O Prophet! Indeed We have made lawful for you your wives whom you have given their dowries and what your right hand owns of those whom God has given you as spoils of war from the disbelievers whom you have taken captive such as Safiyya and Juwayriyya and the daughters of your paternal uncles and the daughters of your paternal aunts and the daughters of your maternal uncles and the daughters of your maternal aunts who emigrated with you as opposed to those who did not emigrate and any believing woman if she gift herself in marriage to the Prophet and if the Prophet desire to take her in marriage and ask for her hand in marriage without paying her a dowry — a privilege for you exclusively not for the rest of the believers nikāh ‘marriage’ when expressed by the term hiba ‘gift’ denotes marriage without dowry. Indeed We know what We have imposed upon them namely the believers with respect to their wives in the way of rulings to the effect that they should not take more than four wives and should only marry with the consent of a legal guardian the presence of witnesses and the payment of a dowry and with respect to what their right hands own of slavegirls in the way of purchase or otherwise so that the handmaiden be one lawful for her master such as a slavegirl belonging to the People of the Scripture kitābiyya and not a Magian or an idolater and that she should be ascertained as not carrying child with the necessary waiting period istibrā’ before copulation; so that li-kaylā is semantically connected to what came before this last statement there may be no unnecessary restriction for you no constraint in marriage for you. And God is Forgiving of what is difficult to guard against Merciful in giving dispensations allowing for latitude in this respect.
