Tafsir Qawlihi Taala: "Wa atu al-yatama amwalahum..." al-Ayat - dimn "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar 'Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Tafsir Qawlihi Ta'ala: "Wa atu al-yatama amwalahum..." al-Ayat (Interpretation of His Saying, Exalted is He: "And give to the orphans their wealth..." the verses) is an exegetical treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE), published as part of his collected works, Athar al-Mu'allimi .
Scope and Content
The treatise provides an exegesis of verses 2–4 of Surat al-Nisa and integrates with them verses 127–130 of the same surah . It spans seventeen printed pages and constitutes a complete self-contained tract .
In his analysis of the verse: وَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تُقْسِطُوا فِي الْيَتَامَى فَانْكِحُوا مَا طَابَ لَكُمْ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ مَثْنَى وَثُلَاثَ وَرُبَاعَ فَإِنْ خِفْتُمْ أَلَّا تَعْدِلُوا فَوَاحِدَةً ("And if you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls, then marry those that please you of [other] women, two or three or four. But if you fear that you will not be just, then [marry only] one"), al-Mu'allimi outlines two principal interpretative approaches established in Islamic scholarship :
- The General Application (al-umum): An approach that construes the phrasing broadly; he transmits two opinions under this view .
- The Specific Application (al-khusus): An approach adopted by the majority of exegetes, despite their differences in details . Among these, he cites the tradition transmitted by Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from Urwah ibn al-Zubayr on the authority of Aisha, recorded in the two Sahih collections, which interprets the verse as referring to a female orphan under the custody of her guardian who desires to marry her for her wealth and beauty without providing her an equitable dowry .
Beyond examining these classical positions, al-Mu'allimi advances a novel exegetical perspective (wajh jadid) on the meaning and context of the verse regarding justice toward orphans .
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