Al-W¥^idÏ's Asb¥b al-Nuz‰l - The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies ...

Chapter 4: Surah al-Nisa’
Said ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abza: “One day Abraham went to his house all of a sudden and
found there the angel of death in the form of a young man whom he did not know. Abraham said to him:
‘Who gave you the permission to enter’ He said: ‘The Lord of the house did!’ At that point Abraham,
peace be upon him, recognized him. The angel of death then said to him: ‘Your Lord has chosen one
person from among His servants as a friend’. Abraham asked: ‘And who could that be’ ‘Why, what will
you do’ asked the angel. Abraham said: ‘I will be his servant until I die’. The angel said: ‘In that case, it
is you!’ ”
Said Ibn ‘Abbas, according to the report of al-Kalbi from Abu Salih: “One year, people suffered immensely
because of the drought which had hit them. They gathered at the door of Abraham, peace be
upon him, requesting food. Usually, he received once a year supplies from a friend of his in Egypt. He
therefore sent his servants with camels to his friend in Egypt, requesting the supplies. His friend said: ‘If
Abraham wanted the supplies for himself, we would have borne the burden and gave them to him, since
we too have been hit by the same hardship that people are suffering from’. And so Abraham’s emissaries
returned empty handed. When they crossed a certain open country, they said: ‘Let us load our camels
from this open country so that people could see that we have brought the supplies with us, for we feel
embarrassed to pass by them with unloaded camels’. And so they filled their containers with sand. They
went to Abraham, peace be upon him, while Sarah was asleep and informed him. Abraham, peace be
upon him, was worried for the people. Sleep then overcame him. When Sarah woke up, she proceeded to
those containers and, upon opening them, she found white ground wheat of the best quality. She ordered
the bakers to bake bread and people were fed. When Abraham, peace be upon him, woke up, he smelt the
odour of food, and he asked: ‘O Sarah, where did you get this food’ She said: ‘It is from your Egyptian
friend’. He said: ‘No, it is rather from my friend Allah’. On that day Allah chose Abraham as friend”.
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Muzakki informed us> Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn
Yazid al-Jawzi> Ibrahim ibn Sharik> Ahmad ibn Yunus> Abu Bakr ibn ‘Ayyash> Abu’l-Muhallab al-Kinani>
‘Ubayd Allah ibn Zahr> ‘Ali ibn Yazid> al-Qasim ibn Umamah who reported that the Messenger
of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: “Allah has chosen me as a friend just as He had chosen
Abraham as a friend. And there is no prophet except that he has a friend and my friend is Abu Bakr”.
The descendent of the Prophet, Abu Isma‘il ibn al-Hasan al-Naqib informed me> Abu Muhammad al-
Hasan ibn Hammad> Abu Isma‘il Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Tirmidhi> Sa‘id ibn Abi Maryam> Salamah>
Zayd ibn Waqid> al-Qasim ibn Mukhaymarah> Abu Hurayrah who reported that the Messenger
of Allah, bless him and give him peace, said: “Allah had chosen Abraham as a friend, Moses as His interlocutor
and He has chosen me as His beloved; and then Allah said: ‘By My might and majesty, I shall
prefer My beloved over My friend and My interlocutor’ ”.
(They consult thee concerning women…) [4:127].
The judge Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Hasan informed us> Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub>> Muhammad ibn ‘Abd
Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam> Ibn Wahb> Yunus> Ibn Shihab> ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr> ‘A’ishah who said:
“People asked the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, for the legal ruling concerning
them after the revelation of this verse about them, and so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse
(They consult thee concerning women. Say: Allah giveth you decree concerning them, and the Scripture
which hath been recited unto you (giveth decree)…)”. That which has been recited unto him in the Scripture
refers to the first verse in which He says (And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans…)
[4:3]. And Allah, exalted is He, says in the other verse (though ye desire to marry them), i.e. one of you
desires to marry the orphan under his care when she is not of great beauty or possesses a lot of wealth.
Thus, men were warned against marrying the orphaned because of their beauty or out of desire for their
wealth, unless one was prepared to deal with them fairly, for the trend was that men shunned those
orphans who had no wealth or were not beautiful. 63 This was narrated by Muslim from Harmalah from
Ibn Wahb.
63
Cf. Durr, :707-708
87