Sūrat al-Nisāʾ, Verse 6

al-Wāḥidī, Asbāb al-Nuzūl, p. 147, no. 294, ed. Kamāl Basyūnī Zaghlūl, records the account without an isnād; Muqātil b. Sulaymān, Tafsīr, 1/358. Zaghlūl cites al-Suyūṭī’s al-Durr al-Manthūr, 2/122, which attributes it to ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd and al-Ṭabarī from Qatāda. ↩

Ibn Manda’s report through ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. Saʿīd from Qatāda is quoted by Ibn Ḥajar, al-Iṣābah fī Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥābah, 1/504, entry 884, Thābit b. Rifāʿa al-Anṣārī. Ibn Ḥajar judges it: هذا مرسل، رجاله ثقات, “This is mursal; its transmitters are trustworthy.” Al-Wāḥidī, Asbāb al-Nuzūl, p. 147, no. 294, ed. Kamāl Basyūnī Zaghlūl, records the two questions: what the uncle may take and when he must hand over the property. ↩

Ibn al-Mundhir, Tafsīr, 2/573, no. 1391, ed. Saʿd b. Muḥammad al-Saʿd (Dār al-Maʾāthir, first printing, 1423/2002), from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī through Mūsā, Shujāʿ, Hushaym and ʿAwf: إنما كانت أموالهم إذ ذاك، النخل والماشية، فرخص لهم إذا كان أحدهم محتاجا أن يصيب من الثمار، ويأكل من الرسل, “Their property at that time consisted of date palms and livestock, so a guardian in need was permitted to take some fruit and consume some milk.” Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/421–422, ed. al-Turkī, records the athar through Yaʿqūb, Hushaym and ʿAwf. ↩

Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 2/10: هذه مخاطبة للجميع، والمعنى: يخلص التلبس بهذا الأمر للأوصياء "This is an address to everyone. The meaning is: the discharge of this matter belongs purely to the executors." ↩

Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Tafsir: al-Nisa, 1/42: المرأة لا تختبر بالبيع والشراء؛ لأنها ليست من أهله، لكن تختبر بحاجات البيت "A woman is not tested by buying and selling, because she is not one of its people; but she is tested by the needs of the house." ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/34. He describes giving a boy the household spending for a month or a small sum to trade with while the guardian observes him; فإن أتلفه فلا ضمان على الوصي, ‘if he destroys it, the executor is not liable.’ For a girl, he describes supervising cotton, the spinners' wages, the finished yarn and its quality. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/404, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī. He records الحُلُم, “puberty,” from Mujāhid through Muḥammad b. ʿAmr, Abū ʿĀṣim, ʿĪsā and Ibn Abī Najīḥ; from al-Suddī through Muḥammad, Aḥmad b. al-Mufaḍḍal and Asbāṭ; from Ibn ʿAbbās through ʿAlī b. Dāwūd, ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṣāliḥ, Muʿāwiya b. Ṣāliḥ and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭalḥa; and from Ibn Zayd through Yūnus and Ibn Wahb. Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/865, no.4800, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419), records Mujāhid’s explanation through Ḥajjāj b. Ḥamza, Shabāba, Warqāʾ and Ibn Abī Najīḥ. ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/407: وأولى الأقوال عندي بمعنى الرشد في هذا الموضع: العقل وإصلاح المال … وإن كان فاجرًا في دينه "The most fitting of the views to me on the meaning of rushd in this place is: sound sense and the good management of wealth … even if he is corrupt in his religion." Ibn Jurayj explains it as صلاحًا وعلمًا بما يصلحه, "soundness, and knowledge of what keeps it sound." ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. والمراد بالرشد نوعه، وهو المتعلق بحسن التصرف في أمواله وعدم التبذير بها, “The sound judgement meant is the kind concerning proper management of property without squandering it.” ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/410, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Zayd b. Aslam through Yūnus and Ibn Wahb: لأنك إن لم تدفعه إليه لك فيه نصيب، وإذا دفعته إليه فليس لك فيه نصيب, “If you do not hand it over, you have a share in it; when you hand it over, you have no share in it.” ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/408: بغير ما أباحه الله لكم "other than what Allah has made lawful for you"; and 6/408: وأصل الإسراف: تجاوز الحد المباح إلى ما لم يُبَح "The root sense of isrāf is going past the permitted limit to what has not been permitted." ↩

Al-Kiyā al-Harrāsī, quoted by al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/43: تَوَهَّمَ مُتَوَهِّمُونَ مِنَ السَّلَفِ بِحُكْمِ الْآيَةِ أَنَّ لِلْوَصِيِّ أَنْ يَأْكُلَ مِنْ مَالِ الصَّبِيِّ قَدْرًا لَا يَنْتَهِي إِلَى حَدِّ السَّرَفِ، وَذَلِكَ خِلَافُ مَا أَمَرَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَى بِهِ ‘Some of the early authorities imagined from the ruling of the verse that the executor may take from the child's property an amount that does not reach extravagance, but that contradicts what Allah commanded.’ ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/429: فأشهدوا على الأيتام باستيفائهم ذلك منكم، ودفعكموه إليهم "So call witnesses against the orphans that they have received that from you in full, and that you have handed it over to them.". فليدفعه إليه بالشهود كما أمره الله "So let him hand it over to him with witnesses, as Allah commanded him.". وكفى بالله كافيًا من الشهود الذين يشهدهم والي اليتيم "And Allah is sufficient in place of the witnesses whom the orphan’s guardian calls to witness." ↩

Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 2/12: والأظهر حسيبًا معناه: حاسبًا أعمالكم ومجازيًا بها، ففي هذا وعيد لكل جاحد حق "The more apparent view is that ḥasīb means: reckoning your deeds and requiting you for them. So in this is a threat to everyone who denies a right." ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. ↩

Al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, 5/199: حسيبًا أي محاسبًا بليغًا في الحساب، فهو أبلغ تحذيرًا لهم وللأيتام من الخيانة والتعدي ومدّ العين إلى حق الغير, “‘Ḥasīban’: one who calls to account, thorough in reckoning. This is a stronger warning to them and to the orphans against betrayal, transgression and coveting another’s right.” ↩

Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 4/247: وجاء بقوله وكفى بالله حسيبا تذييلا لهذه الأحكام كلها, “His words ‘Allah suffices as a reckoner’ conclude all these rulings.” ↩

al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, 5/197: السفه باطن لا يعرف إلا بالتصرف "Foolishness is inward; it is known only through dealings." ↩

Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 12/645: وسموا يتامى بعد أن أونس منهم الرشد بالاسم الأول الذي كان لهم قبل إيناسه منهم, “After sound judgement had been perceived in them, they were still called orphans by the name they bore before it was perceived.” ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/420–421, ed. al-Turkī, from Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما through al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad. One isnād runs through al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Maʿmar and al-Zuhrī; the other through al-Ḥasan b. Yaḥyā, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, al-Thawrī and Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd. In the latter, Ibn ʿAbbās allows the guardian to drink if he searches for stray camels, treats their mange, repairs their drinking trough and tends them: فاشرب غير مضر بنسل، ولا ناهك في الحلب, “Then drink, without harming the young or milking excessively.” Khālid b. ʿAlī al-Ghāmidī judges the isnād through Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd ṣaḥīḥ and the athar ṣaḥīḥ through corroboration; he identifies Zamʿa b. Ṣāliḥ as weak in al-Thaʿlabī’s other isnād (al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/85–87, nos. 1015–1016, ed. al-Ghāmidī, Dār al-Tafsīr, first printing, 1436/2015). Mālik, al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, 2/934, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, also transmits it through Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd from al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad, who describes the man's question to Ibn ʿAbbās; ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Tafsīr, 1/435, transmits it through al-Thawrī, Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd and al-Qāsim. ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/427. ↩

Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, 3/115, no. 2872, ed. Muḥyī al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, from ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ through ʿAmr b. Shuʿayb, his father and his grandfather: كُلْ مِنْ مَالِ يَتِيمِكَ غَيْرَ مُسْرِفٍ، وَلَا مُبَادِرٍ، وَلَا مُتَأَثِّلٍ, “Eat from your orphan’s wealth without extravagance, haste or accumulating wealth.” Aḥmad, Musnad, 6/451–452, no. 7022, ed. Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir, records Ḥusayn’s uncertainty between “without protecting your own wealth” and “redeeming your own wealth with his”; Shākir grades this chain ṣaḥīḥ. Al-Albānī, Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Ghiras printing, 8/225, no. 2556, grades it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ. In his detailed discussion he calls Abū Dāwūd’s chain ḥasan, mentioning the disagreement over ʿAmr b. Shuʿayb’s transmission from his father and grandfather, and grades the hadith ṣaḥīḥ with a supporting mursal report from al-Ḥasan al-ʿUranī. Ḥikmat Bashīr Yāsīn, al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Masbūr, 2/9, cites Ibn Ḥajar’s judgment, إسناده قوي, “its chain is strong,” in Fatḥ al-Bārī, 8/90. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/412, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, relates this mawqūf account from ʿUmar رضي الله عنه through Abū Kurayb, Wakīʿ, Sufyān and Isrāʾīl, Abū Isḥāq, and Ḥāritha b. Muḍarrib. It also includes his undertaking to repay what he took if he later became prosperous. Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/42, answers those who cite that repayment clause: فَلَا حُجَّةَ لَهُمْ فِي قَوْلِ عُمَرَ: فَإِذَا أَيْسَرْتُ قَضَيْتُ، أَنْ لَوْ صَحَّ, “They have no proof in ʿUmar’s words, ‘If I become prosperous, I will repay’, even if they are established.” His legal argument is that a reasonable allowance granted by Allah need not be repaid. ↩

Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/321: النظر على الوقف كالوصاية على اليتيم "Overseeing a waqf is like executorship over an orphan.". ʿAbduh, in Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/321. ↩

al-Zuḥaylī, al-Tafsir al-Munir, 4/258. ↩

al-Zuḥaylī, al-Tafsīr al-Munīr, 4/252, reporting the wage position: والقاعدة الفقهية تقتضي أن تكون هذه الأجرة مقدرة بأجر المثل، سواء أكفت الولي أم لا ‘The legal principle requires that this wage be assessed at the going rate for comparable work, whether or not it is enough for the guardian.’ ↩

al-Jazāʾirī, Aysar al-Tafasir, 1/438. ↩

Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/316: يحولون بينهم وبين أسباب الرشد "They come between them and the means of sound judgment." ↩

al-Zuḥaylī, al-Tafsir al-Munir, 4/259: فالمال يحفظه بضبطه، والبدن يحفظه بأدبه "Wealth he preserves by managing it, and the body he preserves by disciplining it." ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/868, no. 4820, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419), from Ibn ʿAbbās through Aḥmad b. Sinān, Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī, Sufyān, who reports from Ibn Abī Laylā and al-Aʿmash, both from al-Ḥakam, from Miqsam: فَلْيَسْتَعْفِفْ بِغِنَاهُ, “Let him refrain because of his wealth.” Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/411, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, records the same report through Muḥammad b. Bashshār, Abū Aḥmad and the same subsequent transmitters. ↩

al-Zarkashī, al-Burhān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, 1/109, in النوع الرابع: في جمع الوجوه والنظائر "the fourth kind: on gathering the senses and the parallels": النِّكَاحُ فِي الْقُرْآنِ التَّزَوُّجُ إِلَّا قَوْلَهُ جَلَّ ثَنَاؤُهُ: ﴿حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغُوا النكاح﴾ فإنه يعني الحلم "Nikāḥ in the Qurʾān is marrying, except His words, exalted be His praise, ⟨until they reach al-nikāḥ⟩, for it means puberty." ↩

al-Suyūṭī, al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, 2/159, in النوع التاسع والثلاثون: في معرفة الوجوه والنظائر "the thirty-ninth kind: on knowing the senses and the parallels": وَكُلُّ " نِكَاحٍ " فِيهِ تَزَوُّجٌ إِلَّا: ﴿حَتَّى إِذَا بَلَغُوا النِّكَاحَ﴾ فَهُوَ الْحُلُمُ "And every nikāḥ in it is marrying, except ⟨until they reach al-nikāḥ⟩, where it is puberty." ↩

Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 4/238: وهو كناية عن الخروج من حالة الصبا للذكر والأنثى "And it is an indirect expression (kināya) for leaving the state of childhood, for the male and the female." ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/38: دفع المال يكون بشرطين: إيناس الرشد والبلوغ، فإن وجد أحدهما دون الآخر لم يجز تسليم المال, “Handover requires two conditions: perceived sound judgement and puberty. If either exists without the other, handing over the property is not permissible.” ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/426: أكل مال اليتيم عند الضرورة والحاجة إليه على وجه الاستقراض منه "Eating from the orphan's property in a case of necessity and need for it, by way of borrowing from it." ↩

al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa-l-Uyun, 1/454, the second of the four positions he sets out on وَمَن كَانَ فَقِيراً فَلْيَأْكُلْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ "and whoever is poor, let him take in the fair way": أنه يأكل ما يسد الجوعة، ويلبس ما يواري العورة، ولا قضاء، وهو قول الحسن، وإبراهيم، ومكحول، وقتادة "that he eats what stops the hunger and wears what covers his nakedness, and there is no repayment; and that is the statement of al-Ḥasan, Ibrāhīm, Makḥūl and Qatāda." His fourth position is the wage and he gives it to ʿAṭāʾ alone: أن يأخذ إذا كان محتاجاً أجرةً معلومة على قدر خدمته، وهو قول عطاء "that he takes, when he is in need, a known wage in proportion to his service; and that is ʿAṭāʾ's statement." His first is the loan and his third is the produce of the property. ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/34: وهذه الآية خطاب للجميع في بيان كيفية دفع أموالهم, “This verse addresses everyone, explaining how their property is to be handed over.” ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/865, no. 4799, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, records Muqātil b. Ḥayyān's explanation through Muḥammad b. al-Faḍl, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, Muḥammad b. Muzāḥim and Bukayr b. Maʿrūf: الأولياء والأوصياء, “the guardians and executors.” At 3/871, no. 4837, he records Saʿīd b. Jubayr's يقول للأوصياء, “He addresses the executors,” through Abū Zurʿa, Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Bukayr, Ibn Lahīʿa and ʿAṭāʾ b. Dīnār. Abū Ḥātim says that ʿAṭāʾ's tafsīr from Saʿīd was taken from a written government register and transmitted mursal (al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl, 6/332). Al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/343; al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491; al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajīz, 252; and Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/146, likewise identify guardians or executors as the people carrying out the command. ↩

Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 2/10: هذه مخاطبة للجميع، والمعنى: يخلص التلبس بهذا الأمر للأوصياء "This is an address to everyone. The meaning is: the discharge of this matter belongs purely to the executors." ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/867, no. 4818, and 3/871, no. 4835, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419 AH. Both accounts are transmitted through Yūnus b. ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Ibn Wahb and Nāfiʿ b. Abī Nuʿaym, the Qurʾān reciter, who asked Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd and Rabīʿa. Their answer concerning the rich orphan is: ذَلِكَ فِي الْيَتِيمِ؛ إِنْ كَانَ غَنِيًّا أُنْفِقَ عَلَيْهِ بِقَدْرِ غِنَاهُ، وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لِلْوَلِيِّ مِنْهُ شَيْءٌ, “That concerns the orphan: if he is rich, expenditure on him should accord with his wealth, and the guardian receives nothing from it.” Concerning the poor orphan: ذَلِكَ فِي الْيَتِيمِ إِنْ كَانَ فَقِيرًا أُنْفِقَ عَلَيْهِ بِقَدْرِ فَقْرِهِ، وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لِلْوَلِيِّ مِنْهُ شَيْءٌ, “That concerns the orphan: if he is poor, expenditure on him should accord with his poverty, and the guardian receives nothing from it.” ↩

Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, 4/2316, no. 11 (3019), Kitāb al-Tafsīr, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, from ʿĀʾisha رضي الله عنها through Hishām b. ʿUrwa and his father; this is the wording quoted here. Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Sultani printing, 6/43, no. 4575, Kitāb Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, chapter on وَمَنْ كَانَ فَقِيرًا فَلْيَأْكُلْ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ, records her explanation that the poor guardian takes a reasonable amount for caring for the orphan’s property. ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/41. ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. He says of applying rich and poor to the orphans: وهذا القول في غاية السقوط, “This position is wholly untenable.” ↩

al-Wāḥidī, al-Tafsīr al-Basīṭ, 6/329; Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519; Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Tafsīr al-ʿUthaymīn: al-Nisāʾ, 1/42; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/34. Al-Qurṭubī describes giving a boy the household spending for a month or a small sum to trade with while the guardian observes him; for a girl, he describes supervising cotton, the spinners' wages, the finished yarn and its quality. ↩

Ibn ʿUthaymīn, Tafsīr al-ʿUthaymīn: al-Nisāʾ, 1/42: المرأة لا تختبر بالبيع والشراء؛ لأنها ليست من أهله، لكن تختبر بحاجات البيت، فإذا عُرف ضبطها لحاجات البيت فهي رشيدة "A woman is not tested by buying and selling, because she is not one of its people; but she is tested by the needs of the house. So if her competence with the needs of the house is known, she has sound judgment." ↩

al-Wāḥidī, al-Tafsir al-Basit, 6/329: أن يُردّ إليه الأمر في نفقته عند مراهقة الحلم، ويعطى شيئًا نزرًا يتصرف فيه … وإن كانت جاريةً يرد إليها ما يرد إلى النساء من أمر البيت وتدبير الغزل والقطن "That the handling of his own maintenance be turned over to him as he nears puberty, and that he be given a small amount to manage … and if the child is a girl, there is turned over to her what is turned over to women: the affairs of the house and the management of the spinning and the cotton." ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519: يُعْتَبَرُ رُشْدُهَا، وَإِنْ لَمْ تَتَزَوَّجْ بِالْبُلُوغِ "Her sound judgment is assessed at puberty, even if she has not married.". 3/518: قِيلَ: تُوُفِّيَ رِفَاعَةُ وَتَرَكَ ابْنَهُ ثَابِتًا صَغِيرًا "It is said: Rifāʿa died and left his son Thābit, who was small.". 3/518: فإذا أنس منه الرشد بعد البلوغ والاختبار دفع إليه ماله، وأشهد عليه "So when sound judgment is perceived in him after puberty and testing, his property is handed over to him, and witnesses are called for it." ↩

Ibn al-Mundhir, Tafsīr, 2/569, no. 1379, ed. Saʿd b. Muḥammad al-Saʿd (Dār al-Maʾāthir, first printing, 1423/2002), from al-Shaʿbī through Mūsā, Yaḥyā, Qays, Jābir and ʿĀmir: لا يُدْفَعُ إلى الجاريةِ مالُها حتى تُزَوَّجَ، ولو قرأتِ التوراةَ والإنجيلَ والزَّبورَ, “A girl's property is not handed over to her until she marries, even if she has read the Torah, Gospel and Psalms.” ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/76; Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/569; al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/342; Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubab, 6/189. ↩

Ibn Juzayy, al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl, 1/179: واعتبر مالك البلوغ والرشد، وحينئذ يدفع المال, “Mālik required puberty and sound judgement; the property is then handed over.” ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/38, explains that girls were ordinarily secluded from public dealings, whereas boys gained experience by handling affairs and meeting people; on that premise his school's jurists required marriage. ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/38: شرطوا في الجارية دخول الزوج بها مع البلوغ, “They required consummation of marriage for the girl, together with puberty.” He states that Abū Ḥanīfa and al-Shāfiʿī did not require this. ↩

Ibn al-ʿArabī, quoted at al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/39: وَلَيْسَ فِي هَذَا كُلِّهِ دَلِيلٌ "There is no proof in any of this"; وَاجْتَنِبِ التَّحَكُّمَ الَّذِي لَا دَلِيلَ عَلَيْهِ "Avoid arbitrary assertion that has no proof for it." ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/38, prefers al-Shāfiʿī's position: intercourse does not increase the competence of a woman who already understands her affairs and does not squander her property. ↩

Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Sultani printing, 2/19, no. 964, Kitāb al-ʿĪdayn, chapter on the sermon after the Eid prayer, from Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما: the Prophet ﷺ urged the women to give charity, and they gave their jewellery. Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, 2/602, no. 2 (884), Kitāb Ṣalāt al-ʿĪdayn, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, names their rings and earrings. Al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, Dar al-Tafsir printing, 10/76–77, draws the inference: ولم يفصل بين متزوجة، وغير متزوجة، ولا بين من تصدقت بإذن زوجها أو بغير إذنه, “He did not distinguish between a married woman and an unmarried woman, or between one who gave charity with her husband’s permission and one who gave without it.” ↩

Al-Wāḥidī, Asbāb al-Nuzūl, 147, no. 294, ed. Kamāl Basyūnī Zaghlūl. ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/422, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, through Bishr b. Muʿādh, Yazīd and Saʿīd from Qatāda. Qatāda begins ذُكِرَ لنا, “It was mentioned to us.” The uncle asks what he may take from the orphan’s property; the reported answer is أن تأْكُلَ بالمَعْرُوفِ مِن غيرِ أن تَقِىَ مالَك بمالِه، ولا تَتَّخِذَ مِن مالِه وَفْرًا, “That you eat in a fair manner, without protecting your own wealth through his property or amassing a surplus from his property.” Al-Turkī records textual variants: “ʿUmar b. Thābit b. Rifāʿa” instead of “the uncle of Thābit b. Rifāʿa,” and ابن أختي, “my sister’s son,” instead of ابن أخي, “my brother’s son.” ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/68; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/34. ↩

Al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/341: نزلت في ثابت بن رفاعة وفي عمه, “It was revealed concerning Thābit b. Rifāʿa and his uncle.” ↩

Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/371, describes the death of Rifāʿa and his son's guardianship as the occasion of revelation, adding that Muqātil related a similar account. ↩

al-Wāḥidī, al-Tafsīr al-Basīṭ, 6/328: قال المفسرون: نزلت في ثابت بن رفاعة، وفي عمه, “The exegetes said: it was revealed about Thābit b. Rifāʿa and his uncle.” His Asbāb al-Nuzūl, p. 147, no. 294, ed. Kamāl Basyūnī Zaghlūl, records both questions without an isnād: what the uncle may take, and when he must hand over the property. ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/518 (Dār al-Fikr printing): قيل توفي رفاعة وترك ابنه ثابتًا صغيرًا, “It is said that Rifāʿa died and left his young son Thābit.” ↩

Al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa-l-ʿUyūn, 1/454, through Shuʿba from Qatāda: أن رجلًا قال للنبي ﷺ إن في حجري يتيمًا أفآكل من ماله؟ قال: بالمعروف غير متأثل مالًا ولا واق مالك بماله, “A man said to the Prophet ﷺ, ‘An orphan is in my care; may I eat from his property?’ He replied, ‘In a reasonable manner, without building up wealth or protecting your property with his.’” Qatāda reports this directly from the Prophet ﷺ, without naming a Companion. Ibn Ḥajar describes the Qatāda occasion-report as mursal (al-Iṣābah, 1/504, entry 884). ↩

Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 2/10–12; al-Bayḍāwī, Anwār al-Tanzīl, 2/60–61; Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/145–146; Ibn Juzayy, al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl, 1/179. ↩

Ibn Ḥajar, al-Iṣābah fī Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥābah, 1/504, entry 884. His judgment concerns Ibn Manda’s report through ʿAbd al-Wahhāb b. Saʿīd from Qatāda. ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/34; al-Wāḥidī, Asbāb al-Nuzūl, 147, no. 294. The guardian asks: فما يحل لي من ماله، ومتى أدفع إليه ماله؟, “What is lawful for me from his property, and when do I hand it over to him?” ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/37, attributes صلاحًا في العقل وحفظ المال, “soundness of mind and preservation of property,” to Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Suddī and al-Thawrī. ↩

Al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/75, ed. Khālid b. ʿAlī al-Ghāmidī, attributes to Abū Ḥanīfa, Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan consideration of financial soundness without requiring religious uprightness. ↩

Ibn Juzayy, al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl, 1/179: الرشد هو المعرفة بمصالحه وتدبير ماله، وإن لم يكن من أهل الدين, “Sound judgement is knowledge of one's interests and management of one's property, even if one is not religiously upright.” ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/407: وأولى الأقوال عندي بمعنى الرشد في هذا الموضع: العقل وإصلاح المال … وإن كان فاجرًا في دينه "The most fitting of the views to me on the meaning of rushd in this place is: sound sense and the good management of wealth … even if he is corrupt in his religion." Ibn Jurayj explains it as صلاحًا وعلمًا بما يصلحه, "soundness, and knowledge of what keeps it sound." ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/407–408. He prefers sound sense and management of property because a person with both is not financially interdicted merely for religious misconduct: وأَوْلَى الأقوالِ عندى بمعنى الرُّشْدِ في هذا الموضعِ: العقلُ وإصلاحُ المالِ ... وإن كان فاجرًا في دينِه. He argues that the reason for imposing financial guardianship and the reason for continuing to withhold property must be treated consistently, and challenges anyone who distinguishes the two cases to identify a relevant difference. He then restates the conclusion: فإذ كان ما وَصَفْنا من الجميعِ إجماعًا، فبَيِّنٌ أن الرُّشْدَ ... هو ما قُلْنَا مِن صحةِ عَقْلِه وإصلاحِه مالَه ‘If what we have described is agreed, it is clear that the sound judgement by which an orphan, after attaining maturity, deserves to receive his property is what we have said: soundness of mind and good management of his property.’ ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/37–38. He records two Shāfiʿī positions on a man who manages his property properly but is corrupt in religion: Ibn Surayj would legally restrict his control of the property, while Abū Isḥāq al-Marwazī would not. Al-Qurṭubī describes the latter position as the more evident position of the school. ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519–3/520: وَنَكَّرَ رُشْدًا لِأَنَّ مَعْنَاهُ نَوْعٌ مِنَ الرُّشْدِ، وَطَرَفٌ وَمَخِيلَةٌ مِنْ مَخِيلَتِهِ، وَلَا يُنْتَظَرُ بِهِ تَمَامُ الرُّشْدِ "He made rushdan indefinite because its meaning is a kind of rushd, a portion of it and a trace of its traces, and complete rushd is not waited for in his case." ↩

al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, 5/197. ونكره لأن وجود كمال الرشد في أحد يعز وقوعه "And He made it indefinite because the presence of complete rushd in anyone rarely occurs." ↩

al-Samīn al-Ḥalabī, al-Durr al-Maṣūn, 3/584: ونكَّر «رُشْداً» دلالةً على التنويعِ، والمعنى: أيُّ نوعٍ حَصَل من الرشدِ "And he made ‘rushdan’ indefinite to indicate variety; the meaning is: whatever kind of rushd has come about"; Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubāb, 6/188. ↩

Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/145: والتنوين للدلالة على كفاية رشد في الجملة, “The indefinite ending indicates that a sufficient measure of sound judgement is enough.” ↩

Ibn al-Munayyir, al-Intiṣāf, printed with al-Zamakhsharī's al-Kashshāf, 1/472: فبادروا بتسليم المال إليهم غير منتظرين بلوغ الغاية فيه, “Hasten to hand the property over to them without waiting for the highest degree of sound judgement.” ↩

Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr, 4/243, naming the indefinite تنكير النوعية indefiniteness of kind (tankīr al-nawʿiyya). ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. ↩

Al-Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/331–332: المراد رشد مخصوص وهو الرشد في التصرف والتجارة أو يفيد التقليل أي طرفًا من الرشد, “A particular kind of sound judgement is meant, competence in handling affairs and trade, or a sufficient measure of sound judgement.” ↩

Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/318. ↩

Al-Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/331–332, connects the sufficient-measure interpretation with Abū Ḥanīfa's rule requiring handover at twenty-five. ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/37, attributes صلاحًا في العقل والدين, “soundness of mind and religion,” to al-Ḥasan, Qatāda and others. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/405, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, transmits Qatāda’s explanation through Bishr b. Muʿādh, Yazīd and Saʿīd: صَلَاحًا فِي عَقْلِهِ وَدِينِهِ, “Soundness in his mind and religion.” Ḥikmat Bashīr Yāsīn, al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Masbūr, 2/9, grades this chain ḥasan. ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/866, no. 4806. Saʿīd b. Jubayr explains sound judgement as صَلَاحًا فِي دِينِهِمْ وَحِفْظًا لِأَمْوَالِهِمْ, “soundness in their religion and safekeeping of their property.” Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmits it through Abū Zurʿa, Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Bukayr, Ibn Lahīʿa and ʿAṭāʾ b. Dīnār from Saʿīd. ↩

Al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa-l-ʿUyūn, 1/453, attributes صلاح في الدين وإصلاح في المال, “uprightness in religion and proper management of property,” to Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan and al-Shāfiʿī. ↩

Al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/74, ed. Khālid b. ʿAlī al-Ghāmidī: فالرشد شيئان: جواز الشهادة، وإصلاح المال, “Sound judgement consists of two things: admissibility as a witness and proper management of property.” His preceding explanation attributes to al-Shāfiʿī avoidance of open sins, waste, squandering and serious deception in transactions. ↩

al-Wāḥidī, al-Basit, 6/331 to 6/332: وهذا هو الأولى؛ فإن أهل اللغة قالوا في معنى الرشد: إنه إصابة الخير، والمفسد في دينه لا يكون مصيبًا للخير "This is the more fitting view, for the people of the language said about the meaning of rushd that it is hitting upon what is good, and one who is corrupt in his religion does not hit upon what is good." ↩

al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajiz, 252: صلاحًا للعقل وحفظًا للمال "soundness of intellect and safekeeping of wealth". ↩

Al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa-l-ʿUyūn, 1/453. ↩

Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/371: وَبِمَاذَا يُخْتَبَرُونَ؟ فِيهِ ثَلَاثَةُ أَقْوَالٍ: أَحَدُهَا: أَنَّهُمْ يُخْتَبَرُونَ فِي عُقُولِهِمْ، قَالَهُ ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ وَالسُّدِّيُّ وَسُفْيَانُ وَمُقَاتِلٌ. وَالثَّانِي: يُخْتَبَرُونَ فِي عُقُولِهِمْ وَدِينِهِمْ، قَالَهُ الْحَسَنُ وَقَتَادَةُ. وَعَنْ مُجَاهِدٍ كَالْقَوْلَيْنِ. وَالثَّالِثُ: فِي عُقُولِهِمْ وَدِينِهِمْ وَحِفْظِهِمْ أَمْوَالَهُمْ، ذَكَرَهُ الثَّعْلَبِيُّ “In what are they tested? There are three positions: first, that they are tested in their intelligence, stated by Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Suddī, Sufyān and Muqātil; second, that they are tested in their intelligence and religion, stated by al-Ḥasan and Qatāda, with both positions reported from Mujāhid; and third, in their intelligence, religion and preservation of their property, which al-Thaʿlabī mentions.” ↩

Ibn al-Jawzī, Tadhkirat al-Arīb fī Tafsīr al-Gharīb, 60: وَالرُّشْدُ الصَّلَاحُ فِي الدِّينِ مَعَ حِفْظِ الْمَالِ “Sound judgement is uprightness in religion together with preserving property.” ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/407, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, records Ibn Jurayj's explanation: صلاحًا وعلمًا بما يصلحه, “Soundness and knowledge of what preserves it.” ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/865, no. 4803, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, from Ibn ʿAbbās through his father Abū Ḥātim, ʿAmr b. ʿAwn, Sharīk, Simāk b. Ḥarb and ʿIkrima: إذا أدرك اليتيم بحلم وعقل ووقار دفع إليه ماله, “When the orphan reaches puberty with intelligence and a settled bearing, his property is handed over to him.” ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/866, no. 4807, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, cites Abū Bakr b. Abī Shayba, through ʿUbayd Allāh b. Mūsā, Sufyān, Hishām and Muḥammad b. Sīrīn, from ʿAbīda al-Salmānī: إذا أقام الصلاة, “When he establishes prayer.” He introduces the chain with ذُكر عن, “It was mentioned from.” ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/866, no. 4808, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, through his father Abū Ḥātim, Ibn Nufayl and Hushaym, who quotes Ibn Shubruma: سنة بعد الاحتلام, “A year after puberty.” ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519 (Dār al-Fikr printing), reports from Ibn Sīrīn: حتى تمضي عليه سنة وتداوله الفصول الأربع, “Until a year has passed and the four seasons have come round.” ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/37. He reports that Saʿīd b. Jubayr and al-Shaʿbī held that an orphan’s property should be withheld even in old age until sound judgement is established. He further reports that al-Ḍaḥḥāk required evidence of competent property management even if the ward reached one hundred. ↩

Al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/74–75, ed. Khālid b. ʿAlī al-Ghāmidī, attributes religious and financial competence to Mālik. Al-Ghāmidī quotes Ibn al-ʿArabī's description of Mālik's position as intelligence sufficient to recognize one's interests and preserve one's property, and comments: وهو يخالف ما نسبه إليه الثعلبي، حيث لم يشترط صلاح الدين, “This differs from what al-Thaʿlabī attributed to him, since he did not require uprightness in religion.” ↩

Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 2/11. ↩

Ibn al-Munayyir, al-Intiṣāf, printed with al-Kashshāf, 1/472: هو أن يحرز ماله وينميه، وإن كان فاسقًا في حاله, “It is that he preserves his property and increases it, even if his conduct is sinful.” He attributes this criterion to Mālik. ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/407: وأولى الأقوال عندي بمعنى الرشد في هذا الموضع: العقل وإصلاح المال … وإن كان فاجرًا في دينه "The most fitting of the views to me on the meaning of rushd in this place is: sound sense and the good management of wealth … even if he is corrupt in his religion." Ibn Jurayj explains it as صلاحًا وعلمًا بما يصلحه, "soundness, and knowledge of what keeps it sound." ↩

al-Wāḥidī, al-Basit, 6/331 to 6/332: وهذا هو الأولى؛ فإن أهل اللغة قالوا في معنى الرشد: إنه إصابة الخير، والمفسد في دينه لا يكون مصيبًا للخير "This is the more fitting view, for the people of the language said about the meaning of rushd that it is hitting upon what is good, and one who is corrupt in his religion does not hit upon what is good." ↩

Al-Ālūsī, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, 2/414: والاقتصار على هذا الاهتداء رأي أبي حنيفة، والشافعي يعتبر مع هذا أيضًا الصلاح في الدين, “Restricting it to this competence is Abū Ḥanīfa’s position; al-Shāfiʿī also requires religious uprightness.” ↩

Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/567 to 1/569. ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/490: وهذه العلامات تعم الذكر والأنثى، وتختص الأنثى بالحبل والحيض, “These signs apply to males and females; pregnancy and menstruation are specific to females.” ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/865, no.4800, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419). He also records similar explanations from Abū Mālik, Saʿīd b. Jubayr and al-Suddī. ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/71; Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/567 to 1/568. ↩

al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa-l-Uyun, 1/453. يعني الحلم في قول الجميع "He means the wet dream, by the statement of all of them." ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/865, no. 4801, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, cites Abū Maʿshar from Muḥammad b. Qays: خمس عشرة, “Fifteen.” He introduces it with ذُكر عن أبي معشر, “It was mentioned from Abū Maʿshar.” ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/71; Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/567 to 1/568. ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/35–36, records fifteen from al-Awzāʿī, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, Ibn Wahb, Aṣbagh, Ibn al-Mājishūn, ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz and a group of Medinan jurists; he adds that Ibn al-ʿArabī chose it. ↩

Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/567 to 1/569. ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/35–36. Aṣbagh b. al-Faraj's stated rationale for fifteen is that it is the age at which a person becomes eligible for a share in the spoils. ↩

Al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Sultani printing, 3/177, no. 2664, Kitāb al-Shahādāt, chapter on boys reaching adulthood and their testimony, from Ibn ʿUmar رضي الله عنهما through Nāfiʿ. Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, 3/1490, no. 91 (1868), Kitāb al-Imāra, chapter on the age of adulthood, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī. ↩

Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 91 (1868), ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī. Nāfiʿ relates that ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz called fifteen the dividing line between childhood and adulthood, then instructed his officials to assign an allowance to those aged fifteen and count the younger children among the dependants. Al-Qāsimī, Maḥāsin al-Taʾwīl, 3/29. ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/71; Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/567 to 1/568. ↩

Al-Ṣābūnī, Rawāʾiʿ al-Bayān, 1/441: وذهب أبو حنيفة إلى أن من بلغ خمساً وعشرين سنة سلّم له ماله سواءً كان رشيداً أو غير رشيد, “Abū Ḥanīfa held that whoever reaches twenty-five receives his property, whether or not he has sound judgement.” ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/9, at 4:2: وَقَالَ أَبُو حَنِيفَةَ: إِذَا بَلَغَ خَمْسًا وَعِشْرِينَ سَنَةً أُعْطِيَ ماله كُلَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ حَالٍ، لِأَنَّهُ يَصِيرُ جَدًّا "Abū Ḥanīfa said: when he reaches twenty-five years he is given the whole of his property in every case, because he comes to be a grandfather"; and Ibn al-ʿArabī, quoted there: وَهَذَا بَاطِلٌ لَا وَجْهَ لَهُ، لَا سِيَّمَا عَلَى أَصْلِهِ الَّذِي يَرَى الْمُقَدَّرَاتِ لَا تَثْبُتُ قِيَاسًا وَإِنَّمَا تُؤْخَذُ مِنْ جِهَةِ النَّصِّ، وَلَيْسَ فِي هَذِهِ الْمَسْأَلَةِ "This is void and has nothing to stand on, above all on his own principle, which holds that fixed measures are not established by analogy but taken from a text, and there is none in this question." ↩

al-Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/331–1/332: وتنكير الرشد يفيد أن المراد رشد مخصوص وهو الرشد في التصرف والتجارة أو يفيد التقليل أي طرفاً من الرشد حتى لا ينتظر به تمام الرشد وهو دليل لأبى حنيفة في دفع المال عند بلوغ خمس وعشرين سنة "Making rushd indefinite conveys that what is meant is a particular rushd, namely rushd in handling affairs and in trade; or it conveys smallness, that is, a portion of rushd, so that complete rushd is not waited for. And it is a proof for Abū Ḥanīfa for handing over the property upon reaching twenty-five years." ↩

Al-Ṣābūnī, Rawāʾiʿ al-Bayān, 1/441: الصحيح ما ذهب إليه الجمهور، وهو مذهب الصاحبين أبي يوسف ومحمد أيضاً، ولا عبرة بكبر السن, “The correct position is the majority’s, also held by Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad; advanced age is not decisive.” ↩

al-Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/569, reporting Abū Ḥanīfa's position on withholding delivery until twenty-five: غَيْرَ أَنَّ تَصَرُّفَهُ يَكُونُ نَافِذًا قَبْلَهُ, "His transactions are nevertheless effective before that age." ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/72: دَاوُدُ: لَا يَبْلُغُ مَا لَمْ يَحْتَلِمْ، وَلَوْ بَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً ‘Dāwūd: he does not reach legal adulthood until he has a wet dream, even if he reaches forty years.’ ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/72: وَقَالَ مَالِكٌ: بُلُوغُهُ بِأَنْ يَغْلُظَ صَوْتُهُ، أَوْ تَنْشَقَّ أَرْنَبَتُهُ ‘Mālik said: his adulthood is marked by his voice becoming deep or the tip of his nose changing.’ ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/72: وَلِلشَّافِعِيِّ فِي الْإِنْبَاتِ قَوْلَانِ: أَحَدُهُمَا: أَنَّهُ بُلُوغٌ، وَالثَّانِي: دَلَالَةُ الْبُلُوغِ ‘Al-Shāfiʿī has two positions on the growth of pubic hair: that it is adulthood itself, and that it is evidence of adulthood.’ ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/36, records its evidentiary use from Ibn al-Qāsim, Sālim, Mālik, one of al-Shāfiʿī's two positions, Aḥmad, Isḥāq and Abū Thawr. He separately records that Abū Ḥanīfa does not treat it as adulthood or evidence of adulthood. ↩

Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/568 to 1/569; al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/342; Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubab, 6/187. ↩

al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/72. وقال أبو حنيفة: لا يتعلق بالإنبات حكم، وليس هو ببلوغ، ولا دلالة عليه "Abū Ḥanīfa said: No ruling attaches to the growth of pubic hair. It is not puberty, and it is no indication of it." ↩

Ibn Kathīr, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 2/215. ↩

Al-Tirmidhī, Sunan, 3/240, no. 1584, Abwāb al-Siyar, chapter on submitting to a judgment, ed. Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf, from ʿAṭiyya al-Quraẓī through ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿUmayr. Al-Tirmidhī grades it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ and says Aḥmad and Isḥāq treat pubic-hair growth as adulthood when neither a wet dream nor the person’s age is known. ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519 (Dār al-Fikr printing): ولم تتعرض الآية لسن البلوغ ولا بماذا يكون, “The verse does not specify the age of puberty or what establishes it.” He refers these matters to the books of fiqh. ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/36. قلت: هذا قوله هنا، وقال في سورة الأنفال عكسه "I say: This is what he said here, and in Sūrat al-Anfāl he said the opposite of it." ↩

Al-Ālūsī, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, 2/414, says Abū Ḥanīfa and al-Shāfiʿī agreed that testing precedes puberty and that the verse's expression of a limit supports them. Al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf, 1/472, places it قبل البلوغ, “before puberty”; al-Bayḍāwī, Anwār al-Tanzīl, 2/60; al-Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/331; Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/145. Al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/342, transmits Abū Ḥanīfa's pre-adulthood argument and then al-Shāfiʿī's answer: pre-adulthood testing does not authorize the minor to transact; it examines his intellect and his ability to recognize benefit and harm. Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/371, quotes Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā: وهذا الابتلاء قبل البلوغ, “This testing is before puberty”; al-Wāḥidī, al-Tafsīr al-Basīṭ, 6/329: عند مراهقة الحلم, “as he nears puberty”; al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, 5/197: اختبروهم ... في مدة مراهقتهم واجعلوا ذلك دأبكم, “Test them during the period in which they approach maturity, and make that your continuing practice.” ↩

al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/356: فدلت الآية من وجهين على أن هذا الابتلاء قبل البلوغ "So the verse indicates in two ways that this testing is before puberty." ↩

Makkī b. Abī Ṭālib, al-Hidaya ila Bulugh al-Nihaya, 2/1226: وذلك بعد الاحتلام "And that is after the onset of puberty." ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/406, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/864–865, nos. 4797, 4802 and 4805, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419 AH. These accounts transmit Ibn ʿAbbās’s explanation through Abū Ṣāliḥ, Muʿāwiya b. Ṣāliḥ and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭalḥa. Ḥikmat Bashīr Yāsīn, al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Masbūr, 2/8, brings the explanations together: يَقُولُ اللَّهُ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى اخْتَبِرُوا الْيَتَامَى عِنْدَ الْحُلْمِ، فَإِنْ عَرَفْتُمْ مِنْهُمُ الرُّشْدَ فِي حَالِهِمْ وَالْإِصْلَاحَ فِي أَمْوَالِهِمْ فَادْفَعُوا إِلَيْهِمْ أَمْوَالَهُمْ وَأَشْهِدُوا عَلَيْهِمْ, “Allah, blessed and exalted, says: test the orphans at puberty; if you recognize sound judgement in their conduct and proper management of their property, hand their property over to them and call witnesses.” Yāsīn grades the two collectors’ chains ḥasan. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/403, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, from Ibn Zayd through Yūnus and Ibn Wahb: إذا عرف أنه قد أونس منه رشد، دفع إليه ماله. قال: وذلك بعد الاحتلام, “When sound judgement is known to have been perceived in him, his property is handed over to him. He said: that is after puberty.” ↩

Al-Ālūsī, Rūḥ al-Maʿānī, 2/414: واتفق الإمامان على أن هذا الاختبار قبل البلوغ … وقال الإمام مالك إنه بعد البلوغ, “Abū Ḥanīfa and al-Shāfiʿī agreed that this test precedes puberty … Imam Mālik said that it follows puberty.” Ibn al-Munayyir, al-Intiṣāf, in al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf, 1/472, records both positions within al-Shāfiʿī’s school. ↩

Ibn al-Munayyir, al-Intiṣāf, printed with al-Kashshāf, 1/472: لا يكون عنده إلا بعد البلوغ ولا يدفع إليه من ماله شيء قبله, “According to Mālik, this takes place only after puberty, and none of his property is handed over to him beforehand.” ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/518 (Dār al-Fikr printing), describes a small sum used under the guardian's supervision, then says: فإذا أنس منه الرشد بعد البلوغ والاختبار دفع إليه ماله وأشهد عليه, “When sound judgement is perceived after puberty and testing, the property is handed over and witnesses are called.” ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519 (Dār al-Fikr printing): وإيناس الرشد مترتب على بلوغ النكاح فيلزم أن يكون بعده, “Perception of sound judgement follows attainment of marriageable age; it must therefore occur afterward.” ↩

al-Kiyā al-Harrāsī, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/327: وليس في العلماء من يقول إنه إذا اختبر الصبي فوجد رشيدا ارتفع عنه الولاية، وأنه يجب دفع ماله اليه، وإطلاق يده في التصرف، وذلك يدل على أن الابتلاء في الصبي ليس يفيد العلم المعتبر برشده "There is no one among the scholars who says that if a boy is tested and found of sound judgement the guardianship is lifted from him, and that his property must be handed to him and his hand freed to deal. That shows that the testing of a boy does not yield the knowledge of his sound judgement that counts." al-Kiyā al-Harrāsī, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/328: بل دل على أن الابتلاء قبل البلوغ في أمر الدين والدنيا، بأن يربيه على الخيرات والطاعات، ويندبه إلى المراشد وتأمل التصرفات والتجارات، حتى يكون نشوّه على الخيرات، فإذا بلغ النكاح نفعه ما تقدم من التدريب، ويحصل به إيناس الرشد "Rather it shows that the testing before growing up is in the matter of religion and of this world, in that he brings him up to good things and to acts of obedience, urges him toward what is sound and toward looking closely at dealings and trades, so that his growth is upon good things; and when he reaches the age of marriage the earlier training benefits him, and by it the perceiving of sound judgement comes about"; إنما هو توطئة وتمهيد لزمان البلوغ الذي يوثق فيه بإيناس الرشد، فهذا تحقيق لمذهب الشافعي "It is only a laying of the ground and a preparing for the time of growing up, in which the perceiving of sound judgement can be relied upon. This is the working out of al-Shāfiʿī's position." ↩

al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/356. He says the verse proves جَوَازِ الْإِذْنِ لِلصَّغِيرِ الَّذِي يَعْقِلُ فِي التِّجَارَةِ, ‘the permissibility of authorizing a minor who understands trade,’ and names Abū Ḥanīfa, Abū Yūsuf, Muḥammad, Zufar, al-Ḥasan b. Ziyād and al-Ḥasan b. Ṣāliḥ. He permits a father, the father's executor or, where appropriate, the grandfather to give that authorization. ↩

Al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/341: تصرفات الصبي العاقل المميز بإذن الولي صحيحة, “The transactions of a rational, discerning child are valid with the guardian's permission,” attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa. ↩

Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/331: وفيه دليل على جواز إذن الصبي العاقل في التجارة "In it is a proof for the permissibility of giving a rational boy leave to trade." ↩

al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/356: وَمَنْ قَصَرَ الِابْتِلَاءَ عَلَى اخْتِبَارِ عَقْلِهِ بِالْكَلَامِ دُونَ التَّصَرُّفِ فِي التِّجَارَةِ وَحِفْظِ الْمَالِ فَقَدْ خَصَّ عُمُومَ اللَّفْظِ بِغَيْرِ دَلَالَةٍ ‘Whoever restricts the testing to examining his mind through conversation, without actual trading and preserving property, has restricted the general wording without evidence.’ ↩

al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/356, from Ibn al-Qāsim from Mālik: the permission of a father or executor does not validate a minor's trading, and if debt results, none of it binds the child. ↩

al-Jaṣṣāṣ, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/356, from al-Rabīʿ from al-Shāfiʿī: a minor's acknowledgments and transactions lapse whether or not he was authorized by a father, guardian or judge; a judge may not authorize him, and his buying and selling are annulled. ↩

Al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/341, reports al-Shāfiʿī's position that such transactions are invalid. ↩

al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, 9/497: وذلك إذا باع الولي واشترى بحضور الصبي، ثم يستكشف من الصبي أحوال ذلك البيع والشراء "That is when the guardian sells and buys in the boy's presence, then finds out from the boy the details of that selling and buying." ↩

al-Bayḍāwī, Anwār al-Tanzīl, 2/60: اختبروهم قبل البلوغ بتتبع أحوالهم في صلاح الدين، والتهدي إلى ضبط المال وحسن التصرف، بأن يكل إليه مقدمات العقد. وعن أبي حنيفة رحمه الله تعالى بأن يدفع إليه ما يتصرف فيه "Test them before puberty by following their conditions in soundness of religion and in being guided to the safekeeping of property and good management, by entrusting to him the preliminaries of the contract. And from Abū Ḥanīfa, may Allah have mercy on him: by handing over to him something he may transact with." Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/331, in his own wording: واختبروا عقولهم وذوقوا أحوالهم ومعرفتهم بالتصرف قبل البلوغ فالابتلاء عندنا أن يدفع إليه ما يتصرف فيه "And test their minds, taste their condition and their acquaintance with handling property, before puberty; for testing, with us, is that he be handed something he may transact with." Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/145, in his own wording: أي واختبروا من ليس منهم بيِّن السَّفَهِ قبل البلوغِ بتتبُّع أحوالِهم في صلاح الدينِ والاهتداءِ إلى ضبط المالِ وحسنِ التصرفِ فيه وجرِّبوهم بما يليق بحالهم فإن كانوا من أهل التجارةِ فبأن تعطوهم من المال ما يتصرفون فيه بيعا وابتياعا "That is: test those of them whose foolishness is not evident, before puberty, by following their conditions in soundness of religion, in being guided to the safekeeping of property and in managing it well, and try them out with what suits their case; so if they are people of trade, then by giving them property to deal in by selling and buying." ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/409, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/867, no. 4813, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419 AH. Both transmit Ibn ʿAbbās’s explanation through Abū Ṣāliḥ, Muʿāwiya b. Ṣāliḥ and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭalḥa. Al-Ṭabarī’s wording is يَأْكُلُ مَالَ الْيَتِيمِ يُبَادِرُ أَنْ يَبْلُغَ، فَيَحُولَ بَيْنَهُ وَبَيْنَ مَالِهِ, “He consumes the orphan’s wealth, hurrying before the orphan comes of age and can stop him from taking it.” Ḥikmat Bashīr Yāsīn, al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Masbūr, 2/9, grades both chains ḥasan. ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/41–42, names these authorities for borrowing according to need and repaying when prosperous. Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/412–413 and 6/415–416, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, records asanid for the accounts from ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAbīda, Mujāhid, Saʿīd b. Jubayr and Abū al-ʿĀliya. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/412–413, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, through Yaʿqūb, Ibn ʿUlayya, Salama b. ʿAlqama, Ibn Sīrīn and ʿAbīda al-Salmānī. After ʿAbīda relates borrowing to the command to call witnesses, Ibn Sīrīn adds: فَظَنَنْتُ أَنَّهُ قَالَهَا بِرَأْيِهِ, “I thought he had said this from his own judgement.” ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/426: أكل مال اليتيم عند الضرورة والحاجة إليه على وجه الاستقراض منه "Eating from the orphan's property in a case of necessity and need for it, by way of borrowing from it." ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/413, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/869, no. 4829, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib, Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419 AH. Both transmit the loan explanation from Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما through Abū Ṣāliḥ, Muʿāwiya b. Ṣāliḥ and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭalḥa; Ḥikmat Bashīr Yāsīn, al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Masbūr, 2/9, grades both asanid ḥasan. Ibn Abī Ḥātim records the three-finger account at no. 4825, through al-Suddī and ʿIkrima, and the own-property explanation at no. 4828, through al-Ḥakam and Miqsam. Al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-Manthūr, 2/437, attributes the service-based explanation to Ibn al-Mundhir and al-Ṭabarānī, from Ibn ʿAbbās: بِقَدْرِ قِيَامِهِ عَلَى مَالِهِ وَمَنْفَعَتِهِ لَهُ وَمَا لَمْ يُسْرِفْ أَوْ يُبَذِّرْ, “In proportion to his management of the property and the benefit he gives him, provided he is neither extravagant nor wasteful.” ↩

al-Ṣābūnī, Rawāʾiʿ al-Bayān, 1/443, quoting al-Ṭabarī: وأولى الأقوال في ذلك بالصواب قول من قال ﴿فَلْيَأْكُلْ بالمعروف﴾ المراد أكل مال التيم عند الضرورة والحاجة إليه، على وجه الاستقراض منه "The most fitting of the views in this, and the correct one, is the view of him who said that in 'let him take in the fair way' what is meant is taking from the orphan's property at the point of necessity and need for it, by way of borrowing from it"; then in his own voice: أقول: ولعلَّ هذا القول أرجح، لأنه جمع بين النصوص "I say: perhaps this view is the stronger, because it brings the texts together." ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/42, introduces al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī's statement هُوَ طُعْمَةٌ مِنَ اللَّهِ لَهُ, ‘it is a provision from Allah for him,’ and says وَعَلَيْهِ الْفُقَهَاءُ, ‘and the jurists hold this.’ Al-Wāḥidī, al-Tafsīr al-Basīṭ, 6/336: وَعَلَى هَذَا الْحُكْمُ الْيَوْمَ، فَالْقَيِّمُ مَمْنُوعٌ مِنَ الْإِسْرَافِ، وَإِنَّمَا لَهُ أَجْرُ مِثْلِ عَمَلِهِ؛ لِأَنَّهُ أَجِيرٌ بِالشَّرْعِ ... وَإِنْ أَخَذَ الْأُجْرَةَ حَلَّتْ لَهُ فِي الْحُكْمِ فِي مُقَابَلَةِ عَمَلِهِ ‘On this the ruling stands: the administrator is barred from extravagance and is entitled only to the going wage for work like his, because he is a worker appointed by the Law ... and if he takes the wage it is lawful to him in return for his work.’ ↩

Al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/87 (Dār al-Tafsīr, first printing, 1436/2015), describes an allowance proportionate to the guardian’s management, service and work: وإن أتى على جميع المال فلا قضاء عليه، وهذا طعمة من الله له, “Even if it uses up the whole property, he owes no repayment; this is a provision from Allah for him.” He associates this position with ʿĀʾisha رضي الله عنها and other scholars. Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/425–426, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, records her athar through al-Qāsim, al-Ḥusayn, Ḥajjāj, Ibn Jurayj, Hishām b. ʿUrwa and ʿUrwa: the needy guardian may eat reasonably in return for managing the property. ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/427: ولا معنى لقول من قال: إنما عنى بالمعروف … أكل والي اليتيم من مال يتيمه لقيامه عليه على وجه الاعتياض على عمله وسعيه له "There is no sense to the words of one who said: what is meant by 'in a fair manner' is only … the orphan's guardian eating from his orphan's property for his taking charge of him, by way of compensation for his work and his effort for him." ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. وهذا بالنظم القرآني ألصق، فإن إباحة الأكل للفقير مشعرة بجواز ذلك له من غير قرض, “This accords more closely with the Qurʾānic wording: permission for the poor guardian to consume indicates that he may do so without a loan.” ↩

Al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa-l-ʿUyūn, 1/454. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/420–422, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī. He introduces the position as permission to consume fruit, milk and other produce, not the capital. He records Abū al-ʿĀliya's من رسل الدابة ومن التمر, “from the animal's milk and the dates,” through Bishr b. Muʿādh, Yazīd b. Zurayʿ and Dāwūd, and through al-Muthannā, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb and Dāwūd. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/415, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, from al-Shaʿbī through Ibn Ḥumayd, Ḥakkām, ʿAmr b. Abī Qays and ʿAṭāʾ b. al-Sāʾib: لا يأكله إلا أن يضطر إليه، كما يضطر إلى الميتة، فإن أكل منه شيئًا قضاه, “He does not consume it except under necessity, as with carrion; if he consumes any of it, he repays it.” ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/423, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, cites Ḥusayn al-Faraj, through Abū Muʿādh and ʿUbayd b. Sulaymān, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk. He permits riding the animal and using the servant's service, but not consuming the property. He adds that money borrowed to meet a need must be repaid. Al-Ṭabarī introduces this isnād with حُدِّثت عن, “I was told from.” ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/42; al-Jaṣṣāṣ, quoted in Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubāb fī ʿUlūm al-Kitāb, 6/191: لا يأخذ على سبيل القرض، ولا على سبيل الابتداء، سواء كان غنيًا أو فقيرًا, “He takes neither as a loan nor outright, whether rich or poor.” Al-Qurṭubī gives the argument: وهذا ليس بتجارة, “This is not trade.” ↩

al-Kiyā al-Harrāsī, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 2/329: فقوله: (وَمَنْ كانَ غَنِيًّا فَلْيَسْتَعْفِفْ) يرجع إلى أكل مال نفسه دون مال اليتيم فمعناه: ولا تأكلوا أموال اليتيم مع أموالكم، بل اقتصروا على أكل أموالكم "So His words 'And whoever is well off, let him keep away' go back to eating his own property and not the orphan's. The sense is: do not eat the orphans' property along with your own; keep to eating your own"; فقد وجدنا آيات محكمات بمنع أكل مال الغير بغير رضاه، سيما في حق اليتيم، ووجدنا هذه الآية محتملة للمعاني، فحملها على موجب الآيات المحكمات متعين "We have found decisive verses forbidding the eating of another's property without his consent, above all in the case of the orphan, and we have found this verse open to more than one sense; so referring it to what the decisive verses require is the only course." And 2/330: اعلم أن أحدا من السلف لم يجوز للوصي أن يأخذ من مال الصبي مع غنى الوصي، بخلاف القاضي، فذلك فارق بين المسألتين "Know that not one of the early generations allowed the executor to take from a boy's property while the executor is well off, unlike the judge; and that is what separates the two questions." ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/42, reports from al-Ḥasan b. Ṣāliḥ b. Ḥayy that a father's appointed executor may take in the fair way, but a judge's appointee فَلَا سَبِيلَ لَهُ إِلَى الْمَالِ بِوَجْهٍ, ‘has no access to the property by any route.’ ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/43, attributes to Abū Ḥanīfa, Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad: فيمنع إذا كان مقيمًا معه في المصر, “It is forbidden when he is residing with him in the town.” When travel is needed for the orphan's affairs, he may take his necessary expenses without accumulating property. ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/871, no. 4836, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419), from Abū al-Zinād through Abū Ḥātim, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Uwaysī and Ibn Abī al-Zinād: إنما كان ذلك في أهل البدو وأشباههم, “That was only among desert dwellers and those like them.” ↩

Ibn al-Mundhir, Tafsīr, 2/573, no. 1391, ed. Saʿd b. Muḥammad al-Saʿd; al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/421–422, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/420–421, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī; Mālik, al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, 2/934, ed. Muḥammad Fuʾād ʿAbd al-Bāqī; ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Tafsīr, 1/435. ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/868–871, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419). ↩

al-Qāsimī, Maḥāsin al-Taʾwīl, 3/31: أقول: الكل محتمل. إذ لا نص من الأصلين على واحد منها. ولا يخفى الورع. "I say: all are possible, since there is no explicit text in the two foundations for any one of them. The course of scrupulous restraint is not obscure." ↩

al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/426: أكل مال اليتيم عند الضرورة والحاجة إليه على وجه الاستقراض منه "Eating from the orphan's property in a case of necessity and need for it, by way of borrowing from it." ↩

al-Ṣābūnī, Rawāʾiʿ al-Bayān, 1/443, quoting al-Ṭabarī: وأولى الأقوال في ذلك بالصواب قول من قال ﴿فَلْيَأْكُلْ بالمعروف﴾ المراد أكل مال التيم عند الضرورة والحاجة إليه، على وجه الاستقراض منه "The most fitting of the views in this, and the correct one, is the view of him who said that in 'let him take in the fair way' what is meant is taking from the orphan's property at the point of necessity and need for it, by way of borrowing from it"; then in his own voice: أقول: ولعلَّ هذا القول أرجح، لأنه جمع بين النصوص "I say: perhaps this view is the stronger, because it brings the texts together." ↩

Al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491. ↩

Ibn al-Mundhir, Tafsīr, 2/576, no. 1400, ed. Saʿd b. Muḥammad al-Saʿd (Dār al-Maʾāthir, first printing, 1423/2002), from ʿAṭāʾ b. Abī Rabāḥ through Mūsā, Yaḥyā, Abū Khālid and Ḥajjāj. Al-Suyūṭī quotes the athar in al-Durr al-Manthūr, 2/437: خمس في كتاب الله رخصة وليست بعزيمة, “Five provisions in the Book of Allah are concessions, not obligatory commands.” For this allowance: إن شاء أكل، وإن شاء لم يأكل, “If he wishes, he eats; if he wishes, he does not.” ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/44: وَالِاحْتِرَازُ عَنْهُ أَفْضَلُ, “Avoiding it is better.” ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/42, reports from Mujāhid that the guardian may take neither a loan nor anything else, and that 4:29 abrogates the permission. Al-Qurṭubī then gives the reason: وهذا ليس بتجارة, “This is not trade.” ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/42–43, through Bishr b. al-Walīd from Abū Yūsuf: لا أدري، لعل هذه الآية منسوخة, “I do not know; perhaps this verse is abrogated.” The verse he invokes is 4:29. ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/522 (Dār al-Fikr printing), attributes repeal by 4:10 to Mujāhid and uncertainty about repeal by 2:188 to Abū Yūsuf: وقال أبو يوسف: لعلها منسوخة بقوله: ولا تأكلوا أموالكم بينكم بالباطل, “Abū Yūsuf said: perhaps it is abrogated by His words, ‘Do not consume your property among yourselves unjustly.’” ↩

Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/373, reports the claim that 4:29 abrogates the permission, then says: وهذا مروي عن ابن عباس ولا يصح, “This is reported from Ibn ʿAbbās, and it is not sound.” ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/42, from Zayd b. Aslam: إن الرخصة في هذه الآية منسوخة بقوله تعالى: إن الذين يأكلون أموال اليتامى ظلمًا, “The concession in this verse is abrogated by His words, ‘Indeed, those who consume the property of orphans wrongfully’” (4:10). ↩

Ibn Juzayy, al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl, 1/179 (al-Arqam printing): وقيل: نسختها إن الذين يأكلون أموال اليتامى ظلمًا, “It is also said that ‘Indeed, those who consume the property of orphans wrongfully’ abrogated it.” ↩

Al-Suyūṭī, al-Durr al-Manthūr, 2/437–438, attributes to Abū Dāwūd and al-Naḥḥās in their works on abrogation, and to Ibn al-Mundhir, a report through ʿAṭāʾ from Ibn ʿAbbās that 4:10 abrogates the permission. He attributes a similar account from al-Ḍaḥḥāk to Abū Dāwūd’s work on abrogation. ↩

Ibn al-Mundhir, Tafsīr, 2/572, no. 1386, ed. Saʿd b. Muḥammad al-Saʿd (Dār al-Maʾāthir, first printing, 1423/2002), through ʿAlī, Abū ʿUbayd, Ḥajjāj, Ibn Jurayj and ʿUthmān b. ʿAṭāʾ, from ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī from Ibn ʿAbbās: فنسخ الله جل وعز من ذلك الظلم والاعتداء, “Allah, mighty and majestic, abrogated the wrongdoing and transgression in that.” The report identifies 4:10 as the verse concerned. Ibn Ḥajar states that ʿAṭāʾ al-Khurāsānī did not hear from Ibn ʿAbbās (Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, 4/131–132, Dār al-Maʿrifa printing). ↩

Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/373, lists the continuing and abrogated positions, then describes the repeal claim reported from Ibn ʿAbbās as ولا يصح, “not sound.” ↩

Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/373, attributes the continuing ruling to ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḥasan, al-Shaʿbī, Abū al-ʿĀliya, Mujāhid, Ibn Jubayr, al-Nakhaʿī and Qatāda, among others. He explains that a needy guardian whose work prevents him from earning enough may take a reasonable allowance without excess, and records disagreement about repayment. ↩

Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 2/14: وظلمًا معناه: ما جاوز المعروف مع فقر الوصي "And 'wrongfully' means: what goes beyond what is fair, together with the trustee's poverty." ↩

Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubab fi Ulum al-Kitab, 6/191. ↩

Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/373, records the continuing ruling from Ibn ʿAbbās and other early authorities; he rejects the contrary repeal account from Ibn ʿAbbās with ولا يصح, “not sound.” ↩

Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/572; al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/344. ↩

Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubab fi Ulum al-Kitab, 6/192: فقال مالك والشافعي: لا يصدق. وقال أبو حنيفة: يصدق "Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī said: he is not believed. And Abū Ḥanīfa said: he is believed.". وهذا أمر رشاد، وليس بواجب، أمر الولي بالإشهاد على دفع المال إلى اليتيم بعد البلوغ ليزول عنه التهمة وتنقطع الخصومة "This is a command of right guidance, and it is not obligatory. The guardian was ordered to take witnesses over handing the property to the orphan after he comes of age, so that suspicion is removed from him and dispute is cut off." Cf. al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, 5/199: أي احتياطاً لأن الأحوال تتبدل، والرشد يتفاوت، فالإشهاد أقطع للشر "That is, out of caution, because circumstances change and sound judgment varies, so taking witnesses cuts off harm more decisively." ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/40: وإذا دفع الوصي دين الميت بغير إشهاد ضمن "And if the trustee pays the deceased's debt without taking witnesses, he is liable." ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/523 (Dār al-Fikr printing): وظاهر الأمر أنه واجب. وقال قوم: هو ندب, “The apparent sense of the command is obligation. Some hold that it is recommended.” ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/429, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, from Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما through Muḥammad b. Saʿd, his father, his uncle, his uncle’s father and that father’s father: إذا دفع إلى اليتيم ماله، فليدفعه إليه بالشهود كما أمره الله تعالى, “When he hands the orphan his property, let him hand it over with witnesses, as Allah commanded him.” Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/871, no. 4838, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419), records Muḥammad b. Saʿd al-ʿAwfī’s written transmission and names his uncle al-Ḥusayn. Al-Suyūṭī calls al-ʿAwfī weak, but not extremely weak, and notes that al-Tirmidhī sometimes graded his reports ḥasan (al-Itqān fī ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, 4/239). ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/44: وهو ظاهر الآية "And that is the apparent sense of the verse." ↩

Ibn Juzayy, al-Tashīl li-ʿUlūm al-Tanzīl, 1/179: فهو ندب، وقيل فرض, “It is recommended; it is also said to be obligatory.” ↩

Al-Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-Bayān, 10/90: هذا أدب من الله تعالى … وليس بفريضة, “This is instruction from Allah … and it is not an obligation”; al-Baghawī, Maʿālim al-Tanzīl, 1/571: هذا أمر وإرشاد، وليس بواجب, “This is a command and guidance, and it is not obligatory”; al-Khāzin, Lubāb al-Taʾwīl, 1/343, adds that witnesses remove the need for the guardian's oath when receipt is denied; Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubāb fī ʿUlūm al-Kitāb, 6/192, says the command removes suspicion and cuts off dispute; al-Wāḥidī, al-Tafsīr al-Basīṭ, 6/336, treats the guardian as a trustee appointed by the Law and the command as nonbinding; Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/373, quotes Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā: هذا على طريق الاحتياط لليتيم، والولي، وليس بواجب, “This is by way of caution for the orphan and the guardian, and it is not obligatory.” Al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, 5/198–199, explains the precaution: لأن الأحوال تتبدل، والرشد يتفاوت، فالإشهاد أقطع للشر, “because circumstances change and sound judgement varies, calling witnesses cuts off harm more decisively”; he also says, والأمر بالإشهاد أزجر للولي عن الخيانة, “The command to take witnesses is a stronger restraint on the guardian against betrayal.” ↩

Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/146: وإن لم يكن ذلك واجبًا عند أصحابنا، فإن الوصي مصدق في الدفع مع اليمين، خلافًا لمالك والشافعي "Even if that is not obligatory according to our companions, the executor is believed regarding the handing over, together with an oath, contrary to Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī." Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/523, instead places Mālik with Abū Ḥanīfa in accepting the guardian’s statement on oath. Al-Bayḍāwī, Anwār al-Tanzīl, 2/61, agrees with Abū al-Suʿūd’s attribution to Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī. ↩

al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, collected by al-Bayhaqī, 341, from al-Umm, 8/186: دلالة لا حتمًا an indication, not a binding requirement, والآية محتملة المعنيين معًا "The verse bears both meanings together." ↩

Al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/44: وهذا الإشهاد مستحب عند طائفة من العلماء, “A group of scholars considers this witnessing recommended”; وقالت طائفة: هو فرض، وهو ظاهر الآية, “Another group holds it obligatory, which is the apparent sense of the verse.” ↩

al-Zuḥaylī, al-Tafsir al-Munir, 4/253, citing al-Ālūsī. وقوله تعالى ﴿وكفى بالله حسيبًا﴾ يشهد لهم في عدم لزوم البينة "His saying, exalted is He, 'And Allah is sufficient as a reckoner', testifies in their favour that proof by witnesses is not required." ↩

Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm, 3/871, no. 4841, ed. Asʿad Muḥammad al-Ṭayyib (Maktabat Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz, third printing, 1419), from Saʿīd b. Jubayr through Abū Zurʿa, Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Bukayr, Ibn Lahīʿa and ʿAṭāʾ b. Dīnār: يعني: شهيدًا، يعني: لا شاهدَ أفضلُ من اللهِ فيما بينكم وبينهم, “He means: a witness; there is no witness better than Allah between you and them.” Aḥmad b. Ṣāliḥ calls ʿAṭāʾ trustworthy but says that his tafsīr from Saʿīd is a written collection with no evidence that he heard it from him. Abū Ḥātim calls him ṣāliḥ al-ḥadīth and explains that he obtained Saʿīd’s tafsīr from the government register and transmitted it mursal (Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl, 6/332). ↩

Muḥammad ʿAbduh, in Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/320–321: أَنَّ الْإِشْهَادَ - وَإِنْ حَصَلَ، وَكَانَ يُسْقِطُ الدَّعْوَى عِنْدَ الْقَاضِي بِالْمَالِ - لَا يُسْقِطُ الْحَقَّ عِنْدَ اللهِ إِذَا كَانَ الْوَلِيُّ خَائِنًا ‘Even when witnessing has occurred and would defeat the claim to the property before the judge, it does not extinguish the right before Allah if the guardian was treacherous.’ ↩

Muḥammad ʿAbduh, recorded by Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/320–321: وَلَا شَكَّ عِنْدِي أَنَّ الْإِشْهَادَ حَتْمٌ، وَأَنَّ تَرْكَهُ يُؤَدِّي إِلَى النِّزَاعِ، وَالتَّخَاصُمِ، وَالتَّقَاضِي كَمَا هُوَ مُشَاهَدٌ، فَإِذَا فَرَضْنَا أَنَّ النَّاسَ كَانُوا فِي زَمَنٍ مَا مُسْتَمْسِكِينَ بِعُرْوَةِ الدِّينِ اسْتِمْسَاكًا عَامًّا، وَكَانَ الْيَتَامَى يُحْسِنُونَ الظَّنَّ فِي الْأَوْلِيَاءِ فَلَا يَتَّهِمُونَهُمْ، وَأَنَّ الْإِشْهَادَ لَمْ يَكُنْ مُحَتَّمًا عَلَيْهِمْ لِأَجْلِ هَذَا. أَفَلَيْسَ هَذَا الزَّمَنُ الْمَعْلُومُ مُخَالِفًا لِذَلِكَ الزَّمَنِ الْمَجْهُولِ مُخَالَفَةً تَقْتَضِي أَنْ يُجْعَلَ الْإِشْهَادُ ضَرْبَةَ لَازِبٍ لِقَطْعِ عِرْقِ الْخِصَامِ "I have no doubt that taking witnesses is obligatory, and that leaving it leads to dispute, contention and litigation, as can be seen. Suppose that, in some age, people generally held fast to religion, that orphans thought well of their guardians and did not suspect them, and that taking witnesses was not made binding on them for this reason. Is this known age not different from that unknown age in a way that requires taking witnesses to be made a fixed necessity, to cut off contention at its root?" ↩

Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/320: وهذا الإشهاد واجب كما هو ظاهر الأمر، وعليه الشافعية، والمالكية. وقال الحنفية: إنه غير واجب بل مندوب "This taking of witnesses is obligatory, as is the apparent sense of the command, and this is the position of the Shāfiʿīs and the Mālikīs. The Ḥanafīs said: it is not obligatory but recommended." ↩

Al-Zajjāj, quoted in Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, 1/312: وَكَفى بِاللَّهِ حَسِيباً يكون بمعنى مُحاسِباً، ويكون بمعنى كافِياً, “‘Allah suffices as a ḥasīb’ may mean one who calls to account, or one who suffices.” ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/429, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, transmits al-Suddī’s explanation through Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn, Aḥmad b. al-Mufaḍḍal and Asbāṭ: وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ حَسِيبًا، يَقُولُ: شَهِيدًا, “‘And Allah suffices as a reckoner’: he says, ‘as a witness.’” Ḥikmat Bashīr Yāsīn, al-Ṣaḥīḥ al-Masbūr, 2/10, grades this chain ḥasan. Ibn al-Jawzī, Zād al-Masīr, 1/373, also reports “a witness” from Ibn ʿAbbās. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/429, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī. ↩

Ibn ʿAṭiyya, al-Muḥarrar al-Wajīz, 2/12: والأظهر حسيبًا معناه: حاسبًا أعمالكم ومجازيًا بها، ففي هذا وعيد لكل جاحد حق "The more apparent view is that ḥasīb means: reckoning your deeds and requiting you for them. So in this is a threat to everyone who denies a right." Al-Wāḥidī reports Ibn ʿAbbās’s explanation as one who requites good and evil in al-Tafsīr al-Basīṭ, 6/336, and al-Tafsīr al-Wasīṭ, 2/14. ↩

al-Shawkānī, Fatḥ al-Qadīr, 1/491: والمراد بالرشد: نوعه، وهو المتعلق بحسن التصرف في أمواله، وعدم التبذير بها "What is meant by rushd is one type of it, namely the type connected with handling his wealth well and not squandering it.". الخطاب في هذه الآية لأولياء الأيتام القائمين بما يصلحهم، كالأب والجد ووصيهما "The address in this verse is to the guardians of orphans who see to what is good for them, such as the father, the grandfather, and the executor of either of them.". وَهَذَا الْقَوْلُ فِي غَايَةِ السُّقُوطِ "This statement is utterly worthless.". وهذا بالنظم القرآني ألصق، فإن إباحة الأكل للفقير مشعرة بجواز ذلك له من غير قرض "This fits the Qurʾānic wording more closely, for permitting the poor man to eat indicates that this is allowed to him without a loan.". حَاسِبًا لِأَعْمَالِكُمْ، شَاهِدًا عَلَيْكُمْ فِي كُلِّ شَيْءٍ تَعْمَلُونَهُ... وَفِيهِ وَعِيدٌ عَظِيمٌ، وَالْبَاءُ زَائِدَةٌ "Reckoning your deeds, witnessing over you in everything you do… In it is a great threat, and the bāʾ is extra." ↩

Al-Biqāʿī, Naẓm al-Durar, 5/199. ↩

Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubāb fī ʿulūm al-Kitāb, 6/193: وهذا وعيد سواء فسَّرنا الحسيب بالمحاسب، أو بالكافي "And this is a threat, whether we explain al-ḥasīb as the one who calls to account or as the one who suffices." ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/523 (Dār al-Fikr printing). ↩

al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, 5/44: وهو ظاهر الآية "And that is the apparent sense of the verse." ↩

Muḥammad ʿAbduh, recorded by Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/320–321: وَلَا شَكَّ عِنْدِي أَنَّ الْإِشْهَادَ حَتْمٌ، وَأَنَّ تَرْكَهُ يُؤَدِّي إِلَى النِّزَاعِ، وَالتَّخَاصُمِ، وَالتَّقَاضِي كَمَا هُوَ مُشَاهَدٌ، فَإِذَا فَرَضْنَا أَنَّ النَّاسَ كَانُوا فِي زَمَنٍ مَا مُسْتَمْسِكِينَ بِعُرْوَةِ الدِّينِ اسْتِمْسَاكًا عَامًّا، وَكَانَ الْيَتَامَى يُحْسِنُونَ الظَّنَّ فِي الْأَوْلِيَاءِ فَلَا يَتَّهِمُونَهُمْ، وَأَنَّ الْإِشْهَادَ لَمْ يَكُنْ مُحَتَّمًا عَلَيْهِمْ لِأَجْلِ هَذَا. أَفَلَيْسَ هَذَا الزَّمَنُ الْمَعْلُومُ مُخَالِفًا لِذَلِكَ الزَّمَنِ الْمَجْهُولِ مُخَالَفَةً تَقْتَضِي أَنْ يُجْعَلَ الْإِشْهَادُ ضَرْبَةَ لَازِبٍ لِقَطْعِ عِرْقِ الْخِصَامِ "I have no doubt that taking witnesses is obligatory, and that leaving it leads to dispute, contention and litigation, as can be seen. Suppose that, in some age, people generally held fast to religion, that orphans thought well of their guardians and did not suspect them, and that taking witnesses was not made binding on them for this reason. Is this known age not different from that unknown age in a way that requires taking witnesses to be made a fixed necessity, to cut off contention at its root?" Rashīd Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/320: وهذا الإشهاد واجب كما هو ظاهر الأمر، وعليه الشافعية، والمالكية. وقال الحنفية: إنه غير واجب بل مندوب "This taking of witnesses is obligatory, as is the apparent sense of the command, and this is the position of the Shāfiʿīs and the Mālikīs. The Ḥanafīs said: it is not obligatory but recommended." ↩

al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥkām al-Qurʾān, collected by al-Bayhaqī, 341, from al-Umm, 8/186: دلالة لا حتمًا an indication, not a binding requirement, والآية محتملة المعنيين معًا "The verse bears both meanings together." ↩

al-Māwardī, al-Nukat wa-l-Uyun, 1/455; al-Bayḍāwī, Anwār al-Tanzīl, 2/61; Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/332. ↩

Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Dār al-Ṣaḥābah ed., 1/364–365. It parses the verse word by word: ﴿حَتّى﴾: حرف ابتداء وغاية "'Until': a particle of inception and of limit"; ﴿إِذا﴾: ظرف للزمن المستقبل تضمن معنى الشرط "'When': an adverb of future time holding the sense of a condition"; وجملة: (لا تأكلوها): معطوفة على جملة: (ابتلوا) "and the clause 'do not consume it' is joined to the clause 'test them'"; والمصدر المؤول (أن يكبروا): في محل نصب مفعول به للمصدر (بدارا)، والمعنى: بدارا كبرهم "and the verbal-noun phrase 'that they will grow up' is in the accusative as the object of the verbal noun 'in haste'; the sense is: racing their coming of age"; و (الباء): حرف جر، يفيد الأمر، والمعنى: اكتف بالله "and the bāʾ is a preposition giving the force of a command; the sense is: content yourself with Allah"; ﴿حَسِيباً﴾: تمييز منصوب "'As Accountant': a specifying complement in the accusative." ↩

Maḥmūd Ṣāfī, al-Jadwal fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 2/440–441. He identifies هُمْ after مِنْ as the object of the preposition, هُمْ in أَمْوَالَهُمْ as a possessive pronoun, and هَا in تَأْكُلُوهَا as the direct object; he also gives the positions of the attached subject pronouns. ↩

Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Dār al-Ṣaḥābah printing, 1/364–365. ↩

al-ʿUkbarī, al-Tibyān fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 1/331: حَتَّى هَاهُنَا غَيْرُ عَامِلَةٍ، وَإِنَّمَا دَخَلَتْ عَلَى الْكَلَامِ لِمَعْنَى الْغَايَةِ، كَمَا تَدْخُلُ عَلَى الْمُبْتَدَأِ؛ وَجَوَابُ ﴿إِذَا﴾ ﴿فَإِنْ آنَسْتُمْ﴾، وَجَوَابُ ﴿إِنْ﴾ ﴿فَادْفَعُوا﴾ "Ḥattā here does not govern. It has only entered upon the sentence to give the sense of a limit, just as it enters upon the subject of a nominal sentence. The response to 'when' is 'then if you perceive', and the response to 'if' is 'then hand over'." ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519 (Dār al-Fikr printing): وحتى إذا دخلت على الشرط لا تكون عاملة, “When ḥattā introduces a conditional sentence, it does not govern.” ↩

al-Nasafī, Madārik al-Tanzīl, 1/331; Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/145: فما زالت القتلى تمُجُّ دماءَها بدِجلةَ حتى ماءُ دِجلةَ أشكلُ "The slain kept spewing their blood into the Tigris until the water of the Tigris ran murky red." ↩

Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Dār al-Ṣaḥābah printing, 1/364–365. ↩

Maḥmūd Ṣāfī, al-Jadwal fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 2/440–441. He calls حَتَّى a particle of inception and gives إِنْ آنَسْتُمْ as the response to إِذَا, with ادْفَعُوا as the response to إِنْ. ↩

al-Samīn al-Ḥalabī, al-Durr al-Maṣūn, 3/583: في «حتى» هذه وما أشبهها أعني الداخلةَ على «إذا» قولان، أشهرُهما: أنها حرف غاية دَخَلَتْ على الجملةِ الشرطية وجوابِها... والثاني: وهو قول جماعة منهم الزجاج وابن دُرُسْتويه أنَّها حرف جر، وما بعَدها مجرور بها، وعلى هذا ف «إذا» تتمحَّض للظرفيةِ، ولا يكون فيها معنى الشرط "Concerning this ḥattā and what resembles it, I mean the one that enters upon idhā, there are two views. The better known is that it is a particle of limit that has entered upon the conditional sentence and its response… The second, which is the view of a group including al-Zajjāj and Ibn Durustawayh, is that it is a preposition, and what comes after it is in the genitive because of it. On this view idhā is purely adverbial, and there is no conditional sense in it"; and 3/584: والفاءُ في قوله: ﴿فَإِنْ آنَسْتُمْ﴾ جوابُ «إذا»، وفي قولِه «فادْفَعُوا» جوابُ «إنْ» "The fāʾ in His saying 'then if you perceive' is the response to idhā, and in his saying 'then hand over' it is the response to in." ↩

al-Zajjāj, Maʿānī al-Qurʾān wa-Iʿrābuh, 2/14. ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/519 (Dār al-Fikr printing), attributes the genitive analysis to al-Zajjāj and Ibn Durustuwayh and the nongoverning analysis to the majority. ↩

Muḥyī al-Dīn Darwīsh, Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān wa-Bayānuh, 2/160: وحتى حرف غاية وجر … وقيل حتى ابتدائية, “Ḥattā is a particle of limit and genitive government … and it is said that ḥattā is inceptive.” ↩

Ibn ʿUthaymīn, al-Nisāʾ, 1/42: ﴿حتى﴾ هنا ابتدائية "'Ḥattā' here is inceptive"; شرطًا في ضمن شرط آخر a condition within another condition. ↩

ʿAbduh, in Riḍā, Tafsīr al-Manār, 4/317: وَحَتَّى ابْتِدَائِيَّةٌ، أَيِ ابْتَلُوا الْيَتَامَى إِلَى ابْتِدَاءِ الْبُلُوغِ... وَإِلَّا فَاسْتَمِرُّوا عَلَى الِابْتِلَاءِ إِلَى أَنْ تَأْنَسُوا مِنْهُمُ الرُّشْدَ "Ḥattā is inceptive, that is: test the orphans up to the onset of puberty… and if not, then continue testing until you perceive sound judgment in them." ↩

Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Dār al-Ṣaḥābah printing, 1/364–365. ↩

Maḥmūd Ṣāfī, al-Jadwal fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 2/441, note 3. His main analysis joins لَا تَأْكُلُوهَا to ابْتَلُوا. In the note he quotes Abū Ḥayyān’s independent-clause analysis and objection to joining it to فَادْفَعُوا: لأن الشرط مترتب على بلوغ النكاح وهو معارض لقوله وبدارا أن يكبروا, “because the condition depends on reaching marriageable age, whereas this conflicts with ‘in haste before they grow up.’” ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/520. وَهَذِهِ الْجُمْلَةُ مُسْتَقِلَّةٌ... وَلَيْسَتْ مَعْطُوفَةً عَلَى جَوَابِ الشَّرْطِ، لِأَنَّهُ وَشَرْطَهُ مُتَرَتِّبَانِ عَلَى بُلُوغِ النِّكَاحِ. وَهُوَ مُعَارِضٌ لِقَوْلِهِ: وَبِدَارًا أَنْ يَكْبَرُوا... وَبِهَذَا الَّذِي قَرَّرْنَاهُ يَتَّضِحُ خَطَأُ مَنْ جَعَلَ وَلَا تَأْكُلُوهَا عَطْفًا عَلَى فَادْفَعُوا "This sentence stands on its own… It is not joined to the response of the condition, because it and its condition both follow upon reaching the age of marriage. And that conflicts with His saying: 'and in haste, before they grow up'… By this that we have established, the error of whoever made 'and do not consume it' joined to 'then hand over' becomes clear." ↩

Ibn ʿĀdil, al-Lubāb fī ʿulūm al-Kitāb, 6/190: أصحهما: أنها استئنافية، وليست معطوفةً على ما قبلها... وهذا فاسدٌ؛ لأن الشّرط وجوابه مترتِّبان على بلوغ النِّكاح وهو معارضٌ لقوله: ﴿وَبِدَاراً أَن يَكْبَرُواْ﴾ فَيَلزَمُ منه سَبْقُه على ما ترتَّب عَلَيْهِ، وذلك ممتنع "The sounder of the two is that it begins a new sentence and is not joined to what comes before it… This is unsound, because the condition and its response both follow upon reaching the age of marriage, and it conflicts with His saying 'and in haste, before they grow up', so it would follow that it precedes what it follows upon, and that is impossible." ↩

Muḥyī al-Dīn Darwīsh, Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān wa-Bayānuh, 2/160. He makes the wāw in وَلَا تَأْكُلُوهَا begin an independent sentence, because making it depend on the later handover condition would reverse the order of the events. ↩

Abū al-Suʿūd, Irshād al-ʿAql al-Salīm, 2/145: والجملة تأكيد للأمر بالدفع وتقرير لها وتمهيد لما بعدها, “The sentence reinforces and confirms the command to hand over, and prepares for what follows.” ↩

Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Dār al-Ṣaḥābah printing, 1/364–365. ↩

Al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, 6/410, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī: وموضع أن في قوله أن يكبروا نصب بالمبادرة لأن معنى الكلام لا تأكلوها مبادرة كبرهم, “The position of an in ‘that they grow up’ is accusative, governed by ‘racing,’ because the meaning is: do not consume it while racing their growing up.” ↩

Makkī b. Abī Ṭālib, Mushkil Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 1/190: قوله ﴿إسرافا﴾ مفعول من أجله وقيل هو مصدر في موضع الحال وبدارا مثله "His saying 'wastefully' is an object of purpose. It has been said that it is a verbal noun in the position of a circumstantial qualifier, and 'in haste' is like it"; قوله ﴿أن يكبروا﴾ أن في موضع نصب ببدار "His saying 'that they will grow up': an is in the accusative position, governed by bidāran." ↩

Maḥmūd Ṣāfī, al-Jadwal fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 2/440. He takes أَنْ يَكْبَرُوا as مفعول به عامله المصدر بدار, “an object governed by the verbal noun bidār.” Note 4 also allows an object of purpose with an omitted noun: مخافة أن يكبروا, “for fear that they grow up.” ↩

Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Kharrāṭ, al-Mujtabā min Mushkil Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 1/164: والمصدر أن يكبروا مفعول لأجله أي مخافة أن يكبروا, “The verbal-noun construction ‘that they grow up’ is an object of purpose: for fear that they grow up.” ↩

Maḥmūd Ṣāfī, al-Jadwal fī Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān, 2/440, note 4. ↩

Iʿrāb al-Qurʾān al-Karīm, Dār al-Ṣaḥābah printing, 1/364–365. ↩

Abū Ḥayyān, al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ, 3/523–3/524: وَفِي كَفَى خِلَافٌ: أَهِيَ اسْمُ فِعْلٍ، أَمْ فِعْلٌ؟ وَالصَّحِيحُ أَنَّهَا فِعْلٌ، وَفَاعِلُهُ اسْمُ اللَّهِ، وَالْبَاءُ زَائِدَةٌ "Concerning kafā there is disagreement: is it a noun standing for a verb, or a verb? The sound view is that it is a verb, its subject is lafẓ al-jalālah, the Name of Majesty, and the bāʾ is extra"; تمييز لِصَلَاحِيَّةِ دُخُولِ من عليه a specifying complement, because min may validly enter upon it. ↩