Ibn `Abbas:
regarding the Divine Verse: "O you who believe! You are forbidden to inherit women against their
will, and you should not treat them with harshness that you may take back part of the (Mahr) dower
you have given them." (4.19) (Before this revelation) if a man died, his relatives used to have the
right to inherit his wife, and one of them could marry her if he would, or they would give her in
marriage if they wished, or, if they wished, they would not give her in marriage at all, and they would
be more entitled to dispose her, than her own relatives. So the above Verse was revealed in this
connection.