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يُوصِيكُمُ ٱللَّهُ فِيۤ أَوْلَٰدِكُمْ لِلذَّكَرِ مِثْلُ حَظِّ ٱلأُنْثَيَيْنِ فَإِن كُنَّ نِسَآءً فَوْقَ ٱثْنَتَيْنِ فَلَهُنَّ ثُلُثَا مَا تَرَكَ وَإِن كَانَتْ وَاحِدَةً فَلَهَا ٱلنِّصْفُ وَلأَبَوَيْهِ لِكُلِّ وَاحِدٍ مِّنْهُمَا ٱلسُّدُسُ مِمَّا تَرَكَ إِن كَانَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ فَإِن لَّمْ يَكُنْ لَّهُ وَلَدٌ وَوَرِثَهُ أَبَوَاهُ فَلأُمِّهِ ٱلثُّلُثُ فَإِن كَانَ لَهُ إِخْوَةٌ فَلأُمِّهِ ٱلسُّدُسُ مِن بَعْدِ وَصِيَّةٍ يُوصِي بِهَآ أَوْ دَيْنٍ آبَآؤُكُمْ وَأَبناؤُكُمْ لاَ تَدْرُونَ أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُ لَكُمْ نَفْعاً فَرِيضَةً مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلِيماً حَكِيماً
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-An-Nisâ’ ( النساء )

Tafsir al-Jalalayn

God charges you, He commands you, concerning, the matter of, your children, with what He will mention: to the male, of them, the equivalent of the portion, the lot, of two females, if there are two [women] with him, so that half the property is his, and the other half is theirs; if there is only one female with him, then she has a third, and he receives two thirds; if he is the only one, he takes it all; and if they, the offspring, be, only, women more than two, then for them two-thirds of what he, the deceased, leaves; likewise if they be two women, since in the case of two sisters, more deserving of such a share, God says, They shall receive two-thirds of what he leaves [Q. 4:176]; and since a female is entitled to a third with a male, she is all the more deserving [of the same share] with a female. It is said that fawq, ‘more than’, introduces a relative clause; it is also said to guard against the wrong impression that the greater the number [of females] the greater the portion [they are entitled to], since, it is [mistakenly] thought that the entitlement of two females to two-thirds derives from the fact that a female is entitled to one third when with a male; but if she, the daughter, be one (wāhidatan, is also read wāhidatun, making the kāna [construction] syntactically complete) then to her a half; and to his parents, the deceased’s, to each one of the two (li-kulli wāhidin minhumā, substitutes for the previous li-abawayhi, ‘to his parents’) the sixth of what he leaves, if he has a child, male or female: the point of the substitution is to show that they do not share the sixth [but receive one each]. [The term] ‘child’ (walad) also applies to a grandchild, and likewise ‘parent’ (abb) to a grandparent; but if he has no child, and his heirs are his parents, alone or along with a spouse, then to his mother (read li-ummihi; also read, in both places [here and further down], li-immihi in order to avoid the cumbersome transition from a damma [‘u’] to a kasra [‘I’]) a third, of the property, or what remains after the spouse, the rest being for the father; or, if he has siblings, two or more, males or females, to his mother a sixth, and the rest for the father, and nothing for the siblings. The inheritance stipulated for those mentioned shall take place, after, the fulfilment of, any bequest that he may bequeath (read active yūsī, or passive yūsā), or, the repayment of, any debt, that he may owe. ‘Bequest’ comes before ‘debt’, even though it should only be fulfilled after the latter [has been repayed], to show that it should be taken seriously. Your parents and children (ābā’ukum wa-abnā’ukum, is the subject, its predicate being [what follows]) — you know not which of them is nearer in benefit to you, in this world and the Hereafter. It may be that one supposes his son to be beneficial to him, leaves him an inheritance, and then it turns out that the father had been the more beneficial [of the two], and vice versa. The only One with knowledge of this [reality] is God, and for this reason He has prescribed for you inheritance: a prescription from God; surely God is ever Knowing, of His creation, Wise, in what He has ordained for them, that is to say, He is ever possessed of such attributes.


Tafsir al-Jalalayn, trans. Feras Hamza
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