Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:23
Prohibited to you [for marriage] are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your father's sisters, your mother's sisters, your brother's daughters, your sister's daughters, your [milk] mothers who nursed you, your sisters through nursing, your wives' mothers, and your step-daughters under your guardianship [born] of your wives unto whom you have gone in. But if you have not gone in unto them, there is no sin upon you. And [also prohibited are] the wives of your sons who are from your [own] loins, and that you take [in marriage] two sisters simultaneously, except for what has already occurred. Indeed, Allah is ever Forgiving and Merciful.
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 saying: حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أُمَّهَاتُكُمْ وَبَنَاتُكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ وَعَمَّاتُكُمْ وَخَالاتُكُمْ وَبَنَاتُ الأَخِ وَبَنَاتُ الأُخْتِ وَأُمَّهَاتُكُمُ اللاتِي أَرْضَعْنَكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ مِنَ الرَّضَاعَةِ وَأُمَّهَاتُ نِسَائِكُمْ وَرَبَائِبُكُمُ اللاتِي فِي حُجُورِكُمْ مِنْ نِسَائِكُمُ اللاتِي دَخَلْتُمْ بِهِنَّ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُونُوا دَخَلْتُمْ بِهِنَّ فَلا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَحَلائِلُ أَبْنَائِكُمُ الَّذِينَ مِنْ أَصْلابِكُمْ وَأَنْ تَجْمَعُوا بَيْنَ الأُخْتَيْنِ إِلا مَا قَدْ سَلَفَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمًا (23)
(Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts, your maternal aunts, the daughters of the brother and the daughters of the sister, your mothers who have suckled you and your sisters through suckling, and the mothers of your wives, and your stepdaughters who are under your guardianship, born of your wives with whom you have had intercourse — but if you have not had intercourse with them, then there is no sin upon you — and the wives of your sons who have come forth from your own loins, and that you should marry two sisters at the same time, except for what has already passed. Truly, Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful. (23))
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His mention, means by this: Forbidden to you is the marrying of your mothers — where the mention of "the marrying" has been omitted, since the wording already indicates this sufficiently.
And Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning this what follows below:
8944 — Abū Kurayb related this to us, saying: Ibn Abī Zāʾida related to us, on the authority of al-Thawrī, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ, on the authority of ʿUmayr, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Forbidden through kinship are seven, and through affinity seven. He then recited: "Forbidden to you are your mothers" until he reached: "and that you should marry two sisters at the same time, except for what has already passed." He said: And the seventh is: وَلا تَنْكِحُوا مَا نَكَحَ آبَاؤُكُمْ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ (And do not marry the women whom your fathers have married).
8945 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Muʾammal related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ, on the authority of ʿUmayr, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Forbidden through kinship are seven, and through affinity seven. He then recited: "Forbidden to you are your mothers" up to His saying: وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ إِلا مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ (And married women, except those whom your right hands possess).
8946 — Ibn Bashshār related to us once more, saying: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ, on the authority of ʿUmayr, the freedman of Ibn ʿAbbās, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, in the same manner.
8947 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, in a similar manner.
8948 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Ḥabīb, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Forbidden to you are seven through kinship, and seven through affinity. "Forbidden to you are your mothers" — the verse.
8949 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: My father related to us, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of ʿIkrima, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: "Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters and your sisters" — he said: Allah has forbidden through kinship seven and through affinity seven. He then recited: "and the mothers of your wives and your stepdaughters", the verse.
8950 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Muṭarrif, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Sālim, the freedman of the Anṣār, who said: Forbidden through kinship are seven, and through affinity seven: "Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts, your maternal aunts, the daughters of the brother and the daughters of the sister" — and through affinity: "your mothers who have suckled you, your sisters through suckling, the mothers of your wives, your stepdaughters who are under your guardianship, born of your wives with whom you have had intercourse — but if you have not had intercourse with them, then there is no sin upon you — and the wives of your sons who have come forth from your own loins, and that you should marry two sisters at the same time, except for what has already passed." Then He said: وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ إِلا مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ (And married women, except those whom your right hands possess) — وَلا تَنْكِحُوا مَا نَكَحَ آبَاؤُكُمْ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ (And do not marry the women whom your fathers have married).
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: All these women whom Allah, exalted be He, has named and whose forbidden status He has set forth in this verse are forbidden; it is not permitted to marry them for the men for whom Allah has forbidden that, by the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the entire community, without any disagreement existing concerning it — except concerning the mothers of our wives with whom their husbands have not had intercourse. For concerning the marrying of them there is disagreement among some of the early Companions (ṣaḥāba): when the daughter of her husband is divorced before he has had intercourse with her — do they belong to the "absolutely forbidden" (al-mubhamāt), or do they belong to those for whom intercourse with their daughters is a condition?
All the people of knowledge, both the earlier and the later among them, said: They belong to the absolutely forbidden, and it is forbidden for whoever marries a woman to marry her mother, whether he has had intercourse with the woman he married or not. They said: The condition of intercourse applies to the stepdaughter (al-rabība), not to the mother; as for the mother of the wife, for her the prohibition applies unconditionally. They said: If it were permissible that the condition of intercourse in His saying "and your stepdaughters who are under your guardianship, born of your wives with whom you have had intercourse" should also refer back to His saying "and the mothers of your wives", then it would also be permissible that the exception in His saying وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ إِلا مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ (And married women, except those whom your right hands possess) should apply to all the forbidden women mentioned in His saying "Forbidden to you are", the verse. They said: And in the consensus of all that the exception therein applies only to what immediately precedes it in His saying وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ (And married women), lies the clearest indication that the condition in His saying "born of your wives with whom you have had intercourse" applies to what immediately precedes it in His saying "and your stepdaughters who are under your guardianship, born of your wives with whom you have had intercourse", and not to the mothers of our wives.
* * *
And it has been transmitted from some of the early ones that he used to say: Permitted is the marrying of the mothers of our wives with whom we have not had intercourse, and that their ruling in that is the same as that of the stepdaughters.
*Mention of who said this:
8951 — Muḥammad ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Ibn Abī ʿAdī and ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Khilās ibn ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿAlī — may Allah be pleased with him — concerning a man who married a woman and repudiated her before he had intercourse with her: may he marry her mother? He said: She has the status of the stepdaughter.
8952 — Ḥumayd ibn Masʿada related to us, saying: Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, saying: Qatāda related to us, on the authority of Khilās, on the authority of ʿAlī — may Allah be pleased with him — who said: She has the status of the stepdaughter.
8953 — Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, saying: Qatāda related to us, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, on the authority of Zayd ibn Thābit: that he used to say: When she dies while with him and he has received her inheritance, then it is reprehensible for him afterward to marry her mother. But when he repudiates her before he has had intercourse with her, then he may do that if he wishes.
8954 — Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, on the authority of Zayd ibn Thābit, who said: When the man repudiates his wife before he has had intercourse with her, then there is no objection to his marrying her mother.
8955 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: ʿIkrima ibn Khālid informed me: that Mujāhid said to him: "and the mothers of your wives and your stepdaughters who are under your guardianship, born of your wives" — by both is meant intercourse, for both alike.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The first view is the most correct — I mean the view of those who said: "The mother belongs to the absolutely forbidden." For Allah did not stipulate for them intercourse with their daughters as a condition, as He did stipulate as a condition for the mothers of the stepdaughters; moreover, that is likewise a consensus of the binding authority, from which one may not deviate in that upon which they have unanimously agreed. And there is also a narration concerning this transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ, except that there is something to be remarked upon in the chain of transmission (isnād); and that is the following:
8956 — Al-Muthannā related this to us, saying: Ḥabbān ibn Mūsā related to us, saying: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, saying: Al-Muthannā ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ informed us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: When a man marries a woman, then it is not permitted to him to marry her mother, whether he has had intercourse with the daughter or not. And when he marries the mother but has not had intercourse with her and then repudiates her, then he may, if he wishes, marry the daughter.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: This narration — even though there is in its isnād something defective — one can, because of the consensus of the binding authority on the soundness of agreeing with it, dispense with corroborating its soundness by anything else.
8957 — 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: A man marries a woman, has neither seen her nor had intercourse with her until he repudiates her — is her mother then permitted to him? He said: No, she is set loose [forbidden]. I said to ʿAṭāʾ: Did Ibn ʿAbbās use to recite: "and the mothers of your wives with whom you have had intercourse"? He said: "No", tatrā. Ḥajjāj said: I said to Ibn Jurayj: What does "tatrā" mean? He said: It is as though he said: No! No!
* * *
As for "the stepdaughters" (al-rabāʾib): that is the plural of "rabība", and that is the daughter of the man's wife. She is called "rabība" because of his raising (tarbiya) of her; in reality she is "marbūba" [raised one], which has been transformed into "rabība", as one says: "she is qatīla" [slain one] derived from "maqtūla". And one may also say of the husband of the woman: "he is rabīb of the son of his wife", by which is meant: "he is her raiser (rābb)", as one says: "he is khābir and khabīr [knower]" and "shāhid and shahīd [witness]".
* * *
The exegetes differed concerning the meaning of His saying: "born of your wives with whom you have had intercourse" (dakhaltum bihinna).
Some said: The meaning of "the intercourse" (al-dukhūl) in this place is sexual intercourse (al-jimāʿ).
*Mention of who said this:
8958 — 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 saying: "born of your wives with whom you have had intercourse" — and "the intercourse" (al-dukhūl) is the sexual act (al-nikāḥ).
* * *
Others said: "The intercourse" in this place is the disrobing (al-tajrīd).
*Mention of who said this:
8959 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: His saying "with whom you have had intercourse" — what is "the intercourse with her"? He said: That she is brought to him, and he uncovers her and touches her, and sits between her legs. I said: What if he does that in the house of her family? He said: That is the same, and it suffices! By that he has made her daughter forbidden to himself. I said: Is the stepdaughter made forbidden to whoever does this with her mother? Is then [the daughter] of my slave-woman not made forbidden to me if I do this with her mother? He said: Yes, it is the same. ʿAṭāʾ said: When a man uncovers his slave-woman and sits between her legs, then I forbid to him her mother and her daughter.
* * *
Abū Jaʿfar said: The more correct of the two views, in my opinion, in the explanation of this, is that which Ibn ʿAbbās said, namely that the meaning of "the intercourse" is sexual intercourse and the sexual act. For its meaning does not escape one of two possibilities: either it is according to the common, well-known meaning of "the intercourse" (al-dukhūl) among the people, namely coming to her by secluding oneself with her — or it is in the meaning of sexual intercourse. And in the consensus of all that a man's seclusion with his wife does not make her daughter forbidden to him if he repudiates her before he has touched her and had relations with her, or before he has looked at her private part with desire — in that lies the indication that its meaning is coming to her through sexual intercourse.
And since that is so, it is known that the correct explanation of it is that which we have said.
* * *
As for His saying "but if you have not had intercourse with them, then there is no sin upon you": He says: If you, O people, have not had intercourse with the mothers of your stepdaughters who are under your guardianship — that is to say: you have not had sexual intercourse with them such that you have then repudiated them — "then there is no sin upon you", He says: then there is no objection for you in marrying those stepdaughters who are in such a situation.
* * *
As for His saying "and the wives of your sons who have come forth from your own loins": He means: and the wives of your sons who have come forth from your own loins.
* * *
And this (ḥalāʾil) is the plural of "ḥalīla", and that is his wife. One says: the wife of the man was called "ḥalīla" because she dwells (taḥullu) with him in one bed.
* * *
And there is no disagreement among all the people of knowledge that the wife of the man's son is forbidden to him to marry by the marriage contract that his son has concluded with her, whether he has had intercourse with her or not.
* * *
If someone were to say: What then do you say concerning the wives of the sons through suckling, since Allah, exalted be He, has forbidden only the wives of our sons from our own loins?
Then it is answered: The wives of the sons through suckling and the wives of the sons from the loins are equal in the prohibition. He said only "and the wives of your sons who have come forth from your own loins" because the meaning is: and the wives of your sons whom you have begotten, not the wives of your sons whom you have adopted, as in the following:
8960 — Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: I said to ʿAṭāʾ: His saying "and the wives of your sons who have come forth from your own loins". He said: We were told — and Allah knows best — that this was revealed concerning Muḥammad ﷺ, when he married the wife of Zayd ibn Ḥāritha. The polytheists (mushrikīn) said [something] about that, whereupon was revealed: "and the wives of your sons who have come forth from your own loins", and there was revealed: وَمَا جَعَلَ أَدْعِيَاءَكُمْ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ (And He has not made your adopted sons your [own] sons) [Sūrat al-Aḥzāb: 4], and there was revealed: مَا كَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَا أَحَدٍ مِنْ رِجَالِكُمْ (Muḥammad is not the father of any one of your men) [Sūrat al-Aḥzāb: 40].
* * *
As for His saying "and that you should marry two sisters at the same time": its meaning is: and it is forbidden to you to join two sisters together with you at the same time through marriage. Thus "an" stands in the position of the nominative (rafʿ), as though it were said: and the joining of two sisters.
* * *
— "except for what has already passed" — but what has already passed from you — "truly, Allah is ever Forgiving" of the sins of His servants when they turn to Him in repentance from them — "Merciful" toward them in what He has imposed upon them of obligations, and He has lightened it for them and not burdened them beyond their capacity.
He, exalted be His praise, informs by this: that He is forgiving toward whoever joined two sisters together through marriage at the same time in his time of ignorance (jāhiliyya), before He forbade that, if he fears Allah — blessed and exalted be He — after He forbade that to him, and thus obeys Him by abstaining from it — and He is merciful toward him and toward others among the people of His obedience from His creation.
