(They consult thee concerning women…) [4:127].
The judge Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Hasan informed us> Muhammad ibn Ya'qub>> Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Hakam> Ibn Wahb> Yunus> Ibn Shihab> 'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr> 'A'ishah who said: “People asked the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, for the legal ruling concerning them after the revelation of this verse about them, and so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse (They consult thee concerning women. Say: Allah giveth you decree concerning them, and the Scripture which hath been recited unto you (giveth decree)…)”. That which has been recited unto him in the Scripture refers to the first verse in which He says (And if ye fear that ye will not deal fairly by the orphans…) [4:3]. And Allah, exalted is He, says in the other verse (though ye desire to marry them), i.e. one of you desires to marry the orphan under his care when she is not of great beauty or possesses a lot of wealth. Thus, men were warned against marrying the orphaned because of their beauty or out of desire for their wealth, unless one was prepared to deal with them fairly, for the trend was that men shunned those orphans who had no wealth or were not beautiful. This was narrated by Muslim from Harmalah from Ibn Wahb.
