booke

women and islamic law 261To orphans restore their property (when they reach their age), norsubstitute ( your) worthless things for (their) good ones; and devour nottheir substance (by mixing it up) with your won. For this is indeed agreat sin. ( Al-Nis§" 4:2)Then comes the crucial third verse in which humankind is orderedto allow marriage to two or three or four wives on condition thatpeople fear that they are unable to deal justly with orphans (thecondition is underlined):If you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly [all§ tuqsiãå] with the orphans,marry women of your choice [m§ ã§ba lakum], two or three or four; butif you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly [all§ ta#dilå] (withthem), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess [aum§ malakat aim§nukum], that will be more suitable, to prevent you from[having too great of a burden] [all§ ta#ålå]. ( Al-Nis§" 4:3)Verse 4 follows by ordering the obligation of a bridal gift and askswomen to ‘take it and enjoy it with right good cheer’, while verse 5forbids people from handing over their property to the feeble-minded,but requires them to ‘feed and clothe them, and speak to them wordsof kindness and justice’. 22 After this, verse 6 returns once more tothe question of orphans:Make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage… ( Al-Nis§"4:6)These verses mention the matter of justice several times, using termssuch as qisã and #adl. Both terms are autoantonyms or contranyms,words that have opposite and self-contradictory meanings. The wordqisã, for example, can mean both ‘doing justice’ (as in 5:42, ‘For Godloves those who judge in equity [ al-muqsiãån]’) and ‘doing injustice’(as in 72:15, ‘But those who swerve [ al-q§siãån], they are (but) fuelfor Hell-fire’). And #adl denotes ‘equality/balance’ on the one hand,and ‘inequality/imbalance’ on the other. Moreover, there exists asubtle semantic difference between qisã and #adl, even if they bothmean ‘justice/equality’: whereas qisã implies that justice is done byonly one side of the involved parties, #adl connotes a demonstrationof justice by all, or at least two sides. The morphological root of the22And give the women (on marriage) their dower as a free gift; but if they, oftheir own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, take it and enjoy it with rightgood cheer. * To those weak of understanding, make not over your property, whichGod has made a means of support for you, but feed and clothe them therewith, andspeak to them words of kindness and justice ( Al-Nis§" 4:4–5).