Prohibition (Al-Tahreem)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
۞ O PROPHET, WHY should you forbid (yourself) what God has made lawful for you, in order to please your wives? Yet God is forgiving and kind. 1 Allah indeed has sanctioned for you the expiation of your oaths and Allah is your Protector, and He is the Knowing the Wise. 2 When the Prophet told one of his wives something in confidence and she disclosed it, God revealed this to him. So he made some of it known to her, and held back some. When, however, he informed her about it, she asked: "Who told you this?" He said: "I was told this by the All-knowing, All-Informed." 3 If you two (wives of the Prophet SAW, namely 'Aishah and Hafsah) turn in repentance to Allah, (it will be better for you), your hearts are indeed so inclined (to oppose what the Prophet SAW likes), but if you help one another against him (Muhammad SAW), then verily, Allah is his Maula (Lord, or Master, or Protector, etc.), and Jibrael (Gabriel), and the righteous among the believers, and furthermore, the angels are his helpers. 4 It may be that if he divorces you his Lord will give him in your place better wives than yourselves, women who have surrendered, believing, obedient, penitent worshippers and given to fasting; who were (previously) married, and virgins too. 5 O you who believe, save yourselves and your families from the Fire whose fuel is men and rocks, over which are appointed angels stern and severe as wardens who never disobey what God commands them, and do what they are commanded; 6 O you who disbelieve! do not urge excuses today; you shall be rewarded only according to what you did. 7