Surah 1-2 - YasSarNal QuR'aN

Al-Baqarah (The Cow) | THE FAMILY: THE FOUNDATION OF HUMAN SOCIETYThe verse closes with yet further exhortation to all concerned to fear God and takeaccount of His presence and overall authority. “Fear God, and know that God sees allthat you do.” (Verse 233) This, above all else, is a firm guarantee of proper and fairconduct by all.The Case of WidowsThe sūrah then turns to introduce the rules governing widows; their waitingperiod and whether and when they can entertain new proposals for marriage:Those of you who die leaving wives behind, their wives shall wait, by themselves, forfour months and ten days. When they have reached the end of their waiting-term, youshall incur no sin in whatever they may do with themselves in a lawful manner. Godis aware of all that you do. You will incur no sin if you give a hint of a marriage offerto [widowed] women or keep such an intention to yourselves. God knows that you willentertain such intentions concerning them. Do not, however, plight your troth insecret; but speak only in a decent manner. Furthermore, do not resolve on actuallymaking the marriage tie before the prescribed term [of waiting] has run its course.Know well that God knows what is in your minds, so have fear of Him; and know thatGod is much- Forgiving, Forbearing. (Verses 234-235)In pre-Islamic Arabia, widows suffered a great deal of injustice at the hands oftheir own families, their in-laws and society in general. When a husband died, hiswidow would be confined to a drab part of the home and made to wear her shabbiestclothes and refrain from using any perfume or incense for a whole year. At the end ofthat period, she would be required to perform a series of degrading and meaninglessrituals which included casting animal faeces into the air and riding an ass or a sheepthrough the town or village. Islam did away with all those worthless customs andalleviated the suffering of widows who, in addition to the grief of losing theirhusbands, had to endure the humiliation and persecution of their families and weredeprived of the opportunity to resume a happy and decent family life.Islam set a waiting period of four months and ten days, which is slightly longerthan that for a divorced wife, unless a woman is pregnant, in which case her waitingperiod extends until she has delivered. The purpose of the waiting period is todetermine whether the woman is pregnant and to avoid hurting the feelings of thefamily of her deceased husband by leaving his home immediately after his death.During this period, the widow wears modest clothes, and does not wear the sort ofmake-up that encourages suitors to propose marriage to her. Once the waiting periodis over, no one, from either her family or that of her deceased husband, has the rightto dictate to her what to do with her life. She is totally free to decide for herselfwithin the established traditions and teachings of Islam. She is free to wear all the313