Madinan
Madinah, in the years after Uḥud — with ayat added as late as the last
A few reports call it Makkan, and al-Qurṭubī sets them aside on two grounds. ʿĀʾishah said that Sūrat al-Nisāʾ came down only when she was already in the Prophet’s household, and there is no dispute that he married her in Madinah; and anyone who looks at its rulings knows it to be Madinan beyond doubt. One ayah — “Allah commands you to render trusts to those to whom they are due” — is related to the day Makkah was conquered and the keys of the Kaʿbah, and what was revealed after the Hijrah is Madinan wherever it came down. Its last ayah is, by al-Barāʾ’s report, the last ayah of the Qurʾan to be revealed. The traditional order places it ninety-second.
فَإِنَّ فِي صَحِيحِ الْبُخَارِيِّ عَنْ عَائِشَةَ أَنَّهَا قَالَتْ: مَا نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ النِّسَاءِ إِلَّا وَأَنَا عِنْدَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ، تَعْنِي قَدْ بَنَى بِهَاوَمَنْ تَبَيَّنَ أَحْكَامَهَا عَلِمَ أَنَّهَا مَدَنِيَّةٌ لَا شَكَّ فِيهَاقَالَ العَوْفِي عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ: نَزَلَتْ سورةُ النِّسَاءِ بِالْمَدِينَةِThe same, in other works
- al-BaghawīMaʿālim al-tanzīlAhl al-Sunnah in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةِ النِّسَاءِ -مَدَنِيَّةٌ
- al-Suyūṭīal-Durr al-manthūrAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Ibn ʿAbbās: it came down in Madinah. Recorded by Ibn al-Ḍurays, al-Naḥḥās, Ibn Mardawayh and al-Bayhaqī, through several chains.
أخْرَجَ ابْنُ الضُّرَيْسِ في فَضائِلِهِ، والنَّحّاسُ في ناسِخِهِ، وابْنُ مَرْدُوَيْهِ، والبَيْهَقِيُّ في الدَّلائِلِ مِن طُرُقٍ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبّاسٍ قالَ: نَزَلَتْ سُورَةُ النِّساءِ بِالمَدِينَةِ
A report he gathers; its chain is not graded here.
- al-ShawkānīFatḥ al-qadīr→
Madinan, all of it.
هِيَ مَدَنِيَّةٌ كُلُّها
- al-RāzīMafātīḥ al-ghaybAshʿarī in creedShāfiʿī in fiqh→
Madinan.
مِائَةٌ وسَبْعُونَ وسِتُّ آياتٍ مَدَنِيَّةٍ
- Abū al-SuʿūdIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmMāturīdī in creedḤanafī in fiqh→
Madinan.
سُورَةُ النِّساءِ مَدَنِيَّةٌ وهي مِائَةٌ وسِتٌّ وسَبْعُونَ آيَةً
Each line of English says what the Arabic beneath it says.
What was happening
It opens by going back to the beginning: “O mankind, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and created from it its mate, and spread from the two of them many men and women.” Everything the surah goes on to legislate rests on that sentence. The orphan, the woman, the slave, the stranger and the man of standing come from one soul.
Then it turns at once to the people the old order left out. Before Islam, inheritance went to the men who could ride and fight; women and small children received nothing. Ibn ʿAbbās relates that when a man died, his heirs had the best claim to his widow: one of them might marry her if he wished, or they might marry her off, or refuse to let her marry at all. ʿĀʾishah explains the surah’s third ayah as being about the orphan girl in her guardian’s care, whose property and beauty he likes, and whom he means to marry without giving her what another would have to give.
The answer came, in one case, to a man lying unconscious. Jābir said: the Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr came on foot to visit me among Banū Salimah, and found me insensible. He called for water, made ablution and sprinkled some of it on me, and I came to. I said: what do you command me to do with my property, Messenger of Allah? And there came down: “Allah charges you concerning your children: for the male, the like of the share of two females…” — and then the fractions, one after another: a half, a quarter, an eighth, two-thirds, a third, a sixth. “These are the limits of Allah.”
The second half of the surah widens from the household to the city. It deals with the hypocrites who turned back on the road to Uḥud; with obedience and its limit — “obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you; and if you dispute about anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger”; with fighting for the sake of the men, women and children who are held down and cry out for a protector; with the prayer of an army in the face of the enemy; and with justice, which it demands in the hardest form there is: “Be upholders of justice, witnesses for Allah, even against yourselves, or your parents and kin.”
It ends with the People of the Book — the claim that the Messiah was killed, and the claim that he was more than a messenger — and then, as its very last ayah, returns to where it began: one more rule of inheritance.
What came down about what
The orphan girl and her guardian
ʿUrwah asked ʿĀʾishah about “If you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphans.” She said: “Son of my sister, this is the orphan girl who is in the care of her guardian and shares his property; her wealth and beauty please him, and he wishes to marry her without being fair in her dowry and giving her what another would give. So they were forbidden to marry them unless they dealt justly with them and gave them the highest of what is customary in dowry.”
ʿĀʾishah: al-Bukhārī (4574) and Muslim (3018).
Ṣaḥīḥ
The ayah of the shares
Jābir said: “The Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr visited me among Banū Salimah, walking. The Prophet ﷺ found me unconscious; he called for water, made ablution from it, then sprinkled it upon me, and I came round. I said: ‘What do you command me to do with my wealth, Messenger of Allah?’ And there came down: ‘Allah charges you concerning your children.’”
Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: al-Bukhārī (4577) and Muslim (1616).
Ṣaḥīḥ
Women inherited against their will
“When a man died, his heirs had more right to his wife. If one of them wished, he married her; if they wished, they gave her in marriage; and if they wished, they did not. They had more right to her than her own family. So this ayah came down about that.”
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Bukhārī (4579).
Ṣaḥīḥ
“Until they make you judge”
Al-Zubayr disputed with a man of the Helpers over a watercourse in the lava field. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Water your land, Zubayr, then let the water run to your neighbour.” The man said: “Is it because he is your cousin, Messenger of Allah?” His face changed, and he said: “Water, Zubayr, then hold the water until it reaches the walls.” Al-Zubayr said: “I think these ayat came down only about that: ‘No, by your Lord, they do not believe until they make you judge in what is disputed among them.’”
ʿUrwah, from al-Zubayr: al-Bukhārī (4585) and Muslim (2357).
Ṣaḥīḥ
The man who gave the greeting
“A man was with a small flock of his, and the Muslims came upon him. He said: ‘Peace be upon you.’ They killed him and took his flock. So Allah sent down: ‘Do not say to one who offers you peace, “You are not a believer,” seeking the goods of this life.’”
Ibn ʿAbbās: al-Bukhārī (4591) and Muslim (3025).
Ṣaḥīḥ
“Other than those with an injury”
Zayd ibn Thābit said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dictated to him: “Not equal are those of the believers who sit and those who strive in the way of Allah.” Ibn Umm Maktūm came while he was dictating it and said: “Messenger of Allah, by Allah, if I were able to strive, I would” — and he was blind. So Allah sent down upon His Messenger ﷺ, while his thigh was upon mine, and it grew so heavy on me that I feared my thigh would be crushed. Then it lifted from him, and Allah had sent down: “other than those with an injury.”
Zayd ibn Thābit: al-Bukhārī (4592).
Ṣaḥīḥ
تنظيم المجتمع المسلم من داخله من خلال حفظ الحقوق الاجتماعية والمالية، إزالة لرواسب الجاهلية وتركيزا على حقوق النساء والضعفاء.
To order the Muslim community from within, by safeguarding social and financial rights — clearing away what remained of the Age of Ignorance, and centring on the rights of women and the weak.
The surah’s aim, as al-Mukhtaṣar fī al-Tafsīr states it
- One soul, one origin
- The property of orphans
- The shares of inheritance
- Marriage, dowry and the household
- Obedience and its limit
- The hypocrites
- Fighting for the oppressed
- Justice, even against oneself
- The truth about ʿĪsā
Its aims, as Ibn ʿĀshūr sets them out
وقد اشتملت على أغراض وأحكام كثيرة أكثرها تشريع معاملات الأقرباء وحقوقهم، فكانت فاتحتها مناسبة لذلك بالتذكير بنعمة خلق الله، وأنهم محقوقون بأن يشكروا ربهم على ذلك، وأن يراعوا حقوق النوع الذي خلقوا منه، بأن يصلوا أرحامهم القريبة والبعيدة، وبالرفق بضعفاء النوع من اليتامى، ويراعوا حقوق صنف النساء من نوعهم بإقامة العدل في معاملاتهن، والإشارة إلى عقود النكاح والصداق، وشرع قوانين المعاملة مع النساء في حالتي الاستقامة والانحراف من كلا الزوجين، ومعاشرتهن والمصالحة معهن، وبيان ما يحل للتزوج منهن، والمحرمات
From its first ayah to its last
- 1–1414 ayat · 10% of the surahRead from ayah 1 →
One soul; orphans; the shares
O mankind, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from a single soul. Give the orphans their property. Give the women their dowries as a free gift. For men is a share of what parents and near kin leave, and for women is a share — be it little or much. Those who devour the property of orphans unjustly are only swallowing fire into their bellies. Allah charges you concerning your children: for the male, the like of the share of two females… for parents, a sixth each… for you, half of what your wives leave… These are the limits of Allah.
- 15–2814 ayat · 9% of the surahRead from ayah 15 →
Protections for women
Repentance is accepted by Allah only from those who do wrong in ignorance and then repent soon. O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will. Live with them honourably: if you dislike them, perhaps you dislike a thing in which Allah has placed much good. How could you take it back, when you have gone in to one another? Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters… Allah wishes to lighten things for you; and man was created weak.
- 29–4315 ayat · 9% of the surahRead from ayah 29 →
Property, the household, and the neighbour
Do not consume one another’s wealth wrongfully, and do not kill yourselves. If you avoid the major sins you are forbidden, We shall remit your lesser misdeeds. Men are the maintainers of women. If you fear a breach between the two, appoint an arbiter from his family and an arbiter from hers. Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him; and be good to parents, kin, orphans, the needy, the near neighbour and the distant. Allah does not wrong by so much as an atom’s weight. How will it be when We bring from every community a witness, and bring you as a witness over these? (4:41)
- 44–7027 ayat · 13% of the surahRead from ayah 44 →
Trusts, judgement and obedience
Have you not seen those who were given a portion of the Book, purchasing error? Allah does not forgive that partners be associated with Him, and He forgives what is less than that to whom He wills. Allah commands you to render trusts to those to whom they are due, and when you judge between people, to judge with justice. Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you. No, by your Lord, they do not believe until they make you judge in what is disputed among them. Whoever obeys Allah and the Messenger will be with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous.
- 71–10434 ayat · 23% of the surahRead from ayah 71 →
Fighting, emigration and the prayer of fear
O you who believe, take your precaution. Why should you not fight in the way of Allah, and for the oppressed men, women and children who say, “Our Lord, bring us out of this town whose people are wrongdoers”? Wherever you are, death will overtake you. Do they not ponder the Qurʾan? When you are greeted, return a better greeting. A believer does not kill a believer, except by mistake. When you go out in the way of Allah, verify. Those whom the angels take while wronging themselves: “Was Allah’s earth not wide enough for you to emigrate?” When you are among them and lead them in prayer, let a party of them stand with you.
- 105–12622 ayat · 9% of the surahRead from ayah 105 →
Do not plead for the treacherous
We have sent down to you the Book with the truth, that you may judge between people by what Allah has shown you; do not be an advocate for the treacherous. Whoever does evil or wrongs himself and then seeks Allah’s forgiveness will find Allah forgiving and merciful. Whoever earns a fault and then casts it on an innocent has taken on slander. There is no good in much of their private talk, except one who enjoins charity, or what is right, or reconciliation. Who is better in religion than one who submits his face to Allah and follows the way of Ibrāhīm?
- 127–15226 ayat · 14% of the surahRead from ayah 127 →
Justice within the house, and the hypocrites
They ask you for a ruling about women. If a woman fears ill-treatment or desertion from her husband, there is no blame on them if they come to terms; and reconciliation is best. O you who believe, be upholders of justice, witnesses for Allah, even against yourselves (4:135). Give the hypocrites the news of a painful punishment: those who wait upon you; who stand for prayer lazily, to be seen by people. The hypocrites will be in the lowest depth of the Fire — except those who repent.
- 153–17624 ayat · 13% of the surahRead from ayah 153 →
The People of the Book, and the last ruling
The People of the Book ask you to bring down upon them a book from heaven. For their breaking of the covenant, and their saying, “We killed the Messiah” — they did not kill him, nor crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them; rather, Allah raised him to Himself. We have revealed to you as We revealed to Nūḥ and the prophets after him. People of the Book, do not go to excess in your religion: the Messiah, ʿĪsā son of Maryam, was only a messenger of Allah. Do not say “Three.” They ask you for a ruling: say, Allah gives you a ruling about one who leaves neither parent nor child.
The division into passages is a reading aid, written for this page; it is not part of the muṣḥaf. Each passage is drawn as long as its words are.
The sound each ayah closes on
Read aloud, every ayah closes on a sound — its fāṣilah — and the closes answer one another for a stretch, then turn. Each sound this surah closes on is a line of the staff below, and the surah is the gold line stepping along them, an ayah at a time: where it steps to another line, the rhyme turns. The dotted lines are where its passages begin.
Its commonest close carries 95% of its ayat, and the rhyme turns 9 times. 2 of those turns come just where a new passage begins, as this page divides the surah.
Move along the staff to see what each ayah closes on.
Computed from the text, each ayah as it is said when the reciter stops on it: the last vowel falls away, tanwīn on alif is said as a long ā, and tāʾ marbūṭah as h. Closes the ear hears as one rhyme share a line — -ūn, -īn and -īm; -ān and -ām — and an ayah that is only the opening letters closes on the name of its last letter.
From the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions
Ibn Masʿūd said: The Prophet ﷺ said to me: “Recite to me.” I said: “Shall I recite to you, when it was sent down to you?” He said: “I love to hear it from someone else.” So I recited Sūrat al-Nisāʾ to him until I reached: “How will it be when We bring from every community a witness, and bring you as a witness over these?” He said: “Enough.” And his eyes were streaming.Al-Barāʾ said: “The last surah to come down was Barāʾah, and the last ayah to come down was: ‘They ask you for a ruling…’” — the closing ayah of al-Nisāʾ.The name it is known by
For how much of it legislates for women — their inheritance, their dowries, their marriages, their protection. It is the longer “surah of women”; Ibn Masʿūd called Sūrat al-Ṭalāq the shorter one.
Its place in the muṣḥaf
Ayat you will hear named
- 4:1Created from a single soul
- 4:10Devouring the property of orphans
- 4:11–12The shares of inheritance
- 4:19Live with them honourably
- 4:36The ayah of the ten rights
- 4:41A witness from every community
- 4:48What Allah does not forgive, and what He does
- 4:58Render the trusts; judge with justice
- 4:59Obedience, and referring disputes
- 4:75For the oppressed men, women and children
- 4:110Whoever seeks forgiveness will find it
- 4:135Upholders of justice
- 4:157–158“They did not kill him, nor crucify him”
- 4:171Do not go to excess in your religion
Where this comes from
The figures at the head of the page are counted from the text. The Arabic quotations are taken letter for letter from the copies of the classical works held on this site, and each links to the passage it stands in. The rest was written for Mishkāt from the works below. It is an introduction, not a tafsir: where it matters, read the scholars themselves.
Works quoted on this page
- تفسير البغويMaʿālim al-tanzīlal-Ḥusayn al-Baghawī (d. 516 AH)
- تفسير ابن الجوزيZād al-masīrAbū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597 AH)
- تفسير القرطبيal-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-QurʾānShams al-Dīn al-Qurṭubī (d. 671 AH)
- تفسير ابن كثيرTafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīmIsmāʿīl ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH)
- الدر المنثورal-Durr al-manthūrJalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH)
- فتح القدير للشوكانيFatḥ al-qadīrMuḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH)
- تفسير الرازيMafātīḥ al-ghaybFakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH)
- تفسير أبي السعودIrshād al-ʿaql al-salīmAbū al-Suʿūd al-ʿImādī (d. 982 AH)
- التحرير والتنويرal-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīrMuḥammad al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr (d. 1393 AH)
- المختصر في التفسيرal-Mukhtaṣar fī al-tafsīrMarkaz Tafsīr, a committee of scholars
Beside each scholar quoted stand his creed and his school of fiqh, so that he can be read with discernment. The site’s library holds other commentaries as well; the introductions do not draw on them.
al-Qurṭubī is quoted on these pages only for what he transmits: who said a surah is Makkan or Madinan, and what it has been called. On the attributes of Allah his commentary interprets, in places, in the way of the Ashʿarīs rather than the way of the Salaf, and nothing of that is taken from him here.
al-Rāzī and Abū al-Suʿūd are quoted on these pages only for where a surah came down, and Ibn ʿĀshūr only for the aims of the surah. Nothing on the attributes of Allah is taken from them, and no report comes by way of them. Ibn ʿĀshūr’s statement of the aims is not in the site’s copy of his book: it is read from the Shamela typing as OpenITI holds it, with reports and al-Zamakhsharī’s words left out, and it links to its page there.
Every hadith here says where it is recorded and how it is graded. What is in al-Bukhārī or Muslim is marked ṣaḥīḥ. Outside the two, the grading followed is al-Albānī’s; where none of his was found, the scholar who graded it is named. A report known to be weak or fabricated is not given here at all. A report that is ḥasan, or a Companion’s own saying, or related by the commentators without a graded chain, says so beside it. In the account of what was happening, a small sign after a sentence says the same of the report that sentence tells, and a question mark stands where a date or a figure is not certain, or beside a grading — underlined — that has something to say about its own source: rest on it, or touch it, and it gives the reason. What is drawn from the sīrah — the campaigns, the dates, who was present — is history as its scholars transmit it, and is not graded here.
Also drawn on
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim
The order of revelation is the one printed at the head of each surah in the Egyptian muṣḥaf, which rests on lists transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās and Jābir ibn Zayd. It places a surah by where it began. Many surahs came down in parts, over years, and the scholars treat the list as a guide, not a certainty.