• It is also intended to safeguard chastity and to bring delight to life, the chief means to which are upright outward manners and noble inner character.

• Another aim is to have intelligent and honorable children; the foundation of that is good stock and noble lineage. For this reason the Lawgiver allowed—indeed commanded—the suitor to look at the woman he hopes to marry, so that he proceeds with clear insight.

• “Two, three, or four” (Qur’an 4:3) means: whoever wishes to marry two may do so, or three, or four—but he may not exceed four, for the verse was revealed as a favor, and by unanimous agreement it is impermissible to go beyond what Allah has named. A man’s desire may not be satisfied with a single wife, or one wife may not enable him to achieve the purposes of marriage mentioned earlier. Hence Allah permitted him this number, for four suffice everyone save in the rarest of cases. Yet if he fears that adding to one wife will lead him to oppression and injustice, he must limit himself to one, or to those whom his right hand possesses, toward whom he is not required to allot turns as he must with wives.

• “That”—restricting oneself to a single wife or to what the right hand possesses—“is nearer that you will not incline toward injustice” (4:3); that is, that you will neither wrong nor oppress.

From this we learn that when a servant fears falling into wrongdoing or failing to fulfill an obligation, even in a matter that is lawful, he should avoid it and choose ease and well-being instead, for well-being is the best favor a servant can be granted.

• Because many people wrong women and withhold their rights—especially the bridal gift, which can be a large sum paid at once and feels burdensome—the verse urges them to give the women their mahrs “with good will” (4:4), meaning calmly and gladly, without delay and without diminishing anything of it. And in this there is