Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
or any debt [you may have incurred].
If a man or woman is inherited by siblings 1
and has a brother or a sister,
then each of them shall receive a sixth;
but if they are more than that,
then they shall share in one third,
after [paying off] any bequest he may have made
or any debt [he may have incurred]
without prejudice.2
[This is] an enjoinment from Allah,
and Allah is all-knowing, all-forbearing.
13 These are Allah’s bounds,
and whoever obeys Allah and His Apostle,
He shall admit him to gardens
with streams running in them,
to remain in them [forever].
That is the great success.
14 But whoever disobeys Allah and His Apostle,
and transgresses the bounds set by Allah,
He shall make him enter a Fire,
to remain in it [forever],
and there will be a humiliating punishment for him.
15 Should any of your women commit an indecent act,3
produce against them four witness from yourselves,
and if they testify,
detain them 4 in [their] houses
1 Kalālah means the siblings of a deceased person without a first-degree heir. See verse 4:176 below.
2 That is, the will should not encroach on the rights of the heirs, for instance by acknowledging a nonexistent debt.
3 That is, adultery.
4 That is, the women against whom testimony has been given.
