: Bachelor or spouse-less person, whether or not his single parent is surviving and whether or not one son is bereaved

 

Linguistic Semantics is the study of meanings as inherent at the levels of words, phrases, sentences and larger units of discourse - text.

The conceptual meanings of a word of a language can be studied in terms of what features it possesses and also by implication negative; by what features it does not possess. A common example, the meaning of the word woman could be specified as + Human, _ Male, + Adult, as distinct from, say, boy, which could be defined, + Human, + Male, -Adult.

In the vocabulary of Grand Qur'aan a verbal noun: that occurs twice in the discourse about inheritance is disputed and made controversial by the scholars, believers and non-believers alike. We will not discuss the viewpoints based upon sources other than Qur'aan wherein its meanings are rendered manifestly explicit, simplistically.

Grand Qur'aan is self explanatory. Its vocabulary is rendered explicit in its text facilitating the reader to understand its meanings and the thought communicated therewith. There is absolutely no ambiguity. A book is meant for communication of knowledge. Experts say, "When there is ambiguity in the communication of knowledge, all that is in common are the words that one persons speaks or writes and another hears or reads. So long as ambiguity persists, there is no meaning in common between writer and reader. For the communication to be successfully completed, therefore, it is necessary for the two parties to use the same words with the same meaning----in short, to come to terms. When that happens, communication happens, the miracle of two minds with but a single thought."

To come to terms with the words of Allah the Exalted, the responsibility and requirement on the part of reader is to study the text in accordance with the academic rules for how to read a book and as to how meanings are ascertained by different tools/methods.

The semantic field - discourse is Inheritance. Inheritance is the practice of passing on the property: moveable and immovable assets, debts and obligations upon the death of an individual. Obviously the characters involved are the person who is dying or has died and those who have bereaved him and stand to inherit what he/she has left. Hence, such words will find mention that depict the state of the deceased at the time of his death by such words that define relationships which are obviously exclusive for each bereaved member who stands to inherit. It is thus evident that in real life experience there will be many pairs of deceased and those who stand to inherit; and each pair is exclusive to other pair.

The discourse on inheritance, with regard to allocation of inalienable shares by Allah the Exalted to certain bereaved relatives, spreads in three Ayahs of Sura An-Nisa: Chapter-4. Ayah-11 comprises of 75 words; Ayah-12 has 93 words and Ayah-176 contains 55 words; 223 words in all. Their equivalence to English text is like paragraph that is around seven to ten sentences long. The paragraph form refers to its overall structure, which is a group of sentences focusing on a single topic.

There are three main parts of a paragraph:

The paragraph unity is maintained when every other sentence would give specific information than the topic sentence that maintains the same focus of attention as the topic sentence.

Because the study in hand is about a word: whose intelligibility has been rendered confusing, we must keep in mind that the feature which gives a piece of text intelligibility is called coherence: the product of many factors which combine to make every word, phrase and sentence contribute to the meaning of whole piece.

Ayah 11: Pairs of deceased - those who are assigned inalienable share in the inheritance

The topic sentence is: : Allah the Exalted is enjoining - binding you the parents regarding your Progenies.

This verbal sentence is absorbing attracting attention since it is not mentioned regarding for what the addresses are being bound with regard to their progenies. The pronoun for the object of verb is second person, plural, masculine which includes women. The following prepositional phrase coupled with possessive phrase that relates to the verb renders the bachelor men and women excluded from the ambit of the verb.

Further, the phrase: "the progenies of you people" defines that only such men and women are included in the object of verb who have at least either three offspring born of them, or a single female born of them. It cannot be referred subsequently by a pronoun denoting duality. Two daughters, two sons, and one son cannot be its referent.

The next sentence, an inverted nominal sentence is: "The like of the fortune accrued to the two females, which is twice the amount accrued to one female, shall be allocated for the male in the progenies."

This sentence is about what Allah the Exalted is enjoining - obligating upon the parents. This inverted sentence; with prepositional phrase relating to elided predicate placed at the location of subject of the sentence, reflects superb cohesion with the preceding element of discourse. It is not only explaining what the phrase: stands for and refer to in the outside world - extra-linguistic reality, but also has laid down a ratio-formula for progenies comprising of two genders.        

The third sentence is: "Thereby, instead of a male co-sharer, if other progenies were three or more women as partners / co-sharers over / in addition to two females referred to above; two-thirds of the wealth which the deceased parent has left shall remain the apportionment for them all,  irrespective of presence of two female sharers or additional female sharers."

This sentence comprising of a conditional and apodosis clause begins with a conjunctive particle "فَ". It serves as a cohesion tie at the boundary of sentences. It acts like what in English is conjunctive adverb that connects two clauses. Conjunctive adverbs show cause and effect, sequence, contrast, comparison, or other relationships.

 

44. : Verbal Noun: accusative. It is intriguing that people have been debating about this verbal noun as to its meanings and peculiarities of the person who is in such state - circumstance. This man or woman cannot be he/she who are already mentioned. He is not a person who is bereaved by a single daughter, two daughters or grouped progenies; he is not a person whose parents, both mother and father are alive; and he is not a person whose spouse is bereaved. It refers to that state of a person when the spouse is already dead or divorced and has single parent, either mother or father, surviving at the time of his death. In addition to this peculiar situation, such man may or may not have a surviving son at the time of his death. Here in this Ayah it is evident that this spouseless man or woman does have a surviving son to inherit from the inheritance.

It is conditional sentence conjunct to preceding sentences about spouses.

وَ: Conjunction particle [حرف عطف]. It is a coordinator that links to element in the preceding discourse.

: It is Particle of condition which renders the following verb in Jussive state; means "if, should".

: Verb: Perfect; third person; singular; masculine;

: Noun: Indefinite; masculine; singular; nominative. It is the Subject noun of deficient verb.

: Verb: Imperfect; third person; singular; masculine; Passive; Mood: Indicative; [Form-IV]; Proxy Subject pronoun hidden;  مصدر-إِيْرَاثٌ Verbal noun. This verbal sentence is the Predicate of deficient verb; "And If a man is being inherited...". This passive sentence indicates that a spouseless man or woman is inherited by a son and a single parent/or without any of them.

: Verbal Noun: Indefinite; accusative. It is the circumstantial clause; indicates the spouseless state in which a man or a woman is inherited.

 

Colocative Meaning

It consists of the associations a word acquires on account of meanings of words which tend to occur in its environments; but may be distinguished by the range of nouns with which they are likely to co-occur or (to use the linguist's term) collocate:

 

16. Grand Qur'aan is for entire humanity in time line; for men of ordinary prudence, as well for scholars and intelligentsia. Therefore, all its injunctions regarding conduct and relationships need necessarily be simple and understandable for majority, who understand simple mathematics but not advanced calculators and algebra etc. Therefore, we need not act like Diophantus, Hero of Alexandria, or al-Khwârizmî to understand the injunctions given in the Qur'aan about division and distribution of inheritance since it is mentioned succinctly and explicitly in simple terms. The legal stakeholders for whom Allah the Exalted has apportioned mandatory shares in inheritance are the following:

       (a) Off-springs of parents;

       (b) Parents of offspring;

       (c) Spouses;

       (3) Siblings; brothers and sisters

Other blood relatives like grand progeny and adopted or under patronage collateral child - person are not allocated any share but it is left to the discretion of deceased to bequeath for them in the left over.

 

IV. Inheritance from Siblings: it is when died in state : Bachelor or spouse less person with single parent surviving and whether or not one son is bereaved

42. Here before we have noticed that injunctions in Ayah 4:11 and earlier part of 4:12 are about such deceased who have surviving parents, both mother and father alive, and bereaved spouse. Fortunes vary if the deceased had a son or did not have alive son at the time of death. We have not as yet seen instructions about a man or woman who dies leaving a son but without a surviving spouse - either already died or separated by divorce, and is bereaved by a single parent, either mother or father. It is mentioned later with conjunction particle in Ayah 4:12: 

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43. There may be a situation that the death expecting Man or Woman are in a state of single parent- no spouse with surviving singular son and a parent, either Father or Mother. In such situation, the Mandatory Share set aside by Allah the Exalted is 1/6th each for a brother or sister of the deceased Man or Woman. However, if they are more in number, the collective share shall be only 1/3rd for brothers and sisters, superseding that which the deceased might have allocated in the statement of distribution in his/her Will. The allocations in the Will for the remaining part of inheritance shall stand.

44. : Verbal Noun: accusative. It is intriguing that people have been debating about this verbal noun as to its meanings and peculiarities of the person who is in such state-circumstance. This man or woman cannot be he/she who are already mentioned. He is not a person who is bereaved by a single daughter, two daughters or grouped progenies; he is not a person whose parents, both mother and father are alive; and he is not a person whose spouse is bereaved. It refers to that state of a person when the spouse is already dead or divorced and has single parent, either mother or father, surviving at the time of his death. In addition to this peculiar situation, such man may or may not have a surviving son at the time of his death. Here in this Ayah it is evident that this spouseless man or woman does have a surviving son to inherit from the inheritance.

45. The aforesaid instructions and Mandatory Allocation of parts of inheritance amongst various beneficiaries by Allah the Exalted cover all the situations that might be the ground realities at the time of death of a Man or a Woman. However, one situation is not covered whereby one will have to resort to other deductive method to infer the apportioned share. The people of the days of revelation fully acknowledged and understood the injunctions about inheritance. They did not have an iota of confusion. This fact is evident because people requested the Elevated Messenger of Allah the Exalted to give them the confirmation-strengthened verdict at his own about the only situation which was not covered in the aforementioned injunctions in Ayah 4:11 and 4:12. That situation is regards a person who is bachelor or single without spouse, has a singular alive parent, either Mother or Father, but did not have a son.

46. Allah the Exalted has superseded the Will to the extent of maximum two third of Inheritance by inalienably apportioning it in favour of brothers and sisters of the deceased. The allocations in the Will for remaining 1/3rd shall stand and prevail, whatever it might be.