وَلَا تَنكِحُوا۟ مَا نَكَحَ ءَابَآؤُكُم مِّنَ ٱلنِّسَآءِ إِلَّا مَا قَدْ سَلَفَ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ فَـٰحِشَةً وَمَقْتًا وَسَآءَ سَبِيلًا 22
Translations
And do not marry those [women] whom your fathers married, except what has already occurred. Indeed, it was an immorality and hateful [to Allāh] and was evil as a way.
Transliteration
Wa la tankihoo ma nakaha aabaaokum minan nisaa illa ma qad salaf. Innahu kana fahisatan wa maqtan wa saa sabila.
Tafsir (Explanation)
This ayah prohibits marrying women who were previously married to one's fathers, declaring such marriages to be a grave sin and morally repugnant. Classical scholars like Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari explain that this prohibition targets the pre-Islamic Arabian custom of inheriting widows of one's father, and the exception 'illa ma qad salaf' (except what has already occurred) refers to contracts made before this revelation, which were nullified upon Islam's establishment. The triple condemnation—fahisha (grave sin), maqt (abomination), and saa sabila (evil way)—emphasizes the severity of this prohibition and its violation of natural human decency and family honor.
Revelation Context
This ayah was revealed in Medina as part of Surah An-Nisa's comprehensive legislation on marriage and kinship relations. It addresses a pre-Islamic Arabian practice where men would inherit or marry the wives of their deceased fathers as property, treating women as possessions. The revelation came to establish the Islamic legal framework for marriage, protecting women's dignity and clarifying forbidden marriages within family relationships.
Related Hadiths
Sahih Bukhari records that 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar said: 'The most disliked of lawful things to Allah is divorce.' While not directly about this ayah, it relates to the protection of marital bonds. Additionally, the practice mentioned in this verse is condemned in various hadith collections discussing the pre-Islamic customs (jahiliyyah) that Islam abolished.
Themes
Key Lesson
This ayah teaches that Islamic law prioritizes human dignity, particularly for women, and firmly rejects exploitative social customs regardless of their prevalence. For modern readers, it underscores Islam's revolutionary stance on women's rights and reminds us that adherence to Islamic principles must supersede cultural traditions that contradict divine wisdom.