للرجال نصيب مما ترك الوالدان والأقربون وللنساء نصيب مما ترك الوالدان والأقربون مما قل منه أو كثر نصيبا مفروضا
Li'l-rijāli naṣībun mimmā taraka'l-wālidāni wa'l-aqrabūn, wa li'l-nisāʾi naṣībun mimmā taraka'l-wālidāni wa'l-aqrabūna mimmā qalla minhu aw kathur, naṣīban mafrūḍā
"To the men belongs a share of what parents and near kin leave; and to the women belongs a share of what parents and near kin leave — of the little of it and of the much. An appointed share."
The most striking side of the verse is that the same sentence is repeated twice, with not one of its words abbreviated.
| The first sentence | The second sentence | |
|---|---|---|
| To whom | Li'l-rijāli | Wa li'l-nisāʾi |
| What | naṣībun | naṣībun |
| From what | mimmā taraka'l-wālidāni wa'l-aqrabūn | mimmā taraka'l-wālidāni wa'l-aqrabūn |
In Arabic this repetition is not required. The sentence could have been built once: "to the men and to the women there is a share". It was not.
I record this as an observation about word order, and its ground is the repetition itself: that the right is tied to each of the two parties separately, in a complete sentence, is said by the repetition itself. The same technique will be used once more in the thirty-second verse (li'l-rijāli naṣībun mimma'ktasabū wa li'l-nisāʾi naṣībun mimma'ktasabna), and will be compared there in a table.
A similar repetition was treated at al-Aḥzāb 33/35 — there ten pairs of attributes were counted out one by one, and in that discussion it was recorded as my own reading that "the repetition itself carries information". I keep the same record here: this is an observation, not a transmitted report.
The concrete sense of the root: to plant something, to set it standing upright. Naṣb — to set up; nuṣub — an erected stone; naṣab — weariness (setting oneself up, wearing oneself out). The root was treated at al-Inshirāḥ 94/7 (fa-idhā faraghta fa'nṣab) and at al-Ghāshiya 88/3.
And that the word naṣīb comes from this root is worth recording: a share is what has been set up — put in its place, fixed. The word carries "being determined" within itself.
Root ف-ر-ض: to notch, to cut a mark. To fix the measure of something by opening a mark upon it. The root was treated in detail at al-Nūr 24/1 (faraḍnāhā); I rely on that treatment and do not repeat it here.
The record made there sits directly here: farḍ is not "a heavy obligation" but a notched measure. What is not left indefinite.
And the use of the two words together is an emphasis: naṣīban mafrūḍā — "a share set up and notched". Both words state fixity.
I record this as an observation: the coming into being of the right is not tied to the amount. It cannot be said of a small estate that "nothing will come out of it anyway".
It is transmitted in the sources that in that period the estate was given to the men who could fight and ride, and that women and small children took no share. It is also transmitted that in some places the woman herself was counted as an object of inheritance — and this will be forbidden outright in the nineteenth verse (lā yaḥillu lakum an tarithu'l-nisāʾa karhā).
And the function of the verse, as it can be read from the text, is this: before the figures of the shares are given in the eleventh verse, the right itself is proclaimed. The seventh verse is the principle, the eleventh its reckoning.