There is no sin upon you, nor any blame upon you for imposing a dowry if you divorce the women, as long as you have not touched them, as long as you have not had sexual relations with them, or imposed upon them a specified dowry, except that you impose upon them a specified dowry, or even until you impose. And the imposition of the specified dowry is the naming of the dowry. That is because a divorced woman who has not been touched, if a dowry is named for her, she is entitled to half of what has been named. If no dowry is named for her, she is not entitled to half of the dowry of her like, but rather to a form of enjoyment. The evidence that the sin is the blame of the dowry is His saying: "And if you divorce them" until His saying: "Then half of what you have imposed." So His saying: "Then half of what you have imposed" confirms the sin that was negated there. And the enjoyment is a garment and a covering and a headscarf according to the situation, according to Abu Hanifah, unless the dowry of her like is less than that. So she has the lesser of half the dowry of her like and the enjoyment, and it cannot be less than five dirhams because the least dowry is ten dirhams, so it cannot be less than half of it. And the one who has abundance is the one who has means. And the one who is in need is the one who is in a tight situation. And he is to estimate what he can afford, because what he can afford is what is specific to him. And it has been read with the dal opened. And the word 'qadr' and 'qadar' are two forms. And it is reported from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, that he said to a man from the Ansar who married a woman and did not name a dowry for her, then divorced her before he touched her: "Did you provide her with enjoyment?" He said: "I had nothing." He said: "Provide her with your cloak." According to our scholars, enjoyment is not obligatory except for this one alone, and it is recommended for all other divorced women, but it is not obligatory. Enjoyment is an emphasis on providing them with enjoyment, meaning providing them with kindness in a manner that is good in the law and in propriety. It is a right that is obligatory upon them. Or that right is a right upon those who do good to the divorced women by providing enjoyment, and He called them good-doers before the action, as he, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "Whoever kills a person, for him is his spoils." Except that they forgive, meaning the divorced women. If you say: What is the difference between saying: "The men forgive" and "The women forgive"? I say: The 'wa' in the first is their pronoun, and the 'nun' is a sign of the nominative case. And the 'wa' in the second is the lam of the verb and the 'nun' is their pronoun, and the verb is built with no effect in its wording from the doer, and it is in the accusative case. "And they forgive" is an addition to its place. And the one who has the knot of marriage in his hand is the guardian. It was said by Mahmoud, may Allah have mercy on him: "And the one who has the knot of marriage in his hand is the guardian..." etc. Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This transmission is an error in which Zamakhshari was mistaken regarding Shafi'i, may Allah be pleased with him, for his doctrine is in agreement with the doctrine of Abu Hanifah, may Allah be pleased with him, in that what is meant is the husband. And he only went to mean the guardian, according to Malik, may Allah be pleased with him. And Zamakhshari was correct that this is a statement of apparent correctness, with the beauty of truth and the sweetness of correctness for several reasons: First, the one who has the knot of marriage firmly established is the guardian. As for the husband, he has that at the time of the initial contract only, then after the divorce, the speech at that time is not at all from the knot of marriage. If it is said: It was called that after the divorce by the interpretation of "was" being implied, it is not hidden from the fair-minded what is in that of distance and leaving the bounds of the original speech. Second, the initial address is to the wives, by consensus, with His saying: "Except that they forgive," and among them are those who have no forgiveness at all, such as the slave woman and the virgin. If it were not for the completion of the division by directing the second to the guardian regarding his virgin daughter or his slave woman, it would necessitate going beyond the apparent generality of the first. And when the speech is directed to the guardian, the speech becomes in meaning: Except that they forgive as they are worthy of forgiveness, or he forgives them if he is not worthy. And for this reason, the guardian who forgives and whose forgiveness is considered according to Malik is the father in the case of his virgin daughter, and the master in the case of his slave woman specifically. Third, the Noble Book is worthy of the correspondence of the sections and the arrangement of the parts of the speech, and the matter in this context is in this capacity. Thus, the verse then includes the address to the wives, then to the guardians, then to the husbands with His saying: "And do not forget the favor between you," so that it becomes in this way full of benefits and encompassing the objectives.

The fourth: What is added to the owner of the marriage contract is forgiveness, just as it is added to the wives. Forgiveness: is the dropping [of a claim] linguistically, and this is what is meant in the first instance by consensus, as what is added to the wives is certainly the dropping [of a claim]. If the meaning intended by the owner of the contract were the husband, then it would necessitate interpreting forgiveness as the completion of the dowry and giving him what he is not entitled to. This corresponds only with the name of favor. For this reason, it was said in addressing the husbands (And do not forget the favor between you) because what is given from his side is not a right upon him; it is favor, not forgiveness.

And it should not be said: Perhaps the husband hastened to give the full dowry before the divorce and divorced, so he must reclaim half, and he drops it and forgives it. In this case, forgiveness remains from the husband’s side in its apparent meaning and reality. We say: What suffices in rejecting this view is the burden it carries and the estimation of what is contrary to the original.

The fifth: That the beginning of the verse addresses the husbands in His saying: (And if you divorce them) until His saying: (You have agreed). If the statement (Or let the one who has the contract of marriage forgive) were intended to mean the husband, it would be a shift and a turning from addressing to mentioning in the third person, and this is not its place. For this reason, the statement (And do not forget the favor between you) came in the form of address, because it is intended for the husbands in their initial address.

The sixth: That His saying: (Except that they forgive) and what is attached to it is an exception from His saying: (Then half of what you have prescribed). The essence of the speech is: Then half of what you have prescribed is obligatory upon you, except that the wives forgive it, so it is not obligatory upon you then. If the speech is taken to refer to the guardian, it is correct, for if they complete the dowry for them, then half is obligatory upon them and does not change or contradict the exceptional case from which the exception occurred. Thus, the exception does not apply in its reality to the contradiction between the first and the second, unless it is said: The implication of His saying: (Then half of what you have prescribed) is obligatory upon you: that the other half is not given to them because it is dropped by the husband. If he forgives it in the sense of completing the dowry, then the other half has become given to them. In this interpretation, there is a burden that eliminates the need for its return.

This means: except that the divorced women forgive their husbands, so they do not demand from them half of the dowry. The woman says: He did not see me, nor serve me, nor enjoy me, so how can I take anything from him? Or the guardian who is responsible for their marriage contract forgives, which is the opinion of al-Shafi'i. It is said that it is the husband, and his forgiveness is that he gives her the full dowry, which is the opinion of Abu Hanifa, and the first is evidently correct.

And naming the increase over the right as forgiveness is debatable, except that it can be said that it was common among them to give the dowry at the time of marriage. If he divorced her, he was entitled to demand half of what he had given her. If he refrains from demanding it, he has forgiven her. Or he called it forgiveness in a figurative sense.

And from Jubair ibn Mut'im, he married a woman and divorced her before he had relations with her, so he completed her dowry and said: I am more deserving of forgiveness. And from him, he entered upon Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and proposed to him a daughter of his, so he married her. When he left, he divorced her and sent her the full dowry. It was said to him: Why did you marry her? He said: She was proposed to me and I disliked rejecting it. It was said: Why then did you send the dowry? He said: Where is the favor?

[This was narrated by al-Tabari through the chain of Ibn Abi Dhuhb from Sa'id ibn Muhammad ibn Jubair from his grandfather Jubair ibn Mut'im in the same manner.] And the favor is the favor. That is, do not forget that some of you should favor one another and be generous and do not be stingy: and Al-Hasan read: 'that the one who forgives,' with the waw being silent. And the silence of the waw and the ya in the accusative case likens them to the alif because they are their sisters. And Abu Nuhayk read: 'and let him forgive,' with the ya. And it was recited: 'And do not forget the favor,' with a kasra on the waw.