Surah Nisa - Day 2 - Orphans and marriage commands

Bismillah hir Rahmanir Rahim

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Today, I studied verse number 2,3 & 4. Here is the english translation of the three verses.

4:2 - And give unto orphans their property and do not exchange (your) bad things for (their) good ones; and devour not their substance (by adding it) to your substance. Surely, this is a great sin.

4:3 - And if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly with the orphan-girls, then marry (other) women of your choice, two or three, or four but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one or (the captives and the slaves) that your right hands possess. That is nearer to prevent you from doing injustice.

4:4 - And give to the women (whom you marry) their Mahr (obligatory bridal money given by the husband to his wife at the time of marriage) with a good heart, but if they, of their own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, take it, and enjoy it without fear of any harm (as Allah has made it lawful).

Quick recap from the study of Day 1, Allah swt is addressing the whole of mankind and He majorly gave commands to hold the ties of kinship in the verse 1. Allah swt continues to give commandment in the next 3 verses as well.

My learning from the 3 verses -

If we have orphans in our guardianship, we should give back their property in full once they reach adulthood
We should not exchange good property of orphans with bad property of ours
We should not mix our property with orphans property
Its a great sin to do any of the above
Dealing justly with the orphans esp female orphans is extremely important
We can marry 2 or 3 or 4 women only if we can do justice with them
Justice between wives is important so if we can not do justice, we should marry only one wife
While marrying, Mahr (bridal gift) is mandatory and we should give it with good heart
If the wives of their own give up any (part or full) mahr, then we can take it.

Did you know?

Eating up an orphans wealth is one of the 7 destructive sins. (See the full hadith in Bukhari)
Unlike the popular belief that highly religious people should not marry, Islam encourages marriage. The prophet pbuh once told a man not to desire remaining unmarried to get closer to Allah swt. (read the full hadith here)
Verse no. 3 was revealed when a man married an orphan under her guidance for her property. (read the full hadith here)
It is forbidden to marry an orphan under your guidance unless you are able to give her mahr of what she would get otherwise. (full hadith here)

From last day, Allah swt continues to speak on relations esp the most critical ones like orphans under your guardianship and your wives. Few of the ahadith that I read gives a lot more context on why the above verses were revealed and also explains the quranic verse in more details. Hope, you all like it and if you feel I have missed any learning, please comment.

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