•
1 Man and his
Creator •
2 Orphans, the duty of guardians to such •
3–6 Treat your wives and those your
right hands possess fairly •
7–13 The law of
inheritance •
14–15 The punishment of adulteresses •
16–18 Repentance enjoined •
19 Women's rights •
20–27 Forbidden and lawful degrees in
marriage •
28–30 Gambling,
rapine, and
suicide forbidden •
31–33 Men and women will be rewarded according to their deeds •
34 Reconcilement of man and wife •
35–36 Parents, orphans, the poor etc. to be kindly treated •
37–41 Hypocrisy in almsgiving condemned •
42-43 Prayer forbidden to the drunken and polluted •
44–45 Jewish mockers denounced •
46–53 Idolatry the
unpardonable sin •
54–55 The rewards of faith and unbelief •
56 Trusts to be faithfully paid back •
57–68 Disputes to be settled by God and his
Apostle •
69–74 Precautions etc., in
warring for the faith •
75–84 The disobedient and cowardly reproved •
85 Salutations to be returned •
86–90 Treatment of hypocrites and apostates •
91–93 Believers not to be slain or plundered •
94–99 Believers in heathen countries to fly to
Muslim lands •
100–102 Special order for prayer in time of war •
103 Exhortation to zeal for Islam •
104–114 Fraud denounced •
115–125 Idolatry and Islam compared •
126 Equity in dealing with women and orphans enjoined •
127–129 Men are protectors of women •
130–132 God to be feared •
133 Fraud denounced •
134–138 Muslims exhorted to steadfastness •
139–143 Hypocrites to be shunned •
144–151 The reward of hypocrisy and belief compared •
152–154 Presumptuous and disobedient Jews destroyed •
155–158 The Jews defame Mary and Jesus •
159–160 Certain kinds of food forbidden to Jews as punishment •
161–168 Muhammad’s inspiration like that of other prophets •
169–174 Christians reproved for their faith in Jesus as the Son of God and in the
doctrine of the Trinity •
175–176 The law of inheritance for distant relatives This Medinan surah aims at protecting the newly formed Muslim community by outlining acceptable behavior for Muslims. and its ability to shape the community. The surah aims to eradicate the earlier practices of pagan, Arab communities that are no longer considered moral in the Muslim society.
Shirk (refer and ) is held to be the worst form of disbelief, and it is identified in the Quran as the only sin that God will not pardon. Thematically, "an-Nisā" not only addresses concerns about women, but also discusses
inheritance, marriage laws, how to deal with children and orphans, legal practices, jihād, relations between Muslim communities and People of the Book, war, and the role of Jesus as a prophet, rather than the son of God as Christians claimed. The surah addresses a multitude of issues faced by the early Muslim community and responds to the challenges the community faced. The wide variety of issues addressed in the surah and the length of the surah make it difficult to divide into literary structures. However, based on a study of themes present in each section of the Surah, Amīn Ahsan Islāhī divides the surah into three thematically-based sections: social reform, the Islamic community and its opponents, and a conclusion. Mathias Zahniser presents an alternative means of looking at the structure of this surah. He claims that the central theme of this surah is the address to the Christians. He has come to this conclusion based on examination of the structure of the surah based on such devices as parallels, repetition, and ring composition. However, Carl Ernst admits that more works needs to be done in this type of structural analysis to more fully understand the composition of such extensive suras. The type of interpretation one applies to surah 4 greatly influences one's perspective on the role of women within Muslim society. Taking the third approach, a holistic approach allows for a feminist reading of the Quran, which is particularly relevant to an-Nisā and can reshape the understanding of this surah. == Classification ==