Mukhtasar Bukhari

‘Urwah bin Zubair (may Allah be pleased with him) asked Umm al-Mu’minin Aisha Siddiqa (may Allah be pleased with her) about the saying of Allah, “If you fear that you will not deal justly with the orphan girls...” She said, “O my nephew! Its meaning is that an orphan woman is under the guardianship of her guardian and shares in his wealth, so her guardian is attracted by her wealth and beauty and wishes to marry her, but does not want to give her the dowry (mahr) justly (as others would give her). So Allah Almighty, in this verse, forbade such people from marrying such orphan girls until they give them their full dowry justly, and they were commanded: ‘Marry other women who seem good to you besides those orphan women.’ Umm al-Mu’minin Aisha Siddiqa (may Allah be pleased with her) said that after the revelation of this verse, some people wanted to seek a ruling from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about these women, so Allah revealed this verse: ‘They ask you for a ruling concerning women’ (An-Nisa: 127). Umm al-Mu’minin Aisha Siddiqa (may Allah be pleased with her) said that in the second verse, where it is said, ‘That is, those orphan women whose wealth and beauty are less and you dislike marrying them,’ so Allah’s command was that those women who are orphans and you do not desire them due to their lack of wealth and beauty, if they possess much wealth, do not marry them except in the case that you deal justly with their wealth and dowry.”