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Explanatory Note
The next verse forbids, most emphatically, a man’s marriage with a woman whom his father had married before him. Such a practice was allowed in pre-Islamic Arabia. Moreover, it was one reason for barring women from marriage. If a man died, leaving behind a young son, the family could bar the young boy’s stepmother from marriage until he, himself, was old enough to marry her. Alternatively, if the son was old enough to marry, he could inherit his stepmother. Islam forbids all this most emphatically: “Do not marry women whom your fathers have previously married, unless it be a thing of the past. Surely, that is an indecent, abominable and evil practice.”
Three easily identifiable considerations lie behind this prohibition. We, as human beings do not pretend to know every reason for Divine legislation. Nor do we make it a condition of obeying God’s legislation that we should know the wisdom behind it. It is sufficient that God has decreed something for us to obey and implement it. We are certain that it serves our interests and that Divine wisdom is behind it.
The first consideration is that a father’s wife is in the same position as a mother. Secondly, when a son marries a former wife of his father, he subconsciously feels himself to be his equal. Many people come to hate the former husbands of their wives. If a son is allowed to marry his father’s former wife, he may come to hate his father instead of loving him. Thirdly, there must never be any suspicion of inheriting one’s father’s wife, in the same way as it was practised in pre-Islamic days. As we have already said, such inheritance is an insult to the humanity of both man and woman. They have been created from a single soul, and their dignity and honour are the same. For these reasons, and others as well, such action is considered to be very hateful. It is described as indecent, abominable, i.e. generating hatred, and evil. Exemption is only made in the case of marriages contracted before Islam. These have been left for God’s decision.