An-Nisa 21: How can you take it back while you were once close to each other and they had taken a solemn covenant from you?

Surah An-Nisa, verse 21. Once you had been intimate with one another, and they had taken from you a firm pledge — how can you take it back, He says. How beautifully He puts it. Every verse of Allah Almighty is very beautiful. It truly moves a person. Once you were intimate with her, He says. That is, you gave yourselves to one another, and approached each other very sincerely, wholeheartedly, and you completed one another. The man the woman, and the woman made the man a complete whole. In this case, from them, from those wives, you either had children or made your life whole. In this case they had also taken a firm pledge from you.

That is, you had given them your word too. Now, in this case, how can you take it back? How can you take back that dowry? Are you not at all ashamed of the word you gave her? Or, despite that tender closeness that wife showed you, toying with her honour and dignity, as if taking revenge on her, do you leave her? So: people drifting away from Allah, not knowing their religion well, saying 'I have faith' and yet being ignorant of Islam, and, just as in ancient times, people seeing women as their own amusement, using them and then, like a rag, going off to one side. And today this woman lets herself be used in the same way.

By uncovering herself everywhere. Here the whole task falls on the men. On the men. That man who — as the word says, a man — that is, of firm character, strong, with willpower. That person of faith will not value those who uncover themselves like that, he will look down on them and say contemptuous words to them. And in this way that person, abiding by Allah's verses, so as to remove such evils will practise enjoining good with both his tongue and his hand. That is a man. But now, instead of these men, there are men in short skirts. Those who, on seeing those women, turn to them, who, to win them for themselves, make up all sorts of lies, who their home, their (?) to those wretched people feed away.

These are men in short skirts. Yes. In the past, when you came to terms with each other, when you were intimate, that is, marrying and sharing life, in the home you built, the pains and sorrows you went through facing them together, and with the affection you felt for each other, when women took a promise from men, that is, when agreement was reached on the dowry to be given to them — how can you now take back this pledge you gave?

In Islam people do not lie and do not deceive others. They swindle no one.

These are Muslims.

In Islam people do not lie and do not deceive others. I'm laughing, I, now. (?) But I'm laughing. Now, (?) of Islam, just as with the exploitation of religion, lies from top to bottom, telling lies. Through exploitation of religion. For his own interest, for worldly gain. I'm not saying this of all of them, of course, but these reach sixty, seventy percent by now. We no longer have trust in people. Is this it now? The strengthening of the bonds between one another in Islam. Lying is the mother of all evil. And through this lying people break away from one another. What do they say? 'Look,' they say, 'a bearded man,' they say, 'shamelessly,' they say, 'did this.' What do they say? 'Look, he even goes to the mosque,' they say, 'he prays,' they say.

'Shamelessly he lies like this,' they say. 'He usurps the rights of this one and that,' they say.

Don't you hear it? You hear it. Don't you see it? It's all around you too. Well, is this Muslimhood now? But he says 'I am a Muslim'. True, a Muslim. But he does things a Muslim would not do. What does a Muslim do? He does not lie, they say. He does no injustice, they say. He does no swindling, they say. They swindle no one. They are not unfaithful to their word. Allah says so. What does Allah Almighty say? Who is as true to his word as Allah? Yes. People who engage in such (?) become sinners. They do not leave the religion of Islam, but they become sinners. So, to a wife who has given herself to a person and been given to him as a spouse, if a person covets worldly goods and does not keep the word he gave, would this person not have become a fasiq?

Yes. He does not keep the word he gave. Hypocrisy has three signs.

The first is not keeping the word one gave. The second, betraying a trust.

And the third, he lies. He lies. In this case, if all three traits are found together in one person, these are hypocrites. But each one alone is a sign of hypocrisy.

That is, he becomes both a liar and a cruel person who corrupts the sides, setting them against each other. And he sets the sides against each other. You divorce your wife unjustly, and on top of that try to take back the dowries you gave. Well, what will happen? That girl has a family too. That wife has a family too. She didn't come out of a tree hollow, did she? What will they do? They will try to get her right from you. Well, there you go. The sides are set against each other. Over what? Over material things. Yet matter was at man's command. Wasn't man supposed to be very valuable?

Was it worth it? But to them it is worth it. Yes. Therefore, the women you divorce — as a guarantee, the dowry she received from the man she married is the women's right. It is a guarantee. As long as women are not wronged and left helpless, since they cannot work, the dowry they received will provide for the women's living, and will also be a veil against any evil she might do. As I explained a moment ago. The dowry — the woman cannot work. Perhaps she is in no position to work. In this case, with that dowry the woman will support herself, and you, for giving her this dowry and protecting her right, for obeying Allah's command, you will earn much reward too.

Yes. In our religion women's working is also haram. In our religion. What's that? Now this will offend our working ladies, but let it not. It is haram. Why is it haram? What does Allah Almighty say? If her husband can bring home, from what is lawful, a lawful morsel, a provision to support his wife, then for that woman working is haram. But if her husband cannot support the household — he works, but with the children he cannot cover the household's expenses, there is need (?). In this case the woman may work. In this case. She is a widow, she may work. She is a widow.

Because beware of women working on a whim. Today many people set their eyes on them. And many people toy with their (?), but our time has become such that, just like the mindset of non-Muslims, the notion of maidenhood or widowhood has disappeared. May Allah protect us. Why did they abolish it? Why? To degenerate Islam, to corrupt morals. Because Islam values morality greatly. Islam values the dignity and honour of humanity greatly. What's the reason? The reason is that Allah Almighty, having given man of His spirit, wants to see him in a very honourable place. That's why. He does not want anyone's chastity to be coveted.

He does not want anyone's honour and dignity to be toyed with. So: a woman uncovering herself and going to work here and there, the people there setting their eyes on her or making passes at her. Isn't the money she brings home from that work haram?

If her husband is able to provide for the home, why should I send my wife here and there, before the eyes of this one and that? Or why should I, regarding my wife whom I keep like my eye, (?)?

These are things to make one think. Things to think about. The world has lasted forever for no one.

Nor will it for us. We came to prove ourselves. Whether we (?) abide by it or fail to abide. 'Hodja, it's easy to talk, but do you practise it too?' If you ask, I practised it all my life. I made none of my wives work. I wouldn't make her work. As long as I have strength I will provide for her. as long as I have strength. My hands and feet are sound too, mashallah. Allah has granted us health and wellbeing. In that case, even if I had no income at all, I would still go and work as a porter, and still provide for my wife. A morsel — we eat it, don't we? But who puts his trust in that? Who consents to that? Ah, this nafs.

'Hodja, you say that because you have grown old.' 'When you were young, didn't you have desires?' Of course I did. I had them, but they never strayed from what is right.

In our religion women's working is haram. But when they come into a state of need, there is no harm in their working. The woman's husband has died, she has no one to support her, she is left alone with her children. In this case there is no harm in women working. But in our time man has drifted from Allah's command and set out to pass judgments by his own mind. When each person set out to live Islam by his own understanding, falling into the trap of the insatiable nafs, they did away with the notion of morality.

In our religion even a woman's voice is haram for a man.

That is why in Islam there are separate women's and men's quarters. That is, women sit among themselves, and men sit among themselves. So when we drifted from our religion, matter covered us entirely. If, turning a deaf ear to Allah's commands for our own interests, our wives we divorce, and do not take into account that in future they will be pushed into indecency, or by someone else be deceived and used, then both to the women we divorce and, by not carrying out Allah's commands, shaking the foundations of the religion inherited from our ancestors, we will have caused immorality to rise rapidly.

That is why, the dowries of women that we owe, even if they were camel loads — that by giving them to that woman the foundations of Allah's religion are strengthened, if only they knew. Yes.