what ye shall leave, in case ye have no issue; but if ye have issue, then they shall have the eighth part of what ye shall leave, after the legacies which ye shall bequeath, and your debts be paid. And if a man or woman's substance be inherited by a distant relation, and he or she have a brother or sister; each of them two shall have a children, and must therefore bequeath his property to more distant relatives. Each of them. Here, and in the next case, the brother and sister are made equal sharers, which is an exception to the general rule of giving a male twice as much as a female; and the reason is said to be, because of the smallness of the portions, which deserve not such exactness of distribution; for in other cases the rule holds between brother and sister, as well as other relations."-Sale. The case of parents receiving each a sixth when there is a child is also an exception. See note, ver. 10. Without prejudice to the heirs, i.e., the distant relatives mentioned above. Abdul Qadir, commenting on this passage, says: "This relates to the inheritance of brothers and sisters, who have no claims so long as there be father or son alive. Should there be neither father nor son, then the brothers and sisters become heirs. There are three classes of these:-First, brothers and sisters by the same wife; secondly, by different wives; and thirdly, by different fathers. The inheritance belonging to these three classes is as follows:-If there be a single heir, he or she will receive a sixth part of the property; if more than one, then one-third of the property will be divided among them, no distinction being made between men and women. The first and second classes mentioned above rank as members of the deceased person's family when there is left to him neither father nor son. First the brothers by the same mother are heirs. If there be none such, then the brothers by a different mother. It is only in case there be no heirs of these classes that those of class third become heirs. "This passage also declares that bequests for charitable purposes have the precedence, provided no injustice be done to the heirs. This may take place in two ways: either by deceased's having bequeathed in charity more than one-third of his property-he may not give in charity more than one-third of his property; or injustice may be done the heirs by willing to some one of the heirs more than his lawful share, through partiality. Such increased bequest, beyond a third of the property, or partial bestowal of property beyond the legal share, can only become legal by the consent of the heirs at the time of bequest. "These five classes of heirs (children, parents, widower, widow, and brothers and sisters) all have fixed portions or fractional parts of the inheritance. Besides these, there are other heirs, called Usbah (distant relations), who have not portions. If there be no heirs having portions, then the usbah receive the whole property. sixth part of the estate. But if there be more than this. number, they shall be equal sharers in a third part, after payment of the legacies which shall be bequeathed and the debts, without prejudice to the heirs. This is an ordi nance from GOD, and GOD is knowing and gracious. (12) These are the statutes of GOD. And whoso obeyeth GOD and his apostle, God shall lead him into gardens wherein rivers flow, they shall continue therein for ever; and this shall be great happiness. (13) But whoso disobeyeth GOD and his apostle, and transgresseth his statutes, God shall cast him into hell fire; he shall remain therein for ever, and he shall suffer a shameful punishment. || (14) If any of your women be guilty of whoredom, produce four witnesses from among you against them, But if there be both heirs with portions and usbah, then the latter (14) Whoredom. Either fornication or adultery. Imprison in apartments, i.e., they were to be built into a wall, and be left there until they were dead. Or God afford, &c. "Their punishment in the beginning of Muhammadanism was to be immured till they died, but afterwards this cruel doom was mitigated, and they might avoid it by undergoing the punishment ordained in its stead by the Sunnat, according to which the maidens are to be scourged with a hundred stripes, and to be banished for a full year, and the married women to be stoned."-Sale, Jalaluddin. See also note, chap. iii. 23. and if they bear witness against them, imprison them in separate apartments until death release them, or GOD affordeth them a way to escape. (15) And if two of you commit the like wickedness, punish them both: but if they repent and amend, let them both alone; for GOD is easy to be reconciled and merciful. (16) Verily repentance will be accepted with GOD from those who do evil ignorantly, and then repent speedily; unto them will GOD be turned: for GOD is knowing and wise. (17) But no repentance shall be accepted from those who do evil until the time when death presenteth itself unto one of them, and he saith, Verily I repent now; nor unto those (15) Two of you. "The commentators are not agreed whether the text speaks of fornication or sodomy. Al Zamakhsharí, and from him, al Baidhawi, supposes the former is here meant; but Jaláluddín is of opinion that the crime intended in this passage must be committed between two men, and not between a man and a woman; not only because the pronouns are in the masculine gender, but because both are ordered to suffer the same slight punishment, and are both allowed the same repentance and indulgence; and especially for that a different and much severer punishment is appointed Abul Qasim Hibatullah for the women in the preceding words. takes simple fornication to be the crime intended, and that this passage is abrogated by that of the 24th chapter, where the man and the woman who shall be guilty of fornication are ordered to be scourged with a hundred stripes each.”—Sale. Punish them both. "The original is, Do them some hurt or damage, by which some understand that they are only to reproach them in public, or strike them on the head with their slippers (a great indignity in the East), though some imagine they may be scourged." -Sale, Baidhawi, Jalàluddín. The Tafsir-i-Raufi declares the punishment is to be inflicted with the tongue, by reproaches and admonitions; at most, they are to be smitten with the hand. Surely the partiality shown in the award of punishment to the sexes sufficiently indicates the slavish position This law of Islám falls far short of attesting of Muslim women. the former Scriptures. (16, 17) Repentance. The Muhammadans understand this verse to refer to the infidels, who may be forgiven on the ground of repentance, provided it be done before death, i.e., as I understand it, if they repent sincerely. For Muslims there is always full and free pardon when they repent, or even say, "I seek forgiveness, O Lord." This view of this passage is not borne out by the last clause, nor unto those who die in unbelief." The passage, therefore, probably refers to hypocritical professors of Islám. who die unbelievers; for them have we prepared a grievous punishment. (18) O true believers, it is not lawful for you to be heirs of women against their will, nor to hinder them from marrying others, that ye may take away part of what ye have given them in dowry; unless they have been guilty of a manifest crime: but converse kindly with them. And if ye hate them, it may happen that ye may hate a thing wherein GOD hath placed much good. If ye be desirous to exchange a wife for another wife, and ye have already given one of them a talent, take not away anything therefrom: will ye take it by slandering her, and doing her manifest injustice? (19) And how can ye take it, since the one of you hath gone in unto the other, and they have received from you a firm covenant? (20) Marry not women whom your fathers have had to wife; (except what is already (18) Heirs of women. "It was customary among the pagan Arabs, when a man died, for one of his relations to claim a right to his widow, which he asserted by throwing his garment over her; and then he either married her himself, if he thought fit, on assigning her the same dower that her former husband had done, or kept her dower and married her to another, or else refused to let her marry unless she redeemed herself by quitting what she might claim of her husband's goods. This unjust custom is abolished by this passage."-Sale. This passage was occasioned, says the Tafsir-i-Raufi, by the wife of Abu Qais, one of the companions, complaining to Muhammad against a son, who wished to treat her in accordance with the old custom. Not hinder them. The allusion is to those who would hinder their father's widows from marrying others, in order to retain the property in the family. Some, however, think the allusion to be to those who maltreated their wives, in order to make them relinquish the dowry fixed upon them at marriage. The language will very well bear this interpretation. Hindering would then mean imprisonment in some part of the house. Unless they have been guilty, i.e., of disobedience or shameless conduct. This passage carefully guards the right of a husband to punish his wife for whatever he may fancy a fault in her. A wife for another wife. See notes on chap. ii. 229. A talent. A large dowry. Will ye take it by slandering her? i.e., by giving out a false report of infidelity, in order to escape the necessity of forfeiting the dowry. See chap. ii. 229, note. (20) Women whom your fathers have had. The pre-Islámite religion past) for this is uncleanness, and an abomination, and an evil way. || (21) Ye are forbidden to marry your mothers, and B your daughters, and your sisters, and your aunts both on the father's and on the mother's side, and your brothers' daughters, and your sisters' daughters, and your mothers who have given you suck, and your foster-sisters, and your wives' mothers, and your daughters-in-law which are under your tuition, born of your wives unto whom ye have gone in, (but if ye have not gone in unto them, it shall be no sin in you to marry them,) and the wives of your sons who proceed out of your loins; and ye are also forbidden to take to wife two sisters, except what is already past: for GOD is gracious and merciful. SIPARA. || (22) Ye are also forbidden to take to wife free women FIFTH who are married, except those women whom your right hands shall possess as slaves. This is ordained you from GOD. Whatever is beside this is allowed you; that ye may with your substance provide wives for yourselves, acting that which is right, and avoiding whoredom. (23) of Arabia not only allowed such marriages, but made such women a lawful part of the son's inheritance. See Muir's Life of Mahomet, vol. ii. p. 52. The reform of Muhammad had respect to the future only. What was "already past" was allowed to remain unchanged. (21) Ye are forbidden to marry, &c. It is quite certain that these prohibited degrees were adapted from the Jewish law. Compare Lev. xviii. 6-18. Muhammad did not consider himself bound by this law (see chap. xxxiii. 49, 50). (22) Free women, except, &c. "According to this passage, it is not lawful to marry a free woman that is already married, be she a Muhammadan or not, unless she be legally parted from her husband by divorce; but it is lawful to marry those who are slaves or taken in war, after they shall have gone through the proper purifications, though their husbands be living. Yet, according to the decision of Abu Hanifah, it is not lawful to marry such whose husbands shall be taken or be in actual slavery with them."-Sale, Baidhawi. Marriage, in the Muslim sense, is not required in the case of those who are held as slaves. Sale has used the word marry rather freely in his italicised phrases. It is not marriage that is here forbidden, but certain women, marriage being predicated only where, according to Muhammadan law, the ceremony is required. |