OCCASION OF REVELATION (VERSE NO. 19)

HAZRAT IMAM SADIQ (AS) has said: ``There were some Arabs in the Pagan Era who detained their wives in the worst of conditions, without giving them a divorce or treating them as a wife! They did so waiting for her to die in order to own her property and wealth.''

ANOTHER DEFENCE CONCERNING WOMEN'S RIGHT

      In this verse two other unjust and disagreeable customs of the Pagan Era have been condemned and declared unlawful:

1- It addresses the believers that it is unlawful to inherit the properties of women against their will and consent.

2- The second ugly and unbecoming custom of the Arab was that, they kept a woman under pressure by various means, in order to force them to leave and grant their dower and to take a divorce for nothing: ``Do not force women to take back a part of the dower that you have given them.'' This commandment has an exception for excluding those women who are guilty of a manifest indecency such as adultary.

* * * *

      (Some of the commentators have understood the above verse in other way: ``The phrase, `don't inherit the women against their will' has nothing to do with their property, they say; and the purpose is their very self. The cause for the revelation they say; was that among many nations including Arabs in the Pagan Era, a step-son, or brother took possession of a man's widow along with his goods and chattels. This shameful custom of inheriting women against their will was condemned and forbidden in Islam.'' TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.)