Surah 4 begins by repeating one of the first lies of Genesis. God created a man first, then a woman from the man, and all humans descended from them.
Your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women. 4:1
Then Allah says something nice: don't steal from orphans or exchange the good for the bad.
Give unto orphans their wealth. Exchange not the good for the bad (in your management thereof) nor absorb their wealth into your own wealth. Lo! that would be a great sin. 4:2
If you mistreat orphans, Allah will burn you forever in the Fire. Fair is fair.
Those who devour the wealth of orphans wrongfully, they do but swallow fire into their bellies, and they will be exposed to burning flame. 4:10
Of course there are lots of other things that Allah will burn you forever for. Like disobeying him or his messenger Mo.
Whoso disobeyeth Allah and His messenger and transgresseth His limits, He will make him enter Fire, where he will dwell for ever; his will be a shameful doom. 4:14
Or killing people through injustice or aggression.
Kill not one another ... Whoso doeth that through aggression and injustice, we shall cast him into Fire, and that is ever easy for Allah. 4:29-30
Or behaving badly without repenting until nearly dead, or dying while disbelieving.
The forgiveness is not for those who do ill-deeds until, when death attendeth upon one of them, he saith: Lo! I repent now; nor yet for those who die while they are disbelievers. For such We have prepared a painful doom. 4:18
Next Allah lays down the law on inheritance.
The first part is clear enough. Females get half as much as males.
Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females... 4:11a
But things get confusing after that.
...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.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, afte r any legacy they may have bequeathed, or debt (they ma y have contracted, hath been paid). And unto them belon geth the fourth of that which ye leave if ye have no ch ild, but if ye have a child then the eighth of that whi ch ye leave, after any legacy ye may have bequeathed, o r debt (ye may have contracted, hath been paid). And if a man or a woman have a distant heir (having left neit her parent nor child), and he (or she) have a brother o r 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 bequeat hed or debt (contracted) not injuring (the heirs by wil ling away more than a third of the heritage) hath been 4:11b-12
None of that makes sense to me, but here's a link that explains it all for you.
But the focus of this Surah is, as its title suggests, on women.
Allah explains that it's OK to have two, three, or four wives, slave or free. Whatever.
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. 4:3
And if you can't afford to marry free Muslims women, go ahead and marry slaves, as long as they're Muslims.
Whoso is not able to afford to marry free, believing women, let them marry from the believing maids whom your right hands possess. 4:25a
But don't worry too much about it. If you decide you don't like some of your wives you can always exchange them for others.
And if ye wish to exchange one wife for another.... 4:20
Be careful, though, not to marry any women that are already married -- unless they're slaves that you obtained in war. Then it's OK.
All married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. 4:24
If any of your non-slave wives get lewd, cut off their inheritance and confine them to the house until they die.
It is not lawful for you forcibly to ... take away a part of that which ye have given them, unless they be guilty of flagrant lewdness. 4:19
As for those of your women who are guilty of lewdness ... confine them to the houses until death take them. 4:15
If your slave wives are guilty of lewdness, punish them half as much as you punish your lewd free wives.
If when they are honourably married they commit lewdness they shall incur the half of the punishment (prescribed) for free women. 4:25b
Always remember that men are better than women because Allah made them that way and men spend lots of money on women.
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). 4:34a
So good women are obedient to men, guarding the secret that Allah gave to them.
So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. 4:34b
If your wives refuse to obey you, beat them and refuse to have sex with them.
As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. 4:34c
That'll teach them.
7 comments:
Going by books it is pretty obvious that women are never treated kindly in 3 Abrahamic religions.
But Christianity moved forward something Islam could not do. And to do would be to accept that Koran can not be a word of God but of a warlord and fall of Islam like paper cart.
Could we have a flow chart, please? We women need a graphic to show us exactly what pittance we're entitled to.
Wonder how inheritance works in LDS polygamous households.
Seem like sensible rules to me.
The Muslim women I have met on the Arabian Peninsula over the past ten years appear a lot happier than the Western feminist harpies.
So it seems sensible to you, Robert, that men are better than women (because Allah made them that way), that a man should marry as many women as he wants, that his wives should always obey him, and that he should beat them if they don't?
Siman 46:4: A person must say the Blessings shelo asani goy (Who did not make me a non-Jew), shelo asani aved (Who did not make me a slave), and shelo asani isha (Who did not make me a woman) every day.
In his Mishneh Torah, Moses Maimonides (1135–1204) recommended beating a bad wife as an acceptable form of discipline: "A wife who refuses to perform any kind of work that she is obligated to do, may be compelled to perform it, even by scourging her with a rod" (Ishut 21:10).
Israel stands up for G-d about women.
Women are not allowed to testify in rabbinical courts, which handle divorce and marriage for all Jews. They cannot divorce without a husband’s permission, and childless widows need a brother-in-law’s approval for remarriage.If a woman has been widowed three times, with all three husbands dying of natural causes, she is declared the isha katlanit, the fatal woman, and is legally forbidden to marry again. If a husband simply disappears, no matter how long he has been missing; his wife cannot remarry without absolute proof of his death…”
A man may commit adultery and eventually marry his lover, while a married woman is forbidden ever to marry her lover, and any children born from an extramarital affair are considered bastards (mamzerim). In Judaism a bastard is a pariah. He or she cannot marry unless the potential spouse is also a bastard. Neither can a bastard in Israel marry outside the faith as the exclusive control of marriage in Israel by the religious authorities precludes such a possibility.
Israel maintains levirate marriage: a woman whose husband dies leaving her childless must be released from her deceased husband’s unmarried brother in a ceremony carried out in rabbinical court.
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