Al-Qurtubi on Women and Family Verses

Surah an-Nisa — the Chapter of Women — is the single Quranic chapter with the highest density of family law, and al-Qurtubi's commentary on it constitutes one of the most comprehensive treatments of Islamic family jurisprudence available in a single tafsir work. His treatment of hijab, marriage, divorce, and inheritance across this surah and related passages in al-Baqarah and al-Ahzab provides a clear window into how classical Islamic fiqh approached these subjects from a Quranic foundation.

For the hijab verses — most notably Surah al-Ahzab 59, commanding believing women to draw their outer garments around themselves — al-Qurtubi's analysis focuses on the question of what must be covered and what may be shown. He notes that scholars agreed on the obligation of covering all except what is unavoidably visible during daily activity, but differed on whether the hands and face are included in the obligation or excluded. The Maliki position, which al-Qurtubi defends while presenting the Shafi'i and Hanbali views, is that the face and hands may be uncovered in ordinary circumstances (though covering is recommended), while all four schools agree that concealing the body in full is required when there is risk of fitna or when the woman herself chooses to cover completely.

On the polygamy verse in Surah an-Nisa 3 — 'Marry those that please you of women, two or three or four' — al-Qurtubi addresses the conditions, limits, and requirements carefully. He notes the immediately following condition: 'but if you fear that you will not be just, then one.' He explains that 'justice' here refers to the material and procedural justice between wives — equal provision of housing, maintenance, and time — not to equality of emotional attachment, which the Quran acknowledges elsewhere cannot be fully achieved. He presents the standard juristic positions on what constitutes the required 'night with each wife' and the conditions under which a wife may waive her right to equal time.

For divorce, his commentary on Surah al-Baqarah 228-232 and Surah at-Talaq covers the three forms of revocable divorce, the waiting period (idda) and its purposes, the husband's right to revoke within the idda, the rules governing a husband who has pronounced three divorces, and the obligations of maintenance during the idda. He is particularly careful on the question of the unlawful forms of divorce — talaq al-bid'ah, pronouncing three divorces in a single sitting — noting the scholarly disagreement about whether such a pronouncement counts as one divorce or three, a question that has enormous practical consequence.

On inheritance, Surah an-Nisa 11-12 and 176 carry the primary inheritance rulings, and al-Qurtubi's treatment of these verses covers the fixed shares (fara'id) of all the listed heirs, the principle of giving males twice the share of females, the conditions under which different heirs are excluded by the presence of closer heirs, and the role of the residual heirs (asabah). He presents these rulings across all four madhabs, noting where Maliki practice differs from Hanafi and Shafi'i on questions such as the inheritance of grandmothers, the father's brother, and the share of the uterine siblings.