066 - Sūrat at-Tahrīm

In the name of Allah (who is) Rahmān (and) Rahīm.

[For explanation, see Sūrat al-Fātiha: 1]

1

O Prophet! Why do you prohibit what Allahu ta’ālā has made lawful for you, in terms of your Coptic handmaiden Māriya - when he lay with her in the house of Hafsa, who had been away, but who upon returning [and finding out] became upset by the fact that this had taken place in her own house and on her own bed - by saying, 'She is unlawful for me!', seeking, by making her unlawful [for you], to please your wives? And Allahu ta’ālā is Forgiving, Merciful, having forgiven you this prohibition.

2

Verily Allahu ta’ālā has prescribed, He has made lawful, for you [when necessary] the absolution of your oaths, to absolve them by expiation, as mentioned in the sūrat al-Mā'ida [Q. 5:89] and the forbidding of [sexual relations with] a handmaiden counts as an oath, so did the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" expiate? Muqātil [b. Sulaymān] said, 'He set free a slave [in expiation] for his prohibition of Māriya'; whereas al-Hasan [al-Basrī] said, 'He never expiated, because the Prophet "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" has been forgiven [all errors]'. And Allahu ta’ālā is your Protector, your Helper, and He is the Knower, the Wise.

3

And, mention, when the Prophet confided to one of his wives, namely, Hafsa, a certain matter, which was his prohibition of Māriya, telling her: 'Do not reveal it!'; but when she divulged it, to ‘ā’isha, reckoning there to be no blame in [doing] such a thing, and Allahu ta’ālā apprised him, He informed him, of it, of what had been divulged, he announced part of it, to Hafsa, and passed over part, out of graciousness on his part. So when he told her about it, she said, 'Who told you this?' He said, 'I was told by the Knower, the Aware', namely, Allahu ta’ālā.

4

If the two of you, namely, Hafsa and ‘ā’isha, repent to Allahu ta’ālā … for your hearts were certainly inclined, towards the prohibition of Māriya, that is to say, your keeping this secret despite [knowing] the Prophet's "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam" dislike of it, which is itself a sin (the response to the conditional ['if the two of you repent to Allahu ta’ālā'] has been omitted, to be understood as, 'it will be accepted of both of you'; the use of [the plural] qulūb, 'hearts', instead of [the dual] qalbayn, 'both [your] hearts', is on account of the cumbersomeness of putting two duals together in what is effectively the same word); and if you support one another (tazzāharā: the original second tā' [of tatazāharā] has been assimilated with the zā'; a variant reading has it without [this assimilation, tazāharā]) against him, that is, the Prophet, in what he is averse to, then [know that] Allahu ta’ālā, He (huwa, [a pronoun] for separation) is indeed his Protector, His supporter, and Gabriel, and the righteous among the believers, Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, may Allahu ta’ālā be pleased with both of them (wa-Jibrīlu wa-sālihu'l-mu'minīna is a supplement to the [syntactical] locus of the subject of inna [sc. 'Allahu ta’ālā']), who will [also] be his supporters, and the angels furthermore, further to the support of Allahu ta’ālā and those mentioned, are his supporters, assistants of his, in supporting him [to prevail] over both of you.

5

It may be that, if he divorces you, that is, [if] the Prophet divorces his wives, his Rabb will give him in [your] stead (read yubaddilahu or yubdilahu) wives better than you (azwājan khayran minkunna is the predicate of 'asā, 'it may be', the sentence being the response to the conditional) - the replacement [of his wives by Allahu ta’ālā] never took place because the condition [of his divorcing them] never arose - women submissive [to Allahu ta’ālā], affirming Islam, believing, faithful, obedient, penitent, devout, given to fasting - or given to emigrating [in Allah’s way] - previously married and virgins.

6

O you who believe! Guard yourselves and your families, by enjoining obedience to Allahu ta’ālā, against a Fire whose fuel is, disbelieving, people and stones, such as those idols of theirs made of that [stone] - the meaning is that it is extremely hot, fuelled by the above-mentioned, unlike the fire of this world which is fuelled by wood and the like - over which stand angels, its keepers - numbering nineteen as will be stated in [sūrat] al-Muddaththir [Q. 74:30] - stern, a sternness of the heart, mighty, in [their power of] assault, who do not disobey Allahu ta’ālā in what He commands them (mā amarahum is a substitution for His Majesty ['Allahu ta’ālā']), in other words, they do not disobey the command of Allahu ta’ālā, but do what they are commanded - this is [reiterated] for emphasis; the verse is meant as a threat to deter believers from apostatising and for hypocrites who believe only with their tongues and not with their hearts.

7

'O you who disbelieve! Do not make any excuses today - this is said to them upon their entering the Fire - in other words, because this [excusing] will be of no use to you. You are only being requited for what you used to do', that is, [only] the [due] requital thereof.

8

O you who believe! Repent to Allahu ta’ālā with sincere repentance (read nasūhan or nusūhan), a truthful [repentance], so that one does not return to [committing] that sin again, nor have the desire to return to it. It may be that your Rabb ('asā: [an expression denoting] 'a hope' that will be realised) will absolve you of your misdeeds and admit you into gardens, orchards, underneath which rivers flow, on the day when Allahu ta’ālā will not let down, by admitting into the Fire, the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their light will be running before them, in front of them, and, it will be, on their right. They will say (yaqūlūna: this denotes the beginning of a new [syntactically independent] sentence), 'Our Rabb! Perfect our light for us, towards Paradise - whereas the hypocrites, their light will be extinguished - and forgive us, Our Rabb. Assuredly You have power over all things'.

9

O Prophet! Struggle against the disbelievers, with the sword, and the hypocrites, by the tongue and with argument, and be stern with them, in rebuke and hatred. For their abode will be Hell - and [what] an evil journey's end!, it is.

10

Allahu ta’ālā has struck a similitude for those who disbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were under two of Our righteous servants, yet they betrayed them, in [their] religion, for they both disbelieved - Noah's wife, called Wāhila, used to say to his people that he was a madman, while Lot's wife, called Wā'ila, used to tell his people the whereabouts of his guests when they stayed with him, at night by lighting a fire, and during the day by making smoke. So they, that is, Noah and Lot, did not avail the two women in any way against Allahu ta’ālā, against His chastisement, and it was said, to the two women: 'Enter, both of you, the Fire along with the incomers', from among the disbelievers of the peoples of Noah and Lot.

11

And Allahu ta’ālā has struck a similitude for those who believe: the wife of Pharaoh - she believed in Moses, her name was āsiya; Pharaoh chastised her by tying her hands and feet to pegs and placing a huge millstone on her chest, and having her laid out in the sun; but when those in charge of her would leave her, the angels would [come to] shade her - when she said, during her torture: 'My Rabb, build for me a home near You in Paradise, - so He disclosed for her [a veil of the Unseen] and she saw it, which in turn alleviated for her the torture - and deliver me from Pharaoh and his work, his torture, and deliver me from the evildoing folk', the followers of his [Pharaoh's] religion, whereat Allahu ta’ālā took [unto Himself] her spirit [in death]. Ibn Kaysān said, 'She was raised to Paradise alive, where she eats and drinks'.

12

And Mary (wa-Maryama is a supplement to imra'ata Fir'awna) daughter of 'Imrān, who preserved [the chastity of] her womb, so We breathed into it of Our Spirit, namely, Gabriel - when he breathed into the opening of her shirt, by Allah’s creation of this action of his which reached her womb, thus conceiving Jesus - and she confirmed the words of her Rabb, His prescriptions, and His, revealed, Scriptures and she was of the obedient, [one] of the obedient folk.