1. O Prophet, why do you make unlawful what Allah has made lawful for you – this has to do with his slavegirl, Mariya the Copt, when he slept with her in the house of Hafsa, who was absent. When Hafsa came back unexpectedly, it was hard for her that this had happened in her house and on her bed. The Prophet then said, “She is Haram for me,” – seeking by doing this to please your wives? Allah is Ever-Forgiving – and forgives you making this unlawful for yourself, Most Merciful.

2. Allah has made the expiation of your oaths obligatory for you and shown you how to release oaths by expiation, as is mentioned in Surat al-Ma’ida. One such oath was to make the slavegirl unlawful. Did the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, perform the kaffara? Muqatil said, “He freed a slave on account of making Mariya unlawful.” Al-Hasan said that he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not perform an expiation, as Allah forgave him. Allah is your Master; He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

3. Remember when the Prophet confided a certain matter – meaning the making unlawful of Mariya – to one of his wives – Hafsa, and he told her not to divulge it. Then when she divulged it to ‘A’isha, thinking that there was no harm in doing so, Allah disclosed that to him, and he communicated part of it to Hafsa and withheld part of it – out of generosity on his part. When he told her of it, she said, ‘Who told you of this?’ He said, ‘The All-Knowing and All-Aware informed me of it.’

4. If the two of you (‘A’isha and Hafsa) would only turn to Allah, for your hearts clearly deviated! – because they wanted to make Mariya unlawful and were happy about that although the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, disliked it. That was a wrong action. The plural “hearts” is used instead of “two hearts” because the plural has greater weight. But if you support one another (read as tazahara and tazzahara) against him – the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in what he dislikes – Allah is his Protector; and so are Jibril and every right-acting man of the believers – particularly ‘Aisha’s and Hafsa’s fathers, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them – and, furthermore, the angels too will come to his support against the two wives referred to.

5. It may be that if he does divorce you – referring to the Prophet divorcing his wives – his Lord will give him in exchange (read as yubdilahu and yubaddilahu) better wives than you – the exchange did not happen, because he did not divorce them – Muslim women, believing women, obedient women, penitent women, women who worship, women who fast much (or emigrants) – previously married women as well as virgins.

6. You who believe, safeguard yourselves and your families – by obeying Allah – from a Fire whose fuel is people (unbelievers) and stones – particularly idols made of stone. It will burn extremely fiercely, not like the fire of this world which only burns wood and similar fuels. Harsh (hard-hearted), terrible (very strong) angels are in charge of it – who are nineteen in number, as mentioned in Surat al-Muddaththir (74:30) – who do not disobey Allah in respect of any order He gives them and who carry out what they are ordered to do. This ayat is intended to alarm and frighten the believers, so that they never revert to unbelief, and to frighten the hypocrites who express belief on their tongues, but not in their hearts.

7. ‘You who disbelieve, do not try to excuse yourselves today. This will be said to them when they enter the Fire: their excuses will be of no use to them. You are merely being repaid for what you did.’

8. You who believe, repent sincerely to Allah (read as nasuhan and nusuhan). This means having a sincere intention not to revert to wrong actions or repeat them. It may (perhaps) be that your Lord will erase your bad actions from you and admit you into Gardens with rivers flowing under them, on the Day when Allah will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believed along with him by making them enter the Fire. Their light will stream out ahead of them and on their right. They will say, ‘Our Lord, perfect our light for us and forgive us! The light of the hypocrites will be put out while the light of the believers will run ahead of them to the Garden. You have power over all things.’

9. O Prophet, do jihd with the sword against the unbelievers and with the tongue and proof against the hypocrites, and be harsh with them – with rebuke and hatred. Their refuge is Hell. What an evil destination!

10. Allah has made an example for those who disbelieve: the wife of Nuh and the wife of Lut. They were married to two of Our slaves who were righteous but they betrayed them – in respect of the deen since they disbelieved. The wife of Nuh, who was named Wahila, used to tell her people that he was insane. The wife of Lut, whose name was Wa‘ila, directed his people to his guests when they stayed with him in the night by lighting a fire and in the day by making smoke – and were not helped at all against Allah. Neither Nuh nor Lut could help them against Allah’s punishment. They were told, ‘Enter the Fire along with all who enter it – meaning the unbelievers of the people of Nuh and the people of Lut.’

11. Allah has made an example for those who believe: the wife of Pharaoh – Asiya, who believed in Musa, and whom Pharaoh tortured by staking her out by the hands and feet with pegs, placing a large millstone on her chest, and leaving her in the sun. When he left her, the angels who were entrusted with her shaded her and when she was being tortured she said, ‘My Lord, build a house in the Garden for me in Your presence – and her place in the Garden was shown to her, and so the torture was made easy for her to bear – and rescue me from Pharaoh and his deeds – specifically his torture – and rescue me from this wrongdoing people – the people of his religion.’ Allah took her soul. According to Ibn Kaysan, she was raised alive to the Garden, where she is now, eating and drinking.

12. And Maryam, the daughter of ‘Imran, who guarded her chastity: We breathed Our Ruh into her – Jibrıl breathed a breath of Allah’s creating into the front of her shift, so that it reached her womb and she became pregnant with Isa – and she confirmed the Words of her Lord (His laws) and His Revealed Books, and was one of the obedient to Allah.