A critical research on interpretation opinions about verse 24 of Surah al-Nisa’

According to popular interpretation, verse 24 of Nisa, following the previous verse, refers to the prohibition of marrying married women, with the exception of maidservants. The commentators in five different views consider the exception of the verse to be related to women in war or slave women or migrant women or less than four women. But there are problems in these votes; Such as: ambiguity in the meaning, low credibility of the traditions that are cited, the opposition of some opinions to the basic teachings of Islam, etc. This descriptive-analytical research has been done by studying 210 interpretations available in the comprehensive software Al-Tafaseer (3). In this research, context and discontinuous textual evidence were considered. First, the existing opinions were criticized, and then a new and different point of view was presented, which says: The letter v is not used to refer to the past, but to start an independent sentence. So, like the previous verse, this verse does not contain a prohibition and has an independent meaning. Also, "Mohsanat" in the word and term are chaste women, not married women, and the expression "Malakat Aymanukum" includes slave women. The subject of the phrase is "Walmohsanat Man Nisa Al-Ama Malik Imankam" and the Predicate is the phrase "Kitab Allah Alaykom" and both are Marfu'. So he advises men to marry chaste women who are not slaves. Of course, the next verse makes the above ruling easier and allows men to marry slave women who are believers in case of financial incapacity.
Keywords: Quran, Surah Nisa, lawful marriage, chaste woman, verse 24 of Surah Nisa.
Introduction:
 Verse 24 of Surah Nisa is one of the verses that is very difficult to interpret. Examining various interpretations shows that at least five views have been presented about the first part of the verse, which have expressed different meanings about it. The first point of view, based on a narration, says that this part refers to the previous verse and its meaning is that it is forbidden for your men to marry married women, but you can marry the women of infidels who were captured by you in war. In the second view, the meaning of the verse is that you cannot marry married women; But if they are slaves, their master can sell them. In this case, the buyer can marry that woman. According to the third view, the exception mentioned in the verse refers to women who have moved away from their husbands. According to the fourth point of view, the exception of the verse is related to the prohibition of marrying more than four free women. The fifth view says that the meaning of the verse is the prohibition of marrying more than four free women, but it is not a prohibition about slave women. In all the above comments, the letter waw at the beginning of the verse gives the meaning of (and); That's why it is referred to the previous verse. For this reason, all these views consider the meaning of the verse to be the prohibition of marriage. Also, these opinions say that the word Mohsanat means married women. Commentary sources, usually in the interpretation of the Qur'anic verses, have inevitably interpreted this verse as well. Apart from them, some independent studies have been done about this verse. But all those studies have opinions like those presented in interpretive sources. It means that verse 24 is connected to the previous verse in terms of meaning. Therefore, no research similar to this research has been done so far. This is despite the fact that the mentioned views have problems. including: The weakness of the traditions in which the views are cited; The opposition of some opinions to the general themes of Islamic teachings; The difficulty of accepting the semantic connection of verse 24 to the previous verse; Given that the meaning of the previous verse has been completed. The interpretation of the meaning of married women from the word Mohsanat, contrary to its use in other places of the Qur'an; It is reminded that everywhere in the Qur'an, this word means chaste women.
Materials & method:
  Because of these problems and in order to get a correct meaning of the verse, this research was done with descriptive-analytical method, using the contents of 210 sources of commentary from the beginning of Islam until now.
 Discussion:
 The first case that was investigated was the meaning of the word Mohsanat in the Quran. This word everywhere in the Quran means chaste or free women, not married women. The root of the word also means protection. So, there is no reason to consider Mohsanat in verse 24 as having a husband. In the same context, in verses 24 and 25, the word "mohsan" means chaste or free, not married. When the letter waw is considered to be the beginning of an independent sentence, and the context is properly examined, it becomes clear that verse 24 has a strong semantic connection with the verse after it. In verse 24 there are conditions for marrying chaste women. In verse 25, there are also conditions for marrying slave women. In both verses, these things are emphasized: financial payment to a woman for marriage, chastity and avoiding illicit relations and prostitution. With this description, the first part of verse 24 can be considered as a ruling based on advice, which is expressed independently of the previous verse. This ruling says: "And God's obligatory ruling for you is to marry free and chaste women, not slave women." So the phrase "Kitab Allah Alaykum" means God's ruling on you. In this case, this part of the verse contains the subject and the Predicate: The subject of the phrase is "and the women of Mohsan except the slaves" and the Predicate is the phrase "God's command is yours". The meaning of the verse is that God tells you to marry non-slave women. Because of Jahili culture, slave girls were often traded and prostitution was common among them. The condition of marriage is financial ability and chastity. But because some men were in financial poverty and marrying free women was expensive, verse 25 reduced this ruling. Therefore, he decided that if someone did not have the financial ability, he could marry slave girls; But the condition is that those maidservants are believers. Because people with faith avoided prostitution. Financial payments should also be made to their extent.
Result:
The result of this research is that the subject of verse 23 of Surah Nisa is to mention the prohibitions in marriage. But verse 24 of Surah Nisa independently advises men to choose free and chaste women to form a family and not to marry maidservants. Also pay their dowry and avoid prostitution. Then, in verse 25, he has considered a discount for those who have less financial ability and allowed them to marry believing maidservants. In this verse, he has emphasized on proper financial payment with maidservants and avoiding prostitution. Therefore, the first part of verse 24 of Surah Nisa is a recommendation to form a chaste family and has nothing to do with the prohibitions of the previous verse.