An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 3 of 176

An-Nisa 4:3

وَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تُقْسِطُوا۟ فِى ٱلْيَتَـٰمَىٰ فَٱنكِحُوا۟ مَا طَابَ لَكُم مِّنَ ٱلنِّسَآءِ مَثْنَىٰ وَثُلَـٰثَ وَرُبَـٰعَ ۖ فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا۟ فَوَٰحِدَةً أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَـٰنُكُمْ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ أَدْنَىٰٓ أَلَّا تَعُولُوا۟

“And if you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls, then marry those that please you of [other] women, two or three or four. But if you fear that you will not be just, then [marry only] one or those your right hands possess [i.e., slaves]. That is more suitable that you may not incline [to injustice].”

Saheeh International

Essence

The famous 'two, three or four' sits inside a sentence built on the fear of injustice, and it ends by pointing to one.

A reflection

Read the sentence to its end

At a wedding dinner the groom's friend stands with a glass of juice. He quotes 'two, three or four' and the table laughs. The groom's grandmother does not laugh. From her seat she finishes the sentence for him. If you fear you will not be fair, she says, then one.

She has read the ayah the way it is built. It opens with fear: if you fear you will not act justly towards orphans. The numbers come in the middle. Then fear again: if you fear you will not be just, then one. It closes with a reason: that is nearer to your not leaning into injustice. Three times in one sentence, the subject is justice.

One classical commentator draws a striking conclusion from that frame. The word 'marry' here, he says, has the form of a command but the force of a limit. Do not marry, it means, except where you are safe from injustice. Another puts it in one line: the whole matter turns on justice; wherever you find justice, hold to it.

There is a smaller misreading too. Mā ṭāba lakum is often heard as 'whoever catches your eye'. The commentators gloss it as what is good and lawful for you. One early reading takes it as 'marry in a wholesome way'. The word ṭāba is the root of goodness, not of appetite.

None of this is a ruling, and the details of marriage law belong to scholars. But a reader can at least refuse to quote the middle of a sentence as though it were the whole. The grandmother had it right. The numbers are the part people remember. The fear of being unjust is the part the ayah repeats.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.