Women (Al-Nesaa)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ O mankind! Fear your Lord, who created you from a single soul. He created its mate from it and from the two of them spread countless men and women [throughout the earth]. Fear God, in whose name you appeal to one another, and be mindful of your obligations in respect of ties of kinship. God is always watching over you. 1 Hence, render unto the orphans their possessions, and do not substitute bad things [of your own] for the good things [that belong to them,] and do not consume their possessions together with your own: this, verily, is a great crime. 2 If you fear that you might not treat the orphans justly, then marry the women that seem good to you: two, or three, or four. If you fear that you will not be able to treat them justly, then marry (only) one, or marry from among those whom your right hands possess. This will make it more likely that you will avoid injustice. 3 And give the women (on marriage) their dower as a free gift; but if they, of their own good pleasure, remit any part of it to you, Take it and enjoy it with right good cheer. 4 Give not unto the foolish (what is in) your (keeping of their) wealth, which Allah hath given you to maintain; but feed and clothe them from it, and speak kindly unto them. 5 Test well the orphans, until they reach the age of marrying; then, if you perceive in them right judgment, deliver to them their property; consume it not wastefully and hastily ere they are grown. If any man is rich, let him be abstinent; if poor, let him consume in reason. And when you deliver to them their property, take witnesses over them; God suffices for a reckoner. 6 For men is a share from what the parents and near relatives leave behind, and for women is a share from what the parents and near relatives leave behind, whether the wealth (inheritance) is small or large; the share is a fixed one. 7 If other near of kin orphans and needy are pre sent at the time of division of inheritance give them some thing of it and speak to them kindly. 8 Let people fear the day when they leave small children behind them unprovided, and how concerned they would be for them. So fear God and say the right things to them. 9 (As for) those who swallow the property of the orphans unjustly, surely they only swallow fire into their bellies and they shall enter burning fire. 10