Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:20
But if you want to replace one wife with another and you have given one of them a great amount [in gifts], do not take [back] from it anything. Would you take it in injustice and manifest 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.
Exposition of the interpretation of His word: وَإِنْ أَرَدْتُمُ اسْتِبْدَالَ زَوْجٍ مَكَانَ زَوْجٍ وَآتَيْتُمْ إِحْدَاهُنَّ قِنْطَارًا فَلا تَأْخُذُوا مِنْهُ شَيْئًا ("And if you wish to replace one wife with another and you have given one of them a qinṭār, then take nothing back from it.")
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, whose praise is exalted, means by His word "and if you wish to replace one wife with another": and if you, O believers, wish to marry a woman in place of a woman whom you have and from whom you separate — "and you have given one of them," he says: and you have given to her whom you wish to separate from, of the bridal gift (mahr) — "a qinṭār."
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And the "qinṭār" is abundant wealth. We have already mentioned previously the disagreements of the people of interpretation concerning its amount, and what according to us is the correct view concerning it.
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"then take nothing back from it," he says: so do not inflict harm upon them when you wish to separate from them, so that they may ransom themselves from you with what you have given them, as in:
8912 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid concerning His word: "and if you wish to replace one wife with another," separating from a woman in place of another: then nothing of the wealth of the divorced woman is permitted to him, even if it be much.
8913 - 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, something similar.
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Exposition of the interpretation of His word: أَتَأْخُذُونَهُ بُهْتَانًا وَإِثْمًا مُبِينًا (20) ("Would you take it back by slander and a manifest sin?")
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah, whose remembrance is exalted, means by His word "would you take it back": would you take back what you have given them of their bridal gifts — "by slander," he says: by wrongdoing without right — "and a manifest sin," that is: and a sin whose matter has made clear that the one who takes it back is, by taking it back, a wrongdoer against the one from whom he took it back.
