Surah An-Nisā (The Women) in English

1. وإن أردتم استبدال زوج مكان زوج وآتيتم إحداهن قنطارا فلا تأخذوا منه شيئا أتأخذونه بهتانا وإثما مبينا

   20

   If you desire to take a wife in place of another, and you have given one of them a quintal [of gold], do not take anything away from it. Would you take it by way of calumny and flagrant sin?!

   wa-ʾin ʾaradtumu stibdāla zawjin makāna zawjin wa-ʾātaytum ʾiḥdāhunna qinṭāran fa-lā taʾkhudhū minhu shayʾan ʾa-taʾkhudhūnahū buhtānan wa-ʾithman mubīnan

2. وكيف تأخذونه وقد أفضى بعضكم إلى بعض وأخذن منكم ميثاقا غليظا

   21

   How could you take it back, when you have known each other, and they have taken from you a solemn covenant?

   wa-kayfa taʾkhudhūnahū wa-qad ʾafḍā baʿḍukum ʾilā baʿḍin wa-ʾakhadhna minkum mīthāqan ghalīẓan

3. ولا تنكحوا ما نكح آباؤكم من النساء إلا ما قد سلف إنه كان فاحشة ومقتا وساء سبيلا

   22

   Do not marry any of the women whom your fathers had married, excluding what is already past. That is indeed an indecency, an outrage and an evil course.

   wa-lā tankiḥū mā nakaḥa ʾābāʾukum mina n-nisāʾi ʾillā mā qad salafa ʾinnahū kāna fāḥishatan wa-maqtan wa-sāʾa sabīlan

4. حرمت عليكم أمهاتكم وبناتكم وأخواتكم وعماتكم وخالاتكم وبنات الأخ وبنات الأخت وأمهاتكم اللاتي أرضعنكم وأخواتكم من الرضاعة وأمهات نسائكم وربائبكم اللاتي في حجوركم من نسائكم اللاتي دخلتم بهن فإن لم تكونوا دخلتم بهن فلا جناح عليكم وحلائل أبنائكم الذين من أصلابكم وأن تجمعوا بين الأختين إلا ما قد سلف إن الله كان غفورا رحيما

   23

   Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters and your sisters, your paternal aunts and your maternal aunts, your brother’s daughters and your sister’s daughters, your [foster-]mothers who have suckled you and your sisters through fosterage, your wives’ mothers, and your stepdaughters who are under your care [born] of the wives whom you have gone into—but if you have not gone into them there is no sin upon you—and the wives of your sons who are from your own loins, and that you should marry two sisters at one time—excluding what is already past; indeed Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful—

   ḥurrimat ʿalaykum ʾummahātukum wa-banātukum wa-ʾakhawātukum wa-ʿammātukum wa-khālātukum wa-banātu l-ʾakhi wa-banātu l-ʾukhti wa-ʾummahātukumu llātī ʾarḍaʿnakum wa-ʾakhawātukum mina r-raḍāʿati wa-ʾummahātu nisāʾikum wa-rabāʾibukumu llātī fī ḥujūrikum min nisāʾikumu llātī dakhaltum bihinna fa-ʾin lam takūnū dakhaltum bihinna fa-lā junāḥa ʿalaykum wa-ḥalāʾilu ʾabnāʾikumu lladhīna min ʾaṣlābikum wa-ʾan tajmaʿū bayna l-ʾukhtayni ʾillā mā qad salafa ʾinna llāha kāna ghafūran raḥīman