The 365 · Verses · Day 238 · Justice
The same greed that grabbed the orphan's dowry could refuse her a husband. God saw both.
وَيَسْتَفْتُونَكَ فِى ٱلنِّسَآءِ ۖ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ يُفْتِيكُمْ فِيهِنَّ وَمَا يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ فِى ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ فِى يَتَـٰمَى ٱلنِّسَآءِ ٱلَّـٰتِى لَا تُؤْتُونَهُنَّ مَا كُتِبَ لَهُنَّ وَتَرْغَبُونَ أَن تَنكِحُوهُنَّ وَٱلْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ ٱلْوِلْدَٰنِ وَأَن تَقُومُوا۟ لِلْيَتَـٰمَىٰ بِٱلْقِسْطِ ۚ وَمَا تَفْعَلُوا۟ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ بِهِۦ عَلِيمًا
“They ask you, Prophet, for a ruling about women. Say: God Himself gives you a ruling about them. You already have what has been recited to you in the Scripture about orphan girls in your charge from whom you withhold the prescribed shares of their inheritance and whom you wish to marry, and also about helpless children. God instructs you to treat orphans fairly. He is well aware of whatever good you do. (Quran 4:127)”
4:127 Read 4:127 with tafsir
Svenska: DE BER dig om ett klarläggande av de regler som gäller kvinnor. Säg: "Gud [själv] klargör för er vad som gäller dem; och [därtill] det som blir uppläst för er i Skriften om faderlösa flickor, till vilka ni inte vill ge [de brudgåvor] som är föreskrivna för dem, trots att ni önskar ta dem till hustrur, och om de värnlösa barnen och om er plikt att behandla de faderlösa med full rättvisa. Och Gud har full kännedom om det goda ni gör."
The story
This āyah closes the Justice cluster the way it opened - with the orphan girl - but now it answers the question the community kept asking. Ibn Kathīr, citing ʿĀʾisha in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, describes two opposite injustices done to the same girl by the same guardian. If she was beautiful and wealthy, he coveted her, marrying her himself to seize her money while withholding the fair dowry she was owed. If she was plain and poor, he scorned her, refusing to marry her and refusing to let anyone else marry her, so her wealth stayed under his hand. Al-Saʿdī notes the arresting response: the people ask the Prophet ﷺ for a ruling, and God announces, 'Allah gives you the ruling about them' - taking the fatwā into His own speech. He first commands justice for women in general, then singles out 'the weak among the children' and the orphan girls for special mention, al-Saʿdī says, out of concern for exactly those who cannot defend their own rights. Ibn Kathīr recalls that in the Jāhiliyya a guardian would throw his garment over an orphan girl to bar other suitors, and that women and young children were denied inheritance altogether - practices this āyah dismantles, assigning each a fixed share. Then the closing line, which seals the whole cluster: 'whatever good you do, God is well aware of it.' Al-Saʿdī reads it as encouragement - the One who saw every hidden injustice against the orphan also sees every quiet kindness done for her, and will repay it in full. Justice is not only forbidden to be broken; it is witnessed when it is kept.
In the language
Al-Zamakhsharī and al-Saʿdī both linger on a single verb that manages to describe two opposite sins at once: wa targhabūna an tankiḥūhunna, 'and you desire to marry them.' The Arabic raghiba is a chameleon. Followed by the preposition fī, raghiba fī means to desire something; followed by ʿan, raghiba ʿan means to turn away from it in distaste. Here the preposition is left unstated, and both mufassirūn note that the phrase can be read either way. Al-Saʿdī spells it out: the guardian either desires to marry the orphan - because she is rich and beautiful and he wants her wealth - or desires away from marrying her, because she is plain, and so imprisons her from every other suitor. One elided particle, and the āyah indicts both the grasping guardian and the spurning one in the same breath. It is a small marvel of concision: the language itself refuses to let either form of injustice slip through the gap.
Why this verse
Because injustice is not only what you take; it is also what you withhold. The same guardian could rob the pretty orphan of her dowry or cage the plain one from marriage. This closing āyah names both, and reminds you God sees the good too.
Bring it into today
Watch for the two faces of injustice in your own reach - the taking and the withholding. There is a person whose access to something good runs through you: a junior colleague's promotion, a relative's share, a student's opportunity, a tenant's deposit. You can wrong them by grabbing what is theirs, and you can wrong them equally by blocking a good that would reach them if you simply stepped aside. Al-Saʿdī's frame is to stand for the vulnerable with complete justice - both by protecting their rights and by actively advancing their interests, not merely by refraining from harm. So ask two questions this week. First: am I holding anything that is rightfully theirs? Second, harder: am I quietly standing in the way of a good they could receive? And take the closing promise as fuel - the God who witnessed every hidden wrong also records every hidden kindness done for them.
A reflection to carry
It is fitting that the Justice cluster ends not on a threat but on a witness: whatever good you do, God is well aware of it. The verses have exposed a great deal of concealed wrong - shaved scales, plundered orphans, tilted testimony, guardians grasping and guardians blocking. A person could finish disheartened, convinced injustice is simply the water we swim in. Al-Saʿdī turns the final clause into hope: the same all-seeing knowledge that catches the hidden theft also catches the hidden kindness, and loses none of it. The orphan may not be able to thank you; the ledger above does not depend on her. Justice kept in the dark is not justice wasted - it is justice witnessed by the only One who matters.
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.
Also on Day 238
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