نِكَاحًا

2616

Important Words:

کاتبوھم (write it for them). کاتب (kataba) is derived from کتب (kataba) which means, he wrote; he made a thing obligatory; or he prescribed a law. کتب اللّٰه لاغلبن انا ورسلی i.e. Allah has decreed or has made it obligatory upon Himself that He and His Messengers will prevail (58:22). کاتب العبد means, he made a written contract with the slave that the latter shall pay a certain sum as the price of his emancipation and then he shall earn his freedom (Lane & Aqrab). This civil written contract by means of which a slave can earn his manumission is called مکاتبة (mukatabat).

تحصنا (keeping chaste) is derived from حصن, meaning, he or it was or became inaccessible, fortified or protected against attack. حصنت المرأة means, the woman was chaste i.e. protected herself against moral or sexual sinfulness. أحصنت المرأة means, the woman got married or she was chaste. تحصن (tahassana) means, he fortified himself or he entered the حصن i.e. fortress; or he protected himself by it; he guarded or protected himself in any way. تحصنت المرأة means, she was chaste (Lane & Aqrab). See also 4:25.

The expression ان علمتم فیھم خیراً (if you know any good in them) may mean (1) if you know that they are fit to work and earn their living; (2) if you know that after their manumission they will become useful members of the society.

Commentary:

We maintain that of all Divine Messengers and Prophets of God, of all Founders of different creeds, Faiths and religious systems, of all social reformers and philanthropists and of all those teachers and leaders of men, who, at any time, in any land and in any form, contributed to the social uplift and moral and spiritual regeneration of humanity, the share of Muhammad, the Holy Prophet of Islam, was by far the largest. And one of the greatest services to mankind of this greatest and noblest of men was his unequivocal and emphatic condemnation of, and the effective measures he took to abolish those social injustices that were practised by one section of humanity against another. His mind rebelled and revolted against the then prevalent idea that man could be bought, sold and treated by man like chattels. His ideal of human brotherhood and the inborn and inherent equality of all men could scarcely be reconciled with the practice of slavery which was so widespread as to have become inextricably interwoven and deeply rooted in the social conditions and ideas of his time. His heart burnt to see the iniquities and enormities practised by man upon man. He grieved and pined for this unfortunate section of humanity. He would, if he could, abolish altogether by a stroke of the pen a system so repugnant and revolting, so destructive of all noble human instincts, of all that distinguishes man from beast and brute. But this institution had become an integral part of the whole fabric of human society in his time. To abolish it all of a sudden was neither wise, nor practicable or even possible. It should have meant a death-blow to the entire existing social order. The sudden emancipation in hundreds of thousands of those persons who having been held in bondage for generations had lost all initiative to lead an independent life, would have seriously told upon the whole moral tone of society. Jobless and workless they would have stooped to all sorts of immoral acts. This was exactly what the Holy Prophet sought to avoid and he did succeed in avoiding it. On the other hand, he laid down precepts and injunctions which were calculated to do away with slavery gradually but surely and effectively.

These injunctions were of two categories:

(i) Temporary provisions bearing upon the general improvement and betterment of the moral and social conditions of the existing slaves and their speedy enfranchisement. Slaves were to be treated as members of the family as long as they were in bondage, and at the same time it was declared as a most heinous crime tantamount to murder to deprive a free man of his freedom and reduce him to slavery (Muslim Kitabul-Iman). But those persons were excepted from this commandment who should themselves incur the loss of their freedom by participating in a war undertaken to destroy Islam and to impose their own beliefs and doctrines upon the Muslims at the point of the sword. Even this denial of freedom to war prisoners was to last only till those prisoners had discharged their share of the guilt, either by paying off their part of the cost of war by getting themselves ransomed or by the Muslims themselves setting them free as an act of favour which the Quran has so repeatedly and emphatically enjoined on them (47:5). See also 23:7.

(ii) Provisions of a permanent nature aiming at the complete and total extinction of slavery in every shape or form. One of such provisions by means of which a slave could earn his emancipation, independently and irrespective of the fact whether his master liked it or not, was that he could enter into a civil written contract with the latter. It is this written contract which is known as mukatabat (deed of manumission) and to which the verse under comment refers. According to this contract a definite amount of money or labour is fixed as the price of the freedom of a slave. After the contract is duly written and attested the slave is considered as manumitted and is free to earn the required amount of money by any legitimate means he likes. After he has paid the whole stipulated sum he is quite free. As to whether the slave is fit to enter into a contract of the above nature with his master is to be decided by the State and not by the master of the slave and also the amount of the money he has to pay and the manner and the time-limit of the payment. No choice is left to the owner if the slave applies for such a contract and the State considers him eligible to it with the conditions and stipulations proposed by it but to accept it. By this excellent arrangement Islam sought to secure to all slaves, who could not otherwise obtain freedom, their full emancipation and liberty, at the same time steering clear of the terrible social and moral evils to which the whole Muslim society would have fallen a helpless victim if slavery had been abolished with a stroke of the pen.

The verse has further urged the wealthy and the rich Muslims to help, with their money, those slaves who enter into mukatabat with their masters, to earn their emancipation.

The words ومن یکرھھن (but if anyone forces them to remain unmarried) signify that the responsibility of keeping them from marriage will be that of their masters. They will not be accountable for this default.

2635

Important Words:

قواعد (elderly women) is the plural of قاعد and قاعدة, and قاعد is active participle from قعد which means, he sat. They say قعدت عن الولد او الحیض i.e. she ceased to bear children or to have the menstrual discharge. قعدت الامرأة means, the woman lost her husband. قاعد means, a woman who has ceased to bear children or to have the menstrual discharge or to have a husband; an old woman, advanced in years. امرأة قاعد is like امرأة حامل i.e. a pregnant woman (Mufradat, Aqrab & Lane).

Commentary:

The verse shows that even old women are not allowed to display their finery or ornaments and the beauty of their person and form or countenance to strangers. In the expression ان یضعن ثیابھن the particle ان is مصدریة and the meaning, is their laying aside their clothing.