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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Al-mizan an Exegesis of the Qur'an (volume Eight) Volume 8: Surah An-nisaa, Verses 19-22 O you believe! It is not lawful for you that you should inherit women against (their) will; and do not straiten them in order that you may take part of what you have given them, unless they are guilty of manifest indecency; and live with them in a proper manner; then if you hate them, it may be that you dislike a thing while Allah has placed abundant good in it (19).

And if you wish to have (one) wife in place of another and you have given one of them a heap of gold, then take not from it anything; would you take it by slandering (her) and (doing her) manifest wrong? (20). And how can you take it when one of you has already gone in to the other and they have made with you a firm covenant? (21).

And marry not women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed; this surely is indecent and hateful, and it is an evil way (22) COMMENTARY The talk returns to the subject of women, guiding the Muslims about some related matters. This piece contains the clause, and live with them in a proper manner; then if you hate them, it may be that you dislike a thing while Allah has placed abundant good in it. It is a basic Qur'anic principle which regulates woman's social life.

Qur'an: 0 you who believe! it is not lawful for you that you should inherit women against (their) will: The Arabs of the era of ignorance counted wives of a deceased person as part of his inheritance if the woman was not the heir's mother, as history and traditions have reported. The heirs took the widow as part of their share; one of them threw a cloth on her and she became his property. If he wished, he married her, inheriting the deceased's marriage — without giving her a fresh dowry.

If he disliked marrying her, he held her in his custody; then if he was so pleased, he gave her in marriage to someone and used her dowry himself; and if he wished, he kept her in straitened condition, not allowing her to marry, until she died and he inherited her property, if she had any. Apparently, the verse forbids some custom that was prevalent among them; and as some exegetes have written, it could be the above-mentioned system of inheriting the widows.

But the clause, "against (their) will", does not agree with this interpretation, whether we take it as an explanatory clause or a restrictive one.