Discussion of Issues Raised from Surah An-Nur (Verse 3)

Recap of Last Lecture

Last week, we heard of the story of a companion of Rasulullah SAW, Marthad bin Abi Marthad RA. We reaped many precious lessons from this man’s story, which has been likened by some of you to a Hindustan or Hindi drama.

Marthad RA had been given a special mission to return to Makkah to rescue Muslim companions who had been imprisoned in Makkah and bring them back to Madinah safely.

In one of his missions, he encountered his past lover, ‘Inaq. Upon his return to Madinah, he kept reminiscing his time with her and made requests to Rasulullah SAW to grant him permission to marry her.

We drew lessons from this story that as believing servants of Allah SWT, Allah’s Will, His Love and His Redha should be prioritised high above any other love for anyone else.

Regardless of who that person may be to us, what is important is that our love for the creation should never be comparable to the love we hold for the Creator SWT and his beloved Rasulullah SAW.

We saw that Allah SWT revealed Surah An-Nur Verse 3 for this specific incident. I plan to find more verses linked to stories that I can share, one of which will be Verse 6 of Surah An-Nur.

We cannot just jump to that verse though because the verses in between do link to the verses that follow. So, we will restart from Verse 1 of this Surah in syaa Allah.

Addressing Concerns from the Previous Lecture

One audience member has raised the following issue to me from last week’s lecture. He asked me, “Ustaz, why did you bring up that there are opinions amongst the scholars that it is Haram to marry someone who commits Zina, and there is also an opinion that says that this act is hated by Allah but is not Haram.

Why would you bring up such opinions when the verse clearly says that such a deed is Haram for believers?” Our companion had asked me why I would bring up such an opinion when we are followers of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Allah clearly states that it is Haram – forbidden – in the Qur’an. Why would we listen to scholars who claim it is Makhruh?

ٱلزَّانِى لَا يَنكِحُ إِلَّا زَانِيَةً أَوْ مُشْرِكَةًۭ وَٱلزَّانِيَةُ لَا يَنكِحُهَآ إِلَّا زَانٍ أَوْ مُشْرِكٌۭ ۚ وَحُرِّمَ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

The fornicator does not marry except a [female] fornicator or polytheist, and none marries her except a fornicator or a polytheist. That is forbidden to the believers. [24:3]

My response is simple. This is a public lecture and we do not want to focus on debates. We want to look at the verses of Allah that contain stories that have takeaways for us – things that we can hold onto in life that is filled with trials.

When it comes to verses about rulings, we just mention them briefly we do not go into detail because we do not speak about specific debates. However, I need to bring this topic up because the issue that was raised brings with it a connotation of putting down scholars that – according to the questioner – does not follow the Qur’an and Sunnah.

So the issue raised is that the word ‘hurrima’, carrying the meaning ‘it has become haram’ was used upon the believers. I mentioned last week that scholars hold two opinions regarding the interpretation of this verse.

I said that the scholars of the Shafi’i, Maliki, and Hanafi Mazhab say that marrying someone who commits Zina is very discouraged and hated by Allah, but it is not a sin and not forbidden.

Scholars of the Hanbali Mazhab on the other hand, say that such a Nikah is Haram; so, people who officiate weddings are forbidden from performing Nikah on someone who is known to have committed Zina. The question raised asks how the former opinion can even be accepted in the first place.

Opinions of Other Scholars Cannot be Overlooked

My response is that when we discuss about the opinions of the scholars, we cannot deny the reality that in our Fiqh heritage, there exists such opinions. We can neither ignore nor pretend that these opinions do not exist.

It is as though we are trying to erase a chapter of our historical knowledge. It is a historical fact that there exist opinions that Nikah to someone who committed Zina is not Haram. This an opinion held by the most important of scholars.

Tafsir Interpretations are Not Based on Dictionary Definitions

Secondly, for scholars, when it comes to coming up with new regulations and deciding Fiqh rulings on matters, scholars do not follow the dictionary’s definition.

Scholars do not summarise and extract rulings according to the dictionary’s definition. Rather, there is a standard principle, framework, and process that they must follow, step by step, phase to phase, before eventually coming to a conclusion.

What do I mean by a “dictionary approach”? I mean taking a verse of the Qur’an or a piece of Hadith, looking at its meaning in terms of the translation, and then declaring that based on what the words mean in the dictionary, such-and-such is clearly Haram.

Problematic “Slogans” of Students of Knowledge

My response is not to defend the opinion that states that Nikah with someone who has committed Zina is not Haram. Neither is it to make the opinion that states it is Haram wrong.

What I want to say is that both opinions are a part of our knowledge heritage. It is up to us which opinion we choose; however, it is disrespectful to Allah’s Knowledge if we mock or criticise the scholars who hold onto an opinion that we do not like.

Such a statement saying things like, “What kind of scholar is this?!” or “How can a human being say something contradictory to what Allah has decreed??” … Such statements should not come from anyone in the Ummah of Rasulullah SAW.

I find that some of us often use certain slogans that I find problematic. Amongst the slogans are, “As Muslims, we need to hold onto the Qur’an and Sunnah only because that is the principle of our religion. We cannot trust opinions because opinions come from the human mind.

Islam is not based on the human intellect and opinion; it is based on the Qur’an and Sunnah”. On the surface, this slogan may seem true. But when you look deeper, we need to be careful.

How can we hold onto Al-Qur’an and Sunnah without holding onto opinions? If we say that all opinions are based on the human mind and cannot be used because the religion is not made by human minds, then the whole argument collapses.

How do we use the Qur’an without using the minds that Allah SWT has given us, based on the knowledge that we have gained? How do we set aside our minds in interpreting the Qur’an and understanding the Hadith?

The scholars would never have been able to come up with the vast treasury of distinguished knowledge that has guided us as the Ummah of Rasulullah SAW, without the use of our mind and opinions.

Ijtihad is Encouraged by Rasulullah SAW

What will we tell Rasulullah SAW in our defence if we say something like that? Rasulullah SAW himself said that whoever makes Ijtihad, and his Ijtihad is right, then he gets two rewards, and if someone who makes Ijtihad makes a mistake in his Ijtihad, then he gets one reward.

Even a wrong Ijtihad is rewarded! We cannot say that because we trust the Qur’an and Hadith, we reject the human mind. Without the human mind, there is no Ijtihad.

I am not saying all of this because I am angry. Rather, I want us to be an Ummah that has grace in our souls, that has beauty in our speech, that has elegance in our religious understanding, that has adab in trying to understand the knowledge heritage that we have inherited from the scholars to us. As mentioned by Rasulullah SAW, the scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets.

What do we want to say to Rasulullah SAW when he SAW sent Sayyiduna Mu’adh to become a teacher in Yemen? Rasulullah SAW asked him, “In Yemen, if you were to ever encounter an issue, what would you do?”.

Mu’adh replied, “I will use Allah’s Kitab”. Rasulullah SAW replied. “And if there was no Kitab?”. Mu’adh said, “Then I will use the Hadith, O Rasulullah SAW”. Rasulullah asked, “And what if that does not exist?” Mu’adh responded, “I will use my own opinion.”

This was what the lives of the companions were like. They were given the room to interpret and understand his teachings – for as long as they did not stray too much from what was right.

If they did, Rasulullah would quickly correct them. There was the famous incident of the Battle of Bani Quraizah – a story that is popular and used by scholars whenever the issue of Ijtihad emerges.

Rasulullah SAW had sent some of his troops after Bani Quraizah’s armies when they fled the battlefield. Rasulullah SAW made an announcement, “None of you will pray Asar unless you are at Bani Quraizah.”

While the troops were on their way to Bani Quraizah, the time of Asar was coming to an end; Maghrib was arriving soon. Some companions remarked that they would miss their Asar prayer if they did not pray before arriving at Bani Quraizah.

One group of companions said that they would follow Rasulullah SAW’s command, in obedience to is instructions. Even when the time of Asar lapsed, they did not perform their Asar prayer until they had arrived at Bani Quraizah at the time of Maghrib.

Another group interpreted the command as a form of encouragement instead of an instruction; they took it as a kind of motivation to spur them on. They felt that Rasulullah SAW was trying to imply that they should hurry to Bani Quraizah.

They thought that in the ideal situation, they would have performed Asar at Bani Quraizah, however since it was not possible, they were not going to miss their Asar prayers. These companions paused on their journey to perform their Asar prayers before Maghrib came, and then resumed their journey.

When the companions from both groups heard about what the other was doing, they came to Rasulullah SAW to get his opinion on what had happened. Rasulullah SAW did not take any sides. He allowed both opinions.

Scholars hold onto this principle that in Islam, there is always room for interpretation of the meaning behind every Hadith. At the end of the day, even if there were to be a difference of opinion, there is no problem.

Now, someone in the audience asked me, “How do we then tackle differences of opinion that lead to disunity?”. The issue is in fact disunity, not the differences of opinion.

Allah SWT sent down his religious laws with room for human thought to ensure that the laws continue to remain relevant and expanding along with the times. So, thinking and having differences in opinion is not the issue. The issue is actually the discord and disunity that results from it.

The Differences in Opinions in the Tafsir of Verse 3

Going back to Verse 3, I want to remind us that in Islam, a religious ruling is made not only based on a single piece of evidence. A summary cannot be derived from a single verse or hadith. That is just not the way scholars work.

You might remember that last week, I taught you the difference between ‘Laa Nafiyah’ (the ‘Forbidding Laa’) and ‘Laa Nahiyah’ (the ‘Denying Laa’). I shared how the ‘Laa’ used in this verse is often the one used to deny, not prohibit. I also shared, that in some certain cases, this ‘Laa’ could be used to mean ‘do not’ instead of ‘does not’.

This knowledge is only available to someone who has learnt the Arabic grammar and language in depth, and has mastery of the knowledge of Usul Fiqh and Quranic sciences.

There are often certain criteria that need to be fulfilled for the role of the ‘laa’ to be determined. Scholars look for circumstantial evidence within and outside the text in order to come to a conclusion as to what the word ‘laa’ means.

That is just a single component of the many things to consider. Fiqh scholars consider this as part of ‘Dilaalah’, a topic that full-time madrasah students will only get exposed to at pre-university level – and even then, they only get a glimpse of its foundations.

If that student enters an Islamic university and studies Shariah, specialising in Fiqh and Islam, they will learn a bit more of Usul Fiqh. And if that student chooses to enter another Faculty or Major, they will not even come across Usul Fiqh in their studies.

On the other hand, we need to ask ourselves, what kind of knowledge do we hold? What is our mastery of the Arabic Language? How is our command of Tafsir knowledge? How much Usul Fiqh have we studied? Then how can we even dare to criticise the opinion of Fiqh scholars? And this is only when addressing a single ‘laa’ in a verse of the Qur’an.

Once we have chosen and decided that ‘laa’ is a prohibition not a denial, then there comes the next issue; there are two types of prohibitions in the Qur’an: the first is what we call a ‘tahreem’, the other is called ‘tanzeel’.

The former is used for things that Allah bans completely; the latter is used for that which Allah does not like but does not reach the status of a sin.

One example that is often cited is divorce. Rasulullah SAW says that, ‘The most hated of halal things to Allah is Talaq’ – divorce. Divorce is described as ‘abghar’, something that is despised by Allah.

If Allah despises something, we do not do it. Whatever Allah loves, we do. Whatever He SAW hates, we avoid. It is simple. But Allah SWT says that divorce is halal. People who do not have mastery of Usul Fiqh get confused at this point of time.

They say, ‘hmm… how does this work? Allah says it is halal – permissible. But is also the most hated of deeds. How can something that Allah despises be Halal??’.

Now, someone with knowledge of Usul Fiqh and hadith will be able to automatically see what is happening. We cannot automatically determine if something is Haram by a single word.

Now, the next word in verse 3, the word ‘yanqihu’ we translate it to ‘performs nikah’. My brothers and sisters, before going so far away, I propose to any of you who has any knowledge of Arabic knowledge to open a Tafsir book – whether Ibn Kathir, Al-Qurtubi (Al-Jami’ Lil Ahkamil Qur’an) or Fakhruddin Ar-Razi (Mafaatihul Ghaib).

Scholars divide the interpretation of the word ‘yanqihu’ into two categories. The first meaning is ‘Aqad, or solemnisation or Nikah – what is used to make a marriage official. The second meaning is Jima’, referring not to the solemnisation of a marriage but to sexual intercourse between a man and woman.

At times in the Qur’an, the word ‘Nikah’ is used in this context. And it is used in general; it can refer to sexual intercourse that is either halal or haram. Now, based on which definition you use, the meaning of the whole verse shifts.

You can translate this verse as: ‘A man who commits Zina will only commit Zina with a woman who commits Zina’. Someone with no Arabic knowledge will say, ‘How is that possible? The dictionary definition of the word ‘Zina’ is marriage, not sexual intercourse!’.

But this is the reality of the Arabic language. And there are criteria for determining which of these two is the most suitable definition of this verse. The tafsir books discuss this. The words used in the Qur’an may not bring with them the same meaning as is often used in our daily lives. Interpretation of the words takes a bit of specialised knowledge.

Next, we have the word ‘hurrima’. If we follow the dictionary approach, we simply say that Haram means forbidden and if something is Haram, it becomes sinful for us to commit it.

However, this word in Fiqh studies can mean either Haram or “less or ‘not as’ Haram”. And even in the sub-category of Haram, it is further broken up into two categories. The issue comes up, if something is Haram, we must determine whether it is Sah or valid.

Something that is Haram can still be valid. Under the topic of Talaq for example, there is Talaq called ‘Talaq Bid’ie’ that is Haram in the religion.

An example is when a man divorces his wife while she is pregnant or menstruating. It is a sin for a husband to declare Talaq upon his wife while she is pregnant or having her menses. But if he still does so, the divorce is still valid.

Even though it is a sin to commit it, if the Talaq is uttered, it is still real and legally accepted. So, when it comes to the nikah in this verse, we need to see firstly, whether or not it is forbidden, and secondly, even if it were to be prohibited, whether or not it would still be valid if conducted.

Now, the next word ‘zhalika’ also has its own breakdown. I know I am spending a lot of time on this verse, but I want to make it clear that we should never ever take lightly the opinions of the Scholars.

We may agree with one opinion, and so we choose it. But the opinion that we do not choose should also be respected. We do not hold onto one opinion and criticise the other opinion, or even the scholar who holds the other opinion.

The word ‘zhalika’ can be used to mean ‘that’. What is being referred to here? What is it that Allah forbids? Scholars differ in their opinion of the interpretation of this word.

On the surface level, just based on our translation, we think it means that the Nikah of someone who commits Zina is forbidden by Allah SWT. Some opinions say that the Nikah is forbidden, others say that the Zina is forbidden to believers. Are you confused?

Do not be. But if you are, then appreciate and respect the scholars who go through such a stringent and structured thought process before determining the ruling for one opinion.

Finally, if we do follow the opinion that Allah SWT does forbid marriage to someone who commits Zina. However, you need to see that some scholars say that this whole verse has been abrogated – the rulings in this verse can be ignored.

Scholars of this opinion state that this verse was specifically revealed for a particular context, for the man called Marthad. These scholars say that after the revelation of this verse, there were new verses revealed which overwrote this verse. This new verse is also in Surah An-Nur, verse 32.

وَأَنكِحُوا۟ ٱلْأَيَـٰمَىٰ مِنكُمْ وَٱلصَّـٰلِحِينَ مِنْ عِبَادِكُمْ وَإِمَآئِكُمْ ۚ إِن يَكُونُوا۟ فُقَرَآءَ يُغْنِهِمُ ٱللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ وَٰسِعٌ عَلِيمٌۭ

And marry off the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male slaves and female slaves. If they should be poor, Allah will enrich them from His bounty, and Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing. [24:32]

Allah SWT tells us to marry off anyone who is still single, whether they be committers of Zina or not. This verse applies to anyone who is still unmarried in the community. Some scholars do hold this opinion.

Now the discussion about Mansukh is a specific field of the study of the Qur’an, Hadith, and Usul Fiqh. Scholars say that someone who does not know the conditions of Nasikh wa Mansukh is not qualified to interpret the Qur’an. They cannot be allowed to derive rulings from verses.

Advice for Seekers of Knowledge

Hold yourselves back from criticising scholars and their opinions. We fear losing the barakah of our ‘Ilm or knowledge, because we are too busy criticising the people of knowledge.

This is what I hope you all will appreciate. We will continue to explore new verses. But let this be a principle that you hold onto when it comes to any Tafsir classes, whether with me or otherwise.

Listen well, try to understand it, hold onto the knowledge, treasure and appreciate what is being said, hold onto its lessons tightly and let it become a light for your hearts as you navigate life.

Finally, feel in your heart this sense of humility so that your own knowledge will be one that is filled with Barakah. When you seek knowledge and you disagree with the opinion being raised and criticise the scholars who raised it, then your heart will become one that is filled with pride and arrogance.

We fear that such a heart may be full of knowledge but does not bow to Allah in the end because of the quality that you inherit from Iblis, may Allah SWT curse him.

Iblis was someone with logic and knowledge. He knew for a fact that he was made of fire and Adam was made from dirt. He saw himself as more noble than Adam for that reason. He used his reasoning to determine that he was more worthy of being bowed to than Adam.

Iblis was intelligent, but this intelligence became his reason for being thrown out of Heaven and being sentenced to misery. His knowledge became a source of arrogance and pride such that he spoke rudely even to Allah SWT.

My brothers and sisters, this is my request. To the questioner and to everyone else listening (including myself), let us become people who want to understand the book of Allah with hearts full of humility and purity.

Let us bow down in awe of what has been revealed. Do not jump swiftly to conclusions and criticise or lower someone who does not hold an opinion you do not support.

Ijtihad in the Local Context

An example in the local context is that a few days ago, there was an announcement made that starting from next Friday, mosques in Singapore will play the azan at 12.50pm for the Friday prayers.

If you look at the timing for Zuhur prayers, you will realise that the time for Zuhur has not yet arrived at 12.50pm. So, this has caused some backlash. When I saw the release of this news, I made lots of Istighfar.

Many people on Facebook criticised and mocked the scholars who made this decision. Before you jump to conclusions and start criticising people, have a look in the hadith texts.

There is in fact a Sahih Hadith, narrated by Imam Muslim which clearly shows that there were periods of time when Rasulullah SAW conducted the Jumaat prayers with his companions before the arrival of Zuhur time.

There is even a hadith saying that after the congregation prayers, the companions went to fetch the animals they rode, and the sun was directly overhead. Clearly the time for Zuhur had not yet arrived! Even during the time of the Prophet SAW this was already done.

In Mazhab Shafi’i, we hold onto the opinion that Friday prayers should be done only when the time of Zuhur has arrived. If that is the opinion we want to hold onto then sure, go ahead. But we need to understand that the decision of making this exception to the ruling was made after much discussion by our local scholars because of the exceptional circumstances we are in.

I remember the first Friday prayer to be conducted in these Covid-19 times was done on 20th June 2020. I remember that we had been in discussion since March 2020 regarding all matters relating to congregational prayers at the mosque.

The Fatwa committee discussed and came to a few decisions. Amongst them, we decided that we could cancel Friday prayers in extenuating circumstances. And if there were to be concessions allowed, we could have Friday prayers in multiple batches.

In Mazhab Shafi’i, we know that Friday prayers can only be held in one session, at a single time. If a second session were to be held after the first, it would not be counted! But that ruling applies only in the normal everyday situation. Due to the current circumstances, scholars have discussed and decided that concessions can be made on this rule.

In extraordinary situations, there can be special rules applied. For example, conducting the Jumaat prayers before the time of Zuhur arrives.

Our local fatwa scholars have been hard at work doing research, looking for evidence, presenting research findings, discussing, and debating amongst themselves before finally coming to some conclusions as to what should be done.

After months of discussions, only in June did the fatwa committee make announcements of the conclusions they made about how ibadah are to be conducted during these times. In Singapore, we have never held Jumaat prayers before Zuhur comes. Because we hold onto Mazhab Shafi’i that tells us Jumaat prayers should be done during Zuhur.

However, some countries have been doing this regularly, even under normal circumstances, they would hold Friday prayers at 11am. In Singapore, we do not usually do this, but under exceptional circumstances, we need to be flexible.

Let me share with you, that my son told me that he wonders why people are making so much noise. Those who work in the mosques know how difficult things are. In the beginning, we could not even have Friday prayers. And then we started having small congregations and opening zones up at mosques.

If we do not begin Jumaat prayers earlier, we cannot accept so many congregants. We are doing what we can to ensure that as many people as possible can come and pray at the mosque. I make Istighfar when I read the comments I see on the Facebook posts.

People are criticising, hurling profanities and mocking our scholars… I want to remind everyone of our adab and attitude. In understanding rulings, we need to realise how difficult and complicated it is to come up with Fiqh rulings.

The knowledge heritage is so expansive. What we know and practice is restricted to one Mazhab. There are many others out there. Are we making light of the religion? Switching Mazhabs and opinions freely? No!

But the situation calls for a shift. This is out of Allah’s Mercy, so that at times, when because of certain circumstances and difficulties, we cannot practise what we usually practise… Allah gives us the freedom to find ways to alleviate the situation.

This is on the condition that the rulings are made based on evidence. No rulings or exceptions are made for fun! In this issue, do not continue to criticise, mock, and insult our scholars who have worked hard to find their Ijtihad.

Final Takeaways

I do not want to hold a religious gathering that promotes an arrogant and proud character. We do not want to become students who come out of gatherings of knowledge thinking that they are clever and know best.

We learn so that we can lower our hearts in humility to Allah SWT, acknowledging that He is Rich. One of the signs of His Richness SWT is that He created human beings in great diversity, that is Allah SWT’s Richness.

Allah made human beings with different tastes, preferences, opinions, and choices. When we choose something and think that only our opinion is best, and that those holding other opinions are dumb and mistaken, then truly we are the most mistaken.

If you read scholarly texts, especially books of hadith, you will notice that the first chapter, the introduction, will always begin with addressing Sincerity and Intentions. This is something that needs to be instilled deep in our hearts.

Intentions, Heart, Sincerity. These three aspects must be always kept in mind throughout our journey of seeking knowledge. We want to have these guiding us throughout our journey so that we might be able to get what has been promised by Rasulullah SAW for people who seek knowledge.

Whoever is on a journey seeking knowledge is supplicated upon by the angels, the birds that fly, and the fish in the sea. If we are seeking knowledge out of pride and arrogance, how can we expect to get du’as from the creations of Allah?

I apologise if I got carried away in my ranting today. It was not my intention to scold or get angry with anyone. To the person who gave the initial comment that led to this discussion, I want him to know that I love him.

I did not get offended at all by his comment. I am not angry. Rather, I deeply appreciate his honesty in giving such feedback. Thanks to him, we can go in-depth into this topic today and learn from what had happened.

Even the angels have been reprimanded by Allah before. When Allah SWT declared that He will make human beings as Khalifah on Earth, the angels questioned Allah, “Why would you make creations who will shed blood and cause mischief as Khalifah on Earth? All we do is praise and worship you!”.

Allah had responded to them saying that He SWT knows what they do not. After that, Allah SWT created Adam and taught him AS the names of all things. Allah taught Adam vocabulary and language. Then, Allah SWT asked the angels to name things.

They responded that they did not know anything except that which Allah had taught them. Allah SWT asked Adam to name the things, and he AS did so. Allah SWT then asked the angels, “Did I not tell you that I know what you do not?”.

These were the angels, who had been taught all sorts of things about the administration of the world and Allah’s creations. The angels are noble beings that are raised high in the heavens.

But Allah SWT showed them that their knowledge is limited to only that which Allah teaches them. This is a sign to us as human beings that whatever knowledge that we own or gain is only out of the permission and will of Allah SWT. If Allah SWT had not given us our mind, we would not be able to think.

So do not ever put down another creation, because their mind too is from Allah. Their knowledge is from Allah SWT. Feel ashamed of yourselves for looking down on others. As Muslims, we are taught that the more we know, the more we will realise that we do not know. Wallahu a’lam bissawaab.

Thank you all of you for still staying with me. In syaa Allah, we will meet again next week and resume the stories in Surah An-Nur from the start of the Surah. We want to take lessons from it to put into our lives.

Surah An-Nur, the Surah of Light. Let the understanding of these verses light up our hearts. Do not let the knowledge only leave our hearts in darkness because we do not feel ourselves humbled in front of Allah SWT.

May we reunite next week in syaa Allah. I love all of you for the sake of Allah SWT as my brothers and sisters, chosen for me by Allah SWT. Assalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

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