Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts and maternal aunts, your brother's daughters, your sister's daughters, your mothers who have given suck to you, your suckling sisters, your wives mothers, and your stepdaughters who are in your care from your wives with whom you have lain, but if you have never lain with them it is no fault in you. (Also forbidden to you) are the wives of your sons who are of your loins, and to take to you two sisters together unless it is a thing of the past. Allah is the Forgiver and the Most Merciful. 23 ۞ and wedded women, save what your right hands own. So God prescribes for you. Lawful for you, beyond all that, is that you may seek, using your wealth, in wedlock and not in licence. Such wives as you enjoy thereby, give them their wages apportionate; it is no fault in you in your agreeing together, after the due apportionate. God is All-knowing, All-wise. 24 If any of you do not have the means to marry a chaste believing woman, marry your believing slave-girls. God knows best about your faith. You have the same faith. Marry them with the permission of their masters and if they are chaste and have avoided fornication and amorous activities, give them their just dowries. If after marriage they commit adultery, they should receive half of the punishment of a free woman who has committed the same crime. This is for those who fear falling into evil. It is better for you to have self-control. God is All-forgiving and All-merciful. 25