A Charter of Social Justice and Its Interpretation

An-Nisa's detailed rules on inheritance shares, marriage and the guardianship of orphans made it a primary source for Islamic family law (fiqh), and its verses remain central to contemporary debates over gender and reform within Muslim jurisprudence. The surah repeatedly ties legal detail to the fear of God and justice, opening with the reminder that humanity was created 'from a single soul' (4:1).

Modern reform movements within Islamic jurisprudence frequently return to An-Nisa's verses on marriage and guardianship, including the permission for plural marriage conditioned on just treatment (4:3) and the verse on discipline within marriage (4:34), both subject to extensive reinterpretation by scholars arguing that the surah's own ethical framing, justice, protection of the vulnerable, kindness, should govern how the specific rulings are applied rather than the literal wording read in isolation. Classical exegesis, including al-Razi's commentary, already debated the conditions attached to plural marriage, noting the surah pairs the permission immediately with a warning that perfect fairness between wives is unlikely (4:129), a juxtaposition later reformist scholars cite as textual support for restricting the practice. The surah's repeated grounding of legal detail in the fear of God gives its rulings a devotional as much as juridical character within the tradition.