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 Surely God has sanctioned the dissolution of your vows. God is your Lord: He is all-knowing, and all-wise. 2 The Prophet confided a certain matter to one of his wives but thereafter she disclosed it, then Allah revealed what she had done to him. He made part of it known and another part not. And when he acquainted her with it, she said: 'Who has told you this' He replied: 'I was told of it by the Knower, the Aware' 3 If ye twain turn unto Allah repentant, (ye have cause to do so) for your hearts desired (the ban); and if ye aid one another against him (Muhammad) then lo! Allah, even He, is his Protecting Friend, and Gabriel and the righteous among the believers; and furthermore the angels are his helpers. 4 [O wives of the Prophet!] Were he to divorce [any of] you, God might well give him in your stead spouses better than you - women who surrender themselves unto God, who truly believe, devoutly obey His will, turn [unto Him] in repentance [whenever they have sinned] worship [Him alone] and go on and on [seeking His goodly acceptance] - be they women previously married or virgins. 5 O YOU who have attained to faith! Ward off from yourselves and those who are close to you that fire [of the hereafter] whose fuel is human beings and stones: [lording] over it are angelic powers awesome [and] severe, who do not disobey God in whatever He has commanded them, but [always] do what they are bidden to do. 6 (Then it will be said): O ye who disbelieve! Make no excuses for yourselves this day. Ye are only being paid for what ye used to do. 7