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 ۞ You are forbidden to marry married women except your slave-girls. This is the decree of God. Besides these, it is lawful for you to marry other women if you pay their dower, maintain chastity and do not commit indecency. If you marry them for the appointed time you must pay their dowries. There is no harm if you reach an understanding among yourselves about the dowry, God is All-knowing and All-wise. 24 And whoever among you cannot [find] the means to marry free, believing women, then [he may marry] from those whom your right hands possess of believing slave girls. And Allah is most knowing about your faith. You [believers] are of one another. So marry them with the permission of their people and give them their due compensation according to what is acceptable. [They should be] chaste, neither [of] those who commit unlawful intercourse randomly nor those who take [secret] lovers. But once they are sheltered in marriage, if they should commit adultery, then for them is half the punishment for free [unmarried] women. This [allowance] is for him among you who fears sin, but to be patient is better for you. And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. 25