An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 20 of 176

An-Nisa 4:20

وَإِنْ أَرَدتُّمُ ٱسْتِبْدَالَ زَوْجٍ مَّكَانَ زَوْجٍ وَءَاتَيْتُمْ إِحْدَىٰهُنَّ قِنطَارًا فَلَا تَأْخُذُوا۟ مِنْهُ شَيْـًٔا ۚ أَتَأْخُذُونَهُۥ بُهْتَـٰنًا وَإِثْمًا مُّبِينًا

“But if you want to replace one wife with another and you have given one of them a great amount [in gifts], do not take [back] from it anything. Would you take it in injustice and manifest sin?”

Saheeh International

Essence

What was given to a wife stays hers, even a fortune, even when the marriage ends; taking it back is called a stunning lie.

A reflection

Slandering one wife to pay for the next

In the middle of a separation, a man starts telling friends and family things about his wife that are not true. Hints about her conduct. A story about money. He knows that if she is frightened enough, she will accept a settlement that pays for his new life.

The commentaries describe exactly that tactic in the first hearers' world. When a man's eye roamed to a new woman, he would accuse his wife of indecency. Frightened and shamed, she would buy her way out with her dowry. He then spent it on the new bride.

The ayah answers with a question that is really a verdict. 'Would you take it as buhtān and plain sin?' The lexicons give buhtān a vivid sense. It is a lie so monstrous that it stuns the person it is thrown at. Buhita is to be struck speechless, unable to see which way to turn.

Sahih Muslim records the Prophet ﷺ drawing the line precisely. To mention your brother with what he dislikes, if it is true of him, is backbiting. If it is not true of him, you have committed buhtān against him.

One classical commentary adds a sharper point. Taking the dowry back implies she was guilty of the 'clear indecency' that 4:19 mentions. If she was not, the very act of taking it slanders her. It attacks her honour and takes her property at once.

Then the second word: ithm, sin. Its root pictured a she-camel that lags behind the caravan. A man who builds his next marriage on a lie about the last has not moved forward. He has fallen behind.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.