Which Surah and Juz is Quran 4:20 from?

This ayah is from Surah An-Nisaa (The Women), the 4th surah of the Quran. It appears in Juz 4.

Are there hadiths related to Quran 4:20?

Yes — there are 5 hadiths related to this ayah from Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawud.

What tafsir is available for Quran 4:20?

Commentary on this ayah is available from Ibn Kathir, Ibn Abbas, Ibn Kathir, Al-Jalalayn — classical scholars of Quranic exegesis.

What topics does Quran 4:20 relate to?

This ayah connects to these Quranic topics: Marriage, Justice, Rights of Women, Social Ethics.

Ayah 19

يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا يَحِلُّ لَكُ...

4:20An-Nisaa

Q: What does Quran 4:20 mean?

Quran 4:20 (Surah An-Nisaa, Ayah 20) translates to: "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?"

Ayah 21

وَكَيْفَ تَأْخُذُونَهُۥ وَقَدْ أَفْضَىٰ بَعْضُكُمْ...

وَإِنْ أَرَدتُّمُ ٱسْتِبْدَالَ زَوْجٍۢ مَّكَانَ زَوْجٍۢ وَءَاتَيْتُمْ إِحْدَىٰهُنَّ قِنطَارًۭا فَلَا تَأْخُذُوا۟ مِنْهُ شَيْـًٔا ۚ أَتَأْخُذُونَهُۥ بُهْتَٰنًۭا وَإِثْمًۭا مُّبِينًۭا

Wa in arattumustib daala zawjim makaana zawjin wa aataitum ihdaahunna qintaaran falaa taakhuzoo minhu shai'aa; ataakhuzoonahoo buhtaannanw wa ismam mubeenaa

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?

Themes in this ayah

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Marriage92 Justice & honesty89

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4:20Ayah 1176

9 ayahs in An-Nisaa are strongly about marriage. This is one of them.

← Previous on Marriage4:19O you who have believed, it is not lawful for you to inherit women by compulsion. And do not make difficulties for them in order to take [back] part of what…Next on Marriage →4:21And how could you take it while you have gone in unto each other and they have taken from you a solemn covenant?

Tafsir

Scholars largely agree on this ayah

View Full Tafsir: Al-Jalalayn on 4:20→

And if you desire to exchange a wife in place of another by divorcing the one and you have given to one of the spouses a hundredweight that is a large sum as dowry take of it nothing. Would you take it by way of calumny injustice and manifest sin? buhtānan ‘calumny’ and ithman ‘sin’ end in the accusative because they are circumstantial qualifiers; the interrogative here is meant as a rebuke and as a disavowal where He says

If someone says to his wife, "You are unlawful to me." he must make an expiation (for his oath). Ibn `Abbas added: There is for you in Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), an excellent example to follow.

Sahih Muslim #3554Ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased with them) reported:Sahih

When a man declares his wife unlawful for himself that is an oath which must be atoned, and he said: There is in the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) a noble pattern for you.

Sunan Abu Dawud #4999Asma’, daughter of Abu Bakr, told of a woman who said :Sahih

Messenger of Allah! I have a fellow-wife; will it be wrong for me to boast of receiving from my husband what he does not give me? He replied: the one who boasts of receiving what he has not been given is like him who has put on two garments of falsehood.

Sahih al-Bukhari #6360Narrated Abu Huraira:Sahih

Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "No woman should ask for the divorce of her sister (Muslim) so as to take her place, but she should marry the man (without compelling him to divorce his other wife), for she will have nothing but what Allah has written for her."

Sahih Muslim #3320Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) reported Allah's Apostle (ﷺ) as saying:Sahih

A man must not make proposal of marriage to a woman when his brother has done so already. And he must not offer a price for a thing for which his brother had already offered a price; and a woman must not be combined in marriage with her father's sister, nor with her mother's sister, and a woman must not ask to have her sister divorced in order to deprive her of what belongs to her, but she must marry, because she will have what Allah has decreed for her.