8453 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "indeed, it is a great sin", he says: a great wrong.
8454 — Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: I heard Ibn Zayd say concerning his statement: "indeed, it is a great sin", he said: a great sin = and it applies to the people of Islam.
8455 — ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, saying: Qurra ibn Khālid related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḥasan say: "a great sin", he said: by Allah, an enormous sin.