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Sura 4
Aya 20
20
وَإِن أَرَدتُمُ استِبدالَ زَوجٍ مَكانَ زَوجٍ وَآتَيتُم إِحداهُنَّ قِنطارًا فَلا تَأخُذوا مِنهُ شَيئًا ۚ أَتَأخُذونَهُ بُهتانًا وَإِثمًا مُبينًا

Muhammad Asad

But if you desire to give up a wife and to take another in her stead, do not take away anything of what you have given the first one, however much it may have been.1 Would you, perchance, take it away by slandering her and thus committing a manifest sin?2
  • Lit., "if you desire the exchange of a wife in place of a wife, and you have given one of them a treasure (qintar), do not take away anything thereof". The allusion to the "exchange" of one wife for another is a clear indication of the Qur'anic view that a monogamous marriage is the desirable norm.
  • I.e., by falsely accusing her of immoral conduct in the hope of regaining her dower (see note on verse 19 above).