I Meaning & Morphology (الصرف
و اللغة)
1.
يَعِظُكُمْ بِهِ
The
particle ‘ب’ is a preposition of the verb ‘يَعِظُ’
and is not of ‘سببيه’. When this verb relates to
two objects, the second object takes the preposition ‘ب’.
Thus translation ‘He instructs you through it’
would not be correct. The
meaning of the expression, consequently, would be ‘He instructs you of these
things’ and not ‘He instructs you through these things’.
The
following Qur’ānic verse testifies to this usage:
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَعِظُكُمْ بِوَاحِدَةٍ (46:34)
Say: ‘I do admonish you on one point. (34:46)
II Eloquence & Style (الاساليب
و البلاغة)
1. Usage of
the verb ‘بَلَغَ’
In
classical Arabic, as in indeed in most languages, verbs in the past tense
sometimes connote an action that is yet to take place. While pointing out
this aspect, Zamakhsharī writes:
فيقال: بلغ البلد إذا شارفه وداناه. ويقال: قد وصلت، ولم
يصل وإنما شارف
… so it is
said: ‘He has reached the city’ when a person is near it. Similarly it is
said: ‘I have reached [my destination]’, whereas actually the destination
has not been reached; one has only drawn near it.
The verb ‘بَلَغَ’
is used in this sense in ‘وَإِذَا طَلَّقْتُمْ النِّسَاءَ
فَبَلَغْنَ أَجَلَهُنَّ’ (2:231). In other words it implies the sense
‘about to reach’. In the very next verse: ‘وَإِذَا
طَلَّقْتُمْ النِّسَاءَ فَبَلَغْنَ أَجَلَهُنَّ فَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ’,
(2:232) it is used in its conventional meaning.
2.
الى ما يئول اليه تسمية الشئ
The word ‘أَزْوَاجَهُنَّ’
used in 2:232 is an example of a word being used for meaning that it will
ultimately convey: the future
husbands are called husbands. This usage is very common in other languages
also. For example, we call a medical student a doctor even though he is yet
to become a doctor.
It would be
incorrect to take this word in its actual sense, as some commentators have,
thereby implying that a husband who divorces his wife should not impede her
in any way to go back to her former husband. A woman if she wishes to
re-marry, can remarry her former husband and she can re-marry someone else.
3.
الافعال مدارج (Gradations in Verb)
In
classical Arabic, a verb can be used in various stages (مدارج).
Thus the same verb can be used to express intention, decision, and severity
of the actual meaning it conveys. For example the verb ‘أمَنُوْا’
can mean ‘they intend to believe’, ‘they have decided to believe’ or ‘they
fully believed’. It depends on the context and usage as to which meaning is
implied. Here the verb ‘يَعْلَمُوْن’ in the
expression ‘لِقْومٍ يَعْلَمُوْنَ’ expresses
‘intention of knowing’. An accurate rendering of this expression would be
‘Those who want to know’. In other words, ‘تِلْكَ
حُدُوْدُ الله يَبَيَّنُهاَ لِِقَوْمٍ يَعْلِمُوْنَ’ actually implies
that the Almighty is explaining his bounds to only those who want to gain
knowledge.
4.
وجه الخطاب
Most
commentators mention the possibility that the verb in the expression ‘فَلَا
تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ’. (And do not stop them) can be directed at the
guardians of the wife who may stop her from marrying some other person once
she has been divorced. However, there is intrinsic evidence found within the
verse that conclusively proves that the verb is actually directed at the
husband who has divorced his wife. While referring to this intrinsic
evidence Imām Rāzī writes:
المسألة الثالثة: اختلف المفسرون في أن قوله: {فلا تعضلوهن}
خطاب لمن؟ فقال الأكثرون إنه خطاب للأولياء، وقال بعضهم إنه خطاب للأزواج، وهذا
هو المختار، الذي يدل عليه أن قوله تعالى: {وإذا طلقتم النساء فبلغن أجلهن فلا
تعضلوهن} جملة واحدة مركبة من شرط وجزاء، فالشرط قوله: {وإذا طلقتم النساء
فبلغن أجلهن} والجزاء قوله: {فلا تعضلوهن} ولا شك أن الشرط وهو قوله: {وإذا
طلقتم النساء} خطاب مع الأزواج، فوجب أن يكون الجزاء وهو قوله: {فلا تعضلوهن}
خطاباً معهم أيضاً، إذ لو لم يكن كذلك لصار تقدير الآية: إذا طلقتم النساء أيها
الأزواج فلا تعضلوهن أيها الأولياء وحيئنذٍ لا يكون بين الشرط وبين الجزاء
مناسبة أصلاً وذلك يوجب تفكك نظم الكلام وتنزيه كلام الله عن مثله واجب، فهذا
كلام قوي متين في تقرير هذا القول.
The
commentators disagree regarding the addressees of the words ‘فَلَا
تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ’. Most of them are of the opinion that the expression
addresses the guardians of the divorced women. Some commentators, however,
do say that these words address the husbands. I also subscribe to this
opinion. The reason is that the verse ‘وَإِذَا
طَلَّقْتُمْ النِّسَاءَ فَبَلَغْنَ أَجَلَهُنَّ فَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ’
is a single sentence composed of a prodosis (شرط)
and an apodosis (جزا). The prodosis is ‘وَإِذَا
طَلَّقْتُمْ النِّسَاءَ فَبَلَغْنَ أَجَلَهُنَّ’ and the apodosis is ‘فَلَا
تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ’. There can be no doubt in the fact that the prodosis
is addressed to the husbands. Consequently, it is imperative that the
apodosis also be addressed to the husbands. If this were not so, the verse
would imply ‘When you divorce your wives, O husbands, you guardians should
not stop them….’. This of course would create a disagreement between the
prodosis and the apodosis and this would also dismember the coherence of the
discourse, and it is essential to disregard such a thing from the message of
God’.
III. Exegesis and Explanation
(الشرح و التفسير)
1. The
implication of ‘تَنكِحَ’
In the
verse, ‘فَإِنْ طَلَّقَهَا فَلَا تَحِلُّ لَهُ مِنْ بَعْدُ
حَتَّى تَنكِحَ زَوْجًا غَيْرَهُ’ the verb ‘تَنكِحَ’
is used. As pointed out by the author (ref. 1). Nikāh (marriage contract) is
a well-known term of the Qur’ān and refers to marriage, which is a contract
made by a man and woman who intend to live their lives together as husband
and wife. If a divorce is planned at the beginning of a marriage merely to
legalize the wife for the first husband then this is against the spirit of
the marriage contract. The very words of the verse also go against such an
arrangement. The particle of condition ‘إِنْ’ is
used for exceptional and contingent situations. While pointing to this
usage, Islāhī writes:
In
Arabic ‘إِنْ’ is not used for routine and usual
matters. Usually, it is used for rare and contingent occurrences. For
regular matters, ‘اِذَاِ’ is used.
Moreover, there is no linguistic basis of construing that in this verse the
verb ‘تَنكِحَ’ implies sexual intercourse.
IV. Scriptures and Testaments
(العهود و الصحف)
1. The
divorce verses of the Old Testament read as follows:
If a man
marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something
indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives to her
and sends her from his house, and after she leaves his house, she becomes
the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her
a certificate of divorce, gives to her and sends her from his house, or if
he dies, then the first husband who divorced her is not allowed to marry her
again after she had been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of
the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as
an inheritance. (Deuteronomy, 24:1-4)
Some of the
contrasting points regarding divorce between the OT and the Qur’ān are:
1.
According to the OT, a husband can seemingly divorce his wife only on the
grounds of indecency. The
Qur’ān, on the contrary does not impose such a condition.
2. The
divorce sentence according to OT must be in written form (certificate of
divorce), while the Qur’ān does not impose this condition. Divorce sentences
pronounced orally are also acceptable.
3. Contrary
to the Qur’ān, the OT does not allow re-marriage between a former husband
and wife, if after divorce, the wife is married to some other person and
this second husband dies or divorces her.
4. The OT
also does not allow a husband to exercise his right of a revocable divorce
twice in the course of a marriage, as the Qur’ān does. He can only exercise
it once.
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