The Quran

129

Preface

وَلَن تَستَطيعوا أَن تَعدِلوا بَينَ النِّساءِ وَلَو حَرَصتُم ۖ فَلا تَميلوا كُلَّ المَيلِ فَتَذَروها كَالمُعَلَّقَةِ ۚ وَإِن تُصلِحوا وَتَتَّقوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ كانَ غَفورًا رَحيمًا

Yusuf Ali

Ye are never able to be fair and just as between women, even if it is your ardent desire: But turn not away (from a woman) altogether, so as to leave her (as it were) hanging (in the air).¹ If ye come to a friendly understanding, and practise self- restraint, God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

In this material world there are two principal causes of division between man and wife, money and “the other woman” or “the other man”. Money was dealt with in the last verse. Here is the case of “the other woman”. Legally more than one wife (up to four) are permissible on the condition that the man can be perfectly fair and just to all. But this is a condition almost impossible to fulfil. If, in the hope that he might be able to fulfil it, a man puts himself in that impossible position, it is only right to insist that he should not discard one but at least fulfil all the outward duties that are incumbent on him in respect of her.