Sūrah An-Nisāʾ The Women: Tafsīr al-Qurṭubī Qurʾānic Rulings and Law

Surah Overview

DetailInformationClassificationSignificance

SurahالنساءMadanī 176 versesMarriage law, inheritance, orphan rights, polygamy conditions, prohibited degrees, treatment of wives, and fixed inheritance shares (farāʾiḍ)

Key Fiqh IssueDoes "if you fear that you will not be just, then one" (4:3) make polygamy conditional on the ability to be just, and what happens if a man cannot be just?Polygamy conditionsAl-Qurṭubī: four schools agree polygamy requires the ability to maintain material justice among wives; 4:129 ("you will never be able to be fully just") refers to emotional justice, not material material justice is the legal requirement

School ComparisonInheritance share of daughter (4:11): 1/2 for one daughter, 2/3 for two or more Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, Ḥanbalī all agree; disputed: does "two or more daughters" require literal two, or do grandmother shares etc. follow?Farāʾiḍ rulingFour schools unified on the basic shares; differences appear in complex cases involving ʿaṣabāt and dhawī l-arḥām

Uṣūl Principle"Al-nahy yaqtaḍī al-fasād" a prohibition implies invalidity applied to marriages with prohibited women (4:22–24): contracting a prohibited marriage is sinful AND the contract is voidProhibition implies invalidityAl-Qurṭubī applies this uṣūl principle to show that marriages with prohibited women are not merely sinful but legally null

Key Themes from Al-Qurṭubī

Al-Qurṭubī opens An-Nisāʾ with the orphan property verse (4:2) and extracts the principle that any property given in trust must be returned exactly as entrusted "wa lā tatabaddalū l-khabītha bi-ṭ-ṭayyib" (do not exchange the bad for the good). He applies this as a general contract principle: any trustee who substitutes inferior property for superior property entrusted to him has committed both a legal wrong and a breach of trust. On the polygamy verses (4:3), al-Qurṭubī carefully distinguishes the two justice standards: 4:3 conditions polygamy on material justice (equal provision, equal nights, equal housing all measurable and legally enforceable); 4:129 states the heart's full equal love is beyond human capacity. Al-Qurṭubī uses this distinction to resolve the apparent contradiction: four wives are permitted with measurable-justice conditions; the impossible standard (emotional equality) is not the legal threshold.

On the farāʾiḍ (inheritance shares, 4:11–12), al-Qurṭubī extracts the rulings systematically: the daughter's share (1/2 for one, 2/3 for two or more), the mother's share (1/6 with children, 1/3 without), the husband's share (1/2 without children, 1/4 with), and the wife's share (1/4 without children, 1/8 with). He notes that the inheritance system is one of the Quran's most detailed legal sections unlike most fiqh topics which the Quran sketches and the Sunnah elaborates, the Quran here provides most of the specific fractions directly.

فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا فَوَاحِدَةً أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ Fa-in khiftum allā taʿdilū fa-wāḥidatan aw mā malakat aymānukum If you fear that you will not be just, then one wife or what your right hands possess. Al-Qurṭubī: "ʿadl" (justice) here refers to material equity equal provision, housing, and conjugal rights. Four schools agree this is the legal condition. The verse limits polygamy for those who cannot meet this standard, reducing to one wife as the default that requires no such condition.

يُوصِيكُمُ اللَّهُ فِي أَوْلَادِكُمْ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ Yūṣīkumu llāhu fī awlādikum li-dh-dhakari mithlu ḥaẓẓi l-unthayayn Allah instructs you regarding your children: the male receives the equivalent of two females' shares. Al-Qurṭubī: this is the primary inheritance ratio derived from the principle that the male bears full financial obligation (nafaqah) for wife and children while the female does not. The share ratio reflects the differential in obligatory financial responsibility, not inherent worth.

Two-standard distinction: Al-Qurṭubī's resolution of the 4:3/4:129 apparent contradiction material justice (achievable, legally required) vs. emotional equality (impossible, not required) is a sophisticated uṣūl application.
Prohibited degrees and invalidity: Applying "al-nahy yaqtaḍī al-fasād," al-Qurṭubī establishes that marriages with prohibited women (4:22–24) are void contracts, not merely sinful valid contracts.
Quranic farāʾiḍ precision: Al-Qurṭubī notes that the inheritance section is uniquely detailed in the Quran most fiqh relies heavily on sunnah, but inheritance fractions are directly Quranic.
Mahr as debt: Al-Qurṭubī extracts from 4:4 that the mahr (dower) is a binding debt on the husband it is the wife's property and cannot be waived without her free consent.
Trust principle: The orphan-property verse (4:2) is read as a general trust principle: any trustee must return property in at least the same condition received a foundation for Islamic agency and trust law.

Surah Overview

Key Themes from Al-Qurṭubī

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