The Quran

127

Preface

وَيَستَفتونَكَ فِي النِّساءِ ۖ قُلِ اللَّهُ يُفتيكُم فيهِنَّ وَما يُتلىٰ عَلَيكُم فِي الكِتابِ في يَتامَى النِّساءِ اللّاتي لا تُؤتونَهُنَّ ما كُتِبَ لَهُنَّ وَتَرغَبونَ أَن تَنكِحوهُنَّ وَالمُستَضعَفينَ مِنَ الوِلدانِ وَأَن تَقوموا لِليَتامىٰ بِالقِسطِ ۚ وَما تَفعَلوا مِن خَيرٍ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كانَ بِهِ عَليمًا

Yusuf Ali

They ask thy instruction concerning the women say: God doth instruct you about them: And (remember) what hath been rehearsed unto you¹ in the Book, concerning the orphans of women to whom ye give not the portions prescribed, and yet whom ye desire to marry, as also concerning the children who are weak and oppressed;² that ye stand firm for justice to orphans. There is not a good deed which ye do, but God is well-acquainted therewith.

Again and again is it impressed on the community of Islam to be just in their dealings with women, orphans, children, and all whose weakness requires special consideration. The law about widows and orphans, inheritance, dower, and marriage had already been declared in 4:2-35, and further instructions are now given on a further reference. The words translated orphans of women mean, I think, the orphaned children of widows, of whom there were several after the batde of Uḥud, and whom it was the duty of the community to provide for. But some Commentators take them to mean “female orphans.” In any case, because women were orphans or widows, it was not right that anyone should take advantage of their helpless position to deprive them of dower or of their portion in inheritance.
Cf. 4:75, n. 592.
Both widows and orphans are to be helped because they are ordinarily weak, illtreated, and oppressed. In communities which base their civil rights on brute strength, the weaker go to the wall, and public opinion expects nothing else. In Nietzsche’s philosophy of the Superman that doctrine is stressed strongly, and some of the militarist nations in our own time seem inclined to support this reversion to our primitive instincts. Even in modern democracies of the saner sort, we are often told that it is the fate of minorities to suffer: strength of numbers here becomes the passport to power and privilege. Islam, while upholding sane manly views in general, enjoins the most solicitous care for the weak and oppressed in every way-in rights of property, in social rights, and in the right to opportunities of development. Spiritual strength or weakness does not necessarily go with physical or numerical strength.