Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:22
And do not marry those [women] whom your fathers married, except what has already occurred. Indeed, it was an immorality and hateful [to Allah] and was evil as a way.
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, the Exalted: وَلَا تَنكِحُوا مَا نَكَحَ آبَاؤُكُم مِّنَ النِّسَاءِ إِلَّا مَا قَدْ سَلَفَ ۚ إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً وَمَقْتًا وَسَاءَ سَبِيلًا (And do not marry the women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed. Indeed, that is an immorality (fāḥisha) and a detestable thing (maqt) and an evil way) (4:22).
Abū Jaʿfar said: It has been related that this verse was revealed concerning a people who used to marry the wives of their fathers. Islam came while they were in that condition, and Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, then forbade them to continue cohabiting with these women. He pardoned them, however, for what had already preceded of such conduct during their time of ignorance (jāhiliyya) and their shirk; He did not hold it against them, provided that they feared Allah in their Islam and obeyed Him therein.
Mention of the narrations related concerning this:
8938 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Makhramī related to me, saying: Qurād related to us, saying: Ibn ʿUyayna and ʿAmr related to us, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The people of the jāhiliyya forbade that which is forbidden, except the wife of the father and the joining of two sisters in marriage. He said: Then Allah revealed: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed" — and: "and that you join two sisters" (in the sense of 4:23).
8939 - Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His statement: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married" — the verse — he said: The people of the jāhiliyya forbade that which Allah forbade, except that a man used to marry the wife of his father and that they used to join two sisters in marriage. Therefore Allah said: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed."
8940 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning His statement: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed", he said: It was revealed concerning Abū Qays ibn al-Aslat, who married Umm ʿUbayd bint Ṣakhr, who had been the wife of his father al-Aslat — and concerning al-Aswad ibn Khalaf, who married the daughter of Abū Ṭalḥa ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd al-Dār, who had been the wife of his father — and concerning Fākhita bint al-Aswad ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn Asad, who had been with Umayya ibn Khalaf, after which Ṣafwān ibn Umayya married her — and concerning Manẓūr ibn Zabbān, who married Mulayka bint Khārija, who had been with his father Zabbān ibn Sayyār.
8941 - Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ: A man marries a woman but does not see her before he divorces her — is she then permissible for his son? He said: She is forbidden (she is "mursala", released); Allah, the Exalted, has said: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married." He said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: What is the meaning of His statement "except what has already passed"? He said: The sons used to marry the wives of their fathers in the jāhiliyya.
8942 - Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥa, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His statement: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married" — the verse — he says: Every woman whom your father has married, and likewise your son, whether intercourse has taken place or not, she is forbidden to you.
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There has been disagreement over the meaning of His statement: "except what has already passed."
Some said: Its meaning is: but what has already passed, leave that. They said: It is a disconnected exception (istithnāʾ munqaṭiʿ).
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Others said: Its meaning is: do not marry as your fathers married — that is to say: do not marry as their marriage was, in the corrupt ways that are not permitted in Islam — "indeed, that is an immorality and a detestable thing and an evil way", which means: that the marriage of your fathers, which they used to contract in their jāhiliyya, was an immorality and a detestable thing and an evil way, except what has already passed of you in your jāhiliyya of such marriage, of which it is not permitted in Islam to undertake anything similar; that has been pardoned you.
They said: His statement "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married" is like the saying of one to a man: "Do not do what I have done", and "Do not eat as I have eaten", in the meaning of: do not eat as I have eaten, and do not do as I have done.
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Others said: Its meaning is: do not marry the women whom your fathers married by means of a valid marriage contract concluded between them, except what has already passed of them of what counted among them as forms of fornication (zinā); for marrying those women is permissible for you, because they were not lawful wives for them. That which took place between your fathers and those women was only an immorality and a detestable thing and an evil way.
Mention of who said that:
8943 - Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His statement: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed" — the verse — he said: (that is) fornication (zinā) — "indeed, that is an immorality and a detestable thing and an evil way" — he here added "the detestable thing (al-maqt)."
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Abū Jaʿfar said: The most correct of these opinions, in accordance with what the exegetes (ahl al-taʾwīl) have said in its explanation, is that the meaning is: do not marry the women in the manner of the marriage of your fathers, except what has already passed of you and occurred in the jāhiliyya, for that was an immorality and a detestable thing and an evil way. Thus His statement "the women" (min al-nisāʾ) is connected with His statement "do not marry", and His statement "whom your fathers married" (mā nakaḥa ābāʾukum) is understood in the meaning of a verbal noun (maṣdar), and His statement "except what has already passed" is understood in the meaning of a disconnected exception, because in its place it fits well to say: "but what has already passed and gone by" — "indeed, that is an immorality and a detestable thing and an evil way."
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If someone were to say: How can this opinion be in agreement with the opinion of those exegetes whose view you have mentioned, when you know that those whose view you have mentioned concerning it said: this verse was revealed to forbid marrying the wives of the fathers, while you mention that they were merely forbidden to marry as they married?
He is answered: We said only that this is the explanation that agrees with the outward wording of the revelation, because the word "mā" (what) in the language of the Arabs is used for that which does not belong to the children of mankind. Had the intent here been only the prohibition of the wives of the fathers, and not all the remaining marriage forms of their fathers of which it is forbidden in Islam to undertake anything similar by Allah's — exalted be His praise — prohibition thereof, then it would have been said: "And do not marry those (man) whom your fathers married of the women, except what has already passed", for that is the customary usage in the language of the Arabs, since "man" (who) is used for the children of mankind and "mā" (what) for the rest. But it was not said: "And do not marry those (man) whom your fathers married of the women." As for His statement, whose mention is exalted: "And do not marry what (mā) your fathers married of the women", under "mā" therein falls everything that belonged to the marriage forms of their fathers, which they used to contract with one another in their jāhiliyya. Thus He forbade them in Islam by this verse the marrying of the wives of the fathers and every other marriage that Allah, exalted be His mention, forbade undertaking in Islam after the likeness thereof, of that which the people of the jāhiliyya used to contract with one another in their shirk.
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The meaning of His statement "except what has already passed" is: except what has already gone by — "indeed, that is an immorality" — He says: indeed, your marriage that has already passed of you, like the marriage of your fathers, which it is forbidden you in Islam to undertake after My prohibition thereof to you, is "an immorality" — He says: a sin (maʿṣiya) — "and a detestable thing and an evil way", that is to say: an evil way and method was that which you used to do in your jāhiliyya of the marriages you contracted with one another.
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The footnotes (editorial annotation of Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir):
(19) The narration 8938: "Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Makhramī", his biography has already been given under the numbers 3730, 4929, 5447. And "Qurād" is a nickname; he is ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ghazwān, whose biography has already been given under number 555.
(20) In the manuscript and the printed edition it reads "bint Ḍamra", but the correct reading is what is in the references in which the narration is documented. See the annotation on the narration at the end of it, in which the disagreements over her name are mentioned.
(21) Her name is "Ḥumayna bint Abī Ṭalḥa", a diminutive form of "Ḥamna", as is in her biography in the references.
(22) In the printed edition it reads "Rabāb" in both places, and in the manuscript it is without diacritical points; the correct reading is according to the later references, with a vocalized zāy and a doubled bāʾ.
(23) The narration 8940: Ibn al-Athīr has related this report in the biography of Umm ʿUbayd bint Ṣakhr, and then referred to it in the biographies of her relatives, and he attributed the narration of this report to Abū Mūsā Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Abī ʿĪsā al-Aṣfahānī, in his supplement (mustadrak) to Ibn Manda. The ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar also referred to it in al-Iṣāba, in the biographies of the persons mentioned in this report. Furthermore: the report has already passed under number 8873, in which it states that Abū Qays ibn al-Aslat married Kubaysha bint Maʿn ibn ʿĀṣim, the wife of his father, and I fear that the previous report and this report together indicate that he married two of his father's wives: Kubaysha bint Maʿn and Umm ʿUbayd bint Ṣakhr. However, al-Wāḥidī says in Asbāb al-nuzūl (109) that it was revealed concerning Ḥiṣn ibn Abī Qays, who married the wife of his father Kubaysha bint Maʿn, and that is what al-Thaʿlabī mentioned in his tafsīr. The ḥāfiẓ related it in al-Iṣāba in the biography of "Qays ibn Ṣayfī ibn al-Aslat" (5:257) on the authority of al-Firyābī and Ibn Abī Ḥātim, via the route of ʿAdī ibn Thābit. Then he said: "In its chain is Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ, on the authority of Ashʿath ibn Sawwār, and they are both weak (ḍaʿīf). And the report is thereby disconnected (munqaṭiʿ)." He said: "It has already preceded in the biography of Ḥiṣn ibn Abī Qays ibn al-Aslat that the incident took place with the wife of his father Kubaysha bint Maʿn. Thus Ibn al-Kalbī named her, and Muqātil departed from him and attributed the incident to Qays. And in Abū al-Faraj al-Aṣfahānī (15:154) there is something that gives the impression that Qays was killed in the jāhiliyya, for he mentioned that Yazīd ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī killed Qays ibn Abī Qays ibn al-Aslat in one of their wars." And this is a matter that requires extensive investigation, as you see; I have limited myself to this reference to it. It has already preceded in the annotation on the name "Umm ʿUbayd bint Ṣakhr" that in the printed edition and the manuscript it read "Umm ʿUbayd bint Ḍamra", and I have followed what is in her biography in the biographical works, and I have found support in the name of her brother: "Jarwal ibn Mālik ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAzīz" (Jamharat al-ansāb: 315), and Umm ʿUbayd is "Umm ʿUbayd bint Ṣakhr ibn Mālik ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAzīz". And "al-jarwal" is the stone that fills a man's hand, as if his father named him Jarwal and named his brother Ṣakhr, according to the custom of the Arabs therein. Among the Anṣār likewise "Ṣakhr" occurs frequently in their lineages, and I have found among them no one named "Ḍamra"; therefore I have given preference to what I have established. However, Ibn Kathīr took over this narration in his tafsīr (2:388), and in it reads "Umm ʿUbayd Allāh bint Ḍamra", but reliance on Ibn Kathīr's narration in such cases is not trustworthy. As for the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar: he mentioned her in the biography of "Qays ibn Ṣayfī ibn al-Aslat", taking over from Sayf from his tafsīr, and he named her "Ḍamra Umm ʿUbayd Allāh"; then he gave a biography of "Ḍamra, wife of Abū Qays ibn al-Aslat" (al-Iṣāba 8:134), and said: "Al-Ṭabarī mentioned her among those concerning whom was revealed: And do not marry the women whom your fathers married." This is confusion and an astonishing error; I have found no one who mentions this "Ḍamra", nor did al-Ṭabarī mention her, as the ḥāfiẓ erred by mentioning her and giving her a separate biography; he strayed. This is one of the indications of the haste of the ḥāfiẓ in compiling his book al-Iṣāba, and of the correctness of what has been said, namely that it was only a draft which he had not written out in fair copy, in order to purify it. This disagreement requires elaboration; I have limited myself to giving this amount of it. As for "al-Aswad ibn Khalaf": he is "al-Aswad ibn Khalaf ibn Asʿad ibn ʿĀmir ibn Bayāḍa al-Khuzāʿī", and he is other than "al-Aswad ibn Khalaf ibn ʿAbd Yaghūth", as the ḥāfiẓ mentioned him in al-Iṣāba, and Ibn Saʿd (5:339). If that is so, then he is the brother of "ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalaf ibn Asʿad", the father of "Ṭalḥa al-Ṭalaḥāt". I have not found that Ibn Ḥajar in al-Iṣāba referred to the report of his marriage to the wife of his father, although he mentioned it in the biographies of the women mentioned in the report, and in the biography of the wife of his father "Ḥumayna bint Abī Ṭalḥa"; likewise Ibn al-Athīr did not mention it at all, although he noted it in his biography of "Ḥumayna". In al-Iṣāba and in Ibn al-Athīr it reads "Khalaf ibn Asad ibn ʿĀṣim ibn Bayāḍa", and that is a corruption (taṣḥīf); it is rather "Asʿad ibn ʿĀmir". This too requires more complete investigation; this is not the place for it. As for the report of "Manẓūr ibn Zabbān ibn Sayyār al-Māzinī": concerning the nature of his incident there is a disagreement which the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar mentioned in his biography and in the biography of "Mulayka", and he gave preference to the view that this incident took place in the time of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and that ʿUmar separated them, which was hard upon him, since he loved her, and he composed verses about her, among them: "By the life of my father, a religion that separates us — and you, by compulsion — indeed, that is tremendous." His incident is in al-Aghānī (12:194, Dār al-Kutub).
(24) Thus it has come here in the manuscript and the printed edition, and in number 8957 below and in al-Durr al-manthūr (2:134): "mursala", whereas what is in the lexical works is "a woman (who is) mirāsil". They said: it is she from whom her husband has separated in any way whatsoever, whether he has died or has divorced her. It has also been said: it is she whose husband dies, or who senses from him that he wishes to divorce her, whereupon she adorns herself for another. And it has been said: it is she who has been divorced several times. And it has been said: it is she who exchanges messages with marriage suitors. All of that is close to one another, for when a woman's husband dies or divorces her, it is likely that she exchanges messages with the suitors and seeks a way to marriage. In the ḥadīth it states: "that a man of the Anṣār married a woman (who was) mirāsil" — that is to say: a previously married woman (thayyib) — "whereupon the Prophet ﷺ said: Why not a virgin with whom you play and who plays with you!" The lexicologists said: "The mirāsil is she who has advanced in age but in whom there is still a remnant of youth." It is as if the explanation of this word requires that all these views be joined together, so that it is said: it is she who has left youth behind and whose husband has died or has divorced her, and who therefore has more need than a young woman of seeking adornment and exchanging messages with marriage suitors, on account of their slight desire for her, in contrast to their desire for beautiful young virgins. As for this report: if it is correct that the word "mursala" is correct, then its explanation is: that she is the one whom her husband has released, that is, divorced, and by it is meant: the divorced virgin who takes the place of the thayyib in the ruling. And if the correct reading is "hiya mirāsil", then to the meaning of "mirāsil" it must be added that she is the virgin who has been divorced, so that she takes the place of the thayyib. See the following narration.
(25) This narration will come under number 8957, with a difference in wording; see the annotation on it there.
(26) In the printed edition it reads "min ābāʾikum minhunna" with the omission of the wāw, and that is wrong; the correct reading is according to the manuscript.
(27) By his statement "he here added" he means: he added to what is in "Sūrat al-Isrāʾ: 32": وَلَا تَقْرَبُوا الزِّنَا ۖ إِنَّهُ كَانَ فَاحِشَةً وَسَاءَ سَبِيلًا (And do not approach fornication. Indeed, that is an immorality and an evil way) (17:32).
(28) In the printed edition and the manuscript it reads: "And if we say that this is the explanation", and that is an expression that does not accord with what follows it; the correct reading that agrees with the context is what I have established.
(29) In the printed edition it reads: "... forbidden of which something similar was undertaken in Islam", and he did not read the manuscript's "ibtidāʾ" correctly and changed it into something that completely spoiled the expression.
(30) In the manuscript and the printed edition it reads: "since 'man' is for the children of mankind, and 'mā' for the rest, and do not say: and do not marry what your fathers married of the women", and that is an expression that does not accord at all; the correct reading of his statement "and do not say" is "and it was not said" (in the passive form), and it is connected with his preceding statement: "then it would have been said: and do not marry those whom your fathers married." The copyist became confused by the twofold repetition of the verse, whereby his eye jumped forward, and he omitted from the text what I have established afterward between brackets, without which the expression is not complete and does not accord; I exerted myself therein to clarify it from his argument and reasoning, as you see.
(31) In the manuscript it reads: "for under it therein falls that which belonged to the marriage forms of their fathers", and that is a slip and error of the copyist when the expression confused him; the correct reading is what the editor of the first printed edition clarified, as I have established it.
(32) What is between brackets is a necessary addition, missing in the manuscript and the printed edition.
(33) See the explanation of "salaf" in what has already preceded (6:14).
(34) See the explanation of "fāḥisha" in what has already preceded: 115, footnote 2, and the references there.
(35) Abū Jaʿfar did not here explain "al-maqt" in this place, nor in the remaining places where "al-maqt" is mentioned, except implicitly. And "al-maqt" is the most intense hatred; then this marriage which they used to contract with one another in the jāhiliyya was called "nikāḥ al-maqt" (the marriage of the detestable thing), and the offspring born from it was called "al-maqtī" after this relation.
(36) See the explanation of "al-sabīl" in what has already preceded: 37, footnote 6, and the references there. As for "sāʾa": Abū Jaʿfar did not clarify its meaning, and did not mention that the lexicologists count it among the invariable verbs (fiʿl jāmid) that runs like "niʿma" and "biʾsa", although his explanation has encompassed that. This is one of the indications that he abridged this tafsīr in many places.
(37) The argument of Abū Jaʿfar in this place is the argument of a sharp-sighted man who knows the language and its joints, is skilled in the principles of derivation, is capable of mastering the dispersing meanings, follows the course of the rulings and reports in the Book of his Lord, and has knowledge of what concerned the Arabs in their jāhiliyya. The scholars have refuted the statement of Abū Jaʿfar, and some of them said: it is an unconvincing opinion. They mentioned that "mā" is applied to the kinds of that which has intellect, even if it is not applied to the individuals of that which has intellect, according to whoever holds that view. Thus they regarded the view of al-Ṭabarī — that "mā" is a verbal-noun-forming particle (maṣdariyya) that remains in the meaning of the verbal noun — as a weak view. However, the doctrine of Abū Jaʿfar is correct and sound; their argumentation against him does not harm it. What drove them to that was only that Abū Jaʿfar omitted the clarification of his argument, and I shall say about it what brings healing, if Allah wills.
That is, namely: those who refuted the statement of Abū Jaʿfar meant that this verse is an explicit text (naṣṣ) in the prohibition of marrying solely the wives of the fathers, and it is as if they held that, if they were to take "mā" as maṣdariyya, there would be in the verses no explicit clear text in the prohibition of the wives of the fathers except this verse. The correct view is otherwise. For Allah, glorified and exalted, has already forbidden the marrying of the wives of the fathers that the people of the jāhiliyya used to commit by His statement in the nineteenth verse of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ in what has preceded: يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا يَحِلُّ لَكُمْ أَن تَرِثُوا النِّسَاءَ كَرْهًا (O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit the women against their will) (4:19). Abū Jaʿfar said in its explanation: "It is not lawful for you to inherit the marrying of the women of your relatives and fathers against their will", and he there adduced the narrations that clarify the form of the marrying of the wives of the fathers and the relatives together. And that which he adduced there contains the clarification of the form of the marrying of the wives of the fathers and the relatives by means of inheritance, as the people of the jāhiliyya knew it. Thus this verse was a conclusive, clear text in the prohibition of the marrying of the wives of the fathers and the relatives by means of inheritance, as the people of the jāhiliyya knew it, for they knew the marrying of the wives of the fathers only in this form which Allah has clarified in His Book, and on whose description the narrations agree: that the man married the wife of his father.
I prefer (to judge) that Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, said only: "It is not lawful for you to inherit the women against their will", mentioning their inheritance against their will, and then followed that with the prohibition of constraining (ʿaḍl) women in general, and with the clarification of their aim in constraining the women, namely making off with a part of what had been given to them as bridal gift (ṣadaqāt) — because the people of the jāhiliyya entangled themselves in marrying the wives of the fathers for only one matter: taking the wealth that the fathers had given them, and so that the woman would not depart with what she possessed of the wealth of their fathers. Therefore He followed it with the prohibition of constraining in general, for their conduct with the wives of their fathers is likewise a constraining, and their aim therein is the same as their aim in constraining their (own) wives.
Furthermore: the people of the jāhiliyya did not commit the marrying of the paternal aunts, the maternal aunts and the sisters, as you will see hereafter; rather, they detested it. Their detestation of marrying the wives of the fathers — who during the lifetime of their fathers take the place of their mothers — would have been worthy of belonging to their practice and custom, were it not that the love of wealth led them to transgress that.
Then Allah followed that — as Abū Jaʿfar said — "with the prohibition of the marriage forms of their fathers that they used to contract with one another in the jāhiliyya, whereby He forbade them by this verse the marrying of the wives of the fathers and every other marriage that Allah forbade undertaking in Islam after the likeness thereof, of what the people of the jāhiliyya used to contract with one another." ʿĀʾisha, may Allah be pleased with her, mentioned in the ḥadīth in al-Bukhārī (al-Fatḥ 9:158) that the marriage of the jāhiliyya was of four kinds, among them: "the marriage of the people today." Then she enumerated the kinds of marriage and described them, and Islam acknowledged of them only one marriage: that the man proposes to a man for his ward or his daughter, gives her bridal gift, and then marries her.
This verse thus annihilates all kinds of marriage of the jāhiliyya that were a corrupt marriage, such as the istibḍāʿ (marriage to obtain offspring from an eminent man), marriage with the prostitutes (al-baghāyā), the exchange marriage (al-badl) and the shighār (exchange of daughters/sisters without bridal gift). All of that was: an immorality and a detestable thing and an evil way, as you know it from its description in the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾisha; and under it falls, as Abū Jaʿfar said, the marrying of the wives of the fathers.
Then Allah, glorified and exalted, followed this verse — which forbade all the marriages of the jāhiliyya — with another verse, which forbade every marriage that was known among the other peoples, other than the Arabs, or in the other faith communities, other than the community of Islam, and He said: حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أُمَّهَاتُكُمْ وَبَنَاتُكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ وَعَمَّاتُكُمْ وَخَالَاتُكُمْ (Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts and your maternal aunts) to the end of the verse (4:23). The Arabs never knew the marrying of the mothers, or the daughters, or the sisters, or the paternal aunts, or the maternal aunts; that was rather among others, such as the Egyptians, the Jews and their like, that the man married his sister or his paternal aunt or his maternal aunt. One of the proofs that the Arabs knew neither the marrying of the sisters, nor the marrying of the paternal or maternal aunts, is that in their jāhiliyya they used to swear to divorce their wives, or to forbid them to themselves, or to abandon them, by saying to the wife: "You are to me as the back of my sister, or as the back of my paternal aunt, or as the back of my maternal aunt", and that counted among them as a prohibition upon themselves of intercourse with the wife. This is a chapter to which I have seen no one give its due; may I succeed in another place in treating it fully, if Allah wills. It is an important chapter in the explanation of these verses, and from Allah help is sought.
This last verse is thus not specific to the marriage of the people of the jāhiliyya, but it is a prohibition of every marriage that Allah detested for the believers, of what was permitted or committed among the peoples before them, or of which a part was rare among them, not as well known as the marriages of the jāhiliyya which Allah mentioned in (the connection of) the inheritance of the wives of the fathers and the relatives, and which ʿĀʾisha mentioned in her ḥadīth, and whose prohibition came in a general manner in His statement: "And do not marry the women whom your fathers married", in the meaning of "mā" as maṣdariyya, as Abū Jaʿfar understood it. Written by: Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir.
