But if you want to replace one wife with another and you have given one of them a great amount [in gifts], do not take [back] from it anything. Would you take it in injustice and manifest sin?
Verse 20 of Surah An-Nisa (4:20), a Medinan surah, is in juz 4, on page 81 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 72 reciters.
Listen to verse 20 of Surah An-Nisa
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Tafsir of verse 20
Al-Mukhtasar
If you want to divorce a woman and replace her with another, then you are allowed to do so; but if you gave the one you intend to divorce a great deal of wealth as a dowry, then you are not allowed to take anything back from it. Taking back what you gave to them would be an injustice and a clear sin.
If you decide to replace one wife with another, and you have given her an abundance of wealth, do not take any of it back. Would you take it wrongfully and sinfully?
But if you intend to replace a wife by another and you have given one of them a Qintâr (of gold i.e. a great amount as Mahr) take not the least bit of it back; would you take it wrongfully without a right and (with) a manifest sin?
And if ye wish to exchange one wife for another and ye have given unto one of them a sum of money (however great), take nothing from it. Would ye take it by the way of calumny and open wrong?
But if ye decide to take one wife in place of another, even if ye had given the latter a whole treasure for dower, Take not the least bit of it back: Would ye take it by slander and manifest wrong?
And if you wish to have (one) wife in place of another and you have given one of them a heap of gold, then take not from it anything; would you take it by slandering (her) and (doing her) manifest wrong?
And in case you are willing to exchange a spouse in place of (another) spouse, and you have brought one of them a hundredweight, (Literally: a Kantar) then do not take anything of it. Will you take it by way of all-malicious (calumny) and evident vice?
Divorced women remain in waiting [i.e., do not remarry] for three periods, and it is not lawful for them to conceal what Allāh has created in their wombs if they believe in Allāh and the Last Day. And their husbands have more right to take them back in this [period] if they want reconciliation. And due to them [i.e., the wives] is similar to what is expected of them, according to what is reasonable. But the men [i.e., husbands] have a degree over them [in responsibility and authority]. And Allāh is Exalted in Might and Wise. …
There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allāh an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allāh and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allāh often.
Say, "Come, I will recite what your Lord has prohibited to you. [He commands] that you not associate anything with Him, and to parents, good treatment, and do not kill your children out of poverty; We will provide for you and them. And do not approach immoralities - what is apparent of them and what is concealed. And do not kill the soul which Allāh has forbidden [to be killed] except by [legal] right. This has He instructed you that you may use reason."
