Al-Ahzab 33:4

Commentary

Previous verses carried instructions to the Holy Prophet ﷺ asking him not to act upon their advice and not to be cajoled into what they wanted to achieve. In the cited verses, there is a refutation of three customs prevailing among disbelievers as well as of their false notions.

(1) During jahiliyyah, Arabs used to say about a person who was smarter than others that he had two hearts in his chest cage.

(2) Then they had a custom about their wives following which a person would declare his wife to be like the back of his mother, or some other part of the body, and go on to say, 'you are, for me, like the back of my mother.' This, in their usage, was called "Zihar." It is a derivation from: Zahr, which means 'back'. They thought that if a person who had done "Zihr" with his wife, she becomes haram (unlawful) to him forever.

(3) And then they had another custom under which one person would make the son of another his so-called or adopted son and who so would take a son in that manner, the boy would become known as 'his' son and would be addressed as such. According to their practice, this so-called or adopted son used to be recognized in all rules and regulations as a 'real' son. For instance, he would be regarded as a sharer even in inheritance, like a real offspring along with the children from his loins. Then, they would also regard the marriage relations of the so-called or adopted son as falling under the standard rule whereby the marriage with a category of certain women is unlawful. For example, as marriage with the wife of one's real son remains unlawful even after he has divorced her, they also took the divorced wife of the so-called or adopted son to be unlawful for that person.

Since the first of the three notions of the period of Jahiliyyah were not tied up with religious belief or conduct, therefore, the Shari'ah of Islam had no need to refute it. To determine whether there is just the one heart inside the chest or, may be, there are two as well was simply a case of anatomical inquiry. That it was obviously false was known to everyone. Therefore, most likely, the matter of its refutation was also introduced as a prologue to the other two issues and it was said: The way false is the saying of the people of Jahiliyyah - that 'someone could have two hearts in his chest', the falsity of which is known to everyone - similarly, false are their notions in the matters of Zihar (falsely declaring one's wife unlawful to him like his mother) and adoption of sons.

As for the injunctions governing the two issues of Zihar and adopted son, these are among the social and familial issues that have a great importance in Islam - to the extent that even their subsidiary details have been given in the Qur'an by Allah Ta’ ala Himself. unlike other matters, this has not been left at the declaration of principles only with its detailed enunciation entrusted with the Holy Prophet t. Regarding both these issues, the people of Jahiliyyah, following their baseless whims, had a bunch of self-made laws relating to the lawful and the unlawful, the permissible and the impermissible. It was the duty of the True Religion that it should refute these false notions and make the truth manifest. Therefore, it was said:i It means: 'You are wrong in thinking that, should someone call his wife the equal or like of his mother, the wife does not go on to become unlawful for him forever like his real mother. Just because you say so, a wife does not become a mother, in reality. Your mother is but she who gave birth to you.' Now, at least, the notion of the people of Jahiliyyah that Zihar makes one's wife unlawful for ever is refuted by this verse. What happens next? Does saying so bring about any legal effect? The standing injunction in this connection appears in Surah al-Mujadalah [ 58:2-4] where saying so has been called a sin and abstention from it obligatory. And it is provided there that he who has made such a declaration should offer a kaffarah (expiation) of having done zihar after which having intercourse with his wife becomes lawful for him. The details of this issue will appear in the Commentary on Surah al-Mujadalah (Ma` ariful-Qur'an, Volume VIII).

The second issue was that of the mutabanna, i.e adopted son. About that, it was said: وَمَا جَعَلَ أَدْعِيَاءَكُمْ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ (nor did he make your adopted sons your (real) sons - 4). The word: اَدعِیَاء (ad'iya' ) is the plural of: دَعِیُّ (da'iyy) which means a so-called son. The sense is that the way no man has two hearts inside him and the way by likening one's wife to one's mother, the wife does not become the mother - similarly, the so-called son does not become your real son. In other words, neither will he be entitled to a share in inheritance with other sons, nor the precepts of the unlawfulness of marriage will apply to him. For example, the way the divorced wife of a real son is unlawful for his father forever, the divorced wife of an adopted son is not unlawful for his so-called father. Since this last matter affects many other matters, therefore, it was complimented by another injunction, that is, even an adopted son should be attributed to his real father, and not to the person who has adopted him - because, this spells out the danger of misgiving and confusion creeping in many matters.

There is a hadith from Sayyidna Ibn ` Umar ؓ appearing in al-Bukhari, Muslim and others in which it has been said: 'Before the revelation of this verse, we used to call Zayd Ibn Harithah by the name of Zayd Ibn Muhammad (because the Holy Prophet ﷺ had taken him in as his mutabanna, adopted son). After the revelation of this verse, we abandoned this practice.'

Ruling

This tells us about many people who call the children of others as 'son' which, if because of simple affection, not because of declaring him an adopted son or a mutabanna , then, this would though be permissible, still, it is not the better choice, because it looks like violating the prohibition, at least in appearance. (As in Ruh a1-Ma` ni from al-Khafaji Ala al-Baidawi)

And this is the same matter which, by throwing the Quraish of Arabia into deception, led them to commit a sin of terribly serious proportions to the extent that they started blaming the Holy Prophet t by saying that he had married the divorced wife of his 'son', while in fact, he was not his son, but only a mutabanna (adopted son) - something that will be mentioned in this very Surah a little later.