Women — Questions people ask about Islam

1 Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.

Surah An-Nisa (The Women) 4:34 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Beware, and fear God, Mighty and Majestic, regarding women, for they are with you as captives. You took them by the trust of God, Mighty and Majestic, and you made their private parts lawful by the word of God, Mighty and Majestic. You have a right over them, and they have a right over you … If they do that, then forsake them in their beds, and strike them a blow that is not severe. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. And among their rights over you is their provision and their clothing in a fitting manner.

al-Tahawi (d. 321 AH) · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 1428 our rendering · Open the passage

3 As for those women from whom you fear haughtiness toward obeying you, counsel them with a kind word. If the kind word bears no fruit with them, then forsake them in bed and do not approach them. If forsaking has no effect on them, then strike them a blow that does no harm. Then if they obey you, beware of wronging them, for God, the High, the Great, is their protector, and He takes vengeance on whoever wrongs them and transgresses against them.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · An-Nisa 4:34 our rendering · Open the passage

4 That he admonish her; then if she shows rebellion, he forsakes her; then if she persists in it, he strikes her.

al-Shafi'i (d. 204 AH) · Ahkam al-Qur'an li-l-Shafi'i, collected by al-Bayhaqi, p. 207 our rendering · Open the passage

5 And striking may come only once the act has been made plain.

al-Shafi'i (d. 204 AH) · Ahkam al-Qur'an li-l-Shafi'i, collected by al-Bayhaqi, p. 208 our rendering · Open the passage

6 He said: All of this concerns the matter of the bed; so if she returns to the bed, he does not strike her. Abu Ja'far said: This is the best that has been said about the verse — that is, strike them on account of the beds, as you say: I forsook so-and-so over lying.

Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas (d. 338 AH) · I'rab al-Qur'an, p. 212 our rendering · Open the passage

7 The Messenger of God, peace be upon him, never struck anything with his hand — not a woman, not a servant — except when fighting in the cause of God. And nothing was ever done against him for which he took revenge on the one who did it, unless something God has made inviolable was violated, in which case he took revenge for God, Mighty and Majestic.

Aisha, Mother of the Believers · Muslim · Sahih Muslim 2328 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

8 And how people read the text for centuries is inside the question and not outside it — even though it is not the text.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

9 None of you is to flog his wife as a slave is flogged, and then lie with her at the end of the day.

Abdullah ibn Zam'a · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 5204 · authentic (sahih) our rendering

10 Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas struck his wife and broke her hand — she was Jamila bint Abdullah ibn Ubayy. Her brother came to complain of him to the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, who sent for him and said: "Take back what she is owed from you, and let her go." He said: Yes. So the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, ordered her to wait one menstrual cycle and then rejoin her family.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 AH) · Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-'Ibad, p. 174 our rendering · Open the passage

1 And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands' fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed.

Surah An-Nur 24:31 - Pickthall (1930) · Open the passage

2 Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is aware of what they do.

Surah An-Nur 24:30 - Pickthall (1930) · Open the passage

3 Say, O Prophet, to the believing men that they lower their gaze from what is not lawful for them to look upon of women and of what must be covered, and that they guard their private parts from what God has forbidden - fornication, sodomy, uncovering what must be covered, and the like. That is purer for them. God is aware of what they do with respect to what He commands them and what He forbids them.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - An-Nur 24:30 our rendering · Open the passage

4 Do not follow one glance with another. The first is yours, and the second is against you.

Buraydah ibn al-Husayb al-Aslami - Shuayb al-Arna'ut - Takhrij Mushkil al-Athar 1867 - hasan (good) our rendering

5 Thou art not at all a warder over them.

Surah Al-Ghashiyah 88:22 - Pickthall (1930) · Open the passage

6 So admonish, O Messenger, those who turn away, with that which you were sent to them with, and do not grieve over their turning away. You are only an admonisher to them; it is not for you to compel them to believe.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Al-Ghashiyah 88:22 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Forbidding a wrong has four degrees. The first: that it disappears and is replaced by its opposite. The second: that it lessens, even if it does not disappear entirely. The third: that it is replaced by something like it. The fourth: that it is replaced by something worse. The first two degrees are legitimate, the third is a place for considered judgment, and the fourth is forbidden.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 11 our rendering · Open the passage

8 A written text - read in its own language and its own context … A custom that has become confused with the religion - sorted out from it, and most of what is complained of is of this kind … The practice of a state or a group in a given time - its author is held to account, and nothing follows from it for the text

20. Difficult Texts our rendering · Open the passage

9 And what must not be said to him is: 'What that man did to you has nothing to do with religion.' The connection holds in his experience even if it does not hold in the ruling, so denying it calls him a liar about the clearest thing he knows, and the door closes. The more useful formula has three steps: that the act be named for what it is - injustice and a betrayal of trust; that it be acknowledged that it did in fact happen in the name of religion; and that the separation between the doer and the one he acted in the name of be offered as a possibility he may take, not as a duty imposed on him.

2. Why Do People Actually Leave Their Religion? our rendering · Open the passage

10 And I do not settle them, nor do I set out for you 'the wisdom' behind them — for grounding a ruling in a wisdom we suppose, and then arguing from it, brings the ruling down on the day the wisdom falls … And what I do say is this: these questions are not answered in a page, and whoever answered them for you in a page has chosen an opinion for you and called it the religion.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

11 Asma, when a woman reaches menstruation, it is not fit that any of her be seen except this and this - and he pointed to his face and his hands.

Aisha, Mother of the Believers - al-Albani - Sahih Abi Dawud 4104 - sahih (authentic) our rendering

12 As for forbidding with the tongue and the hand, it is obligatory only according to capacity … And it is an obligation upon every Muslim that does not lapse from anyone under any circumstance.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali - Jami' al-'Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 244 our rendering · Open the passage

13 All of these offices are in origin religious offices and posts established by the law. So whoever is just in one of these offices, governs it with knowledge and justice, and obeys God and His Messenger as far as he is able, is among the righteous and the just; and whoever rules in it with ignorance and injustice is among the unjust transgressors.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 390 our rendering · Open the passage

14 Whosoever goeth right, it is only for (the good of) his own soul that he goeth right, and whosoever erreth, erreth only to its hurt. No laden soul can bear another's load, We never punish until we have sent a messenger.

Surah Al-Isra 17:15 - Pickthall (1930) · Open the passage

15 Say: (It is) the truth from the Lord of you (all). Then whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve. Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers Fire. Its tent encloseth them. If they ask for showers, they will be showered with water like to molten lead which burneth the faces. Calamitous the drink and ill the resting-place!

Surah Al-Kahf 18:29 - Pickthall (1930) · Open the passage

16 The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, used to see in Mecca the greatest of wrongs and was unable to change them.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 11 our rendering · Open the passage

1 Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females, and if there be women more than two, then theirs is two-thirds of the inheritance, and if there be one (only) then the half. And to each of his parents a sixth of the inheritance, if he have a son; and if he have no son and his parents are his heirs, then to his mother appertaineth the third; and if he have brethren, then to his mother appertaineth the sixth, after any legacy he may have bequeathed, or debt (hath been paid). Your parents and your children: Ye know not which of them is nearer unto you in usefulness. It is an injunction from Allah. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise.

Surah An-Nisa (The Women) 4:11 — trans. Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 They ask thee for a pronouncement. Say: Allah hath pronounced for you concerning distant kindred. If a man die childless and he have a sister, hers is half the heritage, and he would have inherited from her had she died childless. And if there be two sisters, then theirs are two-thirds of the heritage, and if they be brethren, men and women, unto the male is the equivalent of the share of two females. Allah expoundeth unto you, so that ye err not. Allah is Knower of all things.

Surah An-Nisa (The Women) 4:176 — trans. Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

3 To each of the two parents of the deceased a sixth, if he has a child: male or female, one or more. … Your fathers and your sons, for whom the inheritance has been ordained: you do not know which of them is nearer to you in benefit in this world and the next, so do not favour one of them over another. This that He has enjoined upon you is an obligation from Allah.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar on An-Nisa 4:11 our rendering · Open the passage

4 And unto you belongeth a half of that which your wives leave, if they have no child; but if they have a child then unto you the fourth of that which they leave, after any legacy they may have bequeathed, or debt (they may have contracted, hath been paid). And unto them belongeth the fourth of that which ye leave if ye have no child, but if ye have a child then the eighth of that which ye leave, after any legacy ye may have bequeathed, or debt (ye may have contracted, hath been paid). And if a man or a woman have a distant heir (having left neither parent nor child), and he (or she) have a brother or a sister (only on the mother's side) then to each of them twain (the brother and the sister) the sixth, and if they be more than two, then they shall be sharers in the third, after any legacy that may have been bequeathed or debt (contracted) not injuring (the heirs by willing away more than a third of the heritage) hath been paid. A commandment from Allah. Allah is Knower, Indulgent.

Surah An-Nisa (The Women) 4:12 — trans. Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

5 And if the brothers or sisters on the mother's side are more than that, they are partners in the third, divided among them equally, with no difference between male and female.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar on An-Nisa 4:12 our rendering · Open the passage

6 Allah, glory be to Him, has given the husband double what He has given the wife, as a favour to the side of maleness; and He departed from this only in the children of the mother, because they connect through the bare womb-tie and connect through another, namely the mother, and they have no agnatic tie … So giving the male the like of the portion of two females holds for one who connects by himself or through an agnate; but as for one who connects through motherhood, such as the children of the mother, their male is not favoured over their female, and the male is like the female in what he takes.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 272 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Of this same kind is giving a male twice the inheritance of a female when he stands alone; for the text came only concerning the two of them together, in His words: "Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females" [An-Nisa: 11], and He said: "if they be brethren, men and women, unto the male is the equivalent of the share of two females" [An-Nisa: 176].

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 156 (Quranic wording as in Pickthall) our rendering · Open the passage

8 So the two of them took his property and gave nothing to his wife nor to his daughters. In the age of ignorance they did not give inheritance to women, nor to a young child even if male; they gave inheritance only to grown men, and they used to say: it is given only to one who has fought on horseback and seized the spoils.

al-Wahidi al-Naysaburi, Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an (Occasions of Revelation), p. 143 our rendering · Open the passage

9 And I do not settle them, nor do I set out for you 'the wisdom' behind them — for grounding a ruling in a wisdom we suppose, and then arguing from it, brings the ruling down on the day the wisdom falls, and it is among the weakest things written in this field and among the most plentiful. And what I do say is this: these questions are not answered in a page, and whoever answered them for you in a page has chosen an opinion for you and called it the religion.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

10 That Allah, glory be to Him, has favoured the male over the female, as He said — that the male is not like the female [Al Imran: 36] [Al Imran 37] — and what this preference requires is that he be given precedence over her in the rulings; and the Law has come with this preference in making the male like two females in testimony, in inheritance and in blood-money.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-'Ibad, p. 301 our rendering · Open the passage

1 And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans, marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess. Thus it is more likely that ye will not do injustice.

Surah An-Nisa (Women) 4:3 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 If you fear that you will not be fair to the orphan girls under your care, by not giving them dowries as you give other women, then leave them and marry other women who seem good to you: two, or three, or four. And if you fear that you will not be just among them, then be content with one, or with the bondwomen you have. What has been prescribed for you concerning orphan girls, and marriage to between one and four wives, or confining yourself to one or to what your right hand possesses, is closer to not being unjust and overstepping.

Tafsir al-Muyassar, on An-Nisa (Women) 4:3 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Ye will not be able to deal equally between (your) wives, however much ye wish (to do so). But turn not altogether away (from one), leaving her as in suspense. If ye do good and keep from evil, lo! Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

Surah An-Nisa (Women) 4:129 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 You will not be able, men, to achieve complete justice among your wives in love and in the inclination of the heart, however much effort you spend on it. So do not turn away entirely from the one you are less inclined to, leaving her like a woman who has neither a husband nor a divorce, and so fall into sin. And if you set your conduct right, dealing justly in the turns you allot among your wives, and are mindful of God and fear Him regarding them, then God is Forgiving to His servants, Merciful to them.

Tafsir al-Muyassar, on An-Nisa (Women) 4:129 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Ghaylan al-Thaqafi accepted Islam while he had ten wives, and the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) said: "Keep four and part with the rest."

Abdullah ibn Umar · Ibn Hibban · Sahih Ibn Hibban 4157 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

6 Whoever has two wives and inclines to one of them will come on the Day of Resurrection with one side of his body leaning.

Abu Hurayra · al-Albani · Sahih Abi Dawud 2133 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

7 Here is Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him): a woman came to him and praised her husband before him, saying, he is among the best people alive; he stands in prayer all night until morning and fasts all day until evening. Then shyness overcame her … So Umar said to Ka'b: judge between them. He said: shall I judge while you are sitting here? Umar said: you have grasped what I did not grasp. Ka'b said: God Most High says, "marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four" [An-Nisa 4:3]. Fast three days and break your fast with her on one; stand in prayer three nights and spend one night with her. Umar said: "This pleases me more than the first," and he sent him out as a judge for the people of Basra.

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 72 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Among them: that equal treatment among wives in love is not obligatory … On this there is a distinction: if he refrains for lack of desire and lack of arousal, he is excused; and if he refrains while the desire is there, but his desire for the other wife is stronger, then this falls within his capacity and his control. If he discharges what is obligatory upon him in it, she retains no claim and equal treatment is not binding on him; and if he leaves undone what is obligatory in it, she has the right to demand it.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 137 our rendering · Open the passage

9 In the Sunan, on the authority of Aisha (may God be pleased with her): the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) used to divide his turns justly, and would say, "O God, this is my division in what I control, so do not blame me for what You control and I do not" — meaning the heart.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 135 our rendering · Open the passage

10 … and that He, glorified be He, lightened her matter for him by what He permitted him of good women, two and three and four, and permitted him whatever he wished of what his right hand possesses, and then permitted him to marry bondwomen if he had need.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 249 our rendering · Open the passage

1 Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.

Surat al-Nisa (The Women) 4:34 · Open the passage

2 Men are charged with the directing of women and the care of them, by what God has singled them out for of the qualities of qiwama and of excelling, and by what they have given them of dowries and maintenance.

Tafsir al-Muyassar — al-Nisa 4:34 our rendering · Open the passage

3 "Men are in charge of women" is a subject and a predicate; that is, they undertake spending on them and defending them. One says qawwam and qayyim. As for "because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other" — the ma there is a verbal noun, and for that reason it needed no returning pronoun; and God, Mighty and Majestic, favoured men over women by soundness of mind and good management. And "because they spend of their property" — that is, in the dowries, until the women became wives to them and their maintenance fell upon them.

Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas · I'rab al-Qur'an (The Grammatical Analysis of the Qur'an), p. 211 our rendering · Open the passage

4 And covet not the thing in which Allah hath made some of you excel others. Unto men a fortune from that which they have earned, and unto women a fortune from that which they have earned. (Envy not one another) but ask Allah of His bounty. Lo! Allah is ever Knower of all things.

Surat al-Nisa (The Women) 4:32 · Open the passage

5 And do not covet that by which God has made some of you excel others, in gifts and provision and other than that. God has appointed for men a measured portion of recompense according to their work, and has appointed for women a portion of what they have done …

Tafsir al-Muyassar — al-Nisa 4:32 our rendering · Open the passage

6 And with this chain of transmission he said: al-Shafi'i said: "God commanded that their properties be handed over to the two of them (1), and He made them equal in that (2) — the man and the woman (3)." … "So this verse indicates that the man must hand over to the woman half of her dowry … and that she (6) has full power to remit her property."

Al-Shafi'i (compiled by al-Bayhaqi) · Ahkam al-Qur'an li'l-Shafi'i (The Rulings of the Qur'an), p. 138 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Then he said: "And if (8) this is so, then it is hers to give away of her property whatever (9) she wishes, without her husband's permission (10)." And he expanded on the discussion of it (11).

Al-Shafi'i (compiled by al-Bayhaqi) · Ahkam al-Qur'an li'l-Shafi'i (The Rulings of the Qur'an), p. 139 our rendering · Open the passage

8 The previously married woman has more right to herself than her guardian; and the virgin is to be asked for her consent, and her consent is her silence.

Abdullah ibn Abbas · Muslim · Sahih Muslim 1421 · Sahih (authentic) our rendering

9 And he argued (also) — for requiring a guardian in marriage (1) — with the saying of God, Mighty and Majestic: (Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other: 4-34) … "He said: the rulings of God, and then of His Messenger (peace be upon him), indicated (2) that the guardians [whether fathers or others (3)] have no ownership over their unmarried womenfolk — and their unmarried womenfolk are the previously married women."

Al-Shafi'i (compiled by al-Bayhaqi) · Ahkam al-Qur'an li'l-Shafi'i (The Rulings of the Qur'an), p. 174 our rendering · Open the passage

10 And of the strange things is that you said: were he to dispose of a rope of her property in a way that was not to her advantage, it would be rejected — yet when he disposes of part of her own self against her advantage, it is binding. Then you said: he knows her advantage better than she does. The senses refute this, for she knows better her own inclination and her aversion and her advantage — whom she would like to live with and whose company she dislikes.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 233 our rendering · Open the passage

11 O Prophet! If believing women come unto thee, taking oath of allegiance unto thee that they will ascribe no thing as partner unto Allah, and will neither steal nor commit adultery nor kill their children, nor produce any lie that they have devised between their hands and feet, nor disobey thee in what is right, then accept their allegiance and ask Allah to forgive them. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

Surat al-Mumtahina (She That Is To Be Examined) 60:12 · Open the passage

12 Every one of you is a shepherd, and every one of you is responsible for his flock. The ruler is a shepherd; the man is a shepherd over the people of his house; and the woman is a shepherd over her husband's house and his child. So every one of you is a shepherd, and every one of you is responsible for his flock.

Abdullah ibn Umar · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 5200 · Sahih (authentic) our rendering

13 And this is half an answer and not an answer, because behind it lies what is actually in the text and in the understanding settled upon it for centuries: the questions of testimony, of male authority in the household (qiwāma), of inheritance and of divorce. And in each of them there is a real contemporary disagreement among those working in jurisprudence, not between a Muslim and someone else but among themselves. … And what I do say is this: these questions are not answered in a page, and whoever answered them for you in a page has chosen an opinion for you and called it the religion.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

14 "A woman asked him (peace be upon him) about jewellery of hers that she had given away in charity, and he said to her: a woman may not make a gift out of her property except with her husband's permission. And in another wording: a woman has no authority over her property once her husband holds her marriage bond." The compilers of the Sunan reported it.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 251 our rendering · Open the passage

1 And in that prayer of his he saw the Garden and the Fire … and he saw Amr ibn Malik dragging his intestines in the Fire … and he saw in it the man who stole from the pilgrims being punished … And in one wording: ( "And I saw the Fire, and never have I seen a sight more dreadful than it, as I did today; and I saw that most of the people of the Fire were women. They said: And for what, Messenger of Allah? He said: For their ingratitude. It was said: Do they disbelieve in Allah? He said: They are ungrateful to the husband, and they are ungrateful for kindness. If you were good to one of them for a whole lifetime and then she saw something from you, she would say: I have never seen any good from you." )

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 433 our rendering · Open the passage

2 To this meaning the Prophet — peace and blessings be upon him — pointed when he said: "As for the deficiency in their intellect: the testimony of two women counts for the testimony of one man." So he made clear that the halving of their testimony is because of a weakness in intellect, not a weakness in religion. It is known by this that the integrity of women is on a par with the integrity of men, and it is only her intellect that falls short of his. So in any testimony in which erring is not customarily feared, she does not count in it as half a man; and what is accepted of their testimony on their own is only things she sees with her own eye, or touches with her hand, or hears with her ear, without depending on reasoning — such as childbirth, the newborn's cry at birth, suckling, and menstruation.

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya, p. 240 — quoting Ibn Taymiyya our rendering · Open the passage

3 O ye who believe! When ye contract a debt for a fixed term, record it in writing. Let a scribe record it in writing between you in (terms of) equity. No scribe should refuse to write as Allah hath taught him, so let him write, and let him who incurreth the debt dictate, and let him observe his duty to Allah his Lord, and diminish naught thereof. But if he who oweth the debt is of low understanding, or weak, or unable himself to dictate, then let the guardian of his interests dictate in (terms of) equity. And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not (at hand) then a man and two women, of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if the one erreth (through forgetfulness) the other will remember. And the witnesses must not refuse when they are summoned. Be not averse to writing down (the contract) whether it be small or great, with (record of) the term thereof. That is more equitable in the sight of Allah and more sure for testimony, and the best way of avoiding doubt between you; save only in the case when it is actual merchandise which ye transfer among yourselves from hand to hand. In that case it is no sin for you if ye write it not. And have witnesses when ye sell one to another, and let no harm be done to scribe or witness. If ye do (harm to them) lo! it is a sin in you. Observe your duty to Allah. Allah is teaching you. And Allah is knower of all things.

Surat al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:282 · Open the passage

4 Lo! men who surrender unto Allah, and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men who persevere (in righteousness) and women who persevere, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their modesty and women who guard (their modesty), and men who remember Allah much and women who remember - Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward.

Surat al-Ahzab (The Clans) 33:35 · Open the passage

5 Whoso doeth an ill-deed, he will be repaid the like thereof, while whoso doeth right, whether male or female, and is a believer, (all) such will enter the Garden, where they will be nourished without stint.

Surat Ghafir (The Forgiver) 40:40 · Open the passage

6 The second argument of these people: that Allah, glorified be He, placed the matter of divorce in the husband's hands and not in the women's, because they are deficient in intellect and religion, and folly prevails over them, and desire and inclination toward men carry them off in every direction; so had the matter of divorce been placed in their hands, no affair of the men with them would have held straight.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 267 our rendering · Open the passage

7 What is established from the Companions is that this is taken into account and that divorce takes effect by it, even if they differed over what the woman thereby comes to hold, as has been said; and the view that it has no effect is not known from any of the Companions whatsoever.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 271 our rendering · Open the passage

8 And this is half an answer and not an answer, because behind it lies what is actually in the text and in the understanding settled upon it for centuries: the questions of testimony, of male authority in the household (qiwāma), of inheritance and of divorce. And in each of them there is a real contemporary disagreement among those working in jurisprudence, not between a Muslim and someone else but among themselves … and whoever answered them for you in a page has chosen an opinion for you and called it the religion.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

1 Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will, and send (good deeds) before you for your souls, and fear Allah, and know that ye will (one day) meet Him. Give glad tidings to believers, (O Muhammad).

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:223 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 "Your women are a tilth for you" is a figure of speech. The root sense of harth is sowing. That is: they are to the child as the earth is to the crop.

Ibn Qutaybah al-Dinawari - Gharib al-Qur'an (The Uncommon Words of the Qur'an), p. 83 our rendering · Open the passage

3 The women of the Ansar would not let their husbands come to them from behind. So the men came to the Messenger of God, God bless him and grant him peace, and asked him about a man coming to his wife while she is menstruating, and about what the Jews had said. So God, Mighty and Majestic, sent down the verses: they ask you about menstruation; do not approach them until they are pure, meaning until they wash; and when they have purified themselves, come to them as God has commanded you, meaning the front; God loves those who turn to Him in repentance and loves those who keep themselves pure. "Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will." For the tilth is only where the child grows and comes forth.

al-Wahidi al-Naysaburi - Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an (The Occasions of Revelation), p. 74 our rendering · Open the passage

4 Your women are a place of sowing for you: you place the seed in their wombs, and children come forth from them by the will of God. So have intercourse with them in the place of intercourse only, which is the front, in whatever manner you wish. And send ahead for yourselves righteous deeds by keeping the commands of God, and fear God, and know that you will meet Him for the reckoning on the Day of Resurrection.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar (The Simplified Exegesis) - al-Baqarah 2:223 our rendering · Open the passage

5 I heard al-Nu'man ibn Rashid relate from al-Zuhri, from Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jabir ibn Abd Allah, who said: The Jews said: if a man has intercourse with his wife face down, her child will be born cross-eyed. So there came down: "Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will" — if he wishes, face down, and if he wishes, otherwise; except that this is in one passage only. Muslim related it from Harun ibn Ma'ruf, from Wahb ibn Jarir.

al-Wahidi al-Naysaburi - Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an (The Occasions of Revelation), p. 76 our rendering · Open the passage

6 It is made lawful for you to go in unto your wives on the night of the fast. They are raiment for you and ye are raiment for them. Allah is Aware that ye were deceiving yourselves in this respect and He hath turned in mercy toward you and relieved you. So hold intercourse with them and seek that which Allah hath ordained for you, and eat and drink until the white thread becometh distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn. Then strictly observe the fast till nightfall and touch them not, but be at your devotions in the mosques. These are the limits imposed by Allah, so approach them not. Thus Allah expoundeth His revelation to mankind that they may ward off (evil).

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:187 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

7 Women who are divorced shall wait, keeping themselves apart, three (monthly) courses. And it is not lawful for them that they should conceal that which Allah hath created in their wombs if they are believers in Allah and the Last Day. And their husbands would do better to take them back in that case if they desire a reconciliation. And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them. Allah is Mighty, Wise.

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:228 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

8 As for what cannot be begun except before the judge: the year's respite for the impotent husband, which must be granted to him on account of his wife who has brought suit against him over his inability to give her the intercourse that is owed to her by him by right of the marriage. That could not be done without him, nor was it for the two of them to impose the year between themselves; and what the passing of the year then requires — the woman being given the choice between remaining with the husband she sued over this and separating from him — can be only before the judge.

al-Tahawi - Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim (Rulings of the Noble Qur'an), p. 2033 our rendering · Open the passage

9 He said, in the narration of Salih, Ibn Mansur, Hanbal, Abu al-Harith, al-Fadl ibn Ziyad and al-Marrudhi: he may withdraw from a free woman with her permission, and from a slave woman without her permission — meaning his own slave.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad (Provisions for the Hereafter), p. 133 our rendering · Open the passage

10 As for those who permitted it with the free woman's leave, they said: the woman has a right in the child just as the man has a right in it, and for that reason she has the better claim to its custody. They said: the leave of the concubine is not taken into account in this, because she has no right to a share of the husband's time, and for that reason she cannot demand that he return to her. Had she a right in intercourse, a man who had sworn off her would be required to return.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad (Provisions for the Hereafter), p. 132 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Those who permitted it absolutely argued from the hadiths we have mentioned, and from the fact that the woman's right is to the tasting of pleasure, not to the emission.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad (Provisions for the Hereafter), p. 129 our rendering · Open the passage

12 Of this kind is meeting the offender with the opposite of what he intended, by way of deprivation: as the man who kills the one he stands to inherit from is punished by being deprived of his inheritance; and the slave promised freedom at his master's death, if he kills his master, is punished by the annulment of that promise; and the legatee is punished by the annulment of his bequest. Of this same chapter is the punishment of the recalcitrant wife by the lapse of her maintenance and her clothing.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in (Instruction of Those Who Sign on Behalf of the Lord of the Worlds), p. 74 our rendering · Open the passage

13 One group distinguished between the free woman giving him leave, in which case it is permitted, and her not giving leave, in which case it is forbidden; and if his wife is a slave woman, it is permitted with her master's leave and not permitted without his leave. This is the explicit text of Ahmad. Among his companions are those who said: it is not permitted in any case. And among them are those who said: it is permitted in every case. And among them are those who said: it is permitted with the wife's leave, whether she is free or a slave, and not permitted without her leave, whether she is free or a slave.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad (Provisions for the Hereafter), p. 129 our rendering · Open the passage

14 Ibn Abbas said: this clan of Quraysh used to lay women out at Mecca and take their pleasure of them from the front and from behind. When they came to Medina they married among the Ansar, and went to do with them as they had done at Mecca. The women objected to that and said: this is a thing we have never been approached in. And the report spread.

al-Wahidi al-Naysaburi - Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an (The Occasions of Revelation), p. 75 our rendering · Open the passage

15 [That is: I found that God, Mighty and Majestic, gave leave in the husband's recalcitrance]: that the two of them come to terms; and gave leave in the woman's recalcitrance: striking; and gave leave, where the two of them fear that they will not keep the limits of [God]: the wife's release from the marriage (khul').

al-Shafi'i, compiled by al-Bayhaqi - Ahkam al-Qur'an lil-Shafi'i (Rulings of the Qur'an, from al-Shafi'i), p. 210 our rendering · Open the passage

1 In Sahih al-Bukhari: from Ibn Abbas: 'The wife of Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas came to the Prophet and said: O Messenger of Allah, as for Thabit ibn Qays, I find no fault in his character or his religion, but I hate ingratitude within Islam. The Messenger of Allah said: "Will you return his garden to him?" She said: Yes. The Messenger of Allah said: "Accept the garden and divorce her" …

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maʿad, p. 173 our rendering · Open the passage

2 'Then will you return to him the garden he gave you as your dower?' She said: Yes, and more from my own property. The Messenger of Allah said: 'As for the increase out of your own property, no; but the garden.' She said: Yes. And he ruled that upon the husband. And although this is mursal, the report of Abu al-Zubayr strengthens it, and Ibn Jurayj related it from them both.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maʿad, p. 177 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Abd al-Razzaq related from Maʿmar, from Layth, from al-Hakam ibn Utayba, from Ali ibn Abi Talib: 'He is not to take from her more than he gave her.' Tawus said: it is not lawful for him to take from her more than he gave her. Ata said: if he takes more than her dower, the excess is returned to her. Al-Zuhri said: it is not lawful for him to take from her more than he gave her. Maymun ibn Mihran said: if he takes from her more than he gave her, he has not released her with kindness. Al-Awzaʿi said: the judges would not allow him to take anything from her except what he had brought to her.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maʿad, p. 176 our rendering · Open the passage

4 In his command that the woman who obtains khulʿ observe a waiting period of a single menstrual cycle there is evidence of two rulings. The first: that three cycles are not obligatory upon her, but a single cycle suffices her. And just as this is the plain sense of the Sunna, so it is the position of the Commander of the Faithful Uthman ibn Affan, of Abd Allah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab, of al-Rubayyiʿ bint Muʿawwidh and of her uncle — who was among the senior Companions — and none among them is known to have differed with them

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maʿad, p. 178 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Abu Dawud related in his Sunan, from the report of Aisha: 'Habiba bint Sahl was married to Thabit ibn Qays ibn Shammas. He struck her and broke part of her body, so she came to the Prophet after the dawn prayer. The Prophet summoned Thabit and said: Take some of her property and part from her. He said: Is that permissible, O Messenger of Allah? He said: Yes. He said: I gave her two gardens as her dower, and they are in her hands. The Prophet said: Take them and part from her. And he did so.'

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maʿad, p. 171 our rendering · Open the passage

6 The fifty-ninth example: if a woman marries and fears that her husband will travel away from her and leave her, or will take her travelling when she does not wish to leave her home, or will take another wife, or take a concubine, or drink intoxicants, or strike her without cause … then the device for her in all of this is that she stipulate upon him that whenever any of that occurs the matter is in her own hand: if she wishes she stays with him, and if she wishes she parts from him; and she takes witnesses against him to that … So whenever the matter is thus, she owns the power to divorce herself. There is no harm in this device, for by it a woman frees herself from a marriage she did not consent to, and by it she has no need to raise her case to the judge to annul her marriage on grounds of absence, insolvency and the like.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Iʿlam al-Muwaqqiʿin, p. 297 our rendering · Open the passage

7 As for divorce under ighlāq: Imam Ahmad said, in Hanbal's transmission — and the report of Aisha, 'I heard the Prophet say: There is no divorce and no manumission under ighlāq' — meaning anger. This is Ahmad's own wording, related from him by al-Khallal, and by Abu Bakr in al-Shafi and in Zad al-Musafir. This is Ahmad's explanation. … Our shaykh said: the reality of ighlāq is that a man's heart is closed upon him, so that he does not intend the words, or does not know of them, as though his intention and his will had been shut in upon him … Our shaykh said: included in this is the divorce of one under compulsion, and of the insane, and of one whose mind is gone through drink or anger, and of everyone who has no intent and no knowledge of what he said.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maʿad, p. 194 our rendering · Open the passage

8 The seventh example: that in the time of the Prophet, and the time of his successor Abu Bakr, and the first part of the caliphate of Umar, when a man pronouncing divorce gathered the three pronouncements in one breath they were counted as one, as is established in the Sahih from Ibn Abbas. Muslim related in his Sahih, from Ibn Tawus, from his father, from Ibn Abbas: 'The threefold divorce, in the time of the Messenger of Allah and of Abu Bakr and for two years of the caliphate of Umar, was one. Then Umar ibn al-Khattab said: The people have grown hasty in a matter in which they once had respite; were we to make it binding upon them — and he made it binding upon them.'

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Iʿlam al-Muwaqqiʿin, p. 30 our rendering · Open the passage

9 Women have rights over their husbands like those that are owed by them, in the way recognized as good; and men have over women an added rank: good companionship, honourable dealing, authority over the household and the ownership of divorce.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surat al-Baqara 2:228 our rendering · Open the passage

10 Women who are divorced shall wait, keeping themselves apart, three (monthly) courses. And it is not lawful for them that they should conceal that which Allah hath created in their wombs if they are believers in Allah and the Last Day. And their husbands would do better to take them back in that case if they desire a reconciliation. And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them. Allah is Mighty, Wise.

Surat al-Baqara 2:228 · Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

11 Moreover, an arbiter is one who holds the authority to judge and to bind, and an agent has nothing of that. … Uthman ibn Affan sent Abd Allah ibn Abbas and Muʿawiya as two arbiters between Aqil ibn Abi Talib and his wife Fatima bint Utba ibn Rabiʿa, and it was said to them: if you see fit to separate them, separate them. And it is established from Ali ibn Abi Talib that he said to the two arbiters between a husband and wife: it is upon you two — if you see fit to separate them, separate them, and if you see fit to bring them together, bring them together

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Maʿad, p. 172 our rendering · Open the passage

12 Any woman who asks her husband for a divorce without some grave cause — the fragrance of Paradise is forbidden to her.

Thawban, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah · al-Albani · Sahih Abi Dawud 2226 · sahih (sound) our rendering

13 And this is half an answer and not an answer, because behind it lies what is actually in the text and in the understanding settled upon it for centuries: the questions of testimony, of male authority in the household (qiwāma), of inheritance and of divorce. And in each of them there is a real contemporary disagreement among those working in jurisprudence, not between a Muslim and someone else but among themselves. And I do not settle them, nor do I set out for you 'the wisdom' behind them — for grounding a ruling in a wisdom we suppose, and then arguing from it, brings the ruling down on the day the wisdom falls, and it is among the weakest things written in this field and among the most plentiful.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

1 O ye who believe! When believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them. Allah is Best Aware of their faith. Then, if ye know them for true believers, send them not back unto the disbelievers. They are not lawful for them (the disbelievers), nor are they (the disbelievers) lawful for them. And give them (the disbelievers) that which they have spent (upon them). And it is no sin for you to marry such women when ye have given them their dues. And hold not to the ties of disbelieving women; and ask for (the return of) that which ye have spent; and let them (the disbelievers) ask for that which they have spent. That is the judgment of Allah. He judgeth between you. Allah is Knower, Wise.

Surah Al-Mumtahanah 60:10 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 Believing women may not marry disbelievers, and disbelievers may not marry believing women … and do not hold to the marriage bond of your disbelieving wives.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Mumtahanah 60:10 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Wed not idolatresses till they believe; for lo! a believing bondwoman is better than an idolatress though she please you; and give not your daughters in marriage to idolaters till they believe, for lo! a believing slave is better than an idolater though he please you. These invite unto the Fire, and Allah inviteth unto the Garden, and unto forgiveness by His grace, and expoundeth His revelations to mankind that haply they may remember.

Surah Al-Baqarah 2:221 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 His words, "Wed not idolatresses", are a general wording from which the women of the People of the Book were excepted by the verse of Al-Ma'idah. This is specification, not abrogation … and on this are the jurists, and it is the correct view.

Ibn al-Jawzi · Nawasikh al-Qur'an, p. 278 our rendering · Open the passage

5 This day are (all) good things made lawful for you. The food of those who have received the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. And so are the virtuous women of the believers and the virtuous women of those who received the Scripture before you (lawful for you) when ye give them their marriage portions and live with them in honour, not in fornication, nor taking them as secret concubines. Whoso denieth the faith, his work is vain and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter.

Surah Al-Ma'idah 5:5 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 Lawful to you, believers, is marriage to the chaste women — the free women among the believers, who keep clear of fornication — and likewise marriage to the free, chaste women of the Jews and the Christians, provided you give them their bride-gifts, and provided you are chaste yourselves, not committing fornication and not taking mistresses, and are safe from being drawn into their religion.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Ma'idah 5:5 our rendering · Open the passage

7 The wording was general, covering men and women. God then abrogated it with respect to the women and left it standing with respect to the men. God commanded His Prophet and the believers to examine the women who came to them: if they knew a woman to be a believer they did not return her to the disbelievers, and He commanded them to return her bride-gift to them … and that it is not permitted to hand a Muslim woman who has emigrated back to the disbelievers, even if that was stipulated, and that a Muslim woman may not marry a disbeliever … and in it is evidence for the prohibition of a Muslim man marrying an idolatress, just as marrying a Muslim woman was forbidden to a disbeliever.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 126 our rendering · Open the passage

8 What his ruling, God bless him and grant him peace, requires is that religion be taken into account in compatibility, both as its basis and as its perfection: so a Muslim woman is not married to a disbeliever, nor a chaste woman to a profligate. The Qur'an and the Sunna took nothing beyond that into account in compatibility … they took no account of lineage, nor of trade, nor of wealth, nor of freedom, so a bondsman was permitted to marry a free woman of lineage and wealth if he was chaste and a Muslim, and non-Qurashis were permitted to marry Qurashi women, and non-Hashimis to marry Hashimi women, and the poor to marry women of means.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 144 our rendering · Open the passage

9 Nafi related to me, from Ibn Umar, that when he was asked about marrying a Jewish or a Christian woman he would say: God has forbidden idolatresses to the Muslims. And he said: I know of no idolatry greater — or he said: more grievous — than for a woman to say that her Lord is Jesus, or one of God's servants.

Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam · Al-Nasikh wa-l-Mansukh, p. 84 our rendering · Open the passage

10 Umar wrote to him: let her go. Hudhayfa wrote back to him: is she forbidden? Umar wrote to him: no, but I fear you will take up with the loose women among them … We hold that Umar, may God be pleased with him, was going by what is in the verse, His words: "the virtuous women of those who received the Scripture". He was saying that God stipulated the chaste ones among them, and there is no assurance that this woman is not unchaste.

Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam · Al-Nasikh wa-l-Mansukh, p. 90 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Abu Ubayd said: the Muslims today follow these reports permitting marriage to the People of the Book, and they hold that the permission abrogates the prohibition. Even so, it is reported of Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, that he used to order that such women be avoided, and that was by way of keeping clear of them, not of holding them forbidden … Then Umar, may God be pleased with him, said to him: keep clear of her and marry a Muslim woman. He said: so he divorced her and married a Muslim woman.

Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam · Al-Nasikh wa-l-Mansukh, p. 89 our rendering · Open the passage

1 Wherein are plain memorials (of Allah's guidance); the place where Abraham stood up to pray; and whosoever entereth it is safe. And pilgrimage to the House is a duty unto Allah for mankind, for him who can find a way thither. As for him who disbelieveth, (let him know that) lo! Allah is Independent of (all) creatures.

Surah Al Imran 3:97 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 … Allah has made it obligatory upon whoever among mankind is able, in any place, to set out for this House to perform the rites of the pilgrimage. And whoever denies that the pilgrimage is an obligation has disbelieved; Allah has no need of him, nor of his pilgrimage and his works, nor of the rest of His creation.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al Imran 3:97 our rendering · Open the passage

3 And that does not extend beyond those men who are legally responsible, adult, sound in mind and free. As for women, they are not to be counted as having found the way except by what we have mentioned and by the presence of husbands, or of male relatives within the prohibited degrees of marriage, who go out with them…

al-Tahawi · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 1178 our rendering · Open the passage

4 … And among the things indicating that any man related by suckling — where, in place of the blood kinship that made the suckling relation binding, he were a blood relative with whom travelling with the woman is lawful — is that if he is such through suckling, then travelling with her is lawful for him, and travelling with him is lawful for her. So we say. Unless she is feared for on his account, for if that is so she is obliged to guard herself against him, in travel and at home alike…

al-Tahawi · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 1182 our rendering · Open the passage

5 The sixty-sixth aspect: that he forbade a woman to travel without a mahram, and that is only because her travelling without a mahram may be a means leading to designs upon her and to immorality with her.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 119 our rendering · Open the passage

6 The prohibition of silk was only a blocking of the means, and for that reason it was permitted to women, and for need and for a preponderant benefit. This is a rule: whatever is prohibited in order to block the means to something is permitted in case of need and preponderant benefit — just as looking was prohibited to block the means to the act, and whatever need and preponderant benefit call for was permitted of it…

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 70 our rendering · Open the passage

7 … For I do not fear poverty for you, for Allah will grant you victory and will give to you, until the woman in her litter travels between Yathrib and al-Hira and the most she fears for her mount is theft…

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 453 (from the report of Adi ibn Hatim) our rendering · Open the passage

8 1. The rulings concerning women. And most of what is complained of in this field — and the statement here is my own and I attribute it to nobody — belongs in the third box of my table: a custom that has become confused with the religion; keeping a woman from learning, keeping her from going out, marrying her off by force, cutting her out of an inheritance. … And in each of them there is a real contemporary disagreement among those working in jurisprudence, not between a Muslim and someone else but among themselves. And I do not settle them, nor do I set out for you 'the wisdom' behind them — for grounding a ruling in a wisdom we suppose, and then arguing from it, brings the ruling down on the day the wisdom falls, and it is among the weakest things written in this field and among the most plentiful.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

9 … For the fatwa changes with the change of times, places, customs and circumstances, and all of that is from the religion of Allah, as has been explained above; and success is from Allah.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 156 our rendering · Open the passage

1 … Shawwal, when she was six years old, and he consummated the marriage with her in Shawwal in the first year after the Hijra, when she was nine years old, and he married no virgin other than her … And she was the most learned of his wives in jurisprudence and the most knowledgeable of them — indeed, the most learned woman of the community in jurisprudence and the most knowledgeable of them without exception; and the senior Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would defer to what she said and seek her rulings.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 102 our rendering · Open the passage

2 O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war, and the daughters of thine uncle on the father's side and the daughters of thine aunts on the father's side, and the daughters of thine uncle on the mother's side and the daughters of thine aunts on the mother's side who emigrated with thee, and a believing woman if she give herself unto the Prophet and the Prophet desire to ask her in marriage - a privilege for thee only, not for the (rest of) believers - We are Aware of that which We enjoined upon them concerning their wives and those whom their right hands possess - that thou mayst be free from blame, for Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

Surat al-Ahzab 33:50 - Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

3 And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans, marry of the women, who seem good to you, two or three or four; and if ye fear that ye cannot do justice (to so many) then one (only) or (the captives) that your right hands possess. Thus it is more likely that ye will not do injustice.

Surat al-Nisa 4:3 - Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 … and marry other women who are good for you: two, or three, or four; and if you fear that you will not be just between them, then confine yourselves to one … That is what I have laid down for you concerning orphan girls, and marriage from one wife up to four.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Surat al-Nisa 4:3 our rendering · Open the passage

5 There is no disagreement that he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, died leaving nine wives, and that he divided his nights among eight of them: Aisha, Hafsa, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Umm Salama, Safiyya, Umm Habiba, Maymuna, Sawda and Juwayriya.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 109 our rendering · Open the passage

6 And the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ruled that the orphan girl is to be consulted about herself, and that there is no orphanhood after puberty. This indicates that it is permissible to marry an orphan girl before puberty. This is the position of Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her; the Qur'an and the Sunna indicate it, and Ahmad, Abu Hanifa and others held it.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 90 our rendering · Open the passage

7 And for such of your women as despair of menstruation, if ye doubt, their period (of waiting) shall be three months, along with those who have it not. And for those with child, their period shall be till they bring forth their burden. And whosoever keepeth his duty to Allah, He maketh his course easy for him.

Surat al-Talaq 65:4 - Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

8 … their waiting period is three months; and the young girls who have not yet menstruated, their waiting period is three months as well.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Surat al-Talaq 65:4 our rendering · Open the passage

9 This is the fatwa we adopt: the virgin must be consulted.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 259 our rendering · Open the passage

10 Prove orphans till they reach the marriageable age; then, if ye find them of sound judgment, deliver over unto them their fortune; and devour it not by squandering and in haste lest they should grow up Whoso (of the guardians) is rich, let him abstain generously (from taking of the property of orphans); and whoso is poor let him take thereof in reason (for his guardianship). And when ye deliver up their fortune unto orphans, have (the transaction) witnessed in their presence. Allah sufficeth as a Reckoner.

Surat al-Nisa 4:6 - Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

11 And test the orphans under your care, to learn whether they are able to manage their property well; then, when they reach the age of puberty and you know them to be sound in their religion and able to keep their property safe, hand it over to them.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar - Surat al-Nisa 4:6 our rendering · Open the passage

12 But this separation has a condition without which it does not hold: that it be applied on both sides. For whoever says 'that is their understanding and not the text' whenever he is hard pressed, and then argues from the understanding of the early generations wherever it suits him, has used two rulers. And how people read the text for centuries is inside the question and not outside it — even though it is not the text.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

13 If the intuition is evidence, then the encounter is between two pieces of evidence, and not between evidence and an emotion. And this stops me from saying to you 'that is a feeling with no argument in it' — and I will not say it.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

14 … and I do not settle them, nor do I offer you the 'wisdom' behind them — for justifying a ruling by a wisdom we merely suppose, and then arguing from it, brings the ruling down on the day that supposed wisdom falls; and that is among the weakest and most common things written on this subject. What I do say is this: these questions are not answered in a single page, and whoever answers them for you in a page has chosen an opinion for you and called it the religion.

20. Difficult Texts our rendering · Open the passage

1 O ye who believe! When ye contract a debt for a fixed term, record it in writing. Let a scribe record it in writing between you in (terms of) equity. No scribe should refuse to write as Allah hath taught him, so let him write, and let him who incurreth the debt dictate, and let him observe his duty to Allah his Lord, and diminish naught thereof. But if he who oweth the debt is of low understanding, or weak, or unable himself to dictate, then let the guardian of his interests dictate in (terms of) equity. And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not (at hand) then a man and two women, of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if the one erreth (through forgetfulness) the other will remember. And the witnesses must not refuse when they are summoned. Be not averse to writing down (the contract) whether it be small or great, with (record of) the term thereof. That is more equitable in the sight of Allah and more sure for testimony, and the best way of avoiding doubt between you; save only in the case when it is actual merchandise which ye transfer among yourselves from hand to hand. In that case it is no sin for you if ye write it not. And have witnesses when ye sell one to another, and let no harm be done to scribe or witness. If ye do (harm to them) lo! it is a sin in you. Observe your duty to Allah. Allah is teaching you. And Allah is knower of all things.

Surah al-Baqarah 2:282 · Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 O you who have believed in God and followed His Messenger Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace: when you deal with one another in a debt for a known term, write it down, to preserve the property and to prevent dispute. ... And if two men are not to be found, then seek the testimony of one man and two women whose testimony you accept, so that if one of them forgets, the other will remind her.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah al-Baqarah 2:282 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Our shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah, may God have mercy on him, said: God's words, "And if two men be not (at hand) then a man and two women, of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if the one erreth (through forgetfulness) the other will remember" [al-Baqarah: 282], contain proof that calling two women in place of one man is only so that one may remind the other should she err; and this holds only in matters where error ordinarily occurs, namely forgetfulness and lack of ... retention. To this meaning the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, pointed when he said: "As for the deficiency of their reason: the testimony of two women equals the testimony of one man." He made clear that the halving of their testimony is on account of weakness of reason, not weakness of religion; from this it is known that the uprightness of women is on a par with the uprightness of men, and that only her reason falls short of his. So whatever testimonies do not ordinarily risk error, in them she is not at half a man. And what is accepted from them on their own is only such things as she sees with her own eye, or touches with her hand, or hears with her ear, without depending on reason — such as childbirth, the newborn's cry, suckling, menstruation, and defects beneath the clothing; for the like of this is not ordinarily forgotten, and knowing it does not require complete reason.

Ibn al-Qayyim, quoting Ibn Taymiyyah · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 240 our rendering · Open the passage

4 I say: there is nothing in the Qur'an requiring that a ruling be given only on two witnesses, or on one witness and two women. God commanded that of the holders of rights, that they safeguard their rights by this quorum; He did not command judges to rule by it, still less command them to judge by nothing else. This is why a judge rules on the basis of refusal to swear, of the oath referred back to the other party, of a single woman, and of women alone with no man among them.

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 209 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Our shaykh, may God sanctify his soul, said: were it held that a ruling may be given on the testimony of one woman together with the claimant's oath, that would be sound. He said: because the two women were put in the man's place only in bearing the testimony, so that neither of them should forget — unlike its delivery, for neither the Book nor the Sunnah says that a ruling may only be given on the testimony of two women. The command to call two women to witness at the time of bearing does not entail that no ruling may be given on less than the two of them; for God commanded that two men be called to witness in debts, and if they be not two men then one man and two women — and even so a ruling is given on one witness together with the claimant's oath, and on refusal to swear, and on the oath referred back, and the like.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 74 our rendering · Open the passage

6 She has testified to an act of her own. In the two Sahihs, from Uqbah ibn al-Harith: that he married Umm Yahya bint Abi Ihab, and a black slave woman came and said: I have ... nursed you both. So I mentioned that to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, and he turned away from me. He said: I moved aside, then mentioned it to him again, and he said: "How can that be, when she has claimed that she nursed you both?"

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 103 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Ishaq ibn Mansur said: I asked Ahmad: is the testimony of a woman valid? He said: the testimony of a woman is valid in suckling and childbirth, in what men have no access to. He said: and I allow the testimony of a single woman if she is trustworthy, though if there be more that is more agreeable to me.

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 105 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Is not the testimony of a woman like half the testimony of a man? They said: Yes. He said: That is from the deficiency of her reason.

Abu Sa'id al-Khudri · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 2658 · sound (sahih) our rendering

9 It is said: the Qur'an does not indicate that, for this is a command to the holders of rights concerning what they may safeguard their rights by. God directed them to the strongest of means; and if they cannot reach the strongest, they move to what is below it. For the testimony of one man is stronger than the testimony of two women, because it is usually difficult for women to attend the sessions of judges, and their retention and precision fall short of the retention and precision of men. God did not say: rule by the testimony of two men, and if they be not two men then one man and two women. And God, exalted be He, has placed the woman at half the man in a number of rulings: the first is this; the second, in ... inheritance; the third, in blood money; the fourth, in the aqiqah; the fifth, in manumission.

Ibn al-Qayyim · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyyah fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 238 our rendering · Open the passage

10 And it shall avert the punishment from her if she bear witness before Allah four times that the thing he saith is indeed false,

Surah al-Nur 24:8 · Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

11 By his testimony the wife becomes liable to the punishment for adultery, which is stoning to death. This punishment is averted from her only if she bears witness, against his testimony, four times by God that he is lying in accusing her of adultery, and adds in the fifth testimony an invocation against herself that she deserves the wrath of God if her husband is truthful in his accusation of her. In that case the two are separated.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah al-Nur 24:8 our rendering · Open the passage

1 Cut lightly and do not go to excess, for it is more radiant for the face and more pleasing to the husband.

al-Dahhak ibn Qays · al-Suyuti · al-Jami' al-Saghir 296 · sound (sahih) our rendering

2 It is made lawful for you to go in unto your wives on the night of the fast. They are raiment for you and ye are raiment for them. Allah is Aware that ye were deceiving yourselves in this respect and He hath turned in mercy toward you and relieved you. So hold intercourse with them and seek that which Allah hath ordained for you, and eat and drink until the white thread becometh distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn. Then strictly observe the fast till nightfall and touch them not, but be at your devotions in the mosques. These are the limits imposed by Allah, so approach them not. Thus Allah expoundeth His revelation to mankind that they may ward off (evil).

Surah al-Baqarah 2:187 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

3 And surely I will lead them astray, and surely I will arouse desires in them, and surely I will command them and they will cut the cattle' ears, and surely I will command them and they will change Allah's creation. Whoso chooseth Satan for a patron instead of Allah is verily a loser and his loss is manifest.

Surah al-Nisa 4:119 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 And I will surely call them to slit and split the ears of the cattle, through the falsehood I make attractive to them; and I will surely call them to alter the creation of God in its original nature, and in the form upon which creation stands.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah al-Nisa 4:119 our rendering · Open the passage

5 "And surely I will command them and they will change Allah's creation": these are lams of oath, and the nun is bound to them, because an oath is sworn only upon what is to come. The people of exegesis, Mujahid and others, say the meaning of "and they will change Allah's creation" is the religion of God. And it has been said: what is meant by it is castration, and the markings that the Zanj and the Abyssinians make.

Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas · I'rab al-Qur'an, p. 238 our rendering · Open the passage

6 It is said that this was revealed because a group of the Prophet's Companions had resolved to renounce the world, to abstain from good things, and to castrate themselves. So God made known that the law of His Prophet, peace be upon him, is otherwise, and that good things are not to be abstained from at all. And castration was named a transgression, for God Almighty said that they were not to transgress; that is, do not geld yourselves, for that is a transgression.

al-Zajjaj · Ma'ani al-Qur'an wa-I'rabuh, p. 200 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Another man asked him, peace and blessings be upon him, saying: Messenger of God, permit me to castrate myself. He said: The castration of my community is fasting. Ahmad recorded it.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 258 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Forbidden mutilation is the aggression that is neither a punishment nor a magnifying of the rites of God.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 254 our rendering · Open the passage

9 On the authority of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, may God be pleased with him, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "There is to be no harm and no reciprocating harm." A good hadith, reported with a connected chain by Ibn Majah, al-Daraqutni and others; and Malik reported it in al-Muwatta' from 'Amr ibn Yahya, from his father, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as mursal.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami' al-'Ulum wa-al-Hikam, p. 206 our rendering · Open the passage

1 And when the girl-child that was buried alive is asked

Qur'an — Surat al-Takwir (The Overthrowing) 81:8–9 · Open the passage

2 And when the girl-child buried alive is asked, on the Day of Resurrection — a question that comforts her and rebukes the one who buried her: for what sin was she buried?

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — al-Takwir 81:8 our rendering · Open the passage

3 He hideth himself from the folk because of the evil of that whereof he hath had tidings, (asking himself): Shall he keep it in contempt, or bury it beneath the dust. Verily evil is their judgment.

Qur'an — Surat al-Nahl (The Bee) 16:59 · Open the passage

4 He hides himself from his people, out of a reluctance to meet them while marked by the grief and the disgrace that has befallen him on account of the daughter born to him, and at a loss over this newborn: shall he keep her alive in humiliation and lowliness, or bury her alive in the dust? How evil is the judgment they pass.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — al-Nahl 16:59 our rendering · Open the passage

5 And those who accuse honourable women but bring not four witnesses, scourge them (with) eighty stripes and never (afterward) accept their testimony - They indeed are evil-doers -

Qur'an — Surat al-Nur (The Light) 24:4 · Open the passage

6 As for those who accuse their wives but have no witnesses except themselves; let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies, (swearing) by Allah that he is of those who speak the truth;

Qur'an — Surat al-Nur (The Light) 24:6 · Open the passage

7 As for those who accuse their wives of fornication and have no witnesses to the accusation but themselves, each one of them must testify before the judge four times, saying: I bear witness by God that I am truthful in what I have accused her of.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — al-Nur 24:6 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Carrying out the prescribed penalties is an obligation upon those in authority, and punishment is for the doing of something forbidden or the leaving undone of something obligatory.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya (The Methods of Judgment in Legitimate Governance), p. 450 our rendering · Open the passage

9 God commanded that there be a number of witnesses in cases of fornication only because concealment is what is commanded in it, and for this reason the required number was made heavy; for there is no right there that would be lost, but only a prescribed penalty and a punishment, and penalties are averted by doubts.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin (Informing Those Who Sign on Behalf of the Lord of the Worlds), p. 75 our rendering · Open the passage

10 And most of what is complained of in this field — and the statement here is my own and I attribute it to nobody — belongs in the third box of my table: a custom that has become confused with the religion … Some of it has no basis whatsoever … And this is half an answer and not an answer

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

11 The utmost the hadith indicates is that a father is not put to death in retaliation for his child — with the weakness there is in it, and the dispute there is over its ruling.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin (Informing Those Who Sign on Behalf of the Lord of the Worlds), p. 189 our rendering · Open the passage

12 And slay not the life which Allah hath forbidden save with right. Whoso is slain wrongfully, We have given power unto his heir, but let him not commit excess in slaying. Lo! he will be helped.

Qur'an — Surat al-Isra' (The Night Journey) 17:33 · Open the passage

13 Whoever is killed without lawful right, We have given to the one responsible for him — an heir or a ruler — a claim to demand that his killer be put to death, or else the blood-money; and it is not permissible for the one responsible for the slain to exceed God's limit in retaliation.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar — al-Isra' 17:33 our rendering · Open the passage

1 And when he came unto the water of Midian he found there a whole tribe of men, watering. And he found apart from them two women keeping back (their flocks). He said: What aileth you? The two said: We cannot give (our flocks) to drink till the shepherds return from the water; and our father is a very old man.

Al-Qasas 28:23 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 And apart from that crowd he found two women standing away from the people, holding their flock back from the water, because they were unable and too weak to press in among the men … They said: We cannot press in among the men, and we do not water until the people have watered, and our father is a very old man.

Al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · Al-Qasas 28:23 our rendering · Open the passage

3 One of the two women said: O my father! Hire him! For the best (man) that thou canst hire in the strong, the trustworthy.

Al-Qasas 28:26 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 And covet not the thing in which Allah hath made some of you excel others. Unto men a fortune from that which they have earned, and unto women a fortune from that which they have earned. (Envy not one another) but ask Allah of His bounty. Lo! Allah is ever Knower of all things.

An-Nisa 4:32 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

5 On the authority of Aisha, who said: "How excellent are the women of the Ansar! Modesty did not keep them from asking about the religion and gaining understanding of it."

Ibn Abd al-Barr · Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm wa-Fadlih, p. 633 our rendering · Open the passage

6 Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Do not go above forty ounces in the dowries of women …" Then a tall woman with a flattened nose stood up from the row of the women and said: That is not yours to do. He said: And why not? She said: Because Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says that if you have given one of them a great sum of money, you are to take nothing back from it [An-Nisa 4:20]. So Umar said: "A woman is right and a man is wrong."

Ibn Abd al-Barr · Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm wa-Fadlih, p. 1009 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Allah hath heard the saying of her that disputeth with thee (Muhammad) concerning her husband, and complaineth unto Allah. And Allah heareth your colloquy. Lo! Allah is Hearer, Knower.

Al-Mujadila 58:1 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

8 Among these is that the ruler is obliged to prevent the mixing of men with women in the markets, the open spaces, and the gathering places of men.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 473 our rendering · Open the passage

9 And he may confine a woman if she goes out of her house too often, especially if she goes out adorned … The Commander of the Faithful, Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), forbade women to walk on the road of the men and to mix with them on the road. So the ruler is to follow his example in that.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · al-Turuq al-Hukmiyya fi al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, p. 474 our rendering · Open the passage

10 But this separation has a condition without which it does not hold: that it be applied on both sides. For whoever says 'that is their understanding and not the text' whenever he is hard pressed, and then argues from the understanding of the early generations wherever it suits him, has used two rulers. And how people read the text for centuries is inside the question and not outside it — even though it is not the text.

20. Difficult Texts · Open the passage

1 So these sunnahs were rejected by means of an ambiguous text: his saying, peace be upon him, "No people will prosper who put a woman in charge of their affairs." But this [came] only in respect of governance, the supreme imamate and the judiciary; as for narration, testimony, giving legal opinions and leading prayer, they do not fall under it. And it is astonishing that those who went against this sunnah permitted a woman to be a judge in charge of the affairs of the Muslims — so how did they prosper with her ruling over them, while her sisters among the women did not prosper when she led them in prayer?

Ibn al-Qayyim - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in an Rabb al-Alamin, p. 270 our rendering · Open the passage

2 The fifty-fifth example: the rejection of the sound, firmly established sunnah that it is recommended for women to pray in congregation rather than singly, as in the Musnad and the Sunan, from the hadith of Abd al-Rahman ibn Khallad, from Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah ibn al-Harith: "that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, used to visit her in her house, and appointed for her a caller to prayer who would call the prayer for her, and ordered her to lead the people of her household in prayer" ... And Imam Ahmad said: Waki' related to us, Sufyan related to us, from Maysara Abu Hazim, from Ra'ita al-Hanafiyya, that Aisha led women in an obligatory prayer, and led them standing in the middle among them; Layth followed him in this, from Ata, from Aisha. And al-Shafi'i related from Umm Salama that she led women and stood in the middle of them.

Ibn al-Qayyim - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in an Rabb al-Alamin, p. 270 our rendering · Open the passage

3 From Umm Waraqa bint Abdullah ibn al-Harith: the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, used to visit her and called her "the martyr", and she had collected the Qur'an ... and he, peace be upon him, had ordered her to lead the people of her household in prayer, and she had a caller to prayer.

al-Suyuti - al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Qur'an, p. 195 our rendering · Open the passage

4 Those from whom legal opinions were preserved, among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, are a hundred and thirty-odd persons, men and women alike; and those of them who gave many were seven: Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, Aisha the Mother of the Believers, Zayd ibn Thabit, Abdullah ibn Abbas, and Abdullah ibn Umar.

Ibn al-Qayyim - I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in an Rabb al-Alamin, p. 9 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Lo! I found a woman ruling over them, and she hath been given (abundance) of all things, and hers is a mighty throne.

Surat An-Naml (The Ant) 27:23 - Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 I found a woman ruling the people of Sheba; she has been given every worldly means, and she has a throne of great standing on which she sits to run her kingdom.

Tafsir al-Muyassar - An-Naml 27:23 our rendering · Open the passage

7 It was said unto her: Enter the hall. And when she saw it she deemed it a pool and bared her legs. (Solomon) said: Lo! it is a hall, made smooth, of glass. She said: My Lord! Lo! I have wronged myself, and I surrender with Solomon unto Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

Surat An-Naml (The Ant) 27:44 - Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

8 And this is half an answer and not an answer, because behind it lies what is actually in the text and in the understanding settled upon it for centuries: the questions of testimony, of male authority in the household (qiwāma), of inheritance and of divorce. And in each of them there is a real contemporary disagreement among those working in jurisprudence, not between a Muslim and someone else but among themselves. And I do not settle them, ... And what I do say is this: these questions are not answered in a page, and whoever answered them for you in a page has chosen an opinion for you and called it the religion.

20. The difficult texts · Open the passage

9 1. The form of the address. A report about determinate people, by their names and their time and their place, is not a general address hung upon a description rather than a name. And 'so-and-so did such a thing on such a day' is not 'whoever does such a thing, his ruling is such'. ... And the truest thing to say about these markers is that they narrow the disagreement and do not end it.

20. The difficult texts · Open the passage

1 Were I to command anyone to prostrate to anyone, I would have commanded a wife to prostrate to her husband.

Abu Hurayra, Mu'adh ibn Jabal and Burayda al-Aslami · al-Albani · Sahih al-Jami 5294 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

2 It is not fitting for a human being to prostrate to a human being, and were it fitting for a human being to prostrate to a human being I would have ordered a wife to prostrate to her husband, because of the greatness of his right over her. By Him in whose hand my soul is, were he, from his foot to the parting of his hair, fouled with pus and blood, and she came and licked it off, she would still not have discharged his right.' Ahmad reported it. The polytheists, along with their disciples, seized on the camel's prostration to the Messenger of Allah — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — and left aside his words 'It is not fitting for a human being to prostrate to a human being.' These are worse than those who follow the ambiguous and leave the clear.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 246 our rendering · Open the passage

3 There is no obedience to a created being in disobedience to the Creator.

- · Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 1/58 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

4 Then his anger subsided and the fire was put out. When they came to the Messenger of Allah — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — they mentioned it to him, and he said: 'Had they entered it they would never have come out of it. Obedience is only in what is right.' This was Abdullah ibn Hudhafa al-Sahmi.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 324 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Women who are divorced shall wait, keeping themselves apart, three (monthly) courses. And it is not lawful for them that they should conceal that which Allah hath created in their wombs if they are believers in Allah and the Last Day. And their husbands would do better to take them back in that case if they desire a reconciliation. And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them. Allah is Mighty, Wise.

Surat al-Baqara 2:228 · Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 ... Women have rights over their husbands like the rights that are due from them, in the way recognized as right; and men have over women an added rank of good companionship, of living with them in the way recognized as right, of maintaining the household, and of holding the pronouncement of divorce. ...

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqara 2:228 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Mothers shall suckle their children for two whole years; (that is) for those who wish to complete the suckling. The duty of feeding and clothing nursing mothers in a seemly manner is upon the father of the child. No-one should be charged beyond his capacity. A mother should not be made to suffer because of her child, nor should he to whom the child is born (be made to suffer) because of his child. And on the (father's) heir is incumbent the like of that (which was incumbent on the father). If they desire to wean the child by mutual consent and (after) consultation, it is no sin for them; and if ye wish to give your children out to nurse, it is no sin for you, provide that ye pay what is due from you in kindness. Observe your duty to Allah, and know that Allah is Seer of what ye do.

Surat al-Baqara 2:233 · Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

8 The Messenger of Allah — may Allah bless him and grant him peace — said: 'Get up, sacrifice your animals, then shave.' By Allah, not one man among them got up, until he had said it three times. When none of them got up, he rose and went in to Umm Salama and told her what he had met with from the people. Umm Salama said: Messenger of Allah, do you want this done? Go out, then do not speak a word to any of them until you have sacrificed your camel and called your barber and he has shaved you. So he rose and went out and spoke to none of them until he had done it: he sacrificed his camel and called his barber and he shaved him.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 262 our rendering · Open the passage

9 O ye who believe! It is not lawful for you forcibly to inherit the women (of your deceased kinsmen), nor (that) ye should put constraint upon them that ye may take away a part of that which ye have given them, unless they be guilty of flagrant lewdness. But consort with them in kindness, for if ye hate them it may happen that ye hate a thing wherein Allah hath placed much good.

Surat al-Nisa 4:19 · Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

10 ... Let your companionship with your wives be built on honouring them and on love, and on rendering the rights that are theirs. ...

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Nisa 4:19 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Among them: that the default is that his community shares with him in the rulings, except where the evidence singles him out. That is why Umm Salama said: 'Go out and do not speak to anyone until you have shaved your head and sacrificed your offering' — and she knew that the people would follow him.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 272 our rendering · Open the passage

1 Any woman who marries without the permission of her guardian, her marriage is void — said three times.

— · Ibn al-Mulaqqin · al-I'lam bi-Fawa'id 'Umdat al-Ahkam 8/227 · Sahih our rendering

2 In the Sunan, from him, from the hadith of A'isha (may God be pleased with her): "Any woman who marries herself off without the permission of her guardian, her marriage is void, her marriage is void, her marriage is void. If he has consummated it with her, she is due her dower for what he took of her. And if they dispute, then the ruler is the guardian of one who has no guardian." Al-Tirmidhi said: a hasan hadith.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 91 our rendering · Open the passage

3 And when ye have divorced women and they reach their term, place not difficulties in the way of their marrying their husbands if it is agreed between them in kindness. This is an admonition for him among you who believeth in Allah and the Last Day. That is more virtuous for you, and cleaner. Allah knoweth; ye know not.

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:232 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 And when you have divorced your wives with fewer than three pronouncements and their waiting period has ended without your taking them back, do not press hard upon the divorced women, O guardians, by preventing them from returning to their husbands under a new contract if they wish to do so and there is mutual consent in law and in custom. By this is admonished whoever among you truly believes in God and the Last Day. Leaving off such obstruction, and enabling husbands to marry their wives, brings more growth and more purity to your honour, and greater benefit and reward for you. God knows what is good for you, and you do not know it.

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · al-Baqarah 2:232 our rendering · Open the passage

5 Ma'qil ibn Yasar told me: I had a sister, and she was asked of me in marriage, and I used to keep people from her. Then a cousin of mine came and asked for her, and I married her to him. They lived together as long as God willed, then he divorced her with a revocable divorce, then left her until her waiting period had ended. Then he asked for her along with the other suitors. I said: I kept her from people and married her to you, then you divorced her with a revocable divorce, then left her until her waiting period ended; and now, when she is asked of me, you come to ask for her — I shall never marry her to you. Then God Almighty sent down: "And when ye have divorced women and they reach their term, place not difficulties in the way of their marrying their husbands." So I made expiation for my oath and married her to him.

al-Wahidi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an (Occasions of Revelation), p. 80 our rendering · Open the passage

6 And with this chain, he said: al-Shafi'i said: It is a binding obligation upon the guardians of women who have no husbands, and of free adult women: that when they desire marriage, and are called to a husband they are content with, the guardians marry them to him — because God, Mighty and Majestic, says: "And when ye have divorced women and they reach their term, place not difficulties in the way of their marrying their husbands if it is agreed between them."

al-Shafi'i · Ahkam al-Qur'an, compiled by al-Bayhaqi, p. 170 our rendering · Open the passage

7 The Shafi'is said: he may compel his adult daughter — the one who issues legal opinions, who knows the religion of God, who rules on the lawful and the forbidden — to marry the man she most detests and shrinks from most, without her consent… And they said: if he wanted to sell a rope of hers, or a stick of arak wood, out of her property, it would not be valid except with her consent; yet he may bind her for a lifetime to the man she most detests, without her consent.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 233 our rendering · Open the passage

8 And it is astonishing that you said: if he disposed of a rope belonging to her property in a way not to her advantage, it would be overturned; yet when he disposes of her very self against her advantage, it is binding. Then you said: he knows her advantage better than she does — and plain sense refutes this, for she knows better than he does where her inclination and her aversion and her advantage lie, and whom she wishes to live with and whose company she dislikes.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 233 our rendering · Open the passage

9 The fifty-first point: rejecting the established report from the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, that "there is no marriage without a guardian," and that a woman who marries herself off has a void marriage. They said: it is an addition to the Book of God, for God Almighty says: {place not difficulties in the way of their marrying their husbands} [al-Baqarah: 232], and He says: {and when they reach their term, there is no sin upon you in what they do with themselves in a decent manner} [al-Baqarah: 234].

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 234 our rendering · Open the passage

10 A virgin girl put her case to him, peace be upon him, and said that her father had married her off while she was unwilling, so the Prophet, peace be upon him, gave her the choice. He commanded that a virgin's permission be sought, and forbade marrying her off without her permission, and he, peace be upon him, gave the choice to a woman who had been married off without being asked.

Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, p. 259 our rendering · Open the passage

11 The rulings concerning women. And most of what is complained of in this field — and the statement here is my own and I attribute it to nobody — belongs in the third box of my table: a custom that has become confused with the religion; keeping a woman from learning, keeping her from going out, marrying her off by force, cutting her out of an inheritance.

20. The Difficult Texts · Open the passage

1 Allah promiseth to the believers, men and women, Gardens underneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide - blessed dwellings in Gardens of Eden. And - greater (far)! - acceptance from Allah. That is the supreme triumph.

Surah al-Tawbah 9:72 · Open the passage

2 Allah has promised the believing men and the believing women — those who believe in Allah and His Messenger — gardens beneath which rivers flow, remaining in them for ever, their bliss never leaving them; and fine dwellings, pleasant to settle in, in gardens of lasting residence. And acceptance from Allah is greater and mightier than all the bliss they are in. That promise of the reward of the Hereafter is the supreme success.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah al-Tawbah 9:72 our rendering · Open the passage

3 Muqatil ibn Hayyan said: It has reached me that when Asma bint Umays returned from Abyssinia with her husband Jafar ibn Abi Talib, she came in to the wives of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and said: Has anything of the Qur'an come down about us? They said: No. So she went to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and said: Messenger of Allah, women are in disappointment and loss. He said, "And what is that from?" She said: Because they are not mentioned for good as the men are. So Allah sent down: "Lo! men who surrender unto Allah, and women who surrender," to the end of it.

al-Wahidi · Asbab Nuzul al-Qur'an (Occasions of Revelation), p. 355 our rendering · Open the passage

4 Lo! men who surrender unto Allah, and women who surrender, and men who believe and women who believe, and men who obey and women who obey, and men who speak the truth and women who speak the truth, and men who persevere (in righteousness) and women who persevere, and men who are humble and women who are humble, and men who give alms and women who give alms, and men who fast and women who fast, and men who guard their modesty and women who guard (their modesty), and men who remember Allah much and women who remember - Allah hath prepared for them forgiveness and a vast reward.

Surah al-Ahzab 33:35 · Open the passage

5 Whoso doeth an ill-deed, he will be repaid the like thereof, while whoso doeth right, whether male or female, and is a believer, (all) such will enter the Garden, where they will be nourished without stint.

Surah Ghafir 40:40 · Open the passage

6 Just as We gave these God-fearing people honor in the Hereafter by admitting them into the gardens and clothing them there in fine silk and rich brocade, so We honored them by wedding them to beautiful women with wide, lovely eyes.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah ad-Dukhan 44:54 our rendering · Open the passage

7 Say, O Messenger: Shall I tell you of something better than what has been made attractive to people in this worldly life? For whoever is mindful of Allah and fears His punishment there are gardens beneath whose palaces and trees the rivers flow, abiding in them for ever; and they have there spouses purified of menstruation, of post-natal bleeding and of bad character; and they have what is greater than that: acceptance from Allah. And Allah sees into the secrets of His creatures, knows their states, and will requite them for that.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah Al Imran 3:15 our rendering · Open the passage

8 "And We shall wed them unto fair ones with wide, lovely eyes": that is, He joined them to them; and there is no marrying in the Garden as there is marrying in this world. And His words, Gather those who did wrong and their azwaj, mean: and their associates. Zawj also means a kind or class, as in His words, Glory be to Him who created all the kinds of what the earth grows, that is, the classes.

al-Sijistani · Gharib al-Qur'an, known as Nuzhat al-Qulub, p. 252 our rendering · Open the passage

9 These believers have in the Garden whatever they want, and with Us there is bliss added to what We have given them, the greatest of which is to look upon the noble face of Allah.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah Qaf 50:35 our rendering · Open the passage

10 I say: that is because she said, Messenger of Allah, I see that Allah mentions the men and does not mention the women. So there came down the verse forbidding them to covet that by which Allah has made some of them excel others, and there came down "Lo! men who surrender unto Allah, and women who surrender," and there came down this verse. It is the last of the three to be revealed, or the last thing revealed, after revelation had been coming down about the men in particular.

al-Suyuti · al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Qur'an, p. 84 our rendering · Open the passage

11 Those who believed in Our signs and acted on what their messengers brought them, and who submitted to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, with their hearts and their limbs — it will be said to them: Enter the Garden, you and your believing companions; you will be given bliss and joy.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah az-Zukhruf 43:70 our rendering · Open the passage

12 And the angels say to them: We are your helpers in the life of this world; we keep you steady and guard you by Allah's command, and we will be with you in the Hereafter likewise. And in the Garden you shall have everything your souls desire and choose, everything that delights your eyes; and whatever you ask for you will find before you, as hospitality and bounty to you from One who forgives your sins and is merciful to you.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah Fussilat 41:31 our rendering · Open the passage

1 A man stood and said: O Messenger of Allah, what clothing do you command us to wear in ihram? The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: Do not wear shirts, nor trousers, nor turbans, nor hooded cloaks; unless a man has no sandals, in which case let him wear leather socks and cut them below the ankles. And do not wear anything touched by saffron or by wars. And a woman in ihram must not wear the niqab, nor must she wear gloves. [In another narration:] nor wars. And he used to say: A woman in ihram must not wear the niqab, nor wear gloves. [In another narration:] From Ibn Umar: A woman in ihram must not wear the niqab.

Abd Allah ibn Umar · al-Bukhari · Sahih al-Bukhari 1838 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

2 O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.

Surah al-Ahzab (The Clans) 33:59 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

3 And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands' fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed.

Surah al-Nur (The Light) 24:31 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

4 O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters and the women of the believers to let down over their heads and their faces part of their outer wraps and mantles, so as to cover their faces, their bosoms and their heads. That is closer to their being marked out by covering and protection, so that they are not approached with anything hateful or harmful.

Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah al-Ahzab 33:59 our rendering · Open the passage

5 The women of the Arabs used to leave their faces uncovered, as the slave women did, and that invited men to look at them. So God commanded them to draw their jilbab close — a garment larger than the khimar. The form of drawing it close, according to Ibn Abbas, is that she wraps it over her face so that nothing shows of her but one eye, with which she sees. It has also been said: that she wraps it so that only her two eyes appear. And it has been said: that she covers half her face.

al-Suyuti · Mu'tarak al-Aqran fi I'jaz al-Qur'an, p. 139 our rendering · Open the passage

6 The Muslims are agreed that the private parts of a man are nakedness, and that the whole of a woman is nakedness except her face and her hands, for they differed over those two.

Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas · I'rab al-Qur'an, p. 92 our rendering · Open the passage

7 What we have mentioned indicates that Aisha used to dislike a woman in ihram covering her face with the niqab in the manner that other women did, and that what she did permit of covering the face is what Mujahid reported from her: that she used to do it in the company of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him — letting her garment down over her face when a caravan passed by her.

al-Tahawi · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 1264 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Looking at the woman one proposes to marry, at the woman one is bargaining to buy, at the woman against whom testimony is borne, and at the woman one has marital relations with or transacts with; performing prayers that have a cause at the times in which prayer is disliked; a word of truth before a tyrannical ruler, and the like. The Law came with permitting this category, or recommending it, or making it obligatory, according to its degrees of benefit.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 109 our rendering · Open the passage

9 The confusion arose only because the Lawgiver prescribed for free women that they cover their faces from men outside the family, whereas He did not make that obligatory upon slave women … So a free woman may pray with her face and hands uncovered, but she may not go out into the markets and the gatherings of people in that state.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 46 our rendering · Open the passage

10 Among that is that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "A woman must not wear the niqab, nor wear gloves" — meaning in ihram. So he made her hands equal to her face in forbidding what is tailored to the measure of the limb; and he did not forbid her to cover her face, nor did he ever command her to uncover it. His wives, peace be upon him, were the most knowledgeable of the community on this matter, and they used to let their garments down over their faces when riders came alongside them; and when the riders had passed them by, they uncovered their faces.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in 'an Rabb al-'Alamin, p. 169 our rendering · Open the passage

1 They question thee (O Muhammad) concerning menstruation. Say: It is an illness, so let women alone at such times and go not in unto them till they are cleansed. And when they have purified themselves, then go in unto them as Allah hath enjoined upon you. Truly Allah loveth those who turn unto Him, and loveth those who have a care for cleanness.

Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:222 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

2 The Jews, when a woman among them menstruated, would put her out of the house: they would not eat with her, nor drink with her, nor keep company with her in the houses. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about that, and God, mighty and majestic, sent down: {They question thee concerning menstruation. Say: It is an illness, so let women alone at such times and go not in unto them till they are cleansed} — the verse. So the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Keep company with them in the houses and do everything except intercourse."

Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 161 our rendering · Open the passage

3 These two reports make clear to us the keeping away that is meant in the verse: that it is keeping away in intercourse, and not in anything else of what the Jews used to keep away from them in.

Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 162 our rendering · Open the passage

4 They ask you about menstruation — the blood that flows from women's wombs by natural constitution at particular times. Say to them, O Prophet: it is a harmful impurity that injures whoever comes near it. So avoid intercourse with women for the duration of the menses until the blood ceases. When the blood has ceased and they have washed, then come to them in the place God has made lawful to you…

al-Tafsir al-Muyassar · Surah al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:222 our rendering · Open the passage

5 And when thou (O Muhammad) art among them and arrangest (their) worship for them, let only a party of them stand with thee (to worship) and let them take their arms. Then when they have performed their prostrations let them fall to the rear and let another party come that hath not worshipped and let them worship with thee, and let them take their precaution and their arms. Those who disbelieve long for you to neglect your arms and your baggage that they may attack you once for all. It is no sin for you to lay aside your arms, if rain impedeth you or ye are sick. But take your precaution. Lo! Allah prepareth for the disbelievers shameful punishment.

Surah al-Nisa (Women) 4:102 — Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (1930) · Open the passage

6 The menstruating woman was of age, of sound mind, mindful of the prayer, able to perform it … the obligation of prayer during the days of menstruation is lifted from her; and once it has been lifted from her — while she is mindful, of sound mind, and able — she owes no making up of the prayer. How could she make up what is not an obligation upon her, its obligation having been lifted from her? This is a matter in which I know of no one who differs.

al-Shafi'i · Ahkam al-Qur'an, compiled by al-Bayhaqi, p. 53 our rendering · Open the passage

7 As for the fast being made obligatory upon the menstruating woman and not the prayer, that is part of the perfect excellence of the Law, its wisdom, and its care for the interests of those under obligation. For since menstruation is incompatible with worship, its performance was not prescribed during it; and in her prayers during the days of purity there is what makes her independent of the prayers of the days of menstruation, so the benefit of prayer is obtained for her in the time of purity, because it recurs every day. The fast is otherwise: it does not recur, and it is one month in the year. So were its performance dropped from her on account of menstruation, she would have no way to make up its like, and its benefit would be lost to her. It was therefore made obligatory upon her to fast a month in her purity, so that the benefit of the fast may be obtained — which is part of the completeness of God's mercy to His servant and His kindness to him through His Law. And success is from God.

Ibn al-Qayyim · I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in an Rabb al-Alamin, p. 45 our rendering · Open the passage

8 Fourth: that the menstruating woman performs all the acts of the Hajj, except that she does not circumambulate the House.

Ibn al-Qayyim · Zad al-Ma'ad fi Hady Khayr al-Ibad, p. 162 our rendering · Open the passage

9 I was with Maymuna when Ibn Abbas came to her with his hair dishevelled. She said: What is the matter with you, my son, that your hair is dishevelled? He said: Umm Ammar, who combs my hair, is menstruating. She said: "My son, what has menstruation to do with the hand? The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) would come in to one of us while she was menstruating and lay his head in her lap and recite the Qur'an; and one of us would carry his prayer mat to the mosque and spread it out while she was menstruating. My son, what has menstruation to do with the hand?"

Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi · Ahkam al-Qur'an al-Karim, p. 165 our rendering · Open the passage

10 The believer does not become impure.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud · al-Suyuti · al-Jami' al-Saghir 2097 · sahih (authentic) our rendering

11 This too is indicated by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) concerning women: "As for the deficiency of her religion, she stays days and nights without praying" — pointing to the days of menstruation — even though she is barred from prayer.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami' al-Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 252 our rendering · Open the passage

12 At that point — and he made that a deficiency in her religion, which shows that whoever is able to perform an obligation and performs it is better than one who is unable to do it and leaves it, even if he is excused in leaving it. And God knows best.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali · Jami' al-Ulum wa al-Hikam, p. 253 our rendering · Open the passage

13 As for the one in a state of major impurity and the menstruating woman, it is forbidden for them to recite the Qur'an, whether a whole verse or less than one.

al-Nawawi · al-Tibyan fi Adab Hamalat al-Qur'an, p. 72 our rendering · Open the passage

14 Sufyan said: there is no harm in … the one in a state of major impurity, the menstruating woman, or the child taking hold of the strap of the mushaf.

Ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani · Kitab al-Masahif, p. 419 our rendering · Open the passage

15 Abu al-Layth said: there is no harm in the one in a state of major impurity or the menstruating woman reciting less than a single verse. He said: and if a menstruating woman wishes to learn, she should be taught half a verse and then fall silent, and she should not recite a whole verse in one go.

al-Zarkashi · al-Burhan fi Ulum al-Qur'an, p. 458 our rendering · Open the passage