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In the name
of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful |
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SECTION: 1
O Prophet! Why do you make something unlawful, which Allah has
made lawful to you in seeking to please your wives? Allah is
Forgiving, Merciful.[1] Allah has already given you absolution
from such oaths. Allah is your Master and He is the
Knowledgeable, the Wise.[2] When the Prophet confided a secret
to one of his wives, she disclosed this secret to another and
Allah informed him about it, the Prophet made known to
the said wife a part of it and avoided mentioning the rest.
So when he told her about this disclosure, she asked:
“Who told you this?” He replied: “I was informed by Him Who is
All-Knowing, All-Aware."[3] If you both (Hafsah and Aeysha)
turn in repentance to Allah - for your hearts have sinned - you
shall be pardoned; and if you back up each other against him (the
Prophet), then you should know that his protectors
are Allah, Gabriel and all righteous believers, furthermore the
angels too are his supporters.[4] It may well be that, if he
divorces you all, his Rabb will give him in your place better
wives than yourselves, submissive, faithful, obedient, penitent,
worshippers and keepers of fasting; be they previously married
or virgins.[5] O believers! Save yourselves and your families
from hellfire, whose fuel is men and stones, in the charge of
fierce and mighty angels who never disobey Allah’s command and
who promptly do what they are commanded to do.[6] They will
say to the unbelievers: “O unbelievers! Make no excuses for
yourselves this Day. You are being rewarded according to your
deeds."[7]
66:[1-7] |
Do not make something unlawful which Allah has made lawful
Wives of the Prophet are admonished on their behavior with him
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SECTION: 2
O believers! Turn to Allah in sincere repentance. It may well be
that your Rabb will remove from you your sins and admit you to
gardens beneath which rivers flow. On that Day Allah will not
humiliate the Prophet and those who believe with him. Their
light will shine in front of them and on their right, and they
will say: “Our Rabb! Perfect our light for us and grant us
forgiveness, for You have power over all things."[8] O Prophet!
Make Jihãd (struggle including war) against the
unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal sternly with them. Hell
shall be their home, and that is an evil abode![9] Allah has set
an example to the unbelievers in the wife of Nüh (Noah)
and the wife of Lüt (Lot). They were married to two of
Our righteous servants, but they betrayed them. In no way could
their husbands protect them from Allah. Both of them were told:
“Enter the fire, along with those who enter."[10] And for the
believers Allah has set an example in the wife of Fir'on (Pharaoh),
who said: “My Rabb! Build for me a house as a special favor from
You in paradise, deliver me from Fir'on and his misdeeds, and
save me from the wicked nation."[11] Another example is in
the life of Maryam, the daughter of `Imrãn, who guarded her
chastity, and into whose womb We breathed of Our spirit, who
testified to the words of her Rabb, and His scriptures, and was
one of the obedient.[12]
66:[8-12] |
O believers! Turn to Allah in sincere repentance if you want to
be forgiven
Example of the wives of Nüh and Lüt who will go to hell and
example of Fir'on's wife and Maryam who will go to paradise
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Major Issues, Divine
Law and Guidance:
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* Do not make something unlawful which
Allah has made lawful.
* Wives of the Prophet are admonished on their behavior with
him.
* Believers are commanded to turn to Allah in sincere repentance
if they want to be forgiven.
* Example of the wives of Nüh (Noah) and Lüt (Lot) who will go
to hell and the example of Fir'on’s (Pharaoh's) wife and Maryam
who will go to paradise.
This is a very important Sürah in which
guidance is provided relating to questions of grave significance
in reference to some incidents concerning the wives of the
Prophet (pbuh).
- That the powers to prescribe the bounds of the lawful and
the unlawful, the permissible and the forbidden, are entirely
and absolutely in the hand of Allah and nothing of this sort
has been delegated even to the Prophet of Allah, much less any
other person.
- That in any society the position of a Prophet is very
delicate. A minor incident experienced by an ordinary man in
his life may not be of any consequence, but it assumes the
status of law when experienced by a Prophet. That is why the
lives of the Prophets have been kept under close supervi- sion
by Allah so that none of their acts, not even a most trivial
one, may deviate from Divine Will.
- The Prophet (pbuh) was checked on a minor thing, which was
not only corrected but also recorded. It gives us complete
satisfaction that whatever actions, commands and instructions
we now find in the docu- mented life of the Prophet concerning
which there is nothing on record in the nature of criticism or
correction from Allah, we can trust that they are wholly based
on truth, are in complete conformity with Divine Will and that
guidance can be drawn from them with full confidence and peace
of mind.
- It has been stated in this Sürah that the Prophet, whose
reverence and respect Allah Himself has enjoined as a
necessary part of the faith of His servants, once during his
sacred life made a thing declared lawful by Allah unlawful for
himself only to please his wives. Allah severely reproved of
their errors, the wives of the Prophet whom Allah Himself has
declared as mothers of the faithful; worthy of the highest
esteem and honor. Further, this criticism of the Prophet and
the administration of the warning to his wives was made not
secretly but included in the Book, which the entire Ummah has
to read and recite forever. Obviously, the intention of making
mention of this instance in the Book of Allah was not, nor
could it have been, that Allah wanted to degrade His Rasool
and the Mothers of the Faithful in the eyes of the believers.
It is also obvious that no Muslim has lost respect for them
after reading this Sürah of the Qur’an. There cannot be any
other reason of mentioning this instance in the Qur’an other
than that Allah wants to acquaint the believers with the
correct manner of rever- ence for their personalities. A
Prophet is a Prophet, not God, and he may commit error.
Respect for the Prophet has not been enjoined because he is
infallible, but because he is a perfect representative of
Divine Will, and Allah has not permitted any of his errors to
pass unnoticed. This gives us the satisfaction that the noble
pattern of life left by the Prophet wholly and fully
represents the Will of Allah.
- It is made explicitly clear that Allah's religion is
absolutely fair and just. It has for every person just the
recompense of which he becomes worthy of on the basis of his
faith and works. No relationship or connection, even with the
most righteous person or the most evil person, can be
beneficial for him in any way. In reference to this, three
kinds of women have been cited as examples before the the
Prophet's wives in particular.
A. One example is of the wives of the Prophets Noah and Lot,
who, if they had believed and cooperated with their illustrious
husbands, would have occupied the same rank and position in the
Muslim community which is enjoyed by the wives of the Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh). Since they were disbelievers, however, their
being the wives of the Prophets did not save them from hell.
B. The second example is of the wife of Pharaoh, who in spite of
being the wife of a staunch enemy of God believed and chose a
path of action separate from that followed by the Pharaoh’s
people. Her being the wife of a staunch disbeliever did not
cause her any harm, and Allah made her worthy of Paradise.
C. The third example is of Sayyidah Maryam (Mary) (peace be upon
her), who attained to her high rank because she submitted to the
severe test Allah decided to put her too. Apart from Maryam, no
other chaste and righteous woman in history has been put to such
a difficult test. In spite of being unmarried she was
miraculously made pregnant by Allah’s command and informed of
the service her Rabb willed to take from her. When Sayyidah
Maryam accepted this decision, and agreed to bear, like a true
believer, everything that she inevitably had to bear in order to
fulfil Allah’s Will, then did Allah exalt her to the noble rank
of "Sayyidahtu an-Nisã'’ Fil- Jannah (Leader of the women in
Paradise).” (Musnad Ahmed)
We also learn from this Sürah that the Prophet (pbuh) did not
receive from Allah only that knowledge which is included and
recorded in The Qur’an, but was additionally given information
about other things also by revelation, which was not recorded in
The Qur’an. Clear proof of this is found in verse 3 of this
Sürah. In it we are told that the Prophet (pbuh) confided a
secret to one of his wives, and she told it to another. Allah
informed the Prophet of this secret. Then, when the Prophet
warned his particular wife on this mistake of disclosure she
said: ”Who has informed you of this mistake of mine?" He
replied: “I have been informed of it by Him Who knows everything
and is All Aware." The question is where in the Qur’an is the
verse in which Allah has said “O Prophet, the secret that you
had confided to one of your wives has been disclosed by her to
another person?" There is no such verse in the Qur’an. This is
an express proof of the fact that some times revelation that
descended on the Prophet was not included in the Qur’an, and
refutes the claim of the deniers of Hadith, who allege that
nothing was sent down to the Prophet (pbuh) apart from the
Qur’an.
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