The 365 · Verses · Day 237 · Justice
Fear you cannot be fair to four? Then marry one. Justice sets the ceiling.
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
“If you fear that you will not deal fairly with orphan girls, you may marry whichever other women seem good to you, two, three, or four. If you fear that you cannot be equitable to them, then marry only one, or your slave(s): that is more likely to make you avoid bias. (Quran 4:3)”
Svenska: Om ni är rädda att inte kunna behandla de faderlösa med rättvisa, tag då [andra] kvinnor som är tillåtna för er till hustrur - två eller tre eller fyra; men [begränsa er till] en enda om ni inte tror er om att kunna behandla dem alla lika - eller [vänd er till] någon av dem som ni rättmätigt besitter. Detta gör det lättare för er att undvika partiskhet.
The story
Read quickly, this āyah sounds like a rule about how many wives a man may take. Read with the mufassirūn, it is a rule about justice, and marriage is only its test case. ʿĀʾisha, as Ibn Kathīr transmits from the Ṣaḥīḥ, explained the setting: a guardian would hold an orphan girl's wealth, be drawn to her beauty and money, and marry her himself without paying the fair dowry another suitor would have paid. The verse opens by naming that fear - 'if you fear you cannot deal justly with the orphan girls' - and redirects the man outward: then marry other women, two, three, or four. Al-Saʿdī reads the pivot as an act of protection: if you cannot give these girls their rights because your heart is not truly with them, do not trap them; turn to others whom you can honor. Ibn Kathīr documents that 'four' is a ceiling, not a target - when Ghaylān ibn Salama embraced Islam with ten wives, the Prophet ﷺ told him to keep only four. And then the āyah tightens again: 'but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one.' Al-Saʿdī draws the lesson that reaches past marriage entirely - when you fear you will not be able to do justice in a permitted thing, the answer is not to gamble on it but to choose the safer, smaller path, for well-being is among the best gifts God gives His servant. The whole verse pulses on one word: justice. Every permission it grants is leashed to it, and the moment fairness is in doubt, the permission shrinks.
In the language
The verse ends on a word that quietly rhymes with the theme of these days: dhālika adnā allā taʿūlū - 'that is nearer that you not taʿūlū.' Al-Zamakhsharī traces taʿūlū to ʿāla al-mīzān, said of a scale when it tilts and loses its level; ʿāla al-ḥākim is said of a judge who swerves from fairness. So the closing phrase means, almost literally, 'that is nearer to your not tipping the balance.' Ibn Kathīr gathers a wide agreement - from ʿĀʾisha, Ibn ʿAbbās, Mujāhid and others - that taʿūlū here means to deviate from justice, and reports the reading 'that you not do wrong.' The image is striking: a household with more claimants than a man can weigh becomes, in the Qurʾān's vocabulary, a scale under load, ready to tilt. Al-Zamakhsharī also records al-Shāfiʿī's alternative, that taʿūlū means 'increase your dependents,' but the dominant reading keeps the balance metaphor, and with it the thread that runs from the merchant's scale of 26:182 straight into the home.
Why this verse
Because the Qurʾān will not let a man hide behind a permission. Marrying more is allowed - but only if he can hold the scale level. The instant he fears it will tilt, justice overrules appetite and says: one.
Bring it into today
You may never face this āyah's literal question, but you meet its logic constantly: a permission you are entitled to take, shadowed by a fear that you cannot be fair inside it. You could take on a second major commitment - a side venture, a board seat, a second household of responsibility - that is entirely lawful. The verse trains a specific instinct: before you expand, ask honestly whether you can give every party its full right. Al-Saʿdī's counsel is to prefer safety and well-being over a permitted thing you fear you will mishandle. So when you sense the balance will tilt - when a new 'yes' means an existing person, child, or duty gets the thin measure - let justice, not entitlement, cast the deciding vote. Choose the one you can honor over the several you cannot. The smaller life, fairly carried, weighs more with God than the larger one carried crookedly.
A reflection to carry
There is a quiet radicalism in how this verse handles a right. It does not celebrate the permission it grants; it fences it. Twice it invokes fear - fear of injustice to orphans, fear of inequity among wives - and twice it lets that fear contract what is allowed. Al-Saʿdī's principle is worth memorizing: when a lawful thing carries a real risk that you will fall into wrong, the mature response is to withdraw to safer ground, not to test your restraint against your appetite. Most of our regrets are not forbidden things we did but permitted things we took on knowing we could not carry them justly. The āyah offers a gentler wisdom: measure the load before you lift it.
Sources: Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī, al-Zamakhsharī (al-Kashshāf). The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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