AL TAHRIM (Prohibition)
In the Name of God,1 the Gracious, the Merciful 2
1 O prophet! Why do you forbid that which God has made lawful to you, seeking to please your wives? But God is oft-forgiving, most merciful.
2 God has already ordained for you the dissolution of your oaths: and God is your protector, and he is full of knowledge and wisdom.
3 When the prophet disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his wives, and she then divulged it and God made it known to him, he confirmed part of it and repudiated a part. Then when he told her about it, she said, Who told you this? He said, He told me who knows and is well acquainted with all things.
4 If you two turn is repentance to him, your hearts are indeed so inclined; but if you back up each other against him, truly God is his protector, and Jibrail, and the righteous among those who believe, and furthermore, the angels will back him up.
5 It may be, if he divorced you, that God will give him in exchange wives better than you, who submit, who believe, who are devout, who turn to God in repentance, who worship, who travel and fast, previously married or virgins.
6 O you who believe! Save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones, over which are angels stern and severe, who flinch not from executing the commands they receive from God, but do what they are commanded.
7 O you unbelievers! Make no excuses this day! You are being but repaid for all that you did!
8 O you who believe! Turn to God with sincere repentance: in the hope that your Lord will remove from you your ills and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow, the day that God will not permit to be humiliated the prophet and those who believe with him. Their light will run forward before them and by their right hands, while they say, Our Lord! Perfect our light for us, and grant us forgiveness: for you have power over all things.
9 O prophet! Strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be firm against them. Their abode is hell, an evil refuge.
10 God sets forth, for an example to the unbelievers, the wife of Nuh and the wife of Lut: they were under two of our righteous servants, but they were false to their husbands, and they profited nothing before God on their account, but were told: Enter the fire along with others that enter!
11 And God sets forth, as an example to those who believe the wife of Firaun: behold she said: O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to you, a mansion in the garden, and save me from Firaun and his doings, and save me from those that do wrong;
12 And Maryam the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity; and we breathed into her of our spirit: and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of his revelations, and was one of the devout.
- God, in Arabic allah, referring to the one true God, as opposed to an idol or “god.” It is the Arabic equivalent of elohim and eloah (Hebrew), alaha (Syriac), and theos (Greek), all of which accurately translate into English as “God.” This translation choice is consistent with respected English Quran translations including those of A. Yusuf Ali (original edition), S.H. Nasr (Study Quran), T.B. Irving, and T. Itani (Clear Quran). ↩︎
- the Gracious, the Merciful, the highlighting of God’s grace and mercy predates the Quran, coming down from the many hundreds of references in the Taurat, Zabur, and Injil. A few samples follow:
Taurat, Exodus 34:6 — …YAHWEH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Zabur 145:8 — YAHWEH is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness.
Taurat, Joel 2:13 — Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to YAHWEH your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Taurat, Yunus 4:2 — …I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm.”
Injil, 1 Timothy 1:2 — …Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and AL-MASIH ‘ISA our Lord.
Injil, Hebrews 4:16 — Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. ↩︎